Great things to do! – Page 10

July 6, 2008

New splodge

I still have some old posts to catch up on, but I thought that I’d get some new ones down while they are fresh in my ailing memory! Yesterday was a red letter day, as, after threatening for some time, we finally made it down to the Run Shop. It was a great choice of day to go as both Kurt and Fred were in there.

I spend a lot of time talking to my clients about good strategy and I’m going to write a short piece on my other site about this place, as it’s such a great example.

Suffice to say that the range, though not vast, is carefully selected from the perspective of runners and the guys engage with each customer to find out what they really need… and quite simply help them buy it. No pressure sales here, just good old fashioned, quality service!

Kim’s shoes, though not high mileage, were getting on a bit, having seen life before the Berlin marathon in 2004. My runners, though only bought last October, have been used extensively right through the winter mud, have probably clocked up over 600 miles and have not been kept in pristine condition (especially in comparison to the Bok’s shoes) and have thus deteriorated… that’s my finger sticking through the webbing above and the other shoe has the same damage.

So, after five short runs around the block in different pairs of shoes we came away with some lovely Run shopping bags.

Imagine my surprise however, when I looked at what I had bought.

Okay, so I bought two pairs… and the other pair has an orange right shoe, before you start to worry.

The white ones are the updated version of the Saucony shoe I’ve been wearing since October (in fact, my last three pairs have been Saucony) and they are very light and yet sufficiently splodgy for the off-road terrain I favour.

The orange ones are going to sit and wait for the return of the autumn mud and a quick glance at the soles will explain why!

If you recall, yesterday was a beautiful day and I wondered idly how long it would take me to take the shine off the new purchases. I guess that I needn’t have worried.

June 15, 2008

Nettled!

I knew it was a mistake to tell Clive about the recent article I had read, which said that being stung by stinging nettles cures hayfever.

Anyway, it is fair to say that after the late night before, there was a groggy start to the morning after. Still, despite the forecast of rain for the weekend, it was a beautiful & sunny day, so after the usual banana and quadruple espresso, I donned my ailing runners and got with it.

Aware that it was the day of the London to Brighton Bike Ride, I had devised a rough route that would enable me to enjoy the day, see the cyclists and get back without any real drama. Thus I headed out to Oldlands Mill and down towards Ditchling, hooking a right before I got there and dropping down to Keymer. From there I went straight across the fields to Clayton, arriving by a different path and thus discovering a new way up to the windmills.

Having run up the hill the whole way without stopping, I allowed myself a break to walk through the car park, before resuming my run up the track towards the Beacon. There were lots of walkers, but it was so far just another Sunday. I reached the Beacon in about one hour fifteen and the view was so beautiful that I stopped to take this video.

beacon-view

The London to Brighton Bike Ride crew had set up camp in the car park so I availed myself of the facilities before standing to watch the cyclists mount the last rise. I have a video of this too, but I can’t upload it.

I then set off down the track that I normally come up. An unusual noise alerted me to a cyclist coming down fast behind me and I stood out of the way to let him pass (he wouldn’t have been able to stop at the speed he was going!) and then I loosed off the brakes myself and hammered down. Suprisingly I caught him at the bottom where he had paused momentarily and we had a drag race up the road – I think we were both surprised how hearty my challenge was, although he kept accelerating when I had reached ‘sprint’.

Then it was down to Sporting Cars of Brighton, up East End Lane and north along the Sussex Border Path… where the conversation with Clive came back to haunt me. Waist high stinging nettles mixed with slippery mud and tricky styles soon had whatever hayfever I had left on the run… my legs are still itchy, but it’s not so bad really Clive. You should try it again!

I should mention that last night he recounted a tale of being flung, wearing only shorts, into a large nettle patch when he was young… ugh!

The Border Path is a really tiresome stretch, with its myriad gates and styles and as the two-hour marker passed my energy suddenly waned, like a light going out. I found myself thinking about not peanut butter on toast, but peanut butter and jam sandwiches… serious sugar craving!

I walked, then ran, walked then ran, walked then ran, each time getting nearer to home. I crossed the stream of cyclists again, feeling pretty sorry for these folk who had several miles to go before they even reached the bottom of the killer Beacon hill!

Then I was across the Common and crashing through the front door snarling for food! Not a spectacular time, but the distance was a whiff over a half marathon and out of the two hours 25 minutes, I had spent at least some time looking at the view and watching the cyclists.

The run did take its toll though. Having eaten and quenched my thirst, I fell asleep in a chair for a couple of hours and now, having washed the car (the only other thing I’ve managed to do all day), I’m ready for an early night.

June 15, 2008

An Adams Family Gathering

Kim, Cliff and I squeezed into the car and hotfooted it down to Southampton last night for Nicky’s 40th celebration (well, one of them, anyway). We quickly realised that Andy had omitted to tell us it was a hat party, but that was probably a good thing!

Clive and Nat, on the other hand, arrived in their excellent hats to a dark & empty house, A&N having moved from it some five or six years ago! That may not have been such an issue had they not walked there from the hotel at the bottom of the road that the party was in… Nat was in an evil mood, as you can clearly see.

Kim & Nat sat under the patio heater all night as the party goers ebbed and flowed to them, while the boys took up residence in the kitchen doing much the same, albeit much nearer to the pavlova, strawberry cheesecake and chocolate tart.

An excellent evening had by all, rounded off by a post-midnight drive back along the coast… with Cliff trumping that by driving onwards from our place at about 2am!

Thanks Andy & Nicky!

May 27, 2008

A cool, apres-run Blonde

This fantastic article http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/news/article.asp?UAN=3390 in Runners World says that drinking organic beer after running is a GOOD THING!

Blonde by Hepworths http://www.thebeerstation.co.uk/ is a non-gassy, organic lager beer, which comes in handy 330ml bottles AND is delicious even when it’s warm… the acid test of a great beer! Having tested it on numerous friends over the years, I can vouch for its unswerving popularity and I heartily recommend it for the job!

Now you have a great reason to keep a case near your running shoes!

April 27, 2008

The mud in Goodwood

On account of my fencing yesterday (I had particularly tight shoulders and, er, butt-cheeks for some reason!), I didn’t feel like running this morning. So despite the thunderstorms, we took a drive out to visit the Sculpture Estate at Goodwood.

This is a 26 acre wood, filled with over 70 outdoor sculptures that have been commissioned by the Foundation. It’s a beautiful, peaceful place to wander around is the perfect place to showcase the pieces, more magical today with the wood steaming from the last rain shower. As well as a slightly soft layer of mud, so I felt right at home.

The sculptures are all for sale, but with prices up to £290,000 (although there were a couple of £POA’s, from which you can draw your own conclusions!) it’s fun to just look! The one pictured above (Sunday Sport by Paul Day) is a cool £45,000, but it is amazing!

We decided to go back to the little visitor centre at the end and timed it perfectly with a really heavy downpour.

Entry to the Estate costs £10 per person but that’s a very small price to pay for the tranquility and the magnificent views north across Sussex.

We did think it was a shame that they did not have a small cafe to get a cup of tea though… until we followed their suggestion and drove down to the Goodwood Park Hotel. This is a four star hotel with real manners and though we only wanted tea and cake, they treated us like royalty.

Even to the extent that someone went to the other side of the hotel to find some cake, which a chef then iced especially for us! It was the most delicious coffee cake I’ve tasted in a long time. They then found us some newspapers so we could sit in the supremely comfortable leather chairs and read. I braced myself for the price of our simple afternoon tea… £6.90, all in.

We’ll be back!

April 27, 2008

Fencing in shorts

Yesterday morning was beautiful and as we sat outside eating breakfast I wondered exactly how I would spend the day relaxing.

Last year I removed the fence between us and our neighbours on one side, with the intention of replacing it with something more sightly. With the fence gone though, all agreed that it not being there was a marked improvement and it had stayed that way ever since, allowing the afternoon sun to filter gently through the leaves.

One downside however, was that as the honeysuckle and roses died back in the winter, so it became a little too open for my taste, so some time ago I conceptualised a cunning modesty panel. I use the word conceptualised quite deliberately, as I had no idea how I was going to do it. The panel would abut the wall and sit gracefully across the end of a gazebo, but this was too wide for a stock item. So, as an insight into how my mind works, I approached the problem thus:

First, I worked out where the post would go and drove a steel post holder into the ground… back in November! It was in a tricky place to swing the sledgehammer and there are some tenuous roots at that point, so inevitably it went in slightly skewed… and that’s how it stayed.

Next, early in April, I bought a stack of wood. And last weekend, a roll of bamboo screening.

So, yesterday morning, because it was sunny and I couldn’t think of the best way to relax… and because our neighbours went out (I hate an audience when I think I’m going to make a fool of myself!) I put on my shorts and worked out how I could fix a post neatly around the back corner of the garage. And then, having cut, drilled the pieces and assembled them, fixed it in place.

Next, I consulted my craftsman friend Andrew regarding the twisted post holder and he suggested the judicious use of a five-foot iron bar (which I just happened to have laying about!) to twist it into the right place. With some ingenuity (using a bar-size drill-bit and a couple of 2×4 offcuts) I coaxed the holder into the right place and dropped the post neatly in.

Now the tricky bit. Who knows how to construct a fence panel? Not I, as I had been more than aware for several months! Helpfully, I still have a few fence panels around the garden so I had an excellent template… and I scribbled down how mine would work for good order.

I first measured the space between posts, then cut and laid out two simple frames sandwiching two layers of bamboo screen, pretty side out. And firmly screwed it all together… which actually wasn’t that difficult. With the help of my excellent assistant, who had been weeding, cutting edges and generally catching the sun, we lifted it snugly into place and I screwed it home.

Et voila, there was a modesty panel. Not exactly what I had in mind for the day, but at least the legs came out as promised!

Redirecting the garden lights created a pleasing tableau and I now can’t wait for the weather to be warm enough to sit out in the evening!

April 24, 2008

All mud and no running

Would it surprise anyone if I said that I spent yesterday crawling around in the thick Chiltern mud? I don’t suppose so as any regular readers will know that I’m always up to my knees in the stuff.

But the main aim of yesterday was not to get too muddy, but rather bump and splosh around at an elegant ride height at least a couple of feet above the ground. Courtesy of the Land Rover Experience. The function of this truly excellent centre is to demonstrate to potential buyers the ability of this most English of Chelsea Tractor. In extremis.

I can tell you first hand that the streets of Kensington & Chelsea are cared for in a way that puts other councils to shame, with perfectly paved, level sidewalks, motorway standard tarmacking and regularly cleaned gutters. Outside of the garden squares and patio pots, mud does not feature widely.

This centre, by comparison, has an awful lot of the stuff. Deep, slippery ruts and complex cross-cuts, tracks submerged in watery mud, teflon-coated muddy grass, steep muddy inclines and dizzying drops, tree-lined forest tracks with mud mixed with roots… you name it, they have it!

I know from ice-driving in Sweden how much difference tyres make to safety so I was stunned to find out what kind they proposed to use to cope with this dictionary of muddiness: standard road tyres on all but one fairly old, green Defender. Moreover, all but the aforementioned were completely standard vehicles in every aspect.

During the day I got to drive the green Defender through the very worst of the mud and deep water, a Range Rover down through the forest trail (avoiding all but three of the myriad tennis balls suspended strategically from the trees), a new silver Defender round a typical time trial section with awkward gates, tricky changes in camber and surface and the very worst of the ruts and cross-cuts (Penny and Pete will know what I mean) and a Range Rover Sport out on the road.

To prove how truly amazing these vehicles are, we persuaded the team to let us drive the final vehicle, an £80k Range Rover Vogue TDSE, not out on the road as planned, but over some extreme bumps and at some fairly radical angles both sideways and endways. I’m pretty comfortable driving most anything, but we were at such an angle sideways at one point that I thought I was going to fall out of my seat!

I was so enthralled that I completely forgot to take any pictures, but late in the day I caught a short video. Watch the horizon very carefully to get a sense of what we were doing in a perfectly controlled way, in beautifully appointed comfort. the-drop.mp4

All-in-all a totally mud-tastic day!

April 9, 2008

Message for Daren

Dai and I set the world to rights today with a bottle of Merlot over lunch and a relaxed stroll along Brighton seafront on a gloriously sunny day.

If anyone is wondering why the English have a reputation for talking about the weather, last week was gorgeous, there were floods on Saturday, two inches of snow on Sunday and we were back supping Earl Grey tea in a beach cafe today… go figure.

Readers of Daren’s blog will be familiar with the way that he taunts us with pictures of glamorous beaches and idyllic sunsets, so back at ya Daren!

April 9, 2008

Monday morning exercise

After the snow and freezing temperatures on Sunday, I was back helping my friend John with the base for his new garden shed on Monday, pictured after the first load and again after the second – or should that be the 5th and 6th as Nick & I helped him in with the 3rd & 4th last week.

I’m sure he’ll call me a wimp, but I ACHED yesterday having pulled the float machine up and down a dozen times! There was great camaraderie amongst the friends helping though and it was fascinating to see how it all came together.

And I have actually enjoyed discovering some dormant muscles!

March 22, 2008

Really bad wind

Nessie made a delicious breakfast for Cliff and I this morning, consisting of eggs from the hens in the garden, bacon, sausages, mushrooms, fried bread… and beans. It was a HUGE plate and they waited patiently while I slowly worked my way through it – Cliff having woofed his down before their three huge dogs (which you can see in this video with After the Ice) spotted that he had food enough for all of them.

What was odd about it, was that whilst you would expect to have wind after eating a meal like that, we had it before. In fact, truth be known, Cliff had it much worse than I did.

It was one of those mornings where one look outside gives you sufficient information to call the planned run off. Alas, I knew that whatever excuse I could devise would not suffice… and certainly not ‘it’s fweezing cold and heaving it down with rain’. I suspect that even ‘hell hath frozen over and it’s raining frozen fire’ would still elicit a response along the lines of ‘get out there, you wuss’.

So it was that I found myself running with Cliff on this weather-filled day. He really is SO fit (as Daren’s fitness table shows) and it won’t surprise you to hear that he ran up the steep hill behind their house (25 minutes bottom to top) directly into the strongest Northerly wind I have run in this winter. Strangely, I neither ran up the hill nor directly into the wind… instead I ran (pretty much flat out) two feet behind him whilst watching the seemingly almost flat ground spew out from under his feet.

When we turned to the East towards Firle Beacon at the top of the hill, I finally emerged from Cliff’s lea and the full force of the wind hit me. It was so strong that it was actually difficult to breathe and when it started to hail, ten minutes later, it was like needles stinging the side of my face. My gloved hands were starting to freeze, but I knew that if I stopped it would only prolong the agony, so the only option was to keep on pressing forward.

As we approached the top of Firle Beacon, the full force of the wind was augmented by driving rain: the combination meant that I could see nothing out of my watery up-wind left eye! Momentarily I was transported back in time to kayak trips in my ‘teens & early twenties when the wind and rain always seemed to unleash their full force as we crossed an area of open water… despite the feeling of total wretchedness and despair, the only option was to press on. One paddle stroke forward, one to correct the heading as the wind caught the bow and seemingly a third stroke forward to get back to where you started.

Cliff’s run rate is right on the edge of my capability and I was really pleased to have managed to stay with him, even if I had slip-streamed him for the really difficult bit and now felt like up-chucking! But from here on in it was mostly downhill with the wind in our rear quarter. Slowly I managed to fill and empty my lungs more fully, while my frozen hands became more painful as the warm blood returned and eventually the pain subsided.

The sun came out and the run down was a delight in the little valleys where the temperature felt like a summers day. Bizarrely, on one last little uphill section, I could feel the intense heat of the material of my longs on my legs… something that I cannot recall having experienced before.

And before I knew it, we were back, showered and eating breakfast: the pain of the hill receding into my failing memory whilst the rain came down once again outside.

I’m not certain, but I’m pretty sure that we ran around 7.6 miles in just under one hour 10 minutes which is 6.5mph. This is a staggeringly fast speed bearing in mind that we climbed 776 feet and had to cope with a roaring headwind. And for the avoidance of any doubt, this was nothing to do with Nessie’s beans.