Oh, and do planks! You'll be amazed how much that will help you with the crunches :-) hold for as long as you can then repeat, you'll see the time you can hold them shoot up :-)

Yay, C25K takes over the world :-) It is very good - a friend got me into it and I laughed at her.... the same friend then sent me a 10k one and I'm still looking very nervously at the later weeks and thinking something along the lines of errrr yeh.... ;-) But hey, she managed it and if she managed it then I can! She now considers running 5k to be a quick jog around the block rotten moo.

DanB, it will come :-) Don't forget to do reverse crunches as well as straight ones or you'll get all uneven. Its more about technique than number - I struggled with 10 when I started them but now can do quite a few more and they pull you in pretty quick - make sure you exercise your back too though, very important!

Lmao, yes, I felt a bit like that :-) They are great though, neoprene are the best imo, they don't make you sweat and fit well - most of them have reflective areas too so that if you're running later in the year you get spotted!

You can do yes, I actually brought a runner's bumbag - that way I keep my key in it, some change, and my phone and ipod :-) The armbands are great but I don't have one, know plenty of people who do - whichever you use it keeps things out of the way so that you can move easier.

Yay, go DanB :-)

Sneaks, do you have an ipod or a smart phone? If so then you can download either a podcast or an app which will tell you the times :-) Either that or yes, you can glance at your watch as you're running. The podcasts are apparently great, music going, voice telling you when to run, when to walk.

and ps... its not up and down... its figure of 8 :p

Lol, Sneaks dear, you soon get so that you don't really care what people think ;-) You're the one out there working off the cheesecake and they are the ones in their cars - plus they pass you really quick and would most likely think, flipping heck, wish I could be like her :-) ooooh don't worry about the saggage - you need an extremely firm support (sports bras come in different levels of bounce control) there are ones especially for runners but on a running forum I belong to (yes I'm sad and procrastinate there too) they are recommending one from M&S for excellent control and no movement for even very well blessed girls :-) Trust me, when you get the girls in one of them they go NOWHERE ;-) Getting them in is another matter and if you take up yoga for a few weeks so you can do contortionism its helpful lmao :-) The thing is that on programmes that are designed to take you from being a couch potato to running 5k it starts slowly and builds very very gradually so you don't even realise you're doing it. I'm on a 10k programme now and working my way up to that, will run around 6k this pm - I couldn't run full stop, never have done even at school (forged sicknotes are a great and wonderful thing) until around March of this year, and only really got going around May. I've entered a 10k race in Oct and plan to be there by then - its great :-) Trouble is you become somewhat of an endorphin junkie 8-)

I've gone more onto maintainence now (I'm doing weightwatchers) but I'm also working out like a thing possessed a) to procrastinate and stop me writing quitting emails to my sup, and b) to tone up - I've gone from just under 14 stone to 9st8lb. I've been doing the couch 2 5k running programme and can highly recommend it! Love running now in an S&M sort of way...

And Sneaks, how can you not like the biscuit bit??? Its the best bit of a cheesecake - I eat the rest to get it out of the way and save that for last!!! That's another thing, lost 4 stone now, down to skinny bi*ch status (well nearly) and just want to eat a whole bar of galaxy (and now there's talk of cheesecake I'm really suffering) but if I do then I will explode back to solar eclipse from my backside status and then I'll be even more volatile

Don't talk to me about PMT - I'm on the verge of thowing the whole goddam PhD in today and I'm sure its down to it rapidly approaching the wrong time of the month :-s I'm normally not this bad but today, well, **** the lot of it - or maybe it is the Phd, I don't know, all I know is that I'd rather roll in fox poo myself than sit here. I've done sweet fa all day, just sat and stared at my computer thinking mutinous thoughts and preparing emails to my sup consisting of **** this, I'm outta here (then deleting them). I think I've scared the kids, threatening to leave home got them to be quiet for 10 mins..... grrrrrrrr I would say roll on the menopause but what joy that will be!!! Hot flushes, mood swings extraordinnaire, becoming a dried out old prune - can hardly wait..... men are so darned lucky rotten sods - they don't have any of this cr*p that we have to suffer - to top it all my boobs are killing me, I've got a headache and want to just kill some ignorant sod that really deserves it!
And breath.....(sprout)

I didn't get one :-( rejection hurts in a big way (sprout) Shall we all spam her email address with photos of sprouts? 8-)

I tend to treat them with the contempt they deserve, or completely confuse them by saying, no, I'm going to be the 'real' Dr, an MD's title is purely honourary, they aren't actually Drs in the true sense - gets them every time :-) it does drive me nuts too though, if one more person says it to me with that sideways tilt of the head and condescending smile I'm very likely to be making a special appearance on the 6pm news!

Yay, that's brilliant news :-) great result, hope it turns up, and, oh look... you even got your own piece of spam too ;-) Yours is tame though, seems to be some kind of prostitution/dodgy dating site according to other pains our latest little troll has made!

======= Date Modified 31 Jul 2010 15:17:02 =======
Good heavens! Someone has posted a load of utter tripe on several threads! MODS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please remove these stupid posts!

I'm quite shocked reading this - for a start my sup is dyslexic and makes no attempt to cover it up and is very open about it - that hasn't stopped him rising through the ranks to prof, publishing heaven only knows how many articles/books etc. Another of the PhD students I know is also dyslexic but she had the opposite problem, they had suggested that maybe she wasn't cut out for this apparently as she was having so many problems when it was suggested she spoke to student support - was given a test, found to be dyslexic, now has equipment provided, proofreaders etc and the sups have been nothing but supportive of her and are stunned by how changed her work is now that she has the tools she needs to write effectively. I've never seen (certainly in our dept and we're humanities) anything other than complete support at both under and post grad level and students are encouraged to disclose if they think they have a problem and get tested. Obviously they can't use it as a excuse for sloppy work (typos etc) but they are helped to get it all sorted and learn strategies to help themselves. That a student is being penalised for something like dyslexia is like a student in a wheelchair being encouraged to back out of a degree due to the lecture being on the 2nd floor and the uni refusing to provide lifts - utterly unheard of and illegal!