July's Adventures

Thanks to the nature of time we find ourselves, perhaps rather startled, almost at the end of July. Where the heck has that last month gone? It's been pretty awesome though. The highlights were:

• Going on two microadventures (and I seem to have signed up for another next week)
• Attending an audience with Caitlin Moran in aid of the launch of her new boo
• Having a fine ole time at Blues on the Meadow with my parents and friends
• Going to the RMR running retreat
• Doing my First Aid training and having my place on a Leadership In Running Fitness course confirmed
• Taking part in Gloanna with my mum
• Seeing Bill Bailey at Kew Gardens 
• and I leave for a weekend of camping straight after work tonight!

Festival time!

And yes I do have a job, I somehow manage to keep my house vaguely clean and as yet none of my allotment plants have pegged it! On top of all that I've been getting stuck into my training for my upcoming events including the ultra marathon. My training this week has looked a little like this

Saturday: 5km run and 1 hour yoga at Gloanna
Sunday: 14.5 mile run
Monday: 4 mile run
Tuesday: 3 miles of hill training
Wednesday: Rest day
Thursday: 4 mile run plus metafit
Friday: 5 mile run

The long run was meant to be 16 miles but in the name of sensibility, given the hot weather in the SE of England, I ran slow and not quite as long. I ran loops near my parent's house that I'd used last year in training. This meant that I could leave my nuun at home rather than carry it with me and also allowed me to change from shorts into capris when they started to chafe, although that did result in a bit of a Ross-and-leather-trousers moment.

My route included a lap of their local parkrun. I spotted an icecream van and promised myself a 99 if I got back that far, but I decided to cut it short just before. I also stopped in a pub for a glass of water, hopefully not offending anyone in the process. I found blackberries in hedges (my runs seem to be increasingly fuelled by foraged fruit) and spotted a father and son with matching mullets which totally made my day.

Despite the heat I've been really enjoying my runs. On Tuesday I did my hill running in a bit of forest I'd never been to before, just a mile and a half from my front door. In the eight years I've lived here I'd never been there - disgraceful! Looking forward to exploring it more in the coming months. I've been developing a rather cool graduated tan on my legs as my shorts have been getting shorter with the heat. Box Bell Fit, where I do most of my classes at the moment, is notoriously hot so I wore the coolest outfit I could think of on Thursday, which may also have been my brightest!

You won't miss me in the dark

I'd mentioned it over on twitter but I don't think I'd mentioned it here yet... I'm now the proud owner of a shiny new road bike! The bike I did my two-triathlons-in-a-weekend on last year is just about falling apart and I really want to do my more tris and a duathlon so when I saw a good deal on this little beauty I couldn't resist. It's not not range by any means but I can't wait to get some proper time on it. The local bike store does ride outs for all abilities every Tuesday so I'm going to try and get along to those, and also take advantage of the bike maintenance classes they have, given by a female technician. I feel I ought to name my bike but haven't come up with one yet. Suggestions welcome!

My new, yet-to-be-named bike

One last thing before I sign off for the weekend... I've entered the Big Blog Exchange 2014 and would dearly love your support. It's a unique project where 16 passionate bloggers get to swap blogs and countries with each other simultaneously for 10 days - and share their experience with the world. 14 are chosen by volume of votes, and there are two wildcard spots. The idea of possibly getting to do this excites me so much, I mean, what a fantastic adventure! What wonderful things I could write about! If I've not already garnered your support from twitter or Facebook then I'd really appreciate it if you would take a couple of seconds to vote for me here. Thank you so much!

Right, I'm off. Although I'm taking a tent for this weekend's camping I suspect I'll end up sleeping under the stars. What are your weekend plans? Whatever they are I hope it's a fab one.