It’s funny how some weeks seem to take an eternity, with each day ambling on without haste, while others just race by and before you know it’s the weekend again. This week most certainly falls into the latter category.

After a week like this, it’s nice to take a minute to reflect on the goings on of the past seven days, to recall what you have done and to make sure that they don’t get lost in the frantic fog of the past.

This week I’ve being pushing myself out of my comfort zone in a number of ways – taking the bull by the horns and challenging myself in my professional, sporting and social life in a bid for self improvement.

Work has been really busy, but satisfyingly so and in a moment of optimistic confidence I offered to give two presentations on behalf of the department, which I think went reasonably well, or at least weren’t a total failure!

Given the enthusiasm with which I approach all work projects, I think it often comes as a surprise to people to hear that I get very nervous talking in front of large groups. However, it is something which I make myself do when the opportunity arises, working on the premise that you can ‘fake it until you make it’.

I also found myself writing a work related blog post for a competition this week, something which before I started writing this blog I never would have considered doing. I don’t expect to win, but I really enjoyed the research and writing to a word length and deadline, the discipline of brevity for which I often that lack in my writing here!

Less positively, I’ve been guilty of the cardinal health sin of mindlessly eating my lunch at my desk on a couple of occasions this week. I try to avoid this if I can, but I often find myself so hurried that one minute I have a big bowl of salad in front of me and the next, without noticing and with my eyes still glued to my computer monitor and my mind in my inbox, it has vanished and I’m just left with a rather unsatisfied feeling and a stomach ache.

It’s amazing how sluggish I feel on the days I fail to escape my desk and miss my lunchtime run, and come 4pm my mind and body just want to give up.

To compensate for the bad days I did manage two lovely lunchtime runs this week with Anna; one of just over 10k around Green Park, Hyde Park and St James’s and another of just over 12k around Victoria and along the river through Battersea Park.

I love running with Anna as she is great at keeping me motivated and pushing me to run further and faster than I might otherwise do. I think she is one of the few people I know who loves running numbers more than I do and if she sets her mind on a certain mileage and speed, we have to do it!

I’ve indulged my swimming habit as well this week by taking a dip in the 2012 Olympic pool at the London Aquatic Centre, something which I would urge you to do if you have chance. The pool is so beautiful and it’s been so long since I enjoyed a 50m stretch of water, it was bliss.

I also found myself treading new territory with a ballroom dancing class with R. He has booked us in for a 5 week course totally unprompted, (just when you thought he couldn’t get any more perfect after my Birthday blog), and it was really rather fun and terribly civilised, including a glass of wine on arrival and two hours of waltzing and rumba. Despite this being a far cry from scrabbling around in the mud Tough Mudder-style it was an evening well spent and I can’t wait until the next class.

I found myself back in the gym and at the climbing wall too this week, and enjoyed getting back into weight lifting, both kettle bells in the gym and my own body weight at the wall!

Finally I also spent a couple of evenings meeting R’s friends this week. Again I had to push my shyness to one side; it’s such a privilege to be able to meet such lovely, intelligent and engaging people, but it does make me terribly nervous! It never ceases to surprise me how I find dinner parties and the desire for people to accept and like me so much more terrifying and exhausting than hanging from a climbing wall or running 10k!

So all in all a rather good week and despite it vanishing all too quickly plenty has been achieved. Now I’m ready to face Monday again!

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