Cake and 17 miles

Happy Monday! I can’t believe we’re into November. Crazy!

This weekend was jam-packed. On Friday night Ben and me went out for our running club Christmas meal. It was so funny seeing everyone wearing their normal clothes, their hair done and without a drop of sweat on them! We usually just see everyone for a race or at the running club.

We enjoyed a very tasty Indian buffet. No photos, but basically I had a lot of chicken tikka (my favourite), butter chicken, salmon (I’ve never had salmon in a curry before!) and vegetable curry. Mmmm, with lots of poppadums.

Then there was the cake!

Hedge End Running Club Cake

Amazing. And it was made by one of the ladies at the club. It was very tasty but we only had very small slice. I’ve become a bit too accustomed to having huge slices of cake or multiple slices…so this was a little disappointing. I know, I’m just being greedy!!

Saturday morning came a little too quickly for my liking. I ran to Parkrun nice and easily:

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Then we lined up for the actual Parkrun. Running to Parkrun my stomach was not feeling good – the Indian was not happy bouncing away in there! But I wanted to give it my best as I’m so aware of the lack of speed sessions I’ve been incorporating to my routine.

I found the run quite tough and even though it was on the flat course (PB potential) I just couldn’t maintain a decent enough pace to get anywhere near my PB.

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A bit disappointing but, let’s be honest, very much expected. What with my annoying niggles and no speed sessions, getting back to my speedier times will take some work. But at the moment my main focus is the marathon. 5k times will just have to be side-lined for now.

Saturday evening Ben and me headed to my sister’s and brother-in-law’s for dinner. It was lovely seeing Ellie and Megan, my nieces, and also just having a good old chin-wag. My brother-in-law, Nick, made an amazing meal. Hungarian goulash from none other than my favourite chef, Jamie Oliver.

Hungarian goulash

Very tasty. This was very easily finished off! And then pudding was a slice of Bakewell tart with salted caramel ice cream and a dollop of what I can only describe as toffee trifle (…because let’s be honest, when is one pudding really enough??). I thought it best not to take a photo purely because I’m not sure I want to remember quite what a pig I was…

The next morning Ben left early to get in 5 miles and then left for a 10 mile race (he had a 15 mile long run on the plan). I had decided not to sign up to the race purely because I needed to get 17 miles in and though I could have done something similar to Ben I wanted to make sure it was a consistent pace and non-stop. I couldn’t trust myself to not be stupid and race the 10 miles and then hamper my following training week.

I was very jealous Sad smile But I got in my 17 miler.

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I tried to keep my pace slow and easy as I’ve never run this far before. And though I have done 16 miles in a day, there were gaps in between as I sandwiched in a half marathon race in the middle.

Overall it went OK. Annoyingly I had decided not to take my gloves as it didn’t look too cold. But then the wind picked up and it started raining and my hands were freezing. Around mile 10 I stopped quickly at a shop to buy a drink and I couldn’t get my fingers to open my bum pocket. They were so numb. I must have looked ridiculous desperately trying to unzip the pocket without success. Thankfully I did manage in the end.

When I got home I literally laid on the living room floor for a bit. I was shattered. I enjoyed endured an ice bath after my lovely hot shower and I screamed the house down. In the summer it was so refreshing (sort of) and now it’s like torture. For the rest of the day I pretty much moved in slow motion.

Clearly I need my body to get used to running such long distances. I’m not too concerned because I remember when I was training for my first half marathon and how I was after my first 9 miler. I remember feeling exhausted. It’s just about what your body is used to.

For the rest of the day I watched the New York City Marathon, read some magazines and just chilled. Perfect.

What did you get up to this weekend?

What’s the furthest you’ve ever run? And what’s the most comfortable distance for your body?

If you could choose any sort of food for a buffet, what would it be? Indians are very tasty but it’s a lot of spicy food!

18 Replies to “Cake and 17 miles”

  1. Nice job on the 17 miler, it just takes a little time for your body to get used to running that kind of distance, I know when I was doing my long ones for marathon training the rest of the day would be a write off, as I could barely get off the sofa! In training I did a few 20 milers and went up to maybe 21 or 22 but no more than that. I think my body likes running and training for half marathon distance as it’s not lung busting like a 10k and it’s much less strenuous than a marathon. Indian buffet for sure would be my choice, sounds amazing, I still can’t believe you had a Christmas party so early!

  2. It’s all about Chinese for a buffet for me! Can’t believe your running Christmas do was quite that early. You’ll have new members join up before Christmas and expect to be invited to your Christmas do! I thought ours was early this year on 6th Dec.
    Well done on your 17 miler. The first Winter I marathon trained I would complete long distances on the Sunday morning, cook lunch and be wiped out the rest of the day, but I can actually complete stuff in the afternoon now, so I guess it is your body getting used to that extra distance.

  3. I have never eaten salmon in curry but I bet its really good, I didn’t get up to much but I did make another yummy curry! I am not really in to buffet foods but Indian is my go to choice, never Chinese MSG nightmare!

  4. What is that on top of the cake? Obviously some sort of candle or something but it looks like a really tall spark!

    I hate deciding to not wear gloves/a hat/a scarf and then regretting it later. It’s not a huge deal but it does not make for fun walks (or in your case runs!).

  5. Well done on your long run!
    I think I would choose an afternoon tea buffet 🙂
    Your body will get more used to it, although I would do my long runs on Saturday morning (and be home by lunchtime) and just be shattered for the rest of the day. But then when I did my first half that was how I was (in fact the week after my first half I did an 8 mile run and that totally exhausted me as I was not recovered)- your body does get used to running long quite quickly I think.

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