Author: FosterRuns

It had been a strange week, with several of the days masquerading as others which, among other things, meant that I berated myself for missing an important anniversary… only to discover the following day that it had been the previous day… and that now I had.

Some less usual activities on Friday and Saturday, bending under rafters whilst carrying things in a loft, wielding the hedge trimmer at shoulder height etc, left me with knots in various muscles… particularly in my buttocks.  And before your mind goes into a tailspin, Mark has already cracked most of the possible jokes about that, believe me!

Sunday morning found Mark and I back at Jack and Jill for another 9am run… and it was going to be a hot one!  We ran the same route as last week, along the ridge almost to Blackcap and then right and down to the A27, following the route of the South Downs Way.  Once more conversation flowed freely, although this week I was finding the running to be way more difficult.

We passed a myriad of people en-route and as per normal, I hailed pretty much each one… people are much more sociable up there than they are on Brighton seafront and most people responded in kind.

One group of walkers quipped that they thought they themselves were mad until they saw us… I said to wait until we ran past them a second time going the other way before they decided just how mad we were!  Having turned around and run the two or so miles back up to the ridge, we eventually caught them up… the picture tells the story.

The caption should be what they shouted after us as we ran on: ‘you don’t have to be mad to do the South Downs Way… but it helps!’

A combination of heat, tight buttocks etc meant that I was struggling pretty much all the way around and particularly on the home stretch.  I was quite delighted therefore to learn that, although we were slower than last week, it was the outward leg that took longer, meaning that we must have returned at pretty much the same pace on both runs.

So 14 miles in 2.25, 5.8mph.

It’s the Three Forts Marathon next week… not that I have any intention whatsoever of joining Mark, Cliff & Andy in doing it!  I’m just hoping that I will have figured out what day of the week it is by then!

After visiting Wakehurst Place with Lucas and his daughter (and thanks to Steve for a brilliant mini-tour!) and then spending the rest of the afternoon tending the garden, my hayfever had a wild time last night and first thing this morning.  By the time I finally got my nose under control to get out running it was almost ten.

I ran to the Beacon and back, outbound via Ditchling Common and the chicken farms and inbound via Lodge Hill and Oldlands Mill.  It was the first proper t-shirt & shorts day and although it wasn’t really that warm, it was still quite pleasant.

5.75 miles to the Beacon took me one hour (er, 5.75mph), while the 5 miles back took me 50 minutes (6mph).  Overall 10.75 in 1.50 (average 5.86mph).  Really, very pleasant run.

By the time I had got up, got my nose together (my hayfever started with a vengeance subsequent to that gorgeous morning I took off Wednesday) and changed all the clocks this morning, I could have happily skipped my run.  But skip it I did not.

I ran from my folks and once again wore shorts despite a slight chill in the air, uncharacteristically complaining about the temperature to a couple of runners I overtook before I warmed up.  It was slow going and I felt that I had to work hard even going downhill to Rottingdean, let alone the drag along to the Palace Pier.  Several times I thought about turning round, but I wanted to do at least ten miles & couldn’t remember where the 5 miles marker was.

Strangely, despite the snail pace, I managed to get to the pier in 55 minutes, quicker than last week and an average of 6.8mph.  This changed my perspective a bit and wishing to do more than simply retrace my steps, I set off along the beach for a little additional work.  I paused to chat to Andy, Paula & Martina at the Martlet Kayak Club (for about ten minutes, in fact, though I didn’t make a note) before resuming my beach run to the groyne by the Marina.

From here I rejoined the top road, turning left at Roedean School to take the track that skirts the back of Ovingdean and climbs steadily to the racecourse.  From here it was a simple case of running down the Warren Road back to base.

Excluding the estimated ten minute chat time, I ran for about 1.55 and covered 11.1 miles, averaging 5.8mph or 10.36 minutes per mile.  I had thought that the 1.25 mile beach run would leave me legless, but it was okay… maybe it would have been different if Cliff had been forcing a little more speed into proceedings!  Overall a very pleasant & sunny run… and with no hayfever effects until I got back north of the Downs!

It had been my intention to get up and out this morning, but a broken night’s sleep finally yielded to the day shortly after 9am and it then took me two hours to get to the start of my run… physically, yes but particularly mentally.

I ran from my folks place down to Rottingdean and then along to the Palace Pier… and back again.  It was the first day that I felt like taking a chance on the weather so it was shorts on, 2011.  The chilly wind blasting up the valley into my face caused me to ponder my decision, but once I warmed up there was no question that it was a good call.

The runners of Brighton were out in force and some of them were even friendly enough to return my greeting… the rest either being focused intently on their running, having a policy of not acknowledging strange looking men, or just being miserable gits.

Between Rottingdean and the Marina I ran along the grass rather than the road, so the views were great.

And it was presumably the day of the London to Brighton ‘old bikes’ ride, as Brighton was heaving with people and motorbikes… most of them contemporary!

It wasn’t the fastest run, to be fair.  Going out I averaged 6.6mph, but with the gradient against me coming back I managed only 5.85mph.  Overall a nice comfortable run of 12.5 miles in 2.01, 6.2mph, 9.68 minutes per mile.

It’s really interesting considering the variables that influence speed.  I always seem to run faster when I am slightly cooler, like last week: this afternoon however I was wearing an extra layer, to ward off a cooler day, which made me feel slightly too warm.  I’m not sure what effect getting up late has, but I suspect that an 11am start is always going to slow me down, not least as it meant I didn’t particularly want to go running at all!  But the big variable is how focused I am and it was running along thinking about all this stuff (and way more) that I reckon actually slowed me down.

I ran the same route as last week which, in short, took me around Burgess Hill and then down to Clayton and back… 11 miles in total.  I had a rough sense about where the mile markers were and whilst I wasn’t slavish in trying to remember the time at the different mile points, I noted enough to be interesting.  The great thing about data, as I am forever telling my clients, is the ability to get a sense of what was going on… albeit in this case, after the fact.

The first seven miles, while I allowed my mind wandered hither & thither, I ran at 6.5mph, or 9.2 minute miles.  Then I picked up the pace, pretending I was running downhill and ran the next 3 miles at 7.2mph, or 8.3 minute miles.  All of which left one final mile and no chance of equalling last weeks’ time.  No matter, as I was still determined to beat an average of 9 minutes per mile (in effect, racing Phil), so I picked up my skirts and flew, even up the hill from Wivelsfield Station, managing this final mile in 7 minutes, 8.5mph.  This gave me an overall time of 1.37 for the 11 miles, average 6.8mph or 8.8 minutes per mile.

One of the reasons that I tend to vary my route is that I don’t actually like racing myself (as a paratelic it is the journey that is of more interest), but I was curious to see whether I could repeat the time from last week.  Alas not, which means that I’ll almost certainly be returning to this route again!