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This morning I did my fifth Couch to 5k run in nine days. I have now run in public for 41 minutes longer than I have ever run in public before.

After last Saturday's debut, the rest of the week passed without incident. In fact, the biggest problem I had was faffing about trying to get the correct episode of the podcast to play. A couple of times it randomly shifted as I was putting it in my fetching bum bag.

For two runs last week, I had a partner, but she had to retire with honour on medical grounds.

So today I had to decide whether I would step up to Week 2. In favour was that I had done Week 1 4 times rather than the regulation 3 and it certainly was getting easier and I could complete it without too much pain. Against was getting to the end of a 60 second run and being far from convinced that I had another 30 seconds in me, even if you only had to do it 6 times rather than 8. Also against was the fact that I was hungover as hell after a Eurovision party last night.

However, that hangover became a positive because I reckoned if it was going to hurt anyway, I might as well try the step up. It was easier than I thought, although by Run 6, I really was flagging.

Laura is full of wee tips this week. She tells you to make sure that your heel hits the ground first and tells you to breathe in for four steps and out for four steps. Does she not realise how difficult it is just to keep putting one foot in front of the other without having to think about your breathing as well? Having said that, trying with varying degrees of success to control your breathing does make the time go by a little faster.

I did make one mistake, though, after I came home, but I'm not sure whether that was sitting down in the first place or trying to get up afterwards. My thigh hurts like hell.

I am doing a series of stretches before and after running - the lungey one, the one with your leg out to the side, the one where you try not to fall over while you bend your leg up to your bum and the one that stretches your calf.

I've had this account for years and use it mostly for commenting. Maybe I should actually write about some stuff. I do a lot of blogging elsewhere so I think this should maybe be more about everyday life rather than politics.

If you don't know me, I should explain that I'm a mum to an 18 year old son with Asperger's Syndrome who is the bravest person I know, a servant to a very beautiful Springer Spaniel called Hazel, a Doctor Who fan with a special interest in 4, 7, 10, 12 and 13 and a Lib Dem who has devoted more time and energy than could ever be considered healthy to the party over the last few decades.

Those are some of the things I might write about here. Gin might be another. I do love the stuff. I'm not quite as well-versed as my friend who has an actual spreadsheet with the 70 odd gins he owns with the appropriate tonic and garnish for each one.

I'm sure even the kindest of my friends would agree that there is a hint of weird eccentricity about me. Well I've embarked on what has to be my craziest venture yet. I've been threatening to do Couch to 5k for a while and now that Spring has sprung, I'm at the end of my excuses for avoiding it.

So, I bought a little thing to put my phone in and some very pretty running shoes and set off, listening to the podcast. I like the way it's all set out for you, with music and everything. And I suppose I can actually get the appeal of running, enjoying outside with the wind in your hair.

I felt that for about the first 30 seconds of the first run.

Then it started to feel a bit more like work. However, I managed, to my great surprise, to get through 8 lots of 60 seconds running and 90 seconds brisk walking. I have to say that Jacob Rees-Mogg would have disapproved of my last run - which was really a Run In Name Only.

I've never run for 8 minutes in my life before. Running has been reserved for when I fear the ice cream van is about to head off, or my to the second time management to get to the train has proved a bit suspect.

I sweated real sweat so I feel like I have actually done some exercise. I expected them to ease you in a bit more gently, I have to say. These were four year old after a day on the e-numbers steps, not baby steps as far as I'm concerned.

So I have to do it all again on Monday. I'm not going to put myself any pressure to do it at all or to do it within the 9 weeks - I can see myself repeating weeks to make it a bit more comfortable. I'd like to get to the end of the Summer a bit fitter and to lose some of the weight I've piled on since Christmas.

I have to justify the investment in the running shoes - although they are worth it for prettiness alone.

My enjoyment of Popstar to Opera Star was rudely interrupted by an advertisement I hadn't seen before for a brand of Follow-on formula which had me seething.

Follow-on milk is to my mind an invention of the Prince of Darkness himself. Babies simply don't need their systems assaulted by loads of iron that they can't deal with efficently.

The main point of the advert was to make us think that our babies desperately need iron. How in the name of the wee man we manaaged to survive successfully as a species for thousands of years without artificial baby milk containing iron supplements is beyond me!

The idea that babies need iron supplements, whether they are fed human or formula milk is ridiculous. Most full term healthy babies will get enough iron from their normal diet. What is particularly scurrilous about follow on milk is that it gives parents a false impression that their baby is somehow going to need extra iron that their milk can't give.

Sure, there's not a lot of iron in human milk, but, nature, being clever like it is, provides it in a form which is easily absorbed by the baby's system. In fact, around half of the iron in human milk is easily and unobtrusively absorbed by the baby. Follow on formula is the equivalent of weeding your window box with a bulldozer. It marches in with its tackety boots into the baby's system, and only around 4% of the iron it contains is actually absorbed. If a baby is receiving human milk as well as the follow on formula milk, the good work the human milk does is undermined by the onslaught of the formula. The proteins which bind iron in the baby's gut are overwhelmed and can't work as well.

Generations of babies have survived without this stuff, and a hundred or two hundred years ago, their lives were a lot more physically active than our's.

So what's the attraction to the manufacturers of this stuff? Well, the strict rules on the marketing of breast milk substitutes don't apply to them. That's why you see the adverts with the rosy cheeked happy looking babies which are banned for first stage formula milks. That's why you see follow on milk on promotions in the supermarket.

I think that follow on milk is nothing more than a blatant ploy by artificial baby milk producers to get round the marketing code. I've been concerned to hear health professionals advocating its use and even recommending that it replaces breastfeeding. I would say to any mum who is told this and is worried by it to ask for her baby's iron levels to be tested and not to give iron supplments of any kind unless there is a clinical reason for doing so. Don't be fooled by clever marketing.

If you're interested in any of the issues around the marketing of infant formulas, have a look at the Baby Milk Action website. It has a specific section on follow on milk here.

How sick are you of hand wringing Labour cabinet ministers appearing before the Chilcott Enquiry and saying, um, well, we really weren't happy at the time, but, well, um? Clare Short is the worst and most annoying example so far, but Jack Straw doesn't come out of it covered in glory either. Geoff Hoon feared that the Army wouldn't be able to cope.

I'm probably more annoyed with Clare Short than anyone else. I thought better of her than to say this on 10 March but to capitulate to Blair's wishes a week later on the eve of the Parliamentary debate. I'll tell you what, there's no way I'd have sat around in the Cabinet if I felt that the leadership were going to do something wrong and reckless, especially if they'd made the decision in the derisory and dismissive way Clare Short described. You wouldn't think from the way she spoke today that her decision to back the war helped reinforce the Government's position.

There had already been one resignation from the Cabinet - Robin Cook was prepared to put his principles into action. One of two more would have seriously undermined the case for war.

Of course, as Alistair Carmichael pointed out, Blair was aided and abetted by Iain Duncan Smith's Tories who voted virtually unquestioningly for the war, even though now they're pretending that they were critical all along. This is the same IDS who's so out of step with Tory thinking that he's being touted for a job in a David Cameron cabinet.

All in all, I'm just fed up of people who should have known better at the time trying to extricate themselves from any blame for the consequences of their actions. Clare Short needs to wake up to her collusion in a war that killed 179 of our soldiers and heaven knows how many Iraqi civilians, that made us less safe, and reduced our standing in the world.

Current Mood: annoyed

I'm almost scared to write this in case it all goes horribly wrong again, but I have to give credit here it's due. We appear to have heat again. And hot water! Don't think I've forgotten how utterly useless Homeserve and their agents Vaillant (proper spelling this time) were yesterday. I won't, not for a long time. They have, though, redeemed themselves today.

However, I got an e-mail to the blog e-mail address from one of the managers in Vaillant saying that they wanted to restore my faith in the company. I replied with a little more detail than I gave here yesterday and they sent somebody out this evening. The poor man who was sent out was one of their senior technicians who covers all of Scotland but, fortunately, lives a few miles up the road. He could not have been nicer and he left he his mobile number without being asked and without checking whether I was a scary stalker who would ring him in the middle of the night, which, for the avoidance of doubt, I would never do. I'm quite protective of people's work life balance even if I don't tend to practice what I preach myself - which is partly why I'm in the health mess I'm in at the moment.

Thankfully the problem seems to have been easily resolved - although there may be another one which isn't covered by the contract (but may be by another contract I have).

I am wondering, though, how many people put up with terrible service every day. I will be watching out for Homeserve and their agents from now on, given that everyone who replied on various internetty places who had ever had anything to do with them said they were various degrees of bloody awful. Useless was the best assessment of their performance I got.

I said to them in my e-mail to them today that I wanted them to use my feedback to provide a better service for everybody. The two people I've dealt with today were really good and made a big effort, despite the fact that the original problem had nowt to do with them. The guy who came out went out of his way to do and it is very much appreciated.

One amusing legacy from the last few days is that Anna has made it quite clear that she likes the hot water bottle lark and wants one tonight despite the fact that it's warm again.

Current Mood: Warm!
Current Location: In the kitchen
Current Music: None