2010 - Hit the Ground Running

What a start to the year! I’ve barely had time to do nothing, let alone the time to blog about it…

We started with one of those sorts of weeks that should make your head spin, if it weren’t that things would never get done if your head was spinning all the time. After Christmas and New Year were over with, it was a hasty finish off of packing for Flâneur and then pick up the van, drive across to his parents, realise the screen-wash in the van isn’t working properly, get very frustrated as the slush on the road made the windscreen filthy and then drive down to Manchester. The latter of which would have been fine if it hadn’t been freezing cold, mucky roads and no working screen-wash. It was pretty hairy at times as I found my vision seriously impaired while driving and I was very thankful (a) that the motorways were quiet on the first Monday after New Year and that (b) it started to snow on the outskirts of Manchester, just as the traffic was building up and that meant my windscreen cleaned itself for the first time ever!

We did get there in one piece and the flat wasn’t so bad (not as nice as our Edinburgh flat) but the snow unfortunately did not stop. It was pretty at first, until we woke up to 4 inches of the stuff the next day and a rising panic about how I was going to get to Sheffield for a job interview!! (Oh, yes, nothing like packing it all in in one week!). A hasty call to my colleague to get her to check the railway websites and a phone call from the people in Sheffield to see if I was going to make it and reschedule if not (very nice of them!) and I was on my way. It was very very pretty, but I just didn’t feel like I could really appreciate it while I was worrying about whether or not I’d get to Sheffield, get back or get stuck!!

As it was, it all went ok. I got there, I got the job and I could then relax a bit. Well for a couple of days until the drive back north! I kept scouring the sky for more snow and examining the roads for signs of ice and checking the van would actually move again… The drive back was no less terrifying as this time the screen-wash was actually frozen, not just broke. We got pretty far without having to stop and splosh screen-wash directly onto the windscreen, but after that we stopped at nearly every service station to clean the damn thing. Freezing fog (and no idea where the fog lights were) made things even more ‘fun’ and by Hamilton I was ready to give up and stay the night in a travel lodge, anything that meant I didn’t have to drive anymore. But I pulled myself together and we made it home (with one or two more stops) and I have never been more glad to see my flat as I was then…

I did manage to fit in a swim when I was down in Manchester, in their lovely Aquatic Centre – the first swim in a good few months! In fact probably the first proper exercise I have done in a good few months… (so much so that I am surprised that I only put 2 pounds on over the festive period and that they have gone away again – hurrah!). It was lovely being able to go mid morning for a swim, so quiet, I could really get used to that! It was at its full 50m (and took some getting used to that there was no shallow end) and I managed my usual 1km in a very respectable 33 minutes 33. I was very happy with that. I had time to kill so I did a few lengths of backstroke too, timing myself to see which I was quicker at. Surprisingly the breaststroke beat the backstroke by a good few seconds. I’d always assumed it would be the other way round…

Now we are firmly in January, Flâneur and I are also firmly into our weeks apart. I managed to fill my first week without him to the full, seeing my dress maker (she’s starting on the sewing now!), teaching my class, trying to build a new bed with HMcM (who I think surprised herself with how straight forward it was), and then a FABULOUS night with my FABULOUS friends at Hotel Missoni, where we drank cocktails, ate lovely food, drank nice champagne and wine and generally appreciated what greats friends we are.

I shall miss them very much when I move south. Even though we don’t all get together that often, I like having them nearby, just in case an emergency night out or dinner is needed… ;o) But there will be fabulous weekends to be had in the future, and I’ve not gone yet…

I’ve had my first weekend trip down to Manchester (arriving late on Friday and leaving early on Monday), which was lovely – it’s a bit like dating again. Only with fewer meals out because we’re very poor having to run two flats in two expensive cities! It was nice to wander round the shops – Manchester is cracking for shops – and generally hang out with F. With a realisation that the wedding is only two months away now we also got a lot of the little niggly things sorted, on paper at least, if not in reality!

I find myself exhausted now though and looking desperately forward to the first weekend where I don’t have to go anywhere or do anything in particular. A real bum-about weekend with no travel!! I think I’ve got just two weekends to wait, maybe??

Failure!

Well, that’s probably a bit harsh, but I have managed to entirely fail to lose 6 pounds in three weeks. In fact, I pretty much failed to lose 1! Which is pretty shocking… After a good start, it all slipped away after the (much enjoyed) excesses of last weekend. I am, however, pretty pleased that I did not go completely backwards and only put on one pound from last week, weighing, as I did this morning, X-2 stones 13lb 1/8. It could have been soooo much worse!

On a more positive note I found my old notebook in which I noted my measurements (another scary thing!) back in March last year when I started this weight loss drive. I am so pleased to report that I have managed to shift a grand total of:

4 inches off my waist
3 1/2 inches off my hips
2 inches off my boobs
2 inches off my back measurement

Let’s face it, it’s not all about the weight, but also about healthiness and clothes fitting not only better but getting too big as I drop sizes… So I finally had to ditch some jeans that were too big for me and have found that some of my skirts, that hadn’t been fitting properly for about 2 years, I am now able to wear properly (not fooling myself that they fit and thus creating a hideous muffin top…) I think this technically means I have dropped a dress size or so, but seeing as I had become one of these deluded women who think they still fit into things that they clearly don’t, it’s difficult to tell… ;o)

I also went swimming three times this week. Yes three! And all in a row… Tuesday and Wednesday I have already covered, but I also went out on Thursday morning too (and considered it this morning, before going back to sleep…). It was sooo lovely and quiet with only 7 other people in the pool. Bliss. I got my lane to myself the whole time and I really really enjoyed my swim. I think I may have enjoyed it a bit too much, however, as my time was really shocking when I got out! I thought I had been going really well and fairly fast and was feeling pretty pleased with myself. I had tried to work on my technique a bit (cue the excuses), but I think this just served to slow me down… Coming down the home straight on length 40 I thought, yup, this has been good, should be a good time, I wont be happy if it’s over 33 mins as it should be pretty fast. I then touched the wall, stopped the SportsCount and looked at the total. 34.18.86!! Ok, so only 30 seconds slower than on Wednesday, but I haven’t clocked over 34 mins since the beginning of April!! I was so shocked at it that I kept looking to check. When checking the other stats (fastest lap was about average) I saw what I think was the reason – a length of unutterable laziness that is unmatched in all my adventures in the Uni Pool. Yes, length number 28 clocked up a whopping 57.01 seconds!! My slowest lengths weren’t even that bad when I first started at this pool. Clearly I was entirely unarsed in that length. I was very disappointed. But, hey, I went, that’s what’s important, and I managed a whole 100 metres of backstroke after my breaststroke too (4 lengths). I did consider doing more but time was ticking away and I still had to get myself to work…

But all these adventures in swimming mean that I have also managed to walk over 7 miles this week (it’s a round trip of about 2.4 miles to and from work via the pool), not including the walk at Little Glen Garr on Monday. So all in all a good exercise week. Let’s just hope I keep it up next week and manage to get the old weight loss back on track too.

Sister Act 2

Yep, I’m back in the habit (boom, boom). After a fabulous weekend where I ate far too much (more later) I was back at the pool both yesterday and today. Phew. Partly this is in reaction to the large amount of food eaten and partly this is because I really needed to get back at it having been away from the pool for two weeks.

It was tough going and I felt like a lead weight for the first 10 lengths or so, both yesterday and today… Yesterday was worse as I thought ‘I’m never going to get through all 40 of these...’ so difficult it seemed. But as usual it picked up around the 20 mark and soon the 40 were done and not in too bad a time, either (32.55.94). It was very quiet in the pool, which is lovely, with just a few other slow swimmers to start. A couple of them looked like they were just about saving themselves from drowning, so dreadful were their attempts to do front crawl, and one old chap joined the lane, forcing me over to the next lane as he swims so sloooowwwly… But luckily the other slow lane wasn’t so busy and I even had it to myself for the last few lengths.

I had to stop myself from slowing down because of this (no-one else there to push me to swim faster!), but by the end of the 40 I felt pretty good and because there was no-one else in the lane I thought I’d give myself two lengths of backstroke to finish off. These weren’t recorded in my time, but a nice way to wind down after the 40 lengths of breaststroke. I swim backstroke faster (and possibly better) than the breaststroke, but can be a little erratic as I fail to swim in a straight line. This is why I will only do it when there is no-one else around… I do enjoy it though and it can be quite a work out so it’s a good thing to add on when I can. Today was pretty similar and again after my 40 lengths I was able to fit in the two of backstroke, which was great. Not such a good time (33.40.93), but I figured the important thing was I went.

I did want to stay in the pool yesterday though. It was partly a general reluctance to go to work after a nice long weekend and partly a love of the water and an enjoyment of what I was doing. It was so sunny yesterday that work was the last place I wanted to be going when I got out the pool. Particularly, as I said, after a nice long weekend.

Wastrel and SAM had decided to mark the longest day by holding a BBQ on Sunday and a vigil (of sorts) on Saturday night to see in the longest day. Flâneur and I imposed ourselves upon them on Friday night, along with RSL and Wastrel’s brother and thus the feasting started. Wastrel and SAM’s neighbour but one had seen a deer nibbling at his garden and, we were told, ‘shot it out the bedroom window’. Their direct neighbour then butchered said deer (you’ve got to love the countryside) and a chunk of it was then given to W&S. This was lovingly cooked for us into a Venison Wellington, which was delicious, accompanied by yummy roast spuds and asparagus. Yum! I tried to not eat too much of it, but failed by taking seconds and eating goodness knows how many of the little crispy potatoes. Hmm… Ah well I thought, it’s all tasty…

On Saturday Wastrel had organised some activities for the six of us and up early(ish) we went off to the Hilton at Dunkeld for a spot of shooting. We were split up into two groups, Wastrel going with the boys as the tallest girl, and RSL, SAM and I in the other group. We had a really great instructor who was patient and made sure we knew exactly what we should be doing before loading any shells into the gun. My brain still freaked a little every time I went to pull the trigger, but we all managed very respectable scores from the 25 shots we got.

Next was lunch in Aberfeldy (a huge venison burger and chips for me) which was surprising quick… followed by boating and fishing on Loch Tay. Mostly this was boating with line dangled out the back (with a good 20-30 mins of poor Wastrel trying to untangle the lines that RSL and I had managed to mangle good and proper) as we failed to catch anything at all. But it was a very pleasant afternoon and lovely to be out on the water. I’m just a water-baby me.

Wastrel’s brother had declared earlier (and whenever asked what he wanted to do) that we should have afternoon tea so we piled off to Kinnaird Hotel after handing the boat back. It’s a beautiful country house hotel and very relaxing. We had to wait a bit for tea, but it was worth it when it came. It really put some of the Edinburgh hotels to shame. Between two there were 6 fingers of sandwich, about five different types of cake and shortbread. I think we should have had scones too, but were told they were all done for the day. It was all delicious and (nearly) all demolished too. Definitely recommended.

(Image taken from Kinaird Hotel website)

We hightailed it back to the house from there to meet HAL and BC who were joining us for the next bit of the weekend. BC stayed all too briefly, as he had work stuff to do, but it was nice to catch up with HAL who has had a manic few weeks with work. A brazier was lit and more food put out (cold foods this time, which I really should not have looked at let alone had two helpings of having already eaten 3 meals that day… Urgh) and we sat outside enjoying the warm night air, the warmth of the brazier and each other’s company. There was chat, singing and eventually we all turned in after a lovely, tiring, sunny day.

Sunday, then, was the BBQ itself. We awoke to a beautiful day and I helped SAM in the kitchen with salads and stuff while Wastrel, HAL and Flâneur made an effigy out of bread and hay to be burned later (a sort of wicker man who was named ‘Woodwood’ for obvious reasons). The party proper started at noon and we were soon joined by an assortment of friends and neighbours of Wastrel and SAM’s (where it was nice to finally put faces to names). There was more good food (we are always so spoiled when we visit), piñata to bash, and an effigy burned. The sun shone, my back burnt and a good time was had by all. Thankfully just when we were all getting just a little too roasty toasty with the heat of the sun (we live in Scotland for crying out loud, not the South of France) the clouds came over to cool us a little. Most folks left by 6 and those of us remaining wandered down to the pub in the village for dinner. Like we needed dinner…. By this time my poor stomach was groaning from all the meat I had consumed over the weekend (we live a relatively meat free life usually) but that didn’t stop me having lasagne for tea…

I was quite surprised when I got home on Monday (after a lovely walk in yet more sunshine at Little Glen Garr and a delicious lunch at Gleneagles Hotel) to find that I had only put on about 2lbs with all this excess. And while that sort of puts me back to where I was two weeks ago, a healthy dose of swimming and vegetables this week will hopefully put me back on track. No regrets though – I’d do it all again without hesitation! ;o)

Hat-trick

No nothing to do with football or millinery, but rather a note to the fact that I actually dragged my self out of bed 3 times this week to go swimming before work. Well, on Thursday Flâneur tried to drag me, literally by the ankles, but I was getting up anyway, so it doesn’t count as coercion.

I failed to go at all last week while off on leave, despite us setting the alarm early one morning… I just couldn’t do it! Thankfully Flâneur didn’t try to make me and let me just drift off back to sleep. I did manage to put about 3 or 4 pounds on over the course of the week (1 week!!), but it seems to be edging off again. Why does it never come off as quickly as it goes on??

That’s the problem with weeks off though, you loose your routine and all your good intentions go out the window (well, mine do). Although we walked quite a lot during the week, it just wasn’t enough to counteract all the extra eating I seemed to be doing… And having done well with my Easter chocolate (not getting much and then making it last over a few days, rather than scoffing it in one go), this was then scuppered by the future sisters-in-law giving us more!! I tried to let Flâneur eat most of it, but still managed about 100 grams in one day. Urgh.

We did manage a good day on Sunday to try and make up for it though. The weather was beautiful and we decided that we should be out and about in it, rather than stuck inside in our dark flat. We had wanted to picnic during our week off, but the weather stopped us, so it was nice to have an opportunity to pack some sandwiches into our picnic bag and head into the park. We had fruit kicking about that we hadn’t been eating too, so we put that in to make it a more virtuous lunch. We had been intending to walk in the park anyway, but decided that rather than going our usual route through the valley between Arthur’s Seat and the Crags, we’d go up, and (taking frequent breaks for me to catch my breath, Flâneur is something of a mountain goat when it comes to this stuff) we got up there in not too bad a time. We were so near the top that I declared that it would be rude to come all that way and not get to the top of the Seat so up we went! It was a glorious view (through all the other folk up there) and very satisfying to get to the top. The picnic was eaten half way back down and a thoroughly good day it was.

And then back down to Earth with a bump on Monday as I was back up at 6:30 to go to the pool and then back at work. Man I was grumpy that morning!! Still, I managed a fast swim (very surprising as I felt like a lead weight for the first 10 lengths), which I kept up on Tuesday and Thursday of this week too! There were some annoying people in the pool, but it didn’t seem to make any difference to my times. There was one girl whose breast-stroke technique was really lovely, text book stuff, but boy did she swim sllloooooowwwwwllly…. I ended up nearly swimming on top of her twice and eventually ended up swapping to the other slow lane (the one with the scary faster people in it!) to stop myself getting truly infuriated! I think that’s why my time was so good on Monday – I was forced to swim harder and faster for the last 8-10 lengths by the pressure of other people!! She was back on Tuesday, but we managed to keep enough of a distance between us that she didn’t bother me so much. Yesterday was fantastic though. A really great swim. By the middle of my 40 lengths I really felt ‘in the zone’ and it was just me and the water and I was just cutting through it without much real thought. Beautiful. Another annoying person (who didn’t know what stick to the right of the lane meant and nearly crashed into both me and another swimmer), but it didn’t seem to matter. Just me and the water. Bliss. Rather than bore you with all the stats (which I buggered up on Monday anyway) here are my over all times for the three swims:

Monday: 31.54.82
Tuesday: 32.20.15
Wednesday: 31.52.53

Top quality stuff. Very happy. :o)

Swim little fishie, swim…

Yes, I’m still doing it, I’m still getting up early and heading out to the pool to get my kilometre of breast stroke in before work. Phew, but it’s hard sometimes I can tell you. Not necessarily the getting up, I’m getting used to that and going to bed earlier certainly helps, but, oh, ok the getting up… Some mornings it’s just impossible. But thankfully, I seem to do ok on enough mornings to make a difference at the moment…

Last week I managed to get my backside out of bed and go to the pool twice. Monday I already blogged about, but I went on Thursday as well. This was not such a good swim time wise (I’ll put all the stats at the end so as not to bore you), doing the km in 34.00.97. But the important thing was I went. Flâneur was back on Friday morning and I went to meet him at the airport at the hideous hour that his flight got in, so Thursday morning worked as training for getting up early too… ;o)

As well as having missed him tremendously and wanting to see him as soon as possible, I always like to be met at airports when I travel alone and therefore believe that other people might also want a friendly face waiting for them when they’ve just come off a long and boring flight on their own. He’d also had a nasty twist to the ankle while away, so I thought it might cheer him up to see me at the airport when he got back and I could also help him with any bags if the ankle was still bad.

We had a nice relaxing weekend, chilling out on Friday (gave me a chance to get started on his washing), until he fell asleep on me around 8:30pm… Saturday started out relaxed and then we headed out to LS’s wedding in the afternoon. They had decided on a Humanist ceremony, which I must say I had had my reservations about. Stories of hand holding, hippy type affairs (God that makes me sounds old) had me wondering what to expect, but it was actually really quite lovely. The celebrant was very charming and warm and it was frankly miles better than the dreadful civil weddings I’ve been to in Scotland which can be extremely unromantic and legal (By this particular law of Scotland of this particular date blah blah blah). Maybe it’s just one bad experience, but they always seem short and sharp and just a bit of a let down to the romantic in me. There were two readings and we all said a Celtic blessing to them at the end and it was all about mutual trust and respect. The bride looked beautiful in a very classic style sparkly gown and very simple hair arrangement and both were beaming the whole day (which you’d hope!). There was plenty of bubbly sploshing about and the food at dinner was much better than I had either expected or it looked! We did spend most of dinner just talking to each other though, as everyone else at the table knew each other and didn’t seem to want to engage us in conversation, even though we did try. Ah well, it’s often the way when you don’t know so many people at weddings… but a bit of an effort from the other people at our table would have been nice.

Poor Flâneur’s ankle had swollen quite considerably with all the standing around before and after dinner so he was unable to join in the dancing, but I had a good boogy with TS and a couple of other collegues before we sloped off home around 11… It seemed a shame not to stay later but some of the other people we knew had left and poor Flâneur was still jetlagged and sore.

Quite a busy end to a busy week. As well as my swims I went out for dinner to The Kitchin with Wastrel and SAM, a lovely lovely treat from Wastrel. Tom Kitchin was in the kitchen too, which seemed like a special treat, and the food did not disappoint! I had new season asparagus wrapped in parma ham with scallops, followed by saddle of rabbit with stuff…. and then an apple sorbet with champagne sauce. Hmmm….all sooo sooo tasty! Good food, good chat and a good time had by all. Thursday night I was out again this time with all The Girls to La Favourita, which is a nice Italian restaurant, when it isn’t full of lots of very loud people. Which is was on Thursday. Lovely company, nice food, but a shame I couldn’t hear most of the conversation. I was also bloody knackered, so happy to sit and listen to what I could hear and join in when I wanted to. I sloped off home when they all went for a drink after dinner as I needed to do a few bits and pieces before bed and then get an early night for the early start on Friday.

And so on to this week and back to the swimming. I managed to get out of bed both yesterday and today for my morning swim, today being randomly easier than yesterday. Going to bed around 10 last night probably helped… I have now joined the university sports centre too, so don’t need to worry about having enough swims left on my voucher (got Thursday’s last week free as the girl didn’t check my card when I went it, result!). I certainly am still enjoying it and was delighted yesterday to see my quickest time yet (33.07.81, nearly the same as the first swim of the year, which was in a smaller pool, you will recall).

The pool is a little quieter as the university is on holiday and I managed to get into a nice rhythm with another girl in my lane so that neither of us was bothering the other. I like it most when it’s like that. Today was a little different as it was mostly me and this bloke who swims at about the same pace until we were joined by this deeply irritating guy who I’ve seen there before who swims with a float and just kicks his legs. He is the most inefficient swimmer I have seen in a while – rather than neat, steady kicks he almost thrashes in the water which means that he not only goes quite slowly, but if you come up behind him you get tons of spray in your face. Which is what happened this morning. Most of the time he’s ok because he’ll wait and let you turn and go off ahead because he knows you are quicker, but on at least two lengths I was trapped behind him, forced to go a bit slower and to tilt my head away from the massive splashes. Sigh. I ended up swapping lanes to the other slow one, which was a bit quieter, and finished my lengths in peace. I don’t usually like to use that lane as it tends to attract faster slow swimmers than me, but it was just one other girl who was not so fast, so it wasn’t so bad.

I was a bit sore this morning and seemed to be going quite slowly so I was extremely surprised when I looked at the final time on the SportsCount and saw 32.47.81! That’s the first time I’ve been under 33 minutes in this pool and coming close to the times I chalked up in the local one. Woo hoo! I had been trying to improve my technique a bit this morning, having found a few tips online yesterday and maybe it actually paid off! Goddamn, get down to 30 mins and I’ll have to add another 10 lengths… Knackering!!

So the tedious stats for the last three swims are:

Date: 02.04.2009 / 06.04.2009 / 07.04.2009
Lengths: 40 (1000m) / 40 (1000m) / 40 (1000m)
Time: 34.00.97 / 33.07.81 / 32.47.81
Average: 51.02 / 49.70 / 49.20
Fastest: (1) 40.11 / (1) 38.88 / (1) 39.30
Slowest: (32) 54.77 / (14) 53.94 / (10) 53.27

It’s not quite the table I would have liked (quite difficult to make out sorry) but if you squint you can really see the progress over the last three swims. Very excited about getting my first lap in at under 40 seconds now, but I should probably aim at consistency over the 40 rather than a very speedy first lap and then slowing down through overexertion! Something to work on…

Hmm… I really ought to blog more frequently, then you wont be stuck with massive posts like this!! Ah well...

Swimming...

Yes, I finally went to the pool tonight, after a couple of weeks away from it.  Was feeling very chirpy this afternoon (getting excited about Christmas, seeing friends etc), so figured it would be a shame to waste the energy.  So, to keep a record of what I did:

30 mins

34 lengths

It's a small local pool, 23 meters I think, so a total of around 782 meters in my half hour.  Good swim.  Actually overtook someone in the slow lane, which was secretly very satisfying!  Started off in the general melee of the main bit of the pool but was getting too annoyed at having to play slalom with other women (it's ladies only on a Monday) after 15 laps that I moved across to the slow lane, which had emptied down to just two other people.  Usually I swim in this lane, but it was quite busy when I got in to the pool at 5:45.  

Realised for the first time too that I swim faster if I actually use my legs properly.  I had been trying for weeks to work out how to make them work more effectively (mostly involving watching other people's legs under the water.)  So rather than the usual ineffective caressing of the water that they usually do, leaving my arms doing all the actual work, I actually kicked out properly with them, got knackered and felt great!!  I know this is a bit of a 'derr' situation, but breast stroke was never my stroke when I was younger (go backstroke!), and I don't think I've ever paid attention to how to do it properly.  Or least something approximating properly.  Any other advice is welcome...