Back on Track

I am very happy to say I am feeling much better today after lots of sleep and general relaxation- phew just wanted to get that out of the way!
Yesterday I went to pick up my Chinese visa from the Consulate. I aimed to get there shortly after 9am but didn't bank on the 31 taking sooooo long! I could have walked if I had been feeling up to it and incorporated it into my training but instead I spent 40 minutes staring out of the window! Happily I remembered (just) to get off at the right bus stop and wandered round to the office. It was quite busy but the staff are so efficient that I didn't have to wait long. A couple of questions and then bravo I got my passport back complete with Chinese visa stuck inside. It even has a lovely picture of the Great Wall on it, very apt. I would link to a picture of it but I'm not sure about displaying my name, passport number, date of birth etc to the world! I also need to learn how to do that anyway, this is still all a bit new to me. I handed over my £30 then headed to work for a while.
I am reaping the benefits of working overtime as I have had most of yesterday and today off work without taking annual leave. It has been great and allowed me to rest up and feel better. After a brief visit today to the lab I ran home, my first run since Saturday. It's only around 2.2 miles according to mapmyrun but it's a start and it's been great to get some miles under my belt after such an off week. A few days ago I couldn't imagine doing the 10k on Sunday but I definitely feel ready for it now, just need to avoid any silly injuries. I'm getting quite excited about it now!
I think it is only 8 weeks today until we fly out, it's getting so close. I'm looking forward to starting training properly for the trek after the 10k and wearing in my boots. I am also very much looking forward to going back to Bodyattack, combat and trying out Zumba, I miss my classes. Is that a bit wrong?

Bad Timing

After such a successful Monday it was a bit unfortunate that I've spent the rest of the week feeling unwell. I'm not sure what it is exactly just feeling drained and a bit off. This has completely scuppered my training plans and I can only hope I feel much better in the next few days or I may have to think about pulling out of the 10k which would be terrible :( Luckily I have racked up overtime at work so I am taking off most of the rest of the week to rest up and get better. Here's hoping, I would be gutted to miss it especially since Dad is doing the race too and he's worked so hard.
On a cheerier note I have now paid for my China trip and the countdown is truly on now. It's a relief to get it paid up and now I can start researching places to visit and stay without having the invoice to think about. I just hope Lynsey can get her visa now! I am going to pick up my visa tomorrow morning from the Consulate, I must remember to get the 31 from the other side of the road so I don't end up at work instead! I keep thinking I need my passport to pick it up but it's already there hopefully with a visa stuck inside. I hope I don't have to see that dreadful photo again.
Once the 10k is over I can get back to walking and training for the trek properly. Now I have the boots I need to actually wear them in and get used to them. My plan is to walk to and from work as much as possible and since Arthur's Seat is in my back garden I should attempt that too. I've never actually been up it, just round the road mostly in the car but I did run round it once during the Race for Life last year.
Hope I'm back with a more upbeat update soon :)

My Day Off

A day off work was just what I needed. I actually got up at my normal time but it's much easier when you're not going to work to get out of bed. Lynsey and I had planned to go to the Chinese Consulate to get our visas for China so armed with my passport and new horrendous passport pictures I hopped on the bus out to Corstorphine Road. It's actually right at the back of Murrayfield and much closer than I thought to town, handy for future reference. The visa application office is only open between 9am and midday so was actually fairly busy. We got the suitable forms and filled them out with little hassle and waited in the queue. Unfortunately you have to specify on the form what your occupation is and whilst lab technician was fine working for the media turned out to be a bit of a problem for Lynsey. Hopefully a letter from her boss stating that she is not a reporter will do the trick, fingers crossed anyway. My form was taken along with my passport and I was told to come back on Thursday morning, I hope this is to pick up my visa! We formed a worst case scenario plan B over coffee but hopefully it won't come to that.
After a coffee and chat we strolled into town and I went to Boots to pick up some sun cream for the trip. I went for factor 30 and it was buy on get one free so I picked up a bit of a bargain. I actually got a bit sunburnt yesterday at the football, it wasn't even that sunny but it only take a few rays for me to get a pink tinge! At least i have some colour in my cheeks for once :)
This afternoon I finally got round to calling my contact Helen at Epilepsy Scotland for a chat. It's been months since we first emailed each other and it's taken me that long to find the time to call. It was great to finally put a voice to the emails and hopefully I'll manage to pop through at some point to actually meet the team. They do such a great job and it would be great to put a name to the voice and emails.
No training today, need a day off after my run yesterday. Back to work tomorrow then hopefully run home, less than a week until the 10k now- eeek!

Tickety boo

I'm glad to say my to do list has shrunk significantly since I composed it on Friday. David and I went shopping yesterday and I got my passport photos taken in the booth at Cameron Toll for my visa application. I had 4 chances to pick the best picture used up three and promptly had to accept the final one, probably the worst of the lot! I look incredibly serious and seem to have black eyes and a white smudge on my ear, nice! Oh well it's just for my visa app and only a few people will see it. On a plus point these booths have clearly moved on recently as it spat out my pictures within 30 seconds rather than the 5 minutes it used to take so I could soon catch up with David in the supermarket, not that he had got very far ;) Another thing ticked off my list, success!
We didn't quite make it back in time for Doctor Who so we taped it and I sourced the visa application form as David cooked enchiladas. It looks fairly straight forward so hopefully things will go smoothly tomorrow morning at the Consulate. Must look out my passport and remember my pictures. One thing is you have to state the province/state/country you were born in. I was born in Leith according to my passport, very thorough. I think I'll fill out the more obvious sections like name etc and leave the more complicated ones until tomorrow so I fill it in right. Another thing ticked off my list, getting through it nicely by now.
This morning I got up around 9 and had some breakfast before heading out for a run. I decided to take the same route that I had done last weekend though Lochend, Restalrig and the park knowing it was around 4 miles. This was going fairly well until I hit Smokey Brae and started to feel a bit light headed and nauseous. After a short stroll and some deep breaths I started jogging lightly through the park back to the flat and made it up the stairs. I feel much better now after lots of water and a bagel with poached eggs. Lesson learned, eat and drink more before morning runs and if possible go running in the evenings after a day of food! On a lighter note another thing ticked off the list.
Off to the football this afternoon, reckon I can treat myself to the bus?!

My to do list

In an effort to clear my head before a good snooze last night I made a list of things to do this weekend. The first one has been accomplished in that I had a very long lie in this morning :) I woke up fairly early, took my meds and decided to have another snooze. I didn't set my alarm and woke up at midday, longest lie in for weeks. Usually I would feel really guilty about this and think I'd wasted the morning but I must have needed it badly so I don't.
As I had my breakfast I started on my to do list. First thing was travel insurance, I decided this was a priority given the ash cloud situation. As I have discussed in a previous post there are only a few companies that cover people with pre-existing medical conditions so after a shop around of these select few I plumped for Travelbility. I have used them before and discovered this to my cost slightly as I tried to guess my password and failed miserably to log in! After a few curses I reset it and quoted away. I had discovered with my research that an annual policy is not much more that single trip so have gone for that so I am covered for our trip to Sicily for Fran and Sandro's wedding as well as China. I was very pleased that my policy cost £72 for the year. This might sound a lot to some people but I once paid almost £100 for a single trip to Australia so I am quite pleased with it- TICK!
The next thing was to create a facebook event for our quiz that we are hosting in June to raise some more funds for our charities. We decided to hold it in The Outhouse again as last time it went pretty well and it is free to hire. David will once again be doing the questions and we hope that it will be as successful as the last one- TICK!
The third thing was to update my blog-TICK!
Now I just have to do passport photos, shopping, visa form, run and build some furniture. Good luck me!

What a week

My lack of posts this week(and training unfortunately) is linked to an alarmingly busy and hectic week at work. My co-worker on SOLiD (quite complex to explain but basically a machine that churns out sequencing data) is currently off work on maternity leave so things are pretty hectic. Luckily I am still really enjoying the actual job and work so I don't mind too much.
After a 9 hour day of madness on Thursday I went to see Alphabeat at The Picture House in Edinburgh which was fabulous. I really loved them and there feel good sound left me with a huge grin on my face. They finished off with Fascination which got everyone jigging around, including a sober me! The band are actually a bit crazy especially the male vocal lead who kept dancing crazily, banging on his bongos and climbed up on top of the speakers at the side of the stage and dive bombed off knocking over his bongoes and mic stand and just managing to avoid the drums! Crazy but highly entertaining! After Katie kindly gave me a lift home I was in bed by 11pm.
I now have a long weekend to look forward to :) must get the training back on track though, only managed a few walks this week and one run :(

And the week goes on

Monday at work went by in a flash and as usual when 5pm came I just wanted to go home, not running! As a compromise I got the bus out to Ikea and went there with David to buy a few things for the flat that we've been meaning to get for a while so all was not lost and Tuesday I was in Haddington for tea with my folks, auntie and cousins so tonight I had to go out no matter what!
After a successful day at work I pulled on my running gear and tried to sneak out unnoticed, this did not work. After some embarrassment in front of my work chums I pulled on my cap and sunnies (aka my disguise) and headed off for home via Blackford for a change of scene. There is quite a good reason for me not to usually walk this way never mind run it, it's all uphill. I managed to run up most of the hill but simply had to give in and walk then last 10 metres, a bit pathetic but necessary to get my breath back and get rid of my stitch, oh dear. Luckily the rest of the route through the Grange and Marchmont (the houses here are amazing and unbelievably large) is fairly flat so I recovered a bit before last hilly stretch through the Grassmarket and home. According to mapmyrun a 3.2 mile run under my belt, woop woop! My face was bright red, my legs were wibbly and I waas knackered but I felt great. Now I really need to keep it up, that's the next challenge.

Successful Sunday

I must say I am enjoying the hangover free weekends in the build up to the race. Instead of a sluggish Sunday lie in until whenever and a day of fuzziness I was up at 8am happily watching the Chinese GP with David. Admittedly I did miss the start though as 7am was just a stretch too far for Sunday.
After watching the British boys dominate I got myself ready and investigated footwear for the trek. I had alarmed the assistants in Tiso too much last Saturday when I stressed that I would like shoes that looked good for the trek rather than practical ones so this week I headed to Millets where I had a clean slate. I saw a couple of potentials and as I hummed and hawed over them eventually I tried on a pair of green boots which I thought looked like someone had vomited on them in truth! As I walked about and over the fake rocky hill they have in the shop I confessed my uncertainty to the assistant telling him I wasn't used to wearing shoes like this, I don't think there was a need to point this out in hindsight! As he asked me what type of shoes I normally wore he caught sight of my Whimsical Miaows and immediately knew I was a complete novice and probably had never set foot in said shop before! So I decided to bite the bullet and purchase these They are actually fine and growing on me now and I'm glad I have my boots and rucksack now just need to sort out what to put in it :)
Almost forgot David and I had a yummy lunch at Cafe Rouge on Sunday, amazing tart tatin mmmmm!

Woop woop

What a week, so glad it's the weekend. True to form I did not run home after work as planned last night I went to the pub instead! It could have been worse as I stuck to Diet Coke and walked there and then home so all was not lost. It only made me more determined to go out this morning and happily I did! I think sheer terror of failing finally gave me the kick I needed.
A sensible early night led to early rise this morning. I even caught the end of the Chinese GP qualifying whilst I ate my breakfast and prepared for my run. I planned to tie my run in with purchasing next year's season tickets for Easter Road, I must be mad give our recent form but it would be boring if we won all the time I suppose. So I packed the suitable forms in my pocket and set off disguised as much as possible in case I saw anyone I knew on my way. After a mile or so I arrived at the Ticket Office and signed up myself and Dad up for next season, this was a nice 10 minute rest in truth of not an expensive one. With my pockets a little lighter I set off through Lochend and Restalrig, via a shop for an isotonic boost, and back through the park to the flat.
My legs were beginning to burn as I climbed the stairs but I fell onto the sofa with a huge grin on my face very satisfied with my morning's work. According to mapmyrun I had just run for 3.9 miles, the longest I have run since I did my last 10k in September 2009 in Glasgow. Now I can relax a bit and if I can keep going like this the 10k is no longer the impossibility I thought it was this time last week. Yippee!
After a very successful morning this afternoon has been less productive which I feel a bit guilty about so thought I'd update here and make up for my laziness a bit! I hope that my legs aren't too sore tomorrow as I need to go into town and do some shopping. I'm hoping to have a look for more China gear tomorrow, mainly shoes, lets hope this volcanic ash cloud is away by June. Must get my travel insurance sorted asap! This is proving to be slightly complicated due to my "pre-existing medical condition" It's odd that in a time where everyone is desperate to be politically correct and avoid discrimination that there is a severe lack of companies who cover people with medical conditions. The search goes on but in the meantime I'm just going to enjoy the rest of my weekend!

Round Two

Ah it was too good to be true, the last two days my legs have been agony. A combination of running and suddenly walking 5 miles a day finally caught up with me. After a long long day at work yesterday where nothing seemed to go right the last thing I felt like after 9 hours of stress was a run home so instead I got a lift home from David who was passing in the car! I reassured myself that I would go out this morning instead for a run and so settled in for the evening catching up on the few TV shows that we watch on the sofa, fabulous!
My second round of immunisations was scheduled for this morning so my plan was to squeeze in a run beforehand to make up for last night. Needless to say when my alarm went off at 7am I didn't immediately jump out of bed and pull my trainers on! Instead I woke up, realised my legs were still sore and decided to snooze for a further 30 minutes. As I kicked myself for missing out on a run I have finally decided that runs first thing in the morning will never happen so I'm no longer going to even try and plan them or rely on them I should say. I actually still feel guilty for not going, 12 hours and counting later!
Anyway I did talk a walk up to the surgery for my appointment and got my second Rabies shot along with my Tetanus/Diphtheria/Polio booster. The last time I got this was in 1995 when I was 14. Unfortunately there was no sugar cube this time just a triple vaccine! I remember at school a lot of people saying they felt rubbish after, that their arm hurt and they needed to go home but I thought this was just to skip school and wasn't actually true until today! The actual jags were fine, not very painful just a burning sensation but as I paid for the experience and walked to the bus stop I started to feel decidedly nauseous.
Luckily a very busy day at work led to it being home time before I knew it, phew! The good news is I have 3 weeks until I do it again :)

Picking up from where I left off

I finally got a run in yesterday woop woop. It wasn't before work as planned rather optimistically by me, a mix of staying up to watch Phil win the Masters and the fact it was Monday morning led to me packing my bag with my gear rather than putting it on at 6.30am. With the sun shining I strolled into work, 2.17 miles according to mapmyrun, in a record 35 minutes. It dawned on me that if I walk to and from work on a daily basis I will clock up over 20 miles a week, this has taken me 6 years of working at KB to work this out! I'm glad I have as it is certainly good training for the trek and free! My plan of learning Mandarin easily hasn't quite gone to plan mostly because the buses down out the delicate pronunciation which I will need to perfect as much as possible to avoid potentially offending the locals. Worryingly there are several phrases which have varying meanings governed by the tone of your voice whilst saying them. Hmmm must find a quieter route to avoid tinnitus.
Back to the point of my post.. after a days work I waited until most people had left then hurried to the ladies and changed into my running tights and top. Armed with my new gadget for holding TuPod and disguised with sunglasses and a cap I set off down the hill from work and soon got into a stride. That was until I got a stitch and had to walk for a minute until it has subsided. Unfortunately given that I work at the University rather a lot of people from work walk the same route and I saw two people from my lab on my way. Luckily I was able to divert briefly from my intended route and put in a sudden burst of speed to get away from they asap! Nothing like vanity to suddenly make you work a bit harder. 25 minutes later I dragged myself up the stairs and flopped onto the sofa. I felt great! I fully intended on noting this last night on said blog but we ended up having a power cut for 3 hours so that was that, luckily I had just had a shower and dried my hair- phew!
My legs were absolutely fine today so walked into work once again to keep them loose then walked home clocking up another 4.5 miles. Excellent stuff, now I can tuck into a Blue Riband without the guilt :)
Off to pack my bag for another run tomorrow after work, lets hope it materialises!

Ooops

No run under my belt today. I did get my gear on including new ipod holder then got convinced by David to go on a tour of Edinburgh instead. He is taking part in a challenge himself although one of a very different nature! His task for the year is to visit every McDonalds branch in Scotland. There are 90 or so in total so we have ticked off three in Edinburgh today. Have to say I'm not sure how many I will chum him to but if I can swizzle a weekend away out of some of them then I'm game! You can read about the McChallenge here (once I get the link)
Now I am settling down to watch the final round of the Masters, go Lee!!
New plan is to go for a run before work tomorrow...we'll see!

11 weeks today

I will be in a bus heading towards the start of the trek and our adventures in China will be underway. Lynsey and I are arriving a day earlier than everybody else as we arranged our own flight to Beijing to enable us to fly back from Hong Kong to Edinburgh. We are flying with Air France and land early on Friday evening leaving us around 24 hours to explore Beijing before heading back to the airport to meet our fellow trekkers. The wonder of modern technology that is facebook has allowed us to interact with some of our fellow trekkers already so at least the ice will be partly broken. I hope my status updates haven't alarmed them too much!
Now that I am in training mode for the 10k my drinking days are over till early May. The advantages of this have surprised me, so much so that I was up at 8am this morning (unheard of for a regular Saturday) and had two really productive hours before meeting Lynsey for a coffee. We had our usual gossip and catch up then chewed over some ideas for China and decided what needed to be done when. The jist is we need to book accommodation for our first night in Beijing then we can sort out our visas then decide when and where we are going to go after the trek ends. We do have a vague plan and definitely want to go to Shanghai, Xian and River Li area before making our way to Hong Kong for our flight home.
Hopefully the visas won't be too tricky as we can visit the Chinese Consulate in Edinburgh. As aliens to China we need to get a tourist visa which we can apply for after the 19th April (three months before we are due to fly home) I need to get some passport pictures done and also fill out the potentially tricky form before we can do this. I will actually look quite different in these photos compared to my passport photo (naturally I detest this picture, I have browny long hair) but hopefully I will pass for the same person!
After coffee we walked along to Tiso armed with my Christmas vouchers and money from my folks to check out some gear for the trip. After some research in the flat I decided upon a particular rucksack and happily found one that fitted my requirements perfectly on the Tiso website and even better when I found it in the shop it had £20 off! One purchase down quite a few to go including suitable footwear, a rather important purchase! After trying on a couple of trainer type shoes I think I know what I want but since my vouchers had been gobbled up I decided I could buy some elsewhere for cheaper. As I said to the assistant I can't imagine myself becoming a hiking fanatic so I'd rather have something lightweight and preferably nice to look at!
Tomorrow I am determined to go out for a run so will have a very early night tonight. Odd behaviour for a Saturday but necessary. I bought a new armband holder for my ipod today so at least I have a new accessory to try out, a good incentive for the morning! 3 weeks until the 10k and I can't even run 3ks...hope it's not too little too late!

In an effort

To put more effort into my blog I am attempting to do dailyish updates. One brief look at a friend's blog convinced me I could definitely be doing better at this and as the saying goes the more you put in the more you get out. I may have just made that up though!
Last night I received an email from Charity Challenge with the invoice for the trek which was very exciting and it started to dawn on me that I am actually going to China in 3 months time. Lynsey and I decided at the very beginning that we would self fund the trip which I am really happy about as it means all of the money we raise through sponsorship and events go directly to our chosen charity. It also means that nobody is contributing any money towards our "holiday" rather than donating to the charity. Perhaps I should consider contributing before the end of the month so I can actually leave on that jet plane...
I feel slightly better today after the immunisations yesterday. My left arm which was attacked with Hep A and Typhoid combo is far worse than my right arm which was attacked with Rabies although both are quite swollen. The positive thing is that the Rabies arm isn't actually sore so that bodes well for doses two and three in the coming weeks. I spent most of my day at work looking like a complete idiot as I prised open doors with my feet and kicked then shut to avoid using my arms as much as possible. Due to Health and Safety regulations I cannot pipette by mouth so I had to use my arms for that, a bit unfortunate really.
I also put Easy Learning Mandarin onto my ipod in an effort to learn some key phrases for the trip. I soon found out that Mandarin will never be easy to learn and is actually extremely complex! Not only is there the script to deal with, there are several ways of pronouncing the same words which all have different meanings depending on how you say them and also lots of ups and downs involved in the pronunciation. I am hoping that on my many walks into and home from work this will gradually be drummed into my head and stay there!
Tomorrow I am meeting Lynsey for a China chat, it will only be 11 weeks until the trek tomorrow. In fact it is 11 weeks today until we fly to Beijing, I can hardly believe it.

Eeeks it's April

Wow quick month and now less than 3 until the trek, even scarier 3 weeks till the 10k! My training has not been great, injuries and work seem to get in the way but I am determined to do it even if it takes me 2 hours on the day!

I'm starting to get a bit freaked about actually trekking now so much so that I am now walking into work to get my training at least started. I guess planning trips and touristy things are slightly more interesting than actually walking! Must start putting in the hours now though or else I'll be lagging behind.

Today I full intended running home from work but didn't bank on feeling quite so unwell from some simple jags I got this morning! My appointment to discuss immunisations with the nurse led to two dead arms and a paler than pale face all day! At least they are underway though and not as many as I thought. Today I got Hep A and Typhoid combo (sounds like something in KFC) and first shot of three for Rabies. Next week I go back for Polio,Tetanus and Diptheria booster and then second Rabies shot then in 2 weeks final Rabies shot. I think I'll be done then! Technically Rabies was not essential but I thought better safe than sorry considering how deadly it is. It's a bit odd knowing that I have exposed myself to it on purpose but better that it happens in a surgery rather than rural China! The immune system is a fascinating thing.

Tomorrow I am looking forward to getting my training back on track, I have left my gear at work in anticipation!