I'm back

Well, that was a long break from blogging. For anybody who's been loyal / daft enough to keep up with my reports, apologies for the absence... it was made up of (a) two weeks' holiday in a gite in the Loire valley, (b) a week seeing a variety of friends around the London area, and (c) immediately vanishing to do three days' decluttering work with a new client in Suffolk.

So here I am, nearly a month after my Wroxham 5K efforts, catching up. I've added a few interim entries on their correct dates, where there's any relevant news on running / weight loss activity in that time, so if you're really interested you can start reading those here and then work through each Newer Post.

Oh, and thanks to the guys on the Runner's World forum for caring about what I'm up to and sending me an email to chase me up after a month's absence!

PS: Kim has been on holiday, too - she went to Spain just before we got back from France. We're looking forward to meeting up for a run on Monday. I've really missed my friend and mentor.

A me-day

... with my darling husband's encouragement!

Into Norwich, principally to see the (excellent) production of Private Lives at the Maddermarket in the evening. I also managed to book, much to my relief, to have my hair done - as I'm trying to grow it a bit, it needs attention so I don't finish up too wild-woman-of-Borneo, and five weeks felt like a long time!

We then got sidetracked by the ever-tempting East (not to mention their new-season-mailing-list-discount), and a new dress in Wallis. Which I changed into for our visit to the theatre (I'd managed to spill lunch on the top I started off wearing!), and still found hard to believe it was me in a size 12. OK, Wallis are generous with their sizes - don't spoil it for me! Here's a quick webcam shot of the haircut and the dress - although it was very much an end-of-day tired look by this time...

Running in Suffolk

Almost as soon as I got back, I was off again - for three days' decluttering work in Suffolk. I so much enjoyed working with Charlotte, staying in her lovely house and helping her with paperwork. Her village is peaceful and beautiful; the view from my room included a huge field which, in the evenings, seemed to have a huge population of hares - I think they were far too large to be rabbits.

On the Monday evening, I took myself out for a run while Charlotte prepared dinner. It was a bit darker than I'd have liked (I must get myself a luminous vest now that winter's approaching) but there was absolutely no traffic around, and it's a lovely place.

I ran for about 11 minutes - except for the hill on the way out of the village, which was the steepest I'd met in any of my runs, and I had to wave a white flag and walk up the second half of it! I then turned and went back, so reckon I managed about 2 miles in all.

A week of friends

On Tuesday, it was down to London. A wonderful week took in Melanie and her gorgeous twins, Zoe & Paul, and Joanna - all from our musical group, Chimes Musical Theatre; lunch with my boss, Pat (from Epsom Council days) with her daughter Clara and their assorted cats; lunch with our American friend, John, who took us to the Atheneum (!!); and finally to my parents' for the night before returning to Norfolk on the Saturday.

No running, but an awful lot of walking; which, together with at least some attempt at sensible eating (I probably looked like a fish by the end of the week, I'd eaten so much of it) meant that by our return home, I weighed in at a more reassuring 147 lb. OK - we can handle this.

And I got my act together sufficiently to run on the day we got home, too! I was greeted by the cows down Ann's driveway to Morton Hall, who felt like old friends... It was wonderful to see our London friends, who I miss very much, but I so don't miss London as a place.

A couple of days at home

Our holiday wasn't yet over. We now had two days to catch up on laundry, post, emails and the rest before spending a few days visiting assorted friends around London!

On the Sunday, I visited the gym for the first time in a month. Spent an hour on the weights machines, and felt a lot better for it. The pile of ironing generated over the weekend accounted for another workout, too...

The rest of the week

Having tried my new route on the Saturday, I was pretty pleased with myself to have managed the same run on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday as well. Including the just-over-a-mile jaunt the previous week, that gave me a total of 11 miles' running during the holiday. Hardly marathon standards, but I was very glad I'd done it.

We travelled back to the Chunnel and across into Kent on the Friday, staying at the same beautiful B&B in Headcorn as we'd used on the way out. On Saturday we called in on our friend Beryl in her beautiful Essex home, and continued back to Norfolk - in time to join in with the 50th wedding anniversary party of Dot & Dick, friends in our village.

And on Sunday morning, I took a deep breath and stepped on the scales. When we left England, I'd weighed in at 145 lb; now I was 149 lb. If I hadn't run 11 miles and cut out some food, I hate to think how much weight I'd have put on; it's all too easy. The oft-repeated phrase "but I'm on holiday" is no help at all!

Damage limitation

By the weekend, I figured that enough was enough. Apart from Wednesday's little one-mile excursion, I hadn't run for ten days; my eating habits had gone completely off the rails; and when the summer skirts that I'd been so proud of started to feel just the tiniest big snug - well, that was the last straw.

So I figured it was time I did something about it. First, decision made (and mostly managed to stick to it) to cut out at least most of the butter, and leave the Nutella on the shelf, and stop picking at the cheese; and when the mid-afternoon sightseeing refreshments were offered, kept to a drink and avoided the giant sundaes.

Next, the running. Our hosts, Alison & Jon, who owned our gite, were great fun and a lovely couple; during one of our conversations earlier in the week, Ali had mentioned a run round the village and described the route. I gave it a go. (These photos were actually taken on another run later in the week.)

Out of our gite and to the end of the road. Past a field of sunflowers (sadly past their best). Follow along the road and across the little stream.



Up the hill (the what?! - we don't have those in Norfolk...) but I just about kept going and ran up the whole thing. As you can see, it wasn't really all that steep, but it felt like a mountain at that point.



Turn left along the cornfield. (I do like looking tall in a shadow!)



Through a "green tunnel" and past an orchard - those apples looked seriously tempting for scrumping. Left again down the long road back into the village, past the house with the collie (who, like all the dogs I met - and any humans - thought the idea of running was, if you'll forgive the pun, totally barking mad). Over the stream again, past the chateau, and down the final stretch back to the village.



Run nearly as far as the church you can see in the distance, and turn left into our street.

Later in the week we clocked the distance in the car, and it turned out to be a respectable 2.4 miles. A bit more than my regular training run, enough to turn me tomato-faced, not quite as far as the 5K; peaceful, beautiful and highly satisfying.