Alison Angier Diary

James and I enjoyed a day out together at Signals in Colchester making clay models for a short video. We had to come up with ideas of a storyline and then build models from plasticine and also make a film set with paper and pens and chalks. It was actually very time consuming but James thoroughly enjoyed it. Here is our handy work, but be warned, some blood was shed during the making of this film!

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I just helped James build the models, the story was his own ideas. Feel free to leave a comment as I’m sure James will be excited to read them.

I have finally got round to giving you photos of this years event. I hope you enjoy looking at them ….

Today was the Race For Life in Castle Park. It dawned a bright sunny and very hot day!! The morning was already heating up by 9 am, so I knew the race would be extremely hot with all of the trees around the park sheltering wind. We set off along with hundreds of others making our way to the park. This year they had opened up the grassed area outside the park for parking. This made much more sense as there was plenty of room for everyone.

When we arrived, there was already quite a few people milling around and SGR Colchester were there with the black thunders and the breakfast show. I saw a few people I knew so had a quick chat in between visits to the loo. For some reason, I have to pay about 20 visits to the loo and I have no real idea why!

We had 1 minutes silence to think about all those who have suffered from cancer at some point and for those who lost their lives to it. It is always so eerie to see all those people and total silence. It is a very emotional time too as everyone who is there is there for reasons personal to themselves.

We did our warm up which was lots of fun as usual. It really gets you geared up ready to go, whether you walk or run. I was really nervous this year, but I know it’s because I was worried about the heat and I had more personal reasons to be there and I wanted to do my best.

As previously written, my own mum has suffered cancer recently and has just finished treatment, but is still under the consultant. We do not know if she is clear yet as she had a cancer which is hard to detect as it is called Clear Cell. I found it really hard standing there feeling on my own even though there was over 2000 women taking part. My emotions were all over the place and I refused to let tears fall. I just wanted to run……

My aunties mum has also been diagnosed with cancer, so she was another family member I was running for. It made things much harder when you know the people who are on your back plaque, as the emotions are so mixed and high.

I had a third person I was running for, and he is my friends dad who is also undergoing treatment.

So all these people who suffer need our help in raising vital funds for research into cures for cancer. Not just breast cancer, but all cancers……

I finished with a good time considering the heat, and 18th place I was told. I can’t be more proud than that can I ? My parents were pleased as were my in-laws, so I couldn’t be more pleased. It’s the hardest 5k I have run, not for distance or effort, but for emotions……

I want to say a special THANK YOU to all those people who sponsored me and helped me to raise £320 this year, bringing my total for Cancer Research £1000!!!

In October I am taking part in the Run To The Beat Half Marathon in London. I am running for Leukaemia Research so look out I will be asking you to sponsor me again.

MANY THANKS AGAIN EVERYONE xxxxx

Hi I know it has been quite some time since I last blogged. I don’t know where the time goes! With work and stuff and running and kids, the time just flies!!

Yes it’s only two weeks to go now for the Race for Life in Castle park. I don’t know why I get so nervous about it, but it’s the same every year. This year is different though as I am running for family mainly.

I am running for my mum and my aunts mum, both of whom have undergone cancer treatment this year. Fingers crossed all will be well with the end result.

As you can imagine, every year the atmosphere is amazing and many women take part for some reason or another. Some try to get personal bests as well as raise money, and others just walk. I always feel emotional as I approach the finish line, but this year I think it will be very emotional for me. I am trying to beat last years time of 25:55, and have managed to shave a few seconds off in training runs. With the adrenalin on race day I hope to do well. Last year I was 18th, but have no idea what will happen this year. We will just have to wait and see.

I want to thank everyone who has sponsored me so far. THANK YOU!! Each year your generosity means a lot to me and to those who receive the treatment that the money pays for.

Watch this space for the result………….

Can you believe that we are in February already!! Where did January go?? I have no idea! They say as you get older the years go quicker, and they sure do!

It’s half term next week so we have a break from school. I will use the time to catch up on things that really need doing, like cleaning the insides of the windows and maybe giving the grass a quick trim. That is providing the rain stays away, but as you are well aware, the weather does it’s own thing.

I have been getting a few good runs in and feel good about it. I still have a long way to go to get back to my pre-injury fitness though. I have consistently run 5-6 miles each run, so distance is getting good.

I really need some speed sessions as I want to improve on my time in the Race For Life which is in May. As soon as I got the email, I registered, and this year my number is 223. Last year was 95. I guess it’s filling up really fast. I have a web site for people to sponsor me Alison’s sponsor page

The more money I collect, the more help those people who need it will get. So please feel free to check it out and sponsor me.

This is the third year that I have entered and it is a really worthy cause. I have really enjoyed the atmosphere at these races and it can be very emotional for some people. The last two years have been mainly for friends, but this year it is for someone in my family. This family member is still undergoing treatment at the moment, so for me this year will be quite emotional, so the more money I raise, the better.

Some people have been generous enough to sponsor me already, so I would like to thank those people for their generosity, so Thank You.

Hello there!! I am just so happy today!! I will tell you all about it.

Jeni, my running buddy, convinced me to go back to the running club today after 4 months away due to my quite serious groin tear. Well nervous as I was, I need not have been. It was so nice to see everyone and they were all pleased to see me. I was worried about how far they would run and how fast as I have really only been back running for about 5 weeks.

Faithful Peter was there so Jeni and I decided to run with him and not worry about anyone else. It was great and we chatted all the way on our 4.5 mile run. I was not tired at all at the end so that was a bonus. Also we were not last, which surprised me as I was actually expecting that. We kept up really well with the other runners. Jeni has been suffering a little with her hip so is taking things easy at the moment.

I am just going to go on a Thursday at the moment as I feel doing efforts will be a bit too much for my groin as I still need to strengthen it a bit more. I am taking things as slowly as I can allow myself to do so as I certainly don’t want another injury. It will have a weakness now so I need to be aware all of the time and not push myself too fast.

Well a good end to the day in spite of having a rather sore throat today. I hope I don’t lose my voice as I need it in the dining hall at school and with the children I work with in the class room. I am sure I will find out tomorrow.

Bye for now, will be back soon with more.

If you have read my mum in laws blog you will see what a busy time they had over Christmas.

We had a really lovely time and really enjoyed having them share a few days with us. We did indeed have a fabulous meal at the Yew Tree in Great Horkesley. The food was delicious!! Mouth watering and generous. Once you have had a tasty Christmas dinner like that, you want to do it every year!! It’s less hassle and no clearing up to do or preparation. I highly recommend everyone tries it if they can.

The children were very excited as usual. Tiffany tried to play her excitement down even up to Christmas eve!! But she was just as excited as James on the morning and was very eager to open her presents. They were not disappointed with any of their gifts so that was a bonus.

We visited David’s sister Sally on the 27th. We took Tom with us but the other two were both sick. Sue also joined us so Sally had a house full. Sally put on a nice buffet for everyone to enjoy. Thank you for your hospitality Sally.

Of course we had James’ birthday on the 28th. My uncle and aunt came to visit and we went out for lunch. We had a pleasant tine with them and were able to catch up on their news.

We went to visit my parents on the Saturday. It was nice to see them and also my other uncle and aunt who were staying with them for a few days. Another lunch out which was lovely in a local pub that my parents visit from time to time. It was a nice day and was enjoyed by all.

New years eve was spent at home. The four of us, except James was in bed for midnight. I always find New years eve a bit boring as it’s always the same rubbish on the TV. We had taken a visit to Blockbuster earlier in the day so watched a couple of DVD’s.

Before we knew it, it was back to work and back to school. Tiff had to spend her 17th birthday at college. It’s the second time in her school life that she has had to do that. I think she enjoyed College even more as her friends and tutors made a fuss of her. She had a surprise birthday cake which was a My Little Pony cake ( chosen by Dad ), which she absolutely loved. Her face was a picture!! She had said she didn’t want a cake, but I knew she did really. She had a lovely day too just as James did on his birthday.

James is missing his Grandma and Granddad as he saw quite a lot of them over Christmas. He makes Grandma laugh and he wants to say to Grandma ” I love you more than you love me”.

Hi!! Yes I know it has been quite a few weeks in between blogging but life can be so busy sometimes. Well what have we been up to?? Quite a lot and then there was Christmas. I won’t bore you with everything that has happened. But I will tell you a little bit about a new gadget that I have had the chance to do a review on.

As you know, I like to get some sort of feedback about my running, and I found the Nike+ iPod sensor to be a great aid and motivator for my running. Anyhow, I managed to get my hands on the brand new Nokia N82 Sports Tracker pack. I wondered how it would compare, so my friend Jeni and I went for a run yesterday loaded up with gadgets. Jeni had her Garmin Forerunner 305 and I was carrying both the Nokia N82 and my trusty Nano and Nike+ kit.

On first sight the N82 looks like quite a lot of modern business mobile phones, plain, chromy and slightly bigger than I would have expected, but it looks like phones have started to get bigger again lately. I remember when they first came out, they looked like bricks. This is not quite a brick but it’s bigger than I thought it would be.

When I first turned it on, it took a while to find the Sports Tracker application. I’m not familiar with the S60 operating system the newer Nokias use, and I found it fairly complicated to use after being spoilt rotten by my easy-to-use iPhone. David sorted it and after a few minutes we were up and running. Well that’s not quite true as it’s a 3G phone and we didn’t have a 3G sim and at first it didn’t work. After an email by David we found out that it would work. So that’s how we finally got started.

It locked on to the satellite signal in about 2 minutes. Although, this is a little awkward to wait for compared with just getting up and going with the Nike+, it is comparable with other GPS based equipment and took around the same time as the Garmin. Starting the workout was very simple with a single keypress.

The Nokia N82 was clearly the most bulky and heaviest of the three options, but if you are likely to be carrying a phone with you anyway then it has the simplicity of only carrying one gadget instead of two. I don’t normally take a phone, so it seemed a little awkward for me. Also, I didn’t have an armband for holding it, like I have for the iPod, although I am sure you can get them to fit. I ended up trying several approaches, in my jacket pocket it irritated me by jumping up and down and in my back pocket it pulled my trousers down! I ended up carrying it, but if I were to buy one, I would probably hunt for a suitable armband. As a phone, it is a little on the heavy side, 117g comapred to a Nokia 6310i at 100g. Not quite as heavy as the iPhone though at 135g.

The screen is quite big and easy to read and there is a wide set of choices of screen to display during the workout, so it should be possible to pick one that suits. They vary from screens that are orientated on speed, pace and distance to those that show the route taken.

At the end of the run, stopping the Nike+ and Garmin was a simple button press. Stopping the Sport Tracker involved bringing up the option menu, and picking “stop workout” from the list. Not really suited for getting that split-second accurate timing at the end of your time-trial! I also didn’t spot anyway of pausing your workout, which I tend to do if tying a lace or am having trouble crossing a busy road. If your phone rang during a run would it affect the workout information? That I don’t know as it never happened to me. That was an afterthought just now. Also I think it would be quite awkward to get out of an armband to answer if you were on a run.

In terms of accuracy it was quite impressive, agreeing with the Garmin to within a few yards on distance. The Nike+ needs calibrating to your gait, which I haven’t done since my groin injury last year, and it was noticably different (although within acceptable levels).

There is also a lot more information available on the device than on both the Nike+ and the Garmin. Charts of altitude, speed vs time, speed vs distance, pace information, and surprisingly cadence information. Neither the Garmin or the Nike+ was able to give cadence so it wasn’t possible to cross check the results, but it said I did 157 steps/minute - a quick check on Google showed that the average cadence at the pace we were going should be around 150 steps/minute. I wish I knew how it works!

The Garmin that Jeni has also has a heart rate monitor built in which the N82 and Nike+ don’t have. I think it could be a winner if Nokia were able to find a way of integrating a heart rate monitor into the N82.

I wasn’t able to compare how the data looks when synced up via the web site, or on the PC, but considering the data it collects it should be quite good.

Accuracy: Nike+ 3/5 Garmin 5/5 N82 5/5
Ease of use: Nike+ 4/5 Garmin 3/5 N82 3/5
Startup time: Nike+ 5/5 Garmin 3/5 N82 3/5
Features: Nike+ 2/5 Garmin 4/5 N82 4/5
Comfort: Nike+ 4/5 Garmin 4/5 N82 2/5

Overall: Nike+ 18/25 Garmin 19/25 N82 16/25

Conclusion

If you carry a phone already, and don’t want to carry anything more, then the N82 is perfect as you get the Sports Tracker built-in. It is very highly featured, although a bit clumsy to use occassionly. It looks like a very comprehensive phone as well, and David will be reviewing the N82 as a Smartphone next week - as an all-in-one gadget it could be a nice choice, phone, media-player, internet device, camera and sports tracker - quite a lot in a (not that) little package. I think I’ll be sticking with the Nike+ as it fits my needs more closely. I’m not one for carrying loads of gadgets when I run and like things to be as light as possible.

I have finally been able to get out in the rain to run!! I must admit that I have tried over the last couple of weeks but found my groin still niggled quite a lot. I only started at 1 mile just to see how things went. It was pulling quite a lot and felt very uncomfortable.

I had been out a couple of times when I came down with a flu type virus which knocked me for six so running didn’t happen for two weeks. But today I managed to do 5k but had to stop due to a very noticeable pulling of the groin and hip. I was pleased with the distance but not the time. I knew it would not be a good time as I have been out for so long. A long build up will be required and hopefully I will be back to my top fitness level and return to the Colchester Harriers. I renewed my membership in October even though I am not fit enough to join them at the moment.

My running buddy ( Jenni ) came with me so it was lovely to have company. She was pleased with the 5k so that made me feel better. Thank you Jenni. I am not going to push things too much as I am scared I will tear the muscle again.

After a hot shower and a couple of paracetamol my hip relaxed and I felt absolutely fine and very refreshed. Well worth the effort to put on my running shoes and go out in the rain.

The IPhone is now here! I have had my eye on it since I saw it advertised on the net in America. At first I thought it looked very complicated, but as time has gone on and I saw more and more adverts via email etc, I began to change my mind.

I had lots of e-mails from O2 promoting the phone and watched a video that was sent too. It looked so easy, so I really wanted to have one then.

All week David has told me to go and line up to get one. I thought there would be a few people waiting. I went into town last night to meet Tiff from College and we had a wander to get ideas for Christmas presents. We wandered past the O2 shop from time to time, but didn’t see anyone waiting. We decided as it was so cold, we would go in to a coffee shop and have a hot chocolate. We were probably only there for about 20 minutes and as we came back out, there was a few people milling around the shop. We decided to join the queue.

I am glad that we did as it quickly got longer as people were leaving work. It was a friendly line, and everyone was chatting to try to forget the cold.

A few times, the managers from Carphone Warehouse came to tell us there was no queues outside their shops. The shop opposite O2 had no one standing there. We got our hands stamped to be able to get served. We were given a bottle of water while we waited. We also got given from someone a leaflet about the Nokia phone which he claimed was better. Everyone just screwed them up and gave them to the O2 ladies.

As the shop opened at 6:02, we started moving on. About 4 people decided to to to Carphone Warehouse to buy their phones. Everyone else waited in the queue. It didn’t take long and soon we were on our way home with my precious IPhone clutched tightly in my hands.

I learned very quickly how to use it as it was just like using my Mac laptop. IT’s SO EASY!!! I don’t care about all the other phones that claim to be better, maybe they are, I am an Apple fan and will stick with my IPhone. I reckon, that any changes they make to the IPhone, it would be downloadable from ITunes anyway.

ENJOY YOUR IPHONE’S EVERYONE!!!