I've got the running bug

I've been running for about a year now (I had a couple of months off after a cycling accident) and I have now got the running bug. This means that I want to go running ALL THE TIME. It's a great feeling. I've never been able to say I enjoy exercise before now, but I can't get enough of it at the moment. It's important to have rest days to let your muscles recover, but now I am constantly looking for excuses to run, rather than excuses not to. I also want to just be active in general, whether it's running or walking or zumba. It's taken a while to get to this point but now I'm here it's easier to keep the momentum going.

I've decided to challenge myself and run a 10km race for Age UK. It's on 24th February. The snow has been quite a welcome challenge in my training as it means that my legs are getting an extra workout (it's quite easy to get into a comfortable running routine and not mix it up enough). Although I can't say that I haven't experienced common running problems. Tight calf muscles are the main one, by my achilles tendons seem to be my weak point (and seem to be for every runner). When I reach about 4km I get pain in my calf and tendon, and my left foot goes numb. Like, completely numb. While I'm running. This was very scary the first time it happened. Now it's just extremely annoying. There are many reasons why it could be happening. Hopefully it can be resolved by visiting a physiotherapist.

Anyway, I'm hoping to successfully complete the run and raise money for Age UK. I'm running it with my dad, and our sponsor page can be found here:

http://www.justgiving.com/Felicity-Williams1

Les Miserables movie

Last night I went to see the Les Mis movie with Dave, on the opening night. Nothing beats leaving work on Friday, grabbing some food, then heading to the cinema. But this time was incredibly exciting. I almost couldn't eat!

My love for Les Mis only start a few years ago after seeing a couple of great school productions. Then I purchased the 10th anniversary concert on DVD and received the 25th anniversary concert for Christmas a couple of years ago. My sister used to watch the 10th anniversary all the time when we used to share a bedroom, so I was quite familiar with the songs and the story already but never got into it then.

This year, I read the book, by Victor Hugo. Its an incredible book. It was hard going through some of the French political history parts, and quite often it felt like Hugo would lose himself and start spilling his heart and soul out onto the page, talking about God and justice and struggle. but that just added to the passion and power and heartbreak of the story. The death of Fantine and the abuse and neglect of Cosette are so much more harrowing and distressing than I ever imagined.

Anyway, back to the movie. I couldn't have hoped for a better beginning. At the end of Valjeans soliloquy my mouth was hanging open and my eyes were wide. Literally. I must have looked scary. Hugh Jackman did an incredible job.

Anne Hathaway was good as Fantine, but I felt that her story wasn't given enough screen time. Nevertheless, she gave a powerful performance, and after I Dreamed a Dream, you could have heard a pin drop.

Russell Crow was a pleasant surprise. He was very suited to playing cold and stern (possibly a backhanded compliment there). I would have liked some more torment in his performance during his last song.

Samantha Barks was fabulous, as was Eddie Redmayne. And Amanda Seyfried made a great Cosette. She really portrayed well Cosette's struggle between her love for Valjean and her need to experience the real world.

I didn't mind Sasha Baron Cohen, but he didn't blow me away. And Helena Bonham Carter didn't stand out as Madame Thenardier as I would have liked. But together their timing was great and there were some laughs.

Sometimes the editing was confusing, and Bring Him Home was...well, be warned. Hugh Jackman can really belt out powerful notes but you can really near the strain when he is singing softly, and at times I felt quite uncomfortable. The film felt rushed throughout, even though it is a very long film.

I'm considering seeing it again before it leaves the cinema. 8/10 for Les Mis!

More resolutions

Visit Hever Castle in Kent
Learn something new every day

The latter will be a good way of making sure I keep up with all my reading at work. I can also combine this with keeping my blog up to date and blog each new thing I learn. This is probably quite an common blog theme, but will be really useful for me.

Fake Christmas in January

Every year I meet up with friends (Kirsty, Beth, Liz and Jenna) for our annual fake Christmas celebrations. Usually it is in November or December, but this year it has brightened up January. Kirsty was the host and allowed us to stay at her place in Minehead, and she cooked an amazing Christmas dinner. Beth made shortbread and Liz made a trifle and rocky road. Let's just say all the food was excellent and left us all feeling full even the next morning. I was spoiled rotten by everyone. Soap and Glory products were very popular this year.

Beth drove me to Cardiff from Minehead, where I met up with family for a meal to celebrate my dads birthday, which was on the 2nd January. We ate in Wagamamas.

Driving back from Cardiff to the Forest of Dean, we drove past a land slide in Monmouth. There has been a lot of rain (2012 was the second wettest year on record) which caused a lot of misery for people over the Christmas hols.

Anyway, tomorrow is Sunday and I will be packing up my stuff to head back to Milton Keynes, ready to start back at work on Monday. I'm quite keen to get back as I'm very aware not how much work I have left to do. Maybe one of my resolutions should be to work on weekends.

Happy New Year!

Happy new year everyone!

This year I decided to make resolutions that are almost certainly attainable and fun. Here they are.

Run a 10k for AgeUK
Progress on the piano by practicing at least once a week
Sort through wardrobe and drawers in bedroom
Keep a regular blog
Take more photos and keep them organised in albums on my computer, rather than just leaving them on my phone
Submit PhD thesis by December

I think these are all sensible. I was going to put something like "run 3 times a week" but that is a very easy one to break. I do really want to keep up with the running though as I really enjoy it (and that really helps). I'm running my first 10k in Feb and I'm really nervous. If that goes without injury then I will try to do another one later in the year.

Hell

Right now I am waiting for a train, and I'm without my Kindle, or a book of any kind. This is frustrating as I have so much to read! And time goes unnaturally slowly at train stations. I never go anywhere without a book, so I'm not sure what happened today.

At least I can take the time to write in my blog. I've had a very productive week. Lots of data has been analysed, I've been running, and my creative side has come to life and made me draw and bake. Here is a picture of what I baked yesterday: a vanilla sponge with vanilla buttercream that was runny and ruined the whole thing. The day before I made cheese scones, which were awesome.

5 minutes until my train! Yay.

Sport Relief

I'm finally doing it. I'm running the Sport Relief mile on 25th March in Milton Keynes. As I'm not a natural runner, I've started doing some training. And to keep me in the mood I bought some new running trainers and trousers, and my Sport Relief t-shirt. Really excited now.