Cakes and Ale

I think we’ve managed it at last – “eaten up”. All the stuff you get in for the Christmas break that you wouldn’t give house room to for the rest of the year. The stuff that’s left over and then shared out after the office “do”. The unmissable two for one offers on crates of booze. The Christmas cake that my Mum makes for me. The great slabs of cheese to accompany said cake (it’s a Northern thing). It’s taken a great deal of effort and commitment but we’ve managed to get through in two weeks what it takes the population of Lesotho to consume in a (good) year. Despite upping the training I’ve still managed to add another half a stone to the bulging waistline.

I’ve had two days off from running following an increase in both volume and intensity earlier in the week. I’ve not been completely idle though; did a six mile walk on Thursday and then failed to scale both Pen y ghent and Ingleborough on Friday. We set off up Pen y ghent but common sense prevailed and we hurried home before the snow set in.

Back on the running today. The intention was to run a brisk but not flat out parkrun with clubmate Ali as she was looking to run something close to her PB of 21:35. Unfortunately the course was not ideal for running as there were patches of compacted snow and slush. Started off very conservatively and then picked up the pace as I found my feet.

Just found out that I’ve been awarded Runner of the Month at Leeds parkrun so I’ll have to get over to York to collect my free running shoes. I’ll definitely get some new road shoes for the marathon. I haven’t yet thrown out any old running shoes since staring running two and a half years ago on the basis that you never know when they’ll come in handy. Maybe now is the time to ditch my first two pairs of road shoes that now have paper thin soles.