I spy with my little eye #2

I spy with my little eye…

Seen at the Horseshoe Inn pub yesterday. I thought it was quite funny.

” Offre du jour-Achetez les deux boissons de votre choix et payez pour les deux”….ah, l’humour Anglais.

 

We own the night- Race recap

What did you do last Saturday? I hope you had a good evening because I owned the night!!!

I cannot start this post without thanking Leah from NaturallyLeah. I was stuck with my running back in April and seeing her putting a whole team together for this race really inspired me to sign up for the challenge and put my trainers on. I have said it before, signing up for a race is my favourite tip to start running and it did not fail. Leah was a great coach, making her blog a great source of training tips and sending us weekly encouraging emails. Plus I did not have my personal support crew with me at this race but that was OK, I did not feel alone since the whole team was there and it was great to spot the Team Naturally run support crew twice during the race. Go Team Naturally run!

source

So how was it?

I am not sure that I like evening races. I was anxious all day long for some reason, I was not too sure what to eat so I ended up having oat and a whey protein shake, as I would do for a morning race. This did not leave me very satisfied. In the evening, the French me likes sitting down and having a proper meal ha!

ready to go

It was hilarious to be all ready in my running gear to go to the venue and seeing everybody else in high heels ready to partyyyyy in a different kind of way.

I fueled on some homemade oat/nut/banana cereal bars on the way. It’s your recipe Liani

The park was easy enough to find. There were sign plus 3,000 girls in orange neon t-shirts

However I completely underestimated how long it would take me to get there. Collecting my bracelet, putting my bags away, going to the toilet and warming up was quite stressful. Lesson learned.

First time in Victoria Park

The queue. Had to warm up while waiting

Lights on, time to go

When it was time to go, our race bracelets lit up. Orange meant that I was going for a PB. Pink was for those aiming to just “finish the race” and blue was for the runners “leading the pack”. I am not sure that this was very useful because the starting pens were certainly useless. Man, it was congested. That was the BIG downside of this race. The road was too narrow and we all pretty much started at the same time. I did not want to full sprint right from the beginning! It was very difficult to find my pace and it is only 4K in the race that I stopped this whole interval running non-sense and could settle into my pace. The water stations were very welcome and I was please to see that Nike had little bottles this time (wayyyy better than the cups they give at the Run to the Beat 1/2 marathon).

This was my first 10K and I just fell in love with this distance. I felt strong, I felt that I could push myself and I had a hell of a final sprint at the end. However many girls were just sending right after the finish line and I bumped into somebody. So sorry for that but I was really sprinting at the end! And don’t stand in the middle.

We were greated with champagne(!!!) Vita coco and dried pineapple from Urban fruit at the end. All were very welcome after the race. Turns out I was starving!

That stuff is nice.

I think that I will sign up for another one before september as part as my 1/2 marathon training. I managed to finish the race under in 57:43 which I am very pleased with as I wanted to finish it under 1h. However I was slightly frustrated seeing my split times: my first 1k was in 8:49!!!! Ridiculous. But then again I smashed the last km which was awesome. My math cannot be right. No way I ran it in 2:40?! Is that even physically possible?

To summarize:

The not so good:

• Not sure I like evening races in terms of fueling.
• It was way too congested. I would not run this race in particular again
• It would have been nice to be able to follow the pacers but then again I seemed to have done a good job on my own
• No medals?! First race without a medal. They gave us a tiny bracelet which was cute but broke in 2 sec.
• Leaving the park. I exited at the opposite end of the park than the one I came it at about 10pm. I asked a marshall how to go to mile end station and he just said “turn left”, which I did. And there, no more signs and no more marshall in sights. I was scared I have to say. My network was poor and could not find directions. Luckily I bumped into two other fellow runners that were as lost as me so we could look for the station together. It was reassuring to be with them. We eventually saw another marshall and found our way. So I would suggest that when you have a women only night race to put wayyyyyyyy better signs for us at the back of the park if this is where you indicate us to go out so we can get back home safely.

The good parts:

• Being part of Team Naturally run
• The nike crew did a good job at encouraging us during the race I thought
• The drinks/food given to us at the end and the amazing goodie bags that Leah organized for us.
• The overall good atmosphere and this sense of achievement.
• 10K. Love that distance.

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What is your next race? Run to the Beat 1/2 marathon in September but I think I will run a 10K before that.

Bikini

Hi Guys,

Sorry for being M.I.A but seems like I have not been the most organized lately and I cannot blog and do the PhD.

I am going to pick up my kit for the We Own the Night 10K this evening, hiiiii-exciting. Unfortunately it seems like it is going to rain saturday evening, lets hope not.

Have you chosen a bikini for this summer? You should read Garance Dore’s advice on how to face bikini season. As I am not mentally ready to go in store to try some yet, I thought I would browse online in order to try them in the comfort of my own house and look what I found?

ASOS | ASOS Ombre Tie Side Bikini Pant at ASOS.

Is it ME or this is not the best tie and die-EVER!?

Salut les filles,

Désolé pour le manque de nouvelles, mais il semble que je n’ai pas été très efficace dernièrement et que je ne peux pas bloguer et finir ma thèse.

Je vais chercher mon kit pour le We Own the Night 10K ce soir, hiiiii excitant. Malheureusement, il semble qu’il va pleuvoir samedi soir, j’espère pas.

Avez-vous trouvé un bikini pour cet été? Vous devriez lire les conseils de Garance Doré sur comment faire face à l’épreuve du bikini. Comme je ne suis pas prête mentalement à aller en magasin pour en essayer, j’ai pensé que je pourrais regarder en ligne afin d’en essayer dans le confort de ma propre maison. Re-gar-dez ce que j’ai trouvé!

Est-ce moi ou ce n’est pas le meilleur imprimé DU TOUT!!!!???

UK April glossybox

Time to review the April UK glossybox. Examinons la UK glossybox d’Avril. 

Here is that I received: Voici ce que j’ai reçu:

April’s box was in collaboration with Pearl Lowe, and the box just looks gorgeous. La box du mois d’Avril est en collaboration avec Pearl Lowe et elle est canon.

Then from left to right: Ensuite, de gauche à droite

NIP+Fab body butter in Pistachio: This really smells of pistachio sundae. Lovely in the pot but I do not really like the smell once on my skin. It really is a shame.  Cette crème sent vraiment la glace à la pistache. Pas mal dans le peau mais je n’aime pas du tout l’odeur sur moi. Vraiment dommage.

Illamasqua pencil:  This pencil can be used on the eyes, brows and lips. However the brown/red color does not match my brows and I do not like it on the eyes. I might use it on my lips, not sure. Encore un produit polyvalent! Ce crayon peut être utilisé pour les sourcils, les yeux ou la bouche. La couleur est trop rouge marron pour mes sourcils et mes yeux, peut-être que je m’en servirai comme contour des lèvres. 

Yves Rocher So elixir purple. Yves Rocher, the brand that reminds me of my childhood. Did not expect to see this brand in the UK. The perfume is nice, quite sweet and I like sweet smells. Yves Rocher, la marque qui me rappelle mon enfance. Je ne m’attendais pas à la voir ici. Le parfum est sucré, ce qui me convient car j‘aime les odeurs sucrées.

Crabtree & Evelyn hand creme: Very nice hand cream, the smell is super fresh, I like it a lot. Super crème pour les mains, l’odeur est fraiche et printanière, j’aime beaucoup.

Essie We’re in it together. It is my first Essie nail polish and I really like it! Super easy to apply! This colour is for the breast cancer campaign, even better. I will show you the result shortly. C’est mon premier vernis Essie et je l’adore. L’application est super facile. Cette coleur est en collaboration pour la lutte contre le cancer du sein, encore mieux. Je vous le montrerai porté bientôt.

Illamasqua pencil swatch

This is not my favourite box. I do not like the smell of the body butter and I would have preferred not to receive two moisturizers. A hair or face product would have been welcome. Plus the Illamasqua pencil is not my favourite colour either. Let’s see what the May box will bring. Cette box n’est pas ma préférée. Je n’aime pas l’odeur de la crème pour le corps et dans tous les cas j’aurai préféré recevoir un produit pour les cheveux ou le visage plutôt que deux produits “corps”. En plus, le crayon Illamasqua n’est pas mon d’une couleur que j’aime trop non plus. Voyons voir ce que la box de Mai contiendra.

You can find the February UK glossybox review here and the March one here

Pour lire la revue du mois de Février, c’est par ici et celle de Mars par ici

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Do you know any of these products? If so, what do you think?

Est-ce que vous connaissez ces produits?

 

May squat challenge

I was on instagram the other day and I came accross Iron Angel’s squat challenge. J’étais sur instagram l’autre jour et je suis tombée sur défi squat de Iron Angel.

The May one is completely insane so I thought I would start with the first one she posted back in December. Celui de Mai est complètement fou alors j’ai décidé de commencer par le premier qu’elle a posté en Décembre.

(You can find all the squat challenges here) (Vous pouvez trouver tous les défis squat ici)

I will do body weight ones.

Squats can be beneficial to runners. They can notably help to prevent knee injuries by strengthening your upper legs. My right knee is definitely weaker so I will probably include some single legs squats as I might overcompensate with my left legs while doing regular squats (I am not a physio but that is my take on it). Les squats peuvent être bénéfiques pour les coureurs. Ils peuvent notamment aider à prévenir les blessures au genou en renforçant vos cuisses. Mon genou droit est nettement plus faible donc je vais probablement inclure squats sur une jambe car que je pourrais surcompenser avec ma jambe gauche en faisant des squats réguliers (je ne suis pas un kiné mais c’est mon avis sur la question).

Check out FitSugar’s site to read more about how squats can be beneficial to runners. Consultez le site FitSugar pour en savoir plus sur la façon dont les squats peuvent être bénéfiques pour les coureurs.

Please make sure that you have proper posture before starting by watching this video:      S’il vous plaît assurez-vous d’avoir une bonne posture avant de commencer en regardant cette vidéo:

So, who’s in? Alors, qui est avec moi?