7 Weeks......

(Distance trained so far............222 miles)

Seems like a long time, but how fast can seven weeks go floating by?!! Knocked off another 29km this week; 14 of those on the Sunday morning. Whilst it is hardly a walk in the park nor am I screaming in pain and crawling off the FFG in a puddle of sweat. Considering how far the running is taking me now, joints and by other bits and pieces seem to be coping pretty well.

The target is to be running 18km (just over 11 miles) a couple of Sundays before the Great North, and thus far things are on schedule (optimism, yes; but cautious optimism). A couple of 15k's over the next couple of weeks, then 16k, followed by 17k, followed by 18k will take me to September 2nd (what's that Mr. Genie? I can have three wishes?!!.....brilliant!........I will have, my life away, my life away and my life away please!). If I get the diet right during that time it would help to be well into the 15 stones by then too. If there is any truth to the principle of 'less weight cancels out more distance' the programme I have set for myself should be very achievable (can something be very achievable? surely it either is or it isn't??!). Not ready yet....but getting there.

Two noteworthy (to me) events during this week's gym sessions. First of which was the inaugural modelling of the Adrian Blaydon 'team GB gear' (see previous post). Ooooooh yes....in my Olympic wristband and headband combo I most certainly look a total plonka, but do I care? (in case you did not understand the rhetorical nature of the question....no I don't!). If it was just the wristbands then that could almost be called fashionable (almost), but the headgear is there for practicality as I suffer from severe S.I.E.S (Sweat In Eye Syndrome; should that be S.S.I.E.S then?); and brilliant though it was at eliminating it, I fear it created a scorching case of L.L.A.R.A (Looking Like A Right Arse-itis). Still, they are nice and fluffy and do the job, so the fashion police can jog on! I confess I am thinking of getting one of the gym instructors to take a photo and add it to the 'bits and bobs' slideshow. I've been waffling along about the gym for so long it's about time you saw it; headband and all!

Event number two was achieving first verbal contact with a fellow gym-goer. Anyone who has ever gone to one will know this doesn't happen very often. I actually appreciate the fact that I can just be on my own for a while, do my thing, think my thoughts and process the events of the day gone or to come. Having said that, contact with Lynn (previously known only as 'lady in the green top....hope she washes it in between sessions or owns more than one'.....to be honest, I prefer Lynn!) was inevitable as we clearly have the same gym schedule, and we both do a lot of running invariably on neighbouring machines. She became a running-buddy quite some time ago without us exchanging so much as a 'hello'; so it was feeling a bit daft not not to break the ice.

Although the conversation was the classical exchange of minor pleasantries - not planning to go out an pick curtains or crockery just yet - I still felt that lovely buzz first felt at primary school when you 'make a new fwend'!!

If she doesn't show up at the gym tomorrow night I'm going to get such a complex.........!!