treadmill vs road running

completed a 5k run on the treadmill monday - furthest i've ever run in one go. part of me feel like it was cheating but then i didn't pause at all (as i would to cross roads etc if outdoors). anyway i completed it. Maybe by doing it on the treadmill first proves to me i can do it and then i should go out and do it outdoors.

5km is still only 3.1miles though.

lots of new runners at the gym club last night which i didn't mind because it meant a gentle run and a few extra pauses while the girls caught up. still only about 2.5 miles in total though.

no running today due to number of gym classes and the fact i have no time this afternoon.

and still no decision on the trainers front. although the girl (sports therapist) i did see at a running shop yesterday thought that what i'd been told with regards to my gait was a load of rubbish, so it looks like another treadmill test. I feel i should trust the sports therapist more than the young lad who couldn't get the camera to work (turned out to be a loose connection!).

Knees & Hips

No running since running club on tuesday. No energy, knees & hips causing stupid amounts of pain and frankly no motivation.

I did feel a spark of something when i was in brighton on thursday, as we were driving and on the bus along the marathon route, but then i came home did 2 classes at the gym friday morning, which again caused more pain than i would have hoped for. Attempting lunges was more painful than normal, i doubt if i even dipped more than an inch!

Not looking good. But there's 9 months to go still............

Running Blogger

I think i should start using this blog to keep track of my running training.

I've taken this weekend off.

Yesterday's driving and maths/brain activity has seemingly exhausted me, so i've given running a bit of a rest for the bank holiday. My mind/mood isn't really up for it either, so better to break and start again on tuesday.

Friday i managed to complete a 5.4 mile route in about an hour. The average of 5.4 mph is explained by going about the first 2 miles at jogging pace and then getting halfway up a hill and giving up. Despite doing 2.5 miles constant jogging with the running club last tuesday, my route at home has about double the incline! Anyway another mile of 1 min jog 1 min walk then increase the jog time by a minute each time until i reached the halfway mark.

I had a good stretch at the halfway barrier when i took a quick video on my new PURPLE Ipod nano, which i will upload when i get round to it. I then jogged a little more, walked a little more and jogged the last bit of about 1.4 miles all the way to my front door.

My route are measured using this website i found freemaptools

i'm contemplating doing either a 5km or 10km race for life in july before the family holiday. A 5km might not be enough of a challenge given that the first bit i jogged completely on friday was 3.4km, so i'm sure i could do a 5km on 4th July, so maybe i should push myself for the 10km?

Brighton Marathon 2011

That's it. I'm signed up. It's official. All i need to do now is be able to run 26.2 miles. despite being able to do 2 hours of vigorous exercise classes constantly, running is completely different.

Currently i can run about 1 mile in one go - and when i say run - i mean jog!! But i will do it - if it kills me!

Baci quotes

A few christmases ago a friend introduced me to some wonderful litte chocolates which had quotes on a slip of paper inside the wrapper. I was clearing out a draw today when i came across a pile of them, so i thought i'd share them.

"There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved." George Sand.

"The only gift is a portion of thyself." Ralph Waldo Emerson.

"Music is love in search of a word." Sidney Lumier.

"Love comforteth like sunshine after rain." Shakespeare.

"I like not only to be loved, but to be told that i am loved." George Elliot.

"Real friendship can be enjoyed in silence." Anon.

"Hold a true friend with both your hands." Nigerian Proverb.

"At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet." Plato.

"When you really want love you will find it waiting for you." Oscar Wilde.

Belated 2nd Birthday & My First Award

My Calendar on my laptop did remind me of my 2nd blog birthday but things have been a bumpy with the mental health and depression this last week. So for the 2nd October (i think) happy blogversary to The World of Me - Jennyb!

So what prompted me to get those sad fingers typing?

I was given my first ever blog award - Kreativ Blogger.

Ok i'd better go through the official blog award procedure, before i ramble off in another direction.....

1. Thank the person who gave this to you .... Thank you very much to Rebecca

2. Copy the logo and place it in your blog .... I'm going to put it in the side bar too

3. Link the person who nominated you .... A superb & informative blog that everyone should read! - Life as a Mum to 2 children with Cystic Fibrosis

4. Name 7 things about yourself that no one would really know ....

1. When i was born i had to wear a green knitted hat because i was cold.


2. I talk to my plants (a lot!)


3. I have 2 tattoos


4. I've never broken a bone in my body


5. I can't knit


6. I don't have any cousins because my one (paternal) uncle is still (and always will be i think)single and my (maternal) aunt, Susan, and uncle, David, both passed away around the age i am now, of cystic fibrosis.


7. I used to have handwriting lessons as a child - and i hated it so much i cried!

5. Nominate seven 'Kreativ Bloggers.' .... i don't follow too many blogs so i might not reach seven.

1. Tales of Jenny - by my good friend Jenny, who crochets funky things. She made me a carrot and raddish!!


2. Siren Voices - Spencer's creativity is in his writing, although the posts are based on true stories, its the way he writes them that really captures your imagination


3. Worthless Words - Laura shows her creativity in her meals as she fights her way courageously against an eating disorder.


4. RePlayGround - is a fab blog on recycling and creativity

6. Post links to the seven blogs you nominate ... (see above)

7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know you nominated them .... must do that now before i forget

Update in Photos - August 25th

Ok, so these are not in the order i wanted them to be in really - so enjoy some randomly ordered photos of the last month!




This is all the onions, now strung up in the garage. Apart from a few that i'm taking down to Sussex for Nan & Grandpa, and a few little ones that were too small to string.








This is how my tomatilloes should look (and apparently Nan's do look something like this) This photo and the next were taken at RHS Hyde Hall in Essex. If you go between 10am and 11am on the saturdays when they have a farmers market (not sure which week of the month that is) then you can get in for free for that first hour.





Theirs were grown ourdoors & were much bushier than mine. I'm not giving up hope yet though, mine still seem to be growing - no thanks to the cucumbers which have taken over the greenhouse. I'm taking on of those to Sussex too, although that is in exchange for one of Nan's round yellow cucumbers, as mine didn't stand a chance against my other more advanced plants.





Found this critter on the rubbish bin in the kitchen. We haven't seen any of the swarms here, and as much as i like ladybirds, i'm not sure i'd like them in those vast numbers that they've had in norfolk & suffolk.



This is my first white cabbage of the year. There are another couple in the garden this size. Its made about 4 or 5 batch of coleslaw so far and theres enough for another couple still yet!


These are my number one enemy! According to a collegue, the newspapers said that due to the weather they had bred twice this year! No wonder there are so many about. There for i feel even less guilty and more justified to dispose of them. The weapons of choice include an electric bug bat - the stun and stamp method, fly and wasp spray & jam jar traps. There is a deterant method i heard someone text in to the BBC yesterday & that is to blow up a brown paper bag, tie the neck with a piece of string and hang in up. The wasps then think it is another wasps nest and won't invade another nests' territory.

For some reason the purple haze carrots don't seem to have grown as well as the others, the white, yellow and orange seem to be bigger. I think i prefer the flavour of the yellow out of all of them, they taste sweeter to me.

This was some of the onions before they were strung, its been a gradual process.

This was possibly the longest runner bean we had this year, measuring a total of 14 inches. not sure it would be good enough for any competitions.

This was my first Kohl Rabi, which have learnt it quite nice cut as crudites and eaten with a cool tomato salsa (not homemade although we have got 3 selfset tomato plants which all have fruit, albeit still green at the moment right now, but mum spotted the neighbour has blight so they might have to be ripened indoors!)


Now a few photos from a day by the seaside at Southwold in Suffolk that mum and i enjoyed together.

Of course i've been in the kitchen! And now i'm enjoying eating my products too!
Jam i have discovered is not a strong skill, possibly from lack of practice, but it is far too stressful!

This was plum jam made with plums from work, i think i ended up making just over 30 jars of it! No more plum jam for me this year! I just had real trouble getting it to set despite following all the tricks of the trade i googled.

This is my Strawberry wine that is now brewing in the garage. It is an old recipe of my late uncle, who i never got to meet. I found it in mum's old recipe folder when i was looking for zucchini bread recipe (no photos, i at that already but it didn't turn out looking too great, bit stodgy - should have drained the pineapple, but i like my cake stodgy!). The wine is due to be bottled on the 20th september, so we shall have to wait and see. something else i got a bit too stressed over.
On a day off work, i filled my time by making those who were still working out in the fields some oaty banana mini muffins! devoured by all, and with compliments. In fact sam has asked me since when i'm cooking/baking next, sadly i don't think i have time before he goes back to poland in a couple of days time.

And something else i made and took to work - guilt free (almost) baked blackberry cheesecake, made with cottage cheese & fat free yogurt. I had so many blackberries from work that were just going to be chucked that i made 3 of them!

And tomorrow i'm taking in 5 cucumbers as they are getting out of control.

Garden Update 22nd July

B & B for wildlife?

Mum was startled by a visitor this morning in the garage, as she was continuing to paint the (over running) weekend DIY project. When you hear the call "Jennifer! come quick!", and you know someone is using a paintbrush & holding a paintpot, you tend to respond pretty promptly. DIY usually means disasters.....
A better call would have been "get your camera quick!", as when i saw what she was calling me to see i then had to, i then had to run back into the house, find my camera & discard its case. By wich time the visitor was swiftly scuttling away:

Mum was unsure as to whether s/he came in and went out again, or had perhaps sneaked in last night and was distrubed by her & was on her/his way out. The theory that s/he slept the night was almost made slightly stonger when he turned out, once we stopped talking and i was sat waiting silently with my camera.

I didn't want her/him coming back inside and getting stuck in there, as i don't think a few woodlice & spiders would satisy her/his hunger greatly. Especially as when s/he headed firstly into the hedge i could hear her/his crunching something in the undergrowth - presumably a snail - what a good little hedgehog!

Anyway we've shut the garage door down, hoping s/he hasn't snuck back in, even if it does mean the garage stinks of paint fumes, and i made D check under the tyres before he moved the cars this morning too!

Too busy harvesting.....

Another apology. Life just seems to get busier and busier. Not only am i busy mentally trying to deal with my change in size (i gained the 3 stone that i need to, to reach a healthy weight) and the fact that i now have some fat on my body (which i'm not overjoyed about), but physically my body is having to cope with digesting all this food its not used to. That alone leaves me tired but i am also now working part time at a fruit farm (packing fruit, tidying the plants and bushes, pruning, hulling berries for jam making etc). Then of course there's our own garden to look after as well, with everything growing like mad. So little energy or time for blogging really.

So a couple of slide shows:

May

July (mainly flowers)

the only other things i have from the growing side of things recently are a couple of videos but they seem to be the wrong file type to both edit and be able to upload and share. But i took them the wrong way round on my camera anyway, so you'd be looking at it on your side. I'll try and remember to take some more photos for a slide show soon.

Harvests so far: Brocolli, Cauliflower, Runner Beans, Dwarf Beans, sugar snap peas, Strawberries, Cucumber, Blueberries, Lettuces and Rocket, Spinach.

Soon to be ready: beetroot & chard, onions, carrots, courgettes

Failures: Tomatoes - blight contaminated soil in the greenhouse, now disinfected and replanted. fingers crossed.
Fennel - bolted. I give up with this.





and now its time for bed, as i am exhausted and have to get up for work in the morning.