Archive for July, 2008

Protecting the Site

Sunday, July 20th, 2008

I’ve decided to password protect the articles that I write specifically about Emma. These are designed for friends and family to read and not really for general consumption. I don’t have any grand ideas about the number of people who read my blog (I suspect I could count them all on the fingers of one hand!) but I thought I’d play it safe, although it doesn’t make the site look all that good.

I’ve backtracked and protected a few of the old ones and I’ll be protecting more of the new ones from now on. Anyone who wants the password can send me an e-mail and if I know you I’ll be happy to pass it on
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Protected: Walking Practice

Saturday, July 12th, 2008

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More Swimming

Friday, July 11th, 2008
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I was given the evening off on Thursday to go out with Jayne. As we’d failed to find a suitable lake to swim in all day, we headed to Sognsvann first for a quick dip. There weren’t many other people swimming but the water was lovely once we got in and worth the 40 min walk. Even better, the cabin was open and selling waffles, so we could indulge in another Norwegian tradition while waiting for the T-bane into town.

By the time we got into town, the sun seemed to have got a bit lower and a breeze had picked up. We’d hoped to have a drink outside at Aker Brygge but sadly all of the bars and restaurants there are in the shade in the evening so it was far too cold. Instead we ended up in Zahra’s Telt on the main street. Given everything was so expensive, we opted for a cocktail each, which we spun out for the rest of the evening.

Sadly, by the time we got home I was feeling a bit dodgy and I threw up a few times in the middle of the night, which left me confined to the flat for the whole of the next day. I think it was food poisoning but haven’t worked out what was to blame. Luckily no one else seemed to suffer and Jayne was heading off to Bergen that morning so didn’t need entertaining. Dave did some babysitting and is working now to make up for it! I don’t think last week’s marathon was the best preparation for recovering from food poisoning but after a day of eating normally I’m almost feeling back to normal.

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A Brush with Nature

Wednesday, July 9th, 2008

My cousin Jayne’s visiting us for a few days, before she heads up to Bergen for the fjords. This has given us another excuse to eat hotdogs and ice cream and drink beer, and more importantly meant I got to have another swim in the sea.

Today we headed out to Bygdoy on the bus and ended up at Huk, where there’s a lovely big grassy area, a few small sandy beaches, some rocks and a couple of pontoons to swim out to. There’s also a naturist beach on the side of the headland which we took a detour to initially. I didn’t think the path looked quite how I remembered but thought we ought to be able to cut through. Sadly, after wandering around a bit we realised the fence was a bit high, so the biology lesson had to end there.

The water was pretty warm for this time of year, the sun was bright and there were enough interesting things buried in the sand to keep Emma happy for a while. In fact, there was quite a lot of pumice stone about, which came as a surprise to me as I thought it was usually found around volcanoes, but my geology’s pretty basic.

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Unionsmarathon

Saturday, July 5th, 2008
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Today was the day of the marathon I have been training for, on an off, since about January (although it wasn’t until recently I actually picked the Unionsmarathon). I finished in a time of 4 hours 29 minutes and 59 seconds, according to my watch, so just attained my “stretch goal” of breaking 4 and a half hours, although I fear the finish official might not have been as prompt as me in stopping his watch. I was second lady, securing me 500 kronor and a nice blue technical t-shirt that made a nice thank you gift to Dave for all his supporting.

The marathon was small and friendly - there were probably more people manning drinks points than there were actually running it - but pretty tough. I wore Dave’s Garmin watch round and it calculated the climb to be over 1000m, with a lot of that coming on very hot gravel tracks in the second half of the course.

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Marathon Tomorrow! Eeeek!

Friday, July 4th, 2008

It’s my marathon tomorrow (the Unionsmarathon) and currently the temperature here, in the shade, is about 27 degrees celsius. I’m a bit concerned now about how I’m going to fare. Looking through the previous years’ results, the winner has been over 3 hours every year and the times usually spread to over 5 and a half hours. The course is described as hilly and tough, and that’s by the organisers! With the biggest hill in the last 10km, I’m going to have to conserve energy early on in the race and make the most of the numerous food stops.

Don’t expect me to post a fast time - my sole aim at the moment is to finish, with my stretch goal (is that true management speak or have I made it up?) to be under 4 and a half hours. We’ll see what happens. It’s going to be a long day for Emma as well, but I’m trying to leave worrying about her to Dave.

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