Ticking things off the list and some strength work

Last Sunday on my run I was attempting to find a bridge over the road (it seems to go into the back of Panshanger park) but the bridle path I took (I thought it was the right one on the map) seemed to finish with a dead end, so I doubled back and went along the path with the stinging nettles so I didn’t do a complete out and back.

I didn’t want to go far as we had a lot of jobs to be getting on with- curtain shopping for the living room, painting the skirting boards, sorting the garden a bit more and putting up pictures and the clock.

Andy made this for me canvas for my birthday- it’s some of the photos from our trip to South Africa last year, and finally it is up in my office.

On Monday I had a massage, and although I thought I wasn’t too bad, it turned out that my right shoulder had all sorts of problems! It was mostly still relaxing, but I did have an apology at the end in case it was too painful at times. My back did feel tender after, but also I could move more easily so it is worth it.

It’s been back to work and back into a routine last week. I fancied a run in Panshanger park so I packed my running kit with me and headed there after work on Tuesday. I decided to run the parkrun route but I had forgotten that the bridge near the end was closed due to repairs (they had an alternate ending) so it meant I had to double back to get to the finish. I saw a couple of red kites swirling around the fields at the top, and it all felt very peaceful.

On Wednesday yoga was back on- I had missed this so much! I have been doing a few stretches, particularly after long runs, but I have really missed the long classes. It was tough at times (my arm strength takes a dive over the summer) but the final relaxation was of course fantastic and I felt so much better after.

I had a short run after work on Thursday as I felt pretty tired, and on Friday I had a doctors appointment fairly late so I stayed at work until we got kicked out before heading into town (during a crazy thunderstorm with hail stones and flash flooding).

After parkrun (and breakfast with my parents) my dad helped me sort of lot of junk from our garden. He’d driven their big car (it’s an old people carrier where you can take the seats out) so that he could do a tip run for us. We still have stuff left by the previous owners- to be fair the house was clean and empty but they’d left a load of junk in the shed, and when we had to take the shed apart (as the roof didn’t meet in the middle) we’d just left it all in a corner of the garden. They also had used large chunks of concrete to edge some of the flower beds. Our garden waste bin is only emptied once a fortnight so the tree that was rotten hasn’t even gone yet, so we spent a good hour “strength training”- basically lifting chunks of concrete, old tins of paint, bits of wood and lumps of tree into the back of their car. We also had a box of things for a charity shop which we sorted out before we moved (May 2016!), and as my mum volunteers in a charity shop she took it away to give to them. It was all very therapeutic.

After they left I had a quick shower and then made some cookies (as some of Andy’s family were coming over later).  I needed to walk into town to buy dinner and it ended up being a race against the clock and the huge clouds!

I got home just before it poured (and just before my guests arrived) and we had a lovely few hours catching up. I then made a sort of caramel slice (it’s a bit like a brownie base, with caramel and then topped with chocolate- it’s meant to be with hazelnuts but I had none so I used almonds)- this was originally going to be for tea on Sunday but our plans changed so it went into work this week.

I felt like I had barely sat down, so while I was waiting for Andy to get back (he’d been down in Southampton for the day) I watched a bit of the Bake Off Extra Slice and had a lovely chai drink.

On Sunday I decided to go for a bit of a shorter faster run, so I found a 6 mile route and managed to keep the speed up keeping the pace just under 10 minute miles as recently I have been going on lovely runs, but I’ve been going much more slowly. When I got home we had breakfast together (we’d bought cinnamon rolls for the freezer so we had one of those plus some watermelon) before Andy was off out.

I had some work to do and fancied watching the Great North Run so I brought my laptop downstairs and spent a couple of hours finishing things off while watching Mo win, before I felt I really needed to move.

After doing so much sorting in the garden on Saturday, I decided to head outside and get on with some more gardening. There’s a tree (laurel?) and it drops berries all over the patio- while Dad had been loading the car up I’d swept them all into a pile but of course with the slightest wind another lot of them falls down. If they were on grass  it wouldn’t be so bad but I don’t want to tread on them and then get the red juice on the carpet inside or anything.

There is also a big patch of weeds where we need to plant a fruit tree (one of the conditions of taking the massive ugly tree down) so I decided to attack that and do some sweeping as a break.

Clockwise from top- our rotten willow, the dreaded berries, before any weeding, berries on the floor.

And after- the weed patch mostly empty and the berries all swept up again.

It was very satisfying work and I listened to a bit more of the Marathon Talk podcast while I was out there. Some of the weeds were actually little bushes and the root balls were huge (the size of those rocks)- I think I spent about 20 minutes on one of them going around and around, gradually easing it out more. Andy got back from the cinema and offered a cup of tea, and I was going to attempt a couple more of the root balls but then it started to rain harder so I decided to call it a day. My arms and back were aching after all the digging- another strength workout?

Did you watch any of the GNR? Do you like gardening?