Author: FosterRuns

It’s been feeling somewhat chilly in the house lately, which has less to do with the weather than because we had reduced the heating from seven to two hours a day… one in the morning & one in the evening.

Er… at least that was what I thought I had done. In fact I just realised it was only coming on for 30 minutes in the morning and given that it’s not been particularly comfortable I’ve just increased it to 1 hour in the morning & 90 minutes in the evening.

Suffice to say that this morning it was definitely warmer outside than inside, so I was still able to do my short run in a t-shirt & shorts.

Recently, after around 20 years of doing short daily Qigong / chi-gung body & breathing exercises, the words of my original tutor (Dan, I think) finally sank in… the movements are supposed to be slow, flowing and soft, such that someone could easily deflect your arm.

At least I think that’s what he meant… it was a long time ago and I won’t bore you with the back-story about why it suddenly came to mind again!

Suffice to say that. as someone who suffers from perpetually taut muscles & tendons, cultivating that flippity-floppiness is actually really useful, even though I don’t find it easy!

Long-story-short, I managed to bring a little of that flippity-floppityness to my run today and it helped me to stretch my stride out a little.

My time was a touch slower on the way up the hill than last time, but still ahead of the recent runs before that… coming back down was an exact match for last time, which I’m really happy with. So, just under 2 miles in 19:21.

My ears are c o l d and I wish that I had worn a hat this morning… to go with my shorts & t-shirt.

The lightweight clothing (apart from the lack of a hat) were perfect by the time I got back, but stepping out was a bit of a shock… even though I had waited until the sun had warmed things up for a couple of hours.

I could feel that I was running more quickly today and that showed up in the slightly improved numbers… from north of 10 minutes per mile for the last few months to 9.37 per mile today, fairly evenly matched across the two halves in spite of the difference in gradient.

So 1.99 miles in 19.10 minutes… and the need to keep at it (whilst wearing a hat methinks)!

It’s been getting colder recently, but today was much milder, with cloud cover that threatened rain. It stayed dry, though I had decided to go for a run in any case.

The first half of my current short run is largely uphill and it was hard work, but in a different way to my recent runs. Instead of heavy knees I felt as if I wanted to run a little quicker but simply could not.

Obviously the second half is largely downhill and this made enough of a difference for me to stretch my legs out… seemingly for the first time in an age.

The overall time was the same as recent runs (just under 2 miles in just over 20 minutes), but I felt as if I made good time on the way home.

I meant to take a photo en route but there was so much going on that I kept forgetting until I was back. There seems to be a lot of money being spent on building works, with a number of older houses receiving contemporary makeovers… it’s always lovely to see people taking pride in their environment and even the grass verges looked neat for a change.

The last few nights have been autumn-cold, but shorts and a t-shirt was still sufficient for my run this morning… just under 2 miles in just over 20 minutes.

The last few weeks we have been decorating the house, so my body has had an ongoing workout of infrequently used muscle groups… balancing on top of ladders, painting, moving furniture, carrying things up & down the stairs etc.

This appeared to make little difference to my run this morning, but it did make a difference to gardening at my Mum’s yesterday… I found that trimming her 80ft hedge and then cutting the grass with a push-mower was a lot easier than the last time I did it, with fewer after-effects.

The more you do, the more you can do.

Which segues neatly into the subject of Queen Elizabeth, whose funeral is today. Though I didn’t have the honour of meeting her, she has been an ever-present force in my life.

Lots of uber-wealthy people around the world have lifestyles similar to hers, but my guess is that very few of these people would consider themselves to be a public servant, or would work tirelessly (by all accounts) for the good of common people… in her case the people who make up this country and commonwealth.

Few people will have a high pressure career lasting more than 40 years, let alone one lasting 70 years… not to mention working diligently right up to the very end. She really was amazing.

I pledged allegiance to Queen Elizabeth as a Cub Scout fifty-odd years ago and, based on her work ethic across that time, I’m now very happy to transfer that pledge to her son and successor, Charles.

The Queen is dead, long live the King!

I was feeling my age this morning when I dragged myself out to the teahouse for the first of two quadspressos, but Mark’s suggestion (‘go on, you know you want to, go for a run‘) was sufficiently assertive that my body obeyed before my mind had a chance to spin up any excuses.

Next thing I knew I was running down the road… and this time with a key to get back in 🙂

‘Just over two miles in just over 20 minutes’ was probably not what Mark had in mind (as he stood on the top of a mountain somewhere) but at least I was out there 🙂

In other news, Andy P completed the 100 km UTMB CCC in 22 hours, showing more grit than some people might muster across a lifetime. Thinking about the circuit brings back very happy memories of my walking trip with Daren 🙂

The dry weather decided to break as I was doing my yoga this morning and by the time I walked out to the teahouse with a coffee there was a very gentle pattering of rain on the roof… slightly louder, though still gentle, as I drank a second cup.

I had been fearing a more significant downpour, which might have just bounced & run off the parched ground, but this gentle watering was perfect.

I had already planned to go running this morning and this was a great opportunity to remind my ageing runners (and me) what it’s like to be wet. Which reminds me, I really must go to RUN to get some new runners… it’s been so long that Kurt might no longer recognise me 🙁

The sky darkened as I prepared to go out, but the rain was still gentle… it got heavier as a ran further, and I was definitely wet by the time I got back, but it was never uncomfortable.

I wasn’t the only person out enjoying the precipitation as I passed another runner twice during my run, clearly revelling in the rain, and even the walkers I passed seemed in an extra-friendly mood, calling out to say good morning.

Just over two miles in just under 20 minutes… nothing outrageous, but I’m really happy to have been able to keep my feet in the game.

While I was writing it started raining more forcibly, with dark clouds and a few nice claps of thunder to accentuate the point, but the sky is lightening again now and the garden seems to be happy soaking up every drop that comes its way 🙂

We really are having a proper summer this year and the forecasts suggest that it may stay that way until the end of the month. I’m pretty sure that average annual rainfall stays fairly consistent from year to year, so we’re probably in for a very wet autumn. This is reminiscent of 1976, when I seemed to spend a lot of time getting drenched whilst standing outside in school lunch or bus queues in the pouring rain.

Beautiful morning today though and whilst I didn’t feel as if I was flowing along the road in a graceful way (more like the clunking of a square-wheeled car), I was at least happy that this was simply because i’ve not been doing enough running lately.

This said, I did choose to take the slightly elongated route, so 2.02 miles in just over 20 minutes.

Right now it feels as if I’m sitting in a sauna, drenched from head to toe, which must be a good way to clear out the pores.

When the temperature reaches the thirties, it’s easy to forget to run… or alternatively to be quite deliberate in finding reasons not to. This morning was cooler and my run was 1.9 miles in just under 19 minutes 🙂

I was hoping to get out for a run before the end of the week, but work and weather gave me sufficient excuse to delay… choosing not to do valuable long-term things is unfortunately an easy option for us all.

I sat in the teahouse in the heat of this morning, totally engrossed while I immersed myself in a particularly engaging messy problem. Three hours and several quadspressos later I realised that the sun had withdrawn behind grey clouds and the temperature had dropped.

Research into problem-solving shows the benefit of allowing ideas to incubate, so the arguments tipped in favour of a run after all. I wasted no time and have just returned from my short 1.87 mile circuit in just under 18 minutes.

There seldom seems anything meaningful to write home about this circuit, but while I was still sitting in the teahouse earlier a brave blackbird hopped right up to the pool at the base of the waterfall (which wasn’t running… the photo above is from yesterday) and had a luxuriously long bath. I remember that Joseph Jaworski wrote about our ability to be more synchronous those around us and with nature in general… this was one of those small joyous moments. 🙂