Good on you for training legs anyway! Have a great run tomorrow.
yum your breakfast sounds good. have a great run! enjoy your game.
I had a shit night’s sleep again - went to bed a little too late (11.30pm - Damn you, Dragon Age II!) and then woke up at 4.45am hot and hungry. As I mentioned earlier, it’s unseasonably warm here now (25-26 C, or around 80 F) and a late afternoon thunderstorm yesterday failed to clear it. My flat gets the afternoon sun which means my room gets nice and toasty in time for bed. Not so much fun.
Anyway, at that point I had a choice: try to go back to sleep and then risk waking up late, or just get up, have a relaxing cuppa while I checked the internets and stuff and then go for a run before it got too warm to be comfortable. So at 5am I hauled my fat arse out of bed and did just that.
Now my derriere was a little tender after yesterday’s gym session, but I’d promised myself I’d do a long run today, and I’d certainly fuelled myself with that in mind. After the eggs and salmon at breakfast, I had a less virtuous Magnum and some tropical trail mix in the afternoon and then two chicken breasts with sundried tomato and olive butter, asparagus and broccoli. I’d actually be happy with just the one chicken breast but those pre-prepared ones always come in pairs in a disposable foil baking tray. Discrimination against singles, but what can you do? In my case…I just eat both.
Anyway, one thing I miss about my old job was its proximity to Wimbledon Common, which is possibly the nicest common in London, and certainly the largest. It’s heavily wooded so you don’t notice the nearby roads and can just zone out and enjoy the scenery. So my goal was to run there (about 5 miles), run around it and then run back again. And that’s what I did.
The common lived up to expectations - I arrived there around around 8.15 or so and it was still pretty quiet. A few golfers (there’s a course there), dog walkers and joggers but not much else. Just me, the sight of sunbeams filtering through the tree canopy, the sound of bird song and the smell of damp earth and vegetation.
Getting there and back, though, was not so much fun - the route is along some not very picturesque main roads and I’d forgotten about the 1 in 4 hill that leads up to the common. My breathing sounded like someone sawing wood when I got to the top but I recovered pretty quickly and thanked my glutes and hams for not going into spasm.
I actually felt pretty good until I left the common to start the 5 mile trek home. Bits of me ached but energy levels stayed good until around the ten mile mark, and then my legs really started to tie up. I just concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other until I reached my front door.
It’s hard to say exactly how far the run was because mapmyrun.com doesn’t include trails, so I just had to map the roads and guess the common part from the amount of time I spent on there. It would have been around, or just over 13 miles, though, so I have my half marathon covered.
Whole thing took me about two and a half hours. I don’t feel slow but I guess I am, heh. Rather annoyingly, I did have to stop twice because the insole of my right shoe worked its way out through the back. These are my old shoes and it’s never happened before so I put it down to the fact I was wearing new (and thinner) socks than usual.
Still, I need to get my half marathon done in two and a half hours or less on the day (two weeks from now). I got my chip and number through and the accompanying letter said the cut off time is two and a half hours. It’s a running club-organised event rather than a more commercial one so I guess I’ll be finishing somewhere near the back. I chose it, though, for the location (I can get to it on public transport) and the fact it had some off road sections. It should actually be easier than today because it is mostly flat, and there are water stations. I don’t have a portable water bottle so I do my runs without, and I’ll admit I was pretty thirsty by the end.
Anyway, I’ve had a nice bath, another scrambled egg and smoked salmon breakfast and I reckon I earned that Easter egg I’ll be having later.
Happy Easter, everyone.
your run sounds lovely. glad that it went pretty well. i have to say that 11.30pm after installing a new game is very restrained. your eats sound delicious. you would never last a summer in aussie :-p
Heh, well, it’s just hot for spring. It does get hotter here - not Aussie hot but it does go over 30 degrees in summer and London heat is a muggy heat that makes it seem a lot hotter than it really is. Plus, homes generally don’t have air con.
we don’t have air con either…
i do hear you, though. it is hotter in aussie than nz - but it is a dry heat in aussie which is much more bearable than the muggy damp heat that we had in nz. at least nz had wind chill, though. bet london doesn’t get much of that.
That leg day looks intense Cal. Nice work! And the run DOES sound lovely! And yes, after 13miles, a chocolate egg is definitely in order!
Your eats sound delicious btw! lol @ “discrimination at singles” I’m the same way with eggs. There cannot/must not be an odd number of eggs in the egg tray!! If I must eat an extra egg to make sure that all eggs are paired, then so be it!
I think I was born “old” and now I’m going benjamin button. lol! by the time I’m 60 everyone is going to hate being around “that creepy, cheery cat lady” (aka utterly inebriated). HAHA! Btw, when I read you had a “magnum,” my first thought was “bitch drank all the champagne herself!” (is it too early for a drink? It is easter…")
that run did sound lovely Cal. And getting your butt out of bed at 5am for a run is hardcore. Don’t know that I could do it.
you def deserve that egg 
Happy Easter!
Here is the egg…and yeah, it’s blue. Almost too pretty to eat. Almost. The outer shell is white chocolate (coloured) with a milk chocolate layer inside. The base is dark chocolate. I already ate that bit…heh. And those are the “couture” chocolates which come with fabulous fillings such as tonka bean, matcha green tea, lavender and cardomom.
Maschy… Magnum ice cream (the almond one). I think they have those in the US now.
Also I meant discrimination against single people, not food items! Because pre-prepared meals are always sold in two person sizes, so singles have to eat twice as much and pay more, too. It’s annoying.
Frenchie - Sort of hardcore… I got up at 5am because I couldn’t sleep. I didn’t actually run until 7.20am. I need at least two cups of tea and some computer time before I can do anything.
Of course, if I had gone back to sleep I might not have woken until 7 and then I would have left for my run 8.30 - 9am which is OK some days but not today because it is too warm. Bear in mind that I was out there two and a half hours, and running waterless at almost midday would have been too much.
Wow that egg is bigger than my chocolate bunneh.
Hell, it’s bigger than my dog.
I’ll make any excuse to eat that. But you ran 13 miles! You deserved it, no excuse about it.
That stuff looks delicious! My mom sent me an egg like that a couple of Easter’s ago. I think she got it from the UK, maybe it’s the same? It was THE BEST 
You guys have the best tasting chocolate. And sweets in general. I’m in heaven in the grocery store over there. I would not survive!
That chocolate egg and such was certainly earned. Hope you enjoyed it!
Kinda hot here in the NE U.S. too. And stormy = muggy. Not the best sleeping weather. The upside is that we got sunshine for a while.
Good luck getting ready for the 1/2 marathon!
This is where I got the egg: http://www.artisanduchocolat.com/ - check out the online store.
Just woke up. I had to stretch my back out in the night - running for that long does cause all manner of muscle aches. Oh and my left foot is sore again. I don’t think it’s an injury exactly - just some soft tissue soreness akin to DOMS.
I looked at my race instructions for Sunday 8th. I have to be there by 8.10am and there’s a mile and a half walk from the nearest train station which means to get on my first train at 6.55am (a 5 minute journey) and then hang around Clapham Junction for 20 minutes waiting for my connection. And at that time on a Sunday morning there will be no shops open.
Or I could get a taxi.
good for you for getting out there…
and I liked that leg/ass fixing routine you did! I’m trying to add more direct ass-fixing stuff myself.
My, what a big egg you have!
clicking on that couture chocolate sight gave me a homer moment.
here’s where I pick up my own stuff:
http://www.chocolatsgg.com/prix_en.php
your place seems to have more choice.
It wasn’t that big (past tense intentional, lol) - just a normal size. I deliberately didn’t buy the big one! Artisan isn’t my usual choc shop, though - it just has a lot of weird and wonderful things I was itching to try, like a dark chocolate bar infused with tobacco. I generally use Hotel Chocolat which is a little more mainstream but still amazing. I’m a member of their chocolate tasting club (and you wonder why I don’t have a six pack). The good news for you guys is that they now have a US branch so you can order direct. www.hotelchocolat.com
Thankfully the weather, though still sunny, is a little cooler than last week. It will take a few days for my flat to cool down, though.
I did not go to the gym today - thought about it but decided that another leg work out would be overkill with the emphasis on kill. My knees wouldn’t forgive me. So I went for a walk on my local common to flush out my aches.
New school term starts on Wednesday (grumble) but there’s another holiday on Friday because of the blasted royal wedding. I couldn’t care less about the wedding but I welcome a day off, so hurrah.
Gym tomorrow, or that’s the plan.
Loved your run description! You are going to do great on your half. Someday I’d like to be able to run that far.
lucky to get another day off. hope your return to school runs smoothly.
Did someone say smoked salmon for breakfast?
That egg is a work of art. Beautiful.
Hope you had a lovely Easter Cal.
Glad you’re enjoying the running. Oh, and Alexus’s comments about aging were full of good things. Wisdom is good.