Paddling pool!

As you can see, my long suffering wife has begun the padding pool reparations.
So excited!
Gin in the pool later

ExPresSO Medical study

I have been invited to take part in a research study in Oxford, they're looking for volunteers who were born at term or premature to take part. It's just a shame they're looking at my exercise habits when I can't do much exercise! dammit!

Exercise and Blood Pressure Study Oxfordshire

Study Background

High Blood Pressure is a common problem with 1 in 4 of the adult population developing high blood pressure. The likelihood of developing high blood pressure increases with age but for some people high blood pressure develops early during their 20’s and 30’s.

Understanding the factors contributing to high blood pressure and identifying individuals at risk is important so that we can reduce the risks of heart disease and stroke in later life. 

The Exercise and Blood Pressure Study Oxfordshire is inviting young adults (18-40 years old) born at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford to provide measures of blood pressure, physical activity and give details on their lifestyle. The unique recruitment method, using historical birth and maternity records to identify potential participants will allow our research team to explore the relationships between birth history and future blood pressure.  

 Study Objectives

We are specifically interested in understanding more about the influence of preterm birth, being born before 37 weeks of pregnancy, on future blood pressure.  A number of European and North American research studies report that blood pressure is higher in young people who were born prematurely compared to those delivered following uncomplicated pregnancies after 37 weeks.

Using the results from ExPresSO we hope to be able to contribute to improving cardiovascular risk reduction in young adult populations including strategies to increase physical activity and reduce blood pressure.

 Study Recruitment

We aim to recruit 600 participants aged between 18 and 40 years old.  Potential participants identified from the John Radcliffe Hospital records will be sent a study letter inviting them to take part in the study. The study team will then contact interested individuals to check eligibility for the study and arrange a study visit.

 Study Visits

Study visits will take place in the Cardiovascular Clinical Research Facility, John Radcliffe Hospital. We estimate that the full study visit will take approximately 60 minutes. During this time participants will complete the study consent process, complete the study questionnaire which includes questions on alcohol consumption, diet, smoking, family medical history and factors influencing physical activity choices. Recordings of participant blood pressure will be made and participants will be asked to provide a sample of blood. The study visit will finish with participants being provided with a wrist worn activity tracker to wear for 9 days. Similar to a wrist watch the device uses an accelerometer to provide a measure of daily physical activity.

Rollback roller Disco

Hula hooping class

May and I went to a Hula hoop class- It was pretty late 9-10 on a week night is optimum snooze time.

I learned to hula hoop- which I have never been able to do before so that made me very happy!

Although it turns out that I make the most amazing concentration face when doing it..May has video evidence.

May was much more elegant.

Street Dance class

Kelly,  jenni, lisa and I went to  street dance class on Thursday night.
I have always been hopeless at dancing so I was expecting it  to be truly awful but also pretty funny.
I surprised myself as it turned out to be pretty good fun and the emphasis is on getting a cardio heavy work out not on learning a super complex routine.
I think I may be converted.
I'm still pretty hopeless but I didn't get totally lost so there may be hope for me yet.

Roller darby

Tina and May strong armed me into attending  a roller darby try out session, which I ended up really enjoying (Although I enjoyed falling over and landing on my hip far less... urgh the bruises!).

I had wanted to go paddle boarding but it's been really really cold- The ladies didn't fancy breaking the ice on the lake in order to go out for a paddle.

Apparently we're going to be bad weather roller skaters and Fair weather paddle boarders.

I'm not sold yet but I'd try it again.

I am Waterproof! well, When I have my coat on I am.

I pushed the boat out today and I bought myself a brand new light weight waterproof jacket. I am hopeful that I can motivate myself to cycle to work instead of drive, and then I can have a treat with the pennies I would have been spending on Gym membership.
I tend to wimp out of walking or cycling (Or leaving the house, if I'm perfectly honest) if it's raining, and I haven't had an actually waterproof waterproof coat for a few years (Which has always been the perfect excuse to drive in bad weather).

I'm saying this publicly so that I can't back out very easily. There isn't any good reason why I drive to work, except when I have all my brownie paraphernalia. I'd look like Mrs. Armitage on Wheels if I cycled on Mondays! Mast, bunting, packed lunch, dog, you name it I'd have it all!

I have decided that I'm going to use Autumn to get healthy and improve my cardio- Hopefully I'll get so into it I'll want to carry on into winter.
Ray wants to do some 5K races in the spring. As I've never even run for a bus (I'd rather just miss it and wait for the next one) I will need to start taking some serious exercise. There is a real risk I'll still be running the 5K race whilst the organisers are tidying up around me otherwise! Eeek. I need a personal trainer!

New hiking boots

My mountain warehouse bargain boots! £19. I am ready. Bring on Waland Smithy!  ¡Vamos!

I  have found the OS map for the hike too... I knew (hoped) I'd seen this at my mum's before. 

We are ready! 

Summer bum!

I've stolen my latest faddy exercise regimen from Buzzfeed- I will be doing 27 days of Squats.
I started today with 10, and did 10 lots of weights too.
It increases daily until you have to do an awful lot of squats.
:S
There had better be some shorts weather this summer now or I'll be furious!

Hiking- Amptill

Tats and I went on another adventure today- We went on walk around Amptill starting at the park and walking along the green ridge trail. The whole route was 8 1/2 miles, but we skipped out the bit around Amptill village so we did a maximum of 6. not too shabby.

The park is the Site of the old Amptill castle- which is long gone- however, the grounds (Landscaped by capability Brown!) are still there to walk round and enjoy.
Apparently the Castle was used to house Catherine of Aragon once she was divorced from Henry VIII so that he could marry Anne Boleyn. This monument was erected to commemorate her time in Bedfordshire.

 This is the view from the top of the ridge in the park, Good job Mr Brown- Stunning views- it even makes the wind turbine look like a feature.

 We also found a series of rocks dedicated to Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth. I'm sure she's delighted.

 We walked along the ridge for a few miles and came to a medieval church- It this was the view of it miles further on from the bottom of the hill- you can see that we walked a loooong way.

We carried on walking until we got to the testing ground a millbrook where the route took us up and round the testing area- We could hear F1 cars but we couldn't see them- I'd have liked to have seen that!
We got just over half way round the route and found a notice from the council pinned to one of the signposts telling us that the route was changed due to major roadworks . the map they'd included was awful. We stood there for a bit with the OS map trying to figure an alternative route but it was toooo cold. In the end we walked back the way we came- which meant we had to do all the massive hills twice!

House guests and Si Puo Danzare

My sister came to stay on Friday night- She was working up in London and as I haven't seen her in ages I was excited about catching up with her.
We just spent the night chatting rubbish and gossiping- It turns out that my father has taken up cookery with a fair bit of success now that Ray has introduced him to the hairy bikers cook book, and he's trying to be a bit more healthy, Much to my mothers delight.
I'm excited to experience his new healthy cooking. His speciality used to be pie and chips- as long as the pie and the chips both came out of the freezer and just went into the oven.

On Saturday we went into town- Ray wanted some summery clothes for her holidays and we needed to get some bits and bobs for my Dad's upcoming 60th Birthday.
We got balloons, badges and bunting.
More bunting!
My mum sent us a message asking us tp buy "Party Ra's" this turned out to be a typo of "Party table cloth" (I don't even know, so don't ask) but the illusive party Ra  instruction kept us rather busy.

Confusion cleared up, we went to TK Maxx for summery stuff. Ray ended up buying a back pack and flip flops (Although she did get strappy tops and skirts in primark so we did win!) I ended up buying 2 pairs of shorts- one from the ladies section (Which remind me of knocker bockers) and one from the mens section which have a pattern of fishing lures on them. Delightful.

I sent this picture of them to Jay and he just replied "Oh god".
I think that means he'd like to borrow them.
:D
I like mens shorts much better than the ones in the women's section- if I wanted to run around with my bum out, surely it'd be more effective to just wear nothing? Besides, I'm almost 30 I'm far too old for showing that much flesh (Besides, it'll only upset the bystanders).

We did all our shopping and managed to get back to the flat for 11:30 when Helen arrived. We had a catch up and some lunch, the headed off to our dance class and to meet Tats.
We infiltrated the Bedford Early Dance and Music Society- I went to one of their sessions in September which was regency dancing so we thought we'd give renaissance italian dancing a go.
http://www.dhds.org.uk/bedm/
I'm not a very good dancer but I did enjoy the challenge and it was quite good fun. It was much slower and less formal than the regency dancing so it was easier to pick up.
the session ran 2-6pm and by the end of the 4 hours I had some unusual aches.

This was the style of dancing we learned today- all feet, no arms!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7cediL_X18

We walked from the community centre to the white horse- as in my infinite wisdom I'd forgotten that it was miles away (Actual miles, not literal ones).
Traff and Karl had to wait almost 45 minutes for us to arrive but it was worth it- they had a man chat and got some beers in so they couldn't really complain.
We really earned our fried dinners and yummy puddings (The white horse is my favourite pub because it sells an amazing burger and the pudding menu is awesome)
Post pub we all went back to the flat and chilled out to some smashing pumpkins.
I think that counts as a successful weekend.

The weather was gorgeous, if we'd known we would probably have gone paddle boarding instead of dancing- fingers crossed for a sunny evening soon so that we can get back out on the water!

The height of hiking fashions

Tats got a picture of me on top of the downs- I look super sophisticated, no?
Check out that view!
Maybe don't look so closely at my very cheerfully bright ensemble...

Hiking round the Dunstable downs

Tats is starting to prepare for her trip to Asia, where she's climbing mountains in Japan and South Korea. So, we're looking for marginally less flat places in the very flat east of England to walk about on.
We walked a 5 mile circular route on the downs- starting at the visitor centre, and following the Icknield way- which is part of the ancient route to stone henge- the downs also has it's fair share of barrows on the top of it for the important neolithic dead.

It was very windy- something to do with being on top of a hill I suspect- and muddy, after all the snow over the last 2 days.
We had an ace time, and I'm feeling very fit and healthy.

After our walk we had planned to have cake and tea in the national trust cafe- they do an excellent coffee and walnut cake- but it was busy so we headed back home and stopped off at the white horse for key lime pie.
:D
And to defrost.
sooooo cold! I'm grateful it didn't snow whilst we were out, we saw the gritters on the way home, so maybe we can expect some more white stuff this week...

Make my Stomach flat!

Today is the start of "operation make my stomach flat" where mostly I whinge that my stomach isn't flat whilst eating Waitrose Essential chocolate covered digestives, and then eventually do something that is supposed to help.
Then end up with indigestion.

Traff did try and teach me to do push ups yesterday but I just can't seem to do it. I'm much better at eating biscuits.
Maybe I'll get him to show me again if he promises not to laugh quite so much this time.