Back Again! :-)

It's a bit of a cliche but it is true... What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and having just finished my 4 week stint as a Guinea Pig, I am not dead, but I AM stronger!!  Mentally and physically stronger, more aware of the strength of my body and the limits I can push it to - this has paid off in my running and I am delighted, as this was the initial purpose of trying to lose weight and get fitter.
I have thoroughly enjoyed the last 4 weeks of training with John Allan and Pamela Halkett of PinPoint Fitness really nice people who can motivate and push you to just grind out "one more" :-)
I've made some new friends along the way and have enjoyed the banter and am grateful for their encouragement and support.  They have all done brilliantly, with lbs and inches coming off all over the place :-)

Since I last blogged about running here, we have done the Hoka Highland Fling - what a day!! The weather gods took pity on us and we had almost perfect racing weather, not too warm but not too cold, hardly any wind and enough sunshine to warm your bones.  I am totally in awe of my amazing husband who ran the full course, 53 miles from Milngavie to Tyndrum, in 12hours and 13 minutes!  He was incredible shape when he finished, lucid, smiling and injury free!
Our friends and colleagues Janette, Rab and Colin ran the relay with me and we all had fantastic runs, we finished in a combined time of 11hours and 50minutes which I am delighted with.  On a personal note, the climb up Conic hill which took me 1hr 30 in March, took me 1hr 10 on race day and I got to Rowardennan 18minutes faster than I had the last time.

On Friday  past I ran the Black Rock 5 race with a group of friends from Falkirk parkrun  it is a slightly crazy race out onto the beach and round a rock before the tide comes in!  It was freezing cold but great fun, and yes I'm looking forward to doing it again next year... It's quite a sight to see all the runners streaming across the sand.

I am really enjoying my running at the moment, this is probably due to the fact that I lost 8lbs on my Guinea Pig journey and this means there's less to move over the ground so makes it a much more pleasant experience.  I feel so much stronger too which means I don't tire so quickly and I am running faster than I have ever run before so I am hoping that this bodes well for my next race which is the Women's 10k in Glasgow this coming Sunday.  Fingers crossed that all goes well as I'd really like to get another new PB at this one, I'd like to keep the chain going.
My leg is behaving itself at the moment, it's the usual tired-sore after a run, but no new pain or swelling etc so hopefully all is calm for a while to come.
I had a wee moment of madness after the Highland Fling, and put in an entry for the Devil of the Highlands, this is the 43 mile ultra which John ran last August and is the second half of the West Highland Way from Tyndrum to Fort William... I am officially on the waiting list so here's hoping I get a place - the first 3 on the waiting list have already got places - eeek!  This will mean a bit more intense long distance training over the next few weeks, but it will set me in good stead for the Marathon in Toronto in October even if I don't get the place on the Fling.
So that's enough for now, will try to update reasonably regularly over the coming months and record what we get up to :-)