Running - Maria Runs

Back to the fields (stuck between a cow and a wet place)!

I love running through the fields. I discovered the route with Sweatshop last summer, and revisit the route frequently when it is light.

In the summer some of the route looks like this:

Some of the route has no path- we follow tracks or just run around the edge of fields. But what’s not to like? In the autumn I picked blackberries from huge brambles as a little breather during runs.

I love seeing the flowers in the summer, I love being away from the traffic, being in some green space, seeing birds and rabbits. <3 it.

On Tuesday morning I was off out on a run and wanted to do 5 miles- this was perfect because I can loop around the fields and make it exactly that distance. (The weather was not quite the beautiful blue skies of summer)

Well, I got up there and there is a part where you go through some gates and through a cow field. Normally you can’t even see the cows. Today they were very close to the path. And their horns looked even bigger.

I actually stood there for a few minutes looking at them and deciding whether to carry on or whether to retrace my footsteps. I mean, I have heard that people get killed by cows stampeding, and I think if they see someone running they are likely to join in? Or have I made that up? Anyway, I proceeded cautiously through- you can just about see on the left of the path was a smaller cow and I was worried that if the parent cow was about she might not like me running between her and the calf. Anyway, as soon as I got to the calf I sprinted like crazy- seriously I don’t think I have ever run that fast!

Of course the cows just stood about staring, but they do make me very nervous so I was very glad to get to the other gate in one piece!

Then this greeted me. I had my trail shoes on, so puddles and mud was fine, but this was ankle deep. The path was meant to go from top left to the bottom right corner of the photo, but in places it looked like pond weed was floating about. There were logs at one point that I think someone had moved, but they didn’t seem in a great place so I just got wet. Of course I could have turned back but that would have meant the cows…

Later on I had to climb on a gate- at the end of the tarmac path the entire path was deeper than ankle deep in water right up to the edge. There are huge metal gates that are opened, and the one on my side had a big metal lop at the bottom so I ended up clambering along that and hoping that the gate would not start to close with me on it!

Then I got within half a mile of home and misjudged yet more water logged ground- I ended up in freezing cold water up to my ankles so the water filled my shoes and I squelched the last half a mile back home.

I had mud all up my running tights, my socks were very brown too.

But it was fun. I was slow (partly because I kept stopping to look at the cows/ take photos/ decide which path across the puddles I should take) but I loved it. Andy thinks I am mad but the mud is quite fun really. I am also glad on another point that my hip is behaving itself- I was worried that the movement would aggravate it but so far it has been fine (and yes I did stretch when I got home).

Are you a fan of road running or cross country? I feel safer running by roads at night- I would not be going out alone on the fields (there have been some attacks on the old railway line near me for example) and of course for races road running is faster. But nature is so much prettier, and it is more exhilarating to be fighting through mud too. I have done two cross country races (here and here – the second one also included a cow!) and I did love them both- I think I would love them more now I have trail shoes.

Jantastic week 6

I am sure I say this every week, but the time is flying by!

This week was not that easy for me to get my 100% score, but I managed it, just.

I made some little chocolate pb cups for Andy (we don’t do Valentine’s but he bought me some popchips tp celebrate half term)- they are not really a recipe just something to do- melt chocolate, spoon into cases, melt some chocolate and pb together and use as the filling= delicious.

Back to the running:

Monday was a rest day as I had run 11 miles on Sunday and wanted to make sure I was recovered. I also got home late from work, and although I actually felt OK I didn’t want to push anything too much, especially as I had run on the Saturday too.

Tuesday I went out after work- I didn’t think I would go too far but in the end did 4.1 miles.

Wednesday and Thursday were both rest days due to being at work both evenings, and by the time Friday appeared I was crawling towards the weekend so decided to just chill out and watch some of the Olympics with a cup of tea.

Saturday I went out for a run- our parkrun was cancelled due to the council not liking them using the off road route too much, but that suited me fine as I went out for a little run by myself. After all the crazy wind I decided to run by the allotments and saw that our shed has blown over again. I tried to lift it but could only get it about 6 inches off the ground. We shall have to go at some point together. Anyway, I told myself I would just have to go out and run 1 mile (the minimum for a Jantastic run) but I felt OK and in the end did 3.6 miles- half a mile more than a parkrun.

Then I mostly relaxed (and did a little work)- we walked up to Aldi later in the day for some washing bits, and I was very excited to see these:

Chocolate marzipan hearts! They sell them at Christmas (in a different box) but I have never seen them at any other time of year.

Sunday morning we were off on our longest run- 12 miles. I wanted to do it in under 2 hours as I have been trying to keep to a sub 10 minute mile pace for longer runs. Last week we had to add on some small loops to our usual route to get it up to 11 miles, so Andy had planned a different route that he used to run when we were marathon training. It was all new to me, which I am never sure if I like or not- ignorance can be bliss when I don’t realise a big hill is around the corner, but also it is harder to pace myself when I don’t know what is coming. Anyway, from the start I think I had decided it was a bit too much of a challenge, I was tired after such a busy week at work, I was regretting my Saturday run in case it had tired out my legs too much. At least the weather was beautiful and we saw plenty of spring flowers out- snowdrops, crocuses and daffodils all in bloom. I kept worrying that I would need to stop and walk too, but luckily I won that battle against my mind and kept going. There were some tough hills, both up and down, so all we kept saying to each other was that we hope Bath is flatter than this! Nearing home we weren’t quite close enough to 12 miles so we had to add on a small loop and then our front door was dead on 12, with a time of 1.59.50! Phew.

So, 3 runs out of 3 completed. 12 miles as my longest run (that was what I set for myself).

Next week won’t be as successful as I am resting today (I did some yoga first thing)- tomorrow I am hoping to get in a 5 mile run before a busy day, and then we are off to see Pompeii- I am not taking my running things with me so shall enjoy a lot of walking and sightseeing. At least I can play my joker.

What I am loving too are the motivational messages that appear when you log in to your Jantastic homepage- today it says “Even a little run is better than no run. Yes you can.” That was what got me out the door on Saturday and although during tough moments on Sunday I was wondering why I did it, actually I am very glad I did as I felt loads better for the rest of Saturday.

One day it just said “Love running“. Which is the most important statement of all. Of course when the weather is rubbish/ you are tired from work it can be hard to get out the door, and we can get a big bogged down with trying to get faster or run further, but actually the reason I run is because I love it, all the rest is the icing on the cake.

Jantastic week 5- Feeling Febulous!

I only just realised that it is now Tuesday and I have not reviewed my training from last week! At least on the Jantastic website you have until 8am Tuesday to log the runs from the previous week, so I am sort of in time with that!

But first, look at what came in the post!

Some super soft Thoosa t-shirts from their sale. They are cotton so not for running, but rather for relaxing in after my weekend runs 🙂

Back to the review:

Monday- 4.3 miles after work.

Tuesday- Rest day.

Wednesday- I gave Sweatshop a miss and headed out as soon as I got home. Partly because I will be missing the next 2 weeks (due to late meetings at work and then being away), partly because I knew I would be on my own at the back, and mostly because it was raining hard and I wanted to get it over with! In the end I did just under 4.5 miles- I was only going to do 3.5 but when I got close to home I felt OK and it wasn’t raining, so I carried on. Forgot about the headwind though so the last half mile was tough when I had to turn and run into it!

Thursday- Went to Pump. No luck missing the lunges this week, we had to do all the tracks!

Friday- Rest day

Saturday- Originally I was going to do 11 miles on my own, but then Andy suggested we go out on Sunday morning together. So then the idea of Parkrun crept into my head. It was the off-road route which I had not done before- people were talking (actually shouting to each other) during the run briefing, but it was also very windy so it was hard to hear. Once they started, I had to jog over to the run director and ask her the route, well more specifically how many laps I would have to do (3). It was much tougher than the normal flat route, fun, but also very tough as in parts the mud was very slippery.

My shoes were happy to get some real mud on them!

Sunday- 11 miles. Funny story. You can read about it here.

I was going to do some yoga on Sunday evening but I was really tired and just did not have the energy. After sitting for a while at Andy’s parents my legs really stiffened up, and I thought I would be really stiff and sore on Monday, but in fact I felt OK. I kept Monday as a rest day as I don’t want to push it and run 3 days in a row (well it would have been 4 as I was going out on Tuesday).

Anyway, the next stage of Jantastic is logging the length of your longest run- I had selected 11 miles so hit it right on the head. Next week optimistically I opted for 12 miles so we shall have to see how I manage that.

How is it going for any fellow Jantasticans?

Unexpected encounter!

Pancakes were on my mind during my run- made with the last of my Orgran Buckwheat pancake mix, with a cooked apple, flaked almonds and some chocolate pb.

So on Sunday morning we were up and out running by 9am. It was windy. It was really windy. So windy in fact that when the wind was behind us it was blowing us along- normally I don’t notice the wind behind me.

We chatted a bit at first, and then as it got tougher this changed to Andy talking to me, and me replying with one or two word answers. I managed the first 6 miles fine, although I had only taken two tissues with me and my nose was running a lot- not so good. The next few miles were tough with combinations of hills and running into the wind, so I slowed quite a lot. Then, our encounter. We were about 2 miles from home and a man walking along the pavement stopped us (I thought for directions or something- wrong)- the conversation went like this:

Him- Do you run often?

Me- Yes.

Him- Have you heard of Parkrun UK?

Me- Yes.

Him- Have you heard of Danny Norman?

Me- Yes, I listen to the podcast (for those of you who don’t know, Danny co-presents The Parkrun show, which is available on the marathon talk website).

Him- I’m his Dad (he then got out his wallet to show us some kind of ID as if people would usually challenge this).

He then proceeded to tell us about the history of Bushy Parkrun, about how Danny went to school in Hatfield, and a few other bits, asking me which Parkrun I go to, before saying “You’d better get on with your run then”.

I love that his Dad is out promoting Parkrun to runners- I do hope that he stops lots of people to share the Parkrun love!

Although starting up running again was so tough- my legs felt like lumps of rock (we were stopped for 3 mins according to my Garmin)- at least I was smiling for the last two miles. I was very impressed with my estimating of distance too- last week I did a little over 10 miles, so I thought adding an extra little loop at the start would make it up- the loop was .88 miles, and literally as we got to our front door my Garmin beeped for 11 miles on the dot. Even with that stop we did the route in 1 hr 47, with an average moving pace of 9.55. I did stretch when I got home, but for the rest of the day I felt pretty wiped out. Luckily I had done most of my work on Saturday so only had a small bit to do. We popped to see Andy’s parents, then watched an episode of Elementary for some chill out time.

Later on I decided to make a clementine cake using this recipe as we had a batch that were very hard to peel.

You had to boil them first for 2 hours, so my plan of having tea and cake in the afternoon went out the window. Later on I read in the comments that someone just microwaved them for 10 minutes instead- I think I would try that next time.

Then you whizzed them up, and then added the other ingredients (sugar, ground almonds, eggs, baking powder) and whizzed again. (I then realised I had no baking powder so improvised with silver foil- think it worked OK)

It smelled so good when it was baking.

We both enjoyed a big slice in the evening- replenishing those carbs after our long run. It was lovely- not too sweet with that almost bitter tang from the clementines as well as the lovely texture from the ground almonds.

Tempted by Parkrun

Hey peeps! How are we all doing? Hooray for the weekend etc.

These were well and truly urgent to help me get on with my marking on Friday afternoon/evening!

So at the moment my running is going well. I have been gradually increasing distance and making sure I stretch after each run for a long time, and doing yoga each week. Only once a week but I have to start somewhere.

I was planning on doing my long run of 11 miles this morning, but yesterday we were watching the weather and it promised strong winds and heavy rain. Hmm, not so tempting. I have a bit of a cold (a child sneezed in my face the other day, the joys of the job!) so spending nearly 2 hours in the rain was not very appealing for that reason either. Plus Andy was off to the football and due to all the flooding had to leave earlier – he is running tomorrow morning and it is nice when we run together.

So then I started thinking, should I go to Parkrun in the morning? It is the off road course so I would not be going for a pb, just trying out my trail shoes in the mud. Then on Sunday morning I could go for my long run with Andy instead of on my own…

So this morning I pottered about before heading off. It was sunny when I left, so I was thinking that perhaps I had got the weather wrong and it was meant to rain on Sunday. My drive there was diverted twice due to roads closed due to flooding so my final route took me much longer- I got there at about 8 minutes to as it started to rain heavily- just enough time to get my parking ticket and try to listen to the race announcer (but it was windy, and also people near me were talking over here how rude). I heard the countdown and then jogged over to her to ask her what the route was (as they only put the normal route on the website)- I am fine following others but I wanted to know how many laps it was (3).

The normal course is super flat with only a small incline near the end, but this one was uphill on the way out, through a lot of squelchy mud, and then down hill on the way back. I feel I need to develop a technique for running on the mud- I felt much more stable in those shoes as they do grip better but still the mud is so slippery.

My shoes at the end with a good inch of mud all up the sides- I took trainers to wear on the way home so I would not be slipping all over the pedals

Anyway, I heard someone at the start saying they think the off road route adds about 2 minutes to your normal time. I didn’t look at my watch at all during it, I was concentrating on not slipping over! The rain stopped for the second lap but then started again with a vengeance in the third lap. You had to run past the finish chute which was a bit strange- and a little disheartening when people have finished ages ago and you are starting out on your final lap. But still, I enjoyed it- I think the great thing about Parkrun is that it is over in about half an hour, so even though the weather was horrible I got my fresh air fix. My final time was 30.36 (I was 124th/169 but only the 24th female out of 47- crazy that it is still so dominated by men)- a personal worst (well not officially as there was a time the results went wrong and we all got 59.59), but probably around the time I should have been aiming for.

I did a few stretches in the car park but it was cold so I headed home for some tea and muesli in front of the snowboarding on TV.

Now I have a little ache at the front of one of my legs, near my hip, so I have been feeling a bit paranoid, but hopefully it is just a normal post running ache and nothing worse.

I do like the fact that Parkrun is not too far either- I have enough energy left to get on with all the housework (I even cleaned the fridge but that was more to do with putting off my work than anything else), then got on with most of my work before having a break and walking into town for a Starbucks. Now I have a bit more work to do but hopefully I can power through.

Hooray for Parkrun! How I have missed it. Although I think to be sensible next weekend I won’t be going, will have to wait until March for my next fix.

How was your Saturday? How is the flooding by you? There are roads near me that always flood in the winter, so they of course are underwater, but there are so many roads between fields that are closed- driving back from town today even the roads that were open probably shouldn’t have been as the water was so deep and still just pouring off the fields. I am very lucky that our house is relatively high so even our garage has been fine.