Sunday 14 June - Random Witterings from Home #22

No longer a streaker…

My final statement in Random Witterings #19, two weeks ago today, was that I didn’t intend to run so far or so often in June. I’d said the same at the end of May, but not stuck to it, but this time I took the bull by the horns, and on 1 June I broke my 71-day run-streak.

During those 71 days I’d not felt so much as a niggle, so the last thing I expected, after a day off, was to suffer a big ‘ouch!’ in my adductor (inner top of thigh, left leg) 2.5 miles through a gentle run. I questioned whether rest days are seriously over-rated and resigned myself to a couple of weeks sitting on the sofa.

It felt like weeks that I sat around too, but in reality I went for an energetic walk through a patch of local forest (the lumpiest patch around here) the following morning and then had three days of flat walking before joining Mick for one of his rehab sessions (he’s staging a conservative return to running after his latest stubborn bout of achilles trouble, taking a physio’s advice of a run-walk programme). That proved to be pain-free and over the last week I’ve built the load back up to about a third of the distance I was at three weeks ago.

Having gone a few days without any hint of soreness in the adductor, when running or otherwise (crouching down, in the manner of using a dustpan and brush, weeding, or cutting out a pattern on the floor is when I usually feel this particular area) I felt confident that I was up to a longer run this morning.

Thankfully Mick was available to come and rescue me 4.5 miles through (why is it always at the furthest point from the start?!), but as I’d stopped as soon as it started niggling, I’m confident I’ve not caused more damage.

From my walk last week: the areas that are mudfests in mud-season have dried to a state of horrible ruttedness. The drying-out process must have happened quickly.

...but still a streaker

The Duolingo App tells me that I have now diligently studied Spanish for 122 consecutive days and this week I apparently hit the milestone of having learnt 1000 words. I wonder how many of those will lodge in my memory in the long term?

Creativity

So, what have I been doing with all the spare hours in which I’ve not been running? Making stuff, mainly!

I didn’t think to take any photos of most of my doings, but first on the agenda was a batch of 9 facemasks (not for us, but on request for someone). That’s reduced nicely the material in my pile of worn out clothes that are too good for rags. 

Also in the category of ‘successes’ is Ma-in-Law’s corona-cardi, which I started on 2 April and finished yesterday:

It doesn’t fit me particularly well, but hopefully it’ll fit Ma-in-Law. As it’s a surprise all measurements were guesswork, so there’s no guarantee. Not that it really matters: she’ll be chuffed to bits to receive something made specifically for her (she was a prolific knitter until her sight failed her), whether she wears it or not.

I was so pleased with my first attempt at an invisible seam … until I realised I’d seamed it on the wrong side and had to pull it back out. On attempt 2, I decided to go for a different seam type on the collar, which turned out to be a good choice in this location.

Not everything I’ve made in the last couple of weeks has been a success, including both the worst fish pie I’ve ever made and the worst meringues:

Technically there wasn’t anything wrong with the meringues themselves (surely it’s difficult to go too far wrong with two ingredients?), but I put them to bake on greaseproof paper, rather than baking paper. They’re two substances that look almost the same, but behave very differently (a fact of which I’m well aware having made the very same error a decade or more ago when dehydrating some food). The meringues thus completely adhered themselves to the paper and eating them has been challenging.

The only reason I have the greaseproof paper in the cupboard (and on reflection, maybe I should store it somewhere more appropriate?) is because I use it to trace sewing patterns or, as I did today, to create a pattern from scratch:

You can’t see all my calculations scrawled on the paper, but it took a bit of thinking about!

Today I was simply mocking up a recreation of one of my running skorts, using an old t-shirt as fabric, to see how successful it would be. The main conclusion I reached was that the mock-up fabric was unsuited to the purpose. I shall leave that experiment there for now.

Time then to cast on my next piece of knitting…