I should have gone out last night. I really wanted to. But it was just so damned hot I couldn’t face it.

This was naughty, because I am not going to be able to go out Thursday night or Friday night. And probably not Monday night next week either.

So, despite the heat, I dragged my sorry arse out tonight. I did wait until it had cooled down a bit and went out around 7.30. I can’t believe I was actually hoping it would rain.

I have changed the music to now be 2 minutes and 3 minute tracks alternately. But I couldn’t run for 2 minutes! I basically did the same as last time - 3 lots of about 1 minute 20 seconds, 3 lots of about 1 minute.

BUT……

As I was walking towards the gate I decided I had to do more, so ran, for approximately 8 minutes.

So that’s 8 minutes!!!!

Whoo hoo!!

I didn’t gou out yesterday - it was so hot, and I fell asleep. So much for exercise giving me more energy, I keep having ‘naps’ that turn into 4 hour sleeps.

So, I went out this morning. Twice around the lake again (and twice being attacked by a damn Canada goose - it’s not my fault their chicks were close to the path, and I did run as far from them as possible - but my, they are scary things!).

The first run session I actually managed 1 minute and 30 seconds! However, the second one I only managed 1 minute 10, so averaged out to the same as last time. With the exception of one running bout (the third one - why is the third one always the hardest?) I ran for more than a minute, but I got fed up stopping to peer at the mp3 player to try and figure out how long I’d ran for.

So, it was at least 7 minutes.

And, if it hadn’t been so hot and humid, I reckon I could have run for more.

I have estimated that to the park and back, plus twice around the lake is approximately 3k. So I think next week I am going to have to aim for 3 times round the lake, to push it close to 4k, in preparation for the 5k the following week.

And I can’t believe that sitting outside Starbucks yesterday I actually took notice of a poster in the street advertising a 10k run in September…. And even more astonishing I looked it up online when I got home! There is no way I could do 10k by September, but I am just worried that once the race is over I am going to stop going out. And much as I hate it, I am loving the impact it is having on me.

Talking of which, I don’t think there is that much discernible difference to other people yet. I did notice on Monday when I put my jeans on and just automaticaly did up my belt, and later on when I went to the loo I noticed it was on the last hole! I have been toying with getting to the last hole for ages, and sometimes I have managed it but it’s been tight, but this week it just went there as the right hole to go to.

But other than that, I think I look pretty much the same.

However, I know the difference. I am still fat. But the fat is, well, there’s no nice way of really putting this, but the fat is wobblier! What this means I guess is that it is less hard packed, so much less of it. And what that also means is if I keep it up then what is there should just disappear!

That’s the hope anyway.

And almost raised £300, which I am really pleased with. People have been so very generous.

Yesterday I was going out for dinner with a friend from work, so the ‘twice around the lake’ plan wasn’t going to happen. So I just aimed for my ‘usual’.

However, I definitely noticed it was easier - and I was walking quicker between each run - to the extent that I got to the ‘place’ for the last minute run almost a minute early - so I just walked backwards and forwards until the end of the track, and then ran for the gate.

I felt I deserved my very nice curry, looking out over the Bay.

So, tonight I planned to go round the lake twice. Started off as usual, walking to the park, then switched to my playlist and began to run. Where I usually stop, I decided to keep on running for a bit, until I felt I should stop.

1 minute and 20 seconds.

Whoo hoo!

And I did that for the next two runs as well. Then, second time around the lake I just did 1 minute runs - maybe I could have run more, but I felt that 7 minutes was more than enough, especially given that the most I have run before this was last Saturday, and that was only 5 minutes.

Just under 2 weeks to go - I think running for 10 minutes is definitely on track!

But when oh when are my legs going to stop feeling like they have inbuilt hot water bottles in my thighs?

I can’t believe I have got to training day 20. That means I have been out round the park 20 times in the last few weeks. That is so incredible for a lardy arse like me.

I didn’t do the 6 minutes though. I didn’t even do 5. I did what appears to be the standard now.

I walk to the park, which takes just over 6 minutes. As I enter the park, I switch to my ‘4 and 1′ minute tracks, and ‘Eye of the Tiger’ kicks in. I run from the entrance to the lake, which is on packed dirt, and stop when I hit the concrete path. This takes one minute. I then walk around to the left around the lake. Depending on how fast I walk, I hit the next bit of packed dirt at the end of the track, and so run for the next 1 minute. This takes me to just before the first concrete bridge - where I usually have to stop and get my breath back.

I then walk along to Ricky Martin, ‘Living la Vida Loca’, until that finishes, usually at the other side of the wooden bridge, when I run again, until I hit the concrete path. This, for some reason, seems to be the hardest bit to run, I always struggle with this one.

I then walk until I get to the packed dirt where I joined the circular path, which is nicely timed to the next 1 minute track, so I run for the gate.

I then walk home.

I don’t seem to be getting any faster. However, it does seem to be getting easier.

I won’t be going out tomorrow as I will be driving up to head office, so it will be a long day. I will aim for twice around the lake on Tuesday though. I need to do it at least once, and maybe once I have done it I will want to do it more.

Today didn’t quite go as planned.

The plan: get up, have breakfast, go to bakers, come home, go for run, shower, change, meet friend in town for lunch and shopping.

The actuality: got up an hour later than planned, had leisurely breakfast, went to bakers. Got home, but couldn’t face run, so played on internet for a bit. Then showered, changed, and went to meet friend in the Bay. Had an enormous late lunch in the new asian buffet food emporium (where’s Mr W to aid and abet me in this culinary delight?)

Wandered around the Bay, looking at the ‘extreme sports’ on offer, then sat in the pub chatting for an hour or so. Drove her home, then came home myself.

Eventually got changed and dragged my sorry arse out to the park.

I didn’t go round the lake twice. But I did manage to run for 5 minutes. 5 whole minutes! I came the long way back to fit it in.

Maybe tomorrow I can manage 6 minutes, if I go around the lake twice?

Went out tonight. I am so glad for the long days (although they will start getting shorter next week!), because I didn’t go out until 9 o’clock, and it was still light when I got home.

I managed 4 minutes again! Yippee!

I can’t say I managed them easily, but it was definitely easier than last week (and ten times better than last night). My back was hurting a little bit again though. I think I may have to go to the doctors about it if it doesn’t clear up soon.

I also managed to swallow a fly! Nice!

Tomorrow I am going to aim to go around the lake (?) in the park twice, rather than the once. I don’t think I’ll be able to run that much, so maybe I will run for the first time round (and when I say run, I mean run for a minute now and then, not the whole way around!) and just walk for the second. We’ll see how I feel in the morning.

I didn’t go out again until Tuesday night, because of being away over the weekend. So Tuesday when I got home from work, I was so hungry so I had my dinner early. It was light too - salad with some bread and pate - and after giving it an hour to settle I went out.

It’s not as good as going before dinner. I only managed 3 minutes, but that in part was down to a bunch of teenagers sat with cans of Special Brew where I began my first 1 minute run the other day….

That night someone from work was staying over (they couldn’t get a hotel because Take That were in town…..) so I had to go earlier than I would have liked.

Last night, for some reason, I was absolutely exhausted. Maybe because I’d had a very boring day at work - one of those days when I try to look busy while not actually doing anything. I don’t know why, but I really couldn’t face going out last night.

So tonight I went as soon as I got home.

And it was really hard. My back was hurting. A lot. I ran for 1 minute, then for about 30 seconds 2 more times, but by the end even walking was hurting it.

I had my car serviced last week, and they moved the seat, so I am wondering if I haven’t put it back into the right place, and I did do a lot of driving over the weekend. Also, with the nice weather earlier this week I was wearing my ’summer shoes’, which give no support whatsoever to my ankle, and also I can’t wear my arch supports in them. This also affects my back, although not as much as this. But that may be because in previous years I wasn’t going out running……

Anyway, tomorrow I am going out for dinner and also to the pictures to see Star Trek, so won’t be able to go out. I plan to go out both Saturday and Sunday though - I need to keep up the momentum!

I didn’t go out last night - spent my time getting ready to go out, grrrrr.

Anyway, got up this morning, took some painkillers for my back, waited an hour for them to kick in then headed out.

Usual two Linkin Park tracks to warm up, then switched to my new ‘4 and 1′ playlist. Well. Eye of the Tiger is the first track. I was supposed to walk for 4 minutes, then run, but who can just walk to that track?

So, instead of walking, after about 20 seconds I ran. For a minute. Then I walked to the end of the track. And ran for another minute. Had to stop for a few seconds to get my breath back after that one, and then carried on walking.

Track finished, and I ran again. For the whole minute.

I was heading homeward, and I hit the packed dirt bit (note - the park is a combination of packed dirt and concrete, I try to run on the packed dirt) on the way to the exit. I checked my mp3 player, and there was 1 minute 26 seconds left of the track. Sod it.

I ran. To the exit. Checked mp3 player. 20 seconds left.

So, I ran for 4 minutes. 4 whole minutes.

I can’t believe it! I am buzzing!

I do wonder though if it’s better to run for less than a minute, and then walk, or run the whole minute and then have to stop for 20 seconds? I guess it doesn’t matter at my level of fitness, anything is much better than nothing.

Title is in apostrophe’s for a reason.

When I lived in America, I found the BBC News website an absolute godsend. That, and the nightly BBC World News on BBC America was the lifeline I needed to keep me in touch with reality. Away from all the sensationalist nonsense churned out by the American news media.

Even when I came home, the BBC News is a website I checked many times a day. It was great, for all the local news you can get (I can check my parents area, my local area, where I am going to visit friends….), it was updated regularly throughout the day. Okay, it was starting to get a bit annoying in that, more often than not it was a ‘newsbite’, and not actually a ‘news report’, but I can accept that.

However, over the last few months I have been getting more and more annoyed.

It’s not just the BBC. I can’t blame them for the breakdown in the ability to report news any more. But I do blame them for succumbing to it.

There is not much news nowadays. There are witch hunts.

12 months ago it was bankers.

6 months ago it was still bankers. However, there was nothing new about what they were reporting, it was an out and out witch hunt for every one who worked for a bank.

Then along came swine flu. At least it gave the bankers a respite.

But really. Come on. It was not the huge deal the media made of it.

Thankfully, that didn’t last long. But not because someone came to their senses. Oh no. Something else came along. MP’s expenses.

Now, I am not suggesting any of these shouldn’t have been reported. I think they should all have been reported to the general public. I am suggesting that they are the huge attention grabbing (well, maybe some of the MP’s stories) headline makers the media made of them.

In desperation I turned away from the BBC. I check it maybe a couple of times a week now. But I am desperately trying to find something that will give me news, without giving me the tabloid sensationalist bullshit.

Today I was looking at the Guardian. To be honest I am not totally sure why - it has irritated the hell out of me the last fews days - really, I do not need, as one of the main front page headlines, at 4 o’clock in the afternoon, “London Tube Strike - LIVE!” - again, while this is news, most people just need to know it is happening, the reasons why it is happening. I have no idea what was actually being reported live, I shudder thinking it was just comments from disgruntled people sending in texts…..

Anyway, sorry, went off on one there.

There was an article about mortgages going up. Well, that’s hardly surprising is it, this is not major news (a bit like the pound dropping to $1.50, it’s really not that alarming, that’s probably more ‘normal’ than the $2 it’s been sitting at for the last couple of years).

This is a paragraph from the article (emphasis is my own) -

“The Bank’s nine-member monetary policy committee will be alarmed at the rise in mortgage costs. After slashing interest rates to just 0.5%, their lowest level ever, they embarked on the drastic policy of quantitative easing buying up billions of pounds worth of government bonds to bring down borrowing costs and boost lending to cash-strapped families and businesses.”

This is the kind of language I would expect to find in some tabloid such as The Sun.

Help! I need some ‘proper’ news!

I don’t watch much telly as a rule. When I do sit in front of it, it is usually to watch a dvd, or something recorded on Sky+.

Ironically, what I tend to watch is old telly programmes!

I didn’t watch “Life on Mars” when it first came out. I thought it was something I would enjoy, but always seemed to forget when it was on.

Then, when I flew to Australia, three episodes were part of the ’seatback entertainment’. I was hooked. Completely and utterly. When I got back, I ordered the first series on dvd, and when it arrived I spent hours watching the whole series. I think I watched it over 3 days - and at least one of those was a work day!

Then the second series came out on dvd, and I did the same thing. At the time I thought it wasn’t quite as gripping as the first series, but I still loved it. I really cared about all the characters. I was totally engrossed in what was going on. Completely caught up in Sam’s world.

I watched both series 3 times. And each time it was in a condensed block, watching several episodes in a day. I just couldn’t let it go.

Then came “Ashes to Ashes”.

I think everyone who has watched both admits it’s not as good. I think, if it wasn’t compared with “Life on Mars” it would be applauded as a great series.

My personal gripe with it is the non-stop music. And I love the music. 1983 was “my time” - it was the year I sat my O’ levels. I was a full-on moody teenager. The music was what it was all about.

However, the music was not what the tv series was all about. At least it shouldn’t be. Music is fine when it is needed - like when the radio is on, or maybe a clip of TOTP. The night club scene in the first series is great.

But not having Duran Duran blasting from the screen watching an Audi roar up a street. It doesn’t add to the story. It takes it away.

I digress (a bottle of red wine will do that to a girl).

Stuck home alone. Bored. Annoyed with a friend.

I dig out “Life on Mars” series one.

Oh. My. God.

There really is no comparison.

I’ve watched two episodes. I want to watch the rest of them. Right now. Even though I know the story. Even though I have seen all the episodes 3 times (4 for the extra ones I saw on the plane). The acting is incredible. the writing is fantastic. You totally feel Sam’s confusion and perplexity.

They should have just left it at that.