YNAB is a brilliant budget tool for your personal finances. Money is ugly stuff and we all hate getting to grips with it. YNAB is a really nifty way of dealing with it and it’s so simple your wife/husband/partner will love it too!

Really looking forward to version 3 so I can run it on my Mac. It’s coming out this month!

Check out all the details and learn about the four rules that will get you back on track. Easy.

http://www.youneedabudget.com/ynab-3/

Running in my giant brain hat!

I’m wearing my medal with pride today after finishing my half marathon yesterday morning

I reached my personal goal (just!) and got around the course in 2hrs 1min!

As you can see the giant brain hat that Caroline from Wicked made for me was brilliant!, and there are more photos here >

Overall our 57 brainstrust runners have raised almost £20,000 so far – it’s been a massive success! Check out our team’s page here. Thank you everybody for sponsoring me, I’ve managed to raise over £500 for brainstrust.

Strangely enough, despite what my two tired legs are telling me I’d do it all again next year.

And there’s still time to sponsor me!

My last run along the Southbank: 7.6km in 40 minutes (10.9km/h)

I’m very proud of myself – I ran 7.6 km in 40 minutes! From my flat to the National Theatre and back It’s got to be one of the most beautiful views in the world. Running along the Southbank at night is amazing.

I averaged 10.9km/h! A bit faster than I should run in the race on Sunday, but I felt great at the end of it. So I’ve quenched my fear and I’m not worried about the big day. Just need to keep an eye on my speed so I make it through the whole thing.

Fingers crossed!

I’m so proud of all the brainstrust runners. We’ve got 57 runners and they’ve raised over £16,000 already! Just totally brilliant and has really blown away our expectations. I’m very proud to be part of such a motivated group of people making a difference to brain tumour patients and their families. Go brainstrust!

Okay, they were indoor hills, on a treadmill, and not so much inclines as speed hills – but that aside it was a really good workout! Mike Cryne, friend and fellow runner, gave me this idea a while back and hopefully it’s doing my heart some good that will help me get through the big day.

I split my 6k run into two halves – run up for 3k, slow down and run up again. I did the first kilometre at 10km/h, second kilometre at 10.5km/h, and third kilometre at 11km/h and 12km/h for the last half kilometre. Then back to 10km/h for the second 3k and ran up my speed hill again.

This was really good for getting my heart rate up and gave me an opportunity to stretch out and take big strides. It was good fun using my two long legs

I ran 6km in 34 minutes 26 seconds (10.5km/h). I didn’t make the hill as steep as I first tried this out, and that really worked. 1 kilometre of really pushing up hill was enough. I’m still nervous of giving my left knee a pounding it won’t forgive. The problem being I don’t realise I’ve done it until after the run because during the run my knee doesn’t really play up.

All I have to do now is keep training and keep healthy for the race. There’s only 10 days to go!

Even though it’s quite dull doing lots of stretches to safeguard my knee from pulling tight and holding me back I’m not bored of it yet! Today I got down to the gym a little later than usual to do my routine 4k run, but I wanted to get done so threw a little bit of caution to the wind.

Thankfully my knee didn’t have too much to say for itself today. Although when my muscles had cooled down it did send me a few pangs of dull pain for good measure, just in case I dare forget what happened two weeks ago!

I ran 4k in 23 minutes 27 seconds (10.2km/h). It was a straight-forward run and I’m just hoping that the dull pain I got today doesn’t get stronger the further I run!

This week I ran 10km – back to my usual routine. It was good to get back to my running after two weeks of lounging around with a sore knee. Even better to manage two my runs at 10km/h without any distress. I’m entering the final countdown now for race day on 12th October. So fingers crossed my knee will stay quiet.

I’m incredibly proud to be part of the brainstrust team running in the Royal Parks Half Marathon. Amazingly we managed to secure 55 places in this, the first year of a new half marathon, and another 2 volunteers got places through the public draw and chose to run for brainstrust. That’s 57 runners altogether! Not bad for a dynamic young charity. It’s really fantastic to see how much support is being gathered in by this one event. So a big thank you to everyone taking part and everyone supporting our team.

With two weeks to go team brainstrust has just passed the £10,000 mark! Our aim is to raise over £15,000 for brain tumour patients.  You must check out my fellow runners for brainstrust. There are some amazing stories playing out around this big run.

Can you image a giant brain on top?

Anyway, back to my little run. I’m confident and definitely going to do my utmost on the day. Not to mention that I’ll be wearing a very special giant brain hat made for me by Caroline – a good friend and great costume supervisor I met during my time at Wicked.

Caroline has agreed to turn a simple white cap into a giant brain hat for my brainstrust run. A brilliant idea, although I’m still not 100% sure whether or not I will end up looking like a monster from a 1950’s horror b-movie!

This week I’ve also really pushed ahead with my sponsorship. I got round to splitting all my friends on Facebook into groups of 20 so I could send them all a message to ask for their support. Fingers crossed they’re feeling generous.

So just in case you, dear reader, have missed the opportunity. Here’s my Justgiving page – the easiest way to sponsor my half marathon

It’s amazing how closely you watch yourself after an injury. Today I spent my concentration on running as lightly as possible on the treadmill. My senses were alive like a giant dashboard listening for every sensation coming from my left knee as I ran as carefully as possible. When I rose out of this second-by-second immersion I was very happy. It looks like my knee will be fine after all!

I managed the run at 10km/h and all went well. True I didn’t feel I could open up fully to find my stride, but this will probably be a useful feeling to foster for the big day itself. There’s going to be a whole lot more track to cover than I ever have before in two weeks time!

I ran 4km in 23 minutes and 24 seconds (10.2km/h). It was rewarding to make it all the way through at 10km/h without any sign of pain – to be honest it was harder to hold myself back and not rush for the finish. In the end I gave in and ran the last half kilometre at 11km/h. Got to finish in style!

It’s my first day back on the treadmill after a lot of rest. My knee doesn’t hurt anymore, and hopefully it’s not about to start again!

All in all this was a really good run and felt solid all the way through. Coming back to running after a break, I enjoyed not being glued to the clock – time went more quickly than I remember. I started at 9km/h which felt easy and ramped up to 10km/h after a kilometre. That far my knee felt fine. Although I admit my knee didn’t keep quiet all the way through. However, in trademark style I couldn’t resist pushing up to 11km/h for the last 1/2km ;o)

The big thing about today was stretching. I have done some research into stretches for my iliotibial band (which is pulling tight and causing my knee pain), and found some that work a treat! Standing in the shower after my run I could feel both feet were flat on the floor. What a wonderful feeling! I might even try to explain which stretches work best for my fellow runners in the next newsletter we send out to our fantastic brainstrust team of 55 runners.

I ran 6km in 36 minutes and 24 seconds (9.9km/h) – not a big drop in performance. So I haven’t lost too much since I last ran. Yay! Bring on more training!

This week I didn’t run For the first time in 8 weeks I didn’t go anywhere near my trainers. It’s a shame but I overdid it last week with my 10k in an hour and I’m paying for it now. I’m somewhere between really happy with how far I’ve come and slightly worried that this problem will get worse. Although I definately have no doubt that I will get through and do my best on the big day.

I saw a trainer this week who treated my left leg and told me a funny story. He said:

“Lots of people ask me what I think of marathon running. And I always remind them of what happened in the original Marathon. The Greek soldier ran to announce the victory over the Persian and died as soon as he arrived!”

Well I can’t say I disagree with him, and clearly my left knee and leg would be much happier if I wasn’t doing lots of running. But I’m not about to give up.

Phidippides - the mythical Greek runner

I’ve decided what I need to do is run slower and be extra careful of my left knee. I’ve done some swimming this week and it has really helped relieve the tension imbalance that builds up in my hips and tightens my left leg. Apparently this is a very common problem and all to do with my iliotibial band – a common runner’s problem area.  So I’m going to push ahead carefully and I’ll let you know how I get on.