Prize Draw

Have you seen the list of prizes from local businesses so far??!! If you sponsor me you could be in with a chance to win one of them!!

• £10 voucher from Mayfield Farm Bakery, Old Harlow in Essex
• £10 voucher from Manefaire, Bishops Stortford in Herts
• £10 voucher from the Churchgate Sausage Shop, Old Harlow in Essex
• Wash & Blow Dry Voucher from Jo Smith Hair Design, Sheering in Essex
• Massage Voucher from Jo Smith Hair Design, Sheering in Essex
• Spray Tan Voucher from Jo Smith Hair Design, Sheering in Essex
• £25 voucher from The Signature Spa near Little Hallingbury

Keep you eyes on the bambers green RDA facebook page & on the Prizes page (top right of the blog home page)  

Hill Run

Since the new job time has been very tight, not only for blogging but also running & training too.  Although the job is part time from lunch time until early evening, i still have college & RDA 3 mornings a week.  So when we headed to Sussex for our monthly visit to the grandparents, i decided it was the perfect opportunity to have a run along the seafront & back home to Nan's.  However what i hadn't thought about was it was the Sport Relief weekend and Brighton was holding it's runs along the seafront that sunday.  So as i wasn't going to be able to complete the distance i wanted to due to a lack of time, i decided on a hill run instead.

Anyone who has completed the London the Brighton Bike Ride will know there is a particularly challenging hill towards the end of the route & we drive this hill almost every time we visit my Grandparents.  I knew that the cylists found it tough, so i'm not sure why i thought it was a good idea!  But i completed it neverthless & the rest of the route back to nan's for an ice bath.

I'll let the pictures & graphics do the talking.  i took my camera with me, as it was a lovely day & i thought the views would be lovely from the top.

I need to get to the top of that hill!

View from half way up - slowing down to get my heart rate down from 185!!

the top! looking east.

carrying on heading towards Brighton (looking south)

Getting closer

got another little hill yet....

climbing again

downhill into town from now - Yay!

looking down into Brighton

route map and summary from my Garmin. Amazed at my average pace again! and scared by my max heart rate.

Green in the elevation - 1.5 miles in distance but 500ft up at the start!

Heart rate in red - explains why i felt my heart was going to jump through my chest at one point! The dip at 16:40 is where i reached the top and paused for a photo, i though a break was sensible given what i'd just put my heart through!

Google street view doesn't really do this hill justice ;)

An update in photos (and words actually too)

It is still very busy, and the new job is certainly taking up more time that i think i realised it would.  Any how here is a quick update.  I have been round and checked all my paper forms so far & totalled it all up together, as well as the money raised yesterday from Sheering Farmers Market here in Essex.  I raised £25.66 from selling my crafts and received £30 on my sponsor form.  So thanks you to those who supported it.  My step dad was able to get a few photos for me at the beginning of the morning.  

The grand total for fundraising and sponsorship so far is £1,048.86!  Thank you all for helping.  Of course there are still paper forms in the Studio at Grange Paddocks Leisure Centre in Bishops Stortford and one with the lovely Karen & Pat at Manefaire   also in Bishops Stortford  Tweet them @Manefaire!  

Or you can still sponsor me online.

Thank you also to the Hatfield Heath Village Magazine, Herts & Essex Observer and Mwaah Magazine for posting lovely articles for me hopefully boosting my fundraising.  I have copies of Mwaah Mag if anyone would like one!

Today if i get chance to take photos (i.e if i hurry up and finish this blog post) i will try and put the rest of the craft stuff on Ebay.  But like i say i'm tight on time - as usual - as we are headed to Brighton and i was to get a run in along the seafront up to my Nan's before lunch, but that doesn't leave me with the afternoon hopefully.

And finally a few photos i was sent by the school, of me and the other ladies during a session (this is why we have no time to take photos ourselves!).  These photos all have parental permission of the children involved.

Spot the purple Jodpuhs!

Busy Busy Busy

Big apologies for not posting sunday - to give you an idea of how busy i'm been; Sunday evening i was still seaching the internet and trying to write an essay for my science class in the car on the way home from my grandparents' and fininshed when we were about 15 minutes from home!  Typing in the car is not fun & i really hope it doesn't come to that again! That's amongst trying to bake cakes, make presents, research uni, go to various health appointments and from next week everything will be squeezed into mornings as i start a new job.

Anyway the snow & ice cleared, which meant a couple of weeks ago i managed to get out on the roads.  On my wednesday run which was scheduled for 7 miles, i set off from home to the gym for my Body Balance class.  As i said in my last full update i hadn't been well the night before, so i knew it was going to be unsure if i completed the distance.  Well once i reached Bishops Stortford i was starting to suffer.  My stomach was hurting & i decided it was probably best to head straight to the gym rather than add on the extra loops around the edge of the town which added about 1.5 miles. So in total i completed just over 5 miles, but i made it to my destination and after body balance i walked back into town and got the bus home.

That run gave me confidence that i could still make my long run on the Saturday.  You know that rule about not increasing your mileage by more than 10% each week? Hmm yes, well i decided to go for the 15 miler that was on my training plan.  I think it was probably the worst run i have ever done.  It really wasn't pleasant & it was certainly one of those runs where you question why you are putting your body through this.

This is why:

Even though the little rider wasn't up to riding last week, they, being a very smart cookie, still enjoyed seeing the pony & learning some more things about the pony.

Although my run didn't feel successful, due to a miscalculation on my drop off point i actually ran 16 miles and completed it in exactly 3 hours, which actually equates to an 11:19 minute mile!!  So despite stopping to walk for periods, having to cross roads, feeling so dizzy i couldn't see straight - the double vision didn't help there either - it was actually a reasonable pace.  I probably should have stopped after about 10 or 12 miles with a pain in my knee & hip.  The pain in my hip went as soon as i stopped and hasn't returned however the knee issues are slightly more problematic.  A couple of (expensive & painful) weeks of physio and a lot of cycling and i should be back on track.

Anyway i have now made myself late for this morning's RDA at Bambers Green! I should be walking out the door in 5 minutes & i'm not even showered or dressed yet!  But i'm sure they'll excuse my when i tell them the fundraising total is now £631.20!

Don't forget the address:

http://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/jennybridger2012

or

http://bitly.com/jenny2012     if you want the shortcut - its easier to remember :)


Have a lovely day!

Quick update

This is why i'm not a long term blogger! 10 days without an update, sorry!

Sunday i will have time to sit and type, so i can tell you about my 16 miles, the £556.20 that has now been raised and all the other minor details like why i'm having a week of non impact this week.

Building up to a Saturday long run

I chose Hal Higdon's Novice 1 Training Plan this year.  Hal Higdon is an american running writer whose training plans seemed to come well recommended on Runner World & Novice 1 is apparently the most popular of all his plans.  For me so far despite a few sets backs it has worked, but i think that makes me feel even more confident with it, in that i have been able to be flexible with it too.

So my weekly plan looks like this:

Monday - Rest (great way to start the week)
Tuesday - Short run
Wednesday - Medium run
Thursday - Short run
Friday - Rest
Saturday - Long Run
Sunday - Cross train

Ok, so i don't stick to it rigidly.....and a few more things may be added in on my rest day for example, but i think i have the right balance. Touch wood, no injuries (other than the expected blister & bruising) so far.

So being a Tuesday I was due a short run.  The short is almost gone but its still very wet outside so i thought go upstairs to the gym (after i'd done body pump of course!) and instead of atempting to force myself to do 3 miles on the treadmill and then give up very quickly, i decided to use the AMT (Adaptive Movement Trainer) instead like Emma suggested.  So why can i manage 3 miles on the AMT but not on the treadmill? It took me longer on the AMT than it would have on the treadmill too!

I'm hoping to do 7 miles & run from home to the gym tomorrow.  Mum would disagree and my health has taken a sudden down hill turn tonight.  Personally i think ( & will keep convincing myself) that its just a 24 hour thing and i'll be fine in the morning. I'll reassess in the morning.

Its been quite a day really, as i also got call regarding a job & believe i have also just secured another donation to the charity that would take me to 1/6th of my total! But as i don't have all the details or the money in my hands i don't want to confirm it just yet.  But the 1st £500 is very exciting news & i can't wait to tell the ladies when we go back after half term.

However the call about a possible job did remind me of something not so happy - From the next school year - from this September - i won't be able to volunteer at Bambers Green, or my other RDA group for at least the next school year.  To be honest this really doesn't bare thinking about right now. There is a big part of me that would almost rather give up the college course so i don't have to leave! But deep down i know that won't help me get to university and have a chance at doing a career that i've thought about for years. Its just another reason to raise enough to fund the group for a year, perhaps a reason i'd subconsciously pushed to one side.

I'm just going to raise what i can, run my little legs off & enjoy the time i have with the group and pray the college timetable changes for next september ;)

Farmers Markets & T-Shirts

Big News! 

I will be going to Hatfield Heath Sheering Farmers Market on the 31st March - put the date in your diaries!

I will be selling my Bottle cap magnets, brooches and keyring, some greetings cards, a little bit of cross stitch.  A mixture of crafts basically. There will also be collection jars & of course plenty of sponsor forms for people to donate via too.

I am currently trying to design label for the home made donation jars & also a design for a T-Shirt i can wear to the gym to show off my fundraising address a bit more - well actually its my shortcut web address because the My Donate address is just so long! 

I looked at getting one printed on-line and quotes came out at £30 minimum! So i bought a t-shirt (£4) and some transfer paper (£13) current cost £17 it would have been cheaper PC world had the paper on sale for £4.99.  It would have been nice to have the cost under a tenner but it was out of stock in PC World and i got fed up of chasing around after some, so just bought it when i saw it the next day in WH Smiths.

I shall model it once it is sorted but it the mean time please tell all your friends & family about the farmers market.  Its a really good market & the reason its no longer in Hatfield Heath and moved to Sheering is actually because it got too big for the original location!  So now even more stalls for you to look at & buy from.  They are a wonderful crowd who organise the market and have given me a stall for free because i am raising money for a local charity. So come see us there on the last Saturday in March!