A gorgeous frosty morning

I was so very happy when I checked the weather on Friday- the 10 day forecast was basically the same every day- sunny and frosty, highs of around 5, and lows of -3. I love these days, there have been some amazing sunrises on my way to work, and everywhere just looks so pretty when it is covered in sparkling frost.

On Sunday morning this was the view from our window, so it made me look forward to my run even more. I took ages to get ready because working out what to wear is so hard- too many layers = not good, but on a longer and slower run I feel like I am more likely to get cold. In the end I went for tights, long sleeved top, jacket, buff, ear warmers and gloves.  I hadn’t planned a route, but had vague ideas of going along the old railway line and then trying to work out how to get out to Panshanger (where the parkrun is)- I had seen on Strava that it could be done but I could not quite work it out.

I kept on stopping as there were so many pretty views.

I saw hardly anyone out though- for the last few weeks I saw a fair few runners and lots of cyclists. There were a few races going on locally (the Fred Hughes 10 in St Albans, and the Essendon 10k and 5k nearby) so I wonder if lots of the local runners were there.

I had to stop a few times to check maps on my phone too, so it was a very stop-start run, but that is fine with me.

At first I went along the old railway line, and then I ended up running along country roads (which luckily turned out to have pavements).

I was very pleased when I came out of a village and could see Panshanger park along the road from where I was- made it!

I ran along the parkrun route for a bit, of course stopping for more photos. I saw a lot of people walking their dogs in the park, and a couple of very cheery runners- I love it when people say “morning” back.

The ground was so icy in places- puddles were very much frozen solid.

I had worn my new white jacket again, and I was very glad of it- it kept me warm but not too hot- there are lots of vents. Although when I stopped running I really heated up. I kept my gloves on until about half a mile from home too- it really was so cold. After doing an out and back mile (two miles? One out and one back anyway) in the park, I retraced my steps and didn’t get lost once! Awesome! I think this one is about 4 miles from home, so marginally closer than the 5 miles to Ellenbrook- it’s even closer as the crow flies but of course I can’t run there in a straight line. As I left the park I think my watch said just over 7 miles, and in total I ran just over 11, so it would be a great option if I needed to do my long run on a Saturday and still wanted to do parkrun.

While I was stopping my watch and podcast outside, I scraped the ice off my car to survey the giant crack- it doesn’t seem so bad from the outside but from the inside it is pretty huge and very distracting. I then headed inside for a warm shower- I stayed in so long that the hot water ran out!

We had some bits left over from the breakfast with my parents, so I had a bit of a random breakfast- some fruit smoothie, tea (of course), some cooked blueberries (I needed warm food) and a croissant that I spread with peanut butter and then added a few chocolate chips to, before heating it in the microwave.

I then had a bit of a pottering day- a bit of work, a bit of housework (washing and sorting), some baking (the banana bread from the Pip and Nut book)- I even cleaned my trainers!

OK  I should perhaps have taken a “before” photo, but the pink ones especially were basically caked in mud, and the trail ones on the bottom right were brown and not blue.

How was your weekend? Are you enjoying this wintery weather? Do you have a lot of friendly runners/cyclists near you?