A bit more running

Well I'm really not keeping up with the blogging these days. But we are approaching the end of the summer holidays, so I want to make the most of time with the children before Robbie goes back, and Emma starts school. Last week we seemed to be quite busy, and there was a lot of meeting up with friends.

I have been struggling to get enough runs in. 'Enough' in this case is the amount which makes me feel fit and strong. If my mileage is too low - as it has been this month at times - I start to feel fidgety, and inevitably, grumpy. Obviously it's always harder to fit in a workout when there are 2 children home all the time and no childcare.

But I've found it harder than usual because Pete has started stealing my early morning running time to go swimming! A few weeks ago, he began a schedule of driving to the local pool at 6.30am, swimming for  30-40 minutes and coming home, before going off to work. He's been doing this 3 mornings a week, which leaves me with only 2 mornings to get my early runs in.

I'm not really complaining about this, as I'm really pleased for Pete that he's found a way of fitting in exercise that he really enjoys. This combined with school holidays though, has made it hard to run 4 times a week and get some longer runs in, especially as we've had a few busy weekends too.

Anyway, last week I did a bit better! I ran early on Tuesday morning (4.6m), then Pete was home early enough for me to run the following 2 evenings. I did another lovely longer run in the evening sunshine on Wednesday (7.5m), and some fast intervals on Thurs (4.7m). Then on Saturday, I went for a little jog in the morning (3.5m), all of which added up to 20.3 miles - my biggest week of this month.

I felt much better than the second week of August, when I only did about 11 miles. I've found that I really need those runs for my sanity, as well as my fitness.

I've also been doing the 30-day shred DVD, and after about 7 sessions, my arms feel a little more muscly, and I almost thought I spotted an 'ab' the other day! This may just be in my head of course...

Away from running, it was Pete's birthday last week. The kids and I got the train to his workplace to meet for lunch, and we went to a really nice pub/restaurant. I had an amazing chocolate torte with mango sorbet for dessert - it was one of the best puddings I've ever eaten... We also had a little tea party in the evening, involving homemade cake and sparklers.

Ooooo! Aaaaah!

The kids have been doing a lot of dressing up - basically every day at the moment. We have a limited supply of outfits, but they are being very creative and fair - taking it in turns to be the princess... Spot the difference:

Snow White and Ben Ten

Ben Ten and Cinderella

The weather has been ok too, and we've had many a trip to the park, usually with friends. I hope we get an Indian summer as we did last year, I'm not ready to give up the sunshine and warm temperatures yet!

Happy Days!