Long run – Page 4 – Foster Runs

March 17, 2013

Discoveries

It may seem an odd thing to say, but if you have about 20 minutes (or more) to spare right now, I suggest that you click the link below rather than reading my blog.

http://www.ted.com/playlists/60/work_smarter.html

My week started with a little snow, though come Tuesday when I checked to make sure some London meetings were still on, this fact was met with more than a little surprise… as was the snow gear I was wearing when I arrived!

Thursday found me back in London for meetings and an interim event, after which I stayed in my old Earls Court stomping ground. It may sound slightly kooky, but I slept right under the bed in my old flat! Before you get the wrong idea entirely, I was one floor down, staying with friends.

The next morning I was reminded why it was such a great place to live when I was able to walk to a meeting near Olympia!

All week I had slowly been coming to terms with the change from Blackberry to Apple. Frustrations abounded to start with, but these lessened as the week wore on and I discovered simple work-arounds… such as, for example, how to set the alarm so that it only vibrates on the bedside table rather than blasting you awake.

Last night I had a comparative epiphany… I had read poor reviews about the various TED apps on offer, but clicking on the play-list above brought me a series of phone-sized TED talks with no app required.

I think I have just sold myself on the Apple thang in one easy step.

Recalling my running machine experiments with the Kindle as I prepared for my run on the machine this morning (it was raining outside) I found a safe place for the iPhone to sit and wired myself in.

Because the link above is a playlist, there is 165 minutes of material available with no digital input required… digital, in this case, pertaining to my finger. Trying to control any tiny technology devices whilst running is generally a little hit & miss… as in miss step, hit floor.

Suitably wired for brain food I did the normal 7mph run with occasional 0.1mph increases. Trying to concentrate (on TED for example) requires a generally slower pace, which meant that I found it hard going towards the end.

Several things would improve the experience further: an iPad so that the screen is larger, a bracket to hold it higher and further away and a set of Bluetooth headphones to remove the wire tether with the associated risk of catapulting the devise off into oblivion.

I ended up completing 7.35 miles in 60 minutes.

Spring now seems to be back on track after it’s brief winter sojourn and with a little luck I’ll be back outside next weekend. In the meantime I have another fascinating week of discoveries ahead, including lecturing at both Brighton Business School and UCL.

January 1, 2013

Happy 2013

Happy New Year!

We’ve had a great Christmas break with a restorative balance of quiet reflective time and really fun time spent with friends and family.

We took in the amazing Lost and Found Orchestra which is a riotous kaleidoscope of percussive sound and vision. Originally designed by STOMP for the 40th Anniversary of the Brighton Festival in 2006, it has since toured internationally to wide acclaim. Brighton is home to co-creator Luke Cresswell (who I went to school with in the late seventies & early eighties) so the performances here hold special significance!

We also saw the amazing film Life of Pi which is a beautifully produced and really thought-provoking tale of survival.

After days of dark, wet weather, 2013 dawned bright and clear so it seemed only right and proper to get out for a run. I quickly realised that the rain had left its mark with puddles and fluid mud everywhere.

I first headed out to Ditchling via Oldlands Mill, which sat facing the Downs in almost springlike sunshine.

Normally dry paths were waterlogged and those that are often wet were completely under water… there was little point in shirking the mud, though I kept generally to the edges.

One garden I passed en route had filled up to become a small lake… maybe a 150 feet long and easily 20 feet deep! The water sometimes fills the width of the garden but I’ve not ever seen it this high and close to the path before.

The normally slippery chalk up the Beacon path had been washed clean and was abnormally grippy, especially compared to the slippery ground around it.

As I neared the top of the path, the view to the left was more warm March than soggy January… apart from the extent of the midday shadow!

The top had a range of similarly beautiful views accompanied by a chilly breeze, especially where I was standing… on the trig point at the highest point in Sussex.

After slip-sliding down the Beacon again, I ran past Sporting Cars, admired the beautiful houses through Ditchling and then climbed back up to the Oldlands path at the end of the village.

Where I had been relatively circumspect on the outbound route, I now just headed through the middle of most of the big puddles… and there were a lot of them! By the time I reached the Keymer road again I was dripping wet and coated in mud.

My first task upon returning home was to stand in the garden and wash off the worst of the mud with a scrubbing brush and hosepipe… which also usefully cooled down my tired leg muscles.

So ten miles in a sploshy 1:55 and a GREAT start to the New Year.

December 9, 2012December 9, 2012

Reluctant tempo

We went to an awesome party at Clive & Nats last night, with an excellent live band and lots of interesting folk to chat to.

If there was a Mens’ Sussex Fitness Party League, then Clive and Nat would consistently be at the top… both in terms of quality and quantity. Meanwhile I can count the number of parties we’ve held recently on no hands at all!

After such an excellent evening this morning was flat and grey and I had little inclination to run. However, I know that in order to be able to have the occasional run like last weekend, whilst also keeping this blog trickling along, I need to keep my running going.

So I reluctantly climbed aboard the magic carpet machine, dialled in 7mph and set off in the general direction of the cheese plant.

One hour later, having covered, er… 7 miles (but strangely not yet reached the aforementioned plant) I went outside to stretch and cool down. By that time the sun had come out and it was relatively mild… just as well as I was standing there steaming in shorts and shoes only!

So a good tempo run and a few more words to the wise: all worthwhile stuff, reluctant or otherwise.

December 2, 2012December 2, 2012

Extempore

I’ve had a brilliant week! One of the myriad challenging books that I’ve read recently suggested that there are just two critical measures that we employ when we are assessing how good something was (for examples my week or someone’s life): the high point and the ending.

So despite last week containing a sludge of stress and frustration, the duel high points of spending Thursday evening chatting with some really engaging Brighton Business School students and spending Friday working with the amazing Terbell PostGrad students, allied to the week-ending run I have just completed, make for a really positive memory overall.

The air temperature outside had an Arctic feel to it this morning as I ran off down the road and I quickly resolved to keep the route short. Inevitably though, as with life, when we get interested in something and delve a little deeper it can draw us in and we suddenly find ourselves doing things that we could not have hoped for.

I ran down Ockley Lane and out through copious quantities of icy wet mud to Oldlands Mill, which had clearly turned its back to the low sun.

The view to the South was beguiling, but I still had in mind to follow a relatively short route.

Anticipating that I might not come back this way, I ran down Lodge Hill (I normally only run up it) and thus saw the village of Ditchling from a different angle for a change.

I felt a little guilty as I ran down the high street leaving a trail of watery mud on the neat pavement. I could see it in my peripheral vision, flying through the air from my slowly whirling trainers.

Although it had not been my intention, I found myself on the path to the Beacon, ignoring the junctions which would have led me home more directly. And then I was running up the Beacon itself.

A series of comments this week had been spinning around in my head and I suddenly decided to try an odd experiment. Daren had mentioned that his tactics for getting up the Tank Tracks (a path which approaches the task of getting up the steep scarp slope by simply going straight up it) is to innocently ask me to explain something complex at the bottom and let me distract him with my reply until we reach the top. With this in mind I turned on the video camera and extemporised for the duration of the hill.

The result is difficult to watch because of the fast moving scenery and also hard to understand through the heavy breathing, but I enclose it here for in case it’s of random interest.

And then I was on the top of the Downs chatting to a couple whose young children were occupying the highest point in Sussex… the top of the concrete trig point on the top of Ditchling Beacon.

Ahead of me I now had the task of running home, but I smiled as I enjoyed the initial down hill section. My homeward route was going to be through the marvellous mud of the wonderful Weald… seemingly one part icy water to one part earth in places today… and this started before I had even reached Sporting Cars of Brighton at the bottom of the hill.

This route (especially at this time of year) is not for those who like to keep their shoes clean. It has gloriously beautiful views…

… but the soundtrack is consistently splashy…

… and at times you have to have faith that your feet are still attached.

There was even one hill that looked to be a wide and curving lawn, but was in fact pockets of water disguised by tufts of grass, all the way to the top.

Eventually I returned via Ditchling Common and back home, my woollen Thurlo socks being the only thing that stood between my feet and frostbite.

Just over 10.6 miles in 1:57 is an average of 5.45mph… a glorious end to an excellent week!

October 21, 2012

Mud, sweat and fears

It’s always a challenge to write about my in-run thoughts when I return, let alone a week afterwards. It’s a little like trying to recall the salient details of a vivid dream as input from the senses rushes in to fill the newly awakened conscious mind and crowds them out.

Had I written this post last week it may well have been a lengthy and candid expose to the way I was feeling that day, hence the fears in the title.

I shall instead focus on the mud and sweat, but the fears are a side-effect of the material I have been reading and developing for my workshops on self-awareness, team performance and creativity. Honestly embracing our fears and failings, alongside of a demonstrable understanding of our skills, experience, motivations and goals, is a solid foundation onto which we can each build a truly fulfilling life.

This is not to say that I was in a morbid mood… I was not. It was a totally glorious day and I was on top form, both mentally and physically… hence my thoughts flowing freely.

I decided to run towards the Beacon but be satisfied if I turned around at Ditchling. The sun was so bright through the trees on Keymer Road that I was super-careful with any passing cars lest they did not see me through the glare.

There was sufficient surface mud on the path to Oldlands Mill to use ‘straight through’ tactics, but it wasn’t deep enough to drench my feet or throw more than a thin layer of splatters onto my back.

Lots of people were out and clearly also happy, as more people returned my cheery greetings than normal.

I soon found myself running up the steep Beacon track and arrived at the top in 56 minutes.

I shared the top and a little conversation with a lovely couple from Clapham who had walked from Jack & Jill and intended to return via Wolstonbury… a more involved walk than most of the numerous people thereabouts.

I then retraced my steps down the Beacon track, through Ditchling, up onto Lodge Hill (intensely hard work for a couple of minutes), back past Oldlands and on home.

Longs and three layers proved on the warm side, but not monumentally so, though my hat and gloves got stowed before climbing the Beacon… it must have been at least slightly chilly.

I’m pretty sure that the time was 1.45 when I returned… slightly slower over the 10 mile route than on the 2nd September due largely to the conversational pause at the mid-point.

Overall a great run and good thinking time!

October 7, 2012

A return to Blackcap

It was a surprise this morning to wake up to a beautiful sunny morning and after getting my brain going with the help of a Sudoku puzzle and a Kri-Kri tumbler of quadspresso, I climbed into my running gear.

At the very last minute I changed my mind about running from the house and instead drove up to Jack and Jill… a good decision by all accounts. The car-park was almost full and there were loads of people out enjoying the unseasonal weather… there was still an edge of chillness in the shade, but shorts and t-shirt were all I needed!

I ran along the top of the Downs all the way to Blackcap, encountering the back-markers on the Lewes Downland Ten as I neared my turn-point.

The return leg was equally lovely and with the vague breeze now behind me, it was even warmer.

Lovely, apart from the flies that is. Fortunately they were not along the whole route, just where the cows were grazing, but there were ‘fousands of the little blighters, all out enjoying the sun, cow dung and alas, my sweaty face… YUK!

I returned to the car in 1:35 having run 9.4 miles or so at a pretty steady and comfortable 6mph.

The sky has now clouded over which makes my effort this morning even more worthwhile!

September 2, 2012September 2, 2012

Pull your socks up!

My Mother sent me an email earlier which mentioned Ofsted Chief Inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw’s comments from the Andrew Marr Show this morning… which she paraphrased as ‘pull your socks up, satisfactory is not good enough!’

She had taken it as a personal admonishment and though I didn’t see it until I got home, the cognitive essence of the message clearly came straight through to me as I ran the last few steps to the top of Ditchling Beacon.

It was my birthday yesterday (thank you all SO much for the myriad birthday wishes!) and this morning I was reflecting on my chosen career path, which seems to involve a greater number of ups and downs than those of more conventional 48 year-olds.

No prizes for guessing that I’m currently on a down, though, if I remember rightly, Malcolm Gladwell says that the path to excellence in any field is a steep, gruelling, arduous and inordinately lengthy 10,000 hours of lung-busting effort, being forced to stumble and fall at every turn, etcetera… so I’m pretty stoic about it.

It had been flat grey outside threatening rain (likewise in my head) as I downed two quadspressos, and as I changed into my running gear it started raining, so I left in a hat and jacket. The rain was really light though and within half a mile I had removed hat & jacket so that I didn’t overheat… it’s clearly not autumn yet!

My plan was to run to Ditchling Beacon & back and I soon found myself passing Oldlands Mill where there is a lively open day today if you’re interested.

Ditchling was looking pretty, despite the number of houses being redeveloped and for sale boards… I’m sure that sometimes people are so fearful of change that they choose to (in this case) move, so that there is at least the perception of control.

The bare chalk on my favourite steep and gruelling route up the Beacon was damp in the occasional light rain and thus very slippery and I was glad that I discovered this on the way up the hill!

I reached the top in an underwhelming 55 minutes (5.45mph average for the 5 miles) so with little view to appreciate and presumably sensing my Mother’s thoughts, I turned round without a rest for the return leg.

It was not a good day to go quickly down this hill but I wasn’t feeling tired so once I got to the flatter ground at the bottom I started to push on a bit. Nothing heroic, just a little more effort.

I laboured momentarily up Lodge Hill (if you’ve ever seen it, you’ll know why) then resumed my slightly faster pace, passing an already busier Oldlands Mill. When I got back to the tarmac of Ockley Lane (with the rain now coming down a little more heavily) I pushed on a little harder still, though still not beyond a comfortable jog.

And thus I finally returned to the house, 10 miles in 1:41.

The quick mathematicians amongst you will notice that my return leg was 9 minutes faster than the outbound section… 6.5 mph average for the second 5 miles. That gave me something to smile about! Even the combined average of 5.95mph was faster than last week’s (brilliantly enjoyable) run.

Maybe my running mojo is getting its socks on ready to return… and maybe, with a little more effort on steep and slippery paths, that bodes well for my work too! Thanks Mum!

August 27, 2012

SAIL NOW ON!

After enjoying the camaraderie of running with the St Francis Running Club last weekend, it was great to receive an email from Andy last week announcing a Bank Holiday Monday run. Not least since it also saved Karen & Cleo, down from London for the first half of the weekend, from seeing me drag myself sweatily back into the house after a long run.

It was like one of the eye-to-eye groups, with Andy, Cliff, Pete, Nikki, Kevin, Lydia and myself, whilst the start at Falmer could easily have been one of the checkpoints. In fact it was for Pete, since he ran from Brighton to get warmed up!

There were varying agendas, but Cliff helpfully set a clear initial direction by saying that he wanted to take a closer look at the windmill at Kingston, as it looked from the road like they had at least one sail on.

And we were off… initially up the hill out of Falmer. When I was doing more hill running I would deliberately race ahead up this to test my staying power, but today I took it more cautiously, mindful of the distance I might have to cover afterwards. Happily I can report that it wasn’t too bad, though I could hear Cliff’s steps right behind me the whole way, which kept me going!

We then ran across to Newmarket copse, after which there is a steep hill to the top. Although I was initially dubious, I have to agree with Cliff that either someone has flattened it off or we must be generally fitter now than we used to be.

Across he top and down into Kingston was at an easy conversational pace and we quickly reached the windmill, which did indeed now have a sail on.

Actually, I can see from the Sussex Mills Group website that it’s a reconstruction of the Ashcombe windmill… and that unusually, as far as I’m concerned, there are going to be not two pairs of sails but rather three pairs of sweeps (the correct technical term).

From there we ran down into Lewes, with the added excitement of a near-miss when I turned left across the front of Pete… luckily he was awake and has good brakes!

After passing the prison we ran up to Lewes Racecourse… in fact, Kevin nigh-on sprinted up there with Pete in hot pursuit… and then on up to the next gate. Here I met a couple of runners who I recognised, though after a little to and fro (which involved a quizzical look when I said I was running with Martlet Kayak Club) we realised it was because he generally shops in Waitrose at the same time as me on a Friday evening! Nice to finally put a name to a face, Mark & Rosie!

Next stop Blackcap and both Andy and I were were uncharacteristically restrained in our rivalry, arriving slowly and at the same time!

Here the group decided to split. Pete would head for home, joined for a while by Cliff, Andy & Nicky who were going to run back via Ditchling Beacon. Discretion being the better part of valour (we were already 1:25 into the run), I decided to join Kevin & Lydia in the more direct return to Falmer via Waterpit Hill… which just happens to be downhill all the way!

We three arrived back in 1:57 having covered 10.9 miles… about 5.6mph average.

If there is a point to keeping up my occasional running, other that staying fit enough to keep any cognitive lethargy at bay, it is to be able to join a bunch of good friends on a day like today! Thanks guys!

August 19, 2012August 19, 2012

Humidor

Humidor what?

After a beautifully relaxing summer’s day yesterday spent reading, playing guitar and just thinking, I was not much inclined to run at all this morning. However, since my body and mind both need me to run regularly, I decided to make the most of another summer’s day to run outside for a change. As a last minute afterthought I grimaced my way through a gel left over from the Eye-to-Eye… I was to be grateful of it!

It was already hot when I left so my intention was to complete the woodland run that the Bok and I used to do in the mornings sometimes… a nice relaxing 5.2 miles.

Everyone I passed seemed to be in a good mood, each one returning my cheery greeting with a smile… somewhat different to running in Brighton! Somewhere over towards the Royal Oak (as was, now closed) I met two runners who were slightly unsure of the path, which really does look as if it goes right up to someone’s front door!

Having put them back on the right track I headed out to Wivesfield and up through West Wood. It really was muggy (and very muddy too, by the way) and yet I decided to take an additional loop out to Hundred Acre Lane to push the distance up nearer to 6 miles.

What was lovely was to see was a field of oak trees that I remember being planted… I used to run through when they were saplings and they are already growing above 10 feet.

Once back on the main route I headed up to the magical path which, with the sun still relatively low in the sky, really was in top magical form!

I could hear other people across to my left, with the occasional sound of a sharp whistle and when I reached St Georges Retreat I discovered that it was a group of runners, out for a morning run.

They kindly let me tag along and thus rather than head back home I headed on out. All over the place as it turned out.

They were from St Francis Sports & Social Club and they had a neat system so ensure that no-one got left behind. Every so often the whistle would sound and the front runners would turn round and run back to beyond the back of the group before turning round again to continue.

With a series of such loops we ran down to Worlds End, across to the fishponds and back across to Rocky Lane, mid way between Burgess Hill and Haywards Heath. Crossing the railway line under the road arch we then ran on towards the Fox & Hounds but I peeled off right before we got there to make a start for home.

It was interesting that my energy seemed to desert me the moment I was back on my own, but I pushed on forward regardless. It was lovely to see Theobalds Lane again and then to run down Valebridge Drive past my old house… the garden now looking in need of more than a little help.

I took the direct route back up Junction Road and reached home at 1.52 and a distance that worked out approximately to (at least) 11 miles.

Thank you to Lyndsey, Dom, Siobham and the rest of the gang for your generous hospitality and for giving me a good reason to run a little further than normal.

The group meets at St Francis on Saturday and Sunday mornings at 9am and several times during the week… if you live around Haywards Heath and are looking for a nice social group to run with, contact Lyndsey and Dom through St Francis Sports & Social Club for more information.

One final cross-post. If you are a graduate or young person starting out into the job market (or you know someone who is), then you might find my thoughts blog post about the Art Director and Photographer Karen Storey worth a quick read.