#FitnessFriday Virtual Racing

After my long run last Friday I wanted to see how much stamina my legs had by heading to park run at Fell Foot:

It was a perfect day for running and even though my legs were tired I was slightly faster than the previous week (still 4 minutes off my PB though!).

One of our regulars was celebrating her 50th parkrun and her friend made this fabulous video of his run (can you spot me…):

Fitness Friday breaking records

I am really enjoying my October run streak and getting out every day exploring the choices of runs my new home offers. If I want a challenge I can head up hill and around the back of the Helm. The lane along the back is very peaceful and this week I hardly met a soul as I went along:

There is a heck of climb at the end of the lane but you make up for it on the run back down to the bottom! It was this hill that gave me the PBs I wrote about yesterday. On my birthday I tried some new paths and explored the other bank of the river Kent:

Now I have a Camelbak to carry water I am looking forward to exploring further out into the countryside. Its not all about the long runs though as sometimes I only have time for a quickie like last night when I had 15 minutes so shot out the door and did my mile. The time pressure must have given me wings:

Today I decided to combine a trip to Aldi to spend birthday money on running kit, a test of the Camelbak and a long run. I took the hilly route to get there to make sure I built in the fitness and then as I was carrying shopping I came back via the canal path. Turned out I'd done a respectable 8 km!:

When I got home I discovered that my Run Mummy Run "She Cracked It" medal for my 10k run the other day:

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:

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..

Reasons to be Cheerful: Proud Mummy #R2BC

When my children have driven me up the wall on one afternoon I have to focus on the more positive things they have done this week! They do feature quite highly amongst my reasons to be cheerful this week:
1) A proper bedroom
Its 2 months since we moved into the house but because my son's room needed major work its been the only room not done. This week my dad and I finally rebuilt the high sleeper (an interesting 3D jigsaw) and I have been moving all his furniture into the house. He now has a room in which he and his new friends can happily play with Lego or whichever toy they fancy:

2) Family Parkrun

My children were bribed to get up and do Parkrun this week with the incentive of their RMR Kid's Virtual Race! My son flew round to get yet another PB 26:03 and finish 2nd in the boys under 10 category (a fab result for an 8 year old!). Big sister wasn't feeling great but managed a sprint finish and a time of 37:19 which was her first proper completion of the course. I am still out of condition but not displeased with a 34 minute time.

3) Garden

My mum is working hard on rescuing our inherited neglected garden. She and my daughter went shopping with a house warming present to buy roses for the flower bed: 

4) Blue Peter Badge

In her last term at primary my daughter took part in a day's Eco project to bash Himalayan Balsam on the shores of Windermere. The class were all awarded a green Blue Peter badge which arrived in the post this week:

What has made you smile this week? 



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Reasons to be Cheerful: My family and other animals #R2BC

Back to hosting after the wonderful job done by Jo at Ojo's World and running late already! I had to dig deep for my reasons this week having spent most of it stuck in bed due to problems with my jaw and reacting to the meds.... However I am now mostly back on my feet so here is what kept me smiling through the pain:
1) Running bling
I had forgotten about some virtual races that I had signed up for so I was very pleased to get 3 lots of running bling through the post this week:

Virtual races mean that you can take part in an event with 100s of other people without having to travel miles to do so. Perfect when you live miles from most events like me:

2) My son having fun

My son has made a nice little group of friends in our new street. I sometimes fall over a group of them playing on our Wii but they are also often found outside playing cricket and football. He even got invited out to Barrow Baths with one of the boys:

3) Junior Masterchef