Allerthorpe Half Marathon

Garmin time - 1.58.49... (ave pace 9.03) official time 1.59.02.. This was due to the chip mat being about 2 metres beyond the finish and it caught loads of people out... Goodness knows why they did that, I stopped pretty much on the finish line 'cause I thought I might throw up haha

Me all set to go in front of the Cafe at the lakeland park it started at.. It looks really sunny and at times it was but the wind made it really cold at times too... funny weather!

I left this picture in 'cause it shows the timing mats... the one at the finish line didn't register your time, the one after did?? WTF?! annoying!

Me at the start line.. I started near the back in an attempt to start slow.. still went off a bit fast haha

Runners at the front

And gooooooooooooo!

Mile 1 - 9.22
Started this mile a bit fast then made a conscious effort to slow down when I saw 8.20 average pace on the garmin... I knew I needed to start slow to finish... Keep some in the tank, that was my game plan all the way, run the first 6 miles easy then pick it up and pick people off one by one!

Mile 2 - 9.17
Got into my groove this mile, found myself in a small pack and vowed to stick with them!

Mile 3 - 9.15
Begun to move to the front of the pack.. I wasn't speeding up too much so I think they might have been slowing down a bit. The pace felt comfortable so I decided if I kept it around the 9.15 mark I would just run my own race and see how it went!

Mile 4 - 9.12
I saw another group a little bit ahead and started pushing to join them.. I did relatively easily I think generally at this point people were slowing a bit.. The sun was hot and I think it was zapping people's energy levels.. I was still ok at this point as I was sticking to my plan.. My legs felt good and my breathing felt good and it was around here I started wondering if I could get that sub 2hr after all... I reminded myself that we were only a third of the way through and a lot could go wrong so not to get too excited haha. Although I had a bottle of lucozade with me I stopped at the water stop here and had a cup of water then carried on running. I was behind one girl at this point and stayed with her for a bit until I knew I could overtake her and keep my lead! I didn't want to overtake anyone who could overtake me back... and I managed this the whole race, no-one I'd overtook took over me, I was really proud about that!

Mile 5 - 9.17
I was starting to feel a little tired so I eased up on the pace a bit, ready to attack after mile 6! At some point between mile 4 and 5 I found myself at the front of the new group I'd joined I was hoping I'd soon see someone else in the distance so as not to get lost haha I eventually saw this woman and made it my goal to catch up to her

This was after the race of course hehe I couldn't resist saying hello to her beautiful little doggy who was very sweet!

Mile 6 - 9.11
I stuck with the woman in pink for a while before deciding to take off at the end of the mile the guy on the bike was biking with her to keep her company.. wonder if he did the triathlon in the morning!

Mile 7 - 8.59
I decided I wanted all the miles from here-on-in to begin with an 8... I almost did it!!

Mile 8 - 8.48
I was concentrating on picking people off one by one and maintaining my pace at around the 8.50 mark.. It wasn't easy but felt do-able!

Mile 9 - 8.50
A man in green overtook me here booo hisss we ran together for a while then he took off and my little legs weren't feeling it so I stuck at my pace feeling a bit grumpy ha

Mile 10 - 8.52
I was really starting to feel it in my legs now but I kept thinking only 4 miles, that's only 30 mins(ish) and you're done.. Don't slow down now!! I managed to overtake more people and that kept boosting my confidence and resolve to stay in the game.. It was mainly mental battles from here...

Mile 11 - 8.51
Could see mr green shirt in the distance... I thought I'm getting past you mr green shirt!! And I did! Hooray haha.. sorry mr green shirt :p I see a girl in red and decide I'm sticking with her. She seems to be running my pace so I make it my goal to stay right behind her... This comes at just the right time 'cause she speeds up right where I was starting to waver and realised I did have a bit more in the tank than I realised!!

Mile 12 - 8.54
I'm still keeping up with red shirt she's running hard though, still I think 2 more miles, those interval sessions are really helping my mental game right now. I'm thinking I've run two miles way more out of breath than this.. keep it up!! My legs have other ideas though and simply aren't going as fast as I would like them to... Usually it's my lungs that go but today my legs went.. suppose that's the lack of training lately, that and prancing about in high heels for hours on thurs and fri night... not the best half marathon preparation... Especially when teamed with alcohol... It does make me wonder what I could do at my best... Definitely doing this run again next year when I'm stronger!

Mile 13 - 9.01
Damn red shirt's getting away... she overtook a woman in green and I can't quite make it to them.. My legs are screaming and it's taking everything I have not to slow down too much.. I still manage to overtake one woman in this mile but she's walking. I wanted to shout don't give up we're almost there but couldn't find the breath... I saw my mum in this mile, she cheers and tries to take a picture but she missed me lol can't get the blog photographers hahaha

0.14 - 58s (6.54 pace)
Guess I did still have some in the tank! No idea where I pulled this sprint finish from!! I think I was just so happy to see the end!! I felt like I might be sick coming up to the end as the photo shows... I did not look a happy bunny crossing the line, but I soon perked up when it was over!

I'm in the distance behind the woman in green...

Here's a close up... goodness knows what anyone who knew anything about running would have to say about my form here haha my legs look crazy

Not looking too happy at the end haha

All in all I really enjoyed the race, I think I really like the half marathon distance! Bit gutted my official time is over 10 seconds slower than my actual time though. I hope they sort that out for next year or at the very least make it known to the competitors so they know to keep on going. If I'd been a minute slower I'd have missed out on my sub 2hr finish because of the timing mats... I would have been so gutted if that was the case... It really bugged me that it wasn't at the finish... I mean... Why?! Lol why put it 2 metres after? It makes no sense to me... oh well! Enough ranting and raving!!

My position was 87/135 apparently 160+ were registered but some didn't turn up and presumably there were also a few DNFs it was such a hot day... what is it about me doing half marathons in sweltering heat!! There was a strong wind too... which kind of helped with the heat but made running v. tough at times of course! Out of the women I came 26/52 so slap bang in the middle haha.. I'm already wondering which race I can sign up to next!! I'm tempted to do the humber bridge half anyway but I think since Mike proposed to me at it last year it might just be too hard.. God I can't believe how things have changed in a year :-( less than a year.. I don't get it really but what can ya do except carry on!

Managing a smile with my melon after downing some water

My dad took some pictures round the park while they waited.. seems like it was a nice scenic place, I was sad we didn't do any running in the actual park but the gravel would have made that pretty horrible!!

Here's a strange sand wall where birds were living in those holes!

And here's one of the lakes... very pretty!

So that's about it! I can hardly walk today but it hurts in a good way :-)

I Did It...

I ran a sub 2 hour half marathon!!!!! I knew I had it in me but the way my life has been lately I didn't think for a second I would pull it off today! I'm so chuffed!! Full recap soon, just couldn't wait to share with my bloggy friends! xx

May Recap

May goals
Maintain April Mileage fail
Stick to this bl**dy push-up program!! fail
Eat enough to train fail
Run three times a week fail

Oh no....

May totals
Push-ups - 60
Miles - 24.1

Hmm... Well it's not been a great month, eating hasn't been too good. But I'm not too unhappy with it. I feel like I could have relapsed a lot harder and although I've lost weight I'm only borderline underweight at the moment according to BMI (even though I don't give that too much value..) I haven't run anywhere near as much as I'd have liked and I feel really unprepared for this half.. My eating has been too erratic and I have made myself sick a few times, to be honest, I've been worried about passing out when I'm out there running... Also I had a nasty throat infection and have been partying a little too much... But being out there with my friends is helping me through a rough time and it won't be forever! I'm planning a detox after my hols hehe I'm trying to not be too hard on myself, although looking at my goals May was a total fail, but hey, I knew Mike and I were having problems but I never could have predicted things were going to end.. I always thought we'd work through them, we had always been so strong together but I guess some things just aren't meant to be and all I can do now is move forward and get on with my life and that is thoroughly what I intend to do..

On the plus side of May..

• I managed one 10 miler, in a not too fast time, but hey.. that gives me confidence I'll cross the finish line on Sunday!
• I booked a holiday with one of my best mates
• I've been getting more senior shifts at work
• I've committed myself to getting back in a boxing gym, one with really good training which I only left 'cause Mike fell out with the coach..
• I've been trying really hard with my food and could have relapsed a lot harder than I am doing

And I'm not going to be depressing and go into the many cons! Life's too short!

Hope your May was better than mine!

p.s.

June goals
Finish the Allerthorpe half marathon - probably now unattainable sub goal was to get my time in under 2hrs which I have acheived in training but....
Try not to lose anymore weight
Get back in that boxing gym

Grill Winner!

But first, go check out my guest post on Sweet Tooth Runners Awesome blog, the comments have been amazing! So chuffed with them :-)

Aaaaaaaaaaaand the winner is, number 35

What a co-incidence, it's Emma at Sweet Tooth Runner! Congratulations Emma, email me your address and I will pass it on to the get grilling people!

Win a George Foreman Grill

Get grilling week is coming to an end and to celebrate it I have a George Foreman grill to give away. It's the same grill I've been cooking on all week, the family heritage grill which can cook 5 portions on it, or 1-2 portions plus veg.

You can expect to see more grilled recipes from me though, I think my new toy will become a regular piece of kitchen equipment now. It's so quick and easy, just what I need at the moment when I no longer have Mike around to do some of the jobs.. like the hoovering, ugh I hate hoovering, at the moment that is a major downside of his departure lol... I'm trying to look on the brightside heh anyway, I seem to have wandered off topic!

I was also going to include the Santa Fe veggie burgers in this post but.. erm.. I totally effed them up... not sure what happened but the mix was really sloppy and I just ended up with a hot mess on the grill!!

So to get your hands on this fab grill you can do 1 or more of these things

1. follow my blog - this is the only thing you have to do to enter but you can get extra entries via the following ways
   
2. blog about it, facebook it, tweet it include @boxruneat to your tweet (1 entry for each, leave separate comments)
3. tell me which recipe you want to try most from the george foreman website
4. add me on facebook
5. follow me on twitter

Sorry to my overseas readers but the competition is only open to UK readers. Competition closes 30/05/11 at midnight.

Get Grilling Week Bruschetta

How's everyone's weeks been? I'm thinking roll on the weekend even though I'll be working, I have other fun plans too, curry tonight with one of my besties and perhaps a night out on Sat.. God knows I'm needing my down time at the moment! I've been so thankful for my friends and blog support these difficult few weeks... Still feel like I'm going crazy about everything and can't understand anything that's happened but I have realised I have some great people around me.

Anyway, enough gushing! I made some fab grilled aubergine and cherry tomato bruschetta on my new toy.

First roast some garlic for 40mins-1hr in an oven at 180c

Squeeze it all out into a bowl, will be very soft and melt into a paste easily..

Add salt, black pepper, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar and olive oil, I also added a tiny bit of sweetener but on second thoughts it might have been unecessary... taste as you go people!

I grilled 1 aubergine and 5 mini aubergines on the grill

Added lots of cherry tomatoes and parsley

and poured over enough dressing to coat, yum....

Finally I grilled some mediterannean bread

And topped generously

Enjoy!

Definitely another keeper recipe! I'll be back tomorrow or Sunday with the Santa Fe Veggie burgers.... perfect hangover food I'm hoping haha... Oh who am I?! Drinking way too much since Mike and I split but hey-ho... life is for living and I'm having fun!

Predator Nutrition

I've been in talks with a great website lately I'm going to be trying out some of their supplements soon.. sometimes I find it's easier to drink something down than eat a complete meal. Not saying you should use them instead of food but having stuff like that available can really help. In the past if it's been too hard to face a full meal a high nutrition shake has provided an alternative. A girl I used to work with at Holland and Barrett swears by the weight gainer type drinks as she has a really fast metabolism and finds it difficult to put on weight whilst Mike always used to like to add avocados and peanut butter to smoothies to try and gain weight. I'm looking forward to trying some stuff out anyway! Especially at the moment, anything to try and keep my weight on as easily as possible is good in my eyes!

They also sell lots of different protein powders for example whey protein I still need to get some vanilla whey protein to try JAG's protein frappucino! (why haven't I done this yet) I have bags of soya, pea and hemp protein getting dusty in the cupboard I think the plain ones just don't work too well for me, only in pancakes which I haven't made for ages and I don't know when I'll next make them I have a phobia about touching raw egg, the consistency of it just creeps me out haha so I'm gonna have to figure out how to crack an egg without Mike lol... It's the little things!!

I've been also thinking about creatine and it's benefits lately I know some people swear by it but others can't stand the stuff. What do you think? Have you used it, like it, hate it? I must admit it sounds like something which would do me good especially as vegetarians tend to be lower in it than our meat eating friends.. I will admit, I'd always thought I would never take it but recently have been feeling more inclined to give it a try

*guest post for predator nutrition

Gym = Feeeeeeeeeeelin' Good

Hey guys how's everyone's day been? Mine has been better than the past few, I was feeling low as can be, despite spending time with some of my favourite people (my gran and Mike's little sister).. I was settling in for the night feeling rubbish and thinking of cracking open the Jack Daniels and my mum rung me to see if I wanted to go to the gym with her. At first I said no thinking I don't feel like leaving the house again but she twisted my arm... I went...

1km on the dreadmill with 4 incline in just over 5 mins (not too much running due to sore legs and a run planned for tomorrow)
10 mins on the x trainer (cue sweating like mad)
5 Clean and press each arm with 12.5kg... some beefy men were using the 10kgs haha I hate using the free weights section when it's full of men, I feel silly :/
5 side bends with 22.5kg each side
A few machines... not sure which lol, some my mum was using
Lots of assisted push-ups and dips
5 minutes on the vibratey machine which felt horrible.... Don't usually use this but I couldn't go on anything else 'cause I got really dizzy towards the end of the pull-ups (I thought I'd eaten enough, maybe not...) so I decided to give it a try rather than just sitting and waiting for my mum... don't think I'll do it again it was so strange!

Anyway I got home and ate my leftover tofu from yesterday (nom) and had a nice hot bath... thoughts of Jack Daniels melted away... hurrah for healthy endophins instead of boozy highs! Plus since then I made another little meal and enjoyed it so much I went back for more! That 10 miles yesterday and gym sesh have done wonders for my appetite! oh yeah and hash browns on my new toy (George Foreman) are delish!! Just what I was craving! Night all.

National Get Grilling Week

In celebration of National Get Grilling Week 2011 the guys at George Foreman sent me a grill and lots of yummy food!

Over the week I'll be testing out a warm Asian style noodle salad, Santa fe veggie burgers, and lots more! I also have a fab giveaway coming up so you can get your hands on your own grill and join in the fun! I will be giving away the same grill I was sent, the Heritage family grill, so far I'm well impressed with it!

Here's what they sent me; the grill and all the ingredients for the tofu salad and veggie burgers, plus you can expect to see some of my experiments over the next few days too... I'm thinking aubergine and cherry tomato bruschetta... And I just combined two of the recipes for a fab pitta bread.. I'll post the recipe for that when I make it again 'cause it was too dark to get any decent pics right now..



I chose to make the tofu dish first... I've wanted to try tofu from one of these grills before and let me tell you, it did not disappoint!

First I dried off my tofu and added the chopped garlic and chilli, I added a little more than one clove of garlic 'cause the cloves looked kinda small and I loooove garlic!

Then I added the wet ingredients, sweet chilli sauce, soy sauce and sesame oil...

Sticky close up! I left this in the fridge for about 5 hours...

When I came to cook it I grilled the tofu whilst chopping the veg and cooking the noodles..

First up pak choi...

And then I show of my knife skills (or lack thereof...)

Ooooh look at those pretty grill marks! Love it!

Wilting the veg... I left it on slightly longer than the recipe recommended 'cause I wanted the pretty grill marks heh

I tossed the noodles through my leftover marinade liquid... (I wrote threw then at first, my brain has officially turned to mush through this break-up)

Topped with the veg and chopped coriander

And finally the tofu, which was definitely the star of the show!

Check that out!!
If I were to make this recipe again I would leave the coriander out.. I don't really like it, just personal taste, and I would add some more sweet chilli sauce to my veg and noodles or make up some more marinade to coat the noodles in. The tofu flavour was brilliant but the noodles and veg needed a little extra ooomph! I'll definitely be making this again though, scrummy! The recipe in full can be found on the get grilling website, here. There is also a new facebook page with more info and the food doctor Ian Marber will be doing a Q&A on Thurs between 11 and 12pm, get your questions in on twitter with the hashtag #getgrilling. Or leave them as a comment on here and I will post them in early, I am working whilst the Q&A is on unfortunately.

Do you have a George Foreman grill? Do you have any veggie recipes to share or any recommendations? If you don't have one, or you want a new one stay tuned this week, the giveaway will be here soon!

p.s. I almost forgot to say I ran 10 miles today. I'm so happy I managed to eat enough to get round it and I've done fairly well refuelling today playing on my new toy... Fingers crossed I can keep on top of this this time!

Update

Sorry I've not been around much at the moment. I'm going through a really hard time. Those of you on my facebook will know that Mike and I have broken up. After 5 years of living together it's been really tough on me. My emotions are all over the place I'm so close to having a full blown relapse into my eating disorder that it's a bit scary. I don't want to end up in hospital over it.. Stop reading here if you are in recovery from an eating disorder or don't like brutally honest rants about being crazy/depressing rambles!

I felt kind of ok about things the other day. Ok we had broken up and I felt awful but I signed up for a half marathon (not the one he proposed to me at ha!) and thought well I need to train, that will keep me wanting to eat. Well it worked to an extent. I made a pretty healthy meal, full of veg, balanced, something I felt ok with. Got upset about something, made myself sick and then started drinking. I don't feel like I know how to get out of this even though I have before but my life was going so well when I recovered before. It's so difficult. An eating disorder is so hard to beat and it seemed to come back so quickly. I ran 5 miles the other day at a not too awful pace... It's gone down though and the last mile was sloooooooow, I haven't been running 'cause I haven't been eating enough. Ughhhhhhhh I don't know what to do about stuff...... So that's it, my running is going down the pan, I probably won't PR at the half marathon I've signed up for, that's if I even make it round and I'm struggling to eat right. I don't even know whether I should post this or not but I've always kept it real on the blog before so I'll keep it real now. I'm thinking trying to start boxing again would be a good plan, I'm just not sure which club to go to, decisions, decisions!

Anyway. I should have some more upbeat posts coming soon! I have my alpro vitality review and next week is National Get Grilling Week and I'm being sent a George Foreman and some food and recipes for it which I'm really looking forward to trying out. Just a shame I will be eating them by myself instead of with Mike, he would have loved this blog perk! :-( I'll have to rope in some friends instead, I'm sure they won't be too disappointed!

So, that's it really... I hope you guys have all had better weeks than me!!

A Few Workouts

I'm really quite late posting this one, I'm sorry to be so sporadic at the moment, my life is a bit crazy right now. I know I'm always cryptic but the things causing me upset and problems involve other people and it's not really fair to be blogging about it - bear with me and hope it's over soon!

Anyway... this workout was done 2 days after the hill race and I experienced dead legs in a way I never have before. It was so incredibly frustrating not being able to punch with any force!

I did one round of pad work 3 minutes non-stop combinations, I love how tired this gets me! My punching remained strong in this round...

Then 10 rounds of 1 minute on, 1 minute off on the bag.. this is when I really started to feel my legs go and got so frustrated that even though I was putting my all into it my punches just weren't being executed with any power! This must be so bad when it happens in a fight or in sparring, I've heard people talk about the effect on your punching when your leg strength has gone but my legs have always held up for me!

After this I did 2 rounds of this circuit 20s on each station with a 1min rest in between rounds..

• Shrugs (2 x 10kg)
• Push-ups
• Star Jumps
  
• Rows (2 x 10kg)
  
• Dips
• High knee DB press (2 x 2.5kg)
• Lunges
• Punches (2 x 2.5k g)
• Mountain Climbers
• V-ups
• Push-press (2 x 10kg)
• Leg raises
• Burpees
  

On Tuesday I went out for a poorly fuelled run... I managed just over 3 miles with a break in the middle to dry heave at the side of the road. Not good. My body is not happy and I need to try and give it better nourishment. I went out yesterday and stocked up on wholefoods and 'safe' foods in the hope of upping my calories. I've also started logging them on the Alpro soya vitality app on facebook I've often shied away from such things thinking when I'm eating 'normally' they can be a bit of a trigger but at the moment it's helping me to realise how little I'm eating at the moment and how much I need to make an improvement... Anyway, check it out, I'll be properly reviewing it once I've used it a bit longer.. It looks like a great free resource for people wanting to watch their weight or just be a bit more aware of what they're eating on a day to day basis. It also includes stuff like time spent with family which is pretty cool as it takes into account the fact that health and vitality isn't just about nutrition and exercise.

Well I've just managed some breakfast and ate fairly well yesterday in comparison to previous days so I'm hoping to head out for a better run soon... as I said in my last post I've signed up for a few races so it's time to get things in order!

April Recap

April goals
Continue doing the push-up program Fail - don't know what is stopping me here?
Run 3 x weekly Half done, did it when leg was ok, but had to stop 'cause of my shin
At least maintain March mileage, would love to increase it a bit.. lets say 65! Fail
Beat last years time in the Good Friday Hill Race, the very first race I ever ran. Done :-) Recap here I knocked 6 minutes off last years time and didn't come last (like last year!)

April totals
Push-ups 205
Miles - 43.2

Well overall not too shabby... I really need to get back into those push-ups.. I seem to have some kind of wierd mental block stopping me and I'm not sure why! I'm not worried about the decreased running, I would rather be careful than injure myself in a way which would stop running for a longer time... Last night I signed up for a half marathon on June 5th so May will include a taper.. I also signed up for race for life with a few people from work, I'm excited to run it, they're both new to running I'm so pleased they signed up when I suggested we did it! I would love to break 23 minutes in this race, I think that's just about do-able! My legs feel fine now but my eating has taken a turn for the worse again so I signed up to try and motivate myself to eat enough to run! It would be sad to miss a PR 'cause I hadn't been eating enough to train properly... Anyway... May Goals

May goals
Maintain April Mileage
Stick to this bl**dy push-up program!!
Eat enough to train
Run three times a week

Good Friday Hill Race 2011

I took my camera and took some pictures during the race.. such a relief to stop and take a few snaps haha, those hills were soo tough.. I must have blocked the memory of how painful it was from last years race haha. I've tried to arrange the pictures into some form of order, it was pretty much an out and back course with a loop at the furthest point and the finish was slightly different to the start... Anyway, most of the hills pictured I went up and down at some point during the race.. Not sure how much speed I picked up on some of the downhills, one of them was so steep I was so scared of falling!

Before the race

This was the second or third hill, I kept the guy in yellow in my sights for a lot of the race but eventually he pulled away and I couldn't keep up

I saw the lead runner on this hill last year so this year I was pleased not to see anyone on it as it gave me hope that I was doing better than last year!

This hill was easily the worst going up and down. The pictures don't do it justice, it is SO steep! I took a few of this one to try and give some perspective..

The view from the top!

Then you turn the corner and your heart breaks a bit 'cause you see this hill, this is one of those evil ones with a fake summit too, ouch!

This one felt a lot steeper in real life too! There was a little boy cheering at the top of this one with his mum and dad and he shouted to me 'I can see you sweating'.. thanks little boy haha

And then we were done!

7.3 miles of hills in 1:14:29 44/49 I was the last woman but I beat a few men. It was a very male dominated race only 6 women ran! Also got 6 minutes off last years time! No splits 'cause Mike wore the garmin though... I need my own, I would have loved to know my splits!

Sweaty tomato

Got home for some Roxie cuddles in the garden

I'll hopefully have some photos from the race organisers website soon, I'm pretty sure some people snapped some of me though god knows what they will look like... I tried a few self portrait style ones but they were really too bad to post. I wish I didn't look such a state when I run, one of the volunteers even asked me if I was ok to finish, I was thinking yeah fine I always look this awful lol... Oh well!

A Little Update

Well I've been a bit rubbish at posting lately.. I've been working a lot and working on another little project which will be lifechangingly exciting if it all works out which has left a slightly tired Laura! I have managed a few runs though, one pretty awesome and one pretty awful...

First, the awesome! I went out with Mike on my day off. We weren't sure what to do so we set off to jog and decided once we got onto the humber bridge we would mark out a mile and both run it as fast as we could. One major downside of this run, we both completely under-dressed I was freezing. I almost pursuaded Mike to do a half mile time trial instead of a mile because I felt like I couldn't bare to be out there on the windy bridge much longer but I changed my mind before he made his up so we did the full mile as planned. I'm so glad we did as we both got new PBs! Mike is down to 5.23, speed demon! I hope one day I can run a mile which begins with a 5, that would be sooooooo good!

2.5 miles at around 9.10 pace
1 mile time trial 6.35!!!
1 mile jog/walk home

Thats 8 seconds off my last mile time which was on a track... and a bit closer to my sub 6.30 goal.. I think I could have probably made that goal on a track with less wind but time will tell! It was a gruelling mile, I swear the pillar which was our end post kept moving further away haha

I went out two days after this run intending on running 10 miles and stopped after 4. Cue sad face! My right shin and left thigh have been bothering me and they were bad for the full 4 miles so 3 miles in I decided to give up and go home. I hate doing that but in reality I'd rather cut a run short now than take weeks off later so I'm not too upset. I've rested well this week and it's the Good Friday hill race tomorrow so hopefully my legs will be feeling fresh and the race will be good. Fingers crossed!

We went to Manchester over the weekend, we loved the city, it seems so much more vibrant than Hull and there was loads of choice of things to do. I ate out for pretty much the entire weekend so I felt pretty sluggish when I got home, despite trying to make mostly healthy choices most of the time.. and a sneaky veggie burger and chips... Well worth it though it was delicious! I unfortunately didn't really take any food pics... Still a bit of a wimp taking them in public hah I was going to leave you with some pictures but I can't find the camera or the camera lead dohh! Maybe I'll add them in later or do another post...

Hope you all have brilliant long weekends!