Author Archives: Sally

Audio books…

Amazingly I have just finished my second Audio book in just over a month.

The book was by Sophie Kinsella, called I’ve got your number and I totally loved it 🙂

Screenshot 21:09:2013 19:04I mostly listened to it while out walking and at times I think people must have thought me a little mad as I often laughed out loud…  something I would never do if reading a book !

I have also discovered that its very relaxing to do my knitting while listening to a book, with a glass of wine of course.

There are a few more free audio books in the library that take my fancy,then I am very tempted to join Audible

With all the demanding exercise I do its great to have found something quite different….

 

Clowning around at Parkrun

Last Saturday 14th September was Kings Lynn’s parkrun’s second birthday.

Parkrun Doing the parkrun is something new for me but it can become highly addictive as its so much fun and very sociable.

Many of the park runner’s have already clocked up 50 runs and received their 50 t-shirt which I think is fab 🙂

Last week to celebrate their birthday it was a fancy dress run and many people turned out in the pouring rain to have some fun and eat cake …

I never usually dress up but decided to join in the fun and ran dressed as a clown, complete with wig, which gave many people a smile on a dull and rainy day.

and of course I also took cake , triple chocolate brownies, which I think were enjoyed because I didn’t even have a crumb to take home 🙂

It even made it into the local paper the EDP but I thought the photo was disappointing, all those people turning up in Fancy dress and just a photo of runners  🙁

A Very Long Walk…

After walking the 12 miles from Downham Market to Kings Lynn along the Fen Rivers way.

DSCF7754I thought it would be a good idea to walk the rest of the Fen Rivers Way

So last weekend I met up with my friend from the LDWA to walk the remaining  33 miles from Cambridge to Downham Market.

33 miles is nothing to Jayne who often walks 50 miles and has done 10 of the 100 mile challenge walks, this year she finished it in 36 hours…   totally amazing 🙂

We set off at around 7am, the path along the River Cam bustling with runners, with all the chatter we just flew along reaching Ely in no time at all, where we enjoyed tea and cake at Peacocks Tearooms.

10 Mile Bank

10 Mile Bank

Then we happily set off for Downham Market, it was a nice enough walk to Littleport but the stretch from littleport  along 10 mile bank was hell….. you could see Downham Market in the distance but we never seemed to get any closer as the river twisted and turned 🙁

Finally 12 hours after setting off we arrived in Downham Market,10 hours of walking 2 hours of breaks and amazingly we kept a constant pace and never slowed down !

Total miles for the day was 36 the most I have ever walked…  I suffered by having blisters deep under the skin on the bottom of my heels 🙁  but no aching legs 🙂 I was rewarded with another fitbit badge for doing 0ver 75,000 steps in one day, I actually did 77,910 🙂

I was also told by another long distance walker that my blisters were badges of honour !!

My First Club Ride….

Yesterday I plucked up the courage to go out on a club ride with the main SWNC, it was a 44 mile ride to Thornham.

Luckily for me the group split into 2 with a fast and slower speed.

I coped with the hills better this time and managed to just about stay with the group on the way there…

Coffee break was at Thornham Deli a place I have never been to before but can now highly recommend, the cakes were amazing….

On the way back I struggled to stay with the group, who I think had rocket fuel in their coffee, there was also a head wind making it tough going but luckily someone stayed and looked after me making sure I got back ok.

Screenshot 02:09:2013 12:27

As you can see my avg speed was 14.1 a good improvement on the the 11.9 which it was On the Hunstanton beginners ride but a fair way to go to match the others at 15.7 ……

As I rode too and from the start of the ride at Castle Rising my total miles for the day was around 52, after laying on the kitchen floor and dying for a few moments I soon recovered 🙂

A tough but fun enjoyable ride, I cannot wait to go again and amazingly I was home by 2pm

 

A straight forward walk

Finally I left my bike at home on Sunday and went for a walk.

Helen had mentioned she would like to start walking so we had arranged to walk some of the Fen Rivers Way, an easy straight walk along the river.

Screenshot 28:08:2013 09:20

Originally I was going to do it from Kings Lynn to Downham Market but Geoff suggested I should try it the other way for a change and walk Home.

Fen Rivers Way

The day started off looking grey and dull but by the time we had arrived in Downham Market the sun was out and it continued to be a beautiful Sunny walking day.

With lots of chatter we soon arrived at the Church Ruins near Wiggenhall St Peter, where we sat for a while enjoying the view and peace.

Church Ruins at Wiggenhall St Peter

Soon on our way again we could see Kings Lynn in the distance and before long  was sat outside Marriott’s Warehouse on the Quay side enjoying coffee….

Kings Lynn

I have planned to meet up with my LDWA friend next weekend and we are going to walk the Fen Rivers Way from Cambridge and see how far we can get in a day….

Getting my boots out….

This may be hard to believe but I have not done a walk since 28th July, even I find that hard to believe 🙁

walking boots Its due to 2 reasons, with Geoff away ,I have been staying In Kings Lynn at weekends, any decent walks from here are a good drive away and with the cost of fuel, a walk becomes a luxury.

The other reason of course is my beautiful bike, a fantastic gift from Geoff, to help me pass the weekends doing something I love …Exercise,  without having to spend money 🙂

My other favourite pass time is Running, which strangely seems to be improving since I started biking…

So in the Past 4 weeks I have cycled 287 miles, loving the Group riding with the SWNC 

I have also ran aprox 40 miles, enjoying the Saturday morning parkruns and the Ladybird club runs.

BUT tomorrow I am going for a walk it may only be 12 miles, which is short for me but its a walk and one I am looking forward too very much….

Kings Lynn Parkrun 100 and a PB for me !

On Saturday the 17th Aug it was Kings Lynn’s 100th Parkrun and my 4th, although I have also done one at Milton too.

As always I enjoyed the nice friendly atmosphere, these Saturday morning runs help me cope with the weekends, when Geoff is away and I am meeting some really nice people too.

It felt like I had an excellent run, so I was a little disappointed when I quickly checked my Garmin at the end and it read 29:29 or so I thought ! ( I didn’t have my glasses on at the time )

After enjoying lovely cake, tea and a good natter I wandered home Listening to my audio book .

So imagine my surprise and delight when I down loaded my stats from my Garmin to see I had mis-read my time and It actually read 28:29 making it a PB for me   🙂
Parkrun 100

I think the Biking is making me run faster, or it could be that I told my legs I would buy that Purple bike helmet if I got a PB….

A new discovery

This week I went and joined my local library as I discovered that they had a huge on line Audio book library.

Thursday's in the ParkBasically you down load them to an app, called one click digital, on your iphone/ipod and its stays there for 21 days, then they take it back again.

I decided to start with a book that I Know many of you have read called  “Thursdays in the park” .

It took me a few attempts to get into it, as I never seemed to remember the story, but I have got the hang of it now and am half way through the book already.

When you look at how expensive audio books are to buy I think this is a great service

I especially like listening to it when out walking 🙂