Category: Running

I only signed up to this race a few weeks ago, and then forgot (well, I thought it was later in September). Luckily the race pack arrived this week to remind me!

I found it via Runners World but when I clicked on the reviews it took me to a different race instead. Anyway,10k was the distance I fancied, and it was not too far away.

It was a bit of a faff to get there, as there was no parking at the race start, so I had to park in the Tesco’s in Baldock and then they had two minibuses picking up runners from the high street and taking them to the start. The last one left at 9.20, so I erred on the side of caution and ended up at HQ at 9am.

The HQ was by some fields and barns, and sort of industrial buildings, and there were toilets in one of them (real ones with soap and everything), and the bag drop in another. I waited a bit as it was chilly so didn’t want to take my jacket off too soon. Then we had to walk 800m up a hill to the race start. I got chatting to a girl who was on her own (lots of people seemed to know each other) so that was lovely. The start was funny as the guy started doing the race briefing, and with the wind it was a bit hard to hear. But then thy set off a drone (no idea, maybe for photos?) and we could not hear anything over the noise of that!

Anyway, it started through (uphill) fields on rough track, so you had to watch your footing carefully. Some parts looked chalky, which turned out to be very springy and much nicer than the big flint stones. Then we went onto country lanes, but still with lovely views across the countryside. It was pretty hilly to begin with- short steep hills followed by longer slow ones. I was glad to get to half way. There was one water station but I prefer to wait until I finish as I can get a stitch- the girl who I was chatting to had been keeping up with me, but stopped for water whereas I carried on. It wasn’t long before she was behind me again.

The course was well marked with lots of florescent arrows, and marshals stopping traffic, pointing the way and cheering. I find 10K races strange- on the one hand they are not too long, so I want to not wish them away and actually enjoy it. But on the other hand you have to run a bit faster so I often find myself wanting to stop and walk, and have to consciously slow down so I can catch my breath. At one point I was running up a hill and dreading the uphill walk to the bag drop when I finished!

Anyway, after half way there seemed less hills, and after 7 or 8K a marshal told us “no more hills after this one” which turned out to be nearly true! I have had a cold since Thursday, so I wasn’t really focusing on time, I just wanted to enjoy it, but seeing that at 5 miles my watch said 50 minutes spurred me on to the finish. At one point I spotted the barns through the fields so I knew the finish was near, but 1K seems like a long way when you are tired! I turned a corner and could see everyone who had finished lined up by the side of the road cheering us slower runners home, which was nice but really I know I look awful by that point so would rather no-one could see!

As soon as I crossed the line I was given a print out of my chip and gun time- 1:01.23 chip time- how fancy! Then, the best part. As well as a bottle of water, medal and wrist band (with other events on the band- clever idea) they had a choice of either a banana or a spear of pineapple. Let me tell you, pineapple is amazing for after running. So juicy and refreshing.

They did the trophy ceremony at 11am (well it must have been just after as it was a few minutes after I had finished) so I watched that before getting my bag and waiting for a minibus.

Not sure where I put the medal now, but it had the date and the race name on it.

As I had parked in Tesco’s I had a quick look in case I could find coconut peanut butter. Well, I couldn’t, but I did find these things.

Dark choc pb for £2 a jar, and also gingerbread Alpro puddings! I love their dark chocolate ones for a treat, so when I saw these I had to try them. £1 for each pack too, bargain. And to balance things out some nuts and white chia seeds. Don’t know if they are different to black ones?

Anyway, I am really glad I did that race, it was good to run somewhere different. It was a bit of a faff using the minibus, so I think if I did it again I would look to park in a nearby village and walk there, as I didn’t get home until early afternoon when it is only a 25 minute drive away.

Now we are off out to dinner with Andy’s family, and I made us an apple cake for dessert.

With apples from my little apple tree!

Did you have a good weekend?

Last week I mentioned that at parkrun I had managed to run in consecutive weeks 229.34, 28.34 and 27.34. I did think that 26.34 was out of my reach, and on Friday night I didn’t sleep too well, so decided to enjoy parkrun and not worry about time. Luckily I had decided that as my Garmin was still playing up, despite deleting all the files from it (something that had not occurred to me, as I thought that when I uploaded them to Garmin connect they were removed from the watch- nope, it had around 300 runs on there)- it refused to find a satellite for the entire run. It was with more anticipation than usual that I waited for my text- I finished higher in placing that last week, but it seemed busy and you never know how fast everyone else will be. I managed a 28.02, which is good, although I was hoping for something starting with 27, I was only 3 seconds from that, so not too bad.

I did get totally covered in mud though. There is one section of pavement still flooded, but there is a narrow path through the centre that is just muddy. I aim for that, but on my second lap I was lapped by a speedier runner who decided to plunge through the deeper parts – I don’t think he had realised how deep it was as he tripped and almost fell in the lake.

Mud like that was all the way up the front and back of both of my legs- he really did flounder about in the mud and splashed it all over me! Luckily I am not too precious about keeping my car clean!

Home for French toast- the last of the brioche (it’s been in the freezer)- two of the slices were end slices so very thin.

After some jobs at home we were off to Ikea, oh the joy of visiting on a Saturday afternoon. We picked up things for our spare room (we decorated it last weekend and Andy has been putting down the laminate flooring with help from his dad this week), and then of course faced the puzzle of how to fit them in the car. Then we were off to our friends’ child’s second birthday party for a BBQ. I had offered to bring my own veggie burger, but then as we decided to go to Ikea I didn’t want to leave anything in the car for all that time, so ended up having salad and rice salad. This was good (tasty) but meant I woke up early on Sunday morning very hungry indeed. I had a berry nakd bar before heading out on my run, as I didn’t think it would be that sensible to run.

I did the same 7 mile route as last weekend- I reset my Garmin overnight and although it took a while, it did find satellites in the end and seemed to be pretty accurate. I had to stop a few times as my new spi-belt is too big for my phone so kept working into annoying positions where my phone was smacking me in the back- I ended up with it on my hip. But I did get to hear my Marathon Talk rate your run- I had no idea they would read it out (sometimes when you rate it, one of them replies so you have an inkling that they might)- what a surprise! Then buckwheat pancakes.

I have still been following the Kinetic Revolution program- you can see my page here. Although I have missed a few days, so although I am on Day 14 I have been doing it for more than 14 days if that makes sense. Some of the moves are pretty tough now, but I am hoping that if I continue I will see some improvement. I really like the stretches from the first 6 days so have been carrying those on too. It is free, so I would recommend you checking it out.

We went to see Andy’s parents and sat in their garden for a couple of hours before coming home and getting on with housework, so after doing the Kinetic stuff I really fancied something cold, and remembered I had this in the fridge. I didn’t think it would be fizzy (it was) but I loved the delicate rose flavour.

While I was doing that, Andy finished building my new desk and chair for me. Hooray- this is my new “office”- really the little corner of our spare room behind the airing cupboard- the room has always been Andy’s office before now, but now we share. I don’t think my desk will stay clear for long!

Are you an Ikea fan? When I was little I loved the showroom bit as you could pretend you lived there, but now I just want to get around as quickly as possible!

I love being busy at the weekends, and one of my favourite things to do at the weekend is go on a run, or maybe even two.

For the autumn I have a few races booked (in fact, I have one of each: 5k, 5 mile, 10k, 10 mile and 15k. It is annoying me by the way why they are not in order of length. 10k is further than 5 miles, but 15k is less than 10 miles. Why is that????) and what I want to do is work on speeding up a bit. Last year I had a bit of success when going to parkrun, Sweatshop, and also running with Andy a bit. I managed to finally run a sub 60 minute 10k (something I had been working on for years) and got my fastest half marathon time of 2.06. Running shorter distances faster seemed to be helping me run longer distances faster too. Over the summer I really slowed down- I don’t run well in the heat, but also I was training for a trail half and wasn’t bothered by the finish time, then I had a break on holiday and just enjoyed running. Nothing wrong with that. But now I want to spend the autumn working on getting that speed back, and parkrun is a big part of that.

For the last 3 weeks I have had my idea of a perfect weekend- parkrun on Saturday and a longer run on Sunday. I love it for so many reasons. I tend to wake up pretty early anyway, so I can potter about at home, head off to parkrun, pick up my brother if he is going, and then be home by 10am with the rest of the day ahead. I like running after work, as I find it can help with stress relief, but also it can make the evenings feel rushed, especially if I bring home work, so doing 2 runs at the weekend means I am more relaxed in the week too.

Recently on Sunday mornings I have been running through town, and it is weird but strangely satisfying to be out there before the shops have opened- it feels like I am using bonus hours or something.

Sainsbury’s kindly sent me some of their workout gear, and I have been trying it all out. Now I know it is summer, but at the moment it has been a bit breezy, so I tend to take a jacket with me to parkrun to wear on the way home- this weekend I took the new jacket with me.

It has thumb holes! An instant win in my book! (Forgot to take a picture when I was actually at parkrun….). It also has handy zipped pockets on each side- great for when I run in the cooler weather as you can never have too many pockets (key, tissues, mp3 player, gloves…).

I may have mentioned the 30 day Kinetic Revolution challenge? Well, their working legging are perfect for this. They are super super soft, seamless and stretchy, and I loved the pink along the edge too. I would not wear them for running as they don’t have a pocket for a key or anything, but they are great for being at home (or for pump too).

Everything I was sent was a size medium, and I would say that is probably good for a 10-12, if you like things fairly fitted. The vest and t-shirts were fitted, and I find that sort of thing good for stretching/ yoga as they stay in the right place when doing the plank/ laying down, but for running I prefer a looser fit. The leggings were ankle length on me, so if I wanted to run with them in the winter I could pull my socks up for no gaps. Or, hunt out my leg warmers. Yes, I do have some!

I loved all the bright colours too- the items I was sent were a mixture of black (good to hide the sweat patches), pink (for fun) and grey (to match all my other workout coloured bits). Now all I need are for them to start making sports briefs, as they are so expensive!

Back to the weekend working out! On Saturday after parkrun (the subtract-sixty-seconds-streak) and French toast I did hours of decorating with Andy, and then finished making a cake for Sunday.

I was making the Elderflower cake from the Clandestine cake club book (which I really love– it really is my favourite cake book ever). The cake was a bit of a faff, as you had to beat the egg whites and yolks seperately, but I had made that on Friday afternoon listening to the film podcast. It needed a buttercream filling, flavoured with elderflower cordial, and then a white chocolate ganache- again I had made the ganache on Friday so it just needed to be mixed up a bit before putting it on the cake.

The ganache kept slipping down the sides, so I had to keep putting it in the fridge to set, and then adding a bit more. The white colour has not photographed that well, but it did look quite pretty I think.

On Sunday morning I decided to do a 7 mile out and back route, and I wanted to manage it under 10 minute miles. I know I am capable of this, but so easily I slip back into 11+ min miles for these medium length runs. I think I sometimes worry that if I set out too fast I will suddenly collapse mid-run and struggle to get home. This has never happened to me, but I am of a very cautious nature. This week I made sure I actually looked at my Garmin each mile to check I was keeping pace- my speed dipped a bit going up hill, naturally, but overall I did just over 7 miles in 70 minutes. Check!

Whoops- I forgot to get some brioche out of the freezer, so pancakes it was. These were made with that lovely Orgran Buckwheat pancake mix, egg + almond milk. I love them. With some fruit and chocolate pb. Then we had to head to the opticians, walked around town for a few bits, and popped to B&Q for more decorating supplies, before heading to Andy’s parents for dinner and cake.

Do you like working out at the weekends? I really get a bit antsy if I don’t get any fresh air, so I like to make the most of having time at the weekends to get outside for a bit.

What do you look for in sports gear? For me, pockets are king, especially zipped pockets. Thumb holes in long tops are great, and nothing too tight around the neck.

*Sainsbury’s sent me these items as I am part of their blogger program.