Was that an entire week? Seriously?

Friday! Again! It keeps on happening doesn't it? I'm not really sure where all my time has vanished to this week, although reading back over my post gives me some idea.

Last Saturday was absolutely brilliant. I went to the very first Run Mummy Run social up in London to put some faces to the twitter handles and Facebook names. I was pretty nervous about it because I didn't really know anyone, I'd been a bit of a lurker on the Facebook page and of course I'm not a mum, so I felt a bit of a fraud, but it's not exclusively for mums. The whole thing was started by Leanne who wanted a way to find people to run with who were similarly constrained by partner's working hours and childcare. The group is incredibly supportive and contrary to my expectation we all talked about running rather than children. I met some truly amazing ladies, listened to some very interesting talks and got a fab goodybag. It was a really fun day and I feel so much more a part of the community now. There's talk of entering a run or two with some of the ladies near to me like the Knacker Cracker and the Bracknell Half Marathon.

However if I'm going to do things like that I need to start running a bit more. It's been a week since I last ran, at my PT session, on the treadmill. I had all good intentions this week but it's been cold and dark and, on some days, very wet, and I've been a wuss. I even gave up circuits in favour of a free cinema ticket on Tuesday and skipped circuits and Body Balance yesterday in order to get some study in. I did get to Urban Rebound again on Wednesday though, and was grateful to find it was a fair bit easier second time around and on an empty stomach. I did a half hour of hula hooping this morning, walked the dogs at lunch and have my PT session after work so I've at least done something active this week.

I'll be active over the weekend too. I'm going to the Write This Run conference at the Running Show on Saturday at Sandown Park. There's a whole host of fantastic speakers including Bangs and a Bun, the opportunity to chat to some fellow bloggers and do a bit of networking over a glass of wine after either a group run or a yoga class. I cannot wait! I'm going to opt for the yoga as I'm running the Running Show 10k on Sunday. My conference ticket includes entrance to the show on both days as well as the 10k but as I won't get a chance to look around on the Saturday I'm looking forward to doing that on the Sunday, either side of the race. Bit nervous about the race given my current activity levels and the temperature out there but I'm sure I'll get round and can thaw out over a planned coffee with a friend in the afternoon.

I spent a few happy hours last Sunday doing what I like to call a "veg box cook", making some big batches of soup and snacks to have during the week, planning my meals and making sure I'm making best use of everything to avoid waste. I find a great deal of happiness in those sorts of tasks. I bought a book for my Nutrition and Weight Management course which was recommended to me by a fellow student; Carbs & Cals. It's really aimed at people with diabetes but I can see it's going to be pretty useful for judging portion sizes and working out nutrition content of meals. I'm in week three of the Nutrition and Weight Management course but have managed to get ahead a bit and am now on the material for week four. I hope to keep things that way, as it's all too easy to fall behind. I'm also keeping up with The Mind is Flat course… I'm in week three of that too.

I've finally finished writing all my articles on Soy Protein for The Protein Works and they're available here for you to read if you so wish. It was fun having a writing assignment and hopefully I'll get to do a bit more of that in the future but for now I'm kept busy enough.

Finally this week I shall leave you with a picture that I found especially inspiring… puts pay to the argument that lifting weights makes you bulky. If it's good enough for Marilyn, it's good enough for me. Rock on lady!