This is the title of my new notebook, and it’s my official life support. I do have a smart phone but I never notice the reminders when I use that. So I’ve opted for a notebook and a mini diary which are permanently attached to my being. My brain switched off during peri-menopause and never fully rebooted really.

I live in a constant state of ‘did I tell you this already?’ and ‘oh I forgot you said that’, so its vital to write everything down.

I’m not the only one. Chris does the same thing and we both seem to spend our lives looking for our keys and phones. So maybe I can’t blame it on hormones. Who knows. I hope it’s not age! Mind you; at the moment we have an excellent excuse. We are still knee deep in paint and dust due to ongoing kitchen/bedroom updates. Wherever stuff used to live – it now resides somewhere inexplicable.

I mentioned in my last blog I would ‘announce’ our September adventure plans. Well life got busy, time got short and it turns out that organising such a run requires a logistics degree. So I’ve changed my mind. So we are keeping our feet dry and parking this outing for another year.

Instead we have decided to walk the Pennine Way! It’s simply a lot easier too sort out and can be done nearer the time. As a bonus, it serves as a reccy for me as I’ll be running the first 46 miles of it in January.

In terms of training things are going well. I’m still progressing, running further, building volume of miles and elevation, lifting heavier weights and doing things like ‘dead lifts’ which my body refused to do before. I also did my first weighted backpack run last week. Only 5kg but it’s a start. The spine race will require me to carry 8-10kg (I think – based on googling). Throughout the last six weeks I’ve had no IT band or Glute issues, so fingers crossed that continues. This is all great news for me and allows me to start imagining greater things, without feeling ‘too’ deluded. I’ll probably look at doing a 100 miler next year and I quite fancy running the length of Lanzarote and maybe Fuerteventura. Just some ideas I’ve got milling around in that goldfish brain of mine.

In other news I recently walked up over Chinley Churn so I’ve included a nice picture below. It was a very hot day and the sky was a beautiful azure blue.