friends - AnnaTheApple

June 29, 2016

Climbing, running and eating

The weekend seems a long time away now, doesn’t it? There’s some crazy inverses time law I think whereby time moves quickly at the weekend and slowly during the week. Saying that though I don’t actually mind weekdays. I always think it would be awful to hate five days out of seven. Or maybe my weekends aren’t that interesting in comparison?? Who knows!

I made my way to the Netley parkrun on Saturday morning. It felt like forever since I was last there. It was nice to see the set-up crew again, albeit missing a few people due to holidays and injuries. The weather was really nice and made me think of those horrific times during the winter months where I was bundled up in a thick coat and dreading the time when I’d have to de-layer.

Recently I was asked to take over the Twitter account for Netley parkrun and I happily took the job. I’m a big fan of Twitter (follow me if you like!) and the person who was doing it before was getting a bit tired of looking after it and said I seemed like the right person for the job It’s fun because I can tweet out motivational messages, information about Netley and parkrun in general. But I did have a moment where I got confused with the accounts and retweeted a humorous tweet from what I thought was my account but turned out to be Netley’s. It wasn’t offensive or rude but it was a bit random (a funny meme about football) so I quickly deleted it. It is tough though managing the two accounts post-parkrun when there is a lot of Twitter activity happening!

Anyway, my hamstring was feeling better than has it done but still not right. I did a warm-up and then stood umm’ing and arr’ing about whether to run. In the end my friend Chris said to try a slow lap and if it got worse stop. So this is what I did.

My hamstring did niggle but it didn’t get worse. It was just a discomfort in the back of my mind. I kept it slow. Jeeze how tough three miles feels when you haven’t been running much! It felt like it went on forever. I’ve lost a lot of endurance for definite. Afterwards the hamstring felt niggly but not significantly worse and actually the hours and days afterwards it felt no worse. *Shrugs*. I’ll write some more about that in another post anyway as I saw my physio on Monday.

I was happy to have run parkrun though and it was nice to be in the sunshine with lovely people.

Later that day I had a climbing induction booked at Romsey. As I drove there the weather took a turn for the worse (ridiculously worse) and pelted it down with rain. When I arrived the people looked a bit confused and said I’d booked on the supervised auto-belay climbing wall. They said it wasn’t an issue but really I didn’t need to be supervised. I thought I was going to be taught about climbing! But apparently not. The website wasn’t entirely clear…Though, let’s be honest, this isn’t the first time I’ve booked something wrong.

An auto-belay is really very simple and the supervised sessions are more for kids so after the instructor showed me what to do I was fine to do my thing on my own, switching between the different belays to try different problems.

It was basically like bouldering but higher and with the comfort of having a safety net (or a safety rope as it were). The auto-belay would ‘catch’ you if you fell backwards then lower you quickly to the floor in a controlled way. It gave me confidence to try reaches I wouldn’t have done during bouldering which was great!

You could climb down or throw yourself backwards and let the auto-belay catch you as it tightened up under your weight. But it feels loose when you initially let go of the wall so it feels like you’re going to fall as you don’t feel any of its support until you put your weight into it. Honestly it took me a good few minutes to get over the fear and allow myself to fall. It’s genuinely terrifying the first time. I had to do it from a very low height just to convince myself I’d be OK. Afterwards though I was fine, though in the end I actually preferred climbing down as this provided more opportunities to improve my ability (and grip!).

‘Falling’ using the auto-belay

I had a lot of fun though I was disappointed not to learn a bit more about climbing, like tying certain knots, attaching the harness and belays. But I’ll definitely be planning some proper lessons soon.

And because I’m so thoroughly addicted (and running is not enjoyable right now) I got up Sunday and headed for some more bouldering at Red Spider. It opened at 10am and I was in pretty sharpish to get as long as I could there before going to a BBQ with my friends later on.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself and managed to conqueror some of the problems I was unable to complete the last time. It felt hugely satisfying. I like that there’s a ranking of the problems as well (V0, V1, V2…V6 etc.) and I’ve found I can do up to V2s without issue and V3s are hit and miss depending how much over-hang there is. When it’s like a cliff jutting out and you have to get from below it to over it I really struggle as it pushes my body out and I’m terrified I’m going to fall (see below my pathetic little stick-man drawing).

But anyway, it was fun. I wish I could have stayed so much longer but I had to quickly head home, shower and head to see my friends. And also, my arms and hands don’t quite have the strength and endurance yet for mammoth bouldering sessions – especially having done a session the day before!

For the BBQ, my friends and I were a bit worried about the weather (given how bad it had been the afternoon before) but it held out thankfully. It was a weird day of lovely sunshine and then overcast chilliness.

I basically just brought chicken with me (two types of skewers and drumsticks). It was a lovely afternoon just chilling. Though we did have a collective moan about the EU result…How adult we all are now, discussing politics and how it affects our lives. I think we can all agree though that there are uncertain times ahead. A nice weekend though nonetheless!

Do you discuss politics with your friends?

If you have an niggle do you prefer not to run at all, or try a gentle run and stop if necessary?

Are you afraid of heights? I used to be, but I don’t seem that bothered anymore. I remember a time when I went on a school trip rock climbing I cried at the top of the climbing wall refusing to abseil down because I was so scared. I had to be lowered down! Pathetic child that I was.

June 20, 2016

Birthday weekend–part 1

And just like that I’m another year older… I turned 28 yesterday. I’d like to think that I’m wiser and have it all figured out but I absolutely don’t. But I’m happy and enjoying life so I’ll take that!

For the Saturday I had a few of my university friends down. Kate and Jamie (I went on holiday last year with them to Orlando) came down earlier so they could join me at parkrun. Now this is a BIG DEAL. This is the couple who laughed at me for going to parkrun when we were on holiday together. They were the least likely out of all my non-running friends to want to do parkrun. But, major kudos to them, they’ve started running and eating better in order to lose a bit of weight and get a bit more healthy. Jamie has lost FIVE STONE and Kate has lost (I think) over two stone. They’ve both also been doing the Couch to 5K programme and Kate had timed it perfectly as to use parkrun for my birthday weekend as her target.

They got to mine just before 8am and we headed down to Lee-On-Solent parkrun. Ordinarily I do Netley but Kate wanted a nice flat course and my dad was going to do Lee as well as my friend, Mat, who was down from Cheltenham for the week so it made sense.

Kate, Jamie, me and Mat

It was a beautifully sunny day. I was a bit worried about my hamstring but I’d done a quick tester run when I walked Alfie in the morning and it held up OK. Not perfect but alright.

I’d planned to take the run nice and slowly and stop if at any point it became bad.

My dad rocking the England shirt

It was quite amusing to see Jamie and Kate’s reaction to parkrun. They tend to run very early in the morning and never with other people. They genuinely thought they’d be about 12 people at parkrun. Jamie said he was shocked that one minute there were a couple of people and then the next there were hundreds. They were literally taken aback by the amount of lycra and colour about.

The start was a little bit hectic I must admit. There was over 300 people and we were all bunched together. It involved a lot of negotiating around people and trying not to trip over anyone else or be tripped up. But eventually it evened out and there was enough space.

I found a nice easy rhythm. I wasn’t pushing it or feeling out of breath and the hamstring felt OK. I was surprised to see I was running around 8 minute miles.

Photo credit: Eileen Bartlett

Lee’s a good course as you can see runners ahead and behind so I could cheer people on and spot people I knew.

Photo credit: Eileen Bartlett

I’d say the hamstring felt 80% OK. It niggled slightly towards the end but there was no pain, just felt uncomfortable. It just annoys me though as it doesn’t make for a great run as I’m constantly thinking about it and not wanting to push myself to go fast because I don’t want to annoy it. But least it was better than it has been! I finished in 24:15 which felt nice and comfortable.

Mat had already finished in a great time of 20:50 so we walked together to walk my dad in. He was power walking the course and desperate to beat his last time of 51:12. He was finding it tough but the tail runner was apparently really good at keeping him going.

Photo credit: Eileen Bartlett

Towards the end, he picked up speed, overtook another guy and sprinted to the finish. Everyone cheered him in and it was lovely.

Photo credit: Eileen Bartlett

And he completed it in 50:16 so almost a minute off his time! He was made up Kate squeaked under her goal of sub-35 by getting 34:57 and Jamie got 33:58. The absolute best part was hearing how much they loved it. Kate and Jamie are now full-on parkrun converts. On the way home they were already planning their next one (depressingly their local one was Little Stoke so now their nearest one is about 20 minutes away). Jamie was already commenting how he felt he could run further when he finished as well. YES!!! Converting my non-running friends one person at a time

We got back to mine, showered and then my friend Shell and her fiancé, Rob, showed up to join the fun. Again, hearing them tell Rob and Shell how good parkrun was just made my day. A year ago there was nothing I could say that would persuade them that running could be enjoyable. People have to find out for themselves.

I had booked my latest favourite restaurant for lunch and we were all pretty excited. After catching up and walking Alfie and Kate’s pug, Doug, we headed to Sadlers in Southampton.

As I’ve mentioned before, Sadlers is THE restaurant for meat (though they also have a strong vegetarian section of the menu too). The last time I went was INCREDIBLE. My friends love BBQ food too so it made sense to go here. I decided to go for the ribs rather than the platter this time as, though the platter is amazing, I was really craving ribs. And they did not disappoint.

HUGE chunks of meaty ribs on top of chips, salad, coleslaw and cornbread. I didn’t even touch the chips. There was just too much meat (which, by the way, is not an issue).

So tasty. Shell and Rob also went with the ribs and Jamie and Kate shared the platter.

Ridiculously (and foolishly) Shell, Rob and I ordered sides as well. Shell and Rob went for some pulled pork and I went for some chicken wings and we ordered the bourbon BBQ sauce to go alongside. (Greed took over sanity here as you can probably tell…).

Yeah I didn’t even touch those wings. There was just far too much going on my plate. And, amazingly for me, I couldn’t finish the ribs. I was beaten! Everyone was. Happily Kate and Jamie said I could take their leftovers home so I took a swan of shame back with me.

Needless to say my freezer is now joyfully stocked with some smoked turkey, gammon, wings, hot link sausages and pulled pork. Happy days!

As we sat there afterwards chatting and basically recovering from the meal, the waitress appeared with a cake with lit candles and they all started singing happy birthday to me. It was such a surprise and so lovely!

Action shot

To be honest, I think the last thing we all wanted was a slice of chocolate cake. But you gotta take one for the team right??

The chocolate cupcakes on top were filled with delicious buttercream. We were literally DONE after having a slice.

We spent a long time at my flat just laying around chatting and digesting. We probably could have napped! It was such a great day. And to top it off they got me some super cool Superdry workout gear.

Because what else would you buy me?? So, an absolutely perfect Saturday.

What is your perfect way to spend your birthday?

Have you converted any non-runners to runners?

What’s your perfect birthday gift?

June 6, 2016

A parkrun walk and pretending to be an adult

After a rather cold week, it was lovely to wake up Saturday morning to a reasonably warm day. It was a bit muggy but otherwise promised to be a good day so not too shabby!

I started the weekend off by going to Lee-On-Solent parkrun, which is just down the road from my parent’s house. My dad had said he would try another one and another one of my friends, Fiona, who’s just getting into running, said she’d go too so it was a nice change from Netley. It also meant a bit of a lie-in as I didn’t go and set-up and we didn’t need to leave until 8.25am (and even then we were a bit early).

I also got to meet in person Rebecca who I’ve been chatting away to on Twitter. She’s so lovely and volunteers most week at Lee parkrun, having acquired an injury a few years ago that she can’t seem to find any cure for She was lovely and very welcoming to both my dad and me, which definitely helped. My dad wasn’t quite as optimistic this week. He knew more people at Netley through association with me and knew they’d be less people at Lee who’d cheer “Anna’s dad” along. He was also aware he would be the last person finishing (having checked previous results). But anyway, Rebecca was lovely and bubbly and she promised to cheer us on.

Despite it being Fiona’s first parkrun and her being relatively new to running (she’s another friend doing the Couch to 5K programme) she was really happy to be there. I was so impressed, she was so raring to go.

I had every intention of running parkrun and decided to take it nice and slowly (I even wore my HR monitor to make sure I was actually running VERY slowly – more on that another post). But as I went off I could feel my hamstring nagging me and it just didn’t feel good running. So I decided to play it safe and walk the parkrun with my dad. My hamstring has been feeling better but I had quite a deep massage on Thursday evening and was advised to let it settle for four days so really I was jumping the gun a bit.

My dad was quite chuffed I was going to walk with him and it was nice I had that option because I’m not sure I would have walked on my own.

Photo Credit: Nick MacBeath

Initially we weren’t the last people but eventually two powerwalking ladies overtook us on mile two which got my dad down a bit as they were nattering away and “not really trying” as my dad said But he was out there, working hard and doing it so I’m proud nonetheless. The marshals, as usual, were very supportive and cheered us on and lots of people said well done – and even “well done, Anna’s dad” from some fellow Hedgies and Twitter friends.

My dad found it harder this time. I forget that 5k is actually a long way if you’re not used to the distance and for someone like my dad (no disrespect to him of course) who does hardly any exercise at all other than a few dog walks in the week, it’s a tough thing to do and he was only just getting over last week’s parkrun.

Because Lee parkrun is basically two out and backs we saw Fiona twice and both times she was smiling away and pushing on. I was seriously impressed and chuffed she seemed to be enjoying it.

At the end my dad pushed on for a little jog to get to the finish. Everyone cheered him in.

Photo Credit: Nick MacBeath

And he wasn’t last. I was! Rebecca was lovely, saying he did so well and he was over the moon with himself again. We’d hoped to be faster than Netley but we weren’t sure… Frustratingly he was ONE SECOND slower than last week (51:12). Fiona did a very stellar time of 45:48 for her first parkrun. She was very pleased

For me it was my slowest parkrun, but I still very much enjoyed it. I couldn’t be more proud of my dad – OK he’s not running it or barely any of it at all, but he’s making a step towards getting healthy. He won’t go every week but he’ll be going again at some point for definite. He feels accomplished afterwards and it’s given him something to work towards on improving – a tangible measure of health that’s not just the scale.

My dad said had I not been walking with him he’d have slowed down as he had no one behind him he wanted to make sure he beat. He also found it mentally tough because the course is very flat and you can see where you’re going the whole time – rather than Netley which is a bit more interesting. Though Lee does have the sea…

My sister came over later and brought Ellie and Meg too, my little nieces. As it was such a lovely warm day I offered to take them to the park – ON MY OWN. Now if you’re a long-time reader you’ll know kids and me aren’t a great combination. I have no maternal bones in my body and I struggle to know what to do with children…how to talk to them, to look after them, etc. I’m just awkward. But they’re both at that age where I don’t need to change any nappies or carry them or anything life-sustaining. So I felt up to the job.

After a quick pep talk and rundown of essential information from my sister (don’t go near fire, hold hands crossing the road, don’t let them eat weird things) I was good to go. It’s about a 10-15 minute walk to the park and it went swimmingly. At the park it was a lot easier as I was around more responsible adults and I basically just copied them. I followed Ellie and Meg around but stayed at a distance to let them play.

I was quite impressed with the park. It had all the usual stuff along with a mini climbing wall and a trampoline! Obviously I had to have a go…

And Ellie amazed me by being able to use my phone to take photos. Well I suppose this is hardly surprising, kids as young as three seem to be able to use technology without any issues these days.

Sunday was another day spent with my family. I was a little sad not to be going to the Romsey Beer race as I’ve done it three years previously but it was the best thing. I didn’t fancy running it, I wasn’t able to race it and my hamstring probably needs more time. To be quite honest, I’m quite happy to give running more time off as I know when marathon training starts it’ll be full-speed ahead. I’m still going to the gym (which I did in the morning) but the desire for running is still pretty low at the moment in general.

Instead I went to Winchester for a little mosey round the shops, not realising a cycling event (CycleFest) and a race (Winchester Criterium) were taking place making it a little busy and tricky to actually swap sides of the road to see different shops….

But it was fun to feel the racing atmosphere and see the cyclists whizzing by so fast. It was a lapped event so we were never short of seeing a lycra clad person zoom past us. And then we enjoyed a beautifully sunny BBQ.

I made up some chicken skewers with my buffalo marinade which were just delicious! There were burgers, sausages, lamb kebabs, pork kebabs and steak. Delicious!

How do you like to spend your time in the sun?

What’s your favourite thing for a BBQ?

Have you ever walked a race/parkrun before?

May 31, 2016

A Marvel-lous wedding and a long weekend

Nothing says the start of summer better than a wedding, cider and a long weekend. In the UK we had a Bank holiday weekend which meant many of us had the Monday off. I also had the Friday as holiday because it was my friend, Ashley’s, wedding.

Very badly timed for me was a team building paintballing the night before…

Luckily I didn’t get hit significantly to create any hideous bruises on me. Though I was on a team with a real suicide squad that just went into the cross-fire like crazy men so I pretty much stayed hidden except for the occasional bursts of bravery.

Anyway, the wedding. Ashley is a good friend from school and there were a group of us who all knew each other so it was going to be good fun. I’d planned to go with my friend Louise to the ceremony but she was late, but not through her own fault. She had made the wedding cake and had to set it up in the morning at the venue but the board was delivered late which knocked on to her getting ready. As a pregnant lady, this was not good stress for her! I really felt for her but luckily she made it in time.

The ceremony was beautiful. Ashley’s dress was gorgeous and really suited her style. The wedding also had a Marvel-theme to it.

The groom, Paul, is a big comic book fan. It was very quirky and individual. Luckily the weather was lovely and warm as well so after the ceremony we spilled outside to sip some champagne and mingle.

My dress is from French Connection

As I stood chatting away to my friends I noticed the photographer. He looked familiar… Yep, he was the same one I had at my wedding. Ahh bit awkward (to any new readers: my husband and me are separated). I thought “nahh he’ll never recognise me so it’ll be fine”. Only he did and he came up to me and chatted away. Apparently a few of my wedding photos go to every wedding fair he does so of course he recognises me! Luckily though he didn’t ask where Ben was.

Pregnant Louise, Jake and me

There were space hoppers, giant Jenga and Nerf balls all about the place to keep us big kids entertained

And then it was time for lunch. It was mushroom soup for starters, chicken with cabbage and bacon and then a chocolate tart for pudding.

Very tasty! And instead of wine there was apple and pear cider on the table. I’m not a wine drinker at all (apart from Prosecco and champagne) but I do quite enjoy cider from time to time (probably because a) it’s apple and b) it’s very sweet). We also cheekily managed to swap a few of our non-alcoholic fruit drinks with another table’s cider – they were more than happy as they weren’t drinking which was a win-win scenario.

The rest of the celebrations were good fun. There was a HUGE bouncy castle which we all went on (post food and drink probably not the best of ideas…and in a reasonably short dress). But it was a good laugh. And obviously the best part…

Louise’s amazing cake. It was chocolate Bailey’s and vanilla Victoria sponge. Very tasty indeed.

And then of course lots of dancing after Ashley and Paul’s first dance…which went to the tune of Star Wars until Paul jokingly got the DJ to turn it to their proper song (Hero by Nickelback of course).

The groom wore proper trousers for the ceremony!

A lovely evening. Congratulations Ashley and Paul!

I’ll recap parkrun in a separate post as it was a special one (my dad’s first ever!). The rest of the weekend was all very relaxed. I enjoyed a lovely BBQ with my family on the Saturday.

Of course this involved lots of meat. I had chicken skewers, pork skewers and kangaroo burgers. But I did balance it out with lots of salad and roasted vegetables (which you can see part of skewered in the photo – my perfect meat:veg ratio ).

I also managed to get a great selfie with Alfie.

He was enjoying the sunshine too (and managed to get a sneaky sausage as well! Jammy dog that he is).

We had a lovely walk along the beach as well in the evening. The temperature was perfect! I love the summer

I’d decided against the Cakeathon. I just wasn’t up for it: the long journey there, it being such an early start on the Monday (we’d need to leave before 6am) and then not sure how many laps I’d do to make it worth it and even if I’d enjoy it. So I set it to rest and enjoyed the rest of the weekend now far more relaxed. It is a huge shame and I was gutted not to go but I didn’t want to go and regret it. It was the right decision.

Instead on the Monday I went on a little daytrip to Stockbridge with my parents and we had a lovely walk and a delicious lunch out.

The restaurant was called Woodfire and it was fantastic. I had a feta, butternut squash and nut pesto salad. Delicious!

It was a very relaxed weekend…bit of shopping, chilling in the garden, lots of walks with Alfie and my family. I shan’t waffle on any longer, this post ifs far too long now!

How was your weekend?

What’s your favourite salad?

Have you been to any themed weddings before?

March 29, 2016

Easter Weekend

And just like that the four day Bank holiday Easter weekend is over… But it was a pretty good one!

I didn’t do that much on Friday as I was driving up to Cardiff to see some friends and also to do the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships in Cardiff on the Saturday (sounds way more exciting than just saying the Cardiff Half Marathon). From Southampton to Cardiff it’s about three hours and as one of my friends and her husband lives there I went and stayed over on the Friday night so it wouldn’t be as stressful getting up there in the morning.

It was really nice to see them and they cooked an amazing chicken chorizo meal that evening (I stole the recipe, a Hairy Biker’s one, and will be recreating!) They even got slices of cake from a bakery as pudding – now that is good hospitality!

The next morning I’d planned on getting up and doing the Cardiff parkrun in the morning as the half marathon didn’t actually start until 2.10pm (which I assume is so they could get optimum TV coverage). As I raced my last weekend’s half marathon I wasn’t intending on racing this one and wanted to try and get to around 18 miles for the day, though it would obviously be a bit disjointed as parkrun starts at 9am.

I went to Cardiff University so it was such a blast from the past to be back again. Though I have obviously been back since, just not for a while and usually just to visit my friends who live in the suburbs. I love the city and have such great memories so this was one of the main reasons I wanted to do the race (and the parkrun).

The parkrun is right next to a huge Tesco so they’d advised parking there, which was very handy as I knew exactly where that was. I got there just before 8.30am. I was meeting up with my friend, Matt (a good running friend who went to the MT running camp weekend). A few of my running club were doing the Half but most of them wouldn’t be up until later and Matt was happy to run a couple of miles before parkrun with me to get my mileage up.

One half of a running club couple, Mark, who had also stayed in Cardiff on the Friday night joined as well and ran down from the hotel (another marathoner in training) so it was nice to catch him too there.

Matt, Mark and me resplendent in red!

Matt and me ran 2.5 miles nice and easily and quite close to the parkrun starting time so there wasn’t much of a gap. The parkrun course was super flat and followed the Taf Trail. It was such a walk (or run!) down memory lane as I used to live in the student flats literally five minutes away and we’d often come down to the park. I wasn’t a runner back then so it was quite surreal.

I ran with Mark and we both decided to keep it easy… though this didn’t exactly work out that way as we were both enjoying the flatness and also both being too polite to the other person to slow down in case the other person didn’t want to.

(Photo credit: Danothy Bennett)

So in the end we went faster than we’d intended and tried not to worry what that would mean for the half later on!

The above splits include the 2.5 miles at the start (obviously). My parkrun time was 22:59. I’m really chuffed with the royal flush negative split for the entire run – not too shabby! (Though it was entirely unplanned).

Mark ran back to his hotel (hardcore), and Matt graciously invited me back to his hotel (wahay! Joke) so I could freshen up and get changed before the next run. I packed so much kit as I wasn’t sure what the weather would be like. I really didn’t want it to rain at parkrun and then for me to be soaked for the rest of the day. Luckily parkrun was lovely and pleasant and rain-free. I sensibly brought some warm trousers and a good coat to put on over my shorts and vest this time. We now had a long time to kill before 2.10pm!

After changing we walked into the centre of town (so handy for me to leave me car outside his hotel as it meant I could avoid ridiculously expensive car parks and could get home quickly at the end without getting stuck in traffic coming out – thanks Matt!).

The city was buzzing with excitement for the upcoming race. Runners were walking round everywhere, brandishing coffees and bananas looking at maps and carrying their race packs.

The sky was looking more and more ominous as the time ticked by. There had been weather warnings for Wales and the chance of rain was now almost guaranteed.

To fuel up, keep warm and pass the time, Matt and me headed to a Welsh cafe for breakfast, though really brunch at this point. My friends the night before had recommended this place to me the evening before saying they did great breakfasts and it was just slightly off the beaten trail down one of the boutiquey alleyways.

It was called Garlands Eatery and it was a lovely quaint cafe with beautiful, random decor (lots of old pictures all over the walls). We both saw the ‘Full Meaty’ English breakfast (Welsh breakfast I suppose!) and ordered that with some coffee and some added black pudding for me – I love the stuff!

It was about 10.30-11ish by the time we were eating and I thought this was pretty safe for such a big meal before a race. I’m too greedy to resist a Full English and it was a training run (these were the arguments I told myself as I tucked into that epic meal). It was, as you can imagine, delicious.

To pass some more time we had another coffee and just chilled out chatting. Then we left for a wander around and to help digestion!

We checked out the bag drop area and race centre which was packed already full of people and good atmosphere. Matt then indulged me by walking with me to my old psychology building where I used to go to lectures etc. Compared to the beautiful Hogwarts-style university building nearby, the psychology building is so ugly!

A 12-floor tower block of ugliness. But it brought back good memories nonetheless. At just after 1pm we headed to the bag drop again as the race drew closer. The race pack came with ponchos so we quickly put those on after de-robing. It was windy and chilly but nothing as bad as I’d felt in Weymouth the week before. The rain was just about holding off…for now.

This obviously required a poncho selfie I then met up with my running club mates who were equally attired in the latest look.

Hedge End Running Club (Photo credit: Andy Cockerell)

I’ll recap the race in full in another post as this will be far too long otherwise.

So skipping instead to Sunday… I had a terrible night sleep on the Saturday. I think the combination of the later than normal race, a Costa coffee late afternoon on the journey home, aching legs from a big mileage day and just general excitement and buzzy-ness from a good day meant I was a bit wired. I didn’t fall asleep until about 1am, and then woke up around 7am (though because of the clock changes it was actually 8am now). I was at my parent’s house so I did have the absolute bliss of laying in bed and watching stuff on my iPad for a couple of hours as Alfie could just go out in their back-garden with the other dogs so I had no reason to have to get up straight away.

I also had no long run as I’d done it the day before! I did want to have a 3 mile recovery run though to shake my legs out as they felt pretty terrible (especially after the three hour car journey home). I was a bit dubious to go for a run after such a hard day the day before but in the end it was the best thing I could have done.

The weather was sunny and the temperature cool, though it was still so gusty. Surprisingly my legs felt OK. I thought they’d be niggling and heavy but they felt good. I just ran comfortably and went with it, listening to the radio (Radio 1 had a requests show all weekend so there were some great and random songs being planned, not just the top 40). Then at around two miles it suddenly went really dark and the heavens opened up. A ridiculous amount of rain and hail descended upon me and I was literally drenched. This sped me up somewhat as I ran back to the warm and dry. My dad found it hilarious when he opened the door for me.

But I’m glad I got it done as my legs felt a lot better afterwards. I’ve never really been fully on-board with recovery runs as I always fear the pounding will only make things worse for me and my injury prone body…but actually it worked nicely.

A hot shower felt so good after that run!! After breakfast my parents gave me my Easter egg. I realise this makes me sound about 12 with that sentence but I’m doing my parents a favour in a few weeks and I jokingly said they could repay me with an expensive Easter egg… They thought it a great idea and who am I to disagree?? Especially when it’s a Hotel Chocolat THICK chocolate egg (£25!).

It’s a ridiculously thick egg (as you bloody well should expect for that price!). One half of the egg is packed full of cookie and puff rice pieces and the other half with caramel pieces. Inside the egg it’s full of different chocolates. Best. Egg. Ever.

The rest of the Easter break was full of a) lots more food with my family and enjoying some film-time and walks, b) lots more chocolate, and c) lots of chilling out and a bit of shopping! I did manage to get the gym on the Monday but it was heaving with people. Not a fun experience! Clarifying why I prefer to go so ridiculously early normally! Everyone clearly had some calories to burn

What did you do over the Easter weekend?

Did you get any Easter eggs?

Thoughts on recovery runs?