Today: The Comparison

London 2012 has thrown up alot of fantastic role models for the future stars  of GB athletics.

But what of the generation that is ‘past its peak’ as such? I would classify myself (at the ripe old age of 23) in this category.

However just like the younger generation I feel inspired, I have been running now since February and I have decided on a goal, 5k in 30mins or less, this is about 10 min miles or 6min km, which I think is pretty reasonable. Then I saw the Olympic world recird time… UNDER 15 MINS. No joke I actually felt like laughing, I couldn’t comprehend running that fast! Looking at the Likes of Mo Farah and Jessica Ennis (who did the 800m in 2:07 mins)  they just don’t look like they are going fast! I’m sure if they zoomed out on the TV shots a bit they would be going EPICALLY quick.

I feel very motivated to give it ago, not doing 5km in under 15mins, but hitting the 5km distance at least. Something which Charlie and I are training for (ish) Monday is Run 2min Walk 2min repeat 5 times. Which doesn’t sound that bad, but go and try it and NOT be out of breath by the end of it. It’s hard.

It’s weigh in day tomorrow, after the run and before dinner, I’ll try and keep you all posted!

I’m loving the fact that the Olympics bring out all the “Sunday league-ers”, All those who never watch sport normally, but instantly have an opinion and high level of knowledge about everything, I’m not immune, I just find it amusing how everyone seems to give a crap!

What’s even more funny is how people complain about what sports are in the Olympics, Football for example, is it necessary? Why is it different? Why should we let a bunch of whimps represent GB?

I just leave it, people think the same about Rowing, about Hockey, about Handball, about Table Tennis and shooting to name but a few. But this even is where everyone is on that level playing field (football has an age limit on, they are still athletes and more talented than anyone I have seen commenting on their skill or fitness). Everyone is at their peak and the world is watching. They want to impress, and even if they miss a penalty, they will still feel like they have lost it all.

Just remember if you start bad mouthing what someone does, just be prepared for them to say “Well you do it better”, Something that Rebecca Adlington pretty much said when she won Bronze, “I have just won Bronze in one of the hardest sports, I have done very well, Not many people can say that”.

Can you?

 

Today: Joining the Gym

Day three on the diet roadtrip…. [imagine that said in a slow northern accent like on the Big Brother house…]

I have had NO bread for 3 days, it’s actually pretty hard to cut it out completely… but i’m managing it 🙂

So far I have saved 2416 calories — which is the total of 2000 – my daily amount — and today I signed up to the gym 🙂 Now I get bored mega easy, So I just spend 10 mins on everything, which means I now hurt. But no pain no gain right!

And to add to my epic protein/lack/craving of bread diet, I went and had EXTRA HOT chicken at Nando’s. That’s right bitches…

So now just gotta see if it pays off at the end of week weigh in. But OMGOSH I have never wanted garlic bread and cheese more badly in my LIFE.

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Today: More Women in Science

Image via Wikipedia

I am currently sat in Week 6’s Discover! Club’s activity, which is adding a blog post commenting on what has been discussed in this presentation about how women are portrayed in Science.

As a woman in science I feel I could write about myself here, so engaging my ego as much as possible i think i will.

I’m a total science-crime-fighting-drama person (with a swing towards Grey’s Anatomy as well…. Patrick Dempsey = YUM!), we were talking today about how women can be portrayed in these drama’s. Personally I was (and still secretly am) a Stargate fan, I watch the series more than the poor excuse of a film, enjoying the primitive adventures they travel on whilst travelling through an interstellar transportation device called a Stargate.

Now actually studying for a physics degree i find it quite satisfying pointing out the mistakes, continuity errors and general scientific rif-raf that has been presented to me over 10 seasons of SG1, 5 seasons of Atlantis and the 2 series of universe.

Back on point.

There is a character in stargate that i can quite unashameably say is one of the main reasons i decided to study Physics and Astronomy at Cardiff University. That character is successfully portrayed by Amanda Tapping, and she pretty much plays my heroine. Dr Lt. Col. Samantha Carter:

Strong, emotional, clever beyond anyones dreams, can shoot things, gets with the hot guys, BRILLIANT.

It’s any wonder why i wanted to model myself on her!

I do think it depends on what you watch as to how the women are portrayed. Also some of the writers, I have noticed that whenever it is a female author of that episode, the women seem to be very domineering, intimidating, bitchy and very pretentious, compared to when the men write about them. Where it’s the other extreme (generalizing here boys)

The girls i am working with are all UK yr 9’s. 14 year olds, choosing their GCSE choices and probably spend a little bit more time watching TV than they should. They are easily influenced by the people they meet in their life, even though they wouldn’t admit it even when under torture (at least if there were any boys around). And probably even more affected by who they see on the TV.

Thankfully TV is alot more forgiving nowadays and the portrayal of female scientits is becoming alot more positive, than that nerdy girl in the corner.

The girls seem to be taking to the challenge quite well, listening around anyway -noticed that this is like a running commentary? LIVE BLOGGING PEOPLE! – o dear. I’m not sure about their takes on the subject at hand, but they certainly know who they want to write about, people from the BBC’s Coast – Dr Alice Roberts, People from Scrubs, other scientific things…. (i really need an Ipad or soemthing that i can walk around and actually see what people are doing) All for different reasons, why they look up to them, Why they don’t, whyt hey think they’re famous….

The posts are going to be uploaded to: http://morewomeninscience.blogspot.com

So have a read if you want.

The revellations may not end up in another book, but it may give people an insight that 14 year old girls may actually be affected by what’s shown on TV. But more postively than we give the directors credit for.

Hopefully it’ll inspire them to take up a passion for something that was dreamt up in a writers dream!

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