Constructive advice

What a rubbish week! Managed to get out on Wednesday but we had heavy snow on Thursday (feeble excuse) and then something else on Friday (can't remember what that was) and Saturday, I intended to go Saturday, but didn't. Sunday was out because we went to Brighton to see Luke. So, here we are at Monday and I intend going out this evening after my piano lesson. Phew!

It was quite an interesting weekend however. On Saturday I was talking briefly to Geoff, whose daughter in law is a keen runner. Geoff said that he was never any good at running because he had a low lung capacity, which sounded like mine. I was beginning to think that it was only me that had lungs the size of a tea bag, whereas others appear to have capacity more in line with a hot air balloon. Although Geoff's words were of some comfort, they don't actually help me to run further, they just give me a better excuse.

On Sunday we visited Luke in Brighton and I asked him how his training schedule was progressing. Luke said that he and Harry, who is also running for Meningitis UK, were both becoming slightly concerned that the fund raising was beginning to stall. Luke said that they had decided to 'up the stakes a little'. Following Camilla's recent birthday party where everybody dressed as Camilla, Luke and Harry have decided to dress for the run in a similar costume. Ballerina tutus. Yep, that's what I said. Those frilly little girly things that don't even cover your bum. Well, it should be summer by 25th May, so they won't get too cold. You can sponsor Luke in his tutu at http://www.justgiving.com/lukeseall. (Photo coming soon). Sorry Harry, I don't have your site address but I will try to find it.

Luke also had some training comments. He was a little shocked to hear how pathetic my running duration actually was. He was telling me how Camilla went out running with him recently and explained that girls run much slower than boys. He said that although she seemed like a honed athlete by comparison to him, she ran really slowly. In fact, he reckoned that he could have covered more ground than her by simply power walking, something that Camilla hotly disputed. Camilla pointed out the length of Luke's legs by comparison to hers'. Point taken Camilla.

I was interested to hear this and told Luke that I recently saw some women out running and that their technique appeared to be more of a hurried shuffle with their bottoms swinging from side to side than a run. Luke said, "Yes, that's what I mean. It doesn't wear you out so quickly." "But," I pointed out, "it takes that much longer to cover the same amount of ground."

Luke said that perhaps I should try it and see. So, if you see me shuffling along, you'll know that I am taking Luke's advise.