Season’s greetings VRBs! How’s your running going? Mine’s, err, not. Several days ago I took part in a come-and-sing-as-you please multilingual carol concert in our local basilica. Lots of fun, despite freezing temperatures, and as it turned out, lots of germs! I picked up a heavy cold and cough and haven’t been able to run for over a week. Could be worse though, since outside it’s mostly been freezing fog and icy surfaces!
So I do hope you’ve all escaped the seasonal lurgies and the worst of the weather, and are now looking forward to a wonderful Christmas, or perhaps Hannukah or another holiday you might be celebrating. However busy you might be with the preparations, please do tell us all about your running, your Yuletide festivities, and where running fits into your plans.
And to finish… we hear you’ve been nice, so a little seasonal gift from the HU Elves is on its way. All together now:
🔔🔔 Bingo! Merrily on high
The HU Elves are singing
Bingo! Verily the card
To you soon we’ll be bringing
Full of running challenges and silly things to do
Some old and several new
Created just for you
The season’s finest bingo card
Runs through Xmas and New Year! 🔔🔔
Wishing you all fabulous festive running! 🎄🎊🏃♀️🏃♂️✨🎉
The Marathon Team xxx
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Cmoi
Marathon
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Hi Cmoi and happy holidays to you and everyone on the group.
I hope your cold improves quickly and you're able to get out running soon.
Luckily, the seasonal bugs have stayed away and I have been able to get out running. Yesterday was the latest race in a local XC series - very cold and difficult ground (frozen turf is horrible to run on) and a fearful water jump (five foot wide and a couple of foot deep in the middle). Some faster people managed to leap the whole thing but yours truly managed to make a hash and got very wet. Amazed that I got up and managed to get round the rest of the course( although well chilled at the end). Don't know if I feel epic or stupid today! Anyway I expect it is good practice ... practice for what I'm not sure ... but good practice anyway 🤣.
Looking forward to the holiday break. Down to do a 10 miler XC (no water jump!) in early January so will get a longer run or two in prep for that (there's a charity Strava art "rudolf" to do locally which will fit the bill nicely)
Good post from you Cmoi, you could have added Hark the Herald Angels RUN, Running Home for Christmas, Running around the Christmas tree or Santa Claus is RUNNING to town, I now have all my preparations, presents and Christmas Tree 🎄 ready and up, if I do get to parkrun this Saturday, weather permitting, I will be running in my reindeer jumper and red Santa 🎅 hat🧢 The freezing weather with the temperature last week no higher than - 3C has now been replaced with very mild weather with a temperature of +12C but of course that brings some rain as well,I wish you a very happy Christmas and a happy running New Year.
Boo to your cold Cmoi, but it sounds a ‘fun’ way to catch it. 🎶🎄Let’s hope it scarpers soon. 🤞I appear to have come out the other side of our multiple concerts unscathed (*touch wood*), so now it’s the home stretch to the big day. Jenny and I will be donning antlers at our Christmas Eve PR on Saturday, but I won’t be doing Christmas Day too. That wouldn’t go down well.
Looking forward to getting stuck into Bingo! What do the elves have in store for us I wonder? 🤔😅
Glad to hear you've stayed cold-free cheekychipmunks ! Tbh singing the Willcox descant to "Hark! the herald angels sing" in a basilica, in a trio next to someone with a beautiful voice, was wonderful.
The elves have been mixing-and-matching, and the results of their work should be going live within hours!
Hi Everyone hope you are all well and rested, and ready for the festive seasons, haven't posted for a while.Run early yesterday, there was a slight crunch underfoot so was taking it very very steady. Especially as mr Garmin recommended recovery time from my club run on Tuesday was over 68 hours. I did run quicker than normal but more at a race pace
Wonderful scenery around the docks which had frozen. I think the poor seagulls were ice skating.
What atmospheric photos Tabbles , thank you. I particularly like the idea of ice-skating seagulls, not so keen on Mr Garmin's running recommendations though!
Bah humbug to that cold Cmoi and I hope you recover soon. The basilica singing sounds wonderful though, and I hope you have lots of festive treats chez vous to cheer you up. My OH has also had a stinker, and I have absolutely no idea how I haven’t caught it from him.
Running wise, not super exciting really, just little runs to keep me ticking over while my gnarly scar tissue from my September twang improves. I’m just so thankful to be able to run though, and in the meantime I keep drooling over various running things online that I don’t need!
Looking forward to the bingo card! And I have to ask - is that your panda in the photo? 😊😊😊
Thanks Frenc , and I do hope you're fully recovered from your injury soon. While it's frustrating not to be able to do more, tickover runs are really helpful.
The photo is of a raccoon glove puppet that I rehomed from a Lidl bargain box last year, I think. I really should give him to charity so that a child can enjoy him, just haven't brought myself to part with him yet!
Nothing like a bit of Christmas choral creativity Cmoi!! After all the fuss over trying to get out this weekend, the ice has retreated but we had high winds…I stuck to a 5k run and about the same walk home(via cafe). I was ridiculously over dressed too! Never mind; I am back in running action!!
Another clothing suggestion coming up. I was given a large hardback book, with ruled pages 4 years ago for a particular purpose. I didn't use it for that purpose but made it into my running log. I only use 1 line per run these days. The columns of information recorded over time have varied. For the last year I have included temperature, including the feels like temperature and a column for an abbreviated version of what I was wearing. Then a ✅ if the clothing was right or a suggestion if I was too warm or too cold. May sound mad, but it has been so helpful. 😊
I'm so impressed by your running log over61andstilltrying and the use you make of it.
The closest I ever managed to an activity log was noting how I felt about various YWA videos I'd downloaded. That was fairly helpful, though it took a while to dawn on me that the intelligent thing to do with the ones I hated was simply to delete them. Duh.
I have an unfortunate habit of writing song parodies Beachcomber66 and this was just too much temptation to resist!
Good that you're back in running action, notwithstanding the weather. It's hard to get clothing right though when the climate's gone crazy - here it was back up to 12° this evening, it was minus 7° a few days ago.
You've clearly never read my Twelve Days of Christmas or my Deck the Halls parodies...intellectual..hmmm..I think notHope you feel better soon. I tested positive for Covid on Monday...sneeze central here! Xxx
That's not hijacking Oldfloss , that's making a fabulous festive contribution to community spirit! Only thing is, it's set me off again. I blame AlMorr for mentioning Running around the Christmas tree...
6 sleeps to go and excitement is building in our house. We had our Carol service at our church yesterday which left me exhausted today doing my 5 miler. Just 72km to go so nearly there for the annual running goal.
Thanks RunWillie , and that photo of your run looks just perfect. You're doing so well with your running, not least with everything else you have on your plate - here's to you reaching your annual goal!
Love the rhymes Cmoi! They would definitely put you in the festive mood!
Like you, I haven't been able to run for a week but my reason is due to the snow and ice not a cold. It seemed to last longer in our village than it did in other villages so we must be on higher ground but it’s gone now and we have high winds instead but at least I can run again 🤗
I went out this morning for a lovely 5K’ish. At least I think it was 5K as my Garmin refused to connect the whole run so I had to guess the distance from previous runs. But all is good.
Christmas-wise I have most jobs done but need to wrap a few presents and write cards for the villagers. Oh, and hang the icicles on the front door. It’s been too icy to do it safely …. I’ve just remembered, I need to collect stuff for my wreath too and make that. I couldn’t collect anything from the garden with all the snow but now I have no excuse…..blimey, what else have I forgotten? 🤔
Thanks Irishprincess - or maybe "put you in a festive mood" is an euphemism for "drive you to drink"?!
Must be great to be getting out again, even if Mr Garmin refuses to do his job. I'm hoping to run again in a day or two, still coughing rather too much right now though. Christmas-wise I am an epic failure, though it doesn't much matter as we don't do gifts and very few cards. I have made a cake, which has been marzipanned and given one rough coating of icing. So if all else fails we'll spend the day eating cake and drinking wine from our vineyard trips earlier in the year!
I haven't even got a Christmas jobs list, though the cake should be getting another layer of icing today!
We usually order a traditional French bûche (Christmas log) too, though so far my husband and I haven't been able to agree on which one. I might add a photo later to show the possibilities!
The bûche I've ordered serves four, so in theory will be eaten over a minimum of two days. 😉 I quite often do a Christmas Eve meal that's vaguely French in style, then go more British traditional on Christmas Day. I so need to be fit enough to run again by the weekend otherwise I'll be circular by New Year!
I find myself eating things at Christmas that I normally wouldn’t eat/drink. For example, I put some sherry in my soup the other day just because there was a bottle sitting there and a dollop of cream and/or brandy in my coffee.
That's why I've not bought choccies, they'd just get eaten mindlessly every time we walked past the tin! I'm trying to buy quality, not quantity, and preferably local, but not always succeeding.
Oh no sorry to hear about the lurgy! 😪I've had a bit of one but it's been quite mild compared to lot of people luckily !I've got my Tuesday club Christmas lights run tomorrow up to a big display that's done for charity , and Weds night a sploshy trail with pub and cheesey chips afterwards . Should be Xmas parkrun Saturday, my 200th! More running than I've done in a while!
Merry Christmas to you all at Health Unlocked! And all my VRBs 🎄🎁🍷🏃♀️🏃♂️
Thr bingo sounds good will help keep motivated! Xxx
Thanks aliboo70 ! 200 parkruns is such an achievement, though I'll confess I prefer the sound of your Christmas lights and sploshy trail runs. The bingo card has just gone up, so enjoy!
I hope you get over that dreadful cough and cold soon. There’s a lot of it out there at the moment. Somehow and so far I’ve managed to avoid everything including the C word. (Touch wood!)
I’m with my son and grandson for Xmas which I’m looking forward to immensely, but I have a training plan that will need slight tweaking in order to enjoy it fully. I.E. I’m definitely going to have a glass or two of wine and eat more than is strictly necessary 🤣
I’m not doing a lot of running at the moment. Mainly because the track has been frozen but I did do a hill sprint session with the club last Thursday. In the meantime I’m working really hard in the gym and at home building leg and core strength so there’s plenty to keep me going.
I’m currently deciding whether to enter the U.K. masters indoor championships 18/19 February. It’s such a long way to go, Brighton to Sheffield, and I may not be ready. I think I’m talking myself out of it tbh. 😅
Anyway, I hope everyone has a lovely Xmas wherever you may be. 🎄 🍷 😃
Thanks RunBrianRun ! I've always loved playing with words, and seem to be getting dafter the older I get!
Totally endorse your approach to your training plan - if you can't tweak it at Christmas, when can you?
As for the Brighton to Sheffield journey, I knew it very well many years ago, albeit in the reverse direction, for family reasons. It wasn't so much the distance as the awfulness of the roads, which at the time were either busy motorways or very basic trunk roads. I can only imagine things have got worse over the passing decades!
Would be a shame to miss out though on an occasion like the UK indoor masters though if you can sort the logistics and training. Enjoy deciding.
Oh that's so clever of you! I'll be singing for the rest of the night Aww I haven't run for a while, work is very busy this time of year with all the Christmas celebrations preparation and making sure everyone has presents from Santa all ready for the big day.
I hav a list as long as my arm for things to do tomorrow my only day off until boxing day, but itching to fit in a short run first
Thanks SueAppleRun . Do hope you managed to get in a run despite all your to-do list - you're so busy, you definitely deserve a wonderful Christmas time!
Wow very creative Cmoi! 🎵. I hope the cough and cold are not too bad for you. I was dealing with both my mum and dad getting covid in the last couple of weeks. Mum was worse of the two of them. After a hospital visit she is safely home again. As for running I am still trying to get them in but my mileage has dropped a bit. Just got two runs in last week. Pic is from a week or two ago when we got a bit of snow. I’ve signed up for the Toronto marathon in May to help me try to stay on point over the frozen months. Happy running and happy holidays everyone! 🎄 ⛄️
Thanks Decker . My cough's improving, though I'm playing it safe and still not running. Instead I've taken to doing one-legged squats while cleaning my teeth!
What a worry for you, both parents getting Covid, especially with your Mum's hospitalisation. Delighted she's on the mend, and kudos to you for still managing to run despite everything. Happy marathon training!
At the moment I’m only running virtually through people’s posts on here. Like you I’ve picked up a bug two weeks ago and I’m only getting over it. I wouldn’t have run with the icy pavements though to be honest but I feel pretty wiped out.
I’m attempting to run a 5k tonight with my running club as it’s the last one before the big day. I almost can’t wait.
I hope you’re feeling better soon and out there running.
Get well soon Dendev75 - I hope you were able to do your 5k club run. I'm much better, thanks, just being extra-cautious as I'd really like to say a definitive goodbye to this bug!
Great runny carols! I had a lovely club run round the Christmas lights in Lincoln on Thursday evening, my choir Christmas concert on Friday, then woke up with another stinky cold on Saturday, so gave parkrun a miss. I dragged myself out for the last club run before Xmas last night, then spent about 2 hours coughing ☹️ My son arrived home on Sunday and I did notice he has brought his running shoes, so maybe 🤞There is Boxing Day racing at Market Rasen so I will probably go to one of the other parkruns on Xmas Eve.
Thanks Sandie1961 . You're braver than I am - I've still not dared run yet, as I just don't fancy getting some way down the road, having a coughing fit and crawling back home a wreck. Have fun running with your son, at parkrun or elsewhere, et Joyeux Noël ! xx
have a great week of running everyone 😀. Make time between jobs to escape. I’m under starter’s orders as I type 🏃♀️ As soon as the postie/delivery folks have been I’m off. I’ve got my gear on. Stuff the hoovering 😤
Love your attitude misswobble ! Stuff the hoovering indeed, it only needs doing again the moment it's been done, unlike a run! I am so bad at housework. I spent two months working in Germany as a chambermaid between my first and second year of university, I'm sure I used up my lifetime's quota of cleaning and tidying then!
Fabulous post! 🤣👍🏻 although I'm wearing my festive hat (now way too warm for the conditions, but hat hair dictates it must stay on!) I'm struggling to feel very festive. Work has gone mental (as it does) and I've been doing very long days but still keeping up the weekly mileages. I'm off after today until next Monday but I seem to have booked loads of stuff in so won't have time to rest/chill or do playful runs until Sat!! Someone has put the world clock on fast forward, where's the pause!? 🤣 oh and the beautiful winter weather is now replaced by wet, mild and windy!! 🙈
Thanks GoGo_JoJo , and that's a beautiful photo. Yes, it must be a super-busy time for you right now, so congratulations on keeping up your running mileage too.
We've suddenly got almost spring-like temperatures here again. 12° forecast for Christmas Day, but possibly snow a couple of days later - so freaky and unsettling.
Absolutely love your runners’ carol! Sorry about your cough-there’s so much doing the rounds at the moment. Hope it’s a quick recovery.
Still on the IC couch here but I’m making moves to get off it. Faceplanted the pavement on outstretched arms almost a fortnight ago. The bruises are shrinking and the grazed have healed. My sore knee is better. The wrist and elbow sprains are a work in progress. I’ve loved getting out for some walks now I can actually tie my own shoelaces (!!). I’ve starting a bit of lower body strength stuff. I think this week might be the one to try a very low key run, as long as the weather plays nicely. Can’t wait!
Thanks MissUnderstanding . So much sympathy re your faceplant, and it's really good news that you're healing. Here's to you getting out there and running safely and happily again very soon. Btw, did the offending drain cover, or whatever it was, get fixed? Hope so - natural trip hazards like tree roots are one thing, badly maintained pavements and street furniture another!
Thanks for the well wishes! Definitely getting there now. Phew!
I need to check out the drain cover in the light and see. At the moment, I’m still not driving but it may well need reporting. I hadn’t considered that-thanks for the suggestion. Wouldn’t want anyone else to fall.
Thank you for hosting and Happy Christmas to you and all here.
Very pleased to have reach my first 10km for 8 months since flare up of my knee problems and nearly ran my first Garmin Challenge with both cheekychipmunks and Beachcomber66 , but weather conditions stopped play for Beachcomber. Although it, according to Garmin was a sub zero run, it had been so dry that there was no ice. It was lovely. I limited myself to only one photo wanting to get back to breakfast with my husband. With 240m elevation it was going to take a good while.
Thank you Beachcomber for your confidence, but I know my knee is no longer a normal knee, but I shall endeavour to enjoy what I can. One physio thought the April problem was because I have irritated my meniscus tear, the other thinks the problem is my arthritis. Whichever it is I don't have the confidence in my body that I once had. Such it is. Happy Christmas to you too. 🎄🥂😊🏃🏻♂️
Really well done over61andstilltrying , and what an inspiring photo too - definitely makes me want to get out there to run. I love conditions like that, though I'd be infinitely more likely to run at sunset than sunrise!
I can take any of the credit, the run leader did it from memory. It may have been the 3rd week running but I was impressed she didnt need to refer to a map.
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