Tag: parkrun

Stretching out

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I ran with Geth again this morning…

…and since then we’ve just been in the house, hiding from the cancelled world outside. Geth went to Sainsbury’s, and came back with approximately half the things I’d sent him out for (panic-buying has officially set in here in Newcastle), but we’ll manage. I also went to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription – the outside world feels a bit odd and apocalyptic at the moment.

It’s felt like a long day, but I’m not about to complain, because extra time is my most treasured thing and suddenly having a lot more of it is a real silver lining. Sage Gateshead has now closed, so my ukulele classes are not happening for the foreseeable future, and I don’t know when they’ll be rescheduled. The UK Games Expo confirmed this evening that they are postponing the event to August; parkrun will make an announcement tomorrow.

The North Tyneside 10k has also postponed to October, so that’s the last of my spring races fallen by the wayside. I’m amazed and grateful that none of my postponed races clash with each other (or with the GNR), and also feel quite lucky that I hadn’t booked any of my planned autumn races before this all kicked off. I had wanted to run the South Shields 10 Mile and the Great Scottish Run this year, but they’ll be there for me in the future.

Keeping in touch with family as the daily situation changes is my main priority at the moment, along with keeping myself and Geth safe and sane. Running is a big help with the latter, and I’m really glad I have that in my life at the moment.

Brooks running shoes
I was able to try out my new running shoes from Inverness this morning. They’re super bouncy and did give me a slight but noticeable boost!

Today’s earworm playlist:

Lightwood Games – ‘Link-A-Pix Theme’
Ollie Wride – ‘Back To Life’
Mesh and Mechanical Cabaret – ‘Born To Lie [Duet Version]’
Koichi Sugiyama – ‘Unflinchable Courage’
EMF – ‘Unbelievable’

Anti-planning

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I finally got back down under 30 minutes at parkrun this morning…

…but everything feels very Bizarro World at the moment, and so I’ve not really been able to enjoy the achievement. It’s looking likely that today’s parkrun was the last in the UK for a while. The Edinburgh Marathon Festival announced their postponement this morning, meaning that neither Geth nor I will have a long race to run now until the autumn. The Social Run Group at the Up & Running shop is still going for now (though meeting outside the shop rather than inside), so that may be the only running-with-people that I do for the foreseeable future. I don’t know if I’ll go to tomorrow’s session, though, because it’s eight miles and I quite fancy a shorter Sunday run now that marathon training has been postponed! I’ll see how I feel in the morning.

Geth is now safely home with me – Heulwen drove him back to Newcastle this afternoon. He’s not a hundred percent yet, but I’m hoping that a good night’s sleep and a day or so recovering will sort him out. Medical investigations will be instigated as soon as we can.

Everything feels very strange at the moment, not just running. With the coronavirus we can’t be certain that any of the events we’ve got planned in the next few months will go ahead, and because the situation is changing by the day, nobody can really make plans for anything. Geth and I are planners by necessity, as we have so many hobbies and other things going on – we always have a pretty good idea what our entire year looks like at the start of January – and so having to play things by ear is a bit new and uncomfortable.

The whole thing is a good excuse to get lost in some videogames, I feel. Fictional worlds are a bit more familiar than the real one at the moment.

Venice, 2010
Another lifetime. Venice, ten years ago, when I was still heavy and unfit. I love Northern Italy and am sad that they’re struggling so much with the pandemic. Looking forward to going back one day when this has all blown over.

Today’s earworm playlist:

Koichi Sugiyama – ‘Unflinchable Courage’
Will Powers – ‘Kissing With Confidence’

And a bonus track that Geth was humming earlier:

Tim Minchin – ‘Prejudice’

Race eve

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A new-to-us parkrun this morning…

…and then Geth and I went shopping in town. Geth bought some new Keyforge decks to celebrate having completed his 100th parkrun, and I am now the proud owner of a new pair of running shoes. My old ones were not coping well with my newfound daily running habit and had worn down to the foam! I will be getting a few new pairs over the course of the next few months, as rotating the shoes means that they don’t wear down as fast (apparently the shoes need forty-eight hours to ‘recover’ in between runs!).

We then went for a meal with Mum and Dad for pre-race carb-loading. I think I’m as ready as I can be for tomorrow – just a good night’s sleep needed now.

Inverness parkrun
The pop-up sign is a bit broken and sad-looking (I think it’s probably suffered the ill effects of some strong winds in recent months), but Whin Park is such a beautiful location for a parkrun!

Today’s earworm playlist:

Peabo Bryson and Roberta Flack – ‘Tonight I Celebrate My Love For You’
Culture Club – ‘Victims’
Toto – ‘Africa’
Vera van Heeringen – ‘Riverside House’
Status Quo – ‘The Wanderer’
Duran Duran – ‘Shadows On Your Side’

And a bonus track that Geth was humming earlier:

Tracey Ullman – ‘They Don’t Know’

Blogging about running again. Sorry!

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One last pre-weekend ‘recovery’ mile this morning…

…before a slow shakeout parkrun tomorrow morning and then the race on Sunday. I’m so excited about this race that I’m starting to wonder if my 2019 autumn running strategy was a bit of a mistake. For context: in 2017 and 2018 I ran my last races of the season in October and November respectively, meaning that I felt a bit burnt out after a long race season each time and ended up having a ‘winter running slump’ (i.e. six to eight weeks with no running at all) both years as a result. As such, I decided to end my 2019 race season with September’s Great North Run, in the hope that I would feel more refreshed and avoid the slump this winter.

This sort of semi-worked (I did have four weeks off between late November and late December, but that was due to a really bad cold rather than not wanting to run!). However, because this last six-month period has been my longest break between races in three years, I find that I’ve really built this race up in my head and am bouncing off the walls about it. I sort of wish I could calm down a bit, because I’m nervous about going out far too fast on Sunday now.

However, it will not be my last half marathon this year – I’ve got quite a few booked – so if for any reason it does all go wrong, I do have several more chances to get it right. It’d be so nice to have a good confidence-boosting PB going into the final stages of London Marathon training though!

After that nice gentle parkrun (Geth’s 100th!), we’ll be doing some shopping tomorrow 🙂

Snowy road
I was driving up a mountain in a part of the world that’s still quite wintry today. Geth took some photos from the passenger seat.

Today’s earworm playlist:

Justin Bieber – ‘Love Yourself’
Ram Jam – ‘Black Betty’

Photo collecting

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Just a recovery mile this morning…

…as it’s one day closer to race day, and one day more exciting!

I’ve been spending some of my spare time over the last few days collecting together lots of online photos from the last few years, mainly from parkruns and races. It’s something I’ve been putting off for years, so it’s been both fun and strange looking at running photos from three or four years ago – Geth and I have both improved a lot and lost a lot of weight.

More of the same tomorrow, plus a bit more work on my game 🙂

parkrun volunteering
In some ways the parkrun volunteering photos are more interesting than the running photos. I really like this one from October 2017. Photo from the Newcastle parkrun Facebook page.

Today’s earworm playlist:

Soft Cell – ‘Say Hello, Wave Goodbye’
Justin Bieber – ‘Love Yourself’

Sunday post-run haze

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Another tough Sunday long run in the high winds today…

…and since then I’ve just been on the sofa collating pictures from the last few years (which is a job I’ve been putting off for ages, so I’m glad it’s finally getting done). Geth has arrived back home from a Keyforge tournament after being away for the weekend, and I’m looking forward to having a quiet few days before the first race of the season next week.

Rising Sun Country Park
Rising Sun – the second of the two parkrun courses that I incorporated into my long run today. Hadn’t done the parkrun in ages and had forgotten what a nice place it is. Definitely one for the summer months though as the course is currently very muddy and wet.

Today’s earworm playlist:

Justin Bieber – ‘Love Yourself’*

*This is an interesting song to learn on the ukulele but a horrifically annoying earworm, especially when it’s been four days solid and your brain is now dragging it around for a seventeen-mile run.

Eat, sleep, run, repeat

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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

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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’

A working weekend

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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

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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.