Wednesday, 14 October 2015
Thursday, 8 October 2015
Reasons to be Cheerful: A mixed bag #R2BC
2) Yummy cooking
My daughter's cookery lesson this week was apple crumble. Absolutely delicious:
3) Operation House
The hall and landing have finally been painted. It makes a huge difference and we can finally get the carpets put in 4 months after ordering them:
4) Flowers
Wonderful to see these beauties still flowering in my garden:
Wednesday, 7 October 2015
Friday, 2 October 2015
Fitness Friday - a return to form
A combination of teacher training, school holidays and being ill had pushed my running fitness right back. At the beginning of September I couldn't even run 5k without lots of rests and I was 7-8 minutes off my PB. So I started trying to run every day once the children had gone back to school. Most days this was 5k and I found that eventually I could run the whole distance without needing a break but I was still well off my best...
Therefore I needed to try and gain both speed and stamina. I did a couple of days using the 10k runner app and ran 6k or more on both days. However I had pushed myself too hard too fast and when my leg hurt for an entire 5k I decided to take a few days off.
This Monday I felt fit again so thought I would try out Jeffing (Jeff Galloway run-walk) as some of my online running friends had found that it worked to speed them up. I set an interval app to 5 minute:1 minute sections and headed off for a 5k run... it seems counterintuitive to walk to go faster but it works! I ended up just over 3 minutes faster than when I first did the route:
Today is the only chance of a long run so I wrapped up in my hi-viz jacket and headed out towards Sedgewick along the road. It turned out to be a lovely route and with the odd minute of walking every couple of kilometres I reached the river and the 5k point in 33 minutes and 15 seconds - nearly faster than my flat 5k in town! Then it was an off-road route reversing the walk we had on Sunday.
Therefore I needed to try and gain both speed and stamina. I did a couple of days using the 10k runner app and ran 6k or more on both days. However I had pushed myself too hard too fast and when my leg hurt for an entire 5k I decided to take a few days off.
This Monday I felt fit again so thought I would try out Jeffing (Jeff Galloway run-walk) as some of my online running friends had found that it worked to speed them up. I set an interval app to 5 minute:1 minute sections and headed off for a 5k run... it seems counterintuitive to walk to go faster but it works! I ended up just over 3 minutes faster than when I first did the route:
I managed a similar run and time on Tuesday with which I was very pleased. On the Wednesday it was my son's fell training on the Helm so I was helping out so didn't do a long run but there was quite a lot of elevation:
Then we came to the start of the month and the Ron Hill Challenge to run at least 1 mile every day for the whole month. It was nearly a bad start as yesterday I was at work all day and then couldn't out until 7:30 PM. I didn't have long so I thought I would just try and find a mile long route and leg it! Of course I had no idea where to go to achieve this but luckily I found a way to do a mile and end up back close to home. I went off like a rocket and was briefly under 5 minutes per kilometre pace. I knew that was too fast to keep up but I managed to average under 6 minutes per kilometre to get my second faster 1 mile time!
Today is the only chance of a long run so I wrapped up in my hi-viz jacket and headed out towards Sedgewick along the road. It turned out to be a lovely route and with the odd minute of walking every couple of kilometres I reached the river and the 5k point in 33 minutes and 15 seconds - nearly faster than my flat 5k in town! Then it was an off-road route reversing the walk we had on Sunday.
It was interesting having to negotiate stiles with tired legs! When I got back to the start my phone said I had run 8.5k and I decided I felt good enough to carry on to complete my Run Mummy Run She Cracked It virtual 10k. I quick diversion up Natland Mill Lane and back down Burton Rd and I did it:
According to Strava my 3rd fastest ever 10k although I know that 3 of my races have measured just under the 10k and were a little bit quicker! Afterwards I found myself contemplating the Brathay Half Marathon for May 2016... Meanwhile will my legs work for Parkrun tomorrow..
Thursday, 1 October 2015
Reasons to be Cheerful: October is here #R2BC
3) Operation House
One of the key areas needing sorting was the storage in my bedroom. Being a teacher I have a tonne of stuff I need to keep handy and my room has to act as my office. My dad put up these Ikea shelving units this weekend to make it all a lot more organised.
4) Clever girl
One of my daughter's favourite subjects at school is art and she has been involved in a project for Kendal's Comic Art Fest. She has helped to create this fabulous fox (and a badger too):
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