Maria Runs - parkrunning and touring since 2013!

Being a fitness first

A while ago I was contacted to see if I wanted to try out a Fitness First gym, and as there is one in the town where I work, so I thought I would give them a go.

As well as a gym pass, I was sent a rucksack and a fitbit.

This week I went after work on Wednesday, as I needed to get a few bits in town (although I ended up leaving so late, I missed the bank). As I normally run on a Wednesday, I decided to go on the treadmill, and because I am not a huge treadmill fan, I went for a 5K hill session. This made it more interesting as the treadmill kept changing the incline level (at one point I had to slow it down as it was so tough)- I was dripping by the end. I had my phone with me and was trying to listen to podcasts, but even with the volume up at the highest I could not hear it over the sound of the treadmill belt.

I always feel a bit dizzy after getting off a treadmill too, so walked around a bit before showering and heading home. Now, my first visit wasn’t that great. I think after work is a very busy time, so I had to wait a long time to swap my card over for a pass, and then I was just left to it- I wandered about and found the changing rooms and showers, but had no idea how to work the lockers so had to keep my bags with me- OK in the gym, but the shower cubicles were very small so I had to leave them outside and hope no-one would move them.

It was OK but I would much rather have run a 5k outside. Although I was telling myself that the hill training will help me on Sunday (the first part of the 10 mile route does contain some hills).

Anyway, I decided to give it another go on Friday morning before work (I still went to Body Pump as usual on Thursday as I love that).

I was a bit confused about when to get there- the gym opens at 6, but the car park didn’t open until 7. I really should be in work for 8, so I turned up at 7 on the dot, but I think in fact the car park would have been OK to use earlier as there were already plenty of cars there.

This visit was more successful- the person at the front desk helped me out as on the previous visit it turned out I had been given the wrong card, and should have handed it back when I left (but this wasn’t explained on Wednesday). I was given a quick tour of the gym, shown where the studios were, told how to work the lockers, and then left to it. Although this was useful, it was eating into my time because I had to leave there by 7.45 to get to work. Anyway, after body pump I often get really achy legs, and I didn’t fancy the treadmill again, so I went for a bike this time. I only managed 20 minutes because time was ticking, but it was quite enjoyable. I listened to some marathon talk (the bike doesn’t make much noise) and rushed back for a speedy shower and a change (hooray for dry shampoo as no way did I have time for a hair wash and dry, even though they had nice hairdryers in the changing rooms). As I left I was even shown how to validate the parking (it’s a town centre location so was expensive on Wednesday when I had to park elsewhere).

Now I have a studio timetable, I will have a look and hopefully try out a class, because I think that is what would persuade me more than the equipment. I do want to give yoga or Pilates a try, but I need to work out if I could fit one in this week at some point. The timetable is pretty comprehensive- loads more classes than my local gym, and sorted into morning, afternoon and evening time slots so you can start to work out which one would suit you. There are lots of body pump classes, but I love my instructor and I don’t know if I would like it so much somewhere else.

Anyway, I am very glad I went again, because it was a much better impression this time!

The fitbit has been interesting too. It didn’t come with instructions, just a link to the fitbit setup website, but once that was sorted it seemed to work well. The website dashboard has loads of sections to track different aspects of health- it even tells me how much water to drink in a day! I have my vivofit, so at some points in the day I have been looking at both to compare the steps and distance (although at the moment the distance is in km so I need to work out how to change it) and the steps seem to be fairly similar, although sometimes the fitbit has been a bit higher. More on that once I have used it for a bit longer.

Are you a fan of the gym? Which classes do you prefer?

*I was sent the pass and fitbit to use in exchange for a post. All opinions are my own.

Owl cake!

A while ago I was contacted by Stork, to see if I fancied creating any of their cakes using their new Stork with butter.

Well, I came across this amazing looking owl cake, and knew I had to have a go.

They kindly sent me a voucher for the ingredients, so after buying what I needed, I set to work. Making the chocolate cake was fine- I liked the addition of the milk and lemon juice- you do that in a red velvet cake to imitate buttermilk and it makes the cake lovely and light. I baked it for less time though, but that might be down to my oven.

Then, the fun part.

I kept the cake in the baking paper (I did loosen the paper) because my only tin big enough for a plate was at school after the bake sale.

I made the owl eyes and beak with marzipan, because I like that more than sugar paste (and a minstrel for the centre of each eye). I put the first batch of buttercream on, and then disaster ensued. Basically, my kitchenaid mixer has two switches- one to raise and lower the top of the unit, and one to turn it on. I had raised the unit to add more cocoa powder to the icing (to make it darker) but instead of switching the right one to lower it, I moved the left one which turned it on. Now, you might think that it would not work if the unit was raised. Well, it does. So it sprayed chocolate buttercream all over me, all over the kitchen, all over the floor. Argh!

Anyway, after stopping to clean up, I added the darker buttercream, and then some grated chocolate.

It was very well received on Sunday. I was really pleased with how it turned out. It looked very impressive, but actually (with a bit of patience) the end result was fairly simple and I would certainly make it again.

Any kitchen disasters?

*I was sent a voucher to cover the cost of ingredients. All opinions are my own.

WR10K 2015

This Sunday I was up bright and early to drive up to Milton Keynes for the Women’s Running 10K race. I did it last year, and really enjoyed it (despite not being sure if I would like a women’s only race- and yes I know I have now joined a women’s running club but they are the only running club in my town, and also I love them).

Last year Andy dropped me off, as it was a Saturday and he was off to watch the qualifying at Silverstone. I got a taxi to the shops after (I had illusions of walking the 1.5 miles, but realised I would get hopelessly lost, and it was raining, and I was tired…)- by the time he picked me up I was a bit grumpy- shops on a Saturday are not my thing, and especially not lugging around my stinky running clothes. Anyway, back to this week.

The race had moved to a Sunday after their feedback from last year- so I drove myself as Andy had no idea when the race would end, plus after last year I didn’t want to hang around too much.

I listened to Marathon talk in my car (oh, I am loving the novelty of being able to play podcasts through the stereo system), and arrived with about 45 minutes to spare.

I had a walk to the lake, and to the real toilets in the park (they did have port-a-loos but there was a big queue and I would rather wait until the end of the race than use one), and then headed to the bag drop, where I came across my lovely OH ladies run leader- I knew she was marshaling but didn’t expect to see her there!

I joined in with the warm up, which was actually pretty good, led by a runner (she worked for the WR magazine and had run distances from 5K up to ultras, so she knew her stuff)- no leisure centre aerobic warm-ups here.

This year they had introduced a 5K option at each race (and if you wanted to swap from 10 to 5 on the day, you could, you just had to get a new number), and so the 5K was one lap, and the 10K was two laps of the lake. Everyone started together, but they only had pacers for the 10K times, so they were saying if you were aiming for a 30 minute 5K, go with the 60 minute pacer etc.

I decided to aim for an hour, and keep with the 60 minute pacer. It was cloudy, but very muggy so I didn’t know how I would cope in the heat. I thought that if I was feeling OK I would try to speed up a bit in the second lap.

The course is really good- it is all on footpaths around the lake. I saw some geese and their goslings, and lots of people were out supporting. The final part of the lap is lovely as it goes through some woods. I kept behind the 60 minute pacer for the first lap, along with a big crowd of other women. The pacer was lovely- really encouraging, and even reminding us to keep tall as we ran up inclines (it is flat, but every now and then you run up and down sort of bridge things- they go over storm drains into the lake or something- basically like running down and up an underpass). I looked at my watch a few times and saw 9.30ish pace, so I knew I was OK for around the hour. There were marshals at very frequent points, and I liked to think I knew the parkrunners as they all said “thank you marshal” to each one. I saw lots of Redway Runners, and realised the reason for their name at long last- Redways are paths around Milton Keynes. I have seen them (the runners, not the paths) at local races before but never worked out the reason for the name!

I got a bit of a stitch around the 4.5K mark, but managed to run on- and I saw my run leader as I passed the half way point so that gave me a boost. I was feeling OK, and although it was muggy there seemed to be a bit of a breeze on the second lap. The big group of runners diminished a bit as some of them were doing the 5K, but it was still a bit congested so I went a bit ahead of the 60 minute pacer then. I could still hear her behind me and it was nice to hear her encouragement still.

At the 5 mile point my watch beeped and I had been running for 47 minutes, so I knew that even if I slowed down a lot I should manage the sub 60, although sometimes this does not help as then I get a bit of an adrenaline rush. I got a stitch at the 9.5K point too- no idea why as that was a flat part through the woods.

I really like the two lap route, and the second lap always feels faster because you know exactly where you are going, so the finish line seemed to appear suddenly, and by that point there were loads of people out supporting. A few people put on mega sprints to pass me with a few metres to go, but I was happy to finish strong. The announcer was calling everyone’s names as they came up to the finish which was a nice touch.

My run leader was handing out bottles of water, so I had a quick chat before collecting my goody bag, t-shirt, drink and ice cream, and sitting down on the grass to stretch for a bit, and rest.

The marshals had lovely purple technical t-shirts, and I was hoping for one of those, but ours were white. Still nice, The protein ice cream was disgusting though! I was given banoffee flavour, and I am not a fan of banana flavoured things, but this just tasted almost bitter it was so artificial. And with a very weird texture too. I won’t be having that again! Ice cream should be a nice treat I think and should not contain whey protein isolate or xylitol.

The goody bag was pretty good- (ha ha, like the name)- two magazines, dried mango, teapigs tea, foot lotion, gel, rehydration tabs, a hairband, crackers and popchips (I ate those in the shopping centre). No banana through 🙁 I got someone friendly to take my photo on the stage.

I had packed a nuun tab, so I had that in my water right away. As well as the mouthful of gross fake ice cream, I had a sip of the soya drink they were also handing out, but again it wasn’t good. After cheering some runners over the line, I went back to the real toilets to change- I always feel a million times better after a face-wipe and change of clothes.

I chatted a bit more to my run leader- there were still people finishing (this was around 100 minutes after the start time) so she was still handing out water. I had some malt loaf in my bag so had that as my post race snack as I didn’t fancy any of the bits in the bag.

Earlier in the week I was set on driving straight home, but I had taken the postcode for the parking just in case, and was glad I had, as I was quite hungry, thirsty, and needed to get a few end of term presents.

After getting a bit stressed with finding the parking (it is very weird in Milton Keynes- it seems like you park next to offices, and all the roads look the same, and the shopping centre is partially/ mostly hidden from the road, I headed to Starbucks for a sit down.

I ended up shopping for another hour or so- (I was very pleased as I managed to get everything on my list and didn’t get too stressed) by the time I had driven home (another hour) it was late in the afternoon, and we were going to Andy’s parent for dinner so it was too late for lunch. I had a cup of tea after my shower, and that gave me an energy boost for a bit!

The medal is engraved with the date and place on the back, which is a nice touch. Although it was hard to photograph!

I got a text through saying my time was 59.09. I am pleased with that time (a whole 10 seconds faster than last years time) but I think they mean gun time. We did run over a mat at the start, and I didn’t try to be too far forwards as with a chip it doesn’t matter. I pressed my Garmin as I crossed the mat both times- but there is nearly 20 seconds different (plus everyone has the same start time if you look at the results, whereas in fact it would have taken a bit of time to cross)- so I think this must be because the start mats didn’t work. (Strava thinks 58.44 so even quicker). I don’t mind because I still got in under the hour, but I am not sure if the 60 minute pacer would have made the 60 minute gun time, which would be disappointing if that is what you were aiming for.

On the whole this event was really good, and I am glad I went there again this year. Parking is right by the start, the bag drop worked smoothly, the warm up was good, the support was good, the route is nice, the goody bag is good, the medal is pretty, and you get a technical t-shirt.

However, the technical t-shirt is quite short- I might save it for an extra winter layer. They could do with sorting the chip timing, and a changing tent would be good . But those are small things and I would look at another one of their events next year.

What makes a great race for you? I prefer the smaller races, I always love a technical t-shirt, and a pretty route helps too.

Trying not to melt

OK, so I know some people live in much hotter places than the UK, but seriously, Wednesday was pretty tough- 35C + temperatures are not my friend!

I had already swapped my runs over, so I ran on Monday and Tuesday, instead of Tuesday and Wednesday, but they were still warm days. Then I had to spend Wednesday evening baking for a bake sale at work (couldn’t do it on Thursday as had my re-scheduled haircut)- after a day at work in that heat, spending the evening in our tiny kitchen, which has no windows, was not enjoyable. Anyway, at least it is a bit better now- today seems lovely summer weather.

After boiling at parkrun last weekend I decided to volunteer instead- plus this weekend and next I have races on the Sundays so decided that one hot weekend run would be enough. Today I was a tail runner, and because it was 4th July they had a bit of a US theme (although they only posted it last night so not too many people were dressed up). They had red, white and blue balloons at the finish line, and were handing out jelly beans too. (They had some left over so the marshals got a few bonus packets).

The run was really more of a walk as the two people in front of us walked the whole way, apart from the final 0.1 hill. There were two of us so we had a good chat on the way around, and even walking was pretty warm. I remembered to get a finish token, so that was run number 43 for me. Getting closer to the big 50!

Earl grey and lime iced tea- I had a voucher for a few free drinks here- otherwise I wouldn’t bother. It was nice, but didn’t even have any ice in it!

Afterwards I was super efficient; going to the shops and having my car washed while I was there, picking up a cold drink, coming home and sorting out all the paperwork for my new car, and sorting out other bits at home. A satisfying start to the weekend.

I am half looking forward to the 10k tomorrow- I am under no illusions that it will be a fast time. I am just hoping to enjoy the experience, look at the scenery and not get too overheated!

I think I may have a cold drink and watch some Wimbledon now- I love a chilled out weekend.

June running and missing things by a minute (or more)

How is it nearly the end of June?

Since getting back from holiday the month seems to have flown by. My running has been a bit erratic, with no particular training plan to follow.

Week 1: 3 mile run with OH ladies, 3.1 mile run on my own, Body Pump, 3.1 mile parkrun with my brother, and then the fun Whipsnade 10k.

We bought some Strawberry Lemonade tea from The Bluebird tea co, and have been enjoying it iced.

Week 2: 8 mile run (I ran to and from the OH club run), that pretty much tired me out so I didn’t run the next day. (I also missed Body Pump that week to go to see Ash in London- I love seeing them live, and it was a trip down memory lane for the two of us as we went to see them when we first started going out, all those 16+ years ago!). I did parkrun on the Saturday as a lot of the OH ladies were going, and seeing as I go on about how great it is so much, I felt I should be there! Then I did the St Albans half on the Sunday, which was fairly tough due to the heat, middle hilly section and just generally half marathons are hard!

Blurry Blur

Week 3: 4.2 mile OH run, 3.8 mile run on my own (this didn’t go too well- I went to the fields, and at one point I was running along a track with deep grass on either side. I caught up to a man who was walking- he said hello to me as I overtook him- I said hi back- but then as I ran past, he started running too. I tried to run a bit faster, and when I looked back he was walking again. At that point I chose to go through the cow fields, where I probably should have gone back the other way to the roads. Anyway as I stopped to open the cow gates I could see him running again, and so I basically did a bit of interval training where I sprinted as hard as I could, considered hiding in the woods, kept looking back to see where he was, hid behind big piles of sand, and then got the door key out of my pocket to hold. It sounds silly now, but I really got panicked- normally there are lots of dog walkers about, but I didn’t see anyone else and it really seems fairly isolated. Anyway I made it home in one piece but have avoided that part of the fields since). Back to the recap. I went to Body Pump, but not parkrun because we were meeting friends for breakfast, early because then I was helping out at the summer fete, and then heading into London to see Blur at Hyde Park. Did an 8 mile run on Sunday. Saw a huge mushroom.

Huge-mush-rous!

Then I went into London for afternoon tea.

The bonus of being veggie is that I get a stand all to myself!

Such a lovely way to spend several hours- I don’t think I got home until nearly 9pm!

Week 4: 5.6 mile OH run, 3.1 mile on my own (which was really tough- I kept getting a stitch and having to stop), Body Pump (new release- argh so tough!), parkrun in the heat, and then no long run because we were off to London.

So, onto the missing out. On Friday I had a training day, which finished earlier than the normal school day. I had booked a haircut (if you saw the photos from the parkrun the other week you would understand why it is driving me so mad!) but a lorry had broken down, blocking 3 lanes of the dual carriageway exit, meaning that a 5 minute section of my journey took over 45 minutes- I was too late so have had to re-book.

Then, on Friday evening the club were launching their website. (It is here if you fancy having a look). I hadn’t officially said I would go, as a while back we thought we might go away for the weekend to take advantage of my early finish, but in the end we didn’t. Anyway it was only when I looked at facebook later on that I saw the launch photos- I had forgotten to go- missing out number 2.

Then, on Sunday, we went into London to see Dave Gorman’s TV show being filmed. The tickets said 5pm, so we got there just after 4, waited about 20 minutes in the queue, and were then told it was full. It was disappointing. Although at least we were not the first to not get in- that would be worse to get so near to it. Never mind, we still had a wander around Westfields (which reminded me why I don’t so much like shopping!), and I did buy a new shower cap. So, silver linings and all that.

I also had lovely pancakes on Saturday, so the weekend wasn’t a total disaster!

How are you coping running in the heat? I had a 3 mile run today, and all was fine until about 2.5 miles in, when I suddenly felt like I had massively overheated and just could not cool down for ages after I had got home. I switched my runs over so this Wednesday (which will be the hottest apparently) is now a rest day because I just can’t face it.