The Running Renaissance

My running renaissance... term stolen from Abradypus because I loved it so much... has been mildly successful. I say mildly because I have been running - yay! However, only on Monday - boo!

I am being sensible (of course) that's why there has not been so much running in the running renaissance (honestly); however you'll be pleased to know that what running there has been has gone quite well... much better than expected actually... in fact, I might  even be bold and go so far as to say it was quite magnificent! OK... too far with the adjective 'magnificent' but it was certainly slightly successful and very enjoyable!

Thankfully, I wasn't the only one to be returning from injury on Monday - although I was the only one who hadn't run in a VERY long time - and so with others recovering from races on the Sunday and / or preparing for marathons in the near future, we set off on an 'easy' run. I have to say ' ' around the easy because it is an inaccurate use of the term, to say the least. But... and a big BUT here...  it wasn't half so bad as I thought it would be; yes, my fitness levels are much lower than they previously were, BUT they're not zero like I'd anticipated. And I managed to run 4.5 miles. And I managed to push the pace faster than I'd run the rest of the route in the last mile. And I felt like I'd finally recovered from all the little niggles I'd picked up in my marathon training. So, to surmise, I think it's fair to say that the Magathon's Running Renaissance is now fully switched to go and so long as I don't stay in work until 7.15pm again next week, I'll manage to run on at least Monday AND Thursday as well.

In other news...

I had a fantastic time on Wednesday night at a cupcake course in Manchester. Run by 'Hey Little Cupcake', in Spinningfields, I was booked onto a cupcake decorating class- bought for me by my lovely friends for my birthday - but ended up on their first ever jam and baking class instead due to a mix-up with booking. The class was fab! It involved a cupcake baking demonstration, followed by a tutorial on how to make jam. Then, we had a go at making mini-scones, followed by learning how to decorate 6 of the freshly baked cupcakes made in the demonstration at the start of the night. With only 6 people to a class as well, it felt really friendly and personal; if you live in Manchester, and you like baking, I would seriously recommend it. Of course, the only downside to this class was that I returned home with a pile of freshly baked, yummy scones, cupcakes and a jar of jam! Best get that running renaissance into the next gear!

Look at my pretty cupcake - should I admit
that was my 4th attempt at a rose?!
The first 3 were rather less rose-like!

And Finally, I can't write about this week, without saying a big WELL DONE and CONGRATULATIONS to my mum, who completed the Shine walk, in London, last night. Mum, and her friend, successfully completed the whole 26.2 miles of the marathon walk through the night; and in doing so she now has a whole new respect for the idea of running it, and will from this day forward have complete empathy with the inability to walk downstairs for 3 days! Well done, Mum!

So, this week's challenge is to make it to running club on Monday AND Thursday. If this goes well, I might even stick another cheeky day in there as well... Leeds Abbey Dash, watch out... here I come!