Photos – Page 11 – Foster Runs

October 6, 2013

Lightly toasted feet

It was a sublimely glorious morning and I wandered outside into the sunlit garden with my quadspresso. The chairs were wet with dew so I sat in the tea-house and let my mind relax, a sensible thing to do having completed an intense nine-week project in Cambridge.

As I sat and looked, so thoughts from my subconscious bubbled to the surface in the form of new ideas about the garden. A second quadspresso helped! Kim was looking out at me from her office and could tell that light-bulbs were flashing from the way I was standing and staring.

In my mind I designed a hidden shed to free up the tea-house to relaxation and a new partition to create a Japanese stone garden… both were seeds (or subtle challenges) that Kim had planted a few weeks ago.

Sated, I capitalised on the reversal from this deeply thoughtful mode by stripping off and jumping on the running machine. I decided to run for 30 minutes and slowly ramped the speed up above 7mph.

The run was as perfect as the day outside and I swept along almost effortlessly, the only mild discomfort being the slowly rising temperature of my feet as they were toasted on the belt of the machine. I’m not really sure whether this is the belt heating up or the friction of my feet on the grippy surface but either way it was a little like walking on hot coals… I imagine!

After 30 minutes I had covered 3.55 miles (7.1 mph average) and still felt great… apart from my lightly grilled feet!

I stretched outside, showered, had breakfast and then got into prototype mode to explain to Kim what I had in mind.

Looking outside, as I sit here typing, the prototype is complete, whilst Kim is researching deliveries of stone and the prospect of two new stages to the autumn garden project is very exciting!

September 29, 2013

Token gesture

My students and clients will attest to the fact that I’m forever encouraging them to spend ten minutes a day pushing their understanding through reading, or doing something they love but otherwise can’t find time to do.

It’s how I’ve managed to improve my guitar playing over the last three and a half years, compared to the previously lacklustre 35 years.

Today, despite not feeling like a run, I pushed myself to do just ten minutes… it might be a token gesture, but better to find time to do something, rather than continue to do nothing.

The weekend had a slow start. In fact is was a repeat of my nightmare journey back from Cambridge three weeks ago, except this time it was the M11 that was shut.

When I finally got free of it, after about six hours, I found myself stationary again on the M25, in almost exactly the same place that I got stuck before. Fortunately this time it was only for an hour or so!

When I finally got home, even I was surprised that the journey had actually taken a nightmarish 9 hours, 45 minutes… longer even than three weeks ago!

Yesterday was spent cutting grass and soothing the furrowed brow of my poor car (or ‘heated onezy’, if you’re reading this Grant), whilst most of today was spent relaxing (aka sleeping) in the garden!

My token run was ten minutes, 1.1 miles and 6.6mph… at which rate it would have only taken 17 hours to get home Friday. Worthy of consideration for the future!

September 23, 2013September 23, 2013

Project Man strikes again

Another weekend passes with no run… there’s definitely a habit forming here!

Once again it was Project Man who got in the way!

Peace on the upper deck was shattered on Sunday morning when Project Man started sizing up the next stage in this autumn’s garden intervention.

Having cut out a slot eight inches wide by about five feet long, I then cut down the middle of the membrane underneath and stapled it to the joist either side. I then dug down one spade-depth into the compacted clay to create a deep trench.

Although the bamboo that is going to live in the slot is a clumper (as opposed to a runner like me!), I still ideally wanted it to remain in the chosen location so I created shutters for the side of the trough using the decking remnants taken up the other weekend. Since one of the challenges is keeping pots on this HOT South-facing deck watered in the summer, the trough has no base… the bamboo should thus be able to find some moisture (although potentially a way out) and I shouldn’t need to worry about drainage.

I lined the sides of the trough with a membrane to reduce the likelihood of the bamboo finding an easy way through and filled the bottom with gravel.

Then came the physical bit: amongst the various pots of bamboo that I have grown was a large one that had been living uncomfortably set into the ground… the hard base of the pot meant that it dried out in summer just as quickly as the pots on the deck.

I should have split it last year, if not the year before, so the pot was jammed full of roots and it took me more than half an hour to split it into eight mini-clump that would serve my needs.

Having figured out an order to the clumps, I then planted them into the trough using the compost harvested the other week… I really hope that there are no stinging nettles in this batch!

Experience with bamboo over the years has shown me that using pebbles as a top-dressing has two advantages. It keeps the moisture in, which is really helpful in such a hot location, but it also serves to stop the bamboo forming into tight clumps, which keeps it visually attractive.

These pebbles are not as large as I would have ideally liked, but they are appropriate for the size of the slot… and were all that the garden centre had in stock in any case!

Clear of the tools and assorted paraphernalia (and absent one glove, which has either been planted or is now waiting under the deck for rescue), peace finally returned to the finished deck, allowing Project Man to relax for another week!

Maybe I’m better off running next weekend… at least that doesn’t (usually) take all day!

September 20, 2013September 20, 2013

Post script

The new panel is pretty pleasing at night!

September 15, 2013

Exhausting non-run

As I sit here writing on a now wet and windy Sunday afternoon, I am pretty much totally exhausted… despite the fact that I didn’t muster a run!

Yesterday I cut and scarified the grass, cut the grass on the green and washed the cars. With a little energy still left, I thought that I would progress the garden project that I started the other weekend. The first step was to empty the compost heap… the contents fitted neatly into one large canvass garden rubbish collector. Oh, and six large sacks that I could hardly move.

Kim then helped me to lift the structure out of the way and we dragged the (now giant) Acer into the gap that was left. In between rain showers we lifted the structure into the space left by the Acer and I put the non-composted material back in it, leaving the six sacks of compost ready for a later part of the exercise.

Buoyed up by the speed with which we had completed this, I decided to make a start on the fence panel. I removed the prototype panel (an off-cut of bamboo screen that I had rigged up between two posts) and jointed the uprights into the decking joists for extra strength. I then decided how big the panel should be and laid it out flat on the deck to check where the centre rail needed to sit. I drilled and screwed the corners and repeated the exercise to create a second identical frame.

I laid bamboo screen across the bottom frame and stapled it into position, then put the second frame on top, drilling and screwing the two frames together. The resultant panel was then lifted into position and bolted to the uprights.

By the time I had cleared my tools away I was fit for nothing at all!

This morning Kim cut shrubs back and generally tidied the area up whilst I tidied the area behind the panel and moved pots of bamboo around. This part of the project is now complete but the exertion once again left me comatose for more than an hour this afternoon!

It’s been a really fun weekend, but no chance for a run now… I’m far too exhausted!

September 8, 2013September 29, 2013

Playing in the traffic

Those of you who know me know that I don’t answer my phone if I’m in the car, but there I was talking on my phone in the fast lane of the M25 on my way home from Cambridge on Friday evening with my client in the car. Probably worse still, I was walking around in the traffic while I talked.

To be fair the traffic was all stationary, excepting the occasional motorcycle weaving through the parked cars and lorries, courtesy of some idiot who had decided to test the response time of the Police and Bomb Squad about a mile ahead of us.

Despite no bathroom facilities and no dinner, it was at least sunny and warm, whilst the occasional inexplicable 100m movement forwards kept us all hopeful and on our toes during the six and a half hour delay. A typical British ‘Dunkirk spirit’ prevailed amongst the drivers around us and there was actually a real sense of camaraderie.

Crucially, my eventual nine and a half hour journey home was nowhere near as dire as it could have been thanks in large order to my client, Giles, being really good fun to be with.

I spent the first part of Saturday writing a workshop and planning for next week and then Kim and I went off to a very special barbecue. It was a celebration of 49-edness amongst my school friends… a series of 50th birthday parties starts in November.

A lay-in and more planning this morning left me with no particular desire to run (especially after hearing that Pete ran sixty-odd miles on Thursday and Friday), so I’ve given myself a special dispensation… a weekend off!

May your week ahead be sunny and idiot-free!

September 1, 2013

Birthday suit

I received an invitation this week to run between the piers in Brighton later in the year. This should theoretically be a pretty short sprint, but the invitation came from Cliff and Andy, so I now need to think about increasing my training mileage again.

The last few weekends I have been satisfied with a short run on the machine, but since it was my birthday today and in light of the aforementioned invitation, I thought I would get out into the fresh air. Especially as Mark had also sent me a text as he was starting a 30 mile run this morning.

I did my favourite short circuit, taking in the edge of Wivelsfield, West Wood and the Magical Path.

It was a lovely day for running and I made good time in the first half hour… right up until I bumped into Lew in his huge Dodge truck. It was so good to catch up that I stood chatting for about 40 minutes, before running the rest of the way home.

5.2 miles in about 50 minutes plus a 40 minute conversation.

Back at base, I had just jumped out of the shower when my lovely Aunt phoned to wish me Happy Birthday. I sat in the garden chatting to her for quite a while, enjoying the conversation. I didn’t like to confess that I was only wearing my birthday suit!

August 18, 2013August 18, 2013

Midweek run

I had a workshop to write this morning, which led to a late breakfast and no run.

However I did find time for a quick run last Tuesday evening, after a slightly frustrating day of desk research. It was a lovely evening and I decided to run for 15 minutes and then turn round and run back.

The route was nothing special, consisting of one long street in a somewhat tired part of town. I would have taken a different route back if I’d had the energy… or the time to get completely lost!

The turn point looked like this… any guesses where I was?

The return journey was pretty hard work… you would have thought I had run ten miles by the energy I had left.

Alas though, the round trip was only 3.2 miles in 31 minutes. Average 6.2 mph and all the more reason that I probably should have run today. Ho hum!

July 30, 2013July 30, 2013

The many-headed monster

First, an admission… even people who help others to improve their focus, lose their focus from time to time. That might go some way to explain the delay in posting my last two runs, as well as the reason for posting in the middle of a work day when I have a myriad of deadlines to hit!

Scroll back to the 18th July and Kim & I were in the middle of a relaxing week in Cornwall… it was like a holiday from my childhood, but that might have been because I did in fact go there on family holidays in 1969 and 1973, or thereabouts.

We were making great use of the amazing weather but I really wanted to manage at least one run before returning home. With daytime temperatures in the high eighties, this involved an early morning start… for a non-work day, at least!

With the cottage situated on the cliffs above Mullion Cove, 100m from the South West Coast Path, and having already explored the path south, it was an easy decision to head north.

In short this involved visiting Polurrian, Poldhu and Church Coves, along with the steep headlands between them and then continuing on way past my the 30 minute turnaround time that I initially planned. In fact I was so enjoying myself that I finally turned round above Halzephron Cliff at the one-hour mark, and then mainly because I found a stretch of path that had millions of midges where the fresh air was supposed to be. YUK!

The return journey was faster because I wasn’t running down onto each of the low-tide beaches in turn, but it was also harder work with the increasing temperature. And yet, when I got back to Mullion, I had the strong urge to run down to the Cove… and then back up again.

The run was approximately 7.5 miles took something like 1.45… SLOW, but REALLY enjoyable! PS, sorry the photos are all mixed up… you hopefully get a sense of the scenery though!

July 7, 2013July 7, 2013

Water shortage

This morning it was 20 degrees in the shade, at 7am, so I realised a long run would be foolhardy.

However… I may just be that hardy fool.

A trip to Holland & Barratt yesterday had yielded some weird pre-run chemicals and I was interested to see whether it did what it said on the tin.

There was sadly no explosive surge of energy as I ran off down the road just before 8am, but I managed to reach the Beacon two minutes faster than last week and still felt like running.

Most of the route thus far had been under tree cover, but as I neared the top of the Beacon track I kept getting wafts of superheated air coming through the trees from the grass slope below. Yikes!

Wanting to go slightly further than last week I turned east from the Beacon and headed along to Blackcap, arriving in 1:21. This meant that I had averaged 5.74mph compared to last week’s 5.5mph at the halfway turn. I had taken the precaution of carrying a Beet shot and rather than waiting to run out of energy and drank it at this point.

It was really hot along the top of the Downs and I was glad that I had all my black gear on again! Actually, the wool is very comfortable indeed, despite the heat… it’s really growing on me! I even noticed on the Armadillo website that when you finally have wrung every use out their stuff, you can put it in the compost heap to good effect. Green as well as black!

Once again I ran up to the Beacon and then turned north, back the cool under the trees. Tiredness came over me somewhere between Ditchling and Oldlands Mill, right about the time that my supply of water ran out. Fortunately for me, Oldlands was setting up for an open day and a very kind steward refilled my water bottle.

I made it back to Ockley Lane and then my mental energy just seemed to evaporate in the heat. I walked for a couple of hundred metres and then ran walked all the way home… fortunately not too far by that point.

Four Dextrose tablets, two handfuls of nuts, a bowl of porridge, umpteen glasses of water and a cold shower later and I was ready to write.

15.5 miles in 2:50 is an average of 5.47mph, which despite the increased distance and walk/running is still faster than last week… and I’m still awake! So maybe the Nitro did its job after all… on a crazy hot day to run!

STOP PRESS: Kim quite literally just booked us on a short trip away and I can’t now do the marathon… I’m really sorry Mark! I’m definitely fit enough to join the guys on a training run sometime though!