My bum looks amazing! And sadly I'm not referring to its tone after nearly a year of fairly consistent training, but instead the mass of swelling and bruises adorning it after taking a spill during the sportive on Sunday. I seem to have a melon attached to my hip. I also have a crushed helmet, a bruised head and numerous small amounts of road rash. And I can barely move for the pains in my back.

However, after 2 hours spent in A&E yesterday morning, I have been reassured that it's all muscle and soft tissue damage so I'm obliged to pop hefty painkillers and administer copious amounts of frozen peas. Luckily I still have my crutches from my windsurfing accident last year, which makes getting around the flat easier. And the added benefit of a brilliant mum who has dropped everything to come and help me out for a couple of days.

I can't decide what I'm most annoyed about; ruining my training schedule, the damage to my body or the fact that if I hadn't fallen, I would have got a gold finish time in the sportive. I'd hooked up with 3 other Serpentine riders and we were really flying for most of the course, looking set to come in at about 5 hours 10, with the women's gold being 5:20. But 10 minutes spread across the tarmac, and 15 miles labouring slowly up the final hills with much resulting pain meant that I lost 20 minutes or more. So I have to accept 10th women's place (out of 33) instead of the 4th I would have got if I'd have maintained our pace throughout.

I need to be glad I wasn't the guy we saw 5 minutes later in the neck brace being air-lifted off the course though. And I need to be glad that I didn't take out the guy in front of me as I thought I would. I was slipstreaming him at close quarters at about 20mph and achieved overlap. Instead of braking and ruining my rhythm, I eased off pedalling but didn't drop back as quickly as I thought. And suddenly I could see his back wheel edging towards mine and knew that if I left it one more second we'd both be on the ground. So I swerved to my right but the tarmac was so slippy that my wheels just vanished underneath me and dumped me on my left hip on the tarmac. My hip hit first, and then my head, and then I was flipped upside-down and ended up on my other side. Initially I thought the impact must have cracked my pelvis but when the pain subsided a bit, and I heard one of my teammates on the phone asking for an ambulance, I decided I'd better try standing and establish whether I actually needed one. So with a lot of help I got myself back on the bike and finished the course. Slowly, as aforementioned.

When I got back to the finish I'd already stiffened up significantly. I was standing there astride my bike attempting to dismount with not much success, getting more and more embarassed as I first tried standing on my bad leg and lifting the good one over the back (too painful) and then standing on my good leg and lifting the bad (too painful). Eventually a team-mate saw my strife and helped me out so I could hobble over to the sunny lawn and inspect my war wounds over team sympathy and chocolate cake.

Aside from the crash, I was chuffed to have been on reasonable form, especially after a lethargic week and my worries about a pulse in the doldrums. We averaged almost 19mph up to the first checkpoint 30 miles in. I even took my turn on the front, to ensure I wasn't regarded as a freeloader! It was great to be in such an evenly-matched group with some really good guys. Sportives (I've decided, in my vast experience of 2) are long and a bit gruelling, so the society of a small group is exactly what you need to keep you going. Quite apart from the physical benefits of sharing the work to increase the pace.

It was a lovely day for it too; not even a hint of the forecast deluge that would inevitably have ruined our day; but instead bright sunshine and some gorgeous views over the Wiltshire countryside. A really great day actually, apart from the obvious.

Must go on Wiggle and order a new helmet.

Roj also loved his mountain biking foray on the South Downs on Saturday. Again - gorgeous weather for it and a result that far exceeded his expectations after the minimal long-distance training he's done this year. 52 miles on a mountain bike is pretty impressive any day. Good for him.

So ... my mum's here and helping out, especially with the school run and the constant fetching of little things that I can't carry. And I'm getting a lot of deja vu from last June, hobbling around the place making that distinctive clickety noise that crutches do. I need to recover now: I can't afford to spend weeks making small gains. I need to be OK for the Fred Whitton on the 11th. 12 days and counting!

Training Diary 21-27 April
M: Rest day
T: Swim 45 min
    15 min run to spin
    60 min spin
    20 min run from spin
W: 6.6 mile run @ base endurance. Very low energy. 58 mins.
T: 1h 20min gym transitions: 10 min cycle + 10 min run x 3.
    45 min swim
F: 45 min fartlek run.
S: Rest day
S: White Horse Challenge. 150km cyclo-sportive. 5:30:31. 10th woman out of 33. 187th of 500. Should have been 4th!

Total: 11h 38m

Chronically tired this week, both in training and in general life. Got up for early runs on Wednesday and Friday and had some interrupted sleep during the week which obviously didn't help but doesn't entirely explain the problem. I think I need professional guidance with my training plan so that I can train a bit smarter and not have these ineffective weeks where I'm too lethargic to train at full capacity. Maybe start looking at online training diaries. Otherwise I just stick to nearly the same old workouts week after week and end up in a state of chronic exhaustion. Not great.

Went to the dentist this week too, and got thoroughly abused for 2 hours while he fixed up two old fillings (extortionate gold inlays to follow). My entire mouth was numb for about half the day, and when the feeling was coming back, I felt a specific pain in my lower jaw. It was a niggling feeling like I'd pulled something so eventually I had a peek and discovered that he'd left a great big cotton wool roll in my mouth between my tongue and my teeth. Which would have been good if it had dislodged and I'd swallowed it while my mouth was so numb. Dur.

Miles has a new bug. Streaming nose and croaky throat. How many days til I get it? 1, 2, 3? Very frustrating as I'm just celebrating a return to normal health and hoping to get rested before Sunday's sportive. But last night he spent the whole night crying and coughing in our bed which I'm sure was even more appreciated by Roj who had an early start this morning to get the train down to Winchester for the 54 mile South Downs Way mountain bike ride that he's doing with VOTwo today. At least the weather's perfect for it; it's going to rain for my ride tomorrow!

I suppose it's inevitable that Miles picks something up in his first week back at nursery but I wish he was a bit more resilient (and me, for that matter). I'll have to crack open the Vitamin C and echinacea.

It is, nevertheless, nice to be back to the normal routine. I've been able to catch up with a few of our regular friends this week (holiday is a bit of a social wasteland at times), and Miles is so happy in his new class at nursery that it's a real pleasure to pick him up at lunchtime and witness his tangible pride. He's even - through peer pressure I think - learning not to be afraid to sit on the toilet although nothing is yet forthcoming. We're taking it slow!

Jody on the other hand, is supremely tired when it comes to pick-up time, and although I've been scheduling some low-key activities in the afternoons, it's apparent that she's not yet ready for them. She had a proper toddler tantrum in the garden on Tuesday afternoon when another little girl's croquet set was confiscated (you have to question the sanity of croquet mallets for 3 to 5-year-olds) and on Wednesday when I kept her inside, she spent the whole time storming off to her bedroom for one reason or another. Thursday she had friends over and ended up emptying half the contents of her entire room onto the floor for no reason other than to make a mess, then crying inconsolably when I demanded for it to be cleared up before there was any more television. Hopefully in a couple of weeks she'll have adapted back into school life so it's a little more amenable for everybody in the afternoons!

Miles and Jody have had their first dual swim lesson though, which was a success. Lovely for me to be able to kill two birds with one stone, and reassuring for them to see each other in the pool. Must buy a wetsuit for Miles though, who spent the whole second half shivering. Jody meanwhile, swam 40 yards unassisted which is pretty good going. I love seeing how confident they both are in the water and look forward to progress.

Otherwise still putting up with builders, although the roofers have been thankfully absent this week. The bathroom is no closer to completion but at least our sanitary-ware is now ordered. Hopefully things will start happening next week.

A good weekend. We even saw some sunshine on Sunday in the New Forest where we met up with Will, Pippa and kids. Spent an hour lingering around a little stream where the 3 girls and Miles got drenched and stripped off to rolled-up trousers and vests in the heat. Lots of cycling achieved and a few inevitable falls and upsets, but generally a very pleasant afternoon preceded by a reasonable pub garden lunch.

Baby Charlie is so cute, reminding me of Miles with his relaxed demeanour and big grin. Not as huge mind you (you can tell because he's wearing Miles's clothes), but very similar. It's probably the closest I come to wanting a 3rd when I meet a babe so utterly content to just be. Not very close though; while I think it would be lovely to be surrounded by a whole horde of kids, I don't think it would be fair on anyone to increase the size of our own brood. I can barely cope with 2, and being a control freak I hear alarm bells very loudly ringing at the thought of more. (Talking of hordes and broods CONGRATULATIONS to Adam and Sam on news of their bump).

I had a harebrained scheme to set off early on my bike on Sunday and meet Roj somewhere around Winchester. Good on paper, but the A30 is just a dull fast flat A road which gave me a big ache between my shoulder blades and something similar on my bum. Within half an hour I knew it would be a tedious ride, and I spent the latter half quietly swearing to myself in frustration. I just had to accept that it was pure mileage points and hope that I would reap rewards later. At the moment I still feel pretty lethargic and tired on the bike so it's hard to see that happening, even though I'm aiming for a reasonable result (whatever that may be) at the White Horse Challenge next Sunday.

Finding it quite hard to accept discrepancies in training availability between myself and my designated training buddies. I know that's a ridiculous claim because my life has to revolve around the timetables of my children and I have chosen for it to be so. And also because I haven't committed myself to a full-time athletic career ... at the end of the day I'm just doing this for my own catharsis. But I still get pangs of envy when people post enormous workouts that I can't hope to achieve without a full-time nanny. Silly really, because there are plenty of people doing less and when I examine it I do feel privileged to be able to fit in what I can ... but there's still a small competitive part of me that wants to keep doing more and more and more; that wants to do the maximum amount of training possible and reap the maximum rewards. It's something I will just have to make my peace with.

It took me 2.5 hours yesterday to book accommodation and travel for the Fred Whitton Challenge. I can't believe it was so convoluted but I ended up - would you believe - booking 3 successive train tickets before I got a time that gives me a safe margin before the closing of my car hire company on Saturday afternoon. So that's 2 lots of £5 administration charge lost (even though I can't believe the tickets had been printed and sent in the 5 minutes it took me each time to change my mind about my booking). Anyway ... it doesn't matter; it's all booked now and I can look forward to a 5 hour trip each way on that weekend in May, not including transfering between mediums. It will be worth it, I keep telling myself, to get the chance to brutally abuse myself on the vicious passes of the Lake District. My brother and I have worked out that despite doing the ride together, we will not actually see each other (neither the day before nor the morning of the event) until, possibly, the final pass. That's what happens when one of you is a female plodder and the other a human torpedo!

Miles went downstairs at nursery today for the first time with the 'big kids'. He'd been meagrely prepared for the event by myself and his various teachers but apparently enjoyed it enormously. Another milestone passed. It was nice to have the morning to myself for the first time since March. Easter has been a rather prolonged event due to the staggered holidays, and I've been looking forward to the return to routine. I took advantage with 45 minutes in the pool but my mind was on other things and I felt like a drunken spider trying to get my stroke under control. But I persisted until the onslaught of elderly swimmers for aqua class, whereupon I retired to the more favourable confines of Pain Quotidien for coffee with my favourite blogging friend Kristen. Once again I felt our 75 minutes lamentably insufficient to discuss all of our woes and wished we could make a more regular thing of it. She's been coming in for some serious flak over her blog recently, and unfairly so, so we had plenty to dissect.

And the builders are back, which leads to a sinking feeling in my gut, especially after Olga did such a good job of cleaning up yesterday. I expect they'll be in for a good 3 weeks now too, finishing off that 2nd bathroom at the back of the flat. I can't wait to see it done, but I wish we could be somewhere else during the process. I feel utterly smothered by tradesmen at the moment.

Training Diary 14-20 April
M: Rest day
T: 15 mins run to spin
    60 min spin
    20 min run from spin
W: 95 min run @ base endurance
T: 80 min transition intervals in the gym: 10 min bike + 10 min treadmill x 3. Tempo/race pace
F: 56 min run @ base endurance. 6.6 miles.
S: 75 min run with 3 x 3km pieces @ half marathon pace with 3 min recovery jog inbetween. 14:07; 15:07; 15:00.
S: 3h 50m bike @ base endurance; London to Basingstoke/Winchester. Lots of traffic lights & boredom. Approx 52 miles.
Total: 10h 31m

I've had enough of seeing a 5 on my alarm clock. By mid-afternoon I'm ready for bed. Can't wait til next week when I can fit my workouts in at human o'clock for at least 3 days in the week. This morning I saw 4 people on Hampstead Heath for my long run. It's an amazing place to be at that time in the morning; you almost feel like you're in the middle of the country. But the vulnerable female in me (it's there somewhere!) feels vulnerable and female when it's so desolate.

I set my alarm for 6:10 to go swimming yesterday and didn't even wake up. The half-sleeper in me turned over and switched it off and then next realised it was 6:25 and too late to go. I was relieved to some extent because although I enjoy swimming and always try to fit in at least 1 session a week, the early morning pool is overcrowded and frantic and I much prefer to work on my technique. What's the point of ploughing up and down endlessly when you're doing it wrong? Obviously when it comes to racing I will be required to plough endlessly, but for now I'd rather consolidate my technique and work on my aerobic fitness elsewhere. I can feel my concentration slipping even after half an hour in the pool so I don't tend to do sessions that last longer than 45 minutes. I just don't see the point (until the Serpentine opens, that is, so I can return to the freezing cold open-water wetsuit sessions I enjoyed so much last year).

I did do spin though yesterday, and a particularly hard and ruthless session it was too. The masochist in me loves spin; it's an absolutely no-escape hour of pushing yourself way out of your comfort zone ... while listening to a rocking soundtrack and a quite charismatic teacher. I think it's had a good impact on my training regime too, to incorporate that hour of tempo/race-pace work on a bike.

I'm finally getting my compact crankset fitted this Friday too, which should help me a little in the big hills. With the Fred Whitton approaching I feel I could do with all the assistance I can get.

The builders have nearly finished our first bathroom. The shower is absolutely amazing and the tiles and sanitary-ware look pristine and stylish. Such a change from the ancient beige carpets, the chipped dated basin and the loo seat that looks like it came from the dark ages. We've even added some electric under-floor heating so that it takes the cold edge off the porcelain. Lovely. Can't wait for bathroom 2 to be finished too, but that might take another few weeks and a second mortgage. I have no idea how these property developers you see on telly manage to do a whole renovation project for £25k. They obviously aren't contending with London fees.

Talking of builders, we also have a team on our roof at the moment, with scaffolding up the back of the building. They're replacing the entire roof (long overdue, as evidenced by the buckets of water we collect in the loftspace every time there's a decent period of rain). There's a lot of dust coming through our halogen light holes; leaks over the weekend and masses of disruptive banging. At lunchtime today I moved Miles from his chair to mine - at the edge of the room - because I was scared someone was going to come through the roof on top of him. I felt like an over-protective idiot until about 2 minutes later I heard this:

"Oi mate, you don't wanna stand there."
"What? Why?"
"You'll go straight through. You need to stay on the rafters mate."

Confidence-inspiring as you can imagine. Luckily this latest team doesn't have to access the flat, although that will change in a couple of weeks when they're obliged to gain entry to insulate the loft space. Can't wait until they're actually in my flat ... I feel uncomfortable enough when they're separated from me by a thin layer of plasterboard.

Jody seems to be enjoying being back at school. She's in a lovely mood when I pick her up (as long as I feed her quickly) and delighted to arrive in the morning. She was even pestering me yesterday morning to do her hair so that she could be ready to go. Which is an interesting reversal of roles.

And Miles is very amenable at home, despite necessarily being confined to the inside most of the time (weather and builders). At last he's catching up on his sleep too, which helps him regain his relaxed and contented personality after the emergence of his inner monster last week.

Completely wore myself out yesterday. Expected a little group of riders as normal on Sundays, but it ended up being just 2 of us. Having already rode with Jon on the Hell of the Ashdown sportive I didn't think there'd be a problem, but clearly the 5 weeks I've had off through illness since then, coupled with him peaking in his early season training (with both marathon and half marathon personal bests achieved in the last 3 weeks), meant that I was absolutely blasted into oblivion. I didn't feel the energy and speed I normally do on the bike, and struggled all the way around to maintain his pace (failing miserably on the hills). Although it was a good ride and I was glad to be out, I felt utterly demoralised at this loss of form. I was kind of hoping that despite the weeks off, I'd have been able to maintain form since January but clearly I'm way behind now with a lot to do to make up lost ground.

Still, at least I got out on the bike, and since I left the house at 7:15, I was back at lunchtime with nearly 6 hours under my belt. We did manage to average over 25kph for the 4.5 hours we were riding together, which is a decent pace for the undulating ride, but I had to put in 100% to manage it. To the detriment of the whole of Sunday afternoon where I could barely lift myself from the sofa (except to make roast beef and Yorkshire puddings!) We also got thoroughly bombarded and soaked during vehement hail and rainstorms in the latter half of the ride, so I returned with numb hands and feet. Submersion in the bath was the only antidote.

I was so tired yesterday afternoon that I forgot to seal the beef, and worse, I put the kettle (the electric kettle) on the hob. I was concurrently sorting out a saucepan in which to par boil the potatoes and the kettle in which to boil the water, but got them mixed up. The smell of melting plastic alerted me pretty quickly to my mistake and luckily I managed to remove the kettle before plastic started dripping all over my beautiful hob, but I certainly got awarded stupid points for that one.

Saturday was a bit of a contrast to our normal activities. The driving was a lot of fun - amongst others Jaguar XKRs, Porsche 911s, Caterham Superlight 7s and a single-seater Jaguar model which is a scaled down version of an F1 car. I really loved the Renault Clio which, as the only front-wheel-drive car, stuck to the road no matter how aggressively you used the throttle or the steering wheel. And I thoroughly enjoyed the Porsche, not least because I beat Roj and James on that round! I also had a lot of fun in the Caterham skidding around the wet dual-slalom type circuit. But the cars which most people love - the proper racing cars - I didn't really take to. I didn't particularly like my instructor in the 2-seater JP1, and especially his accusations when I span off. I enjoyed the single-seater a lot more but didn't find the commitment to push it really hard, and by halfway through my allotted circuits I was struggling to keep concentrating and not feel that it was all a bit repetitive.

It was a very entertaining day though, and I appreciate a new way of creating adrenaline from time to time, but I'm certainly not going to get hooked on motor sport. It was tiring too; given that we had to get up at 5:45 and didn't get back til 7pm. And our upper bodies were aching from the effort required just to keep the cars' heavy steering on track.

The kids had a good day with Maria. She seemed very hands-on and put the kids at ease from the word go. Given that she arrived at our house at 6:30 and spent over 12 hours with them, I think she was a bit of a star, and I won't hesitate to use her again should the occasion arise.

I'm saddened at the Mark Speight story. I suppose it's because I'm used to seeing his face on the kids' shows on CBeebies and I've always liked his charisma. It's just a sad story all around, from the death of his fiancée in January to what that clearly led him to last week. I'm sure all sorts of moral judgements and lessons could be quoted but deep down it's the pointless human tragedy that bothers me.

Jody's back at school tomorrow. I've got another week with Miles but I think we're all looking forward to getting back to normal. I particularly don't like having the kids at home when it's overrun by builders, because of having to keep them from interfering (the kids with the builders, not the other way around), and mainly confining them to the sitting room. I was aiming to go to Whipsnade today but I'm still waiting for my plumber to turn up and time is ticking on.

Training Diary 7-13 April
M: Rest day
T: 6.6 mile run @ tempo. 54 mins.
    15 min run to spin
    60 min spin
    20 min run from spin
W: 45 min swim
T: 90 min run @ base endurance
F: 55 min fartlek run
S: Rest day
S: Bike 5h 40 averaging 25kph. Undulating.
Total: 11h 19m

We've been living in noise and muck this week, while the builders have taken over our house and efficiently covered every surface in dust. If they'd done a shoddy job I'd be annoyed as hell, but when they say they contracted their best tiler, they clearly mean that we got their best tiler. He's done an absolutely amazing job in an oddly shaped bathroom with uneven walls. He didn't even bat an eyelid when we asked him to take out the shower tray and replace it with one 5cm wider. As long as we provided him with adequate tea and biscuits he was happy.

Next week we should have the sanitary-ware installed and maybe, just maybe, it'll be operational by Wednesday. It's a teeny room and I'm amazed that, along with the water system renovations, it's taken between 2 and 5 men between 5 and 10 days of flat-out work; 8am to 5:30. Amazed and impressed. Mind you ... we're paying for it.

Bathroom number 2 follows in a few weeks when the tiling god is available again. Which'll be just about the time I've managed to get rid of the last of the current dust. Sigh.

I've had to stick around the house a bit, keeping an eye on the building work and giving input where input was needed, which has meant we were confined to the house a little more than I hoped. But Monday the kids were so tired from the preceding week that it was no big deal to stick around and do indoor play. Tuesday we had dentist appointments (the kids have "wonderful" teeth, whereas I have to go back for a 2-hour appointment next week to get some of my antiquated fillings replaced. Sigh again.) Then we had Jody's hearing appointment at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital which resulted in a clean bill of health. Her hearing isn't outstanding but it's within the normal range and certainly isn't causing her problems. So it's her personality then, that causes this occasional lack of attention, which I'm sure is something she'll learn to control when she's a bit older.

Wednesday and Thursday we visited favourite playgrounds and I dealt (badly, I think) with super-tired Miles and his major tantrums en route home. The noise from the builders also means he can't have an afternoon nap as he still needs to do, so by 3ish, he's beyond tired. For some reason he chooses busy dangerous roads, and the exact second that there is a gap to cross, in which to pull back on my arm and like a stubborn mule refuse to move. This unnerves me completely. Twice this week I've ended up with small boy tucked under one arm (screaming and writhing), Like-a-bike and bags and coats tucked under the other, somehow trying to get myself and my two children safely home without breaking my back (Miles weighs 18kg now). Twice I've let Miles sob into the pavement while I sit there, not knowing how to solve the issue. If I pick him up and cuddle him, his issues evaporate, but I don't want to teach him that he gets hugs for irrational screaming. Yet the nurturer in me wants him to know that when he's tired and insecure he can rely on his Mummy. It's a toughie.

We went for tea at a friend's house on Thursday. Good to catch up but utter bedlam in a house full of 5 kids running amok. I am discovering that while I can reap the benefits of Jody being relatively biddable, it means that she can also be easily led astray. A slightly older kid with mischievous intent can whisper any kind of command which will be followed by much giggling and the execution of their secretive instructions. This does not bode well for the future! I also don't like her tendency to gang up on Miles when she's with older kids. She loves him to pieces when it's just the two of them but I've found on various different occasions that she can suddenly turn him into the victim of her games. At the moment that just means that he's the one that gets excluded or that he gets 'put in jail', but I hate to think what it could turn into later.

Today we met Rosie and little Charlotte at Kew Gardens which was very nice. I haven't been for years and although I sadly missed the Henry Moore exhibition that my brother raved about in January, I enjoyed the atmosphere there, and the tropical house and just generally hanging out and letting the kids enjoy a new outside environment. They even had a little temporary petting zoo set up where the kids could brush pigs and the donkeys, stroke rabbits and admire ducklings and chicks. Perfect.

Tomorrow we're going to race some fast cars in an elaborate corporate-entertainment-style event that Roj originally planned as a gift for his Dad. I'm not sure I'm looking forward to it but it'll probably be one of those things I love doing retrospectively. I'm nervous about leaving the kids with a strange nanny all day, but she comes highly recommended by a good friend so you can't get much better than that. Plus she won't need to do too much with them, even though she's with them all day.

And I'm going cycling on Sunday while the rest of London hosts the marathon. I can't wait. Feels like it's been an age.

Congratulations to Sven and Charlotte who got married on Saturday in a ruined unheated castle and a snowstorm! It was unique and memorable, and seemed to go without hitch (apart from my small musical fumble when the registrar - who I mistook for the bride - entered the room!) Lots of brilliant characters, amazing food and quirky details made the whole affair very intimate and warm. I loved watching Jody perform her bridesmaidly obligations, and loved being part of it myself, acting DJ with the iPod and reading W H Auden at the ceremony. And most of all I loved seeing my brother so happy. He deserves it.

I also loved going for a run with the bride and her gang of lady runners in the morning, which sped my metabolism enough to put me somewhere under the table halfway through the 8-course dinner! Amazing Dale views and plenty of mud puddles and icy slopes to make it precarious for all (only the bride fell over though, so we had to attribute it to pre-wedding nerves, not the conditions!); and a good mixture of leisurely gate-side gossip and killer hills made it a very satisfying session.

Sadly that was only one of 2 runs accomplished in the week since my throat and cold were still prevalent until the weekend. And a completely wasted trip for my bike - I didn't even manage to have the crankset swapped at my local bikeshop, as their workshop schedule was jammed. Gah.

Other things were accomplished though. We saw a little bit of Nana, Zoe and the new equine developments at their house, Jody putting welly prints in the concrete and both kids enjoying experiences on tractors and motorbikes. I had a lovely evening out with Milly to celebrate our birthdays which we swore to do every year (any excuse!), and between us all we enjoyed various small-scale birthday celebrations for Miles who turned 3 on the 4th (brilliant presents - thanks to all). Can my little boy really be 3 already? In actual fact he's seemed 3 for a while, since he already looks like a 5 year old, but it's amazing to think of all the things that have happened since he popped out onto the sitting room floor at Wimpole Street, and how he's become the cheeky little monster that he is today.

It was very good to spend a bit of time at my parents' new house, although I could perhaps have chosen a more appropriate time as they were obviously still frazzled from the move and feeling the prematurity of entertaining guests. Especially high maintenance ones, and Jody and Miles were certainly that as they raced around the building, threw toys around and refused to listen to good sense. As toddlers will.

They certainly enjoyed the freedom and attention though, and the house has a great vibe, except that it was all too easy to bask in the sunroom achieving nothing. Nice to have a guest room uninfested by arachnids too (so far), and a bathroom that doesn't involve the use of thermal yeti boots to retain body heat. Good to see the potential of my parents' relaxation there too, even if that depends on the as yet unaccomplished absence of builders.

The drive up to Yorkshire on Friday was rather eventful in a not-very-good way. The kids only slept for about an hour each, and exhibited their boredom in a vociferous way. From time to time I would turn the volume up on the radio high enough to blast them into submission, which usually ended up in fits of giggles.

10 minutes outside Wakefield (where we were visiting my 99-year-old grandmother en route), the travel art pack took its toll on poor little Jody with her first bout of carsickness since our trip to Sardinia. Unfortunately the warning was about 1 second too short to prepare the mini cool-keeper for her use, so the effluent ended up cupped in her hands, and covering just about every surface from bottom lip to toes. I then got lost trying to find our destination, assuring Jody of our proximity, while trying to supress my rage at the holdups on the M1, the poor route choice and the acrid stench of puke.

But the last part of the drive took the biscuit. I was due to pick Roj up from the train station in Darlington at 4:50. In a way it was good that he missed his train because it meant I still had time to visit Gran after the M1 holdup, but it was still annoying to elongate the day as we were aiming to use the hour before dinner for a little birthday cake. Given the timing I opted to drop the kids off at the reception venue (where we were staying for the weekend) with my parents rather than make them endure the extra mileage, and rang Roj to say I'd be 10 minutes late to Darlington. However, on arriving at the station (to a long and complicated taxi queue with absolutely no parking), it took 2 rounds of the station and 2 irate conversations with Roj before he sheepishly realised that he'd got off a stop early. Grateful that the kids were out of earshot, I demonstrated my knowledge of expletives and parked up in a side street where I discovered it wasn't worth hanging around for Roj to arrive on the next train (another 45 minutes), and that he'd be better heading straight back to the reception venue by taxi while I returned there alone. That way, we just about made our evening dinner booking for 7:30 rather than forcing the kids to eat an hour later.

I might have had a small chance at laughing it off if I hadn't already been in the car nearly 7 hours by then, surrounded by bored kids screaming blue murder, the less-than desirable fragrance, and then being abused by the yellings of an impatient husband. And he wondered why I didn't greet him with open arms and prolific affection after our week apart! Hmph! (Luckily a good run and a great wedding helped me get over it!)

So we're back in London now, to a house covered in builders' dust and full of workmen. It's too noisy for Miles to nap in the afternoon and too stimulating for either of them to behave properly, so I'm aiming to spend most of my time out until Jody returns to school next week. Unfortunately most of my friends are away on their Easter holidays now, so that might mean a rigorous schedule of kid-friendly cultural activities. Or just a lot of telly!

Training Diary 31 March - 6 April
(Still recuperating after flu bug)
Wed: 60 min trail run. Hilly.
Sat: 75 min trail run. 7.5 miles. Hilly
Total: 2h 15m

Training Diary 24 - 30 March
Zero (ill with flu bug. grr)