Can I help make the Olympic Games happen? Please??

Earlier this week, I attended an interview day for a volunteer job for the London 2012 Olympics. I would absolutely love to be involved in the Games - to use a horrible cliche, it's a once in a lifetime opportunity, especially living so close, and as I come through Stratford on the train every day on the way to (and from) work, I've seen the Olympic stadiums built over the last year or so, and they're so impressive. Now we know that we didn't get any tickets in the ballots to go and watch any of the events, being a volunteer will be the only opportunity I have to get inside a venue!

Anyway, very early on in the build-up to the Olympics, I was on the www.london2012.com website, and submitted my application to be a volunteer, or a Games Maker, as they're called.  I took time over my application and really tried to sell myself and my skill-set, but with so many applicants didn't really think it would get any further.  However, a couple of months ago, I got an email inviting me to attend an interview session, for a volunteer position with the Event Services team - the people who will be at the venues taking tickets, showing people to their seats, and generally being helpful!  I was very excited, and on Wednesday, took myself along to the Excel centre in London for my 11am timeslot, to see if they would want me!

Each time slot at the event saw 25 people going through a recruitment session of 90 minutes, which consisted of a talk and Q&A session from some of the paid team who are organising the volunteers, a video showing various sporting celebrities telling us how great it would be to volunteer, and then one-on-one interviews of about 30 minutes, followed by the obligitory trip to the London 2012 souvenir shop to get to the exit.  It was all well organised and smoothly managed - the only thing that made me laugh was the frequent reference to McDonalds, who are supporting the process - I really can't connect what is often perceived to be a terribly unhealthy fast food chain with a sporting event involving the fittest people in the world!

My interview was with a lovely Australian guy, about 65, who used to be a rower - I didn't get to the bottom of whether he just did it as an amateur or professional and now I really regret not asking!  He had some standard questions to ask me, which I expected...but I was surprised by how difficult I found it.  I'm usually very good at job interviews, but this was a bit different. We managed to get talking about my running, and rather than telling him all about my customer service experience, my people skills, and what a great volunteer I'd make...I ended up talking about how I had a run a 2:02 half marathon, was hoping for a sub 2hr time at this Sunday's Dartford half, and so I didn't know why I couldn't get a sub 4.30 marathon, but was going to be trying again at my next race in September.  All a bit random and I definitely kept going off on a bit of a tangent!

The only positive I can really take from it is that I would have come across as very enthusiastic and chatty, and I suppose a bit knowledgeable about marathon running, but that's not really going to qualify me for a job in crowd control and answering questions about how to get to the train station!

I'll just have to wait and see - they were very open about the fact that not everyone who was interviewed would be offered a role, so I don't want to get my hopes up.  They're going to start letting successful applicants know in October...fingers crossed!!

Monsoon marathon training

The weather this weekend was truly atrocious.  Although I knew I wanted to get my long run in on Saturday morning, when I got up and realised how awful it was, I really didn't know if I would manage it - the rain was monsoon heavy and the wind was howling.  There have been many times in the past when the weather being quite so bad would have left me sat on the sofa staring out of the window, but this time I pulled myself together, found my long leggings, my rain-jacket and hat...and I made myself step out of the door.

And I was absolutely soaked to the skin in minutes.

But I carried on, and to be honest, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.  The rain was incredibly heavy, but it wasn't too cold, although with the noise of the rain and the cars I could barely hear my ipod (even on maximum volume settings). But my biggest problem was with the splashes!

The route I had chosen to run was pretty much only on a pavement right next to the road, or on the road itself around a few country lanes.  So stupid!  There were massive puddles everywhere, and although I tried to be very aware, to move away from the edge when cars were coming and to wait until there were no cars before running along certain sections, on more than one occasion I found myself getting splashed by the cars going past which was horrid :(

But on I went...the rain eased off a bit every so often, but then went back to monsoon conditions, and it really was the worst weather I think I've run in.  Half way through I could have turned off and gone home but I stuck with it and got my second lap in, for a total of 12 miles.

I do think it's important to run in whatever conditions there are - you can never control them on race day and it's worth getting used to whatever's out there so you don't get too much of a shock!  I'm pleased I went out, pleased I stuck with it, but was also very pleased to get home, out of my drenched clothes and into a warm shower!!

Running away from the day!

I've had a pretty poor day today...I'm absolutely overwhelmed with the amount of work I've got on at the moment, and generally feeling very stressed about getting it all done.  It's mainly down to a number of different projects all having their completion date this weekend and not being quite in the right place to meet the deadline!

Anyway, I'm feeling a bit crap about it all.

But it's amazing how much I'm looking forward to going out for my run tonight, because I know that it will make me feel much better.  Running will remind me that my job is not my life, and it will give me some headspace...a bit of time where I really will not think about work.  I'll either just concentrate on the run itself (although that usually only happens on speedwork days!), or immerse myself in the audio book or music I'm listening to.  Then, when I get back, I know that my general mood will have improved, and I will feel a little more prepared for going back to work tomorrow.  What a cheap, easy and generally very good for you way of getting a bit of therapy :)

Anyway, that's the plan, how I think it's going to work out....fingers crossed it actually does!

Keep on eating....

I had the big weigh-in today after 4 weeks on Weight Watchers ProPoints programme and my issues last week of not really being sure of how much I should be eating to cover off all my running.

Very pleased to report that I seem to have been eating the right amount - could even get away with eating a little more - I have now lost very nearly 10lbs and have reached my 5% of total weight milestone.  Haven't been this weight for ages, but determined to keep going until I reach my goal...only another 18lbs to go...

Wonder how much this is going to shave off my PBs??

Hurray :D

A great few weeks - lots of training & losing weight! :)

What an absolutely great couple of weeks of training.  It's not often over the last few years that I've felt that things have gone quite as well as they have recently - I wonder whether it's because I had nigh on 3 weeks without really doing any running which was just long enough for my to fully rest up without losing too much fitness, or it's just because the weather's been lovely recently and it's a joy to get out and about - who knows, but I've just felt really enthusiastic about my running and definitely have been looking forward to finding new routes and getting in the miles.

So, I've stuck pretty religiously to my training schedule over the last fortnight, and have clocked up over 50 miles, and am well on my way to being ready for my half marathon on 24th July, and the marathon at the beginning of September.  I'm even starting to think that I might be able to smash a couple of PBs while I'm at it ;)

The other change over the last few weeks has been that I have joined Weight Watchers!  Now, this isn't going to become a weight-loss blog, but indulge me this post at least...

I've been following the Weight Watchers plan for three and a half weeks now, and have lost 7.5lbs, which I'm really pleased about - I'm aiming for a total loss of 28lbs. I can start to see the difference already, and I'm hoping that dropping a bit of weight will make my running easier and I'll be a bit faster too - surely running with an extra two stone is slowing me down!!  I've tried losing weight a thousand times before, and it's never really worked, or more accurately, I've never really stuck with it long enough to make a difference, but this time, it does seem to be working for me.

The problem that I'm starting to have though, is that I'm not sure that Weight Watchers is really geared up for those of us training for marathons, and I'm worrying about eating enough to keep my metabolism active, without eating so much that I jeopardise my weight loss.  It's a bit of a balancing act, and although Weight Watchers does encourage you to input your exercise and then allocates "activity points" which you can exchange for food points, I just don't know how accurately my calorie expenditure through my running is being measured, or how many of these food points I should eat.

So, the detail.....

I've been allocated a daily number of points to eat, regardless of exercise, of 29 (total over the week = 203).  I then have an extra 49 points that I can use at any point during the week, i.e spread over the days for extra food, treats, a drink or two, or to use in a day for a nice meal out, so now my total for the week = 252.  Fine, this is perfect for me, and gives me enough leeway to never feel deprived, go out for dinner, and generally feel that I'm not really on a diet, but still, by making healthy choices and controlling my portion sizes, enables me to lose weight.  But this week, I have earned through exercise over 80 food points (by running 27 miles, cycling 20 and a couple of long walks) - whether this is an accurate representation of what I've burnt during the exercise I've done, I just don't know.  But anyway, this brings my total points for the week to 332!

Although I exercise so much, the reason I am overweight is because I have always used my running as an excuse to eat too much - I want to fuel myself before my run, and then eat loads afterwards because I've done this long run...I have lots of chocolate and generally don't eat well and always try to justify it because I'll be doing another long run the next day.  I find, even following Weight Watchers, I can still make these excuses....

My difficulty comes because the plan doesn't say you have to eat all of the activity points you earn through exercise- it says you must eat at least your 29 per day and the rest is really up to you.  You can eat them all if you feel you need to.  I'm just not sure because I'd rather not eat too many, so I can ensure I lose weight, but am worried that if I don't eat enough my metabolism will stall and my body will go into "starvation mode" and I'll stop losing weight!  Arrrgh!

Well, this week, out of my 332 points, I'm going to have eaten 283 - that's my 29 per day allocation, and all of the points I accumulated through exercise, but none of the "have a treat during week" 49 points.

It's weigh-in day tomorrow, I'll have to see what the effect has been! Fingers crossed....