RunningGirl

I'd have to go with mind control.

What about pull up rings instead of a bar? Then a loop bit could be made of a really strong cord that can be adjustable to slip over almost anything with some kind of fastening device to hold it in place? Plus it would be more portable so you can slip it in a gym bag and take it almost anywhere. Then your possibilities of where you can do pull up's are almost endless, as long as what you're hanging them from is open at one side you you to be able to loop the cord around. Also if the length of your cords is also adjustable, you don't have to be restrained to doing a pull up on a flat bar. You could hang them from a tree branch for example.

Coffee doesn't seem to affect my mum whatsoever. She pretty much always has a cup of coffee on the go at home and falls asleep on the sofa even after necking it all evening. Then I'll say "mum go to bed" because she's doing that falling asleep head rolling around thing, to which she'll reply "yep I'll just have a cup of coffee and go to bed" This tends to be my reaction if I have anything stronger than a latte!

Ahh gotta love the completely ludicrous bannings in England.

When I did the Grim in December which is a pretty muddy course (knee deep at one point!) I thought my shoes would be ruined. They went in the wash on a cool cycle for about two hours and came out good as new.

Totally agree with this. I never thought I wanted to be a PA until I worked as an office junior and my immediate superior was the PA to the MD. She was so switched on and seemed to love what she did I thought wow I want to be just like her. I'm not quite there yet, but I'm not far off! :-)

You notice that the woman walking past the window in your office is dress identically to the Red Shirts from Start Trek Next Generation. Hopefully it was an unintentional coincidence on her part...

When I left sixth form I didn't go to uni and because I was only 18 when I started looking for work, I was pretty unemployable. Eventually I landed a job as a child minder. I say landed a job...my sister was in dire need of a nanny and was willing to pay. This was pretty good as it kept me off the dole for a few years and by the time I finished there I was 22 and ready to jump back into job hunting. After a couple of weeks I got a crappy job as an Office Junior that paid basically peanuts but was good for experience and managed to get out of there after a year and a half and got a PA job where I am now. Now that I've got a few years of entry level PA experience under my belt I'm starting to look for a more senior PA role. So I think the moral of my story is that sometimes education isn't everything and it is possible to start at the bottom and work your way up without needing a degree in anything.

Popcorn. I can't go to the cinema without getting popcorn and nearly always have it as a snack when I get home from work. I'm pretty addicted to Instagram as well which is weird but I guess since photography is my hobby I like that it's so portable.

I did the Grim Challenge last year. It's pretty good fun and doesn't seem as mental as the Warrior Dash! http://original.grimchallenge.co.uk/

With regard to effective healthy eating on a budget, it's pretty obvious so I'm betting you already know this, but it's always MILES cheaper to buy your fruit and veg from a green grocer rather than a super market. My sister likes to eat blueberries for breakfast. At the greengrocer stall over the road from my office you can buy a big box for £1. At the Waitrose practically next door it's something like £2.49 for a much smaller box. The same goes with fresh meat. It'll work out a lot cheaper of you bulk buy at a proper butchers shop and freeze meat, than if you buy from a supermarket.

Wow props for joining the army!

It's horrible and it won't go away! The boyfriend got one when he went snowboarding in January as well and his is still there! I've been told I should wear a slightly bigger pair of trainers as my toe bashing on the front of my shoe is probably what caused it. Thank goodness for nail polish!

I was running about 6 miles a few times a week leading up to the half, then in the week of the race I was just doing 3 miles every couple of days as I didn't want to push myself and three miles is a fairly easy run for me. I also took up Zumba classes just to help with my overall stamina so I was basically doing Zumba on a Monday, running 6 miles on a Tuesday, Zumba on Wednesday, 3-6 miles (depending on how tired I was) on Thursdays and resting on Fridays and then cutting down to just 3 miles in the week leading up to the race. Honestly I had no real plan to speak of, but I do have a lot of motivation which I think pushed me most of the way round the course.

I watched Monk while I was on holiday as it was pretty much the only thing in English on our tv. I just couldn't get in to it at all.

I only got in to it a couple of months ago really. I'm always late for things like this. I only just started watching House last year as well. Hooked! If you like House I'd say you'll probably like CSI as well. The show is pretty much the same format. There's always a main case, with another smaller case on the side and it always takes them the length of the episode to solve it and at some point someone will have an epiphany. You don't really need to have watched previous ones as there isn't really a big story arch and every now and then they throw in a bit of a comedy episode. I'm catching up on some of the last series that they show when I get home from work and on Friday's are the brand new Ted Danson episodes. Win! I'm actually excited that the boyfriend is out on Friday night and I can catch up on all the CSI I missed while I was on holiday. I prefer the Las Vegas episodes to the Miami and New York ones. Probably because I'm more used to the characters. And Horatio Kane (the guy with the one liners and sunglasses) gets a bit on my nerves. I might give Law and Order a go as well as I'm really getting in to cop shows recently.

Damn that Nasri!! My boyfriend had a bet on England winning 1-0 with Lescott scoring. He would have made £300 from a £2 bet. That Nasri ruins everything! And I'm not just saying that as a bitter Arsenal supporter....

I bake, go for a walk, watch CSI (not just limited to boredom actually. I'm kind of an addict!) draw, go on humour websites, read, raid through my wardrobe and put together new outfits, potter about the house doing nothing in particular, go into the kitchen and randomly open and close cupboards hoping I'll find a cure to my boredom, text my friends and see if they want to go to the pub, play with my cats.

Friends warned me that during my first half marathon, I'll probably need to go and it'll probably be messy - And the first toilet wasn't until the 5th mile! . I was so scared I popped an Imodium right before the race. Didn't need to go at all Might be a short term solution to your problem until you can figure out what's making you need to go.

Practice, practice, practice If I'm honest I really didn't train as much as I should have for my first half. The furthest I'd run during training was 6 miles and I was stopping quite a bit to catch my breath during the race. I think if I really work hard over the next five months, I could cut off quite a few minutes I've also bought an actual proper pair of running shoes. I think just not running with bricks on my feet should certainly help! Despite my lack of training and shoddy equipment, I was still pretty pleased with my time and the only injury I came away with was a black toenail.

Hmm typical

None at all then. I've been out of the country for two weeks. Was it seriously naive of me to actually think it might have improved by the time I got back!?!

I like how this year there is almost no expectation for England to do well at all. Based on the rubbish I've seen over the weekend, we could actually stand a chance. But I'm going to be very English and pessimistic about the whole thing. We probably haven't got a hope in hell :-p

I've been running for just over a year in a random pair of Adidas trainers. They've got me through several races just fine with decent times but I'm looking to get a bit more serious and beat my time from my first half marathon (2:16), so as I'm not really prone to injury, I'm going down the minimalist route and have ordered a pair of Nike Free Run 3's after trying a pair on in the shop and finding them super lightweight and comfy. I'll report back on how I get on with them. They should be arriving tomorrow. I've never been this excited about a pair of trainers before!!

Hi there! I'm new around here but my sister has been registered for a while. A bit about myself: I'm 27 years old, I live in London and I love running! I did my first half marathon back in March this year (The Adidas Silverstone Half) in a time of 2:16 and am hoping to beat it at my next event in October. My aim is to knock about 6 minutes off my last time. I'm looking to improve my running hopefully with some helpful advice around here, and generally improve my fitness.