This weekend was full of highs and lows. Let’s get the lows done quickly, shall we?
I ran on Monday night and my shin/calf was really niggly. It had niggled slightly at parkrun a week ago but I put it down to it being really cold and my muscles not being warm enough. But Monday clarified things. It didn’t feel right and afterwards it felt pretty crappy. I’ll go into this in another post but basically this is rubbish.
Anyway, I didn’t run again until deciding to try a few miles before parkrun this weekend (because I was panicking I hadn’t hit the 8 mile long run I needed to for Tokyo). Though I knew I was lying to myself. I knew the run wouldn’t go well really and this was just to avoid me going to parkrun believing I could run and having to DNF. So on my pre-parkrun walk with Alfie I ran up the road with him and decided it was a no-go. I got back home, wrapped up in warmer clothes and headed to parkrun to set-up and volunteer.It was very cold and despite having several layers on and a hat I was cold. I was grumpy as I was overthinking about my leg, running and marathon training…but I was eventually cheered up by the lovely parkrun crew. You can’t be too sad at parkrun!
After parkrun and a hot bowl of porridge, I headed to the gym to take out some of my frustrations. I did 30 minutes on the elliptical machine which made me feel a little better about not running and then did a fantastic glute workout which I’m still feeling today. This included:
• Squats
• Landmine squats (these are great for really working on your depth)
• Monster walks with a resistance band
• Cable pull-throughs
• Leg press burnout
• Single leg deadlifts
I left the gym feeling accomplished and far more happy. Sometimes you just need to sweat it out!
I was also feeling good because I was going out for a Christmas meal with my friends. It’s always so nice to dress up. I wore a very sparkly dress with sparkly shoes and felt really happy 🙂
We went to the Cams Mill pub (where the Fareham parkrun starts at). It was very nice!We’d made our menu selections a while ago and I was disappointed with myself for choosing trout as my main rather than turkey (who does that!??!). I think my rationale was that I didn’t want to over-do turkey before the big day. I was very jealous when the mains came out though. However, my trout was delicious (and I got some leftover turkey from one of my friends so it was a win-win!)And again I was annoyed that I’d selected a pear tart for pudding… but then realised I’d chosen it because the cheesecake was chocolate orange which I don’t really like. I’m not a Terry’s Chocolate Orange fan at all! And Christmas pudding is a bit too rich and alcoholly for me.
The pear tart, however, was really really good. The ice cream was lovely and creamy and the tart was lovely and (dare I say) moist. No big nasty chunks of pear in which I was fearing. As nice as it was, I got serious food envy when I saw the cheesecakes. They looked so good! My friends laughed at me for ordering the inferior pear tart and I grudgingly watched them enjoy their cheesecakes (the far more popular pudding choice). Isn’t it the way when even though the meal you’re eating is nice but you see something that looks more appealing suddenly your meal isn’t as good…just me?
However, I was very lucky that two of my friends didn’t finish their cheesecakes and passed them down to me! Now, on reflection, I can say the pear tart was the better pudding. I’m still not a chocolate orange fan and who serves cheesecake with orange sorbet?? But I can’t say I complained too much 😉 Though I felt very full afterwards!! Just call me the human dustbin…
I did have a few gin and tonics as well, because it’s Christmas 😉 Though amusingly my first G&T didn’t actually contain any gin and I was sipping away thinking “this is lovely!” until the barman ran over to me and said he needed to put the gin in as it got taken before it was ready! Oops. Shows how much I drink!Anyway the evening was good. Nothing like good friends and good food to make you feel 100 times better.
Christmas meal number two this week 😀
Are you going to any Christmas parties or meals this year?
Will you be dressing up?
What would you normally order on a Christmas menu?
I love your Chirstmas meal outfit! I have my first Christmas meal this Thursday and I can’t even remember what I chose but hopefully it will be nice – I always find it hard to pick food in advance as it definitely increases the chance of food envy when you can’t remember why you chose a particular menu item! x
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Yeah it’s such an annoyance to pick beforehand because you might not fancy it on the day!
AnnaTheApple recently posted…But I’m still a runner
Love that sparkly dress! (and boo to the niggle, but well done for not running).
I have some afternoon teas coming up this week and next, and a meal out next Friday. I’m not good at dressing up though- I hate tights so I don’t like anything that needs them!
I also am not a fan of Christmas menus as the veggie option is often weird, or a lot of pastry. Sorbet and cheesecake sounds like a very strange combination indeed!
The dress was so cheap as well – I think from Boohoo.com? Such a bargain and also stretchy material – good for eating out 😉
AnnaTheApple recently posted…But I’m still a runner