Tag: event

Monday Motivation

Monday Motivation

by TartanJogger ♥ 3 Comments

I’m ba-ack!

I’ve had a wonderful week away: we saw Miss Saigon in London, spent a few very busy days in Disneyland Paris, travelled back to Scotland via the Eurostar and then the overnight Sleeper train services.

On Friday, my BFF, Pauline, married the wonderful Gavin, and we had a fantastic day with great food, champagne, fun and plenty of dancing.

Now, it’s back to routine, and back to shifting the pounds I’ve gained, and regaining the fitness I’ve lost!

So, to say ‘farewell’ to my holiday, here’s one of my favourite Walt Disney quotes:

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Great British Menu

Great British Menu

by TartanJogger ♥ 8 Comments

Are any of my fellow UK-based bloggers (or BBCWorldwide watchers)  fans of the Great British Menu?

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You all know how much I love to eat. I love to watch programmes about delish food too! I watch loads: Masterchef in all its forms, Hells’ Kitchen. The Great British Bake Off, Saturday Kitchen…. I could go on and on……

Well, this week is the Scottish heat of GBM, and I’m fully supporting Jacqueline O’Donnell 🙂

I LOVE her pink apron:

source: jacquelineodonnell.co.uk
source: jacquelineodonnell.co.uk

You may remember that back in January I wrote this post about The Sisters Restaurant? I had the sea bass in a lobster cream sauce:

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It was absolutely delish!

Well, Jacqueline runs The Sisters along side her sister, Pauline. I’m keeping my fingers and toes crossed for Jacqueline, and all will be revealed tonight in some areas, and tomorrow in Scotland.

What’s your favourite foodie show?

The GB Relay

The GB Relay

by TartanJogger ♥ 14 Comments

Well, @TheWelshWookie and I were hoping to run in the inaugural Rock ‘n’ Roll Liverpool half marathon next weekend. But, plans have changed, so we’ll have to pass on it this year.

So, that means that our next run will be as part of the Great British Relay 2014 on 8th June 🙂

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The aim is to break the world record for the longest continuous relay around the coast of Britain. Did someone say record attempt? We’re in!

The British coast has been split into 594 stages, and the run is done continuously, 24 hours a day, during June and July 2014.

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@TheWelshWookie and I will be running stage 138, from Duror to Strath of Appin Primary School, which is at the very north of Argyll and Bute. Our stage handover is at 18:19, and our stage is 12.5K long.

There are still a few gaps along the way, including immediately before us, so I have no idea how we’re going to get the baton!

We’re going to go for a recce on Saturday, and try to figure out how we’ll get ourselves from the finish to the car; or how we’ll get from the car (if we park it at the finish) to the starting point! I’m sure we’ll figure it out, but with no buses or trains, it’ll be a challenge 😉

We’re really looking forward to being part of such a brilliant event, and if you’re in the UK and haven’t signed up yet, visit the website  GBrelay.com

Any suggestions for how to manage the logistics? Have you signed up?

Back Indoors

Back Indoors

by TartanJogger ♥ 16 Comments

Well, my outdoor running lasted from Saturday until Monday.

The weather has driven me back inside, and onto the dreadmill!

It’s not the driving rain that’s the problem, really. It’s the really high winds that have cancelled ferry sailings across the West coast. There was a time today when I could barely walk upright!

And so, after the elation of running in the fresh air, and at a decent pace, I was back to grinding out a slow run tonight. But I got it done, and feel smug better for it now.

I’m taking a rest day tomorrow, so hopefully I can get back outside on Thursday 🙂

20140225-195658.jpgHave you managed to get outdoors today? Have you run?

Am I Cold Blooded?

Am I Cold Blooded?

by TartanJogger ♥ 21 Comments

It’s Monday evening here in Tartan Land, and it’s been one of those days today.

So, I was really ready for my three miler tonight!

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@TheWelshWookie and I headed out to the harbour just as dusk settled around us. It was beautiful. Around the end of the first mile, it started to rain, and the rain continued until the end of our run, considerately stopping to allow us to walk home without being miserable. Just at the end of my run, I accidentally soaked myself by running through a big mahoosive puddle! I felt good- the run was just what I needed!

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We pushed a little, and ran our fastest three miler in a while, at around 10.08 per mile. I’m pretty happy with that!

As usual, I came home, showered, and wrapped up in my comfies.

I have a question  I’ve been meaning to ask you all: do you often find yourself really cold after a run? What do you do about it?

I know that at this time of year, the walk home from a run can obviously cause my body temp to drop, but my home is toasty warm, I take a warm shower right away, swap into warm comfy clothes, often wrap up in a fleecy blanket and sometimes even switch on the fire. I rehydrate, and have something to eat, then have a hot drink. But – sometimes – I can be cold for a few hours after an outside run.

Does anyone else find this? What do you do to warm up again? Am I making any mistakes, or do you have any tips?

#ATWRBR2014

I’m thinking about adding a daily distance log to each blog post during March and April, to keep track of my kilometres for the Around the World Running Blog  Relay. What do you think?

Have you signed up yet?

Back Outside!

Back Outside!

by TartanJogger ♥ 25 Comments

Welcome to the weekend! What are your plans?

At the moment, @TheWelshWookie and I are chilling out, watching rugby (OK, I’m watching and blogging- gotta love multi tasking!) and drinking coffee. It’s bliss!

This morning, I ran outside for the first time in a couple of weeks. And it felt G-R-E-A-T! The dreadmill has been hammered lately. Well, I say hammered. I really mean that it has been used for some pretty slow runs while watching Winter Olympic action from Sochi. Having the various sports to watch has made my treadmill running much more tolerable than it would have been otherwise: what am I going to do when the Games finish?  😦

Today’s Hal Higdon training plan called for a 6 mile run. It’s Week 3, Day 6 already. How did that happen?

@TheWookie and I had decided last night that we’d run the Big Glen: a loop that takes us out from the north of the village along the main road for about two miles, and then follows a single track road for a mile before reaching West Loch Tarbert. It then leads back into the south of the village, and is about 5 miles long. To increase the mileage, we decided to run along the Kilberry Road, past the village golf course, before  heading back into the village.

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And it was dry outside: no rain! It’s a miracle! 😉

We decided to stick to a long, slow run pace, and so I used my Audio Fuel track to keep me on target for this. Although I start off really slowly, sometimes I can pick up the pace at around mile 3 or so, and I didn’t want to lose steam at the end! Turns out, this was a great plan. I had a fantastic run, I really enjoyed it! At the end, I could have easily tagged on an extra couple of miles. I didn’t, though: best stick to the training plan 😉

As I ran, I was excited, thinking about the forthcoming Around the World Running Blog Relay: it’s going to be a great couple of months for us runners and bloggers out there! 🙂

We’ve refuelled on some soup and home made bread; and I have the new edition of Women’s Running to enjoy!

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Have a great weekend, all. How long is your long run this weekend? How’s the weather looking?

Supporting the Around the World Running Blog Relay 2014

Supporting the Around the World Running Blog Relay 2014

by TartanJogger ♥ 18 Comments

For those of you who haven’t heard, the wonderful Kyla over at Motivation came up with a brilliant idea last year, for all of us running bloggers who have connected over the internet, from the four corners of the globe.

Runners blog relay 2014

She came up with the idea of having a running bloggers relay race, and the inaugural event takes place during March and April this year 😀

The idea is pretty simple: we run a virtual relay race! It’ll allow us to see how far we get, in terms of:

  1. GLOBAL COVERAGE where we are from will allow a map to be drawn up, detailing where in the world we’re running – hopefully it will be truly global!
  2. GLOBAL DISTANCE we commit to a distance, which will allow the total number of kilometres run to be calculated. It’ll be really good to see how far we can get….. can we log enough distance to go around the world? 😉

It’s great!

And Kyla’s decision to run it in March and April will really help with Spring training!

So, who’s in? All you need to do is fill out this simple form to register where you are and how far you’ll be running. Remember it’s from 1st March  – 30th April, so hopefully it’ll be lots of kilometres!

For those interested in an extra dimension, fellow blogger The Improbable Runner suggested that we could use the Charity Miles App to raise funds for charity. I think it’s a great idea, as an added extra!

Visit Kyla’s blog post about the challenge here.

So, what do you think? Interested? Have you registered yet? Go on, you know the challenge will be great!

Do you Run to a Routine?

Do you Run to a Routine?

by TartanJogger ♥ 26 Comments

I do. But then, I really like routine and knowing what is coming next. For those of you who like management-speak, I’m a typical Myers-Briggs ISTJ. I’ll bet you’ve worked that out by now!

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I’m not much of a weekday morning runner. I’d really like to be, I know it would set me up for the day, and I’d feel really smug! But the thought of getting up early instead of squeezing out the last 20 minutes of sleep in my cosy bed it just too difficult for me.

So, I head off to work, and think about my run, before home time comes around. Then, I head home, get changed into my running gear and get out there. If I hesitated too much, or get caught up in other things, it probably wouldn’t always happen. After I’m done, I shower, download my GPS info, and have the evening to myself, which is great.

If I’m home at the weekend, I usually have a light breakfast, then head out for my run early to mid morning, knowing that I’ll have the rest of the weekend for chores, shopping, relaxing, going for walks, coffee, etc.

Recently, I’ve been thinking about mixing things up a little.

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When it comes to race days, it usually involves an early morning start, which throws my routine. With a few halves coming up, and my first marathon looming on the horizon, I think I might benefit from changing my training, to help get used to the early rises. But, I’m struggling to make a start, and commit to a change! At the moment, I’ll probably continue to toy with the idea until after the wedding, and look to make changes then.

Have you ever changed up your running routine? How did it go? Did you stick to it, or change back?

The Invites are OUT!

The Invites are OUT!

by TartanJogger ♥ 36 Comments

****WARNING****WEDDING TALK AHEAD!****

We posted our wedding invites on Monday, which means that MOST guests will have received their invites over the past couple of days! 😀

If you are reading this, and you are a family member who has yet to receive their invite, then heed this SPOILER ALERT and stop reading NOW! 😉

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Our wedding invites were non-traditional. They were……….

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Race Bibs! Yes, we had TYVEK race bibs made up, with the date of the wedding in place of the participant race number. We also sent out safety pins, so that guests can take photos of themselves wearing their bibs, and send them to us 😉

We included ‘race instructions’ along with the invites, which included details that we’d usually find at any race event: race registration (RSVP), start line details (Church details), race photos, post race refreshments, post race entertainment, etc. 😉

We also had a QR code printed on each letter, which means that all guests have access to a specific wedding website, where there’s information about the wedding itself, accommodation, things to do in Tarbert, links, etc.

It’s so exciting!

So, what do you think of our wedding theme: Race to the Altar?

In many ways, marriage is like a race. The wedding is only the start line…. I’m having great fun, combining my love of running with my wedding planning!

The Sisters

The Sisters

by TartanJogger ♥ 9 Comments

No, not MY sisters. THE sisters!

It’s the restaurant we visited for my mum’s birthday on Saturday night.

Jacqueline and Pauline O’Donnell are the sisters behind these two Glasgow restaurants, and we visited their Glasgow Kelvingrove restaurant.

The venue is quite small, but very comfortable, and it was very busy when we arrived. The menu was amazing: all freshly prepared, locally sourced ingredients, and it was cooked so well. I’d love to make a return visit!

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To start, I had brioche topped with mushrooms and a port and red onion chutney. The portion was very generous. I then had the fish of the day, which was a fillet of sea bass in a lobster cream sauce, with some chive mash and queenie scallops. Wow. It was amazing.

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While everyone else tucked into dessert, I had a coffee, as I couldn’t fit one in!

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The service from our waitress, Kirsty, was fantastic.

I also found out that Jacqueline, who is head chef, will be one of the chefs representing Scotland on the 2014 Great British Menu, which is great! It’s the first time that a chef from Glasgow will be competing, and the first Scottish woman to compete. She will be following in the footsteps of other Scottish competitors, like Tom Kitchin, Alan Murchison and Tony Singh.

I’m looking forward to seeing how she does!

For more information, visit The Sisters Website.

Did you eat well this weekend?