Donations still continue to trickle in!  THANKYOU KINDLY PEOPLE! :D
Id still appreciate everyone sharing my blog / facebook page to help spread the word.....
The 1/2 Marathon is looming so only a couple of weeks to get your predicted finishing time in for the "Guess the Finishing Time" Competition! so come along people.... ;o)
I have finally heard from the Guinness book of world records about the time required to break the record for the Fastest Half Marathon dressed as a nurse!  2hours!  Im in with a chance!  I need to be able to find some "independent Witnesses" for the day though to sign a statement that I did indeed run the race!  So if you know anyone from a running club or such like who may be interested in helping me, please let me know :o)
And if this is not enough to be getting on with.....I am cycling in Nuneaton Ropewalk on Saturday 3rd March!  PHEW!!!

Starting to up the anti now.....races are looming! ARGH!

Monday....Day of rest!

Tuesday
Long Run - 18 miles in 2hrs 52.  Pace 9.30 mins/mile which I guess is not too bad over this distance but nowhere near a 4 hour marathon!  But I felt much better than last week. Felt good up until about mile 14 then got very tired and my pace per mile slowed drastically!  But I guess the only way to solve this is continued long runs!  Great! lol!

On Saturday March 3rd we will be descending on the Nuneaton Ropewalk along with Gerard, Turbo Trainer, Monty Bear and some lovely volunteer tin shakers.  So while I get busy cycling and burning LBS.....it would be great if you guys could shed some £'s!! haha!
It would be great to see you there so please come along and say helllloooooo :o)
We will have entry forms so if you make a donation please dont forget to have a guess at my Half Marathon / Full marathon finishing time!  Who knows, you could be a winner! :D

Tuesday:
Cycled to work!  Went the direct way on the way there and felt pretty darn good and made good time :)  On the way home I did the slightly longer route and although a bit slower it was against the wind....Ooooof!
Total of 21 miles done today.
Wednesday:
Spinning! Another fast paced interval session working on endurance to start with as if you were climbing a hill then moving onto sprints.  Hard work!
Thursday:
Long Run! 15 miles in 2hrs 23 mins giving an average pace of 9:28 mins/mile.  I have to say I was very dissapointed with the run.  Its the slowest I have run for a good while and although I cant be running full throttle on every run I did want my "easy" runs to be around the 9:10 min/mile mark.  And it felt HARD!!!  Really struggled today, no endorphin high and I was a misery guts when I finished!  Plus I dont mind admitting the thought of running the marathon after this performance has really scared the shit out of me! :o(  I persevered with the Ice Bath and froze my sorry ass off! Then massaged my legs.  I have to say that this is definitely helping the recovery process so I shall reluctantly continue with the ffffffrrrrrrreeeeeeezin water!  Oh yes, I am having my SIS Recovery shakes too that I got left over from the bike challenge last year.  Its all working well.  Shame my legs arent! lol
Saturday:
5 hours cycling on the turbo trainer in the shopping centre!  I did try and mix it up a bit by standing / sitting / high / low resistance......last hour was hard going both physically and mentally.  Its definately easier when you cycle for real!  At least the scenery takes your mind off it a bit!  Numb Bum saturday eve!
Sunday:
Hill Repeats...........OOOOOOOF!!!  That kinda sums it up!  Did just over 1.5 mile to warm up then did six X hill repeats approx 1.3 min up with a 2 min recovery jog back down.  Worked really hard and thought I was gonna hurl after number 6!  Intervals ranged from 8.06 mins/mile to 8.17mins per mile.  Not bad up quite a steep hill :)

If im gonna sum the week up - Id say slightly below par.  Felt quite tired.

KERRRCHING!!!!
A good week on the fundraising front!  We raised a fantastic amount from the Rugby Clock Towers Event to add to the already growing total... So once thats been added we will be up to £1422.48!!  But we dont wanna stop there!!! OHHHHH NOOOOOOOO!!!!!  So c'mon people, shed a pound for a good cause and have a guess in my GUESS THE FINISHING TIME competition ;o)
Also HORESTON METALS in Nuneaton have very generously donated £250.00 to cover the cost of a Bike Bag to transport frisky Gerard (Butler haha!) from the UK to Geneva.  BIG THANKYOU GUYS xxx

The video has been edited and "special effected" by our very own Ian "tarantino" Kennedey and ready for public consumption!  A humerous insight into the preparation and training im putting into the Cycle Challenge.....and not forgetting the humiliation!!  Surely thats gotta be worth a £1.00 of anyones money??!!!?? lol!  I would be very grateful for you sharing the video with all your friends!

What a fantastic day we had at the Clocktowers shopping centre at Rugby.  THANKYOU to all the generous people who donated on the day and good luck to all of those who entered the Guess the Finishing TIme Competition!  We have quite a lot of guesses now :D
We had a great day and I think everyone enjoyed meeting Monty Bear.  I managed to cycle 5 hrs non-stop and it was worth the brilliant amount raised towards the charity challnege and ultimately the Nurse Appeal. :D 
The money will be paid into the JUSTGIVING Account by the end of this week so we will have a nice little boost to the total!

Well this week has been quite hilarious as we have decided to do a fundraising video to publicise the Bike Challenge.  My lovely friends Rachel and Ian along with my son spent the day taking pics, being extras and filming increasingly more random clips for the film!
First visit was the gym, moving onto the Village Cycle Centre closely followed by Coventry Myton Hospice.  After this our next port of call was Tesco's and then Steppey Lane for some hill climbing footage!  Finally we took some "domestic scenes" at home to finish off the whole debacle lol! Goodness knows what it will end up like as it is in the hands of Director and Chief Editor Mr. Kennedey! :p
Hopefully all will be complete ready for the first public event at the RUGBY CLOCKTOWERS SHOPPING CENTRE this Saturday - (18th February!)  Please come along if you are in the area and say HI!

Due to a busy week with meetings and the weather still being DIRE the training wasnt as regular as normal..... but what I did do I made COUNT!

Monday
Spinning Class - another Intense spinning session working on Endurance, high cadence and Intervals.  Its hard work but I do enjoy it!  Just dawned on me today that I can wear my SPD's as they have clip in pedals!  This will be a lot better plus I can really concentrate on my pedalling form.  HURRAH!
In the evening I had a sports massage by Nuneaton Sports Injuries which was great!  I am going to try and have one per month - more if I can afford it!  I read a great article on HOW MASSAGE HEALS SORE MUSCLES which was tweeted by COVENTRY RUNNER which tied in very nicely with this!  It is worth spending the money on a massage if you are training hard.

Wednesday
LONG RUN - I had a day off work today as I was taking my daughter to Preston for a Uni Interview so I ran in the morning this week.  And it was COLD!!!!  I could barely feel my face by the time I got home!  But I still managed to do 14 miles at an average pace of 9mins / mile.  I do admit to not feeling as strong as last weeks run and the time reflects it but it would still achieve a sub 2hr Half and I have got to accept that I cannot go at a rate of knots on every single run I do! Especially the long runs otherwise I will end up with an Injury again!  After reading about the benefits of massage and also cold baths after exercise (If its good enough for MEB its good enough for me!) I decided that after long runs I will soak in cold water and then massage my calves to help recovery.  Well you would have died laughing if you saw the performance of me getting in the cold bath!  OH MY GOD!!! It felt painful!  But after hopping back out, once the sensation returned to my legs (LOL!) they did actually feel better!  So I persevered and continued to soak them in the cold water!  Then I massaged the muscles.  Although my legs ached that day I was really suprised and a little bit impressed that the next day my legs felt pretty good actually!  So Im going to continue with this routine.....

SUNDAY
Finally!  I got to ride out with the WHITESTONE WHEELERS!! My first ever club run and i have to say I felt ridiculously excited riding out with a group of "proper" cyclists.  Was a bit nervous to start, the guys looked good with their snazzy kit, carbon bikes and tri-bars!!  But I managed to keep up over a 50 mile route at an average of 15.45 mph and felt really quite pleased!  I will definately be going again! :D  I wonder......does this mean....I am a cyclist?  Maybe the clown on a bike days are behind me.... but then again! :p