Author: FosterRuns

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More autumn colour

Sunday was another beautiful day so I followed the same route as last week… except that this time it took me 40 minutes longer.  Somewhat worrying for a run of only 51 minutes!

The countryside around here really is lovely and the last of the autumn colours were out on show.

Somewhere past the halfway mark I came across the inimitable Lew and stopped for a short conversation.  This clearly turned into a not so short conversation (we did put the world to rights), although it only seemed as if I had paused for ten minutes!

My modest run and large pause meant that I still had energy to spare to make the most of a sunny day by getting out to give the cars a long-overdue wash.  The downside of this was that I ended up with a painful shoulder, but this had an excellent silver lining.  My friend Evrim has been doing a sports massage course and she kindly worked some of her new-found magic on my shoulder, which now feels better than it has done in an age!

So 5.2 miles in (ahem, 91 minutes, but let’s call it) 51 minutes, followed by a similarly delayed post due to a busy few days.

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A muddy reward

I’ve had a particularly enjoyable week, lecturing at either Birkbeck or Brighton Business School on all five working days.  My students were delightfully engaged post graduates looking to get ahead in some area of business or marketing and were suitably curious and cognitively challenging.

They were also flexible enough to allow me to experiment with both the material and the delivery and as a result I had FUN!  To top it off, I had an additional meeting after the Friday session which has left my head buzzing with ideas!

Having spent yesterday afternoon and this morning finishing off a set of condensed notes for the students, I rewarded myself with a run.

The sun was bright in a chilly blue sky and having not run last weekend I opted for a favoured short route through the local woods.  I first headed out to Wivelsfield, then followed the path through West Wood to Ditchling Common Industrial Estate.

It was beautiful, with autumn leaves covering the ground and sun filtering through the empty trees.

It was also muddy!

In the summer, or when the ground is largely dry, I tend to avoid any muddy puddles.  But at this time of year there is no point whatsoever and I revel in running straight through the mud, avoiding only those patches that might stop me in my tracks or swallow a trainer… which has happened a couple of times in the past!

Near the industrial estate there a subtle fork in the track which reminds me of Robert Frost’s poem about two roads converging in a yellow wood.  I call the one less travelled the Magical Path and it was on good form today, a narrow alley through the autumn trees.

At the other end I headed out across Ditchling Common and back towards home, my trainers sodden and legs suitably mud-splattered from the way.

5.2 miles was covered in 52 minutes, a steady 6mph average despite uncooperative lungs!

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Amnesia

Short of time to run on Sunday before we went out to lunch, I took to the machine for a 7mph tempo run.

At that speed the conscious seems able to detect thoughts bubbling up from the subconscious and I managed to find some really inspiring ones before I finished.  These I captured briefly on the white board in my office as: Emotion -> Problems, conscious/subconscious.

Alas, I now seem to have amnesia about what those ideas were… somewhat frustrating as I was clearly excited about them!  My memory is not my strong suite though so there’s no point in beating myself up… hopefully I can rediscover them on a future occasion!

5 miles in just under 43 minutes.

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More workshop material

A damp, grey morning did not inspire me to want to run outside.  I knew that my favourite paths would be ankle-deep in cold and watery mud and running on the road didn’t especially grab me either.  Instead I headed for the machine.

After a half mile warm-up at 6mph I jumped to 7mph and then increased by 0.2 each quarter-mile until I reached 8mph.  I returned to 6mph for a quarter mile and repeated the exercise before returning to 6mph and running the final mile at 7mph.  This may seem a little convoluted, but I saw it as a mild form of interval training.

Though I focused my cognitive resources on the mechanics of running for a change, I also alighted upon an interesting exercise for a workshop later this week.  It’s amazing how similar the approaches for training people to run faster is, to helping people to think more creatively.

5 miles in 42.35, a little over 7mph average.

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Mud, sweat and fears

It’s always a challenge to write about my in-run thoughts when I return, let alone a week afterwards.  It’s a little like trying to recall the salient details of a vivid dream as input from the senses rushes in to fill the newly awakened conscious mind and crowds them out.

Had I written this post last week it may well have been a lengthy and candid expose to the way I was feeling that day, hence the fears in the title.

I shall instead focus on the mud and sweat, but the fears are a side-effect of the material I have been reading and developing for my workshops on self-awareness, team performance and creativity.  Honestly embracing our fears and failings, alongside of a demonstrable understanding of our skills, experience, motivations and goals, is a solid foundation onto which we can each build a truly fulfilling life.

This is not to say that I was in a morbid mood… I was not.  It was  a totally glorious day and I was on top form, both mentally and physically… hence my thoughts flowing freely.

I decided to run towards the Beacon but be satisfied if I turned around at Ditchling.  The sun was so bright through the trees on Keymer Road that I was super-careful with any passing cars lest they did not see me through the glare.

There was sufficient surface mud on the path to Oldlands Mill to use ‘straight through’ tactics, but it wasn’t deep enough to drench my feet or throw more than a thin layer of splatters onto my back.

Lots of people were out and clearly also happy, as more people returned my cheery greetings than normal.

I soon found myself running up the steep Beacon track and arrived at the top in 56 minutes.

I shared the top and a little conversation with a lovely couple from Clapham who had walked from Jack & Jill and intended to return via Wolstonbury… a more involved walk than most of the numerous people thereabouts.

I then retraced my steps down the Beacon track, through Ditchling, up onto Lodge Hill (intensely hard work for a couple of minutes), back past Oldlands and on home.

Longs and three layers proved on the warm side, but not monumentally so, though my hat and gloves got stowed before climbing the Beacon… it must have been at least slightly chilly.

I’m pretty sure that the time was 1.45 when I returned… slightly slower over the 10 mile route than on the 2nd September due largely to the conversational pause at the mid-point.

Overall a great run and good thinking time!

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A return to Blackcap

It was a surprise this morning to wake up to a beautiful sunny morning and after getting my brain going with the help of a Sudoku puzzle and a Kri-Kri tumbler of quadspresso, I climbed into my running gear.

At the very last minute I changed my mind about running from the house and instead drove up to Jack and Jill… a good decision by all accounts.  The car-park was almost full and there were loads of people out enjoying the unseasonal weather… there was still an edge of chillness in the shade, but shorts and t-shirt were all I needed!

I ran along the top of the Downs all the way to Blackcap, encountering the back-markers on the Lewes Downland Ten as I neared my turn-point.

The return leg was equally lovely and with the vague breeze now behind me, it was even warmer.

Lovely, apart from the flies that is.  Fortunately they were not along the whole route, just where the cows were grazing, but there were ‘fousands of the little blighters, all out enjoying the sun, cow dung and alas, my sweaty face… YUK!

I returned to the car in 1:35 having run 9.4 miles or so at a pretty steady and comfortable 6mph.

The sky has now clouded over which makes my effort this morning even more worthwhile!

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Temporary support

Andy P was (and probably is still) running the Extreme Running London to Brighton event today.  Cliff had suggested that we run a section with him to boost his spirits so we went to find him in the largely unexplored territory beyond Forest Row… in fact we only narrowly missed leaving the county of Sussex, that’s how far north we were.

We were hampered in our quest to find Andy by the fact that we didn’t know the route the race was following.  This led to an interesting tour of narrow, only vaguely metalled roads and a short stand off with a 4×4 with a wood trailer attached… eventually the guy reversed the few necessary metres, albeit with surprising difficulty!  Cliff was not about to reverse as the next passing place was about a quarter of a mile away!

We eventually found Andy who was running with Daniel from Jersey, which meant that I could put in a plug for Gemma at Orchard Chiropractors in St Helier!

Bearing in mind they had got lost early on and were six hours in, they looked to be moving pretty well.

We ran with them for a short while, during which time they paused several times to discuss the direction and eventually went the wrong way (yet?) again, but they were clearly not alone in this.  Various other runners caught up and then scattered in different directions… most of them incorrect too in retrospect!

After half an hour we left them turned & headed back to Cliff’s car… an easy 15 minute run when you know where you’re going!

So a very temporary support crew but it’s the thought that counts!  Thank goodness for Paula doing the proper job… otherwise Andy’s crates of spare gear & dry trainers would never have made it!  I’m still thinking of him even now and he’s probably still counting down the miles to Brighton!

Our run was about 3.5 miles in 50 minutes… time well spent though!

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5 mile breakfast

After a couple of weeks off (read whatever poor excuse you like!), I broke my fast this morning with a five mile run, performed in 42.41, an average of 7mph.

However, while Mark chose to get his legs shot-blasted with the first heavy rain of the autumn, I chose to run indoors on the machine… call me what you like, so long as it’s prefaced with ‘sensible’!

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Six fix

A weekday run with Daren is always a great way to fix the cognitive fog which afflicts us all from time to time, although you can clearly see from the photo above that any fog could only have been on the inside!

We run so infrequently that we’ve not yet tired of our simple six mile route: starting from Jack & Jill, dropping down to Pyecombe, running up Wolstonbury, dropping steeply to Clayton, running along the the bottom of the Downs and up the ‘tank-tracks’ that rise directly up the scarp slope and finally dropping back down to Jack & Jill.

It’s not lost on me that this is the third windmill (technically the forth) that I’ve passed in three runs!

We were particularly appreciative of the rough steps that have been installed on a short and often slippery uphill section below Wolstonbury (Daren thought this might have been big bearded Charlie at work) and otherwise just generally laughed our way round, appreciating the weather, the view, our open schedules, life in general and so on!

We even had an unseen audience… Maria (from the top of the Men’s Sussex Fitness League) arrived back in the car-park ten minutes after us and said that she had seen us running up the tank tracks.  She had heard us first, of course… probably on account of our chatting loudly to be heard over our own panting up the hill!

Six miles in a leisurely 1:25, 4.2mph average or so, TOP value!

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Pull your socks up!

My Mother sent me an email earlier which mentioned Ofsted Chief Inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw’s comments from the Andrew Marr Show this morning… which she paraphrased as ‘pull your socks up, satisfactory is not good enough!’

She had taken it as a personal admonishment and though I didn’t see it until I got home, the cognitive essence of the message clearly came straight through to me as I ran the last few steps to the top of Ditchling Beacon.

It was my birthday yesterday (thank you all SO much for the myriad birthday wishes!) and this morning I was reflecting on my chosen career path, which seems to involve a greater number of ups and downs than those of more conventional 48 year-olds.

No prizes for guessing that I’m currently on a down, though, if I remember rightly, Malcolm Gladwell says that the path to excellence in any field is a steep, gruelling, arduous and inordinately lengthy 10,000 hours of lung-busting effort, being forced to stumble and fall at every turn, etcetera… so I’m pretty stoic about it.

It had been flat grey outside threatening rain (likewise in my head) as I downed two quadspressos, and as I changed into my running gear it started raining, so I left in a hat and jacket.  The rain was really light though and within half a mile I had removed hat & jacket so that I didn’t overheat… it’s clearly not autumn yet!

My plan was to run to Ditchling Beacon & back and I soon found myself passing Oldlands Mill where there is a lively open day today if you’re interested.

Ditchling was looking pretty, despite the number of houses being redeveloped and for sale boards… I’m sure that sometimes people are so fearful of change that they choose to (in this case) move, so that there is at least the perception of control.

The bare chalk on my favourite steep and gruelling route up the Beacon was damp in the occasional light rain and thus very slippery and I was glad that I discovered this on the way up the hill!

I reached the top in an underwhelming 55 minutes (5.45mph average for the 5 miles) so with little view to appreciate and presumably sensing my Mother’s thoughts, I turned round without a rest for the return leg.

It was not a good day to go quickly down this hill but I wasn’t feeling tired so once I got to the flatter ground at the bottom I started to push on a bit.  Nothing heroic, just a little more effort.

I laboured momentarily up Lodge Hill (if you’ve ever seen it, you’ll know why) then resumed my slightly faster pace, passing an already busier Oldlands Mill.  When I got back to the tarmac of Ockley Lane (with the rain now coming down a little more heavily) I pushed on a little harder still, though still not beyond a comfortable jog.

And thus I finally returned to the house, 10 miles in 1:41.

The quick mathematicians amongst you will notice that my return leg was 9 minutes faster than the outbound section… 6.5 mph average for the second 5 miles.  That gave me something to smile about!  Even the combined average of 5.95mph was faster than last week’s (brilliantly enjoyable) run.

Maybe my running mojo is getting its socks on ready to return… and maybe, with a little more effort on steep and slippery paths, that bodes well for my work too!  Thanks Mum!