Having started running in 2013 to try and help me with some issues I was having with my mental health, I ended up with an injury and enforced break in 2014. In May of that year I kicked out my then-partner of 12 years and started doing basic HIIT routines at home. I lost a little bit of weight and got bitten by the fitness bug, but failed to take it further.
Then, in April 2016 after a period of bad life luck, I lost my oldest cat unexpectedly. Feeling bereft I spent three days sat in my pants weeping. By the end of day 3 I decided to pull myself together, to be strong. Mentally I was a wreck, so knew that I would have to be physically strong instead. I called a local free weights gym and went over for an induction session.
As of 2024, I have run several marathons, I'm a national medal winner for patterns (tul) in ITF taekwon-do, I strength train at least 3 days a week and I’ve competed in a handful of powerlifting competitions.
In addition to these regular sports, I have spent time learning to pole dance, play netball and generally move as much as possible. As an unexpected side effect my mental health is better than it’s ever been and I’m well equipped to deal with everything life throws at me. Never underestimate the power of strong!
I travelled down to London on Friday to meet up with some folks from the industry (SEO/web) and run a ‘pretty muddy’ Race for Life 5k at Finsbury Park the following morning with the gorgeous Lilian. Both were awesome events, although having consumed far too much wine on Friday night I wasn’t sure I’d be… read full entry »
Juneathon might not be going brilliantly well, what with one reason and another, but after a second 10k recently in Brackley with Rachael and Sarah I have been well and truly bitten by the race bug (despite ending that one in tears) and gone on a race entry spree. I’ve got a 5k Race for… read full entry »
I wrote this last week but have been a tad busy – oops! Juneathon day 7 saw me take another slightly unorthodox activity day. No, not more vacuuming (although there was plenty of that), but the second Sunday spent totally gutting my home ‘utility’ (that is, brick lean-to outside the back door). The utility is… read full entry »
I have to admit the past few days effort at Juneathon have been pretty pathetic, hence me not rushing to blog about them. My excuse is that after my epic (for me) day 2 workout and then the intervals on day 3 I was knackered. Day 4 I wussed out and took the kids on… read full entry »
After yesterday’s badass workout I was prepared to do a nice slow and steady 5k run tonight so as not to hit my leg muscles too hard, but then a friend reminded me that some local runners were meeting at the nearby park for some speed/intervals work so I went along to that instead. BIG… read full entry »
Today’s an easy Juneathon day for me because Tuesday is always badass workout day. For some reason it’s the one workout I rarely skip – probably because it’s early in the week, I’ve usually had a shit day (there’s something about Tuesdays!) and I need that release to get me into Wednesday. So, here’s my… read full entry »
Last week I saw people talking about Juneathon and as a lover of weird and wonderful challenges I figured it’d be something new to take part in and entered as a participant. The general gist is as follows: Run or do some form of exercise every day. Blog or tweet (#juneathon) or post on the… read full entry »
Many of those who work at home find fitness right near the bottom of their list of priorities. Work at home parents in particular often find that they’re so busy juggling the demands of children, partners, work and household chores that fitness doesn’t fit on the list at all. However, this approach to fitness is… read full entry »
Yesterday saw me getting up at an unreasonable hour (OK, it was about 7:30am) to eat breakfast with plenty of time for it to digest before dun dun dunnnn… my first proper “race”. I entered the Market Drayton 10k some time last year. I hadn’t even remembered doing so until I went to register *this*… read full entry »
So having confessed a couple of weeks ago that I’ve been slacking off on my workouts and binging on shit food, I decided that I was absolutely going to knuckle down, STFU and get on with not-being-a-fatty again. There’s no point in me whining about ruining my hard work if it’s me that’s doing it,… read full entry »