Photos – Page 4 – Foster Runs

September 6, 2015September 7, 2015

Racing bicycles

Before my good friends at the Framed Bicycle Company in Snowdonia get excited… no, I haven’t bought a bike! You would have seen it already… before I had picked it up from you!

Rather, I have been racing cyclists, rather successfully as it turns out!

Kim and I have had the pleasure of Karen’s company this weekend and I capitalised on this by getting her to take some new photos of me for my various on-line personas… chief amongst which is the relaunched Rally Strategic site. What was funny was that she really liked the photo that I have used as a placeholder on there… not realising that it was one that she had taken five years ago with a little extra background added in by my good friend and website designer Simon! The updated photo won’t appear there straight away, but I welcome any comments on the site itself.

The recent wet weather has finally returned the brown summer stubble to green grass, such that I spent yesterday cutting & edging the green and the verge in the Close, sweeping the roadside etc… the grass was long despite me cutting it only last weekend! A quick glance today at the other local green spaces, which are looked after by the either Burgess Hill or West Sussex County Council (which involves neither of them cutting, let alone edging them!) reminded me why my neighbours are so happy that I make the effort.

It was a beautiful morning, but with a chilly edge, so I didn’t hurry to get out for a run. When I did finally get out, I wasn’t really sure where to go or how far and this was exacerbated when I went to take my first picture of the day… the iPhone was FULL, despite deleting more than half the photos from it a couple of days ago. Since part of the reason for running & blogging is to keep my folks looking at places they’ve not been lately, this put a considerable dampener on proceedings. As a result I meandered and eventually stopped at a stile to sort the phone out. The temporary fix was a brutal cull of apps, though later I realised that when you delete photos from the iPhone, it assumes that you don’t mean it and keeps it around for another 25 or so days just in case.

The stile was out by Ridgeview and thus it was natural to head in the general direction of Ditchling, even if I didn’t have the energy for a Beacon run. As I crossed the Ditchling Road I had to wait for a load of cyclists to pass… it was strange to see so many outside of the middle of June.

I was expecting it to be really muddy going this way, but it was just soft… the parched ground had clearly mopped up all the water that the weather had thrown at it. All the meadows were lush and the various livestock (mainly sheep & chickens) looked well-fed. As I reached Ditchling I took a path that led me out onto the High Street and found a lot more cyclists. I asked a couple of cyclists what was going on… it was a second London to Brighton bike ride, focused on raising money for charity.

I followed the cyclists up towards the bottom of the Beacon and decided that, in view of the comparatively low numbers, it would be safe to run up the road for a change. This is a rare treat and I think I’ve only done it once before… it’s normally too dangerous and even during the normal London to Brighton there are too many cyclists on the road.

I started to climb and quickly realised that most people were walking rather than cycling… I should have counted how many I passed, but it was easier to count the number of cyclists who passed me. One. A second one (number 705, I think) caught up with me near the top and we chatted as we finished off the ascent.

I then ran the short distance to to top of the Beacon.

On a whim I chose to descend the really steep way (Cliff’s route) which basically drops down a steep spur and then goes straight down the rest of the scarp slope. I then followed the road back through Ditchling, smiling at all the cyclists as they chatted about stopping at the top of the Beacon.

Towards the end of the village I turned left and ran up to the ridge and then along to Oldlands Mill, where they clearly had an open day… the smell of food cooking was amazing and made me want to stop, but I had no money with me so I would need to have done a runner afterwards!

My legs were starting to complain towards the end of the run… quite fair really, given that I didn’t plan to have a long run, nor to race so many cyclists! According to Strava I completed 10.5 miles in 108 minutes, an average of 5.83 mph… not quite as quick as last week, but not bad Foster.

Since then I’ve had a cold shower & a hearty breakfast, said goodbye to Karen and washed Kim’s car… I can still smell the food from Oldlands Mill so it MUST be time for dinner soon!

August 31, 2015

A cold shower to end the year

Kim & I drove into London yesterday for a family gathering and I used this as a good excuse not to run. Having managed to run for four weekends consecutively (after an extended period of more irregular runs), the pressure was on and I got up this morning knowing that I had to get out there.

With my 15th birthday tomorrow (I realise that I’m showing either my age or dyslexia), I was also keen to go further afield than my normal circuit and I had wondered about running from Jack & Jill.

Tough luck then that the torrential rain that had been forecast on BBC Weather for yesterday, was now scheduled for lunchtime today… just when I was going to be in the middle of my run!

Undaunted, I donned shorts and my rain jacket and jumped in the car. When I got to Jack & Jill, I was slightly less keen to jump out of the car on account of the low cloud and drizzle but, thanks to my training with Big Man Daren, this was only a temporary cognitive hurdle to negotiate. I was soon running up the hill into the mirk.

There was not a whole lot of landscape to see, but this made me focus more on what I could see… ponds & puddles in the main.

My arrival at Ditchling Beacon coincided with some walkers who were originally from Lancashire who very kindly took a photo of me standing on the trig point.

I was not at all sure that I wanted to go very much further before turning around, yet at the same time I didn’t want to have to ‘fess up to you that age, fitness or the weather had truncated a decent run before the end of the year… thus I continued on, and on, until I reached Blackcap, where there’s another trig point (but alas no-one around to photograph me).

Strava conveniently showed that I had completed 4.7 miles, so I ran on down the hill a little way and turned round at a bush which was growing at the 5.1 mile mark.

The return journey was a mirror image of the outbound in all but speed, which was a little slower. I’d blame the terrain or the elevation, but the turn-bush seems to be at almost the same altitude as Jack & Jill, so it can only really come down to my level of fitness!

According to Strava I covered 10.3 miles in 100 minutes, which gives a not unreasonable average of 6.18 miles per hour.

I kept expecting the forecasted torrential rain, but, if anything, the mirk was starting to clear by the time I got back to the car… it was very disappointing, but I had a nice cold shower when I got home instead.

August 23, 2015

Wet run in the woods

I was not on great form this morning. I’m still suffering from dull hearing and I absent-mindedly wondered if this was making me feel old, in the same way that psychologists can invoke people to walk more slowly by getting them to talk about the physical effects of ageing. Either way I would have happily not run… especially as it was humid and the forecast was for rain.

I eyed the darkening sky as I supped my espresso and completed a work task and then, despite all of the above, got out for a run.

I’d not even got to the end of the road before it started to drizzle, but it was sufficiently humid that this was actually quite nice Even so, I opted for a tree-covered route… and a short one to boot.

I took my old route out to Wivelsfield, stayed out of the deepening rain by sticking to paths going through West Wood and then came back along the Magical Path. The sound of rain on leaves was really lovely and the flat light made it easier to see through the trees.

According to Strava I ran 5.8 miles in 57 minutes, an average of 6.1 mph… slow, but not as slow as it felt! Though after my 58 second sprint last week, I covered the short end section in more sedate 96 seconds.

One of the benefits of feeling older is being able to confidently get mixed up about stuff. For example, I’ve just realised that it’s less than 10 days to my 15th birthday, which is awesome… I can feel the spring in my step returning already!

August 16, 2015

Dull hearing

At the end of last week I managed to temporarily misplace the hearing in one ear… I’m hoping that the doctor is going to help me find it again, but unfortunately that’s not going to be for another ten days! Meanwhile my hearing is somewhat dull and as I sat relaxing with a quadspresso in the teahouse, half-listening to the waterfall, it was almost a good enough excuse for me not to run this morning.

However, it was a beautiful morning and I didn’t want to lose the momentum from the last few weeks so I just got out there regardless.

It was hard work to start with and I had already decided to do the shortest of my loops when I passed a ‘mad woman on a bike’ (her description, not mine!) going the other way. My memory is nowhere near as good as my dull hearing (and it was frankly unlikely that I would have recognised anyone dressed in mountain-bike protective garb and dark glasses), but she somehow recognised me from an event we attended a good few years ago so we stopped to chat. I love those random conversations that you have whilst running and by the time that she pedalled off to continue her training session I felt totally reinvigorated.

I continued on the same loop I’ve been doing recently, deep in thought, as much as anything about a team-building session that I need to design for a Finance team. Every step of the running was a real pleasure! Well, almost… there’s a stile and a short section of path that are being reclaimed by the undergrowth, so I had to duck and dive and still managed to get stung by the nettles!

Last week the distance was 6.9 miles, which is still a short run according to the criteria I’m used to, so I was keen to run at least one tenth of a mile more today. I decided to loop the other way around Ditchling Common, using a path that I used to use as a speed circuit. It’s a while since I’ve run that way, but I’m sure that there’s a tree where there wasn’t one before.

As I got back towards home I decided to have another go at the sprint… it must be about 300m along a road that many runners use and so there’s a league table on Strava. Whereas last week I simply hurried along there, today I lifted my skirts and sprinted, pretty much all out… such that I ran out of steam towards the end. My personal best had been 1.04, but today I managed 58 seconds. Hooo-RAH! This is the third fastest time… though the ‘course’ record is a sobering 48 seconds.

So 7.1 miles completed in 67 minutes, an average of 6.35 mph. You can see the stats on Strava.

One final thing: they say that when one sense is dull, others are enhanced… like seeing vivid colours in the dark?

August 9, 2015

Deep in thought

I was determined to keep up the recent positive momentum and get out for a run this morning, so it was fortunate that we woke up early and to a beautiful morning. We were due to be at a celebratory lunch with friends for midday, but I still had time to sup a quadspresso, read a little more of Clayton Christensen’s fascinating book Innovative University and get in a leisurely run.

Thanks to Christensen, whose thinking I have always found particularly engaging, I spent most of the run deep in thought about new ways that I might be able to inspire my Brighton students in the autumn.

I was curious to know the extent to which my fast midweek run with the Bok would impact on my pace this weekend, so I deliberately took the same route as last Sunday… though it’s fair to mention that I had the benefit of some Jelly Babies that my Mum had given me.

I’ve been harping on about our narrow management (or cognitive) bandwidth for years… something that is really noticeable on the running machine where it’s difficult to think about anything much as the speed increases above 7 mph. Today the run passed in a blur and there were one or two occasions where I realised that I had done something completely without thinking about it… fortunately with no adverse consequences.

As I neared home I had a sudden realisation that, if I hurried down the final road, I might beat the time that the Bok set this week (only because I forgot to tell him until we’d almost reached the end of it). I did and I did… in fact I was only a second off my PB for this short section, despite the fact that I was only ‘hurrying’.

I’m not sure why, but having taken exactly the same route as last weekend, Strava calculated the distance at 6.9 rather than 7 miles… hey ho! So 6.9 miles in 67 minutes, an average of 6.18 mph (against only 5.75 mph last week)… I clearly need to run more than bi-weekly!

I casually wandered in and started to think about a leisurely breakfast before realising that I had about 30 minutes to get ready to go out. I rushed around and we then spent an extremely enjoyable afternoon celebrating an Emerald wedding anniversary and 80th birthday with 40 or so other lovely folk. The quantity of food I consumed more than made up for my skimpy breakfast!

August 4, 2015August 5, 2015

Bokking the trend

Long term readers of FosterRuns will remember that I used to run a lot with the eponymous Bok (named after the mighty fast and tireless Springbok) and it’s fair to say that the speed of my running has probably declined in proportion with the frequency of our runs.

The deep rumble of a throaty V8 heralded the arrival of the Bok this morning and we were soon running down the road, already deep in conversation… but at a speed that made it difficult for me to talk! After five minutes he casually asked if the pace was too fast for me, before continuing unabated in spite of my gasped response.

It was a beautiful morning to be out, especially as overnight rain had reduced the humidity and brought a little extra depth of colour to the countryside. It also felt good to be running for a second time in the same week, rather than the recent bi-weekly nonsense. More than anything else, it was great to run in such excellent company, a facet that my recent running has been sadly missing.

We followed my normalish route (which you can see here on Strava) but time seemed to pass so much more quickly than normal because of the focus on conversation rather than running.

Oh, and because we were running a little faster than I have been used to lately… 6.3 miles in 56 minutes, an average of 6.75 mph. Of course, that’s not particularly fast… just faster than is normal for me at the moment, as you can see by all the PBs for the run below (added to which my phone showed PBs for 1km and half a mile too!).

When I suggested that the Bok run on at the end, he effortlessly made the leap to warp speed and disappeared almost instantaneously!

One thing did surprise me about my normally fastidious running partner… his runners are not as sparkly clean as they used to. I used to derive great pleasure from taking him on particularly muddy paths in order to see the gleam of his shoes disappear into the murk, but by the following run they would be back to sparkling again. Not so today… they were simply clean, the sign of a man who works hard at prioritising the important things in life. Like staying fit enough to run faster.

My runners never sparkle, but there’s still a message hidden in there for me… if I choose to figure out what it is…

August 2, 2015

Heavy legs

Once again it has been two weeks since my last run. This, combined with a warm day and a stiff shoulder/neck, made for a slow run, even by recent standards.

My legs might have been heavy, but I still managed to extend my run a little, rather than do the minimum. I ran out to Wivelsfield and then continued to the far end of the wood where there’s a steeper track up to Hundred Acre Lane, which I then ran back along. I cut through past Ditchling Common Industrial Estate and ran back along the main path, parallel to the Magical Path.

As I neared the edge of Burgess Hill, I turned left to run along the side of the Common to the pond and then back around onto the normal route home. Sad to report that a new housing development reaches right down to the Common… the sad bit is not that there’s a development there, since change is inevitable, but because, based on the record to date, it will consist of another couple of hundred anonymous, accountant-designed shoe boxes. What a missed opportunity by the planners and the myriad of council folk (Burgess Hill Town Council, Mid Sussex District Council and West Sussex County Council) to inspire the townsfolk and step into the 21st century!

On a much lighter note, we were privileged to host a Japanese official from Ashikita Board of Education the week before last. Our esteemed guest Tatsuya was one of the adults looking after a delegation of students who were staying at South Downs Language School, organised by friends Nikki and Ian in Ditchling. It was a really fun week and lovely to be part of such a small and meaningful initiative.

Todays run was 7 miles in 73 minutes, an average of 5.75 mph… you can see the route here on Strava.

July 19, 2015

Fall down, get up

I was sitting in the tea-house writing this, listening to the burble of water falling onto stones and enjoying the cool evening breeze. However, something went awry and now I’m inside, nearer to the wi-fi connection and writing the post over from scratch.

This morning I was in a rare weekend mode, supping a quadspresso and deep into a very thought-provoking book on reinventing organisations. Then I realised that it was Sunday and that I needed to go out for a run. Such are good habits that it’s okay to skip your given task on occasion, provided it’s a good reason, but I’d done that for the last two weekends so skipping was not an option!

The good reason for missing two weekends was a short trip to the Amalfi coast in Italy, which was beautiful but way too hot to run!

With no reasons sufficient to miss a third week, I got on my gear and got out there. It was a simple run, out to Wivelsfield, up through West Wood and along Hundred Acre Lane, then back via the Magical Path.

I wasn’t out to break any record, so I was running along, looking at the fields and the trees and, at a certain point in time, singing my latest song out loud.

Clearly, in retrospect, looking around and singing meant that my focus was not on the ground in front of me… one minute I was singing, the next on my hands & knees on the ground having tripped on a protruding root.

Nothing damaged, other than my pride (I would prefer to have tucked and rolled rather than landing in such a clumsy way), I dusted myself down and carried on, singing even louder to scare any other have-a-go roots away!

The run was 6.12 miles and according to Strava I completed it in one hour.

There, finished. Though I’m not sure that writing it a second time improved it any!

June 28, 2015

Warm in the woods

The forecast for today (on BBC weather, yesterday) was overcast and 65 degrees max, so I was surprised by the far hotter and more humid morning that turned up (though, to be fair, the forecast was correct as I sit here now).

I opted for a short run through the woods and even then came back more physically and mentally exhausted than I expected… hence a rather short post!

According to my Strava record I completed 5.75 miles in just over 57 minutes… an average of just over 6 mph.

June 21, 2015June 21, 2015

Happy Fathers’ Day!

The London to Brighton Bike Ride always seems to coincide with Fathers’ Day. Between the challenges of crossing the route and facing the traffic queues, this means that I rarely see my Dad on the day, as was the case today!

Instead, I always used to run to the top of Ditchling Beacon as a nod to the one time (twenty-five years ago now) that I completed the ride and though I’ve not run more than six or seven miles at a time recently, I decided to capitalise on the opportunity of a bright but cool day.

I ran out on to the Common and realised that I could easily run along the road beside the cyclists… the road is one of those typical West Sussex ones that is perilous to walkers or runners, so it was nice to take this different route for a change.

I ran all the way down into Ditchling and then as far as the bottom of the Beacon… from here the road gets clogged with cyclists walking or trying to keep their momentum going, so a runner would not be at all welcome.

Thus I branched right and took the route that Cliff showed me when he was raising the money to go on Operation Raleigh… probably more than 25 years ago, though I still remember it clearly! He was running up this (very steep) path enough times to simulate the hight of Everest and I joined him on the final two or three.

I generally prefer the more gentle and winding climb on the other side of the road, but it was a fun challenge and I managed bottom to top with only very brief pauses for a gate and photo opportunities.

Then I dropped back down to the cyclists and wondered how many of them I had beaten to the top.

I ran back down my normal path, into the back of Ditching and straight up through the fields back to the Common. This time of year there are lots of gates of various types to negotiate… they are there to stop the chickens joining the run. It’s a really pretty route.

By the time I got back to Burgess Hill my legs were starting to fade, but not so much that I was really struggling (I have experienced this before!). This might have had something to do with the FireStar sachet (essentially a sachet of caffeine) that I had taken on the way down the Beacon… compared to the alternatives, this is not a bad option. I’ve been using these sachets for a few weeks now, having been given them by a product sampling team at London Bridge and I now need to go & buy some. Breaking news, sampling works! Oh, you knew already? As do I!

On my return I downed a glass of milk and headed for Kim’s shower, which has mains water which is colder than my tank-fed shower downstairs. I probably stood in the cold shower for good 20 minutes trying to cool my legs down… if I’m still walking around as if I’m on stilts tomorrow & Tuesday, then I probably wouldn’t have been able to move at all without it!

The run was 10.2 miles and completed in 1 hour 46 mins… an average of 5.7 mph. You can see the route on Strava.

Different routes often help me to think about different things and today was no different. I thought about the start that my parents gave me in life and their ongoing guidance & support. I have grown up to be a (thankfully) imperfect fellow, but with a real growth mindset (Carol Dweck’s book Mindset is well worth the read!). Even in my fifties I often make questionable decisions (by normal standards at least), but the net effect is that I am able to work in a fascinating area (people, development & change) and can constantly push the limits of my ability. This, ahem, basically means that I fail frequently and though this can be somewhat frustrating (often, as Kim will attest), it is something that I encourage my clients & students to do and to celebrate! I am very grateful to my parents for the role that they have played in helping me be me… clearly I would be nothing (quite literally) without them!

Whilst I have no children of my own, I am a faux-father to Kim’s two kids, now in their late twenties… Karen sent me a text this morning to wish me Happy step-Fathers Day and the grin is still plastered across my face!

So to fathers and faux-fathers everywhere (and mine in particular)… keep up the hard work! It’s much appreciated!