I have seriously neglected this blog but life has been hectic.

Okay, so running wise I did a very poor job over Christmas and really had to start building myself up again but now I can just about comfortably run 10km in about 1:15:00 - not the best time but I'm working on that. I have also entered the Baker Hughes 10km race in Aberdeen and am raising money for Alzeheimer's Scotland, if you are interested in sponsoring me, just go here. I've also been convinced into doing the 10km in Newham (the Great Newham Run) in July and taking part in a Colour Me Rad event in Aberdeen in early June.

Also, finally got around to investing in a proper sports bra which is magnificent and got some cute new running gear.

On the hair side of things I can now stretch to 9 days without doing a wash (yes, still no-poo). Last wash I did was last Tuesday and my hair felt BEAUTIFUL, I'll be washing it tonight as I've just been out for a quick 5km run.

I cancelled My Little Box as I was disappointed with the January one and thought it was too expensive for something I only really half-like.

Will be making my second trip in three weeks to London next week for some follow up unterviews for post-uni life. Wish me luck!

This week I ran my 4th parkrun in Aberdeen, 6th in total. If you don't know, parkrun is a free 5km weekly timed run which takes place in towns and cities in several countries every Saturday morning, normally starting between 9 and 9:30am. It's completely run by volunteers and is a fun, free way of getting that bit of exercise in.


It was my housemate who first persuaded me to go. I had taken up running over the summer and she convinced me that it didn't matter how slow I was as some people walk it, I would have nothing to worry about. And I didn't. I couldn't quite believe that I wasn't right at the back of the pack that first week.


Since then, I've convinced both my boyfriend and brother to run it with me in different towns. I love it, I love the feeling of finishing it, getting my results sent to me and racking up those runs. I'll get that 50 runs shirt one day!!


I've been consistently hitting the around a half an hour mark but haven't been able to beat my personal best of 29:31. I did, however, manage to run 10km earlier in the week so this weeks result of 29:51 didn't dampen my spirits too much.

Also, my barcode tags arrived this morning. This means I won't have to try and remember my paper barcode each week as it will be attached to my keys. They look great with the parkrun logo and ICE number printed on them.


If you want to find out more about parkrun or where there's one near you, just click here.

 

Hi all! Last week it was my birthday and my lovely friends and family gifted me some awesome presents.

I went down London way to visit my boyfriend and he gave me a Nike FuelBand. Yeah, I didn't know what they were either. It is a band which measures "Fuel Points", hours won, calories, steps and handily is also a watch since I managed to leave my one at his place.

Fuel Points are gained by being active and you have to reach a certain goal to get in the green, I think the standard goal is 2000 points which is an achievable goal if you don't sit around all day. Hours won is when you've been active for a consecutive five minutes in an hour. You can choose to have it flash prompts at you to get you moving but I turned that off. I love how discreet it is, it looks just like those rubber campaign bands at a glance and it's not obvious what it is until you press the button.

You can also measure and record sessions, mine have for the most part been running, and those stats are recorded. What I love the most are the achievements you can earn, A compared them to Xbox achievements, and they all add up on your Nike profile.


Oh! And you can connect it to your phone via bluetooth be it Apple or Android!


The list goes on!


I love the little celebrations it performs when you reach your goal, and it wished me a happy birthday on the morning of my birthday which was both lovely and creepy at the same time.


My amazing housemates clubbed together and got me a running fleece from the brand new parkrun clothing range. It's an Adidas fleece with the parkrun logo printed on. It's so lightweight and warm at the same time.

My sister and brother got me a cute handmade makeup bag which I had lined up on my Pinterest wishlist, some little owl earrings and a gorgeous leaf necklace,

My parents drove me over to Dundee to running shop Run4It. They get you to roll up your trousers to have a look at your feet and then put you on a treadmill first bare foot then with different shoes on to see which trainers are best for you.

The lovely sales guy matched me up with my new babies and I can definitely feel a difference when I run in them. I had no idea my feet fell so much inwards when I ran!

They also very kindly provided me with a new camera bag even though I only asked for one or the other (running shoes or bag) so I was a very happy girl.

(Un)fortunately my sister's birthday is only five days after mine so a lot of birthday cake was around at home and as delicious as it was, I started to be sick of the sight of it, as probably was mum.

But no, a very pleasing birthday haul, got to keep this running thing going now!

Anna xx

 

I am a lover of all things bad for me and most of those things fall into the food category. The problem with this is that am nowhere near as active as I used to be. In high school I did everything from tennis to trampolining, netball to gymnastics and took part in all sports days. It surprised me when my friends couldn't keep up with a basic run around the track and I was one of the few who didn't dread the loathed bleep test.

I got older and started dropping my sports, partly because I couldn't be bothered, partly because I had less time. Part-time jobs took their place and university a lot of my time. But universities have sports teams and societies. Yeah, they do. I, however, needed a job to supplement my student loan and would normally be working in the evenings while I had classes in the day time.

Earlier this year I decided something needed to change.

I bought myself some relatively fancy running clothes, the motivation to use them being not wanting to waste my precious money, and some trainers and decided to get running.

I am still quite new to the game but I'm trying. I want to be fitter, healthier and happier. Welcome to my blog.