Marathon girl - Week #5

Day #7 - long run

Distance: 15.74 miles
Time: 02:11:15 hours
Average time (per mile): 08:20 minutes

This week's run was a lot less complicated than last week's and considerably more scenic. 5.5 miles out along the A44, 4.5 miles around Blenheim Great Park, and 5.5 miles back again. I wasn't completely sure of the mile points, as mapmyrun.com has a nasty habit of adjusting the figures when you save your run, and suspected that we might have been heading out a bit on the fast side but both Kate and I were staggered when we looked at the end time. At this rate there should be no problem with achieving my aim of a sub 4 hour time. Luckily my next long run isn't for two or three weeks as my legs felt like they were about to drop off at the hips by the end of the run.

Once I'd recovered (thanks to a bath and copious quantities of tea, toast, and Nutella) I headed back out to Blenheim to enjoy the afternoon sunshine. I managed over an hour of sitting and knitting and listening to the footy on the Olympic sweater on the Water Terrace before retreating inside for more tea and to get some feeling back into my fingers. The body is now done (hurrah) and I'm several rounds into the cuff of the first sleeve. That Olympic gold medal is still a possibility.

More than football, more than anything else

I found a great card for the boyfriend in John Lewis.



And it's true! I even videoed the live cup game between Bolton Wanderers and Tottenham to watch "as live" later on so that we could go for a nice walk and cup of tea at Blenheim this afternoon instead. I'm so happy that the palace is open again after the winter break. I'm looking forward to many more cuppas on the Water Terrace as the weather gets warmer.

The boyfriend and I don't make a huge big deal of V day (at least we try not to get sucked into the rampant commercialism of it all) but we had a nice dinner from M&S and some lovely champagne which was a pressie from my parents and we're going to watch Cyrano de Bergerac later which is both extremely funny and heart-breakingly sad. Anyway, I have a few Valentines links for y'all.

I just this minute came across the Missed Connections blog via Cast-On (thank you Brenda). This is so sweet and beautifully drawn.

I have loved xkcd (even if I don't get all, ok any, of the maths jokes) since I first came across it on Language Log (thank you linguistics geeks) and especially these four* Valentine's cartoons.

Finally go to Fat Orange Cat Studio if you want to know what cats do for Valentine's day.

Happy Valentine's day to all of you!!

[ETA: btw this is post number 500! Thanks for reading, I've really enjoyed blogging to all of you.]

[Also ETA: I just found another link for you. Apparently the boyfriend was looking for ukelele songs (no, really).]

* originally this read "two" but then I kept finding more of them!

Magical

I headed out into snowy Blenheim twice today, once for an early morning run (the cross-country spikes really come into their own on the compacted snow) and then this afternoon for a walk with the boyfriend. I hadn't thought that the later walk could match the early run in the quiet park, when I had just the pheasants, sheep, and a low-flying red kite for company, but it bettered it.

The frozen lake was just stunning close up with the ice a dozen different shades of glassy green.







Then, as if that wasn't enough a white shape ghosted out from amongst the trees on the far side of the lake and we had the treat of watching a barn own hunting in daylight (it was about 3pm) for at least 5 minutes. It flew back and forth across the lake and even landed a few metres ahead of us on the path at one point. I knew that my chances of getting a picture (white bird, white background) were slim but I just kept clicking the button and I managed to get lucky (even more lucky than just seeing it, I mean).



I can't tell you how privileged I feel to have had such a wonderful view of this beautiful bird.

Finally, we passed this snowy family on our way back home.



I think they're disappointed having read the sign (left) saying that the Palace and Courtyard aren't open to the public!