Spring is sprung....

Spring is sprung...., a photo by charlottehbest on Flickr.

Yup, it's come around already, Spring is here. Hoorah!!!!! got tonnes of photos from Salt Lake City to upload, and will try and write a post soon - am being good and burying myself in work to try and get the last lot of work done and out of the way. Eurgh.

Winter wonderings

January in a nutshell: work, training (track, road and cross-country running, spinning, and road cycling, interval and endurance swimming, weights/conditioning, yoga/pilates/tai-chi), cross country race. Coffee. Sister’s birthday (and amazing carrot cake), baking, meetings. Trip to London. Trying (mostly in vain) to see my friends. I have mainly done nothing else, and nothing exciting.

Cross country race was actually quite fun – part of the West Midlands Cross-country League, racing for Stratford-upon-Avon Athletics Club…. Didn’t embarrass myself either, came 104 out of something like 235 women :)

For the sister’s birthday I was on cake duty as our parents were away, so I rustled up a cheeky carrot cake, bloody delicious it was too, even if I do say so myself.

Took a trip to London with my mum, to meet a new arrival for some family friends…..

February so far: work, training (track, road and cross-country running, spinning, and road cycling, interval and endurance swimming, weights/conditioning, yoga/pilates/tai-chi), trail race (Hell in the Middle – the big, mean, hilly, arse-kicking brother of Hell down South), more baking.

Hell in the Middle was fun, but bloody cold. It was -8.4’C when I left my house that morning, and I’m pretty sure it didn’t get anywhere near going over freezing whilst we were running. 10-12 miles (that’s the only distance guideline they give!), cross-country, trail running in Cannock Chase. A lot of it is along the single-track mountain bike courses, which was proper ankle-breaking territory because the muddy ruts had frozen solid. I saw at least 5 people go arse over tit, or just flat on their bums because of the ice….. very, very icy, although probably good for me in the long run, as it meant I was running a little cautiously. On the plus side, I didn’t wipe one of my contact lenses out this time, so I could actually see where I was running! Whoop! Finished 15th out of 235 women, 199 out of >1000 overall. Pretty pleased with that all things considered :)

I also started a 52-week project; realised I wasn’t really using my camera much, and although I didn’t want to commit to a 365 again just yet, I wanted to do something….. it’s nice to be back taking photos more often too. Breaks up the monotony of work and training.

On the most exciting note – I am off to Salt Lake City on Saturday for a week’s conference (Ocean Sciences 2012), and then I have a week of PLAYING IN THE SNOW!!!!! I am SO EXCITED about this as I didn’t end up going skiing/snowboarding last year, and I miss my annual snow-fix. I’ll still have a lot of work to do whilst I’m there (booooo), but very excited about it nonetheless. Obviously I will have loads of photos to post afterwards.

Stop and stare.

4/52 selfie, a photo by charlottehbest on Flickr.

Will try and do a proper post this week. It'll mainly be talking about how dull my life is at the moment. Work, work, work, and training, training, training. I might put the occasional picture of baking in too. I made a bloody good carrot cake last weekend. And I've booked a holiday too. EXCITING!!!!
Adios.

Happy New Year!

Well, Christmas has been and gone already, and everything is quickly going back to normal :( sad times. I love Christmas. Had a reasonably quiet Christmas as usual, although there were 6 of us this year so that made a bit of a change from the usual 4! Swapped the turkey for a joint of beef this year. Gobble gobble.Also decorating the Christmas cake on Christmas Eve kept me busy for a good couple of hours (easily pleased I know).

Went for a long ride on boxing day, managed a 45miler which I was fairly happy with. No classes have been running at the gym over the Christmas period and I feel a little bit lost without my normal routine…. Uhoh obsessed much? They all start again this week so it’s fine (breathes a huge sigh of relief).

Cycled from home to my friend Steff’s house yesterday, to spend New Year’s Eve with her and her friend Sam. They’re both vets, and were both unlucky enough to be working on-call shifts last night, so I said I’d keep them company on the condition that I could play vet and go along to any call-outs :) We celebrated midnight in the vet’s practice, with Steff treating a sicky little ginger kitten. Bless. Drove back past some amazing Christmas lights…. Who needs streetlights?!

Went to cycle home this morning and promptly discovered that my chain had snapped after yesterdays hilly, muddy effort, so unfortunately had to call in the cavalry (in the shape of my papa) to come and rescue me. Me thinks I need to learn how to mend chains whilst I’m out and about….. never had to do it before!!!!

 Am looking forward to 2012 for all sorts of reasons……. It’s going to be a year of big change (and hopefully big achievements) for me!