Running - Maria Runs

My favourite Christmas movies/ shows, plus December running latest

So, Christmas is well and truly here. Since finishing work on Wednesday I have been getting into the spirit- icing the Christmas cakes, getting my hair cut (not so festive, but very much needed as my last cut was in July), wrapping presents, buying a few last minute bits, treating myself to a gingerbread steamer (basically the latte minus the coffee) making maple-roasted nuts and Christmas brownies to take to my parents tomorrow.

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Decorating made a big mess!

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So, the running. I had planned a long run of 10 miles on Thursday morning (in the light!!!)- originally I was going to run with some ladies from the club, but a couple dropped out, and on Wednesday my back and then hips (or whatever it is, I don’t really know) were quite stiff and not feeling great. I messaged my friend saying I would rather run alone as I didn’t want to hold her up but also I knew I would be tempted to speed up and push myself a bit too much. I headed out gently (it was freezing) and tried a new route, which I thought would work well as then I would not be able to compare times to other routes.

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This horrible hill was in the middle- it’s 120ft from bottom to top, and it;s very steep. I walked a couple of times as it was just horrible.

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Why doesn’t it ever look as steep in real life? Anyway, I stopped quite a few times as I got lost (sort of- I had to check my phone a few times and wasn’t quite where I thought I would be..), I bumped into a friend who was out walking her dog, and then I went into the bank to pay in a cheque. This was good though as it meant I was going slowly and not pushing at all. I did some freestyle yoga (making it up as I go along) when I got back- the downward dog after a run is lovely.

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This is my “I should have worn a buff” face- it doesn’t show up that well but the skin on my neck and chest went all blotchy from being so cold- this happens to me a lot in the winter and is very annoying.

After the run (I then had 29 miles left before the end of the year) I felt OK, but I ended up sitting down for a bit (catching up on emails and TV) and got fairly stiff. I had my haircut that evening and walked around town for a bit first, but on Friday I was still a bit stiff. We walked into town and then when we got back I tried a new app that Andy got for the TV (maybe called Flow? I can’t remember)- anyway, it had loads of videos of yoga sessions on there, including a whole section for yoga for runners. I put on the lights on the tree, lit a candle (Bluebird Tea mulled wine candle that smells like mince pies mixed with orange zest). I ended up doing about 40 minutes (I think I did a 5 minute one to see if I would like it, then a 15 min one, then 20), and at the end once I was warmed up I did a little headstand practise. At first I could only get one leg onto one arm, but I regrouped and had another go, and managed it for a bit.

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At first I could not manage the pigeon pose on one side, but by the end I had another go and it really helped- the hips is where the tension seems to lie.

I was worrying a lot (I have some paranoia around this) as I was planning on running to and from parkrun on Christmas Eve, but thankfully the yoga worked wonders and all was fine. I was treated to this gorgeous sunrise just before 8am today:

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I then headed off slowly and steadily, and made it to parkrun just fine.

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It had such a festive feel- baubles in the trees, fairy lights on the fences,

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Santa set us off (instead of 3,2,1,go, he said ho, ho, ho go), and there was an inflatable snowman handing out the finish tokens!

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I ran with my dad – he was taking it gently as he had not been running for a couple of weeks, and had cycled to the start. We finished in 29.39- pleased to be under 30 minutes as it was very muddy and slippery.

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Trail shoes were certainly needed -it was very slippery and muddy out there. (Added tinsel for the festive feel)

After a quick chat we parted ways as we were all getting cold, and by the time I got home I’d run a half marathon, and my legs were still feeling fine. Phew. 16 miles to go now.

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I was so hungry after my shower- we had some almond croissants in the freezer (one each for us), and then I found a left over pain au chocolate, so decided to have both along with some grapes.

We walked into town in the afternoon (leg still going well)- so hopefully I shall be alright for a Christmas morning parkrun tomorrow.

So, onto the Christmas films/ TV shows.

Already this year we have watched Home Alone and the Gavin and Stacy Christmas episode (Midge Ure cheddar…). Tonight we have penciled in It’s a Wonderful Life (a Christmas Eve tradition), and we need to find time for The Snowman, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia Christmas episode, Community Christmas special, Home Alone 2 and The Muppets Christmas Carol. Andy also likes Die Hard but we shall see if we have enough time.

What are your favourite Christmas TV shows / films? Did you have a festive parkrun this weekend?

Have a lovely Christmas! x

PS- It was my debut as run report writer this week, and I was a bit inspired by The Snowman- check out my report if you fancy it.

November Poppy Challenge 2016

I’ve mentioned before that I don’t like the run every day challenges, but I do like a distance challenge- this year I have completed a couple of 100 miles a month challenges, and they are always good. I can get stuck in a bit of a routine, especially with my midweek runs. I always think 3 miles is the minimum (no point in running for so little that it takes me longer to get changed and shower than it does to actually run). But by joining a challenge I add a little to that- I have found a few 5 mile routes- still the run is less than an hour and still manageable after work. Where it is best, is parkrun, because it means I do a little warm up run first, which makes the actual parkrun feel so much easier. The temptation to leave home later and arrive just before gets higher the longer the term goes on for.

november-2015 I did the Virtual Runner poppy challenge last year and did 76 miles- I was pleased with this, but decided I wanted to beat it this year.

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This year I managed 93- loads more! It helped that I noticed I was closer to 1000 miles for the year, so added on a few extra here and there. I am not sure I would have noticed if it wasn’t for this challenge as I don’t usually look at the monthly miles unless I am doing something like this.

The month included some parkrun tourism (Preston parkrun in Brighton, and Lydiard parkrun in Swindon, on the way to the Bath Christmas markets). It also included a cancelled race (Brighton 10K) where I ran around the town a bit instead, and an unexpected pb for the Hatfield 5.

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It also included a lot of Christmas light spotting- this house had a projector- the snowflakes were moving all over the place.

The medal is beautiful too.

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And they raised £7600 for the British Legion, which I think is fantastic.

Do you warm up before a run? Or just have the first mile as the warm up?

A weekend for feeling festive

This weekend I was fully in the festive spirit. Friday was Christmas jumper day:
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Thanks Not on the High Street- it was that or Mince Pies before Guys, which made me laugh so much, but the cute whale just won it for me.

On Friday night we had a team evening out with a meal at Pizza Express, and then a visit to The Pudding Stop.

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On Saturday morning I drove to Ellenbrook parkrun- on the Tuesday a few of the girls from the club said they would be going, and when I looked at my results I realised I had only run there a handful of times- I’ve volunteered a lot but I have run a lot more at Panshanger. It’s easy to do a run beforehand there as it’s close to the business park- wide pavements, fairly flat, and as that was right where we used to live I know exactly how far a mile is and so on.

I got to the start line with about 10 minutes to go, so I ended up running up and down the runway (in the above picture) to keep warm. It was so foggy you couldn’t even see the start line from the end of the runway. When I was getting out of my car, a guy drove past and rolled down his window and asked me if I knew where parkrun was. I explained it, telling him to go through the gap in the hedge (it is a real path) and then turn right, saying something like “you’ll see all the high viz volunteers”- well, you couldn’t see them as it was so foggy! I had’t slept well and my hip was feeling sore, and as I changed into my trail shoes in the car park one side felt a bit too stretched, but I pulled my knee into my chest and that seemed to sort it- I ran fairly slowly and cautiously but everything seemed alright.

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I’d said to some of the runners at the start that I wasn’t going to go too fast, as my focus is miles and not time, and I didn’t look at my watch at all. At one point I had to take my top layer off, although I was then too cold- can’t get it right! Anyway, turns out I finished in position 39, first in my age category, with 27.37, which was my second fastest time there. It seems that a warm up is good for running- who knew?

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I had been meaning to get my car washed for ages, and decided that as I drive past the big Tesco on the way home, I would see how busy it was. It was fairly quiet (I thought it would be manic with only a week until Christmas), so I left my car and wandered around the shops. I didn’t see anything and there’s a cafe there, so I went for a hot drink.

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When I got home it was time for the Christmas bowl! I got this in Disney in September, but I was waiting until December to use it.

I had a whole list of things to do, and managed to get them all ticked off- making more Christmas pudding fudge for gifts for people at work, putting marzipan on the Christmas cakes, work (not festive but it had to be done). The tyre pressure light in my car has been on for a while, and last time I tried to sort it out myself I ran out of 20p’s and managed to deflate my front tyre. Not good. Andy needed to collect some things from work, so I drove and then we stopped off to get that sorted on the way home.

Later we walked into town, in the fog- in fact the fog was worse on the way home- it was so grey and wintery.

On Sunday morning I was off on a long run- I decided to run to and from Ellenbrook parkrun, as on Christmas Eve I would quite like to do that, and also run parkrun. I went there and back slightly different ways, but each way is around 5 miles- I’ll have to be organised that morning so I’m not late, but it should be doable.

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Christmas leggings are being well used this month!

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In the afternoon I went for afternoon tea with Andy’s mum and my sister in laws- it was such a lovely afternoon, and I always approve of places where you can get more sandwiches (I didn’t, but you can). The cakes were actually Christmassy ones- the fruit cake looked like Rudolph. There was a log fire burning, and a live singer. It was perfect. We took a lot home with us, as we were also given mini mince pies and chocolate covered cherries.

Later that evening I wrapped all the present for work, cut up and bagged the fudge and wrote cards. A very festive weekend indeed.

Do you have many Christmas jobs left? I have a bit of wrapping to do, and I need to ice and decorate the Christmas cakes. Did your work take part in the Christmas jumper day?

December running so far, and fava bean granola

My Strava feed seems to be full of running at the moment- it seems a lot of people are running every day in December/ for advent. To me, that’s crazy. I know that running 3 days in a row is OK for me, and 4 is my limit, and really the 4th run is no use to me at all as I will be stiff, tired and slow. However, I do like the challenges that encourage me to run a little further than normal. I can get into a bit of a run midweek- 3 miles is my minimum run (what’s the point in spending more time washing my hair than I spend running?), so doing a distance challenge is good as it makes me run 4 or 5 miles in the evenings instead. It is also good for my at parkrun as I tend to run a mile or two beforehand, and so I am then warmed up for the start of parkrun. As I have mentioned before, I’ve signed up for the 100 miles in December challenge, and I also want to run 1000 miles in 2016. We are half way through December now, and my monthly total is 44 miles (not too bad you might say- nearly half way), and my yearly total is 940. As we were away for the first weekend in December I did no running then at all- missing one long run and one parkrun had a big impact. So I have 60 miles to run in two weeks. I think it’s doable. This weekend I’ll run before parkrun, and do a long run on Sunday, so that will be around 15 miles. I’ll do a normal club run on Tuesday, and then I can run in daylight (I finish on Wednesday)- I’m planning another long run on Thursday with a few of the girls from the club. I might run to and from parkrun on Christmas Eve, and I have a 10 mile race the day after Boxing Day. I don’t want to be having to run lots of days in a row so I am trying to make sure all of my runs are slightly longer.

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I’d also forgotten that I had signed up for the Virtual Runner 5k series of December- annoyingly I didn’t go to parkrun the first weekend (we were away) and last weekend I marshaled, so one day I did an out and back to get the 5k in, although a longer run would have been better, so this week I submitted the first 3 miles of a 5 mile run. The 4 medals all clip together to make a snowflake which is why I signed up.

Ages ago I was sent some granola from Fava Mills. They use fava beans from Finland to make high protein breakfast cereals.

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They make 5 varieties- Apple and Cinnamon, Cranberry, Crunchy, Apricot and Papaya, and Berries and Beets. They also make ground fava beans which you can add to savoury things, a bit like quorn mince or lentils or something.

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The apple and cinnamon is my favourite- this is on top of an apple with some almond milk, although you can’t see the apple. The granola is super crunchy, and although I do prefer it crunchy, I leave it to soak for a bit as otherwise I don’t think my teeth could handle it!

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The ingredients are: oat flakes, fava bean flour (20.5%), sugar, pea protein, rapeseed oil, apple cubes (4%) [apple, sugar, natural apple flavor, acidity regulator (citric acid)], barley malt extract, cinnamon, salt. So they do contain sugar, but then most granolas do. Each serving has 9g protein, which seems quite good.

They are available to buy only online at the moment, here. They also have some recipes on their website.

I think it would make a great crunchy topping for an apple crumble too, although I have not tried it just yet.

Do you mange to keep running/exercising during the festive period? Have you ever joined a challenge? When do you finish work for Christmas?

*I was sent the cereals in exchange for a mention in a blog post *

Hatfield 5 2016

After our Saturday in Bath (a couple of weeks ago now) I was doing the Hatfield 5. It’s a fairy new race (this was it’s third year)- I ran it for the first year, but last year we were away. As it’s local, we get a great turnout of OH ladies both running and marshaling. The first year was still my 5 mile pb- a great time of 44.44 (great because of the palindromic nature as well as it being very fast for me) and I didn’t think I would be anywhere close to it.

I had also signed up to the Virtual Runner UK birthday run – it was any distance in November. I actually submitted a random run so the medal would come, but I wanted it for this run. The money went to Alzheimer’s UK, and as was pretty much 2 years to the day since my Nan passed away of Alzheimer’s I wanted to run the race in memory of her.

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The race HQ is at Herts uni, so you could use their car park and hang about inside the cafe area after collecting your number. I left my bag at the drop (although that took a while and should have hinted to me that maybe I should have just run back to my car). We only headed to the start line 5 minutes before as it was quite cold, and I lined up with a few runners who I know are a similar speed to me. I had no aims of beating my pb as I had worked out I would need to run all my miles beginning with an 8- it sounds way too fast!

I was trying to keep one of my friends (Louise) in sight, but the start was crowded so I lost her for a bit. I managed to catch her up after a mile or so, and a little later we caught up with another runner from our club (Emily-she’d only joined a few weeks before and this was her first race). After a while Louise said she needed to slow, so we left her, and the two of us pretty much stayed together, sometimes me a bit ahead, and sometimes Emily. We saw loads of OH marshals along the first couple of miles which really gave us a boost too.

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Here we are after about 3 or 4 miles I think (both feet off the ground for both of us).

As we came to the final mile we kept being overtaken by these two guys, and then they would go past us. It turned into a bit of friendly rivalry as one of them commented “you girls keep going past us”- I think we finished ahead of one of them! The final mile is the same as the first mile, but in the opposite direction, but it seemed to go on for ages! I had barely looked at my watch during the race (only to see the mileage) but I could see the finish clock, and knew it had taken us a minute or so to cross the line, and it was still under 45 minutes so I put in as much of a sprint as I could to try and beat my time.

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Chip time was 43.58! A new 5 mile pb by nearly a minute!

I managed the royal flush negative split too- my miles were 9.09, 8.59, 8.50, 8.41, 8.20. Not sure how I managed that! Just over 25 minutes for the final 3 miles, yet my fastest parkrun (and I know there’s a 0.1 to be added) has been just over 27 minutes recently.

I stayed at the finish line and cheered lots of our runners over the line, but I started to get very cold so thought I would head in to get my bag. I ended up queuing for about 35 minutes- one poor guy was on his own trying to find each bag. It was very painful and annoyingly I missed seeing the last couple of runners from our club cross the finish line. We had a few mini group pictures as we hadn’t taken one at the start (a schoolboy error)- marshals and runners. It was great to see so many familiar faces.

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From our facebook page

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The medal was a really good one too- nice and chunky. I decided that I was going to donate my finish time to the charity (like when parkrun do the donate your time campaign) so it’s properly for my Nan.

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I then had a bit of a rush as I was going into London for afternoon tea with a couple of friends- it was the first weekend of their festive one and we got mini mince pies, which excited me a lot (even though I am not the biggest fan). I think I didn’t drink enough though as I had such an awful headache at the end, and didn’t have any painkillers with me. I could have bought some on my way back to the train station, but as it was a Sunday the trains were less frequent and I thought I would rather get an earlier train and suffer on- it wasn’t good though as I wanted to sleep on the train but then worried I would miss my stop. Apart from that it was great though.

When I told Andy I got a new pb, he went “for 5 miles?” as if that wasn’t very impressive! I think it’s my 6th or 7th 5 mile race, so I was pretty pleased!

Which distances do you think you race the most frequently? I would guess 10k for me, but I need to do a tally chart to find out. Which tea would you have for afternoon tea? Earl grey all the way for me.