Festive catch-up post

Welcome to 2026! And good riddance to 2025! (I have my reasons.)

Last post here was mid-November, so what have I been doing running-wise since then?

  • Missing lots of parkruns, for various reasons: visiting in-laws, ill health, work stuff, and ferrying Daughter the First to her volunteering sessions at a local stable
  • Managing to get out for a single 4K run (big whoop)
  • Adding about 3 kilos in weight over Christmas and New Year
  • Trying to attend a parkrun today, only to be scuppered by last-minute snow

Needless to say, I'm not feeling the fittest I ever have done and I suspect I'm back to square one with my parkrun fitness revival. Hey ho. 🤷‍♂️

Sunrise at Blyth Links parkrun this morning, just after we'd been told it was cancelled

I'd hoped to at least get 2026 off to a good start by doing both the New Year's Day run (at Newbiggin) and the regular Saturday run a couple of days thereafter. A banging headache and accompanying lack of sleep did for the first of those, while today fell victim to a surprise snow dump that started at about 08:30am.

In the car with my running buddy (the first time we'd both been able since November), we were on our way to Newbiggin when we realised the slow road conditions meant we'd be late, so we diverted to Blyth. Arriving with maybe 3 minutes to spare, we were then flagged down by a volunteer, to be told that the event was cancelled. (Of course, it later turned out that Newbiggin was still on, despite being only 2 or 3 miles further up the coast.)

Undeterred, and perhaps slightly mad/unwise, we still got out of the car into sub-zero temperatures, doing 1½ laps of the Blyth circuit (full course is 2½ laps) before succumbing to the numbing cold and opting for a hot drink at Caffe Ginevra. We weren't the only ones to have a go at the run, mind; plenty of other parkrunners still made their way down the footpath and back along the prom, having made the effort to get there. Hardy souls.

Snow continued to dump to the North as we made our way along the dunes path

So, 2 parkruns into the new year and it's a 0% participation record. It will improve and I can cite extenuating circumstances, but I am a little bit gutted. I've also just found out I hesitated too long on getting a cheap pair of Brooks Adrenaline GTS 24 trainers on Vinted and they've gone now. Grrr. But... even "cheap" is something I can't really afford right now. Let's just hope 2026 is better than 2025 and I might be able to revisit that.

On the up-side, today was actually lush. Nothing like a bit of drama and a story to tell. And I do still love getting out in crazy weather; you really feel alive. And despite the remarkably grey/brown sea, there was a good deal of wintry beauty to Blyth today that I don't normally get to experience. And, of course, it was great to have my running buddy back; and not just cos she bought the drinks! Viva parkrun!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Training: riverside 4K

Image
While my knees and toe probably would've preferred more bike work, I was working in the office today, so went out for a short run at lunch instead. Given I didn't want to aggravate the toe too much in advance of Sunday's orienteering, I went for a fairly flat route. I also just wanted to get away from people and be somewhere calmer than the centre of Newcastle on the run-up to Christmas. Today's route took me past the Black Gate, then under the railway line and onto Forth Street behind the station. It was around this point that the gentle rain turned into a downpour and I was glad I'd put my fleece on. 😂 The rain continued on and off as I jogged past the Centre for Life and onwards to the Arena. The new phone wasn't giving me announcements of my progress (yet another thing to set up), but a quick check showed I'd been going about 7 minutes. From the Arena, it was rapidly downhill to the Tyne before turning upriver. The tide must've been in, ...
Read more

Midweek: the full length of Jesmond Dene

Image
What a difference two days make: Saturday : continuing miserable weather, long-running sinus headache, wimped out of parkrun, thoroughly down and wondering whether this was the beginning of the end for my running habit Monday : sun's out and it's warmed up, headache's finally gone, back out at lunchtime for a thoroughly enjoyable 6.4K run, loving the running buzz again So yeah, parkrun on Saturday didn't happen. I needed to do a local one (because $kids) but didn't want to break my tourist streak, so Jesmond Dene was on the cards. Knowing that that would be a tough and most-likely demoralising parkrun if done with a pounding headache, I chose not to bother, even though it would hurt my "30 parkruns in 2023" goal. In hindsight, it was probably the right choice, for both my mental health and for the headache. Even if my next parkrun's not till the 19th August (Penrhyn 🤞), I'll still be on target for 32 by the end of the year. Enough of that though....
Read more

Bit dusty around here... 👀

Image
A new post? After calling it quits months ago? What the...? So, yeah. Daughter the First decided she wanted to do the Race for Life 3K again this year, this time in honour of her (thankfully recovered) Grandma, and she wanted me alongside her. Of course I said yes. Mind, in the last... however many months, I've not run or done any exercise at all. The bike's saddle is fixed, but the brakes remain permanently on. The indoor bike continues to function more as a clothes drying rack than an exercise machine. The most I've done since August is the occasional jog-walk-jog to school when I'm late to pick up the kids. Time to dust myself off, even if it's ultimately just for a 3K run. Earlier this week, I did 20–25 minutes on the indoor bike. Then a jog to school to get the kids yesterday. Today, I finally put on my running gear (which I brought back into work last week) at lunchtime and hit the quayside. A bit red-faced, just under a mile into today's run 😳 I expect...
Read more