Still here? I’m not sure I am! August’s been a very busy month with travel and visitors – we spent 5 days in Bruges and had family invading for another 5 days this – not a single “exercise” session as such, but I’m absolutely knackered anyway! In need of another holiday.
At the end of last month, there were a few things I wanted to do through August – get my mileage up, lose some cake sacks, and have some fun. Success on these three counts has been varying! I have snuck the mileage up again, a few 10km’s and a 9 miler sneaking in there, but with under 2 weeks to the GNR, I’m certainly not as prepared as I was for Liverpool. I have been trying some new local running routes and some new and repeat races, and I started The Pact, which with the exception of one day where P ordered Domino’s (not cake, biscuits, crisps or pudding but there’s no way I’m going to try and convince myself that doesn’t count as junk food), I’ve stuck with it every day. I do feel trimmer for it so it’s obviously working 🙂 I’ve yet to test how that translates into fitness but at least I’m carrying slightly less for the GNR!
It was P’s birthday this weekend, and with family up too there have been cakes, biscuits, sweets, chocolates and puddings everywhere!!! If I’d started this later I would have found it much harder, but I found after the first 4-5 days I’ve actually kicked the sweet cravings and as long as I don’t actually try any, it’s been pretty easy to resist the sweet cravings, if they’ve arisen at all. After a fortnight I’ve also found I’m not constantly hungry as I was at the start – I’ve still been eating plenty but with my diet including a lot more fruit I think it’s just digested easier, or my stomach’s shrunk or something. Whatever. Not as hungry anymore anyway.
My campervan cash count so far is a whopping £32 which I’m pretty darn pleased with if I say it myself! This is 19 days of no junk food, an extra £6 for two weeks where I went seven consecutive days in a row without junk, and 7 exercise sessions. 12 days to go until the GNR and I’m wanting to keep it going until at least then. I’ve found the moneybox method to really work for me – this time at least – and I’ve not run out of £1 coins yet!
My exercising has seen a bit of a pick up after a slump in July, you can see where my holidays and family time were! Don’t worry, I wasn’t slacking, there was much walking about and stairs if nothing else!
It feels like it might possibly be starting to cool down, at least in the mornings and evenings, I’m looking forward to enjoying my runs again. I went for a walk to up through Derwenthaugh Park to the Derwent Walk viaduct with my family, and could still see the Gateshead Trail markings on some of the paths. It’s so relaxing being down there, the river just seems to carry your cares away, it’s on the list for revisiting with my trainers in the very near future.
Blue Runnings 
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