Stonehenge Stomp

The Stonehenge Stomp is an event run by Amesbury Walkers. At a tiny cost of £2 to enter, a whole array of walkers and runners turn up to have a bash at 10, 20, 30 or 40 kilometres. I’d heard rumours from previous participants that it’s a very worthwhile event if you enjoy a bit of off road running and that there would be food stops a-plenty.

Microwave Mayhem

Working away in a new place for a shortish period: I don’t really mind. Not having any access to WiFi: I can live with it for the time being. Using kettlebells to feed my weightlifting addition: Actually rather enjoyable. Feeling my way around the local 33m pool with nice wide lanes and no silly rules on using fins or paddles (take heed Five Rivers!): I could get used to this! In fact now that I’ve also found somewhere decent (read: has both a pavement and working streetlamps) to run and come to terms with using the turbo, I’m settling in to my temporary location fairly well.

Entrepreneur Egg: Sports Bra with Insulating Nipple Pads

I don't generally feel the cold. Even if my hands are starting to lose sensation and my nose is frost-nipped and running uncontrollably, I still have a general feel of warmness about me, so long as I'm engaging in some sort of exercise.

Rocket Fuel

In my opinion, there is nothing that gets you going better than the first hot, caffeinated beverage of the day. I however, do truly hate waiting for anything, so when I first wake up and want my caffeine fix I can’t be doing with the faff of a tea bag or the long wait for a coffee filter to do its thing. Coffee connoisseurs may curse me, but I’m an instant girl and I don’t care who knows it!

There are so many good instant coffees available now that actually some can be just as tasty as ‘proper coffee’ anyway. This one caught my eye though, because I did not find it in the tea/coffee aisle in the supermarket (although apparently it is now being stocked in Tesco and Sainsbury) but in the sports nutrition section of my local health food shop, nestled in amongst carb gels and electrolyte tablets. Any coffee that doubles up as sports nutrition gets my vote.

The Dark of Winter

At 07:10 this morning I spied a fairly good chunk of the horizon transforming into a brilliant, light blue. As my bowl of porridge steamed up the window, I made a tiny squeal of delight as the days are finally getting noticeably longer and sooner than we know, we’ll be out before and after work in broad daylight doing as much riding/running/dancing in the street as our hearts desire.

Gymless

It only recently occured to me that I really haven't done a lot of varied exercise in the last couple of months. I have been avoiding my lovely bikes like the plague and have replaced many of my runs with sweaty but very comfortable cross training sessions in the gym. In fact, I've just been mostly doing enormous amounts of weight training and then using "having sore muscles" as my latest and greatest excuse to avoid the pool (or to sneak out of sessions early!). Basically for the whole of December I ate vast amounts of not-very-healthy food, drank plenty of dancing juice and stayed snuggly warm in the gym instead of getting out in the fresh air.

Afan, I'm afraid

Sarah Brown is one of my favourite people to go on cycling adventures with. I’ve enjoyed her ever entertaining company on many a muddy, off road trail. We’ve cycled halfway up the country, joyously overtaken lycra-clad men to their dismay and our amusement, found some super tea shops and generally covered a lot of miles on two wheels. So, when she invited me to Wales for a 40th birthday/New Year mountain biking extravaganza, I jumped at the chance. I’ll tell you one thing I learnt about Sarah last weekend though: she’s either completely disillusioned or a massive liar! “You’ll be able to do this Egglet, it’s easy”.