But first, recovering! I heard a while back a rule of thumb is that you need 1 day to recover for every mile of hard race effort. Well, it was a hard race effort and this week I certainly felt it! On Monday I went out on a walk at lunch time as I sit down all day and didn’t want to get too stiff. After work I had a back massage which was just heavenly. I did plenty of foam rolling when I got home too as my legs were getting stiffer.
To ensure I am getting lots of liquid I have been enjoying these lovely fruity teas kindly sent to me from Pukka herbs. The Blackcurrant beauty is my favourite- I was never a Ribena fan but I really like blackcurrant in fruity teas- it seems to taste as nice as it smells which often fruity teas don’t. The Elderberry and Echinacea is good too and although I don’t think echinacea is proven to help with immunity, it can’t hurt. I think they would make lovely iced teas too, but it hasn’t been the weather for that at the moment!
On Tuesday I missed by club run as we were visiting Andy’s brand new baby niece! Very exciting! I made them a banana bread (banana’s are coming out of our ears at the moment so any suggestions welcome!) when I got home.
On Wednesday I went for a short run (about 2.5 miles), to loosen my legs a bit. It did help but I was slow! I did go on the fields which are still super boggy, so I had to walk some of it to avoid going in up to my ankles! I did get to see a gorgeous sunset, and it seems I ran at the right time as later on some of my local running pals were soaked in a storm.
On Thursday there was no Pump as the instructor was away, so I went for a run when I got home. This time I felt a bit better, and kept very impressive even pacing (10.24, 10.28, 10.24- I wasn’t aiming for that!). That felt far enough and I was pretty tired at the end.
Friday was a rest day- I met a friend after work at The Waffle House- a fab start to the weekend.
When I got home I was very excited to find a package from Tribesports! My personalised parkrun t-shirt! They sold out so quickly the first time around, and I happened to be online when they released the next batch so I didn’t hang about! You can have it plain, or add your home parkrun to the front.
(Taken in early morning light- the colour is really more like the top picture!)- the back is fab too with the parkrun design and all the super sponsors who help keep it free for everyone. They are the same cut as the milestone t’s, so I got a small which is very generous- I wore it over a long sleeved top today and it had plenty of room.
Anyway today I was off to parkrun! It was my Dad’s 50th run! I had emailed the team earlier in the week (once I had checked that Dad was coming) but when we got there they didn’t say his name. I gave him a clap anyway! We ran together which was really nice- my Dad is a lot faster than me so usually he heads off, but we chatted (and at times, he chatted to me while I focused on breathing!)- there was a flurry of snow at the start but thankfully it stopped and the weather was good. The course had dried up a lot and so even the muddier parts were so much easier to run on. We thanked the marshals on the way around, as usual (and I was taken by surprise when one of them called to me- it was one of the OH ladies but she was so bundled up I didn’t recognise her at first!), and enjoyed the scenery. I tried to push up the final hill and we even overtook someone (and someone else stormed past us)- Dad even let me cross the finish line first.
We even did a finish line selfie to commemorate the occasion!
Later on I had an email from the Panshanger team saying that the original RD had broken her arm so they needed a last minute replacement- they were very apologetic for missing the email but they asked for the photo and added my Dad to the run report from this week too.
I did some more foam rolling in my (un-festive) lounge pants, did a lot of work, before having a nice walk around town and doing some baking. A brilliant weekend so far! I am not sure how far to run tomorrow- probably around 6 or 7 miles as I have another half (this one is “for fun”…..) in a couple of weeks so need to keep the longer miles if I can. I thought 6 or 7 this weekend, 9 or 10 the weekend after, and then the half. Hopefully that will be OK and my fitness for those distances won’t be lost that quickly.
Have you had a good week? Do you run or workout with anyone from your family? Are you close to any of the parkrun milestones?
*Pukka Herbs kindly sent me the teas. All opinions are my own.
Aww big congrats to Daddy Cupcake! Love your parkrun tee too. I freeze my bananas and then use them in smoothies or defrost for banana bread – they go black as they defrost but it doesn’t make any difference to the finished bake 🙂
I do like them in smoothies, but as we might be moving we are trying not to fill up the freezer- I think they would fill it up very quickly!
Congratulations to your Dad. It’s so nice that you can run with him. My only running family member is my brother but he’s much taller and faster than me. He runs about 2-3 minutes a mile faster than I do so we don’t run together.
I make smoothies with my bananas, add some almond milk and walnuts. Lovely post run!
Hopefully as the weather gets warmer I will fancy a smoothie more!
Congrats to your Dad on his 50th Park Run! That’s a great achievement 🙂
Thanks 🙂
Congrats to your Dad!
Thank you 🙂
Congrats to your dad! And what a great selfie 🙂 It’s nice of parkrun to email you as well about not mentioning your dad. So thoughtful of them.
The t-shirt is great! I love mine and lately have been wearing it with a long-sleeved black base-layer underneath and it’s perfect.
The only sort of workouts I do with my family (other than the token gym visit with my mum) is walking. We do love a good walk!
Thanks! My Dad had taken a selfie with my brother and a friend at a very rainy parkrun a month or so ago, and he really liked the picture, so I took my phone with me so we could have one then. I was impressed that our eyes were open as we are both not good at that!
The Panshanger parkrun team are really fab- I do love it there.
My parents love a bird watching walk so we sometimes do that together (they like it even more if it includes a pub lunch!)
Congrats to your dad! Shame about the RD, but completely understandable. I tend to start something, which my sister then picks up and carries on with when I have thrown the towel in. We have run together before, but she is way quicker than me (even when I have been running regularly).
Congrats to your dad! I love Pukka teas, they are so good and so much more flavorful than other brands. There is actually a lot of research behind the immune benefits of echinacea, although I wouldn’t recommend the tea as a good source, tincture would be best. I swear by it whenever I am coming down with something, or don’t want to get sick- has always worked for me.