See you on G+!

Well, who would have thought that juggling motherhood, my imminent return to work, a half-marathon training programme and a mathematics degree would have kept me so busy?

All in all, the running is going well - I am not as thorough as for my last half-marathon, but I am hitting the main training milestones and feel comfortable during my long weekend runs.  Now reached the 60 minute mark, although at a rather slow pace.  I keep reminding myself though that a post-baby body isn't the same as a pre-baby one, and that the goal this time is simply to enjoy myself, keep fit, raise cash for the homeless and complete the race on the big day.  I think I am set to do all of this.

In the meantime, I never have any time to update this blog anymore, which is another difference with my previous half-marathon.  It is only going to get worse, too, as I am going back to the office more or less full time in September.

I have also discovered the very-exciting Google+, and decided to post smaller updates there instead, as the process is a bit faster.  So, dear supporters, please join me on Google+ if you are so inclined, and you will get all my running news there, too!

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Week #1 of Training - Done!

This week was the first in my training programme.  Nothing too difficult so far, and I am happy to report that I managed to stick to all four sessions.  Tuesday, 20 minutes of jogging; Monday, a 'failed' interval training session as I was planning on using my residence's treadmill and it didn't have the appropriate setting (but I still ran well for the required 20 minutes!); Friday, tempo running (5 min easy, 10 min faster, 5 min easy, very enjoyable); and yesterday, a 20-minute easy run in delightful company, as Stephen came with me.  We are incredibly rusty though, I have to say.  It's hard to imagine completing the half-marathon at this stage, when we are still struggling past the 15 first minutes of a run.  But I'll get there!

This week has also been completely awesome in terms of fundraising.  Closest friends and family really dug deep into their pockets, sometimes from the other side of the Atlantic, which is rather touching.  Thank you Marcia, Tom, Stephen and Mark for this week's donations; they got me to reach 40% of the fundraising target already! 

Tomorrow, after a day of rest spent enjoying my own birthday celebrations (and therefore a large meal), it's back to the programme, for week #2.  Given the current hot weather, which is apparently set to last a bit longer, I plan on fitting the runs into early mornings.  Something that is not massively hard to achieve, given that our daughter is waking me up at 6 o'clock sharp every day.  However, I have a cold right now and feel rather stuffed up, so I just wonder how hard I'll be able to run this week.

In terms of mapping apps, I had started using Mapmyrun but am getting relatively frustrated with it.  For now it seems that Runtastic is working a lot better for me - easy and accurate GPS mapping, less work to do to enter new workout details, etc.  So I may transition to it completely...  You can see the detail of the most recent runs there.

Finally this week, a quick note of encouragement to my friend Arnaud (a.k.a Arno), who is running his very first race (the Asics 10k in London on the 10th July) and is also fundraising.  Go Arnaud, go!  You've come a long way!

First donation for Shelter!

Nothing to declare on the training front I'm afraid - although for good reason:  Stephen and I took a break into the gorgeous city of Ottawa.

But, there are news on the fundraising front, with a first generous donation from my lovely mum and dad!  Aaaw! I can't type more because Maggie just woke up, but do check out their message on my Just Giving page!