Category: Photos

Posted on

Far too early by (way too) far

I did my level best to get up on time this morning, but failed miserably.  I knew this because it was still dark when the alarm went off.  Worse still, when I finally did make it downstairs some time later, it was 5.40am… though I still have no idea whether this was in new money or old money!

Still, it was a beautiful bright morning so I took up residence in the reading chair and continued in my current amazing tour through the French waterways with Damian & Shiv Horner’s wonderful book For Better For Worse.  They each wrote their own thoughts which are then juxtaposed, so it is sharply insightful in a ‘Men are from Mars’ way.  Really a most highly recommended read!

I was totally engrossed so time swept by and despite rising so early I ended up eating breakfast late and was consequently late out the door.  No matter… I wasn’t really looking forward to the task ahead anyway.

I guess that you could say that I picked up an injury last weekend (left ankle pain), which is what Kurt from Run predicted if I tried to mix speed work with my training programme… I think the culprit was my fast five miler on the 19th March.  I have given my ankle and lower leg a lot of massage attention this last week and I even dropped the Friday run from my tight schedule, but today was my last chance to run a long distance before I start to taper ahead of the marathon… which is now in three weeks time… so I had to at least try.

My ankle lasted roughly three miles, down from Woodingdean to Rottingdean and along to St Dunstans, before it demonstrated that it had an electric prod and was not afraid to use it.  I stopped to comprehensively stretch and massage the affected area and plodded forward to see what effect I had achieved.  It was pretty good, insofar as the pain abated completely for another two miles, whereupon I repeated the exercise.

My mind became focussed on a new pain, this time coming from my bladder, so I fixed my metaphorical gaze on the toilets along towards King Alfreds, around the 7.5 mile mark and hastened thither.  Having greatly relieved myself there, I then spent a few minutes stretching my legs for good order before continuing.

At Hove Lagoon is the turn point for 18 miles, but since I really wanted to do 20 I continued onward.  However, a combination of not having a fixed turn point for 20 miles and the lure of running just a bit further saw me continue on to the end of the Shoreham Harbour groyne, around the 11.5-mile mark, which I reached in 1.45.

Once again I carefully stretched my tired legs for a few minutes before turning and setting off for home.

I reached the Peace Memorial around 16 miles before I stopped to stretch again, then again outside Martlet Kayak Club at 18 miles and then I made it all the way along the top of the cliffs to Rottingdean around the 21-mile mark before my ankle got painful yet again and I had to stop to stretch.  Each time I managed to resolve the pain before I ran on, but it obviously needs more work over the next few weeks to overcome it completely.

Interestingly, as I dropped down into Rottingdean I had a significant realisation… I wasn’t breathing properly.  Despite wearing a BreatheRight strip on my nose, I was not filling my lungs to any real extent at all.  It took me a while to open my lungs up fully, but the effect was dramatic.  Compared to the last few long runs, I fairly flew up the hills from Rottingdean.

One other point of note… Spring is not yet fully with us!  I wore only one long-sleeve top under my Gore jacket, but my hat and gloves only came off after the turn point when the wind was behind me and though I took my jacket off for the last two miles up the hill from Rottingdean, I got a real ice-cream head in the more exposed section around Longhill School.  It was not warm out there!

With my six stretching stops, each of more than a couple of minutes, I took longer than my last run along this route on March 14th… but since the time was only 9 minutes more I would guess that I was actually running a little faster.

The time: 3.48

The distance: 22.95

The average speed, stops included: 6.04mph

Now let the tapering begin!

PS. The run and the rather early morning resulted in my spending most of the afternoon asleep on the sofa!  Bless!

Posted on

Of a cold dark dank groyne

If you are easily scared, I suggest that you might want to avoid looking at the photo of Mark and I below… though I have to say that I blame the photographer (me) rather than the subject matter!

I’d arranged to meet Mark after work so that we could run the section of the marathon route along Church Road in Hove, down Grand Avenue and out to the Power Station.

It was already dark and threatening rain when we set out, but I was still slightly overdressed for the occasion, what with the day-glo jacket from my car over my normal Gore jacket.  I tend not to run at night, in part because most of my gear is black and I wasn’t sure how visible I needed to be… m’Lud.  In retrospect I think I would have been okay in just my normal gear… built up area, street-lights etc.

By the time we reached the seafront I was already over-hot and at Hove Lagoon I HAD to stop to take a layer off… this left me wearing a t-shirt under the day-glo… not exactly an optimal combination, but at least I could tie my Gore jacket around my waist.

Despite my thinking that I would be happy to end the run at that point (even the jelly-babies came out!), we ran on down through the industrial estate and out onto the end of the groyne where I had met Matt and his friends on March 14th.

The view was somewhat different, on account of it being dark… the beach-looking thing in the foreground is the top of the wall that I was leaning on for a sharp picture and I was too scared to move the camera any further forward in case I dropped it off the other side!

The view in the other direction was…

… scaaaary!

We then ran back towards Hove and I realised that it had felt hot before because we had been running with the wind… it was now chilling my bare arms and blowing my oversized day-glo off my shoulder!  Okay, so it wasn’t bad enough to put my Gore back on, but I did don my hat and gloves to take the edge off.

Not being too familiar with the area, the end of the run appeared very suddenly and having said our goodbyes, I then managed to jump into my car just before the heavens opened with a gusto!

Distance: 8.55 (according to Mark and http://www.walkjogrun.co.uk/)

Time: 1.13

Average speed: a healthy 7mph

Posted on

Spring delays posting

It was the Spring Equinox on Saturday evening and despite a rainy start to Sunday, by the afternoon it was glorious.

This meant that, despite feeling pretty knackered, I spent the afternoon moving pots and furniture back into the garden, edging the grass and generally titivating.

Which is partially why I’m writing this post a day late: the other reason being that the TV feed has gone and having spent a fruitless while trying to fix it, I have given up to do something less frustrating.

My schedule for yesterday said 14 miles, but I thought I would add on a couple for good order by running up the Ovingdean valley as far as the top of the narrow road… for those who know it.  So I ran down to Rottingdean, once again shedding layers as I went, along the coast and up to my designated turn point… where my testosterone pushed me on up to the very top of the steep hill before I actually turned around.

Once back at the coast I didn’t fancy shattering the Ovingdean peace by running along the roadside, so instead I dropped down onto the undercliff walk.

The chalk cliff has really fallen away over the winter, but I suspect that the council has used this as a bit of an excuse to drive walking traffic through the marina, as they have closed both the part of the undercliff walk behind the marina and also the path that ascends to Roedean.  This didn’t bother me as it was a good excuse to have a look at the boats, flats, people etc in the marina.

Sport Relief was omnipresent in Madeira Drive, although the marshal I asked at the marina end actually had no idea what event it was… her friend thought it might be running and when I had run down to the other end I saw that she was correct.

I must have got used to the seafront being cold and empty as it seemed to be thronging with people as I made my way down past the piers to the Peace Memorial.  Here I paused to stretch, my legs being unusually stiff, before I headed back past the piers again and along Marine Parade to avoid the worst of the throng below.

There were still a plethora of runners coming steadily towards me and as I neared the top of Dukes Mound, one of them stopped in front of me and bowed in a lavish way.  It was Mark Johnson and rather than run on past, or stand and get cold while we chatted, I turned around and ran back to the Palace Pier with him.

At the pier I turned once again and headed for home, noting that my left ankle was now quite painful, as if I had twisted it.  I found myself running alongside another runner, neither gaining nor losing and after a while I asked if he minded me tagging along.

His name turned out to be Gary and he was running to Telscombe, so we ran together as far as my turn off at Rottingdean.  The simultaneous upside and downside of this was that I had to keep running, despite my ankle slowly becoming more and more painful.

As he ran on, I paused to stretch and for a short while thereafter it was a lot better.  But as I really got stuck into the final two-mile uphill section, my legs and ankles began to stiffen and by the time I reached the Downs Hotel I was moving like a 95-year-old.  I couldn’t even manage a jog back down the hill, instead waddling gently like I had a beach-ball between my legs.

Despite this photo being taken after only five miles, it accurately portrays how I felt at the end!  It also serves to remind me to mention the anti-snoring device I’m wearing… although I’ve temporarily forgotten the brand name, it works really very well indeed (for running) by increasing air-flow and I highly recommend trying it at least a couple of times to see if it works for you too.

Time: 3.03

Distance 18.8 miles (remember, I had intended to do 14)

Average speed: 6.16mph, which reflects the stoppages as much as the snail-pace of the final climb.

The results of my afternoon recovery in the garden:

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

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

Jump Start Sunday

My plan had been to run the ten miles from Woodingdean to the old Shoreham power-station this morning.  And then to run back again.  But the forecast was for extreme inclemence, consisting of North-Easterly gales and heavy rain… and for once the forecast turned out to be right.  The thought of running the second ten miles into driving rain was not exactly appealing so I decided to stay home and listen to Martin Archer on Kiss FM, with his 3-hour Jump Start Sunday programme.

Of course this left me with a slight quandary: what to do while I listened.  I’m not exactly one for sitting down & listening to the radio whilst doing nothing and it’s difficult to play guitar or to read a book, so I decided to have a gentle run on the machine.

Beyond this, there’s not a lot to report about today… except that I ran for all-bar one minute 36 seconds of the programme and covered 20 miles.

After a three or four mile warm-up, my heart rate stayed around 155 before passing 160 around the 14 mile mark and  slowly creeping up to 165 by the end.  The machine reckons that I used 2659 calories.   I’m not quite sure exactly what to eat to replace these… I don’t think the shops sell anything with this many calories any more.  I had to demount at the half way point as the machine only counts to 99 minutes, but despite my bladder faking that it required attention, I ignored it and only walked to open the door before getting back with the programme.

Two curious things:  Firstly, I set the machine to 6.7mph for the whole duration, but the time shows that I managed to average 6.726mph… I don’t have enough calories left for my brain to work that one out.  Second, somewhere in the combination of man-made-material running kit and a lot of movement, I always manage to create a little static… I was doubly shocked then,  when I managed to earth out via the leaf of the plant that hangs expectantly over the machine!

Alas, I have no landscape photos to share with you… this was all I could see!

Posted on

Wednesdix run

Once again, the prospect of a ten-mile run on the machine was not a welcome one.  I had planned to get it out of the way really early on this morning, but this didn’t happen because I sat up watching Deja Vu last night… and thus found it hard to drag myself out of bed!

Following the emergent pattern of my training, I started off at 7.7mph and celebrated each quarter-mile that I ran closer to my goal.  My heart-rate climbed slowly to 170 by about the 3-mile mark and at 5 miles I paused for a slurp of water, a stretch, some jelly-babies (I had skipped breakfast and eaten only a banana) and to open the door for some fresh air.  To be fair, this took 3 minutes, but I’m sure you won’t hold that against me!

With the machine now set to 7.8mph, my heart-rate took another mile to get from 124 back up to 170 and it stayed there until the 7.5-mile mark when I increased the speed to 7.9mph.  Between here and the end my heart-rate hovered around 172 to 174 which is higher than last week, but still acceptable given the pace.

What is interesting is that the simple stretch that Andy/Marina showed me has resolved the issue with my hip tendon, at least over this distance… although I was aware of it hovering in the background towards the end.  My focus in these runs is on making a positive and steady footfall, training my legs and my mind not to waiver, which has also helped overcome little niggly pains.

So 10 miles in 77 minutes 12 seconds (ignoring the break) is a speed of 7.77mph, which I think is a PB for me over this distance even though I wasn’t racing.

Posted on

Race laden wind

It was the Brighton Half Marathon today and I crossed the finish line shortly after the winner had come in at 1.06.59.

Sad to report that I was going the other direction and at a much slower pace.

I had started from Woodingdean, bracing myself against a biting, rain-laden wind.  My hands were frozen within 30 minutes by which time I was running along the top of the cliffs into the wind.

But actually it wasn’t as bad as I had expected, with the force of the wind bouncing up off the cliff and missing me for the most part.

Despite the inclemency I had expected more people to be out, but I had seen only three by the time I reached the marina.  And then I saw where they all were, turning like a giant snake on the Marine Parade below me to head into the wintry wind towards Shoreham.

I ran on, dodging the confused race marshals to reach the Palace Pier at 52 minutes (pretty consistent in this) and then on towards the West Pier.  In this section the front runners started to pass me in the opposite direction and I had counted thirty by the time I reached my one hour turning point at the Peace Memorial.

I headed back along towards the Marina with the faster runners sliding past me with increasing regularity until I reached the Palace Pier again where I took a more direct route to the finish.  A little further on I came to the Martlet Kayak Club where Cliff and Paula were helping with refreshments for the runners.

Once back on the cliff-top I was treated to occasional blasts of wind from behind which carried me forward like an Elite runner, at least for a few paces.  I passed a few more runners along this section, battling against the wind towards me and it seemed to make them more sociable than normal.  As I reached Rottingdean I came upon a wet runner with a bedraggled dog and was delighted when I got closer to realise that it was Jane, complete with her bump.

With the wind behind me I was faster up the Falmer Road (than last week, at least) and I ran past the Downs Hotel and right to the top of the village…

… before dropping back down to the 15 mile (and a smidgeon) finish at 2 hours 13 minutes.  This is 6.77mph, a shade faster than last time I ran this distance two weeks ago, but somewhat slower than the 11.73mph average that the marathon winner managed!

Posted on

Tiger feet

There was a larger number than normal against today in my running schedule and I was interested to know whether I was going to be able to complete it… and if so, what state I would be in afterwards.

I’m waiting for Kurt at Run to get some new woollen Thurlos in for me and my mother had kindly darned my current pair ready for me… thanks Mum!

The one thing I love about going from Woodingdean is that you have to start by running downhill and I made Rottingdean in about 20 minutes.  From there I headed West along the coast and it was another chilly day, with shallow icy puddles in places on the pavement.

The sun had come out briefly when I was having breakfast this morning, but by the time I got out running it had disappeared behind a blanket of cloud… and one which kept spitting snow at me at that!  But the breeze in my face was only gentle and as I wear all the right gear it was actually a good day to run.

There was about the same balance of unsociable runners as last week, but enough people waved back at me, smiled or simply nodded to keep me happy and I reached the pier in 52 minutes.  I continued along the seafront and past the peace memorial where I turned around last week.

I continued on.  Past the King Alfred centre.  Past rows of colourful beach huts huddling together in the cold.  Past the tennis courts.  And then… some git deliberately ran into me.

Actually, that’s an example of the writers imagination… Cliff didn’t run into me at all, but rather made out as if he was going to, while Andy, Clive and Garth looked on!  I’m still amazed by their sense of timing.  I had said that I was going to run to the Hove Lagoon and they had set out from the kayak club around the time I left Woodindean, had run right up past the old power-station to the very end of the spit and arrived back at the lagoon just before I got there.  They even humoured me by turning around and running back to my turning point with me!

Alas, in the hubbub, I forgot to make a note of the time, but I do remember thinking that it was an awfully long way back to base from there… and how much my legs were already hurting!

Garth, Andy and Cliff quickly drew out a lead, leaving Clive to run back with me… I’m not sure how well that suited Clive, but it suited me fine and it’s always great to catch up with him… which I finally did when we got to the kayak club!  En route he saw first hand how unsociable the other runners are, although I did manage to get a few people to say Hi back to us.

Here I paused for a few minutes to be sociable, asking for a stretch to ease my painful thigh… Andy showed me the magical stretch and Marina, a physio who just happened to be standing beside me, told me how to rev it up a bit.  AAAARGH was all I could manage by way of thanks when it hit home!

Actually, looking at this photo, is it any wonder that people don’t say Hi to me!

I left the ensemble, thankfully noting the time (1 hour 55 minutes) and headed East, passing more self-absorbed runners, along with a good few who were thankfully more engaging.  And then, just before the Ovingdean roundabout, my faith in human nature was completely restored by a lady on a bicycle who slowed up beside me to ask what I was training for and then wished me luck before pushing on again.

It’s about 2.5 miles up the hill from Rottingdean and my legs were openly shouting how painful they were, but I pressed on.  I’ve probably said before that I find it really interesting trying to figure out what is holding me back at any given moment.  Here it was not my heart or my lungs, both of which seemed to be purring along quite happily, nor my running muscles per se… although they were clearly tired, they seemed very happy to continue pushing me up the hill, step after step.  The limit really seemed to be the tightness in the tendons in my right hip and my knees… more stretching required!

I made the end in 2 hours 55 minutes, overshooting my target by covering 18.35 miles in total.  This is an average of 6.29mph, which is mildly disappointing when compared with the 6.7mph last week and the 6.48mph the week before and is not fast enough to gain the marathon time I require.  Still, this did include a social stop at the kayak club, and also two subsequent stops to get something out of my sock.  The fact that I covered 5.5 miles in the final hour  means that I covered the previous 12.85 miles at 6.7mph… which makes me happier again!

By the way,

新年快樂

Which I think means Happy New Year… it being the start of the Chinese year of the Tiger.  So Gung Hay Fat Choy and Xin Nian Kuai Le!

Posted on

Ten on the tenth… part two

So far this week we have seen three very interesting movies: Synecdoche, New York and 500 Days of Summer thanks to Karen and Avatar thanks to Jason.  Synecdoche was supremely hard work to trawl through, but highly rewarding in that the point is worth getting, even if, as in my case, it was right at the end!  500 Days of Summer, which could easily have been a trite chick-flick but thankfully wasn’t, also had some worthwhile points to make and in a surprisingly similar vein.

Meanwhile, Avatar… well if you are not at all bothered about seeing this, as was I, you should just go see for yourself.  It was not at all what I expected and aside from this… well let’s just say that the days of 2D films must surely be numbered.

I did manage to get my planned longer run in yesterday and it was reassuring to see progress in at least some areas since the same time last month, not least that whilst both days had snow on the ground, it’s at least a lot thinner this month!

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.

The increase in speed was due to 1) not waiting 800m to increase the speed to 7.5mph and 2) running a slight negative split by increasing the speed to 7.6 for the second 5 miles.  40.11/39.25.  The decrease in heart-rate is the exciting thing for me as this seems a better indicator of fitness.

As to the bathroom, where once it was Orange:

Now it just is: