It was back to the Moor today as Geth and I had new race t-shirts to show off. My sciatica issues from last week seem to have quietened down for now *looks around anxiously* and I’m not suffering too much stiffness. As such, it’s really just lack of energy and speed training that’s making me slow at the moment! I need to put up with that for a couple more months, though, as I’m determined to have a proper break from hard training until the next marathon training block starts in January.
However, I was about three minutes faster than my last parkrun on the Moor two weeks ago! This was despite some tough wind conditions. I’m finding that I have enough energy to go a bit faster on the last mile, so in future weeks I’m going to try pushing back the point at which I speed up and seeing if I can sustain that pace for longer.
Colder than it has been but fine when running. The hoodies went back on fairly quickly though!
I haven’t made a decision about next week’s parkrun location yet. Will have to wait and see what fits in best with Hallowe’en weekend…
It’s been a manic week and I am so glad it’s the weekend. Studying and working at the same time is tough, especially with all the other things I need to do. I’m really enjoying the course though.
Tomorrow I’ll be parkrunning and game-creating and doing other active/productive hobby stuff, but I’m going to arrange another Shouldless Sunday for the following day. I’m really looking forward to a day on the sofa with my videogames! I just don’t have time for them otherwise at the moment…
Another of last Sunday’s cakes! I love red velvet cake and this slice was perfect.
This week’s earworm playlists:
Saturday
Tracy Chapman – ‘Fast Car’ Placebo – ‘Every You Every Me’
And a bonus track that Geth was humming that day:
The Power Station – ‘Some Like It Hot’
Sunday
Bill Withers – ‘Lovely Day’ The Running Channel – ‘Run With Me’
Monday
Japan – ‘I Second That Emotion’
Tuesday
Sacre – ‘The London Marathon’ Duran Duran – ‘Out Of My Mind’ Duran Duran – ‘Winter Marches On’
Wednesday
Elvis Presley – ‘Return To Sender’ Village People – ‘YMCA’ Bill Conti – ‘Gonna Fly Now’ Duran Duran – ‘Anniversary’
The monthly parkrun volunteering slot happened to coincide with Jesmond Dene parkrun’s second birthday celebration this morning! Geth and I were marshalling, and I found myself at yet another marshal point I hadn’t done before. Gotta catch ’em all… and there are a lot of marshal points along the Jesmond Dene course.
We had attended the inaugural Jesmond Dene parkrun two years ago (it’s our closest parkrun so attending the inaugural was acceptable within current parkrun etiquette), but of course there was no first birthday celebration as parkrun was still on COVID hiatus this time last year, so it was lovely to attend an anniversary event. There was cake at the end! Geth and I only stopped for a quick piece, though, as it was a very cold morning and I wanted to get home in time to attend the afternoon sessions of the TechUp opening day.
A bit of a chilly morning! We’ll be taking gloves for tomorrow’s race…
We’ll probably be back at Town Moor next week, but don’t hold me to that!
It’s the weekend but it’s going to be a pretty busy one! Geth and I are volunteering at parkrun tomorrow morning, then I’ll be following the opening day sessions for my course tomorrow afternoon, and then we’ve got the North Tyneside 10k on Sunday. Fairly full-on week next week too with starting the course modules, so I expect I’ll be scheduling another Shouldless Sunday next weekend in order to relax!
I’ve been able to get a good chunk of work done on my new game this week as well, which has been great. Coding for that should be done by the middle of next week and then I can get started on the bells and whistles. I need to fit it in with coursework and day job work, but it’s all going really well so far, and I feel like I’ve got a good planned balance for the next couple of weeks. Hallowe’en will be a really great celebration of getting it done… I hope!
Speaking of which, the decorations may be coming out this weekend. I loved having them up for two weeks last year and I think that will become the norm…
My decorated polystyrene pumpkin from last year. I do have the materials for making more, but somehow I don’t think they’re going to get done this year…
This week’s earworm playlists:
Saturday
Sacre – ‘The London Marathon’ Sean Paul – ‘Get Busy’* Mark Knopfler – ‘Local Hero’ VNV Nation – ‘Fearless’ Avicii and Aloe Blacc – ‘Wake Me Up’
Sunday
Sean Paul – ‘Get Busy’
Monday
Avicii and Aloe Blacc – ‘Wake Me Up’ Howard Jones – ‘Like To Get To Know You Well’
Tuesday
Sean Paul – ‘Get Busy’ Hans Zimmer – ‘He’s A Pirate’
Wednesday
Sean Paul – ‘Get Busy’ Yuzo Koshiro – ‘Battlefield: Storm’ Mark Knopfler – ‘Local Hero’
Robert Burns – ‘Auld Lang Syne’ Travis – ‘Driftwood’ Meat Loaf – ‘I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)’ Rod Stewart – ‘Maggie May’ Bill Withers – ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’
*Judi Love and Graziano Di Prima danced to this on Strictly a couple of weeks ago and I have not been able to get it out of my head since 😬 It takes me right back to dancing in dodgy clubs in my late teens.
Back on the Moor this morning for my slowest parkrun in years. My legs are still fairly unwilling to move and I’m taking close to forty minutes to get round at the moment. This isn’t just post-marathon stiffness – it’s been the case for a few weeks, and my daily foam rolling doesn’t seem to be improving things, so I’m going to try and book in for a sports massage as soon as I can.
It was really nice to be out though! Lots of people to chat to, and a few other London Marathon shirts to spot en route.
The bright orange of the London 2021 shirt made it easy to spot other London Marathoners! …or it would have done if the Kielder Marathon (also last weekend and a lot more local to Newcastle) hadn’t used the exact same colour for their 2021 shirts.
Back to Jesmond Dene for the monthly volunteering slot next week!
I had expected to do Highbury Fields again as my pre-marathon shakeout parkrun, but Geth and I were moved from our usual hotel to a different one due to the first hotel being closed this week. There were a range of parkruns we could have done, but Southwark was the closest, and it looked nice and flat for a gentle trundle round.
It’s a leafy three-lapper with a lake, meaning it was reminiscent of both South Manchester and Gateshead for me, as well as last week’s location, Leazes, to a smaller extent. There’s a good out-and-back section for keeping track of how other runners are getting on, and a short extra loop that you only do on the first lap.
I can tell that it’s a fast course, so if I’m in London some weekend when I’m not doing a marathon the day afterwards, I’ll maybe give it another go and get some speed up!
With Ed, who was also down from Newcastle for the marathon!
Next week I’ll be back home at Town Moor, hopefully wearing a very special T-shirt…
It’s one of the three parkruns actually within the bounds of Newcastle upon Tyne (which is a surprisingly small part of the Tyneside metropolitan area), but I tend to forget about it a lot of the time as Town Moor and Jesmond Dene are what I consider my joint home parkruns. I did event #2 back in summer 2019, while Geth had never done Leazes until today. He was a bit concerned there’d be a lot of students there as it’s Freshers’ Week (and Leazes is the closest parkrun to the university campus), but it was fine – just over a hundred participants, and it felt fairly quiet.
I am getting slower and slower with my parkruns as my legs refuse to do anything except marathon plod pace at the moment. Post-marathon I am really excited about getting some speed up… eventually!
Nearly got it lined up! The sun was too bright for me to see what I was doing with my phone camera.
Next week, though, there’ll be one final pre-marathon parkrun…
A nice post-GNR slow plod after a long and busy week!
Sadly, Town Moor parkrun couldn’t do the traditional GNR t-shirt group photo today for COVID security reasons, but there were lots of photos both official and unofficial so I’ll have a hunt online for those later. It was great to see everyone in their smart burgundy t-shirts (it may be my favourite Great North Weekend t-shirt yet – and I’ve got seven of them now!).
I’m still not quite used to the post-hiatus route on the Moor and it does mess with my mind a bit when doing sections that used to constitute different points along the course. For instance, the opening stretch of path from the old course is now past the halfway point on the new course… but when I’m running that bit there’s a part of my mind that still thinks ‘oh no, we’ve only just started!’.
In terms of parkrun I have very definitely settled into a pattern where it takes two ploddy miles for my legs to de-stiffen and so it’s only in the last mile that I can build up a bit of speed. This is not a problem at the moment as my focus is the marathon, but after London I really need to work on my stiff calves so that I can run parkrun properly again.
Love that burgundy shade!
I was intending to do Leazes parkrun next week but Geth is worried about it being full of students due to Freshers’ Week so I will have to have a rethink…
It’s the Great North Run tomorrow so I opted to volunteer at parkrun in order to save my energy. It was a busy one at Jesmond Dene, as expected, as (a) the GNR is setting up on the Town Moor for the special COVID course, meaning that Town Moor parkrun was off today; (b) there are thousands of running tourists in town for the aforementioned GNR, many of whom would be looking for a pre-GNR parkrun; and (c) lots of those tourists would be naturally drawn to Jesmond Dene as it provides a rare opportunity to collect a parkrun beginning with J (yes, alphabet-hunting is a thing in the parkrun universe).
It seemed like it all went okay though! The core team were very well prepared and marshalling at the lap split point was really fun. A few people got confused but everyone ended up on the right path for the lap they were doing at the time!
Geth was marshalling too (also saving energy) and so this morning’s run took the form of a nice slow jog to the volunteer meeting point.
Post-marshalling.
I was also pleased that the weather was nice today, unlike the previous two occasions I’ve volunteered at Jesmond Dene since the restart!
Back to Town Moor next week, hopefully sporting a brand new GNR finisher T-shirt…
Geth and I were back on the Town Moor this morning for another flat (well, certainly flat compared to Jesmond Dene) parkrun. Geth was able to take advantage of said flatness to run his fastest time this year! I, on the other hand, still had Thursday’s 18-miler in my legs, and so plodded round in my slowest time this year not counting last week’s tailwalking. It took two miles just to shake the stiffness out of my legs! I think that’s just going to be the way it is until after the marathon…
It was a gorgeous sunny morning (probably because I wasn’t jinxing the weather by going to Jesmond Dene) but not too warm, so perfect running conditions. I hope we’ll get a few more mornings like that in the autumn, post-marathon, so that I can take advantage of them.
Weekly parkrun selfie! I was pleased to see there were some competent photos being taken by a volunteer as well, although I am almost certainly going to look slow in them 🙂
No parkrun for us next week as we are attending a special occasion. I’ll be doing a ‘notparkrun’ very early in the morning instead!
