We need to talk about....

Well, not much really.

I just had a normal week, but then these are the times that glue all the other stuff together. Though I imagine it is hard to believe that my life isn't 24/7 excitement all the time.

I am pleased on 2 counts.

1st I have had some ideas of how to take my work forward, maybe get some pilot data to go in a grant application.

2nd I feel like I have got back into training again.

I ran 30 minutes on Monday despite being so tired I could barely lift my feet .......

These might be the reason for that :-D

Then spin on Tues and Weds, a 5 mile run on Thurs, rest Friday, 10 mile run and a swim on Saturday and 5 mile run and 60 minute turbo on Sunday.

It's not massive and I have had much bigger weeks but you know I do have to start somewhere. There are some numbers in some boxes that make it that much more likely I will be running VLM, and I'm pleased about this :)

I also marshalled yesterday at the Dagenham Sport Relief mile, I like doing this, it's a really nice atmosphere and people are generally really cheery. Not all though, but I wont go there. Despite it being summer on saturday we were back to winter on Sunday and because I ran there I had to ring Mr H to bring me emergency quilted clothing, hat and scarf! By rights the grand prix should have been over, it wasn't really my fault there had been a monsoon was it!!!!

Anyway, there I am freezing my bits off before he turned up :)

So, no groundbreaking news, but a satisfying blog nonetheless.

Next Sunday sees me attempting a duathlon. That should be fun shouldn't it (I am quite excited, I havent been out on my bike for sooooo long it is not funny)

(my paper has been in for 9 weeks today, seriously it isn't that long, please hurry up and dont say no!)

Uh, uh oh.........

There's trouble in America :)

Last Wednesday I flew to Philadelphia. It was for a conference to the Philadelphia Childrens Hospital there, which must be I guess the biggest centre for research into hyperinsulinism and neonatal diabetes in the world.

My boss is a consultant endocrinologist at Great Ormond street and a pretty big expert on the above conditions so he was on the faculty for this. I work on one aspect of HI, which is mutations in a fatty acid oxidation gene that lead to it. It ticks my boxes because I am particularly interested in metabolism and I love mitochondria. I quite like kids too :-D

Anyway, my abstract got chosen for an oral presentation so I was pretty busy leading up to it as to me it is still a big deal to talk at a conference in front of my peers and those so much more knowledgeable than me!

That's why there ain't a lot of running here. Sometimes life does indeed take over and though I love running, my career is something I have spent a long time getting and I love it. Running is something to keep me out of trouble.

Anyway as expected the conference was great. It was so focused that I couldn't not get it and there is something pretty amazing about listening to people who are passionate about what they do speak. I do hope that people get that from me too. 

I did though get some sightseeing time and I did the expected running up the steps at the Philadelphia museum of art :) I also went to the national constitution centre for a Bruce Springsteen exhibition which was fab, we then went to the 'play' about the setting up of the constitution, which was quite uh, American shall we say ;)

St Patrick's day was interesting. Lots of people in green t shirts being drunk really. I guess that's the same in many cities.

 The Van Gogh exhibition was a bit too busy for me. I preferred a lot of the other art in the museum, I liked the Canalettos (no, you are thinking of vienetta, that's an ice cream) and the gory ones. I loved the exhibition of armour and guns and swords, because the period when those things were about does fascinate me, when people fought wars close up. But still most of them didn't really know what they were fighting for and the ones in the armour were the people directing it, not the ones in the mud and blood :(

Food was ok, we kept over ordering but I reckon we would have worked it out in the end!

And I did get a run!!!! I went to a sports shop near our hotel where a run was advertised to go on Saturday morning. Well there was no one there so I mooched about a bit and then thought 'sod it' and went to leave. A girl in running gear walked up and asked if I was there for the run. Yes I said I was and she said good maybe we could go on our own.....we agreed on 4 miles cos Mr H was waiting for me and she took me down to university city and back, which was brilliant because I wouldn't have had a clue where to run really. And she never stopped talking so I didn't have to say a word. Cool!

All in all a really good trip. Not a bad flight home. Though 7 hours with a rugby player on your lap should have felt better than that (Yeah, yeah, he had his seat tipped right back and he was twice the size of Mr H so we left him to it)

Now I need to get back to decent training again and lose the America weight before I turn into a biffer :-D

Now, you're at the wheel.......

Tell me how, how does it feel?.......

Hmmmm, I don't know that I feel in control of much at the moment. But times get like this don't they, and you muddle through and it all gets done, or it doesn't.

In not very long at all you will find it didn't matter as much as you thought it did.

Training - well still enjoying bimbling about. Joined the pool, and am enjoying swimming. Bought a new cossie, it's fab to swim in but a real bastard to get on and off!

Maybe I am carrying more timber. P'raps it's not teasing ;-D

I am running  a bit and today did 10 miles. I am pleased with that, I bought a polar hrm and I love it. I havent set zones or any of that malarkey yet I just ran trying to stay below 150, which actually is fine until yu stop thinking about what you are doing and then you speed up and end at 175 before you even notice.

I coughed and it went to 208. I stopped and checked my airway, breathing and circulation. I was still alive. I was quite pleased.

Anway, I shall spend some time a) working out how to set appropriate zones,and b) learning to run to them. I have been needing to do this for ages but am easily distracted.

The actual strap is much better than the garmin one too. It doesn't look like someone tied to cut me in half with a butter knife ;D

Work - pretty bloody busy. Conference next week and in the meantime everything I know how to do has been something that someone else needed to learn. Also on Wednesday I and a colleague had to go to a school to participate in a careers fair. It was fine and quite interesting but having someone come up to you with the question 'what career can I have in science' and then waiting for you to tell them exactly that is quite hard. Also the question I learned to dread was 'I'm doing physics, where will that take me?' partly because I have no real idea and secondly because I wanted to say 'well you could be a nerdy geek like those guys in the Big Bang Theory' which might not have gone down so well with the serious fee paying parents.

Which reminds me, LU please get some toilets fixed up at Stratford, I so nearly exploded on my way home from Clapham Junction that night.

I learned this week a bit about the drug Heminevrin. I know what it smells like because its one of those thing you dont forget, I also learned what the term status epilepticus means. I'm suprised I didn't already know these things but for reasons I dont know this is what my mind wants to know.

That was entirely apropos of nothing.

I deactivated my FB account this week. I don't need 200 people telling me to look at the Kony 2012 video. If that makes me sound like a grumpy cow, good, cos that is what I am.

Was it the right decision then?

Maybe it was.

Thames Path 100 miler abandoned at about 24 hours.....bad weather conditions turning up just when the runners still out are at their lowest physical point. Tired, cold and struggling with nutrition.

Now I dont think I would have finished before this. How would I feel if I was still running ? Devastated or just relieved? A mixture of both maybe :-/

Thats academic though since I didn't make the start line and I think all the people who did are amazing. I have already seen some great times posted even though officially I'm not looking.

Back to me though. I struggled to run 3 miles today, I appear to have tweaked my knee somehow. It's never a brilliant knee but I think a week of squats and jumping jacks have pissed it off somewhat, so I will lay off them a bit. I have however swum 3 times in the last 4 days. And that would explain why my left shoulder is sore.....well that and flinging cans of soup about. Since its the site of an old fracture I'm going to assume that it will just always be a bit stiff until it realises that now its spring the swimming is here to stay for a bit.

Does everybody look at bits of their body like they are not really a part of you? Especially when you dont think they are doing what you think they should?* I do know that when I am running at my best one of the things I do is take a great deal of pleasure in how everything is working and the rythym that I feel in that.

Yup, I'm a bit of a wierdo. Weirdo. Whatever.

I had toyed with the idea of running 13 this morning, after all I do still have London. But tbh running at parkrun yesterday I knew that my knee wasn't having it and I am so over running in pain, unless it's for a good cause. I might even defer London, the thought of doing a mara right now leaves me quite cold. I would however like to do some speedwork but that does depend on the self diagnosis of my knee being correct. Mind you if I dont do London I will spend loads of time explaining why I havent so maybe I should just man up and do it :-D

I did enjoy tailrunning at parkrun yesterday, felt a bit awkward when I had to ask someone who started walking after 200m if they were in the parkrun or not, I wasn't being funny I just needed to check I didn't overtake anyone. Very much enjoyed encouraging the last runner to run in. She said herself that the reason she kept stopping was psychological rather than physical so the fact she ran more than she has done before made me smiley.

Did you watch the horizon programme on Tuesday? I watched it having recorded it and read lots and lots of comments on various forums. Many comments I read were looking at the programme in terms of what they do, ie run marathons and the like.

And so it was 'oh yeah right, I can get fit just by 3 mins exercise a week, I'll just bin my training and eat cake for the rest of the week'

NO you bloody moron, this is the minimum amount of really really high intensity exercise necessary to maintain health as measured by certain parameters. That part of the programme was a really small bit of it and the conclusions were........drum roll....................................really long drum roll..................................................

We are all different and we all need to do different amounts and types of exercise to maintain/improve OUR fitness. There is no one size fits all

But if you are only going to do 3 minutes a week then make sure its bloody hard :-D and that you have a car big enough to carry that bike around in.

Bit of pointless information, I have met and spoken to 2 of the people who were on that programme :) that made me happy.

Right I think I have banged on enough for now, I just need to say something before I go........

HAPPY BIRTHDAY @sarahlouisetayl for tomorrow, I am sure you will agree that is much better than getting a card that turns up on time ;-D

Today.....

I should have been running the Thames Path 100. I feel a bit meh, that I'm not, whilst still knowing it was the right decision. Yesterday I got V tickets. Every year I say I will never go again, and then they announce the line up and I have to. I can't not go and see the Stone Roses. I booked the day with Shed Seven on first though :-D I'm not camping. Aged 41 and a half I gave up festival camping for good and fled the Isle of Wight. Even Bruce Springsteen there this year could not persuade me to return. Probably cos I have tickets to see him in Hyde Park. Why would someone who hates crowds as much as me spend time and money on flinging themselves right into them? A) love live music B) beer makes it possible C) I can have a massive strop and be perfectly justified. Today's revised schedule is a run up to parkrun to back mark. Quick visit to m&s. Quick swim. Then work on a presentation that I will be giving in 2 weeks in AMERICA. The fact that I will be presenting to the worlds experts in my current field isn't scaring the crap out of me at all. Oh no. :-/ I expect that I will have to do that whole imagine the audience naked thing. I've done it before and it's not that nice actually. Unless its an audience of supermodels and athletes I would rather not ta! I guess I could invite Mr H ;-D