December didn’t start too well for me. I was supposed to be running the Victory 5 mile race and aiming for my first sub 30 minutes for 5 miles. I had been doing quite a bit of speedwork (for me). It was constantly raining and I was recovering from a cold/bug thing, so I decided against it. December was to be a quiet month for me. I had also frozen my membership to the climbing gym as I hadn’t been going as much. Although CC and myself to manage to get to Gecko once or twice.
I did however, marshal at Itchen Valley parkrun with Clare. Not once but twice. Bringing my volunteer credits up to 30. I always do close down too so get extra volunteers, which is a total of 39 now. Volunteer credits are not to be confused with volunteers as you can volunteer more than once at one event but you only get one credit ;)
I did a different marshal point. Point 3, which I had never done before, so was a bit nervous about it, but it was fine and I love it now. I did the 6th of Dec and Xmas day. Xmas day was really fun with all the Merry Xmases and funny costumes. No coffee shop open for coffee but Clare did make me a flask of coffee which a runner knocked over by accident as they ran past me..lol.
I equalled my volunteer credits of 7 for the year, which I did last year too. I feel that I get a lot more from marshalling than any other role. It’s so good to be directly involved with all the runners and walkers and encourage them around. Next year, I plan to aim for 10 volunteer credits, which shouldn’t be too hard as there are 54 parkruns in the UK alone in a year!
I had been inspired by my mate Kev D to start “Intermitent fasting”. He had done 5 days in a row with no food! I decided to do some research first and buy a book on it. Then, it was time. I wouldn’t eat after 8pm and then I would skip breakfast and have a later lunch at work. Usually this would equate to around 18 hours fasted. It was so hard just to do this for a couple of days, but it got easier. I was so used to eating all the time. It really changed my mindset about how and why we eat. I was feeling more energised and more mentally astute. I would do Monday through to Saturday morning of 18 hour fasts. Anything went on the Saturday and Sunday though. I did this for 3 weeks and had gone from 82kgs to 78kgs. I was feeling great too!
My body fat was still at 14%. Did you know.. that to lose any muscle you would have to get down to 4% body fat? There’s a common myth that people think you lose muscle when you fast.
Anyway, it was a good thing to do and I plan to go back to it in the new year when I am targeting a race time.
I made a rare appearance at Southampton parkrun. It doesn’t feel like I run there very often but have now run it 120 times! I was targeting to run my first sub 18 minutes. I was confident that I could do it too. It was very hard and it felt like a struggle more than normal. My nose was blocked and my breathing not great. Anyway, enough of the excuses. I was waiting around for my time to come through but it never came. I looked for the results and noticed that I came up as “Unknown” in the results. I emailed them and they sorted it very quickly and I got the time of 18.04. My third fastest time. So close again!
In November I ran 18.03, in the summer I ran an 18.06 and in the spring I ran an annoying 18.00. Anyway, I think I’ll have that sub 18 in 2026. I was planning to head back after xmas and get it done but sadly had bruised my hamstring doing some speedwork only 3 days after my 18.04 attempt. I obviously needed more recovery time. Silly me.
Instead, I got a lift to Moors Valley parkrun with John Pellegrini.
He wanted to be paced for 22 minutes. I was happy to jog around and enjoy the course, even my hamstring was happy with it. It was great to see Lin and Martin Lascelles too. Martin was only 2 seconds away from the V70 course record too. He ran 20.23! Lin ran 22.08, her age grading was 87.65%. These two also belong to the best Vegan running club in the UK :D
It was a beautiful sunny morning, only slightly marred by the shit coffee at Moors Valley that I queued ages for. I also acquired a P-Index of 9. This means: 9 different parkun locations, run 9 times, on 9 different occasions. If that makes sense? Note that P-Index includes your volunteers, so you don't have to run necessarily.
Hopefully CC and myself have a new house of our own to move into in the new year. It’s been mentally draining and stressful trying to sort out all that legal stuff. To be fair, I haven’t got a clue about a lot of it. All hail Queen CC. She has been amazing with all this stuff. I have felt more than useless for most of it. Sorry CC, love you. Xx
Now it’s time to set some goals for 2026.
I already mentioned 10 volunteering credits at parkrun.
A sub 18 parkrun at Southampton.
I would like to get under 38 minutes for the 10k again.
Do I take a free place at Manchester marathon after saying I would never run a marathon again at Abingdon?
Some more parkrun tourism inc. Fordingbridge, Brickfields, Thoulstone, Parc sant dewi, Sandhurst memorial, Bevendean.. and any that friends want to drive me to ;)
82 minutes for a half marathon maybe?
More adventures with CC. More climbing. Back to swimming? Continuing with my strength and flexibility.
Yoga classes? Skateboarding. Making a skateboard documentary.
Going back to Germany. Running a race in Germany. Learning to Breakdance. Raise money for an animal charity on a multi-day run over the summer. Go back to working 5 days a week to pay the mortgage. Turning garage space into a home gym before Clarey fills it up with junk.
Some of these goals seem a bit vague I know, but they’ve been in my head for ages, some even years. Could 2026 be the year that I finally start writing my book?
Thanks for reading. Hope you all have some great goals for 2026. Hopefully our paths will cross again :D xx
P.S: It's easy to think, am I doing enough when you work with at least 3 ex-Olympians , one with an MBE, an ex professional footballer and a woman who runs 2.37 marathon times. I am 51 though, I guess ;)
It's all about being the best version of me and staying fit and feeling youthful. x
No comments:
Post a Comment