Year-end running (and New Year's Day parkrun double)

I've really had a good break this past week. With family and friends visiting and people in and out of our house like a train station, it was a good time to resign myself to rest, fun and social interactions.

I had two excellent runs last week with our morning running group but this week I gave in to not getting up before 08h30. Sleeping, reading, dozing and chillin'. I always find that when the pace of life and pressure slows down, I crash.

While my running has been lower this week, I'm on fire with my paddling (more on this in another post). Rusty's injured toe seems to be mostly healed and for the past week-and-a-half or so she has shown no sign of latent stiffness or discomfort. I've kept her on lead and on walkies-only outings on flat surfaces and she has been doing well.

This morning I took her to parkrun, her first since the beginning of November. We mostly walked and she seems to be doing well. I'll keep a close eye on her to check for stiffness and discomfort. I look forward to having my running friend back up to speed.

It seems that I did well to miss Thursday morning's run with Rob, Andrew and Gerhard. I saw Rob this morning at parkrun and he said that Andrew really stretched them on Thursday morning.

"My GPS didn't work. It couldn't keep track of the satellites we were going so fast," he said. hahaha

I plan to make a few sessions next week to get my energy up to face the year ahead.

New Year's Day for me starts off with a 'parkrun Double' - first a parkrun at Potch at 07h00 and then back to Parys for our parkrun at 09h00. I'm taking photos so it will be a jog-and-click outing for me.

I've actually had a pretty decent year of running. Rusty has been a big part of my consistency - improved from last year which was probably my most erratic in the last 20 years. 2018 should be even better with both Rusty and established relationships with running friends in this town.

With other parkrun volunteers on Xmas Day. 

Me and Rusty on xmas day. Photo by my cousin Jess.

Congratulations on your fastest time this year

"Congratulations on your fastest time this year."

This is one of the best lines to receive in a parkrun results email.

I haven't run parkrun 'properly' for many months. I got Rusty in late March and started taking her to parkrun in April. Although we improved our times, we were yet to close in on my faster times.

Rusty is still recovering from her injured toe tendon and as I was home this past weekend and not in the Run Director role, I got to participate.

I had a heavier than usual week last week with my morning running group runs but nonetheless I pulled out my best parkrun time this year on Saturday (25:06). It is still a minute off my PB but to put this into context, my PB was set on our previous parkrun route which was around 250m shorter than our current route. I'll need to work hard to better my PB, which should be more achievable when cooler temperatures come around again.

I won't get to run this Saturday as I'm RD again but I am definitely aiming for a sub-25.

I'm not a morning runner but...

... I've run two mornings in a row at 06h00.

Earlier this year I enjoyed a number of weekly evening runs with my neighbour, Andrew. Then I got busy, he got busy with a lot of work travel and then both of us went through bouts of coughing and chest infections. We got out of the groove.

The other day, one of our parkrun friends suggests that we get together during the holidays to all run together - Gerhard, Andrew and me. We set up a whatsapp group. I add Sarel, who lives up the road and runs lots too. Gerhard adds Rob, who moved to town a few months ago and started coming to parkrun. Rob is a wily old runner.

Yesterday morning the five of us hit the road at 06h00 for a 12km run to the airfield and back.

This morning four of us ran through the golf estate (Sarel is out of town).

We're running again tomorrow morning (but not Friday, I think).

Early mornings have never been my strong point and they are less desirable because I am a night owl, favouring the quiet and still hours after 21h00 to work, especially if I have writing to do. I rarely go to bed before midnight and more often, these past months, I go to bed after 01h30. This makes it very hard to get up before my usual 07h00 / 07h30 alarm.

I made an effort to go to bed early (21h30 is early for me!) the past two nights and waking up wasn't a problem. Our meeting point is a quick jog from home and then off we go.

What I have especially enjoyed these past two mornings is getting home to a quiet, fast-asleep house, and sitting with Rusty outside in the garden. She still has a sore paw so she can't come with me. I felt awful leaving her at home yesterday morning but better today as she didn't even get out of her bed to see me off (but she was waiting and watching at the glass door for my return). Rusty is limited to walks still until her sore toe has properly healed - the vet thinks it is an injured tendon or ligament - no broken bones).

I'm definitely going to make a determined effort to join the guys for these morning runs over the next three weeks. Work isn't quite winding down yet but pressure is easing so getting to bed earlier is feasible now and over the holidays.

Friday nights are burger nights (8 veggie burgers)

I love these birds-eye view, two-minute videos that show you how to prepare some kind of meal/s whether savoury of sweet, baked goods. They're neat, tidy and efficient videos and usually offer quick and tasty cooking ideas.

My mom shared a video with me yesterday (she sends me lots of great content) that promised eight veggie burger recipes. I was hooked from the first and immediately decided to work my way through most of the recipes over the next few days.

In my home, Friday nights are burger nights. These are usually just patties (no buns) but sometimes we have a full deal complete with sliced tomato, fried onions, grated cheese and sauces - all in a bun.
For the patties - I experiment. I've done chicken breasts, home-made mince patties (many variations thereof, including with ground sunflower seeds, mashed butter beans or chickpeas), baby marrow versions, lentil patties, black bean patties and other combinations.

I've been in the mood for tasty veggie patties so getting these recipes was well timed.

Tonight I made the black bean burger. While the recipe calls for roasted red peppers, I just pan-fried chopped green pepper with an onion. I loved the combination of garlic, cumin and cayenne pepper and also the use of cornmeal (mielie meal) too. I served the patties with a dollop of plain yoghurt. I also tried mine with a bit of cream cheese - delicious! And served with a salad.

close up of the patties

Tomorrow night I'm going to try the sweet potato chickpea burger.

Here is the link to the video from Tasy Vegetarian (on Facebook) and this is a link to the recipes for the eight burger patties on Buzzfeed.

Let me know how your burgers come out.