Author: Maria Runs

That’s two sort of opposite things right there!

But first, the week: Monday was a rest day, and after work we went to see Jumanji. I don’t remember the original film very well (just that it was scary) but this one was pretty funny so a good way to spend a couple of hours. I was really pleased to actually manage a club run on Tuesday- since November time things just went wrong (bad traffic/ late meetings/ run leader being ill) and I think I only managed one. We met up for a planned 4.5 mile fartlek run- we ended up warming up for a mile or so, doing alternate slow jogging/ faster jogging/ sprinting between lamp posts, and then running steadily for the last bit to total 5 miles. It was great because someone came out with us who usually ran parkrun distance and had once run 4 miles- she was so pleased with herself for managing the 5 miles so it was great to celebrate with her. I managed my fastest time going up the road with the lampposts which I was pretty pleased with too.

On Wednesday yoga was back on after the Christmas break, and it was fantastic. There were lots of new people (including a couple from my running club) so the teacher kept it a little more gentle. I was glad I’d completed the “homework” a few times (we were emailed a sequence with warm ups, strength exercises, options for the middle bit and then cool down) as I think usually after a break m arms would struggle in the downward dog. I always sleep well after yoga too and this week was no exception.

On Thursday I headed out for a 4.5 mile run- I was originally going to do some sort of lamp post interval but as we did that on Tuesday I kept it steady. The new shoes are so comfy- I really wish I’d changed over sooner as these are just like running in springy slippers or something.

I’ve tried out this deodorant as I would like to use a more natural product. This is the best of the ones I have tried, and the smell is not too strong which I prefer. I’ve been using this Body Shop lotion at the moment as after a run my skin gets very sore- I try very hard to not go from cold to hot quickly (the number 1 cause for the chilblains too) but even if I wear a buff and potter around at home for a bit before a shower, my skin will go red and get all itchy. This cream does sooth it, plus it smells amazing too. My only complaint is the packaging- I don’t know why it isn’t in a tub because I have to cut it in half and scoop out the cream after a while as it doesn’t squeeze out very well. I do like the Lush pots that you can swap for a face mask too.

For my last face mask I tried out this seaweed one, and it’s really good. It makes me feel like I am channelling Mrs Doubtfire. Last time I tried the Oatifix one, but that was so thick it was hard to keep it on your face.

I was sent these Better You magnesium products a while back and have been using them after running. Magnesium helps with muscle recovery as well as sleep, and I do have some supplements that I take (when I remember….), particularly when I’m not sleeping well.  Applying it to the skin directly can result in faster absorption rates, plus some people may find it easier to use this than remember to take a supplement.   I was sent some flakes (saving these for after a super long run), body butter and spray.  The Recovery Spray is easy to apply (just spray on) but I did found that it stung a bit- initially I wondered if it was down to sensitive skin/having just shaved my legs, but I tried it on my arms and it was the same. According to the bottle, the tingling indicates a magnesium deficiency and will reduce once you levels go up. The Body Butter has a lovely scent- with coconut oil, cocoa butter and shea butter- it’s rich but not overpowering. It takes a bit of rubbing in,  but I haven’t found any stinging or tingling with this. They are all suitable for vegans and are not tested on animals.  As well as being available online they are on sale in Holland and Barratt and other health food stores.

On Saturday I was off to Ellenbrook to meet my dad and brother- it was Dad’s first parkrun since his little knee op and he was really looking forward to it. For the last few visits I’ve arrived pretty late- I always forget how long it takes me to drive over to Hatfield. For some reason today I was early (8.30), so I had a little run around the surrounding streets before it started. This very much confused Dad as he parked close to my car and then could not work out where I was! Anyway, the run was good fun- there are still some big puddles but most of the paths were OK- we ran around together at 9 min mile pace – Dad had been saying he felt tired but then as the finish came into sight he wondered if we should go for it- I said yes and we started speeding up- he was going to slow and let me finish ahead but he was way ahead of me (well, one second) so he stayed ahead- just before I got to the finish a lady overtook me and promptly apologised- she’d heard us say we were going for it and decided to try and keep up with us. Of course I don’t mind her going past me- it’s a timed run and not a race, and it’s all good fun.  My 135th parkrun and a little quicker than last week (the ground is getting better at 28.39.

I planned to walk over to the Galleria (a sort of outlet centre) as I wanted to look for some cheap tennis balls, and was going to go to Aldi on my way back to the car, so I changed trainers to less muddy ones and added a hoodie and coat to my layers. When I got to the shops, they weren’t actually opening until 10am, and I realised that it would be a while before I got home, so went to Caffe Nero for a toasted teacake and cup of tea.

After not finding any cheap tennis balls, I walked over to Aldi- I was only after a few bits (chia seeds for porridge, nice cereal bars, maple syrup) but ended up being tempted by maca powder (with vitamin B12 apparently), cacao powder, stollen bites and biscuits. Not such a healthy shop!

When I got home it was power tool time! Well, I had to wait for the water to heat up for a shower, so I thought I may as well do the hard work all in one go. I wanted some bits of wood for work (another teacher is going to burn some numbers onto them with a special pen) and we have piles of wood in our garden. Andy gave me a quick lesson on using the electric saw before he was heading out. I was never a fan of D&T when I was at school (I spent several weeks using a hand drill that looked like a little egg whisk to drill holes in some metal so that I didn’t have to use the metal heater thing to bend it) so this was not my forte.

It was slightly terrifying (even though it only works when your hand is on the trigger) and also really hard work as it vibrates loads. I managed to saw up 10 pieces and the plan is to do the rest tomorrow- I was tempted to do a few more but my hand and arms were getting tired so I decided to quit while I was ahead (and still had all my limbs). After that I got on with the garden jobs within my comfort zone (no power tools needed)- raking the lawn, sweeping the moss off the patio and putting leaves in the compost.

It’s been lovely to have time pottering about in the garden. With the days so short, I am only at home in the light at the weekends, so it’s nice to actually make the most of that time. After putting up new bird feeders (for seeds) last week, I noticed another old bird feeder stand, so I got a little cage thing to hold fat balls (I did have a long debate with myself about buying them because they contain animal fat, but in the end the stuff I read about birds needing food at this time of year won- I’m not going to eat them, and I suppose lots of vegetarians have dogs or cats and buy them meaty pet food), and put it out this morning as soon as I got back from parkrun. While I was hanging it up, I noticed a robin on the compost bin- it then hopped to the fence and then down to the feeder- is this a record for shortest time for a bird to find the food?

Mum and Dad lent me some of their old binoculars, and already I’ve seen a woodpecker, the robin plenty of times and a little blue tit. I’ve around moved the plants on our dining room window sill so I can sit at the table and have a view  of the garden (the biggest one was in the middle and blocked a bit of the view before), so I had a leisurely lunch watching the garden.

Do you like bird watching? I used to be a member of the YOC when I was a child, but my knowledge has faded a bit. I do like seeing birds in the garden and find it very relaxing to sit and watch. Have you tried any new beauty products recently?  Do you like shopping in Aldi? Where we used to live was about a mile away so we would sometimes walk there and get a few bargains, but now we have moved it’s not so easy. We have a Lidl a similar distance away and although it had good Christmas things, the regular items don’t seem a nice as the Aldi ones. Although we are supposed to be getting an Aldi in WGC so I may be able to walk to one again.

*The magnesium products were sent to me in exchange for a mention on my blog. All opinions are my own.

I was very glad on Wednesday that it was a rest day for me, as I looked out of the window and saw more snow.

I had some work to do, so decided to get on with that as I had nothing planned. I did get super cold sat at my desk though (and a dreadful case of “mouse-hand” – which is what we call it when your right hand goes so cold from being so very still sitting on the mouse for hours on end), so after lunch I walked the long way to town- 5 miles in all. The pavements weren’t too bad but the wind was so cold.

I did get treated to another gorgeous sunset- the colours at the moment are so beautiful. As I got to town the sun was properly setting and loads of people were taking out their phones and snapping away.

I also got to see the giant projector that is on the old Shredded Wheat factory (they have finally started to demolish it)- the whole thing is huge and the projection shows various animations. It’s very clever as the spinning candy cane things were lined up with the columns of the building.

Once home in the warm I made some little Christmas pudding truffles- we had quite a bit left over, and I’d seen this recipe on the internet (a Nigella one I think)- basically mix up the crumbled pudding with some golden syrup, melted chocolate, and rum or something (I left that bit out), then decorate with melted white chocolate so they look like little puddings. I had some bags and tags left over from the fudge so I parcelled them up for my parents and my cousin.

On Thursday I went out for a run in the morning, but the pavements were so icy that I spent a lot of it walking. I had wrapped up well, and so I didn’t mind just spending the time getting fresh air and listening to podcasts. It was so pretty (I love seeing the different types of ice and the patterns made by it) but at some points huge puddles had frozen into smooth sheer ice- I couldn’t smash some of it when standing on it, so it was pretty thick and very slippery.

Then I went to see my cousin and his wife- they don’t live far away but we don’t meet up that much (and as they are both teachers you would think we’d manage to meet up more in the holidays)- my parents went over too so we had a walk to a local pub for some lunch. It was so nice because I had no need to look at the time at all. On my way home I stopped to get some wood for our fire, and then went to get my car washed (a job that’s been on my list since the summer holidays…), and then after dinner we went to see Star Wars. I’m not a childhood fan or anything, but I quite enjoyed it (and I do like the little puffin things).

On Friday I had another run- it wasn’t raining when I set off but by the time I was half way around the freezing sleety rain had started and it was not fun. Once home I got on with my favourite passtime- baking, and specifically, baking a stollen.

It is a bit of a lengthy project, because you have to activate the yeast, make the dough, soak the fruits, let the dough rise, add the fruits, let it rise again, roll it out, let it rise (lots of rising going on), but the results are so good. Anything with marzipan wins in my book, and it must be my Austrian heritage that explains my love of all their festive traditions (gingerbread). One for us, one for my parents and one for Andy’s parents.

On Saturday morning I was thinking of going to Panshanger parkrun, but Dad was time-keeping at Ellenbrook so I went there instead. I left a little late and on the short jog from the car park to the start, blasted by the freezing wind, I wasn’t feeling that inclined. I’d not been to Ellenbrook for a couple of weeks, and it was somewhat muddy! It’s a flat route, mainly through fields,  but the paths had been covered in huge puddles, and as it’s sort of sandy (silty?) underfoot anyway, it was just boggy. The wind was crazy- we were promised in the briefing that by the end it would be a tail wind and that we would most certainly have earned putting our feet up afterwards.  At one point it felt like I wasn’t moving as the wind was so strong, and at other times you’d aim for your foot to land somewhere, and the wind would whip it away and then your foot would end up in another puddle. By the end of the first little loop I’d managed to soak both feet by going into puddles up to my ankles. My poor (chilblain-prone) feet! M brother came along too, so we ran together for a bit which was good, but in the end we were concentrating too much on avoiding the biggest puddles to chat!

After finishing (30.49) I put my coat on and chatted to Dad for a bit. I had a stollen for him in the boot of my car, so I needed to wait. The final runner came in past the hour mark, and then we helped packing the table away and things, so I was pretty cold by the time I got back to the car.

I actually ended up cleaning my trainers later on, as I wanted them to be dry for Monday (new years day). So much mud came off them- I usually only clean the soles as they need the mud gone for grip, but ended up cleaning the tops too. We spent late afternoon at my parents watching football. On Sunday we headed to Milton Keynes. The original plan was to pop to Ikea (is that even possible) to get some shelves for our living room, pop to the shops (I wanted to get some new shoes and have a 50% discount for Sweatshop) and then have a walk around Willen Lakes. Well, even though we felt fairly quick, by the time we’d finished (and in fact the Sweatshop was not in either shopping centre but by the snowdome so that meant a bit more of a wander) it was nearly getting dark and as the lap of Willen lakes is about 3 miles we decided to head home and save it for another day.

I did get new shoes though- I used to love Mizuno’s so thought I’d give them another go as they didn’t have any of the Asics that I liked. I did try on some Boosts as lots of people in the running club rave about them, but the ones I tried had uppers so thin they felt all stretchy and weird. I’m not one for new years eve- we watched a film (Moana- my choice) and then I got grumpy when the fireworks outside seemed to carry on until gone 1am- don’t these people realise I’ll be off to parkrun in the morning?

New years day is the only day where parkrun hq let you run two events, and lots of events stagger their start times so that you can manage two. I’ve not done it before- last year we went out for breakfast instead as I was recovering from a bug, and the year before I ran one and my dad and brother ran the later one (but I think that was 10am at St Albans so I don’t think I would have made it there on time). I have run an unofficial double for the Ellenbrook test event- Dad and I ran Panshanger at 9am and then hot-footed it over to Hatfield for the 10am test event.

There was lots of activity on the parkrun tourist page, and of course it could be a good way of visiting two new events. I briefly considered this, but the nearest events that I’ve not done are not that local (or in London), I didn’t want to be twice as stressed about driving somewhere that I’ve not been to before, and at new events I quite like to hang around for a bit and take photos. I wanted to do the double properly, so decided that my two closest (and favourite) events would be the best bet. Panshanger started at 9am, so I parked away from the start (to give me an easier getaway). I met up with a few people from my club (who all accused me of being far too cheerful- maybe because I don’t drink?) and as we were all doing the double we’d agreed it would be a sociable run and no fuss about times. Panshanger has had permanent markers installed (see the pic above)so I took a few photos on the way around. It can be fairly muddy, but it wasn’t too bad- just one section through a field where you couldn’t really get much of a grip. I had packed spare socks but in the end I didn’t need to change.

Then it was off to Ellenbrook, which was starting at 10.30. By the time I got my chip scanned and walked back to my car (it’s half a mile from the start), it was 9.45, and it is a 15 min drive, so I  would not have made a 10am start, but the wait until 10.30 meant I did get cold. I’d taken my coat so I put that on and walked around to the start- Dad was there (giving out tokens) and he said that he could tell all the people who’d run already with the mud up their legs. It was nothing compared to what was to come!

There was someone dressed as a stag to launch something about the Herts year of sports- the person actually ran the whole thing in the costume which was crazy! More rain since Saturday meant that the puddles were even bigger- we were told in the brieding that it would be the muddiest parkrun of the double, and that was certainly correct. I had mud splattered all up the front of my top as well as a total coating on my legs. After one foot ended up in a puddle it seemed pointless to try and avoid them any more. It was good fun though- the group of us that had run at Panshanger stayed together for Ellenbrook too- reaching the taxi-way for the final km felt so strange to be running on a hard surface.

I thought Ellenbrook would be busier (I knew some people only coming out for the later one) but in fact there were 303 at Panshanger and only 194 at Ellenbrook. I think some people went to a different second one ( St Albans was also on at 10.30). Anyway, it was fun, but I was really tired after. I think having the gap between them made it much worse as I got quite cold in the middle, and of course neither route was easy due to the mud. Also, as I finished running at about 11am, I then had to get my chip scanned and walk back to the car, so I got home at about 11.45- too late for breakfast!

I’m glad I did it anyway- it was a fun way to start the year and of course a couple more towards the next milestone. Panshanger time- 32.58 and Ellenbrook 30.36, for parkrun numbers 132 and 133.

Clockwise from top right- shoes and socks after the double, after Ellenbrook, after Panshanger, one clean and one dirty shoe mid-clean! At least they have a week to dry out before the next parkrun!

After a bit of brunch (I had a shower, then sat on the sofa under a blanket trying to warm up) we went to the cinema to see Molly’s Game, which I thought was very interesting and well-done (if a little tiring to watch- they speak to fast! However, when I needed to stand at the end my legs were so stiff- bad move!

Did you manage a parkrun (or double) this year? Do you like visiting new parkruns? Have you seen any good films recently?  Are you a fan of stollen?