Month: April 2015

It’s been a long time coming this year, on account of the sporadic runs, but it finally happened this morning… the longs came off and the legs came out!

Not that it was overly warm… it was more a case that we’re almost at the end of April and it wasn’t overly cold!

The short local loop that I chose had almost no wet mud which, in comparison to last time, was a real blessing.  As a gardener this is not great, since the garden is also dry, but at least it saved me the task of cleaning my runners!  Only in one place was the way blocked and since I’d left my gung-ho mud-plugging head at home, I minced around the margins like a fair-weather runner!

You can see the route on Strava and you might notice that I ran a lot faster than the 4 previous times I’ve taken this route on there (though still slow by comparison to ‘the good old days’!  I’m sure this has more to do with the hard surface than my fitness, although I did sprint down the road at the end… there is a short stretch that other Strava users run along and I’ve now managed to get into 2nd place!

I reckon that the people who live along the road were quite grateful for me whizzing past quickly… my white legs are probably not the most appealing sight to behold!

6 miles in 56 minutes 10 seconds…

As I sit here I have a palpable sense of deja vu… it’s been three weeks since my last run and I’m not entirely sure where the time has gone.  Moving on quickly, at least I managed to get out for a run today, even managing to rub shoulders with some of the runners on the Brighton Marathon course… albeit the back markers.  This is actually quite appropriate since, with my current form, it is where I would have been if I had actually entered the race!

I started from my folks’ place and ran the lovely 6 mile loop that makes up a lot of my running lately.  I start by running down the ridge from Woodingdean to Ovingdean, dropping down to the valley floor and then taking the steps down to the Undercliff Walk at Ovingdean Gap.  I then ran along to Rottingdean and worked my way back up to Ovingdean via the windmill and then on back up the ridge path.

I chose an easy pace, due to the lack of exercise lately, and just pottered along, stopping occasionally to take photos:

I completed the run in 1:03, though Strava helpfully removed the photo stops and called it just under 58 minutes.  You can see the route here:https://www.strava.com/activities/284076530

In other news, I am now the proud owner of a rather unusual custom shop J185 Gibson.  Unfortunately, whilst Kim couldn’t hear the myriad bloops that I used to make playing the Studio without an amp, now she can hear every blemish… and probably needs ear muffs!  This purchase is part of an ongoing experiment into learning & development that I started in 2010… she’s showed incredible patience with the exercise to date and my hope is that I’ll eventually manage to string some less jarring notes together!

The garden project paused whilst I did some spring-cleaning last weekend… there are no obvious changes, other than the table making it out of its winter hideout, but Kim’s car was loaded to the gunnels with garden waste when I had finished.

I also finished the work I was doing at WorldRemit and it has to be said that I REALLY miss the people 🙁  However, I swapped my London desk for one with this view… ho hum!