Month: February 2020

Eat, sleep, run, repeat

Dee Leave a comment

I had a go at a new volunteer role at parkrun today…

…and then headed home to get a restful afternoon in before my long run tomorrow.

I’ve been trying to keep my running discussion within my videos, but I will say that marathon training is pretty all-consuming at the moment. If you do it properly, it really does take over your life, and I certainly feel that’s been the case with recent weekends as the long runs have become longer. I am absolutely loving it at the moment, but it is hard work, and I think I will appreciate having a few months off in the summer before long race training starts again for the autumn.

I’ve got a good plan for the long run tomorrow, but in some ways I’m already looking forward to Monday and putting my feet up with a bit of day job work!

Leap Day
Leap Day cat calendar with bonus recently acquired trinkets from the Wigan collection (plus background Dalek).

Today’s earworm playlist:

Gogol Bordello – ‘Start Wearing Purple’
Justin Bieber – ‘Love Yourself’
Vangelis – ‘Chariots Of Fire’

Weekend feeling

Dee Leave a comment

I had a go at something different for my run this morning…

…then, after another positive counselling session, spent the afternoon doing day job work. Going to try and get a relatively early night before parkrun tomorrow!

Running stuff haul
Some running goodies that I ordered have arrived in the post today. Lots of colourful patterns to cheer me up for the rest of winter! The yellow card on top is the progress card for the social run group I went to this morning (more runs with them = free stuff, which is top quality running motivation).

Today’s earworm playlist:

Justin Bieber – ‘Sorry’
The Rolling Stones – ‘Paint It Black’
Belouis Some – ‘Imagination’
Levellers – ‘Belarus’
FM-84 and Ollie Wride – ‘Wild Ones’
Justin Bieber – ‘Love Yourself’
Normani – ‘Motivation’

Phone Box Thursday: Llys Y Dryw, St Nicholas

Dee Leave a comment

Here’s another fairly rural box that Mum and Dad found in Wales last September.

Red phone box
Red phone box, Llys Y Dryw, St Nicholas, 11th September 2019.

(Coordinates 51°97’89.0″N, 5°05’73.9″W.)

This box has been repurposed for a defibrillator now (great news!) – you can see it alongside Dad’s photo-taking reflection in the picture! You can also still see the phone box in its previous tired state in the Google Street View image linked above.

Small steps for the house

Dee Leave a comment

Back to the recovery runs this morning…

…and then I spent the afternoon doing admin and house stuff. Have ordered the new dishwasher – something I’ve been wanting for a while as it will free up the time Geth has to spend on the dishes (the kitchen is his job). I’ve also got a picture up on the living room wall. Just one, but it’s a start…

As I mentioned last week when we got a few mirrors up in the downstairs bathroom, getting things on the walls is making me realise how beige the whole place is. I think a few pots of paint are going to be my next house purchase, so that I can gradually make the rooms look a bit brighter!

Busy day tomorrow, and then another big running weekend.

Butterfly picture
I am very keen for this boring magnolia wall to turn some kind of nice pale aquamarine sometime soon.

Today’s earworm playlist:

Justin Bieber – ‘Love Yourself’

Blue skies

Dee Leave a comment

A nice midweek run in the frosty sunshine…

…and then I spent the afternoon doing admin and practising my ukulele (class went back tonight after half term and we have a lot of fairly complex tunes to learn at the moment). Ukulele class was a bit of a mixture tonight – we had some bad news re. the fact that our teacher won’t be teaching us anymore next term. We’re also learning a Justin Bieber song at the moment, and it sounded as though not many people were singing along – possibly because most people were concentrating on learning the riff – so I sort of felt like I was singing when I shouldn’t be for that one. Which was a little awkward.

After class I headed to poetry night. I decided not to read tonight, as although I do have a couple of works-in-progress they’re not quite ready for public performance. It was nice to enjoy everyone else’s poems without worrying about my own!

Love Yourself music
I know this song fairly well (it was everywhere in 2015). Not sure many other people in the class do though!

Today’s earworm playlist:

FM-84 and Ollie Wride – ‘Wild Ones’
Tinchy Stryder and N-Dubz – ‘Number 1’
Justin Bieber – ‘Love Yourself’

Suddenly springlike

Dee Leave a comment

Back out on the roads this morning…

…because the weather couldn’t have been more different from yesterday! Lovely and mild out there today – I went for a walk in the afternoon too.

Work has been quiet today so I managed to get most of my admin and writing jobs done in the afternoon. I also made a ton of Shrove Tuesday pancakes this evening! Hoping that they’ll fuel tomorrow morning’s run nicely.

Blue sky in Newcastle
Nice sunny day for walking in the park!

Today’s earworm playlist:

FM-84 and Ollie Wride – ‘Running In The Night’
Double – ‘The Captain Of Her Heart’
Paula Abdul – ‘Straight Up’
The Lancashire Hotpots – ‘This Lancashire Town’

Redirecting

Dee Leave a comment

I did my run on the treadmill this morning…

…because we woke up to snow. While it melted quite quickly, I didn’t fancy wading around in the slush!

I’ve been having a bit of a think about my blog structure today, as I’ve been finding that I’ve not had much time to get my review posts done. There may be a bit of a change in direction soon, but it’ll take a bit more time for me to work out the details.

Snow
The world is still very wintry. All melted now so hoping to get outside again for tomorrow’s run.

Today’s earworm playlist:

Paula Abdul – ‘Straight Up’
Janet Jackson – ‘Together Again’
The Lancashire Hotpots – ‘Shopmobility Scooter’
Brotherhood Of Man – ‘Save Your Kisses For Me’
Calvin Harris and Rihanna – ‘This Is What You Came For’
VNV Nation – ‘Beloved’

Dozing

Dee Leave a comment

A long and difficult run this morning…

…which meant I was a bit too wiped to do much else today, as is becoming typical on Sundays! I spent the afternoon doing a bit more work for my weekend client and watching the second day of the athletics on TV.

I’ve also eaten everything in sight since I got back from my run. I need to be a bit more careful with that as even a super-long run doesn’t provide quite enough spare calories for all the nice things I crave once I’m back home! Back to healthy meals for the next few days.

Salted caramel cupcake
Cake tastes amazing post-run. Well, not immediately post-run, as I need to stop feeling sick first, but a few hours later.

Today’s earworm playlist:

Tyler Lyle – ‘Lost And Found [The Midnight Remix]’
Koichi Sugiyama – ‘Unflinchable Courage’
Katy Perry – ‘Roar’

A working weekend

Dee Leave a comment

A brass band and a narrowly-missed target featured at this morning’s parkrun…

…and then I spent the afternoon doing day job work (a client has an urgent deadline so I did some weekend hours today) with the British Indoor Athletics Championship on in the background.

Now having a quiet evening in order to rest before tomorrow’s long run… and I distinctly remember saying something similar last week, and probably the week before. Marathon training does tend to result in some particularly un-rock-‘n’-roll weekends, even by my standards! Early nights all round 🙂

Slashed leopardprint leggings
I also got a long-neglected sewing project done today. I’m guessing these leggings will be a bit too big nowadays but hopefully they’ll also be comfy after tomorrow’s run!

Today’s earworm playlist:

Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber – ‘I Don’t Care’
George Ezra – ‘Paradise’
Alanis Morissette – ‘Hand In My Pocket’

A quietly busy Friday

Dee Leave a comment

Just a short run this morning…

…and then I headed to my counselling appointment. I’m starting to feel a bit more focused in the sessions now, and find that I’m able to look at things from angles I hadn’t considered before.

I spent the afternoon doing day job work, and am now having a quiet evening before a hopefully speedy parkrun tomorrow!

Crocii
More spring flowers – the crocii are out in the parks now! Spotted a few early daffodils in the wild as well…

Today’s earworm playlist:

George Ezra – ‘Paradise’
Bon Jovi – ‘Livin’ On A Prayer’
Vangelis – ‘Chariots Of Fire’
The Connells – ”74-’75’
Dee Cooke – ‘Money’*
The Midnight – ‘Lost Boy’

*A truly awful rap track that was unwillingly conceived by my brain circa 2013. Not for public consumption.