2019 - it’s a wrap!

QUICK STATS: run 1,565miles, bike 477miles, swim 59,230 yards. Races 7 

parkruns 30, parkrun volunteering 25, different parkruns 8 and fastest parkrun 23:57

January-  Ran the New Year's day parkrun double at Hanley and the Wammy; joined Derwent Running Club as a Social member, to help with my Marathon Training when it starts. We had the annual Family New Year's day meal and realising how much my nephews are growing up and a lovely birthday surprise weekend in Manchester for a cheeky parkrun and a visit to the Manchester Beer Festival….oh and how could I forget a haircolour change!! 

February - My marathon training began, my long runs were getting long!! WE had a girls night out to Bingo again, unfortunately, our luck had run out but we had a great evening catching up and it was the month of my best clean joke for a long time!  "I had a hen who could count her own eggs…..she was a mathemachicken"

March - The long runs keep coming and the aim is to run 18 miles before our week long holiday in Mexico, which I manage not once but twice so I could go away safe in the knowledge that 1 week of lower mileage would not hurt the training too much. Had a lovely week away in Mexico, we were testing out a few theories this holiday..was Mexico too far for a week's holiday, how was Cancun compared to Playa de Carmen and could I pack for a weeks holiday with just hand luggage! The holiday was both informative and successful in terms of our theories, the responses were; yes, no Playa is nicer and yes!! So no more waiting at the carousel of doom!

April - Early in the month means that I was getting into the tough weeks and my longest runs were coming up with a 20 one week and 21 mile a week later running to my parents' house on a very hot bank holiday Sunday!   It didn’t get any easier but knowing they were behind me was a comfort and that my miles would start to decrease helped to lift my spirits in the final mile. We decorated and swapped rooms around in the house, the carpet that had been down since we moved in finally went and both rooms got spruced up!  Our collective weight loss is becoming more and more noticeable and we had to take 8 bags of clothes to the charity shop!!

May -Can only mean one thing Marathon Month, but before the Marathon, we had the Market Drayton 10k and I managed a very respectable time of 50:29, I had secretly hoped for sub 50 but that wasn’t my A race so I let it go and carried on with the taper which should have been easy at a lower miles however it certainly didn’t feel like that.  Then before we know it were heading up to bonny Scotland and finally the marathon is here! 4hours and 3 minutes later and 26.2 odd miles and I crossed that finish line and yet again vowed to never run another marathon again…but I still wanted to run

June - After all the build-up, miles and hours put into training I was able to diversify my training again and with a Pool based sprint triathlon scheduled for September I needed to get back in the pool again que the 5:30am starts and being in the pool for 6am!

July - we are in the holiday season and we were heading back up to Scotland first to go to Rewind 80festiveal in Scone with another cheeky parkrun tourism and the commencement of our Scotland road trip in the campervan, we visited some lovely places and I got to swim in a Lido which was another first for me!

August -  The Hanley park renovations have finished and we could finally run the course 2B and start to use the bandstand again, shame they never did put the sides on it so we could use it as a shelter during the occasion wet Saturday parkruns….final bank holiday of the year before Christmas was an excellent opportunity catch up with friends and walk/wander and stagger the  Hartshill beer mile 

September- after much discussion about house renovations we decided to that wanted to update the garden and make it a haven to come home too and spend time in during the summer months (should we actually get some nice weather) so our GRAND DESIGNS garden work started and finished! I ran the Great North Run again and had a blast this is one of the best half marathons and one everyone should run and I closed out the month with the North West Sprint Triathlon.

October- We had a quick running weekend away to run the Bilbao half marathon and if it hadn't have been long I'm sure that I would have got a sub 1:50 but that is Brexit for you…also the realisation of the over the last couple of months starts to dawn on me that my running has really improved recently, my times are coming down which is great !

November- There was a brilliant weekend away with the girls to Wales and we saw our first snow of Winter 2019, we participated (very hungover) in Pont y Bala parkrun  and I finished in a very respectable 5th, to be fair there were only 24 people and we made up a third of them! I managed to actually get a 10 mile PB at the Derby 10k which I was really pleased with, but then got injured right after it!! Oh and I finish my contract in Nottingham and start to look for my next contact as well as updating my project management skills

December is all about going out with friends, catching up with friends and spending time with the ones you love! Oh and I ran my fastest parkrun in 6 years!!

Heres to 2020 and whatever not only the new year but also the new decade holds :) 

A quick week away

Well why not! As you know I have Edinburgh Marathon to train for BUT I also wanted a week in Mexico for some sun and to test something out. 

It has been a pet project of mine for a while; whilst just a week after travelling over 10 hours is not very long at all, I did feel justified as last November we went to Australia for a little over 2 weeks!! I must admit as much as the flights were long and there was hardly any sleep for me, they did strengthen my resolve for a week in Mexico!

After much research and persuasion on my part Sean agreed, we settled on only taking hand luggage and stopping in Cancun rather than our usual Playa De Carmen. That way we would have fast transitions through the airport and be in our resort that bit quicker. Unfortunately we had to get connecting flights but let’s gloss over that!!

Now I needed to get my head around what to take for a week and what to pack it all in….again much research was undertaken(mainly in the form of YouTube videos) and I settled on an Osprey fairveiw 40l backpack and some compression packing cubes.

Next was what clothes to take…. I had,  a couple of trips ago, got bored with all the holiday packing, unpacking and repacking, also I noticed that a number of items were going back having never been worn!! So I made a list of what I needed to take: 

3 T-shirt’s

2 pairs on denim shorts (white/blue)

3 tops (to wear at nigh)

2 dresses ( a maxi and a lightweight summery thing)

1 pair of trousers for evening wear

1 swimming costume

1 bikini

1 pair of beach shorts

7 pairs of pants mixed (4 nude)

A pair of short PJs

2 bras (1 worn to travel in)

2 pairs of flipflops (beach pair and a sparkly pair for night)

Now for the most of anything 3 pairs of running kit ( bra, tops, shorts and socks)

And that was it!

Several people were aghast that I was only taking two pairs of flipflops and no proper shoes, the trouble is I wear heels for work and only really have a few pairs of heels that are both comfortable and pretty and they are not multi purpose so they don’t make the list. 

The next challenge to overcome was the fact that we had connecting flights to our liquids were going to be limited originally we had hope to get the toiletries at the airport but we would be restricted on these and would only be able to take a small plastic bag so again time to get researching. I have to admit this was more last minute but following a hasty trip to Lush, I had picked up:

Shampoo bar

Conditioner bar

Deodorant bar

Deodorant powder

The rest was small travel items of

Moisturiser

TCP ( I never travel without it)

Hair product

Mascara

Lipstick

Perfume

Lastly what to wear on my trip, I decided to go with my compression X2U tights,  T-shirt, warm-ish jumper and my trainers which saves space. I did look a little odd but didn’t care, I’m travelling light, sans checked luggage!!

So it’s day four of the holiday and so far I haven’t really felt like I’m missing anything and to be honest not having loads of clothes to choose from is quite refreshing as it is a case of this top or that one!

So in terms of my training I have so far clocked up a 4 mile easy run, 7 mile interval session and two other steady runs there is still two or three more planned. All on the treadmill I’m not confident

enough to go out and run along the road and to be honest it is a little to warm for me. Although one of those days it should be a 13 mile run and I have to admit I’m not sure I could run 13 on a treadmill in one go, but let’s wait and see.

So long as I get the majority of miles in I think having a week away during marathon training is ok.

My experiment is nearly over and this might have just converted me to never checking a bag again….. Although I do miss my opportunity to buy perfume at the duty free 😞

Things I have found out on holiday

Well this has been an interesting two week holiday and a journey into self enlightenment.  I have found out a few things I sort of knew before but they have really been confirmed.

1) I don't like swimming much, especially in under ground rivers.  We went to Xcaret which is like a ecological Alton Towers, there is lots to do and plenty of sights to see and one of the gems is the under ground fresh water river.  Which you float along to the river exit at the sea, a little like the log flume but with out the log or flume, anyway moving on. Now this seemed like a good idea until the time came to get in the water and start floating and it was at this point it dawned on me I don't like swimming in the dark through caves. Well I hunkered down pulled on my snorkel and mask and got in to the water and then proceeded to the exit at a speed that would impress Rebecca Addington (I wish)

2) I don't like boats very much, well it is not the boats fault more the rough sea. We decided to take the ferry over to Cozumel as it only on our doorstep and it seemed rude not to. The weather has been a little inclement this holiday so we took the opportunity of a rainy and cloudy day to visit the island.  Unfortunately I had forgotten that this would mean rough seas and a turbulent crossing, the margarita helped to get me a large way across  but the sting in the tail was needing a bathroom break before we got to the other side.  I was dreading the bathroom, having been on a rough ferry from Dover to Calias I had visions of all sorts of horrors but to my pleasant surprise they were clean and smelt fresh, so much so I had forgotten about the rocking snd swaying of the boat briefly. Comzul was a lovely little quaint resort mainly catering for the cruise boat trade and divers but  nice enough, we went to the smallest Hardrock Cafe and Jimmy Buffett Margatiaville. The Ironman is going to Cozumel in December which would have been awesome to see.  Then it was time for the journey back the seas had not calmed much during our visit so I was not holding out much hope for s smooth crossing, after the first couple of swells I decided to close my eyes and pretend to be anywhere but there.  

3) I can't drink anymore, well I never could really drink but these days it is even worse.  Perhaps I am out of practice but these days I am not sure that I want to get good at it. My fellow holidaymakers don't seem to have the same problem they start at 6am with Mimosas, 9am Beer on the beach, Tequila Sunrise with lunch and finishing off the session with Margatias and whiskey.  Personally if I drank like that I would be in bed for a week but no they are up the next day doing it all again!!! I did give it a good college try but started a little late; margatia on the beach at 3pm, wine with the evening meal and wine in the lobby while watching the show. I crashed into bed around 10:30 and woke up with a killer headache the next morning, never again!! So drinking is not for me, sure I'll have a odd one or two but that's my limit, but I just don't like feeling like crap the next day.

So there were some of my self reflection enlightening moments during my vacation.  It has been fun and lovely to get way the only problem is that it is going to be blooming cold back and its going to hurt. But it is going to be nice to have a proper cup of tea :)

Mexico does Alton Towers

Me

in Margatiaville

Holiday's

I have had a busy old couple of months, I have been on holiday in Mexico in which we had a fab time; Mexico is a long favourite holiday destination for me.  I love the food, love the drink and love the sun! So when we booked it last August for the 1^st two weeks in July 2012 it sounded a long long time away! However before we knew it we were heading off in to the sun, it has been a tough few weeks for me at work, a lot of long stressful days and this holiday I was really looking forward to!

The holiday was everything I was expecting and more, the only downside was that it was the start of their rainy season so we had a couple of days when we had a shower or two, but other than that it was great. We had a romantic meal on the beach.

Took a trip to Coco Bongo , now this is one place you should go to if you ever make it to Mexico, it’s a great show and the dancers where amazing, something truly to behold. But one of the funnist things was watching the girls who thought they were all that dancing on the podum inbetween the shows, and every so often they would send up a jet of air and the poor girls skirt would end up around her ears! Fortunately all of the girls were wearing knickers, but they would never learn, after the jet had gone off they would carry on dancing without a care in the world and then of course the jet of air would go off again! Needless to say I didn’t get up there…no on wants to see that!

We loved Mexico so much that we are going back next year, but with all of the training I am going to have to do next year we are going to have to wait until later on in the year, probably around October or November, which is ages ago!!

Cheese !

Keep on rockin'

As well as Mexico I am just back from the Rewind 80 Festival in Henley which again was fantastic, it was a little quieter this year, as it was just me a Sean, our friends had to pull out a the last minute, but have promised to be back next year.  The weather was fantastic, which was a shock considering what the weathermen were saying in the run up to the festival; we had 3 days of wall to wall sunshine.  Every year this little festival gets busier and busier, we arrived a lot earlier than anticipated and there quite a few in front of us, however by the time we got in there was a load more behind us.  As far as festivals go for us this was a quiet one, early to bed but very early to rise, still didn't take my trainers (3 days off running!).  All in all we had a good time and yes we will be back next year! 

You would think that I have not had much time for running but you would be wrong, since coming back I have been in three races Meerbrook 15k which was pure evil!! Staffs Knot 5 and  Dave Clarke 5k which was not so bad, didn't break any personal bests or any major records. I have got my mileage back up to around 40 miles a week which was my plan when I got back from holiday.  I would like to try and keep it up there and maybe a little higher I am not sure why but it would just seem a shame to drop the mileage again, after working so hard to get there.