Author: FosterRuns

Posted on

Unremarkable ten

The downside of having a training program is having to stick to it, whether or not you feel like it.

This morning I did not feel like it.

However, I still jumped on the machine and set to with the specified task of running 10 miles.  After a brief warm-up, I varied the speed every quarter-mile within the range 7 to 8.5mph, but more towards the bottom end if the truth be known.

I had no radio on so only my thoughts for company and I forgot to ask Kim to open the door so after 30 minutes I jumped off to open it and got straight back on again.

With 2.5 miles to go I set the speed to a constant 7.6mph, but with a mile to go I realised I was going too slow to come in underneath 80 minutes, so I increased to 8mph.

So ten miles in 79.44, average 7.5mph.

Posted on

The other 3.25 miles

As per the last few Mondays, I did a short run this morning to take the edge off yesterday’s long one.

What was instantly surprising was that, beyond a slight initial stiffness in the legs, I felt no other after-effects and happily increased the speed, varying from 6mph initially to between 7 and 8.5mph.  In fact, I whizzed along very comfortably, the only negative sensation being one of hunger that developed after about 2 miles.

For the sake of balanced reporting, I should mention that yesterday afternoon and evening I had a series of temporary headaches and backache and was very pleased to finally turn my lights out at bedtime!

I am also glad to report that Spring took another step forward and that the door was open from the off this morning… although  we do have the benefit of a secluded South facing aspect!

So 3.25 miles in 26.40 which equates to an average of 7.3mph.

Posted on

Spring-tease

This has been a really sociable weekend, at least by our recent standards!

Friday night we met Dai, Kath, Daren and Claire at Noori’s in Brighton for great conversation and delicious curry.

Last night we were treated to an adventurous dinner party by Grant & Karen… the food from all three courses was amazing, the portions generous and the Chateauneuf-du-Pape as rewarding as I remember when I could still afford it!  And with 9 of us to cater for, Grant did a genuinely superb job, cocktails and all!

Of course, as with all good dinner parties, we ate late and when I finally made it to bed towards one o’clock, for the second night running, I rolled in rather like a barrel.  And continued to roll around for some time on account of the diverse tastes and sheer quantity eaten.

Fortunately the food digested into weird dreams overnight and seven o’clock dawned bright and sunny, making it easy to arise, though it took a quadspresso to render me more fully awake.

I started my run just after nine, easing into the initial downhill section from Woodingdean with a view to a potentially huge training run.  As I neared Rottingdean I stowed my gloves and almost stripped off a layer or two, but my decision to wait until I had felt the seafront temperature was validated when it was decidedly chilly.  Spring is en-route, but had clearly not yet arrived.

Ahead I could see the distant chimney that was my halfway target…

… whilst the day was visually stunning.

At 54 minutes, I was a little slower than normal to the Palace Pier and it was 1.01 when I passed the Peace Memorial and continued Westwards.

1.20 saw me passing the point where I had turned round by Hove Lagoon on Valentine’s Day and then I was in to virgin territory, heading out onto the lower spit of Shoreham Harbour.

It’s quite a way along that last bit and when the road ahead was finally barred, it seemed rude not to join the back of another group of runners in running to the very end of the tiny breakwater.  If for no other reason than to see how far I had to run back again!

The runners turned out to be really lovely and also in training for the Brighton Marathon.

I gently pulled ahead of the group coming back along the spit and was once more running on my own as I came back East…

… reaching the Peace Memorial at the 2.20 mark.

Further East I ran along Madeira Drive past the pre-1940’s motorcycle rally and then on past a vast collection of more modern bikes in the car-park, many probably capitalising on a fine and dry, Spring-like day.  I stopped for five minutes at Martlet Kayak Club to chat to Graham, drink water and then briefly chat to Pete Graves on the phone about Table B’hote.  This latter comes with a ‘highly recommended’ tag from me… they’re delicious and now you can even order them online for home delivery, all the way from gorgeous Cornwall!

My legs were starting to feel the distance by now, but I pressed on past the Marina along the top of the cliffs even as the clouds started to roll in.

At Rottingdean, with less than 3 miles to go, the power in my legs really was starting to fade and the cloud cover had dropped the temperature by a noticeable amount.  This is where the mental muscle really carries you onward, in this case up the long hill of Falmer Road, placing one foot in front of the other, each step one nearer to the end.

As I rounded the last corner before the Downs Hotel the traffic was stationary to my left, backed up from the lights at the crossroad ahead and racing a Jenson Interceptor and a Police Car gave me a final goal to focus on.  I beat both to the lights and jogged back lightly to my parents house.

The time: 3.39

The distance: 22.95 miles

The average speed, which felt terminally slow, was actually a respectable 6.29mph.  Although this doesn’t quite get me to my marathon goal, it’s the same average speed as the Valentine Day run, which was only 18.35 miles long.  And whilst my effort at the moment is in building muscle, on the big day I will have no qualms about being swept along with the flow and using every ounce of muscle available!

One final thing, courtesy of two young boys along by Hove Lagoon… they say a picture says a thousand words!

Posted on

Fiveday again

I’ve not much to say for myself this morning.  The thought of running outside briefly crossed my mind before I climbed aboard the machine… would that the Bok was here to force me out!  I varied the speed much like Wednesday and finished five miles in 39.24, average 7.6mph.

There was no drama and the only frisson came from hearing the leader of the FSA, on Radio 4, mention that they had built up a buffer that would now allow them to be proactive rather than reactive.  I’m not certain how a government department should be able  to build up a financial buffer and isn’t it strange how everyone is suddenly thinking about how to do their job better (properly) ahead of probable budget cuts?

Posted on

Ten on the tenth – part three!

Yesterday was always going to be a bit of a rush, hence my delay in posting.

I had a really interesting meeting in London late morning, spent the afternoon reading HBR and networking in the Alumni lounge at London Business School and then participated as a Judge (a pseudo potential early-stage investor) in a Trade Show by LBS MBA students in the Discovering Entrepreneurial Opportunities core course.

This is well worth mentioning further.

390 students, working in 65 teams, had identified opportunities which typically focused around resolving a real customer or stakeholder pain.  They then distinguished between mere ideas and more valuable opportunities, confirming their hypotheses by observation or primary customer research.  Finally they contextualised the opportunities to ensure that they represented distinctive, fresh ways of creating value  in the face of incumbents, and thought through the value chain for delivering the solution.

The Trade Show last night was one of the last parts of the course, where they opened up their ideas to peer review and pitched their ideas to a range of Alumni judges including me.  I have to say that the standard was extremely high indeed, phenomenal really, especially bearing in mind that this is a core MBA course rather than an elective.  It was a real privilege to see their work and full marks should go to the students and the tutors involved!

Of course, in advance of this fascinating day, I had to sneak in a ten mile run, so it was a bit of an early start.

Once again, for time reasons, it was a magic carpet run, but at least that enables me to make a direct comparison with the last two ’10 on the 10th’ runs.

January 10th: 10 miles in 82 minutes, heart rate sub 175, slight post-run staggering, upstairs bathroom in progress.

February 10th: 10 miles in 79.35, heart rate sub 170, scant post-run staggering, bathroom complete.

March 10th: 10 miles in 78.47, heart rate in the low 160’s, no time to stagger afterwards as I had bolt down some breakfast, run through the shower and get to the station!

For more interest (beyond Radio 4) I varied the speed of each quarter mile, warming up at 6 and 6.5mph then cycling thr0ugh 7, 7.5, 8 and 8.5mph until the end.

This certainly made the task more bearable and I definitely feel as if I’m progressing… which is useful bearing in mind that there are only 5 training weekends left before the marathon!

Posted on

Late lunchtime

This morning Bill Faust and I had volunteered to be part of a Career Speed-Dating event for year 9 students at local Oathall School, which turned out to be a really fun event.

As a result I didn’t get a chance to do my normal Monday morning short run, so instead I took a late lunchtime and ran then instead… I’ve just jumped out of the shower!

I started at 7mph, but after a mile increased it a little, and then a little more until I was running quite happily at 7.6mph.

3 miles whizzed by with little effort in 24.47, an average of 7.27mph.

Posted on

Sociable Sunday

Kim and I saw Tim Burton’s film Alice in Wonderland last night, which was very strange.  Having seen Avatar a few weeks ago, I am already captivated by the whole 3D experience and physically ducked or flinched several times during the film and the 3D adverts that preceded it.  But there didn’t seem to be sufficient development of the characters involved , as typified by the Mad Hatter’s occasional lapse into a broad Scot’s accent, which kept leaving me with the feeling that I had missed some important bits.  Was there a prequel that I should have seen?  Overall, worth seeing, but slightly, er… vacuous.  Sorry Tim!

This morning dawned sunny and COLD!  Rather than run from Woodingdean, I had arranged to meet Cliff at Falmer and run off-road and since there was virtually no traffic on the road for either of us, we were both standing shivering by about 8.45am… as was the pond, which you can see below was partially frozen.

Pete then turned up in his car (a double surprise!) and I was then treated to the spectacle of two grown men comparing their prototype appendages ahead of the Brighton Marathon… if this sounds a little vague, then it’s supposed to, as I am sworn to secrecy.  I did get a photograph of one of the said items…

… although whilst Cliff is holding it, he is also carefully hiding it behind the black fabric.  Designers eh!

Since none of the others deigned to turn up (very sensibly, in view of the temperature) we set off up the Falmer Road, around to Newmarket Copse and then up to the top of the ridge.  The wind was fweezin and comments were passed the couple of times I snuck into Cliff’s slipstream, so I had to grin and bear it!  We went along as far as Swanborough Hill before heading south, down towards Balsdean pumping station.

At the bottom I suggested that we run up to the reservoir on the top of the hill before returning and continuing on our way, but was vetoed by my older friends.  I’m sure that I saw the sheep, with their newly-born lambikinis in tow, smirking at this display of wimpishness!  Mind you, neither I nor the sheep have a 50-mile race coming up in less than two weeks time… on that basis maybe they should be given the benefit of the doubt!

We took the path affectionately known as The Snake, for all its twists and turns (and today slightly slippery top layer), up to the top of Woodingdean and from here we doubled back up to the radio mast, Pete insisting on racing a cyclist up to the top of the hill.

For all you bottom fetishists out there, the following photographs are purely designed to illustrate that I’m a messy runner… that can be the only explanation, because we ran along exactly the same paths!

From the top of Castle Hill we dropped down to Newmarket Copse and then back to Falmer, which we reached at the one hour 40 mark.  Alas, I was certain that I needed to do more, so I left the others next to the cars and pressed onwards.

I ran over the A27 and up the road towards Mary’s Farm, cutting off left on the other side of the hill to reach the back of the University of Sussex… where I was frankly disappointed by the amount of rubbish laying around where the students presumably had held a party (what a grumpy old man I am… but clean it up guys!).  I ran through the campus and then across the bottom of Stamner Park before running to the bottom of Coldean Lane.

I crossed under the road and ran through the housing estate and then through Falmer School grounds, memories flooding back from the years I spent there as a child… although I have to confess mixed emotions about the evocation that has been placed over the doors, which read ‘Welcome Proud of Falmer‘.  I think I get what the authors were trying to say, but I bet this was designed by committee and I’m sure my old English teacher would have put a red pen right through it with a comment to the effect of  ‘could do much better‘.

I continued on towards the football stadium, but just past Falmer Station was forced out on to the main road when the path ran out.  I carefully snuck along the side of the road, took my chances with the traffic at the junction and then ran into the tranquillity of the old village (well, half of it, since the planners long-ago cut it in half), going all the way around the pond to add a few minutes to my time… and hence getting a rare shot from the other side of the pond.

The time was 2.32 and with a distance that I’ve just worked out as 15.5 miles, the speed averaged out at 6.12mph.  Sad to report that the initial 10.8 miles, completed with the guys and hilly as it was, was much faster at 6.48mph and the balance a tardy 5.87mph, but the distance was the overall aim today so I’m happy with that.  I have another 20-miler planned next week, so watch this space!

Posted on

And Five on Friday

Lately I seem to have been becoming a more reluctant runner and a conversation with the Big Man (Mr DP) yesterday highlighted to me the reason why.  Where once the running used to be about fun and socialising, it now has a clear purpose.  And since each of us has our own running program, mileage targets, time constraints and other variables including at least two different race dates, it’s not so easy to run together.  Realising that I feel a lot happier… I know that there is a peak of fitness to achieve at a certain point in time and then I’ll be able to use that extra strength to enjoy myself even more than I used to before!

Even so, after ten icky miles yesterday and slightly achy knee joints this morning, I was not raring to get on the machine.

But on I did get and after the distances I’ve recently endured, 5 miles seemed pretty straightforward.  42.26 is not fast by the standards of previous weeks, but I’m still being sensible after last weekend’s 20-miler and with the average at just over 7mph, it’s okay.

One other thought from the Big Man is rattling around in my brain though… why am I not outside.  I run on the machine for a series of reasons:  monitoring heart rate, getting used to running at a particular speed, avoiding the ice & snow in the winter, lack of pleasant local pavements to run on, time available and so on.  This has definitely had a positive effect on my long-distance running ability, as witnessed in the consistency of speed in my Woodingdean runs.

But Spring is upon us and that’s my favourite season for running outside so whilst I may continue to do some training on the machine, I will hopefully find time in the next few weeks to do some of my old cross-country routes too.  And since the Big Man is back in town for a while and there’s a rumour that the Bok has overcome some of his back problems, maybe there’s even a chance of the odd social run too.  Just the thought of it has made me smile!

Posted on

Icky ten

Kim has been in NYC for a week and having collected her from Heathrow early yesterday, I drove into London and didn’t get back home until late.  Hence my Wednesday 10-miler got turned into a Thursday 10-miler.  Based on my run earlier this morning though, I don’t think I like running on Thursdays!

Maybe it was as simple as allowing too much time to elapse between runs, so my legs had a chance to stiffen up, but I didn’t feel great on the machine this morning.  Maybe it was also in part that I listened to Radio 4, where I’m fast coming to the conclusion that the BBC is actually the LBC… The Labour Bias Corporation.

This morning’s Conservative target was Lord Ashcroft.  Maybe I’m an oddball for believing that Government is stronger for having real, global businesspeople within its ranks, rather than anodyne, career politicians with little or no business experience.  And maybe I’m also odd for believing that global business people should pay taxes back into all of the communities around the world that they derive income from, not merely some Colonial master.

But my real beef here is about the timing of these so called revelations… rather conveniently for Labour in the run up to the election.  The BBC/LBC was fast to interrogate (a better verb might be to hector) Conservative ministers about how long they have known about the situation.  But presuming that the tip-off came from within the Government, to whom the Cabinet Office reported at the time the initial agreement was reached, they were curiously silent as to how long Gordon Brown has been keeping this quietly up his sleeve.

Anyway, suffice to say that by 10 miles I was feeling decidedly queasy, despite having jumped off the machine to open the door to clear my rage and swig some water after 8 miles.  Despite also only having set the machine to 7mph or thereabouts for most of the way.

84 minutes, 32 seconds of mostly uncomfortable running.  And all in the knowledge that I must climb aboard again tomorrow to do yet another 5 miles.  Ugh!

Posted on

More?

After running 20 miles on the machine yesterday, I was unsure how I would feel about getting back on it again this morning.

But after the inclemence of yesterday,  the day that dawned was beautiful and with sun streaming through the window it was hard to feel anything other than upbeat.  With a hasty espresso to wake me up and a banana for sugar, I got straight on with it.

I started the machine at 6mph to give my legs a chance to warm up but quickly realised they actually wanted to go faster… I kept running onto the front board.  I increased the speed to 6.5mph and while I’m sure I could have run faster still, I thought prudence was well advised.  I actually experienced no discomfort at all, so the training must be having an effect.

I regretted not putting the fan on though… the combination of the heating, sun and my activity quickly brought me to a hot sweat, but I didn’t want to stop so I just had to endure it.

After yesterday’s Kiss FM session, this morning I opted for Radio 4 and endured some politician getting a browbeating from the presenter.  It was clear that the presenter just wanted a percentage number that could be used later in the news, but the guest was having none of it and managed to get away clean from the more telling elephant in the room.

He pointed out that there has been a 45% increase in public spending within local authorities since 1997 and that councils would easily be able to create efficiencies without cutting front line services.

Whether or not this is the case, this is like saying that ‘we think they’ve been pouring money down the drain for a number of years but we’ve not previously done anything about it because… ‘

Slightly hot under the collar, for more reasons that one, I completed 3 miles in 28.24, average speed 6.3mph.