We were greeted with a light dusting of snow at parkrun this morning, which lent a festive (if chilly) air to proceedings. Turned the heart rate zones off again and just bimbled along, stopping for a hug at one point. Nice and easy did it.

After a brief pit-stop at home where I fought to keep the cats away from my loom as I threaded up a new warp, it was off to the gym in the still just about falling snow for 30 minutes of work on my core. Still not getting easier, but at least I had the virtual class to myself (apart from a few curious onlookers at the window in the door).

Bring on the long run tomorrow (though possibly not in the shorts I was planning on wearing to test them out for London).

A little chillier than originally forecast this morning, and my hat was needed not for the rain that was falling as I got up but for the bright sunshine coming back down the hill.

I turned the heart rate alerts off, just running to feel rather than be buzzed at when I know it’s going to go over the desired zone going uphill. I went a little faster than intended, but mostly that was dodging people and puddles. I also allowed myself a bit of a blast over the last 50m just to prove that I could.

Home for some dry shoes and socks then back out for a 30 minute core class, which isn’t getting any easier, but hopefully it is doing me some good.

The car was registering -2ºC when I scraped the ice from the inside of the windscreen, but parkrun had been given the go ahead so I wasn’t going to miss out. I was well bundled up in my jacket, buff, hat and gloves and they stayed on all of the way around. It was maybe a little bit faster than it should have been, but any slower and I may have lost digits.

I will also be bundling myself up again to got to a core class later for some strength and conditioning work.

I’m still just about managing to keep parkrun in my training schedule, this week as a 30 minute recovery run (with a 30 minute core class later in the day). There was a fair old nip in the air this morning, so it was double Buff running ninja time (and I was tempted to keep my down gilet on too).

I averaged 148bpm for my heart rate, which is only just outside the zone I was aiming for (by 3bpm), and I consider this fair with the elevation involved at Ashton Court. I have extended my heart rate zone for my 2-hour long run tomorrow to include both zone 2 and 3 heart rate zones (easy and steady) so there shouldn’t be so much beeping from my watch. Only 2mins10s was higher than that today.

The run was then followed by the traditional cake as there were 3 people celebrating their 100th parkrun and at least one celebrating their 50th (and a 150th but you don’t get a t-shirt for that). I mostly stuck to flapjack as I was going on to a tough class (but there was a very good variety of flapjacks, and they’re practically a health food anyway). Much amusement was had watching Tom & Becci’s spaniel Jude forcing people to throw a pine cone for her to chase. I got trapped for about 10 minutes before running the other way when I threw it (she soon found another victim). I think she was there for a good 90 minutes.

I completed my 25th stint of parkrun volunteering on Sunday, timekeeping for the New Year’s Day parkrun at Ashton Court, and ordered my t-shirt late on Tuesday, with it arriving yesterday. So I took it out for a spin on the hill in the fog, trying to keep my heart rate under 145bpm as a recovery run.

After trundling around there was just enough time to stop off for some cake to celebrate Ryan and Jane’s 100th parkrun (and Jane’s 25th as a volunteer), then back home for a quick change before heading to the gym for a core class. This one was a virtual class and after being the only person on the list when I booked earlier in the week there were actually two of us in the end. A good class, though my shoulder is still not recovered from my Christmas sweater knitting.

A walk into town to pick up my train tickets to London for next week (shoe fitting) and the end of the month (nutrition), then back home to watch the Edinburgh cross country (good inspiration).

The festive period is generous with its bonus parkruns, with New Year’s Day being the only time you can officially run two parkruns in a day (and have them both count). After Run Directing yesterday and getting in my long run afterwards, I had the option in my training schedule for a rest day. But I was also given the option of 30 minutes recovery running at ‘easy’ effort/heart rate.

I volunteered again at the first parkrun opportunity of the morning at my home parkrun of Ashton Court (timekeeping), then we all piled into the car and went over to Pomphrey Hill for the second parkrun of the day. This one was also celebrating the 100th parkrun of a friend and we were instructed to wear onesies as part of the festivities. The trusty reindeer onesie had the bonus of keeping me nice and warm in somewhat soggy conditions while I pootled around the course.

My pb for this course is 21:00, set in August last year (when the briefing went on for a bit and we started late but I had somewhere else I needed to be, so had to put the hammer down). Today I came in position 333 with a time of 33:03, and walked Up Pomphrey! each of the three times to keep the heart rate in check.

Afterwards it was back to Long Ashton for a delicious lunch and group results processing with good running friends. A pretty good start to a new year.

Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, one thing it is good for is an extra bonus parkrun. Today was supposed to be a rest day, with 40 minutes recovery and some strength and conditioning tomorrow, but I am doing all of the family stuff tomorrow so decided to switch it around with today.

I crawled my car out to Chipping Sodbury nice and early (as the parking space outside my house is blocked and I can’t charge up the LEAF) and bimbled almost a full lap around the course to find out how slowly I would need to run to stay in heart rate zone 2. Turns out it’s pretty slowly. Then it was hellos and hugs, a briefing, a short walk to the start and a slow trot around the course.

I set my (then) parkrun pb at Chipping Sodbury on Christmas Day 2014 (in a onesie), but no pbs were going to be set today, though I managed another 30:03 according to the official time. I also managed to get lapped by about 5 runners, one of them twice (as he completed a cooldown lap).

Another crawl home to preserve battery life to get out to Bath tomorrow without having to drive to a charger and wait around this afternoon), then 30 minutes of yoga to finish things off.

A Christmas Eve parkrun, but not dressed as a reindeer this time. I was tasked with 30 minutes of recovery at a very low heart rate, which was never going to be possible on the Ashton Court hill. I did stop twice for hugs and managed to hit exactly 50% on my age grading (and my watch recorded a nicely palindromic 30:03).

I then did 45 minutes of yogalates when I got back as part of my strength and conditioning, with my new resistance bands (which I didn’t break this time).

It was strength and conditioning yesterday, which took the form of a yogalates DVD that’s been on the shelf for a while. It turns out that it was quite a while since I bought it as I managed to break the resistance band part way through, oops (don’t know my own strength). Luckily some replacements should be delivered before my next session (thank goodness for one day delivery).

Today was parkrun day though, and also my home parkrun’s Christmas bring and share picnic, so I took my new Asics shoes out for a bimble up the hill while dressed as a reindeer. A little warm on the way up and down, but it meant I was nice and toasty during the picnic part of the morning. I also proved to myself that I could run the parkrun slowly, so will be able to use it as part of my recovery runs in the weeks ahead (I would hate to miss it).

Long run tomorrow, but I may need to split it into two as I’m going out for a pre-chrimble bimble with friends and it might not be quite long enough.