Politeness vs pb’s!

Two weeks to go until my next 10k! I love it when we get race things in the post, although this is the most minimalist race envelope- literally all it contained was the number. Not even a little leaflet with the event timings, or a map, or anything!

Yesterday morning I was up bright and early (before 6am) as Andy was off to the Grand Prix qualifying. So I decided to head off to Parkrun. When I woke up I was hungry, but I didn’t really want to eat anything before the run, as I sometimes feel a bit sick on the finish line (just from the effort I think) and just feel I generally run better before food. I did pack some water and a clif bar to have after, and decided I would just take it easy on the run and see how it went.

I glanced at my watch a few times and realised I was going quite fast- each time it was showing 8 something (at one point 8.05??). I was for a while right in front of a man who was grunting and groaning in a rather alarming fashion with each breath he took- I was trying to run faster to get away from him! He caught me up and apologised (I think I said something like “glad to hear you are putting all your effort into this” but really I was wishing he wasn’t! Thankfully I managed to pull away from him for the last mile and a bit. The route is along a path to the lake, around the lake 3 times, and then back along the path. By the time I got to the end of the lake section my watch only said 24 minutes, so then I had a panic that I was going to beat my best time. Does this happen to anyone else? I get it in races too- basically then I get an adrenaline rush, and then my legs so all wobbly. I was trying so hard to think about anything other than running as it was making the run super tough. I caught up with a couple of people, who I gathered were first timers from their talk. When you finish there is a little chute (two temporary fences set up parallel to each other)- you run through it and as you run in the front, the timer person presses their thing (a magic stop watch) to get your time, and the person at the end gives you your chip. Anyway, I think I could have overtaken them right at the end (although this could be hindsight as I was pushing hard), with a couple of metres to go, but I felt that it wasn’t actually a race, and it might come across as being a bit rude. But when they got to the chute they both stopped, so I had to stop right behind them, which probably only cost me a second, but it was a bit annoying! My watch said 27.10, but my official time ended up being 27.12 which was identical to my pb! What are the chances of that? At the end of the day it is just for fun, and there is always next time!

I had half the clif bar and some water, and pottered around for a bit before my shower, so breakfast wasn’t for ages! I made some peanut flour pancakes, topped with vanilla almond butter, and some blueberries which I cooked for a few minutes to turn into a sauce.

I had a pottering about day after that. I popped to the shops as I had a Holland and Barrett voucher to spend. I went in M&S to look for a belt, but came out with chocolate peanuts (better than a belt probably) and those little sock/tights things.

In Waitrose I spotted a new almond milk by Rude Health- I love their muesli’s and multigrain thins, so I am looking forward to trying this. It has brown rice in there too (for sweetness apparently), so it is not just plain almond milk. There was a rice and an oat one too.

I had some melon and strawberries while watching some Wimbledon. Then I went on a walk through the fields and around to the allotment. I spent ages just watering the plants.

There is a little courgette growing on this plant, how exciting!

Lots of strawberries growing too! I picked a bit pot full.

The blackcurrant bush (whoops to my thumb being in the photo!) is heaving, and a few of them were ripe so I picked them too.

It is not looking too bad- the weeds are still growing a lot, but at least we can see our plants too. Although I need to pick the rest of the leeks, they are rather enormous now!

This morning I was up early again, so I went on a run before it got too hot. Well, that was my plan. It was baking by 8.30! I went for shorts- capris are quite long on me- I really want some knee length ones but I can’t seem to find any. Even when they look short on the hangers when I try them on they are long. Anyway, I reserve these shorts for emergencies and hopefully for when no-one will see me!

When I got back (after 6.8 enjoyable but hot miles) my neighbour was out so I had to have a chat. Was hoping to sneak back inside without anyone seeing me! Not sure if you can see how red my face is compared to how pale my legs are! (And yes we bought that mirror from Ikea years ago and have never decided where to put it, so it just gets moved about from wall to wall!)

I made a blueberry and blackcurrant sauce (the blackcurrants, plus about half a little punnet of blueberries, a few tsb of water and a tsp coconut sugar)- I cooked it in a little pan for about 5 mins until it bubbled. I had it on sourdough toast with some meridian peanut butter (bought some this week and it is so drippy it is lovely) and some melon. Like a posh pb&j 🙂

I am going to have another chilled out day today- watch the Grand Prix, maybe do some baking, maybe visit the allotment or have another walk.

Have you had a good weekend?

What is the last new product you have tried?