Category: Great things to do!

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Legs out and a lot of fun guys

Okay, so I knew it was a mistake putting old mushrooms in the compost heap last year… I even remember thinking so at the time.  What came as a surprise however, was the return on my error.

The bag was heavy enough that it felt like it contained potatoes… had my brother Nigel been around to advise on their edibility, I’m sure we would have had mushrooms for tea, and probably for about a week!

There had been a rat or mouse in the compost heap, evidenced by a very curious cat hanging around last week, so I decided to empty it yesterday.  Aside from the aforementioned mushies, my willing assistant Kim spent most of the afternoon sieving out around 200 litres of light compost from the heap, while the rest was returned to break down a little more.

While Kim worked her way resolutely through this task, I hollow tined the lawns front and back of the house (an equally thankless job), cut the edges and then scarified… thankfully using the machine!

It was a wonderful way to spend a beautiful spring day!

We awoke this morning to a second glorious day and after reading for a while, I got out to do my normal Sunday jaunt… somewhat surprised that I could walk after our garden exertions yesterday, let alone run.

With my sights set firmly on the Beacon and my legs out for all to see, I had a really enjoyable run out past Oldlands Mill and down through Ditchling.  There has been much in the news about low ground water levels and this was apparent from the comparatively small amount of mud.

One walker warned me that it was ‘a bit mucky up ahead’ but he and I clearly have different concepts of mucky… mine being that my runners are completely caked and I am slithering around like a speed-skater on ice, with mud splattering half way up my back.  There were a couple of muddy-ish pseudo-puddles but it was pretty much dry really

In contrast to last week, I had more than enough energy and ran up the Beacon, reaching the top in about 52 minutes.. the same sort of time it took me to run there with a pack on last summer.

I stretched out my legs a bit coming back down the tricky Beacon path (which again speaks volumes about how dry it was) and then down the next section to Ditchling.  This is often where I start to feel weary, but not today.  I ran up Lodge Hill with ease and back across to Oldlands Mill.

From here it was a relatively easy run back along the road to Burgess Hill and home.

10 miles in 1.41 meant that I had run a rare negative split and averaged 5.94mph, at least a little faster than my ‘pack’ runs last summer.  My prize was to allow myself to ignore the other chores I had planned for this afternoon… with a little help from the sofa!

Now, I wonder what’s for tea?

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Chubby rides again!

Slightly unfair, I feel, the comment from Cliff on last Monday’s post, but the least I can do is to roll with it when I’ve blatantly blanked his excellent advice for such a long time.

This week I had a moment to celebrate.  In the past I have, on possibly two occasions, half-heartedly set out to write something longer than a post… and even longer than a letter to the Right Honourable Nicholas Soames MP containing yet more of my ideas that he really doesn’t want.  On each occasion my effort has fizzled out and quite rightly so.

However, at 3pm on 10th February, I set fingers to keyboard to write the inaugural words of my first proper book, on a subject that I have been teaching and writing about for a couple of years.  I know how long the book will be (thanks to Aidan Berry, Dean of Brighton Business School), have created the structure of sections and chapters, and in a little over 11 hours writing, over the last three days, have already clocked up 3,419 words.

I have also already had half a dozen helpful tips from my fellow alumni at London Business School, having replied to a fortuitously-timed post from someone else in the community who also just started writing a book.

There’s a long, long way to go, and writing it is only a small part of the challenge, but it feels great to have finally reached clarity about this project… I’ve effectively been preparing myself from it since 2007!

So my run this morning had to be shoehorned into a busy day, which is why (here comes the crux of the excuse that you were waiting for) I chose to run on the machine again rather than facing the seemingly sub-zero temperatures outside!

Based on my experience last Sunday, I didn’t bother to even put a tee-shirt on today, but I equally didn’t open the door either.  It’s FAR too cold outside!  I set the fan to blow air at me, filled a bottle with water and set off in the general direction of the cheese plant.

My approach mirrored that of last week, starting at 6mph and increasing by 0.5mph every quarter mile until I reached a mile.  Then I reduced by 1mph and repeated, eventually reaching a terminal speed of 9.5mph as I ran towards the 5 mile mark.

 

The Monday circuits have definitely improved my footing and although the last half mile was undoubtedly hard work, I was quick to feel a sense of recovery afterwards… albeit through a thick layer of sweat that even a shower couldn’t abate!

So 5 miles in 39.28, an average of 7.6mph.  And if nothing else, all this exercise is at least increasing the speed of my writing!

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OMG!

Back in the time of the prosperous, when Kim and I both had London jobs and London flats and escaped to Sussex at the weekends, we each had a personal trainer too.  In fact I would go to the gym in London Bridge at least twice or three times a week and it would be fair to say that I was pretty fit.

Then I had a fairly nasty head-on skiing accident, which resulted in a broken collar bone and a major break in the gym routine, followed by a halo jump in income, which as any parachuter knows means high altitude, low opening!  Both Kim and I chose to start afresh, sell out of London and follow our genuine long-term interests rather than to work back up to the top of an industry we no longer felt passion for.

Which is why, since (before) the outset of this blog in August 2007, you will have seen very little written in these pages about any exercise other than running.

So it came as a bit of a shock to the body to go to a Circuit Training class last night!  One hour with (bluddy) Jane at the Triangle Centre pushed a fine selection of muscle groups to their absolute limit…and clearly beyond since I actually HAD to stop to rest from time to time.

It was an excellent class, broken up into a series of simple paired exercises using no more than a floor mat and a skipping rope.  Oh, and the slowly increasing weight of our own limbs.

It was so excellent, in fact, that it’s fully booked for the foreseeable future!  RATS!

However, the Endorphin drug has been re-tasted and Kim is now on a mission to find us another local activity, with a similarly diverse and good natured group of people, that can leave us feeling similarly pumped-up on a more regular basis.

Watch this space, but in the meantime, OMG!, I feel GOOD!

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SportsBallShop competition winners

I received a lot of verbal comments from readers about the Sports Ball Shop competition (pictured above) in November/December… in the main from friends professing weakly to have too little time to write a few short sentences on a running theme!

But two people did submit stories and so, by default, they each win a voucher for £40 at either sportsballshop.co.uk, sportsbras.co.uk or etoyszone.co.uk.

And the winners are: Nigel Foster and Clifford Dargonne. Voucher codes will follow from me by email in due course guys… just as soon as Ben sends them through.

Since SportsBallShop offered three vouchers (and I have the casting vote), I have arranged for the third voucher to go to: Warden Park School in Cuckfield, via Dai Thomas who teaches there.

I worked as a Young Enterprise Business Advisor to an excellent team of students at Warden Park last academic year, whilst Dai was kindly instrumental in helping me set up FosterRuns.com in 2007.

A big thank you to everyone at SportsBallShop.co.uk (and especially Shannon and Ben) for their sponsorship!  This kind of initiative really sets these guys apart from their competitors!

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And now for something for those with a competitive streak!

Its competition time, although in this case you can compete from the comfort of your own home!

  

SportsBallShop have always been heavily involved with local sports clubs and teams, providing much-needed equipment and funding. Recently though they have expanded into the online world and started the Sponsor A Fitness Blog campaign to support passionate fitness advocates across the UK.  They have very kindly offered me a few vouchers to offer as competition prizes on FosterRuns.com!

Since I love interaction with readers, the competition is going to be for the most quirky, short story about running (max 250 words), ideally highlighting something funny that has happened to you (or your running partners) in the past and that everyone will enjoy.

I have created a separate ‘Competition stories‘ page above to publish all those that don’t need to be censored for a family audience and we will then have a public vote to find out which are our favourite stories.

The author of each of the top 3 stories will receive a generous £40 voucher to be used on equipment of their choice at one of the following sites which sell: balls of all types SportsBallShop.co.uk; sports bras SportsBras.co.uk; and trampolines EtoysZone.co.uk.

Whilst £40 is only a discount off the cost of a whole trampoline, there is plenty of great stuff that it will buy you on the other two sites… so get writing!

Competition Rules Are: Writers may submit more than one story but only one prize will be allocated per person.  Stories must be submitted by close of play on Saturday 17th December.  Voting will then run until Saturday 31st December and winners will be announced the following day, or thereabouts!  Voting will be via email and each voter will be able to identify their first, second and third favourite story.  There will be no cash alternative to the prize which is provided by SportsBallShop and will be sent direct.  I will be fair and equitable but will have the casting vote if required and my word will be final in any dispute!

The competition is now closed and the winners can be found HERE

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Five at seven

When I was staggering down the stairs at six o’clock this morning with stiff legs from Sunday and a painful back, the idea of going for a run seemed a little silly.

However, I had arranged to meet the Bok for a slow run (HA, there’s two words that rarely appear in such close proximity!) so I hobbled off down the road to meet him just after seven.

His latest road route took us around the town and whilst conversation helped the pace flow, it was clear that he could have sprinted off ahead at any point… such that we were two minutes down on his normal time after just two miles!

We still managed 5.34 miles in 45 minutes… which at 7.12mph is pretty good for me!

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Back to Skelton Workshops

Having sported a painful back for about a week, I couldn’t face a repeat run with Mark and Mach 2 yesterday, so I opted instead for a relaxing day in the garden… wasn’t it a beaut?!

Relaxing day in the garden is an oxymoron for me, of course.  I cleared out the tea-house ahead of the autumn, cut wood for the wood burner, pulled some weeds up and generally trimmed back a bit… although this was less energetic compared to emptying and refilling the compost heap, which I did on Saturday!

Also on Saturday, Kim and I took ourselves off to Skelton Workshops for some sculpture tuition. Kim has had a piece of raw stone (a present from Karen) sitting looking at her in the dining room for 18 months and she finally found inspiration and started working on it.

We stood working in the sunny courtyard for an extremely stimulating morning… if you are ever stuck for a present for a loved one, this is a really special idea!  Especially if you go along too… which was what Kim did, as this was my birthday present!

They do courses in sculpture and also in letter cutting and they also have classes for children… what a totally brilliant skill to give a child!  Even a 47 year old one!

My piece has progressed only slightly from its initial rock-like state… can you guess what it is yet?

There’s a way to go with the piece yet but it really is great fun, whilst the camaraderie with the other sculptors makes for a really warm and friendly morning.

Not so warm is the ice-pack that Andy Swan (also at www.andyswan.co.uk) has told me to apply to my back circa 50 times ahead of my forthcoming session with him.  Having suffered for ten days, that one call, allied to ten three-minute applications with five-minutes between (alas, no quite so regular as I’ working in between!), has already made me feel a whole lot better!  Should have known to do that initially!

Meanwhile, back on the the subject of the run I opted to miss yesterday, the Marks apparently decided to go it slow, returning in a lazy 2.32… presumably saving their energy for another chance to make me feel like a slowcoach!  Gits!

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Nighty movers

Three of us ran off into the gathering darkness last night and re-emerged this morning, slightly damper and not so very refreshed from a questionable night’s sleep!

We gathered at Dai’s place in Patcham for a weigh-in last night with both Daren’s pack and mine showing 7.8kg.  Dai’s was 1kg lighter, but then he’s not in training for the TMB!

We ran along to the Ditchling Road, following paths that lay to the East of it to the top of the Downs and then on up to Ditchling Beacon.  Once the last glimmer of light disappeared from the sky there was little to see beyond the limit of the light from the head-torches, or night vision alone where the going was more regular.  We were aware of the hills around us, but the gradients seemed flatted out which made for relatively easy running.

Thus we made reasonable progress, despite the darkness and the weight, making it the 7 miles to Home Hill in about 90 minutes.  Here Dai had previously scoped out a place to bivouac, although it took a little time to find in the scrub.  With firewood collected and a neat fire burning, we rolled out our Gore-Tex bivvy bags and drank hot chocolate cooked on a tiny gas stove.

Then Dai disappeared into the scrub, reappearing minutes later with a bag containing French cheese, Ardennes Pate, Nairn crackers, chocolate and a bottle of red wine!  He had driven up earlier in the day to stash this surprise feast, along with a Basher sheet to make a small shelter.

We feasted merrily around a roaring little fire and agreed that this is about as good as life gets!

Up to this point there had been only random drops of rain in the mildness of the evening, but sometime after bedding down for the night the heavens opened with a vengeance!  In itself this might not have been a problem, but we were trying out three variants of bivouacking fully clothed but sans sleeping bags.

Dai had a sleeping mat and was dry beneath his makeshift shelter, but cold and uncomfortable nevertheless.  Daren had a new lightweight blow-up mat, but this turned out to be a problematic pneumatic as every time he blew it up, it gently let him down again.  Thus he was left cold, uncomfortable, wet when the rain came in through the opening in the bivvy bag… and deflated to boot.

Meanwhile I had borrowed a pre-used Blizzard bag from Pete, which is kind of like a couple of mummy-sized crisp packets inside each other.  It was initially too warm so I lay on top of it within the bivvy bag, but around 2am, with the rain coming down and the Gore-Tex wet to my cold touch, I climbed noisily inside.  It was certainly warmer and dryer, but sadly no less uncomfortable on the hard and bumpy ground and the rest of the night passed very slowly indeed!

When we finally decided to get up just before 6.00am, the rain was on pause and it was a close and misty morning.  In agreement about the extreme level of overnight discomfort, we breakfasted meagrely on tracker bars and more hot chocolate, packed wet gear into our rucsacs and ran off into the morning gloom.

The more direct route back took us past the Chantry memorial, looking beautiful in the mist, and on down to Dai’s place, the 3.3 miles taking us 38 minutes.

So a run over about 10.3 miles in 2.08 truncated by some night manoeuvres… I’m very glad to be back in the warm & dry and nursing my third quadspresso.

And please don’t be surprised if you walk past me today and find me asleep at my desk and with a smile on my face… I’ll be warm and comfortable and almost certainly dreaming about the sumptuous feast from last night.

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New Splodge

I visited RUN in Hove on FosterRuns 4th birthday last week (it always seems like an appropriate birthday treat) and Kurt very kindly ordered me in a pair of Saucony Progrid Guide 4’s, which I picked up today.

So, despite finding it really hard to choose between the numerous different opinions as to the shoes to wear on the TMB, including half a dozen most highly valued ones around the dinner table at Cliff’s last night alone, I’m finally all splodged up ready for the forthcoming trip.  And for a test-run-and-bivvy night which is somewhat closer at hand… eeeek!

At least I shan’t be going hungry (probably for a few weeks) between the totally delicious XXXXXL-sized portions that Vanessa served last night, a rather large lunch at Brighton University Business School today and the Moussaka which is currently in the oven for good measure!

Sounds a bit like new splodge in more ways that one!