Life Lately

Life has been busy, the long string of review posts plays testament to that, but I’ve not written much about life lately and I’d like to.

I've been having fun trying out different classes and activities in between races. As I haven’t been in training for anything specific (although I probably should have been) anything that helps to keep me interested in moving about and staying fit is good.

I’ve taken to running without my Garmin more frequently and also to running with Anita once a week or so. The last run we did together was a 5-miler I wasn’t sure I’d complete but somehow we ended up with a 9:30 average pace, which is pretty quick for me. What’s more we were chatting most of the way and it felt comfortable which just shows that I’m capable of more if I try. I find I run better in the evening, which is when I run with Anita, but I’ve been enjoying some shorter pre-work runs in the haze of the cool morning sun too.

I’m not swimming these days but in the same way as heading to the pool before work energised me for the day, so I’ve found hitting the gym for strength sessions does the same. I’m putting myself through a split session strength programme, not as often as I should, but enough to be making some difference. Strength is going to be very important later in the year.

There’ve been a string of very busy weekends with lots of early starts and I seem to be constantly trying to catch up on sleep. Lunchtimes more often than not see me sitting in the sun with a book at lunch, and then falling asleep over it. I cherish early nights! Basically I’m trying to look after myself as best I can and treating myself a little.

I was running low on nuun tabs so decided to stock up, only to discover they have a new product called All Day, sugar-free vitamin enhanced tabs that are intended to be an everyday type of drink. I’m already a fan of their hydration drink tabs when I’m working out but I’m now a fan of these too. More vitamins!

I’ve been treating my skin with the whole range of Pretty Athletic products, which I was lucky enough to win from Fashercise’s recent competition (great blog btw). It feels like a real treat to be using products designed especially for athletic people (or aspiring ones) and although I often skip make up, I never skip moisturiser. The face cleanser and body lotion are my faves. The cleanser is full of aloe vera, so lovely and fresh, and the lotion is really thick, which is my preference.

Finally I ticked another challenge off my “34 by 34” list recently, which was for my mum and I to spend a day at Bluewater, not spending any money. You might think that this would be hard but we ended up wishing we had more time for browsing. We’d booked in to a Pilates class at Sweaty Betty first thing, which unfortunately we didn’t get to do as it got switched for a Latin dance class last minute and lack of showers meant we would have been less than fit for being seen in public. We cashed in a John Lewis voucher for tea and cake instead and had a natter before a bit of browsing then a glass of bucks fizz and a mini facial at Molton Brown. That was followed up by makeovers at Bobbi Brown, some more browsing then an early dinner at Zizzi’s, funded by Tesco Boost vouchers. A free coffee courtesy of myWaitrose card and it was chucking out time. We felt totally spoilt and had some lovely mother-daughter time. Win! I challenge you to try something similar.