Hi Maria

well done on 7.3 miles - thats impressive! You are getting stronger. Today I was up at 5am to run the Hampton Court Palace 10k, and thus completing the treble this year, as there are 2 x 10k and a half in the calender. A slower time as I felt my calf twinge right from the off despite a good warm up, but i managed a sprint finish to cross in 45.17, which is a 1 hr 35 half marathon pace time, so not too shabby.

Back to work tomorrow, and im cooking roast pork with crispy cracking and roast pots and greens for dinner. Yum!

went for a deep tissue sports massage today with an old friend who is highly skilled and qualified and collects awards faster than I collect running medals.

omg - there was some pain! He worked on the muscles that connect to the knee, on the top and sides, i also had needling for 15 minutes, hot stones, and ultrasound therapy, along with stretching and deep massage. 90 minutes in total. I will ache tomorrow but it has done some good.

Occupational Health are ringing tomorrow so I have something positive to tell them. You cannot cure arthritis but you can work to strengthen the muscles around the joint and not injure them. I am thinking of doing some yoga now. What do you think?

Hows the running going?

hope your run went well. Oh pets are so funny arent they? I adopt loads of cats from the rescue house if we had the room, but i do love going round and i also donate a few ££ a month towards their upkeep and huge bills.

a strange week at work coming up, 7 days straight (always tiring) and an ultrasound scan on my knee on Thursday about 2 months too late but never mind. Will give me something to mention to Occupational Health when they ring me on Tuesday. Its still hard getting up from a kneeling position.

Keep up the good running! Its so good for us/

I even bought a turntable to ice my cakes easier!

Hiya

I ran 5.5 miles today and stopped and fed the cats, and did 2 hills, or 'inclines' as your friend calls them :-)

The cakes decorating is easy - packet marzipan and white fondant icing, melted apricot jam to stick first the marzipan to the cake, then the icing to the marzipan, then shop bought decorations stuck on carefully with more jam.

You have reminded me now to search for new Christmas cake decorations this year and buy them early. My local supermarket has them in already.

They do say to train a few slow runs, at conversation pace, and thts good for you.

Lovely to see the cats. Of course they acted like they hadnt seen a cat treat in a year and i had the purring and face rubbing and lots of 'please dont go'. But I will return again :-)

so i went to Victoria Park in East London today, my 'fast ground'. All my pb's have been there in 5k, 10k and half. Today it was blowing the remnants of Hurricane Amy, a good 50mph. Tents were flying, but 100s were on the course. I figured an easy 24 min 5k. I crossed the line in 21.25 !! So very pleased with that as it was out of nowhere and one of my fingers decided to bleed again just before the start.

So rather pleased that after all my slow training jogs theres the start of some speed in me :-)

i make 2 cakes, one for the family and one for my mother in laws church, as they feed the 5000 (well, about 50) on christmas day, and love my cake

thanks for your lovely reply Maria. Amazing that 2 strangers from across the world can chat like this.

Im ok, done very little today, and i did buy all the dried fruit for my Christmas cakes, weigh them up, and put them into bowls to soak in brandy for a couple of weeks before making the cakes and giving them 2 months of feeding before christmas. So stage 1 done! stage 2 - the cakes - oct 14th. stage 3 is the icing and decorating, my favourite part, a day or 2 before christmas day

tripped on my morning run today and cut fingers, grazed hip and shoulder. Pavements are painful! Im ok, lots of plasters. Still finished my route :-)

6 miles yesterday, 6.4 miles today, easy pace. Stopped to feed the rescue cats who thought I'd abandoned them after a 2 month gap to too 2 packs of Dreamies (cat treats) and they were inhaled by the grateful furry mafia waiting for me :-) x

ah bless you Maria. Well slowing it down this week. Just a gentle 4 miler tomorrow, parkrun Saturday and then a run to see the rescue cats Sunday who I'm sure think I've abandoned them! I did an add up and had managed 59 miles in 7 runs over 16 days which is probably a tad excessive after 6 weeks out with injury!

good luck with your new program.

It was actually nice to run an easy 5k on saturday chatting to my mate.