#CountryKids Fell Foot Halloween Parkrun

Today it was the annual Halloween parkrun at Fell Foot today and my son and I had volunteered to be tail walkers. So we really thought we had better dress for the occasion:

It was good to see that other folks had joined in the spirit of things too:

It was a big turn out with 276 finishers so it was a big briefing:

Then we had the award for parkrunner of the year which went to one of regular volunteers:

#CountryKids A trail run to Easedale Tarn

As part of Great Landscapes Week The Friends of the Lake District have been laying on all sorts of free activities from basket weaving and bushcraft to yoga and trail running. When I saw that there was a taster trail run to Easedale Tarn that my son was allowed to take part in I quickly signed up! We met up in the centre of the village and met up with the trail leader, Wayne from Jogging Pals, to get a briefing and do a warm up. Then we headed out through the village and the grounds of Allan Bank:

There was very much an emphasis on the social aspect of the run as that is the main part of the ethos of Jogging Pals. The two 10 year olds led the way like a pair of mountain goats whilst the rest of us came along more steadily as we were chatting as we went. Every so often we would pause so that everyone had a chance to recover and regroup:

The boys were a lot more sure footed and fitter than the rest of us as we tackled the increasingly steep and rocky trail up the mountain side:

#CountryKids Fell Foot Christmas Parkrun #FitnessFriday

Thanks to Storm Desmond we were unable to have a Christmas parkrun at Fell Foot Park. However Cumbrians are hardy folk so 6 months on we held a Christmas and half parkrun last weekend. We were asked to combine summer and Christmas for the special event. I managed to attach some ribbons to my trainers to make them more festive:

My daughter was marshalling in a Christmas outfit whilst the Run Director was channeling his Santa on the beach look:

The volunteers had made a fabulous effort at decorating the course:

#CountryKids Grasmere Gallop 2016 #FitnessFriday

We took full advantage of our inclusive breakfast at the Macdonald Old England to fuel us for the Grasmere Gallop. Not only was there a continental buffet but a full cooked English as well which I failed to finish:

My son went for a simpler version but just had too have a bit of fun with it:

The advantage of being in Bowness meant that it was a much shorter drive up to the Grasmere Sports' site where we registered and met up with friends (Four Pairs of Trainers). This year the race had gone hi-tech and we had ankle timing chips:

#CountryKids Tarn Hows and Glen Mary

Today my son and I headed up to Tarn Hows to complete our virtual race for Help for Heroes in honour of Captain Seath. The Tarn has a circular route around it that we would need to complete two laps of for the challenge. I hadn't been up to the Tarn before and in fact ended up parking at Glen Mary car park. From there we took the bridle way and road up the hill to the proper Tarn Hows car park. It was good warm up:

It was a relief to reach the Tarn Hows proper car park:

We checked over the map so that my son knew where we were going, he is far too fast to run alongside me! The miles without stiles route was a circular one around the Tarn so we basically just had to decide whether to go clockwise to anticlockwise. He chose the latter and shot off… I took it more steadily and paused to take photos as I went:

Fitness Friday: Brathay Half Marathon training week 7 #ThisGirlCan

School holidays often play havoc with my fitness as I don't want to abandon my children whilst I do it! It does make me be more creative though. We did all manage to go to Parkrun together on Saturday. My daughter marshalled and took photographs whilst her brother ran to 3rd place in his age category and I was 6th in mine:

By Wednesday I was desperate for some exercise so I combined having to go to the bank with a run. Its just over a mile to the town centre so I decided to just blast it and did my fastest kilometres of the year:

That's the face of someone who smashed their target on one Strava segment:

Yesterday we had some gentle family exercise with a hike. (This will be fully blogged about tomorrow!):

Today I wanted a decent bit of exercise so I was glad to discover that the swimming pool was open to the public at the same time as the spinning class:

We all got some exercise and fun at the same time! I still haven't worked out how to get a longer run into my week though.. At least I lost another 1 1/2 pounds though to keep up the steady loss and almost half a stone this year.. Onwards and downwards!

Swimming Sunday

With big sister away my son decided that he would love to go swimming with me today. We live 5 minutes from the pool so we ought to go a lot more than we do! Last night he had a couple of friends around for a "sleep" over so it took me until lunch time to wake him up to get there..

Of course before going we had the usual palaver of getting ourselves ready. I am not sure how the goggles vanish after previous swims but we can never seem to find them when we want to go! Luckily we found his pair in time to get to the pool for the last of the general swim session.

With my son being 9 he now has to head into the male changing room on his own so we have to meet in the water. He was diving to the bottom of the deep end picking up hoops so I squeezed in 4 lengths in the Medium speed lane. After a couple of these I noticed I had left my bra on under my swimming costume... oops! 

Then I was throwing the hoops for my son to dive to the bottom for. He just loves being under the water. If I had got my goggles on I would have joined him as I love .

After that I decided to work on his diving technique. I can dive fairly well but I have found it hard to pass on the technique to my children. They have both been able to dive in from seated but not standing up. A dad was on a similar mission and he used a hoop to get his children to dive straight. My son finally mastered diving from standing with lovely straight legs, he was so pleased with himself. Its lovely to see my children mastering these skills.

We spent the rest of the session trying out floating, catching balls and tricks like swimming under each others legs. I am so glad he loves being in the water as much as I do.

#CountryKids at Fell Foot Parkrun

Our local Parkrun at Fell Foot was effected by Storm Desmond so they have had to create a temporary course that just uses the pathways and avoids the temporary bogs and damaging waterlogged grass. It does mean that we get to run along the shore of Windermere 4 times as we go around the course now:

My son helped me warm up before the briefing before the event. Being a regular fell runner he knows how to get our heart rates raised and to do dynamic stretches (especially important on a cold day!). Then I located another regular runner with a similar time to him to run the course with (being under 11 he *has* to be with arms length of an adult for all the race) as I am far too slow... Then is was time for the Run Director to give out course and safety information:

Parkruns are perfect for all ages and today the age range was right from age 4 to over 80 (plus one baby in a back carrier and one toddler in a buggy!). The temporary course makes it a lot more sociable as you loop around several times and pass runners at varying points (or in my case are passed - including by my son!):

It is great to see how all the different ages and abilities support each other and encourage runners who are struggling. I received a shout of "Run Mummy Run" from a lady from my Facebook running group! For some children it is the first time they have ever attempted to run 3 miles but they receive encouragement from their parents, other runners and the perennially cheerful marshals. As an adult its great to be told "you are doing great" as well.

My son helped me on my last lap as he had finished his run in his second fastest ever time! He makes for a fabulous running coach and I even managed a sprint finish up the last hill. It turned out he was 23rd overall and 2nd in his age category (the other boy was 1 year older) whilst I was much further down the field in 74th place (although I was 26th female!). 

When my phone had recovered from the cold I took this snap of us being pleased with our times:

I can certainly recommend Parkruns as a perfect way to combine outdoor fun and fitness together for families!

Reasons to be Cheerful #CountryKids at Ambleside Sports #R2BC

 

This is the last week that the wonderful Jo at Ojo's World is hosting the linky as she hands it back to me for August! She has been an amazing host whilst my life has been a whirlwind so I hope she enjoys the break until September. I am combing this with my second country kids post of the week as it was such a huge reason to be cheerful. We made our second ever visit to Ambleside Sports as we had enjoyed it so much last year (my daughter winning £10 wrestling helped!). So here are our Country Kids at Ambleside Sports reasons to be cheerful:


1) Healthy sibling rivalry

A free competition to see how far you could row in 5 minutes or how many calories you could burn on the cross trainer made both the children happy:

2) Beautiful scenery and inspirational athletes:

My son and I saw the start of the amazing 9 mile Rydal Round from part way up the fell race course. One hundred tough fell runners who were out for a minimum of an hour and half with an awful lot of ascent and descent:

3) Up close to the action

There can't be many places were the cyclists race on grass:

4) Fell racing

This is my son in a race to the finish in the under 12s fell race. As he is only 8 he did well to finish 63rd out of 85th. He really accelerated when he heard the Helm Hill supports screaming his name!

#CountryKids Boxing Day Run on The Helm

Both my children got new sports kit for Christmas and were keen to try it out today! My son got on his running hat and trousers and my daughter her new cycling kit this morning to drag the adults outside:

He and I headed up the hill to The Helm which runs behind Oxenholme. It's quite a steep ascent at first and was very muddy:

 My son was far more sure footed than me and sped up to the top:

#CountryKids Out Running Together

After my son's efforts in Langdale I realised he needed more running training before he tackles some longer distances this summer. Its a difficult one as with him being only 7 he shouldn't do too much training but he will struggle to complete a 5 km course if he doesn't learn to conserve energy and build stamina. The other issue is that his big sister hates running and will only cycle leaving us with limited options on where to go.

Today I announced we were going to run and cycle to the playground in the neighbouring village of Burneside. It's only about 1.5 miles there so not too far for his legs. My daughter was worried about the big hill at Kentrigg but I assured her that I now know the way around the outside of the hill along the river:

As long as its not been raining this is a nice little path to take that avoids the strenuous hill! So we set off on a warm afternoon and my daughter soon vanished off into the distance. This was a bit disconcerting as even though she has passed her Bikeability she hasn't been on too many proper roads. Luckily she made it in one piece with just one close encounter with a foreign lorry.. she now knows they sit on the wrong side and can't always see cyclists.

My son and I weren't super speedy as he needed to slow down quite a few times and we didn't run up any hills but hopefully gave him more of an idea of proper running:

Then the children both enjoyed playing in the park which is much nicer than the one near our house. It started to rain after a while so we headed back. My son was quite tired but did his best as we took the paths back into Kendal:

It was much slower coming back as he was feeling tired:

Guess we need to do more of the same to build him up slowly and safely..

#CountryKids Cycling to Wray Castle

I have been struggling to get us out as a family cycling happily due to the contrasting levels of confidence and ability that a 3 year age gap makes. Having to watch one shoot off into the distance whilst the other constantly stops is a nightmare. So I was very happy to acquire a second hand tag a long yesterday to try and make cycling more enjoyable. We took advice from the Go Lakes web site on cycling in Cumbria and headed over on the ferry to the western shore of Windermere:

It adds to the fun to take the ferry and at £4.30 for a car its cheaper than the car park! Once over the water we made use of our National Trust membership to park for free at Harrowslack. Then my daughter and I assembled my son's new mode of transport:

My daughter looked very professional in her cycling gear:

Our Sainsbury's Sport Relief Games

Sponsored Post

As Sainsbury's were the main sponsor of the Sport Relief Games this weekend they had stocked lots of useful goodies to help participants:

Sainsbury Sport Relief items

We had already made use of the Sport bag on our Team Honk event:

Mr B hitches a ride in a Sport Relief bag

Yesterday my son and I headed to our local leisure centre for our the Sport Relief Games in Kendal. Big sister pulled out due to leg pain. The two of us were keen to go:

Have water bottle will run

It was nice day for a run as not too sunny or hot:

Start this way

We all lined up the start line from toddlers to pensioners:

Ready to start his Sport relief mile

We even had the mayor of Kendal there to start us off and present the medals when we crossed the finish line:

Finish line..

My son did his 3 laps with ease whilst I chugged round 9 times... he had to come and run last one with me! So proud of him he could probably have done the 3 mile event:

Completed his Sport relief mile

I was relieved to get my medal as I found running on the increasingly muddy grass hard work after a lack of training:

Eating a sport relief medal

Well done everyone who walked, ran, swam or cycled for Sport Relief at the Sainsbury Games. If you haven't sponsored anyone else then consider sending some pennies to our fundraising page.

We were sent the Sainsbury goodies as we are part of the Sainsbury Blogger Network.