All over for another year

That's it then, summer holiday over with for another year. Its been a strange one too.

Between the summer of 2003 and last summer I can recall going to Crete three times, Corfu, Kefalonia, Kos, SW France twice, Paris three times, Rome, Barcelona, Prague, Budapest, Scotland twice. That's not bad in a little over six years but it all stopped after last summer, since when we've had two weekends away camping in Swaledale and 5 nights the week before last camping in Scotland.

Last week I was off work too but instead of heading to North Wales as we'd planned we stayed at home and went for trips out. During the week we went to Magna in Sheffield, the National Coal Mining Museum near Wakefield, to the National Rail Museum in York and then yesterday to the Castle Museum also in York. On top of that we twice went to the buffet at Agraah in Shipley, had a Chinese takeaway, ate in two of the museums and had sweets, chocolates, biscuits, peanuts, dips, cakes, crisps most evenings as part of 'treat week'. Oh, and we twice had ice creams too!

All in all it was pretty good, and the kids also went to the Thackray Medical Museum in Leeds and to see Toy Story 3 at the cinema. OK, we didn't get sunshine or to see another culture or sample another country's foods but it was OK.

What's all this got to do with running and fitness?

Not a lot, and that's the point of blogging it. With other temptations, a groin injury for me and a bad back for Sue there was limited running, only the short walk in Scotland and only two trips to the gym in the fortnight despite all the free time. There was also the 'traditional' feeling sorry for myself and (failing to) find comfort in eating crap.

A little over two weeks ago I was very much 'in the zone', feeling good about myself and weighing in at 11st 11lbs. Eighteen days later and I weigh 12st 8.2lb. Yes, you've read that right, that's a gain of 11.2lbs. Now, I know a good chunk of that will be water retention and 'food in transit' but even so there's some considerable weight gain that I can feel as well as see in numbers on the scales.

So, later today I'll reassess my objectives and plans in light of this but before that I'll put this latest setback into context...