Guilt

I, like Diana, have also been seized with a desire to jump up and down and say "I'm not being lazy, honest!" If my blogging has gone rather quiet over the last two weeks, it's because currently final rehearsals for 'The Queen of Hearts Has Lost Her Tarts' (the panto I'm producing and that Andy has written and directed) are filling much of my time. I've also managed to come down with a stomach bug, which though fleeting in its 48 hour-ness, did take the wind out of my training sails slightly!

However, today I have finally managed to get out and do some training again, after 5 days of nothingness. I decided at four o' clock that although running probably wasn't yet a good idea (my stomach is still a bit too delicate for that!) that I could go out for a power walk. On my 18 mile expedition with Andy, I very quickly grew envious of the fact that without much apparent effort, he could easily outpace me right from the start - so I decided I'd set off and try and match what I could remember of his walking speed.

I'm getting a bit bored of the route I've been using in Clifton where I live, so for a change I had a quick look at streetmap and worked out a bit of a circle through Leigh Woods (the village just over the Clifton Suspension Bridge). I was really pleased I had - not only have I now discovered a fairly flat circuit that will be good to try to run round, but just as I got back to overlook the bridge, a beautiful purple sunset was taking place and all the lights of Bristol spread out made it very twinkly. A good halfway reward - I then carried on up to the zoo and back. I find I really have to concentrate to make sure I keep the pace up, otherwise my mind drifts off and I slow down - but when I got home I was quite pleased with having done a 50 minute walk to get me back into training again. I have to agree with Robyn that training in the dark isn't to be recommended, though - the streets weren't all that busy so I ended up feeling rather twitchy! I'm hoping to be able to swim tomorrow as well as go to Pilates, which is something Diana's introduced me to. So I am still keeping up the motivation - honest!