Woohooooooo!

Hmmmm ... spot that I maybe a little excitable this post!  Unfortunately, and just to burst you bubble straight away, neither of my exciting things has anything to do with eating well or lower numbers at the scales. 

So, sorry and all that.

Two good things today though!

Firstly, and the lesser of the two ... possibly ... is that I finally learned mastered how to do proper poached eggs in boiling water this evening.  Now this is something, that as a relatively keen but amateur cook, I have intermittently tried to master, but inevitably ended up with an eggy, watery mess in the pan.  However, tonight's planned dinner was poached eggs on toast with mushrooms (which can I just say is one of my favourite simple but tasty and filling meals), and there I was in my kitchen faced with the conundrum of one of my silicone poaching cups being missing. I have a pair of them, and they're excellent as they turn out perfect poached eggs, time after time.  Well, I did have a pair of them ... now I appear to have only one!  I looked everywhere.  I had a single poached egg last week, so I know I had it then, but it is nowhere to be found in the kitchen now.  I even turned the rubbish bag out on the kitchen floor as I suspect I've accidentally thrown it away during last Friday's mammoth clean up.  Nothing.

I finally thought "where's the harm in trying just one more time" but decided to follow the instructions from Gizzi's Kitchen Magic this time ..... et voila, via the magic of her instructions, 2 perfectly done poached eggs.  YES!!!!!

So that was one cool thing, as I love mastering new techniques.  Especially when it's been something that's been eluding me for a while.

The second great thing today, was I went for a solo long run straight from my office today.  The plan was just to take it easy and run for an hour.  With the 10k and duathlon coming up in May and June, I want to be prepared.  I already know I can run 10k at my current level of fitness, but I've up (or downed?) my time goals from the last official run at Ashton Court in October.  So I want to get some more long runs in and know I'm going to enjoy it on the day.  I know my 5km time is slowly easing down in the direction of that magical 30 mins barrier, but I don't do enough longer runs to know how my endurance is panning out.

I left for my run straight from office today - just me and my iPod and my work pass, so I could pick up my kit and handbag on the way home.  My plan was just to run around the harbour and then out under the Clifton Suspension Bridge on the trail by the river.  Run til 30 mins on my watch, then turn round and head back round the other side of the harbour.  Mostly, I felt ok today - sometimes I'd hit my stride, sometimes I felt a little sluggish, once I just had the beginnings of a stitch, and a few times I wished I had some water, or had eaten something to boost my energy before leaving.  At least this time, I remembered to keep an eye on landmarks so I could map my run afterwards.  I had 1hr 5mins on the clock when I got back, and GMAP Pedometer shows it was 9.67km - which would put me at 1hr 7mins for the full 10km. 

And here's why I'm pleased - that first 10km at Ashton Court, I was aiming to finish under 1hr 20 tops, and preferably under 1hr 15.  We made it back (knackered) at 1hr 12.  For the Run Bristol in May, I'm aiming for 1hr 10 tops, and preferable under 1hr 5.  My last long (and admittedly very relaxed and chatty Sunday afternoon) run with Hannah was 1hr 20.  So 1hr 7 today?  Already right in the zone I want on the day, with 6 weeks of running time still to go!  And totally my fastest run to date.  By a good 5 mins.  I have absolutely no doubt that I would have continued at the same rate for that last piddly 400m had I needed to.

I didn't feel particularly pushed today - I tried to stay at a comfortable, easy pace for me and just enjoy it without thinking too much about time / distance until right at the end.  Sweet.

On the eating end of things - yesterday was great, until we went to the cinema in the evening.  I deliberately didn't go out for dinner with my friends before hand, and met them ready for the film, except we ended up going to see a later film (oh my God - True Grit everyone - brilliant!), and the suggestion to get dessert came up.  And not just any dessert, but The Lot.  Which is literally a speciality of the bar / restaurant at the cinema (we have fancy cinemas in Bristol).  It's to share between 2 people (and being there was 4 of us you can see how I got suckered into this), and it's basically 6 scoops of Ben and Jerry's icecream (pick your flavours, people!) and two platters on the side - one chocolate with chocolate fudge cake (big slice of), chocolate flakes, chocolate sauce and lots of chocolate type bits to scatter on your ice cream, and one the old-fashioned sweet shop with cheesecake (big slice of), raspberry sauce, dolly mixtures, and lots of different jelly sweets.  Ridiculously good, but also a ridiculous amount of food for 2 people.  If you ask me, one between 4 of us would have been fine!  So yeah, that kind of tripped me up.

Today we've had lunch out with work (a chicken wrap and a small portion of skinny fries), and then my boss bought me latte and brownie at our afternoon planning meeting, hence the eggs on toast for tea.  Good job I ran for an hour then!

Normality resumes tomorrow.  Oh and Fitball class at lunchtime, which has been known to fell far fitter people than me!