a good plod

It's been a hectic week again - finishing with parent's evening on Friday, school bazaar on Saturday morning with my Fair Trade stall, followed by my stint with the boarders on Saturday afternoon - making Christmas cards

runnerbeanz is trying to stick to his coach's schedule so was due to do 45 minutes 'long run' today

so we got up and went out the door together and then he plodded off into the distance while I did my R4:W2 bit

we both 'turned' at 22 minutes and then he caught me up (and passed me) on the way back - and was back before me of course

the advantage of the out and back route is that we could go out together and each do our own thing (if he does loops it is a little disatisfying as he will not know how far he has gone)

so 3 miles done for me and 4 for him - on a lovely fresh but sunny morning :>)


oh, RB points out that I didn't put his time on the race report - 41:29

worth it!

all the ferrrying runnerbeanz around for training is paying off - yesterday he ran a storming PB in a 10km - and not on a straightforward course - twists and turns, hills, mud ....

I was really proud of him!

dress to impress..

no running this week

usual lame excuses - work work work


Children in Need day yesterday and the girls were asked to 'dress to impress' or dress to distress' i.e. it was dress up or dress down Friday

I dressed to impress and wore my usual blacks but an FLM fleece - just to remind myself I can do it (sometimes)

and now its the wrong day in the month for venturing far - typical ....

will go for a walk in the park when my M&S delivery of new black clothes for the winter has arrived


Later the same day ....................

Thanks for the suggestions on my last post below. I've also had a very supportive email from a WAISter pal - who is in the same position as me - juggling family and profession and trying it fit in the running.

I have decided that as it is only three weeks to the end of term (some compensation for the long working week), I am going to not worry about the running at all - do it if the opportunity arises and not worry about not doing it. And then when we break up I will have space to plod in daylight for a few weeks.

However in the mean time I will really concentrate on eating sensibly - however don't worry this is not going to turn into a dieting blog - mainly because I will not be dieting! Not running means no excuses for eating stuff in the hope of running it off later!

when do I run?

I am writing this because I just can’t see what to do.

At the weekend I had a great run with b-z and I talked about how to fit in another run during the week.

But now I am back at the chalk face I just can’t see how to do it.

So this was my day yesterday – and it was typical of a weekday.

6.00 alarm rings and I get out of bed, shower and wash hair, dress. Come downstairs, complete packing of bag, print off something I forgot last night, breakfast, empty dishwasher, have brief conversation with emerging runnerbeanz about this evening clean teeth.

7.00 pack car, taking bottle of water, letters to post, scrape outside of car condensation

7.05 set off for school

7.45 arrive at school – up the stairs; mark books, talk with HoD about week ahead, sort out stuff for first lesson

8.25 registration of form

8.35 assembly but I chase around to try to find student who did not turn up to registration – discuss how we improve her timekeeping with Boarding mistress

8.50 up the stairs: teach Y9, discuss the class with PGCE student who will be teaching them next week; they have done a test – so now I have that to mark

10.00 down the stairs - ‘free period’ put in order for Traidcraft stuff for school Bazaar stall; sort out paper for mock exams for Y11;

11.10 morning break – have to go to this includes staff briefing

11.30 up the stairs; return to prep room to find chaos as men have come to take down cupboard and build shelves above my workspace – but no warning so I have not cleared space for them to work. Teach U6

12.45 lunch – down the stairs need to get in straightway as I have a lunch time meeting – but join the queue

1.00 up different stairs; meeting for new form tutors (only 9 weeks into term) to learn what the job is about – it is useful

1.40 sit down in staff room for 5 minutes with deputy head to discuss my late girl

1.45 afternoon registration – have words with girl I did not see this morning

1.55 up the stairs teach Y11 – they are a difficult class – mainly because they have not learned to stop talking!

3.05 send them on their way and breath sigh of relief; return to prep room to sort out chaos of stuff; at least shelves provide me with more storage space but it takes me all of my time to sort stuff out – including standing on chair to reach the top shelf!

5.20 down the stairs to sign out; up the stairs to collect bag and then up the hill to car park;

drive home through dark lanes

6.10 arrive home meet mrbeanz and discuss eating arrangements – no family meal on Mondays

6.30 drive back round Derby with runnerbeanz who has circuit training with his squad (I can’t join in) normally I sit on the floor outside the gym in the corridor and do some low level marking, but now some of the other Mums have realised I do this and have come in too so I can’t mark, have to chat inanely

8.45 arrive back home and get something to eat for RB and me

9.30 sit down to do lesson preparation after a brief visit to other blogs and forums

12.15 go to bed

Having written that, I realise that I don’t want anyone to suggest running at lunch time, I need the breathing space in my lab to sort out after morning session and set up afternoon session; or after school (very dark lanes) before I come home.

I think I just need to settle for a run or two at the weekends and with the club on a Wednesday and not keep apologising and making excuses for not running more.

I ran today!

b-z came to the East Mids Social last night - a good evening at the curry house

she stayed the night and we were up early for a run

it was a good morning for running - cool and bright and we did my standard long run along the river to the gym and back - making it up the grinding hill by a kind of fartlek between lamp posts and passers-by

by the time we got home we hadn't quite done the required 8 miles so we went down into the park and ran until the Garmin beeped for 8 miles, and then we were allowed to make our way back - by which time we had done about 8.8 miles - the furthest I have done since Robin Hood.

There were some good bits in it and it was great to run with b-z - someone to natter to and I definitely walked less than I would have done if I had been on my own

I feel like maybe I will carry on with this running malarkey - and maybe even get up (very) early once a week to run before work

not much to report

Not much running to report unfortunately

Lots of good excuses though - but they are excuses, I should have got out there more

so just a little plod in the park on Sunday with runnerbeanz

but just to show you what a tough environment I work in these pics are taken from my lab window

one step forward ....

last night I made it onto the treadmill - I'd been debating as I drove home whether to go to the gym or just drop into the athletics club and sit and mark while runnerbeanz ran
but decided there was time to have a worthwhile plod, though with the traffic I only managed 35 minutes

So tried to work har on the tready - doing a speed pyramid but did not manage much of the down side of the pyramid, cos I was enjoying pushing myself to go (relatively) fast

so I didn't cool down nor stretch properly and unfortunately the outcome is that I now have an aching back, and there is no way I could have gone to the club and run this evening :<(