The fear well and truly sets in- 60 days to go

It's been a quiet couple of days for me after my action packed weekend. I've been hobbling around ever since Freefit on Saturday but today I'm begining to feel less of an invalid and more like I could tackle a run. Tonight will be the first time out since the weekend so I'm hoping it all goes smoothly!

I have been thinking more and more about race day though and getting myself really quite scared. I hadn't really considered it much before, and have always asumed that it wouldn't be that hard and that I was reasonably fit so would get through it. The weekend brought home to me just how un-fit I am at the moment though. If the beginners level can leave me immobile for 3 days following it, then what is a half marathon going to do to me?!

I even decided to have another look at the route map just to add to my fear...Urgh...

I get  a knot in my stomach every time I look at this, even writing this I'm hyperventilating slightly!

But I'm determined not to let it beat me, one of the main reasons I signed up to this (other than it being a great cause of course) was to challenge myself to acheive something way out of my comfort zone. I'm going to fire up the Rocky theme tune when I get home from work tonight and get psyched up and back out there! Watch this space!

Nicci
xoxo

So many activities- 63 days to go

It's been a busy weekend for me, lots of activities and lots of watching the Olympics. Can't believe how incredibly well team GB are doing, big respect! I am in so much pain today after my Freefit session that I am in total awe of all the olympics competitors! But it's the good ache I'm sure...I think I was too confident going for that run yesterday though so I am taking it easy today. Might attempt some yoga later on to stretch out the ache but even that could be beyond me!

The plan for today was to go watch the women's marathon but half way there on the bus the heavens opened and it looked like it would never stop. We just about managed the jubilee in the rain, thanks to copious amounts of champagne, but without any champagne today and only leftover pasta to keep us going we decided a change of game plan was needed. Being somewhat poor at the moment we decided that the Natural History Museum was the obvious choice, free, indoors and dinosaurs? Sold!

The photo in the top left is Edmund meeting an Edmontosaurus. I think it's actually uncanny how much they look alike! He was pretty pleased that his dinosaur namesake was in the natural history museum, personally I preferred the Tuojiangosaurus (pronounced two-wang-oh-sore-us, lol!)

We had so much fun, the natural history museum always makes me feel a bit like a kid again, especially the fairground mirrors!! It was crazy busy though so we escaped to the V&A for a bit more refinement and to eat our packed lunch in a quiet corner! I do love the V&A and the ballgown exhibition looked amazing, but we decided to save it for another weekend as I was struggling to hobble around by then!

On the way home, as we were passing Harrods anyway, it would have been a crime not to pop in and pick up some Lola's cupcakes! These are absolute heaven and I could have eaten every single one in the shop, but we restrained ourselves and got a mini cupcake each. I chose Red Velvet and Ed got Rocky Road. They. Were. Divine. I'm actually slightly in mourning for them now that we've eaten them.

My teapot is a sofa! It's ridiculously cute but I couldn't quite get the whole thing in here. There's a little cat sat on the top of it though, I'll try and get a better shot another time.

It's been such a fun weekend and last night, thanks to lovely Laura and Ben, I made it past the £200 donations mark which is amazing!! Only £150 to go until I make my target. Thank you so much to everyone who has sponsored me so far, and if your thinking about it then just do it! Every single donation is hugely appreciated and goes to a great cause. Hope you've had a wonderful weekend too!

Nicci
xoxo

P.s After writing this post we decided to head to Hyde Park to watch Usain Bolt in the 100m final. I was pretty much all ready for bed by this point but I'm glad Ed dragged me out because the atmosphere was amazing. First we watched Christine Ohuruogu get silver in the 400m final and the noise from the crowd was amazing. But it really kicked off when Bolt raced. He really is incredible! Here's a little photo of us waiting for the final, so excited!

Friday evening trip to Alexandra Place

On Friday after work I wasn't feeling up to running and it was such a nice evening that we decided to go up to Alexandra Palace for a wander about. I can't believe I've lived in London almost a year now and never actually been there before! It's about 8 minutes away on the train as well. The view over London from the palace is absolutely incredible, you can see over the whole city. Well worth going up there for. They skies look pretty ominous in this picture but the rains held off for us.

We only had a little walk around in the grounds as we both realised we were completely ravenous after about 15 minutes. We headed back and I made us pizza from scratch just like my mama makes! I even made the dough myself which I was pretty proud of. My new food processor makes everything so easy, it even grates cheese! Revolutionary. I'll definitely head back to Alexandra Palace soon though, they have pitch and put and I'm keen to find out if my crazy golf skills are transferable. Suspect I may be something of a maestro at pitch and put too!

Nicci
xoxo

Freefit- 64 days to go

Today I decided to try out something new, so I headed off to the park at 2:30pm to have a go at freefit. I was pretty apprehensive at first, it seemed like no one else was going to turn up, but one by one people appeared and everyone was so friendly that I immediately felt at ease. I decided to go for the beginners session to start off with and I'm glad I did! The intermediate session looked gruelling. We did some warm ups and then a lot of strength and conditioning work. The level was challenging but not unachievable and the session was so varied that the hour flew by. I'm really bad at doing strength work by myself as I completely lack the will power to keep going, so this was really useful for me and a great compliment to my running sessions.

Luckily we got lovely weather and as I was lying on the grass doing crunches and gazing up at the clouds I was thinking how lovely it is to be able to exercise outdoors. Then a KFC bag gracefully floated past my head which slightly killed the mood, but I still rate it over being stuck in a gym on a summers day. I'd definitely recommend Freefit to anyone, they really do cater to all abilities/fitness levels, and there's no scary military style shouting either. The team do the sessions for free to encourage the local community to get exercising which I think is a great idea. I'll definitely be going back!

 I decided that I felt so good after the freefit session that I would finish it off with a little run around the park. As soon as I started though I realised quite how tired my muscles were, I was pretty shaky! I decided to modify my plan a little and just take it really easy and treat it like a cool down run. It was so pretty in the park today, you can really feel autumn coming on. The blackberries are ripening, the conkers are growing and the leaves are turning. I always find this time of year a little bittersweet. I'm sad that summer is nearly over, but autumn is absolutely my favourite season. I love the smell of the air, the crispy crunchy leaves, the colours, getting new hats and gloves, everything. It does also feel a little like summer never really had a chance this year, but c'est la vie. Here's the map of my little sight seeing run home...

Feeling a little smug now so going to spend the rest of the day watching the olympics and feeling like a champion myself!

Nicci
xoxo

Photoshop Friday

This is my first ever attempt at photoshopping an image! I have to say it's probably not all that exciting for anyone else, and the filter was done using instagram, but I added text and drew an arrow! I'm proud of myself for even working out how to open a file, it's so complicated. This is my new summer mission, to get to grips with photoshop. It may take me well into the autumn.

This photo was taken last night while I was cycling across the park to go to band practise, there was just a little bit of blue sky poking through all of the moody clouds. You can see our apartment block in the background, we're overlooking the park on the first floor. It's not the nicest building admittedly but the view is good at least!

Here's a little photo from our band practise, yes I do have to write the notes on the keys!! We have the tiniest little practise room and the floor is completely covered in a tangled mass of cables but its better than nothing. There's also a little dog which has a vendetta against Martin (guitarist) and always barks at him. Martin HATES dogs so that's always amusing, I think the dog can sense his fear/hatred as he only seems to go for him!

I'm planning a run after work tonight and have also decided to go to an Army training session on Finsbury Park on Saturday so the next time I post it should be much more running related. That is if I survive boot camp anyway.

Nicci
xoxo

Le petit triathalon- 67 days to go

I'm not sure why this post is titled in French, it's just everything sounds that bit better in French doesn't it? Well I think so anyway.

I must really be coming down with Olympics fever as today I have been super busy! I started off with cycling to work as usual, this takes me about 30 minutes and is a great way to start the day. After work Ed came to meet me and we went swimming in the Lido again, it was a little cold for outdoor swimming though really, we were risking brain freeze! Then I finished things off with a 30 minute cycle ride home then a 45 minute run round the park. A mini triathalon- hence the post title.

Here's my map anyway, I went round and round in circles quite a bit so it's hard to make out. The time is a little out because I forgot to stop Runkeeper when I got home, it was really more like 45 mins but you get the idea still.

Also I think it was more like 7km, I can't take the credit for the last one, my pace was 1047:53 km/h! I'm not quite there yet!

Nicci

xoxo

Selfridges rooftop golf

On Monday Ed and I went to play crazy golf on the roof of selfridges. The course was designed by Bompas and Parr and all the obstacles were London landmarks made to look like cakes! It was the cutest thing ever and I thought I should share some photos so you can all appreciate it. When we arrived we were given a cherry bakewell scented score card(!) and a golden pencil and then sent off to explore. Here are a few little peeks...

The whole thing had the feel of going for afternoon tea with the mad hatter it was fabulous! Plus the views from the roof were great, unfortunately my camera wasn't good enough to do them justice.

As you can see from the score card I won again! Beginning to think I may be something of a crazy golf pro. Ed wasn't happy but he coped well, he knows I'm just too full of awesomeness for him to compete! My favourite obstacle was tower bridge as you had to go over the stepping stones in the water to finish putting, plus there was a little waterfall! There was also a loop the loop Nelson's column but I couldn't fit the whole thing into a photo it was so tall!

We had a bit of a relax in some deck chairs afterwards before returning our clubs and heading off to Hyde Park to watch the GB mens gymnastics teams narrowly miss out on a silver medal, still an excellent effort though and it was so exciting to be part of the crowd cheering them on. Officially an Olympics convert now.

Nicci

xoxo