Day Two at Training Camp

Well it's day two and already I'm feeling the effects of training 3 times a day - hands covered in blisters, legs aching and managing to sleep for far more hours than I would normally (I even had an afternoon nap yesterday - unheard of for me!).

We are training on the Guadalquivir River, which is very big and has the most amazing number of fantastic bridges crossing over it. And the best bit - the sun is shining and it's warm!!

It's so much easier to train in this environment - surrounded by at least thirty female lightweight rowing athletes, plus hundreds of other water-sport athletes. One of the water-sports is a funny kneeling, paddling thing that seems to be done by lots of very fit men! I will try to capture one on film to show later - it looks very precarious yet they move pretty quickly.

The food has certainly improved from what I remember, the problem now is that you have to stop them piling huge portions on your plate. Because it's a training centre they clearly think we need to eat lots, and especially lots of carbs. Breakfast consists of bread or croissants or a cereal that takes enough chewing to take you up to lunch-time!

Lunch and dinner always start with a huge plate of pasta (with varying sauces), some very over-cooked fish, tinned or frozen veg and a salad that includes iceburg lettuce (basically water!). I'm going for as much variety as possible to try to cover every nutrient, and an emergency visit to the supermarket has ensured a more edible muesli for breakfast.

Today's training session was a 12km paddle before breakfast, 3 x 1000 metre sprints before lunch and before dinner I am thinking of going for a run, to save my sore hands!

So for those of you that always think I am on holiday - think again!

THE Boat Race

For all of those 14 million of you out there that watch the Boat Race, could I just point out - you got the wrong day! Why watch just two boats trundling down the Thames, with the only bit of excitement being when they hit their blades (oars to you novices), or even better, sink! When, a week prior to that (today infact), you could watch 400 boats doing the same thing (but obviously with far more chance of them hitting blades or each other!!). I have just cycled down to the river to watch and it's such an amazing thing to see - 400 boats, 3600 people racing, and lots of shouting from every bridge along the way - such a great atmosphere.

So on Monday I am off to Seville for training camp - and this really is what it says on the tin - training camp. No sight-seeing, no late night tapas bars, no bull-fighting (well a couple of the

girls normally fall out at some stage!), and hopefully I will return fitter, stronger and a little lighter - it has to be said that the food in the Sports Centre where we stay is not the best, so losing weight may just happen naturally, let's hope so.

Spring has finally Sprung!

At last - it took it's time, but today, for the first time, it actually felt like winter was behind us - I could walk into Richmond without seven layers of clothes, a scarf and gloves......and not get frost-bite if I stood still longer than 17 seconds!

I feel as if I have come out of hibernation - and I love it - let summer begin! But to clinch it all, to really confirm to me that winter was over, was the magical sound of.............the musical ice-cream van coming down my street! I'm not sure at what time of the year he would normally start but I am very impressed with his optimism - it wasn't THAT hot today.

Typically I was writing summer recipes at the same time, so I thought I would finally get some into the blog. The feature I am writing is about Billingsgate (see my earlier blog for more information about the great London fish market), so lots of healthy fish recipes. but the one I have included is for crab and avocado salad as crab to me brings back such lovely memories of summers at Cromer beach as a child, with Dad insisting we buy the biggest crab we could find for our crab and cucumber sandwiches! Unfortunately I can't whizz up to Cromer each time I want crab, but luckily I live pretty close to Sandy's Fishmonger in Twickenham, so am spoilt for choice when it comes to great fish or game.

Crab and Avocado Salad

Serves 4

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp cumin seeds

4 spring onions

juice of 1 lemon

2 little gems, trimmed and leaves separated

2 avocados, stoned, peeled and sliced

the meat of 2 dressed crabs

• Heat the oil very gently and cook the cumin seeds for a few minutes before adding the spring onions.
• When you can smell the aroma of the cumin and onions, turn off the heat and add the lemon juice. Swirl around to help the juice and oil mix together.
• Place the little gem leaves onto four plates then top with sliced avocado and finally the crab.
• Pour over the dressing and serve immediately.

The perfect day..............

Sometimes I just feel my job couldn't be any better. Yesterday for example, was spent on a trip into London to buy cheese for a feature I am writing on British cheese. So I obviously started at Neals Yard in Covent Garden, famed for it's stock of British cheeses and staff who know everything you would ever need to know about the cheeses and the people that make them. It's not just shopping, it's an education. I was served by Callum, who, it has to be said, knows his stuff. He walked me through the cheeses I wanted, telling me a potted history of the makers and those that had gone before them, and while this is going on I obviously have to taste them all. I could happily just stand in the shop and breath in the smell, but getting to taste anything you like is such a treat, and inevitably ends up with you buying far more than you had anticipated, which I did!

After that it was on to the Commonwealth Club for lunch, to discuss the virtues of avocados

with a friend John who runs a PR company. I can't believe that there needs to be PR to sell avocados - how come everybody thinks they're not good for you, when they clearly are - full of vitamins and great fats - yes, great fats, not the bad ones! Include them in your diet now please!

semi-marathon de Paris - success!

Wow, what an achievement - I have run and survived the semi-marathon de Paris (the Paris half- marathon to you non-French speakers!), and not only that, but in under 2 hours and still managed to walk up and down the steps of the Sacre Coeur the next day - neither of which I thought would be possible!

The organisers admitted it was possibly one of the coldest years this event has taken place and with 27,000 people registered it was bound to be a busy event.

From start to finish I was surrounded by others pounding the pavements of Paris, and this was

exactly what I had been dreading - bumping into each other, tripping over when trying to get past and just generally not being able to run in a straight line - and this without a drink! And to top it all off, at the end of the 21km, when the finish line was insight there was a bottleneck - we all had to stop 20 metres from the finish line and it took 15 minutes to get over it - lots of 'boo..ing' was to be heard. I even thought of forgoing my medal rather than waiting in the cold.

Obviously a celebratory lunch was had - in a great restaurant not far from the 2km marker - L'Apprenti. What I love about this place is that from the outside it looked nothing at all, but when you stepped inside, it enveloped you with warmth and comfort. The food was typically French with amazing sauces and flavours and the atmosphere absolutely perfect for a relaxing afternoon of eating!

Unfortunately as often happens after doing lots of exercise, my body didn't want too much food (at this point it was too busy trying to recover!), so I had to top it up again later with a plate of French cheese and salad at La Fontaine de Mars - another great French restaurant not far from the Tour Eiffel. Cheese and salad was not on their menu but as with all French restaurants, and very unlike English ones, they are happy to serve you what you want, and normally do it very well!

The final countdown.........

Well, this is it, only one week to go to the dreaded 13 mile, half-marathon slog around Paris - I can't imagine I will be feeling like calling it Gay Paris for a while after that!

Luckily a few friends are joining me so this weekend we decided on a training weekend in Kent, thanks to Tom who was house-sitting in a rather large house! Liz who had organised the Paris trip is now unfortunately injured so can't take part, but as all good friends do, she came along to help us with the training schedule by buying lots of bubbly on the way!

So Saturday was a chilling-out day, with a stroll around the area, in preparation for the last long run on Sunday - 10 miles. Of course what I hadn't thought about was the Kent terrain - the longest, steepest hills you've ever seen!

Tom did us proud with a huge lasagne for dinner on Saturday night - carbo-loading for the runners and fat-loading for the non-runners!

Sunday morning I was woken at 5am by torrential rain and high winds, just as the forecasters had predicted (why are they only right when you don't want them to be?), but we had to go ahead regardless as I needed to know if I could actually run as far as I had to!

So we made a vague plan and drew a map on a scrap of paper that I kept in my pants incase of getting lost - Tom was going to be miles ahead of me, and Jules and Andrew were going a different way, so all would be no use if I got lost! Luckily I didn't, but did go up a few dead-ends which then brought my total mileage up to around 12 miles and had me running practically through rivers for 2 1/4 hours! My only thought was that Paris has to be easier (and hopefully a lot flatter) than that!

Luckily we are all of the same mind and decided we deserved a post exercise treat of more carbs, so headed off to The Pilot at Dungeness for the biggest ever plate of fish and chips.....and a small side-order of mushy peas!!

The day was rounded off by a stroll on the beach, but even that couldn't be simple - there had to be a bet - they say everybody has their price, and Polly's was a quick dip in the freezing sea for...

..... a figure that I am unable to disclose. Suffice it to say she certainly earned it!!