What a difference a week makes!

Last Sunday:

I managed to avoid the rain, having a run along the old railway line in drizzle and cold. Compare that to the glorious sunshine of this Sunday- just in time for the bank holiday weekend.

On Tuesday I had one of these (new to me) bars from Aldi- they are the closest thing I’ve had to the Larabars that I’ve bought in America before.  I didn’t get home in time for the club run, so I headed out for just over 4 miles.

The skies were so dark the whole time and it was really windy- I wished I’d worn gloves as my hands were cold at the start too.

It was my birthday on Wednesday so I hadn’t booked onto yoga- instead I met Andy in town and we shared a piece of cake, before having a little walk around. His parents came over later in the evening. Check out the cup he got for me- it’s the perfect tea size too.

On Thursday I had yoga at work and then rushed back as we were heading into London to see Gomez at the Royal Albert Hall. They were brilliant, and we had great seats almost next to the stage. I love seeing live music, and each member of the band seemed to play about 3 instruments so it was fascinating to watch them (one song, play bass, next song, play lead guitar, then keyboards). It was a great evening, but by the time we’d dropped off Andy’s brother and sister-in-law and then driven home, it was way past midnight.

On Friday evening we packed and drove down to Kent. We were staying right by Maidstone parkrun, so I headed there again on Saturday morning.

As I’d only been there once, a while ago, I went to the new runners briefing- the lady was brilliant, really enthusiastic and gave a lot of detail.

It was really busy (463) and didn’t start til about 9.15. They do the main briefing outside a building, and then move the runners onto the road (I think it’s a road) just before the start. They asked that the front 5 rows were for sub 18/sub 20 min runners, but then after that it was every runner for himself. I tried to place myself in the middle, but we kept on being told to step back as more people were flooding in from the sides. It’s not a great course for that many runners, as you run along a canal path, which at times is only wide enough for one or two people. You have to keep left the whole time, as you go over a bridge, around a playground and then back along the path. After a mile, the fastest runners were heading back in the other direction. I ended up feeling pretty frustrated- I don’t mind about the time, but I just could not get into a rhythm as I kept getting stuck behind people walking, or run/walking, and it wasn’t easy to get past. At times it went to a complete standstill as only one person at a time could file over a narrow bridge/ through sections of the path.

I was overtaking people the whole run, so I know I didn’t place myself correctly at the start. The thing is, they could easily have up signs for sub 20, sub 23, sub 26 etc, to give people a better idea. I’ve seen this at other parkruns and it seems to work a bit better than just the fastest people having the priority and everyone else just muck in. My time was 29.45, which was fine, but had I placed myself better I think I could have beaten my previous time of 29:31 (I did get some strava segment PR’s so all was not lost!). Anyway, it was a beautiful day and a lot of the route was shaded which was good.

After a shower and quick breakfast we were off to Brighton for the day.

It was gorgeous. We parked near to Preston Park and then walked in, and of course I then realised I had forgotten to pack any suncream. We went to a few shops (I needed to get a refill of perfume from the lovely Eden perfume shop, and of course we visited Bird and Blend- formerly Bluebird Tea co, for iced teas) and then walked along the seafront to Hove. There is a new statue along the seafront with things linked to Hove, like a seagull, beach hut and so on. Of course we stopped for tea and cake (the weekend had a bit of a cake theme)- we share carrot cake from FlowerPot Bakery and it was delicious.

What wasn’t so good was that I decided to wear new shoes- these are skechers and usually those are fine for me, and they felt comfy, but when I took them off I had rubbed the back of the skin raw on one foot. I totalled over 30,000 steps- not the best day to wear new shoes.

We went for dinner at Food For Friends- we shared a chickpea trio to start (which was basically some different types of hummus), and then I had a middle eastern style salad with sweet potato, pomegranate seeds and lots of other tasty bits.

On the Sunday we went to an NT place with a castle, moat, gardens and (most importantly) a tearoom. That is a peanut butter scone, so yes, we had to try it, plus some almond cherry cake.

Then we drove to Knole, another NT place with huge grounds. We’d been there before but I wanted to go again as you could just walk around the grounds for ages, and there were loads of deer to look at as you walked around.

Monday was a day for a long run (I don’t like how out and back routes look on Strava, and I finally worked out how to get to the old railway line the other way so it is a bit of a loop), gardening, and then going to see my parents and enjoying a delicious lemon cake that Mum had made, whilst sitting in their garden. Lovely.

How was your long weekend? How have you been enjoying the warmer weather? Do you get many blisters?