OK, so I’ll come out with it. I am entered in two sporting competitions this year. September I have the Schiniathlon , I have entered the sprint which is 750m swim followed by 20km bike and 5km run. I am fine with the bike part - as those who know me might imagine, especially as it has been changed from the May event to a completely flat course - woo hoo!
Anyway, I have many dumb reasons for being rubbish at training and one of those is the heat. This reason was totally blown out of the water today as I was finishing what should have been a 5km run and I stopped half a k before the end. I was sweating buckets and my head was pounding. A woman just ran past me without a drop of sweat on her!!
I am also entered into the Athens Marathon - I thought I should before I go back to the UK, y’know, while I am here. Pfhhhh!
So, I need motivation, so where do I turn, the Internet. I read a lot of stuff on the net and a lot of it is people’s personal accounts of the cool stuff they do. I read about someone’s round the world on a bike trip and I want to travel round the world on a bike - as you do. So I have so far found motivation on Megan’s Blog and subsequently Sonia’s Blog. Thanks guys! I have started to record my training exploits on Daily Mile which is a US site and apart from the fact that I have to put my location in as somewhere in the US (I chose Athens, Georgia). Its a really easy way to record your training and read about how other people are doing.
The other place I have found (thanks Megan) is Yoga Journal. It has some great video clips of Yoga sequences. I have set myself up with links to 3 of the Jason Crandell ones. I will start tomorrow with his morning sequence. I feel quite happy to take on these Yoga sessions as I did a bit while I was back in the UK over the Winter and it all looks fairly familar.
So my training will now consist of some running - up to 30km - I have measure out a route using Google Earth (if I ever manage to run further than 5km). I have also measured out 750m swim route - I haven’t tried it out yet (Doesn’t bode well). Cycling should take care of itself and I will do some Yoga. Wish me luck, I think I might need it…
So I got my news letter from Bravissimo and it says there’s been news about people wearing ill fitting bras and it permanently
damaging boobs. So I checked out the BBC News website, as you do, and found a few articles about it. More recently this one: ‘Wrong Bras’ can Damage Breasts. This from December 2007 looks like a ‘Tomorrow’s World’ type of answer: ‘Intelligent Bra’ Battles Bounce. And this from January 2006 looks scary Jogging your way to saggy breasts. Typical Media Hype…
The best bra to buy for sport is the Shock Absorber level 4 (I have 5 of them) I have been buying my bras from Bravissimo for a good few years now and they have an excellent service and sell clothing as well as swimwear and underwear for the big-boobed woman. I even manged to buy a triangle bikini which fits and doesn’t let anything fall out while I am swimming. I have also bought a few things at Figleaves.com, who sell bras and swimwear for the bigger boob as well as the usual sizes.
Sussex Woman’s Big Bra cost campaign
My advice is get your bra size checked out properly and always wear a sports bra when doing sport, particularly running!!
I don’t actually believe in Global warming. I notice lately how they are calling it ‘climate change’ which gives a whole other slant on things. The climate is changing, it has been changing since the earth was created (another story). My belief is that we are too small and puny to make much of an effect, and even if we are having an effect, we are only killing ourselves and not the planet.
I do however believe in saving resources and keeping our world a beautiful place to live. Here in Greece, I walk most paces in town as I live close to the shops. The weekly market sells all local produce, so it hasn’t travelled very far to reach me and consequently lasts much longer. I have reusable shopping bags. I am sure there are some other eco-friendly things I do, I’ll get to them later…
I have joined Athens Freecycle - Freecycle is a great organisation, which puts people who need stuff in touch with people who have stuff they don’t need. I have joined the Athens one, so that when we move back to the UK, any excess stuff can be donated. I have also joined one in Kent, so if we need anything when we get back, we can have a look. What goes around comes around.
Among my many millions of plans for when we move back to the UK is to get a vegetable box again. I got one for a while when we lived in Neasden before we moved to Greece. It was really interesting and great fun. I will probably use Abel and Cole as they deliver to my parents house - pretty amazingly - and I like the look of them.
Since cruising around the Internet on this topic I also found Nigel’s Eco Store which looks like a great site to buy may eco-friendly products ( I haven’t tried it yet and probably won’t until we get back to the UK). The site also has a wealth of information and I surfed for ages.
Tags: eco-friendly, green, resources, vegetable box
I get Athens News every week, and lately they’ve had a section on birds (which I find interesting and I always send it on to my Dad). This week it is about the Eleonora’s Falcon which is one we see in our home mountains of Pendeli. They are just starting to lay eggs now, having moved out to the Aegean islands, from the mainland.
There are 4,000 pairs of these falcon’s in Greece, 75% of the world’s poulation.
Eleonora? She was princess Eleaonora of Arborea, who, on her native island of Sardinia, drafted a law to protect falcon nests back in the 14th Century.
ASUS EEE PC 901
One of the things I am promising to buy when I go back to the UK is a new laptop.
I have my eye on the ASUS EEE PC 901. It’s very little.
The main feature is it has a solid state hard drive which makes it drop proof.
It comes with Linux too, which I have been wanted to try for ever.
It has a 20GB hard drive, 1 GB RAM (upgradeable to 2GB) 802.11n WiFi, bluetooth and a webcam. It only weighs 1.1kg and it measures 226mm x 175mm x 23mm
The only problems I can see are:
- it doesn’t seem to have any kind of optical drive (I would really like a DVD-RW) Maybe one can be fitted or plugged in via USB.
- Linux means it could be problematic to run MS Office which I will most certainly need.
The second problem could be overcome by getting Crossover for Linux from Codeweavers
Now I just have to wait and hope that by the time I get around to buying it they do it in pink (like they did the previous one).
You can get one (or just peruse the options) from Saverstore or PurelyGadgets.co.uk
Tags: ASUS, laptop, linux, microsoft, solid state hard drive
Cockney Boy - Fantastic! I think it might be filmed in Walthamstow market, reminds me of home - ahhh.
Enjoy.
It is my plan that when we go back to the UK, I will be trying to be as frugal as possible. I have found a website which I have actually been reading for ages. It shows you all the best ways to save money, but as it is UK based I haven’t really been able to take advantage of it. The forum is particularly interesting.
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/ - Don’t forget to sign up for the weekly email.
This is the first entry on my new blog. I am very excited.
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Tags: blog