Well, as promised (to myself, if no-one else), I got my fat ass in gear on Sunday and went running for the first time in a while. I didn't go out for too long, but I got myself out and I was reasonably satisfied with how much fitness I'd managed to retain over my time off.

My time off from running consisted of consecutive weeks living away from home for work reasons, which is a bit of a nightmare when it comes to my running/weight objectives. It consists of eating too much - and eating the wrong sort of food - in hotels and restaurants, and getting much less exercise in than normal. During my two weeks away in India this was especially true. The food and drink there was absolutely top notch for the duration of my time there, and ridiculously cheap too - a seven course Italian buffet with a draught beer that we had one night came in at about seventeen quid. As far as exercise goes, it's pretty hard - you're either at the hotel, at the office, or in a car in between the two... not much walking.

The result of my time off isn't anywhere near as bad as feared. I'd lost about a stone since January's start of festivities, and while I've not been running I've only put a couple of pounds on. I'm still comfortably under 17 (yes, seventeen) stone which has to be positive (I started at 17 and a half). In my little 4K run on Sunday, I found it hard but not quite as hard as I feared. A positive, yet petite, return.

On Friday night, I met up with one of my best friends who is temporarily living locally. She really wants to do some running and so we're planning on going out together a few times a week (starting tonight, actually). Inevitably we got through all three bottles of wine in my fridge, and after much poking and prodding I agreed to join her for salsa lessons on Monday evening. I didn't really fancy it as I'm convinced that I'll be terrible at it and make a complete tit of myself, but I love my friend and she's doing it because she thinks I'll love it. And she's probably right. Salsa definitely counts as cross-training!

Monday evening came along very quickly, and I was gearing up for the session ahead and the inevitable loss of dignity. If I put my mind to it, I can become more comfortable with the idea of making a tit of myself - this actually helps me avoid making a tit of myself, and also helps me enjoy it more. I'd got myself pretty much in that zone. We were just about to leave when I got a phone call - a friend had been involved in a car collision and was looking for some assistance at the scene. I drove a bit quickly to the scene, and it was a bit fraught really. After taking her to hospital to get checked over (whiplash) there were a few other things that needed to be sorted out, and I helped out some of her friends get these done.

So I missed salsa. Friends obviously come first in situations like that, but I noticed that I felt a bit disappointed to miss salsa which was, in itself, a nice feeling considering I was decidedly against the idea originally. But, as you'd imagine, I mainly felt a bit jittery as a result of the evening's events and was more worried about my friend than anything else.

Tuesday was my next exercise opportunity, with an evening run planned. I had a window of running opportunity of about 90 minutes, which I was planning around my lovely chilli which I have now fully perfected. Just as I got the chilli ready for its 90 minutes of cooking, the heavens opened and a reasonably impressive storm commenced with plenty of thunder and lightning. I don't mind rain, but I won't willingly go running through a storm. Window missed, mission unaccomplished. But bloody hell the chilli was good.

After missing out on my Sunday run, and yesterday's aborted attempt, my friend and new-found running buddy is hopefully joining me for a run tonight. Let's see what drama will get in the way tonight!

Incidentally, now that I've started running again, I'm hoping to keep blogging regularly again too. I'll be blogging on Fetch first, although my blog entries will also find their way on my website and Facebook after a delay. I'm afraid there's really no escaping my mundane commentary on my running exploits now.