Resting & running in heels

one kind of counteracts the other I've found!

So rested Friday to ease ankle and didn't go to gym either as my routine involves lots of squats, which think is where i picked it up in first place. Was out on Friday for drinks then onto pics to see the Social network (good film) I thought i was going to miss bus though and stupidly ran (in my heels) all way to bus stop,only for bus to be 10mins late. Made ankle not very happy at all, neither did walking to other side of town to cinema lol

Alcohol helped ease the pain though...

Saturday was meant to be "up early and go shopping" day. Kinda turned into a *oops,slept til 11am" day instead. Still, the shopping happened & i came away with a shiny new Blackberry Torch, i love it a lot already. After many yrs with O2 I've dumped them due to very poor, or complete lack off that should be! service in the shop. Off i went to car phone warehouse where i signed up to vodaphone instead. Shame really as I've always had great service previously with O2. Their loss, i told them this on phone when getting my code to transfer number.

Quick lunch before heading off to get Stephen's birthday card and few bits & pieces for him. (are you reading this Stephen?) Anyway, not telling what i got :p
Feet were truly aching by time i got home so i kicked off my knee high boots and put my feet up to watch soccer Saturday. Ankle was bit niggly.

Woke up early this morning, got up, cleaned house and after several trips up & down the stairs, including hoovering them i realised ankle felt ok. Time for tester run. Did 7 gloriously sunny miles on my usual loop up to fairmilehead & back .no ankle issues at all! woohoooo
Then i nipped to shops to pick up some groceries and back to watch Newcastle Sunderland game. Very productive day!

*waits*

:o)

Tourists!

aaaargh, go home!

Yes i know it brings much needed money to the economy but please stay away from my bus! Someone got on today, asked driver for day ticket *then* asked how much it was.She then said to driver " can i use it tomorrow?" errmmm NO does the word day ticket not give it away?She took her ticket and just stood there waiting on her pal behind me, i asked her to move then she stood at bottom of stairs! jeez. *deep breaths*

running home from gym yesterday, get to edge of meadows and pedestrian crossing. Press button, lights change to amber. Car decides to drive through anyway, even though the traffic was backed right up and all he did was obstruct the fuckin crossing! what an utter twat. I shouted wanker to him as i squeezed between the cars when green man came on.

Talking of gym, i arrived bit later than normal and went off to collect my weights. kettle bell and bits and pieces i need but some bloke was on equipment thing i needed. Except he was one of those *wandering* blokes. He'd do a set of about 5 and wander off! i stood next to it eith my arms folded with all my weights at my feet glaring at him. He then fucked off to another piece of equipment leaving his stuff still attached (you're meant to return everything) i walked over and tapped him on shoulder and asked if he was finished with it or not.jeez, give me strength!

Anyway,I'd started my routine my then by switching it around but it still kept me a bit behind.So i ploughed through it without my allocated rest breaks. Then i ran home.bit faster than normal.

Got up to run this morning, and i got less than 3 mins from house & had to turn back. Something in my ankle isnt quite right. Couple days rest are in order methinks.

crikey this is a ranty blog! Sorry. Had stressful couple days but i'm in calm happy place now, albeit with a sore ankle.It's Friday tomorrow that itself deserves a smile! It's Stephen's birthday on Monday, i'm organising suprise pressie which i wont blog about cause i think he might read this when i leave myself logged in.

oh no new phone just yet. Going shopping Saturday....

Decisions, Decisions

So it's upgrade time for my phone. I could have got iPhone last time but didn't then regretted it. Now there are sooo many choices out there and everyone loves the one that they have so everyone has an opinion on what i should get.

I'll probably end up with something completely different to what i think i want.

Had rubbish sleep last night & woke up at 4.10am so just got up. Sounded awful outside with rain battering window so for once in my life i decided to not dice with hypothermia and wore a jacket. BIG mistake. It was off within a mile and squished into bag before i melted into a heap on pavement.

Which left me with just a vest on, well not *just* a vest obviously, don't want to get arrested or scare people.. Saw few runners in meadows and everyone, except one old bloke was wrapped up for Antarctica. everyone else i passed looked at me as if i had horns but hey, I'm used to that.

Day started off well and deteriorated as it wore on, i wont go into it but hey ho I'll deal with it.

Phil called tonight,he managed to not call whilst i was in bath for once, although not through lack of trying! My ear nearly fell off as per usual with him and that was with him cutting it short. Did manage to finish off cooking dinner, eat it and make cup tea all whilst talking to him. Good to catch up though. After pulling out of my last few races i feel kinda cut off from people i regularly see, it's a bit rubbish.

So, IPhone, Samsung Galaxy, Blackberry Torch... aaaaargh watch this space.

Had chat with Mary Queen of Scots...

on Wednesday.

Yes i was drinking ;) I was invited to Stirling Castle to see recent renovations it was through work and i was kinda dreading it but it was fab. They had a piper piping us into castle and fire eaters & jugglers in courtyard. We were greeted with champagne (or wine , beer etc) no prizes for guessing what i had! And there were lots of folk all dressed up in character.Hence the Mary Queen of Scots title. She stayed in character whole time we were talking to her, Robert the Bruce popped over for chat too,lol was great fun. They are going to have them as guides when castle reopens, think kids ( & adults) will love it.The castle is stunning, cant believe I've never been,have vowed to go back and see it properly. Great night.

Thursday i met Martyn for drinks, not seen him for far too long and it was great to catch up. It's never *just one drink* with Martyn though,he really is terrible influence on me.

Busy day@ work on Friday and with Susan arriving it meant i missed gym, also missed it on wed because of castle visit, bad Sandra. Need to make sure i try little bit harder this week. It's not all bad though as I've ran a fair bit.

Susan arrived on Friday afternoon and i was in full throes of making 2 pots Soup to feed to hungry runners the next day. We drank wine and chatted til too late as usual then headed off for well earned sleep.Up around 8ish Saturday morning ready to hit Pentlands. Ian arrived about 9 and we headed off shortly after to meet the rest at flotterstone. Richy arrived not long after us quickly followed by Lucy. Weather was bit Baltic and wet, it had been torrential overnight and for once i actually wore a jacket!As we set off we were joined by Kenny from my club, dressed in shorts & tshirt i might add, he totally put us to shame!

Kenny had limited time as he had to get back home so he skipped off on 2nd hill and said his farewells. Although it was super windy at the top of the hills it was actually really clear and we could not only see for miles we could actually follow the correct route we'd planned this time! Richie was giving us lowdown on pentland skyline race and pointing out route, might just be tempted next yr!

Sun came out as we headed towards Wester bavelaw and rest of run was in glorious sunshine. Because of all the rain we had trails that were completely covered and it was like river running, me & Susan splashed on happily through them.Run was great and passed way too quickly i felt fab and couldve easily gone round again. Didn't though as we had 2 pots soup waiting so we all bailed back to mine to dig in. Everyone had showers and we drank lots tea & coffee to wash the soup down. Although i gave everyone choice (yellow split pea or carrot & coriander) everyone went for latter. Was bit worried i'd made it too spicy as the chilli's i used were tiny & lethal, but everyone said it was great.

Today, we had our 2nd running of the Fetch Edinburgh 10k, basically the idea was borne after few people balked at cost of Great Edinburgh Run so we decided to organise our own, exact same route,numbers, timekeepers, Marshall's the lot! Special thanks to Alistair for top job organising it all again. Was fabulous day out and i got a PB!! Then we all traipsed off to bar for refuelling purposes, was brilliant to catch up with everyone.Great weekend all round, goes waaay too quickly though....

Reclaiming the streets

My gym days are essentially Mon-Wed-Fri but being someone who loves to mess with up a so called training plan/schedule, just because it says i "should" do it I'm ever so eager & willing to do so.

Having the option of going out on Friday kinda won over the gym. So that's what i did, cause i can.And I'm ever so glad i did too. I decided seeing I'd no plans for weekend I'd run to gym on Saturday instead. So i did, cause i could.

I decided I'd take my favourite route which is the fairmilehead/Morningside one as it's longer route into town. What i forgot is that I'm used to running at 5am, I'm used to having those streets to myself, even the roads are extremely quiet. Leaving the house @1pm was not conducive to a very peaceful/quiet/stress free run in slightest. Morningside being the vibrant little village within a town that it is was a fuckin nightmare.I actually wanted to shove old grannies/families with buggies/loved up couples/people enjoying drinks in sunshine outside all the cafe bars/random people in my way and ANYONE who came near me or got in my way in front of nearest number 15

But i didn't, i gritted my teeth and jumped off and on road playing chicken with the buses and all the people in cars heading to waitrose/M&S /whatever...

I was so relieved to finally to get Bruntsfield links and down into the meadows.
The rage meant for pretty good workout though and i vowed not to run home that way. I instead ran through meadows which is looking just spectacularly autumnal at the mo and i skipped through the piles of leaves with big smile on my face. Getting strange looks from the many other's enjoying the meadows i may add.

I'm still in my vest and shorts at mo, even in the dark @ 5am, another reason for getting looks from people.Yes i ran up the Mound in Edinburgh battling against wind and rain and people brollies, getting astounded looks from said brolly holders.
I will not be beaten down in October to wearing long sleeves just yet!

Got busy few weeks ahead, why do people wait til 2 weeks of yr and cram in every invite they can throw at me? i doubt I'll make half of them due to lack of funds. But so far I've got :- catch up drinks with pals, Reception,Race and drinks after, Hen night, Fashion Show, Birthday Party & Wedding all between now & early November ffs.

Think I'll need to start selling body parts if this carries on. Or go stick my head in sand and ignore everyone, which is the likeliest choice i think. It's no wonder I'm single huh.

rant alert....

Really fucked off with Wayne Rooney for fucks sake.

that's all.

Women really *are* from venus

if not from Venus then definitely from planet earth.


The men who sent me these messages on a dating site however are not on this planet. For some reason this week I've had a surge in messages which is odd as you normally only get a flurry if you go online and I've not checked the site for weeks. Anyway, how could i resist some of these guys...

1. " hi, very very knew to this.... " knew? new perhaps FAIL


2. "SEXY GIRL LOOKING FOR SEX FROM YOU" yes, in capitals. Yes you're a moron

3. "hi, how you doing, check me out" errmm no, you've been watching too many episodes of friends, now fuck right off

4." hi, i'm looking for love, any shape or size, if you're interested let me no" NO know, NO I WONT.

5." hi im new here if u want to no anything just let me no" Yes,i will once you go back to school mate.

6. titled *relasionship" I didn't open it


7. "I am a guy who is fun loving and likes a some good sex. Can you cope with some 3nights all night activity. then we might be compatible. Get back to me and see our common denominator. Other than that we can check the bearings.waiting for you!!!!!!" oh goody, how can i resist?

8. "Shrek here having trouble finding his princess Fiona,call out so I know where to look" quite a quirky message, if he didn't *actually* look like Shrek

9. "I am Thomas, im 37 and looking for a girlfriendrelationship.lease get in touch" errm NO.

Spoilt for choice as you can see. Which one to pick?

Women are from venus

apparently.

Men from Mars? perhaps. Is there life on Mars? Been watching some on the men at gym. My programme is very bishbashbosh. 30mins of supersets. I get it done and get out of there.

I'm usually only girl in weights section so i get *looked at* specially cause i don't stomp around in between doing sets of weights. Why do blokes do that? One guy was really annoying me today. Kept giving me the eye every time he went past. He'd walk around the weight machines like caged animal then come back to his weights and do more. Freak.

He's not only one though. I'll bet most guys go home from gym and say *hey look at me, I've spent 2 hours in gym* but have actually done fuck all

I'm a meltering wreck by time i leave there, these guys are barely breaking sweat. Muppets

oh and i run to gym, then run home.

Talking of which, did my morningside route again this morning, i bloody love that route. Long climb up to Fairmilehead then big downhill to morningside followed by long climb out of there. Last 2 morning I've been racing the buses. Yesterday i raced the 15 from Bruntsfield right to Princes and won! wooop!

Got beat by number 16 this morning though, i only made it to Usher hall. No 15 in sight though which was weird as it was same time as day before. Still, i had my fastest morning run in long long time. Maybe it's thought of Coach IanB looking over my shoulder telling me to run faster, or maybe my big fat lazy day on Sunday did me world of good. Whatever it is, it's all good.

Bit Naughty

I mentioned broken camera in last blog.Anyone who is daft enough to be a regular reader here will recall i lost my Camera in pub after WHW race. Yes that's twice cameras and alcohol have been involved to my detriment.

There's a third time but I'll get to that in in a minute.

When i bought said camera i also bought accidental damage insurance, people who know me know i can be a bit of dizzy blond and i thought this would be good purchase. I was right. Except it didn't cover loss due to drunkenness. Hmm, should've looked at policy closer.

So i bought another one. From the wonder *edite edit* I bought the exact same model and colour cause
1. i like red, it's my favourite colour
2. The camera takes great pics
3. i still had extra battery, charger, software all set up on PC etc so seemed silly to buy different one.

Most people would put number 2 above number one is guess but hey, I'm a girl and i like red.

So all's good. Til Susan broke it but then i remembered i have inurance *edit edit edit* lol

*more edits*

Sorry about the edits, my legal team have advised me i might get carted off and thrown in the tower. I told said legal team it would be ok cause i'm just like rapunzal and i'd throw down my hair when my prince came to save me.

Going back to the Third incident.

I agreed to take part in a "naked" Calender. All in name of charity i may add. Roger booked a studio and took the pics and i drank a lot of bubbly. He said the pics are great, as have other folk I've shown them to. But I'm ever so critical and I'm dreading it popping through my letter box soon! aaaargh

In other news, Stephen stil hobbling round on his crutches with his non broken leg. I've ran and gymed like a good girl and work has even been ok this week

S'all good in Sandraland at present.

Misty delights of the Pentlands

Susan decided to join me & Jules for our run in Pentlands so said she'd come up night before which made jolly good sense and good excuse for girls night. Ian B also txt to say he'd join us too, but neither him nt Jules were invited to girls night.. lol

We usually take easy option and get Chinese but seeing as we're both got our *training* heads on and are both *trying* to eat healthily i decided to cook.

Cod wrapped in parma ham with red pesto stuffing, baby herb potatoes and nice healthy veg for those interested!I did kinda cheat though and bought everything from M&S, gotta love that place! So a very pleasant evening was had where we put the world to rights about lots of stuff, well tried to anyway. I doubt it gets us anywhere but it's good to get stuff off your chest for sure.

We of course drank lots of wine and went to bed too late. Oh and we thought it be good idea to take few pics. culminating in camera getting dropped and lens getting broken. damnation's, that's 3rd time the same thing has happened and i know it means i should get different camera next time but it takes bloody good pics, is light,compact and its red! i love it :( Cant afford new one either.

Up at around 8ish next morning and Susan was already up and had done dishes bless her. Jules surprised us by arriving at 9, i so thought he'd be late. He does love his lie In's that boy! Ian arrived not too long after and we all piled into Jules' car to head to flotterstone. Car park was busy as ever, considering weather wasn't too great. It was was fine on lower ground but mist was shrouding the hills making them look rather alluring and mysterious. I laughed at Jules' girly cat buff so he ended up leaving it behind. Cursing me later once on top of hill but i saved him with my WHW buff :)

decided we should do the route that me & Dave had done at end of July which took in 5 hills and covered around 12 miles. perfect. Well that was plan anyway... We neared we got to the top the mistier and windier it got. By time i was at top of Turnhouse I'd decided to stop and put my jacket on as i was Baltic. Was very funny trying to get it on though and it made me recall the Bastard ochills race where i struggled to put on my jacket at top of some godforsaken hill!

That first climb is always the worst and before we knew it we'd covered 3, turnhouse, Carnethy & Scald Law, the highest one. Next up was West & East Kip. At top of West kip we headed downhill but turned back as i thought we were heading wrong way (couldn't see a bloody thing!) so we ended u missing east kip and heading to another hill instead which had quite a descent!

We ran along a track to a farm and decided which route to take. It was here (on flat bit) that Susan went over on her ankle, took a spectacular tumble, smashed her knee open,and cut both her hands. After the initial shock i gave her my mismatched gloves and she bravely dusted herself down and trotted off leaving Jules, Ian & I in her wake lol!

Once we got to top of hill we took a Right turn where we'd ran before this taking us back along toward the descent to loganlea Reservoir. It was quite boggy & muddy here, Karen would've loved it. Ian did liken it to Cateran trail a bit. It was here that after seeing Jules & Ian skip over a muddy boggy bit i ended up in it, i don't have big long legs like them though! Susan was on hand to capture the moment though!

Very nearly lost shoe but we manged to fish it out.

I do love this view when we get to descent towards Loganlea. I've done it many times now and its a great run down. Once we got to bottom we headed along towards the reservoirs and homeward bound. Got too hot once out hilltops and took jacket off again. Run ended up being 10.5miles so we lost about mile & half getting lost in mist. It didn't matter though, we had cracking day out.

pic on left in stark dfference in weather to last run on same route! you can clearly see the hills we were heading to n background this time!

Managed to have a good chat to Ian about my WHW training. I'd already been picking his brains at Ayr about it and seeing as I'm being proper serious for once he agreed he'd coach me.

Me , with a coach, Can you fucking imagine it? Susan actually LOLLED in car and said "i cant wait to see anyone tell Sandra what to do" He's not getting paid btw, i might buy hm a drink if he's lucky, and if he's really unlucky he might end up wearing the drink.Actually after telling me some targets he has for me and me telling him i don't like to run fast that might just happen.

And seeing as he's looking fr a club in Edinburgh to join i told him he had to join the BEST club in here which is quite obviously Harmeny. Makes sense really, he likes hills, they train in the hills.

Watch this space!

Once everyone had came back, been fed watered showered then left. I sat and watched commonwealth games for wee while I then decided to go run a bath. Was about to head into bath when phone rang. Now i rarely answer house phone cause its never for me but i was n study so i did." Hi, is that Sandra? its Stephen's coach here, don't worry but we're waiting on ambulance for him"

ffs. Here we go again. I asked if i should head to hospital and he told me he'd call back when he was in ambulance. So i waited til he did then ran down to hospital, still covered n mud from pentlands, even managed to beat bloody ambulance so at least i was there when he arrived.(i ran fast Ian, if you're reading this) He was gulping on gas & air by then and in fair bit of pain.

Few hours later, xrays, docs coming & going and ruling out broken leg fractures etc they gave him drugs and crutches and a reappointment for Tuesday to rule anything sinister out. We got home and ordered Chinese but i was too tired to care by then and left most of it. Went fr my long awaited bath after falling asleep watching xfactor then went to bed. bloody knackered.

Lazy day today. very lazy.

Beware

this is a bit dull and boring.

i've been neglecting my poor wee blog.

Gym is going well and i dont feel like i've been run over by a truck next day now, i think that's an improvement. Friday i ran to work, had fairly busy day, ran to gym, did my usual routine then went out straight from gym for "few" drinks.Needless to say it was more than a few. lol, no off switch me.

Decided to have a rest day on Saturday and after getting up and entering WHW race (woohooo!) i spent rest of day cleaning house and chilling out. Had

quiet night in with Stephen eating chinese & watching Xfactor. Sunday i went to see my shiny new nephew who was 6 days old by then.I ran over there & Stephen met me there. He is adorable! The baby that is,not Stephen.although he is adorable in his own 18yr old way i guess!

Even better to hold and hand back though :o)

I bought him his first pair of trainers too, i'll get him running when he takes his first steps :P

Had fairly nice week this week it has to be said. Work has been pleasant & i've been running, gyming and spending it with people who make me happy indeed.

Got few plans in my head for training runs & races going forward. looking forward to weekend as Jules is coming down to run in Pentlands with me, he is just back yet another bloody holiday so he'll be all golden and i'll be all pale & interesting next to him, think few other folk probably join us too.

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