Category: Short run

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Chubby rides again!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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Observations of a cheese plant

I always love the way that a covering of snow on the ground outside reflects the day onto the ceilings inside the house and enhances the quality of the light. I would be a very happy guineapig for a dimmable ceiling full of LED lights, but in the meantime I enjoy our occasional snowy days all the more for the change in light.

I’m not averse to running in the snow, but only if it’s off-road. There is far too little traction on snowy pavements and the risk of injury outweighs any other considerations… including any adverse comments from my more… er, manly friends.

So instead I put on my shorts and climbed aboard the running machine. I’m sure that visitors think it’s an odd piece of furniture to have in the middle of an otherwise Zen-ish environment like ours, but I think more houses should have one… in fact, one of my neighbours clearly agrees and has recently bought one, albeit a bit flashier than our rather purposeful machine.

The downside of its location is that it faces a wall with only the leaves of a cheese plant to break the view. Two winters ago when I was training for the Brighton marathon and the world outside was deep with snow, I clocked up a number of long runs including one at 20 miles. It seems odd in retrospect that the subsequent marathon would break my mind in under two hours, when my mental muscle was strong enough to keep running whilst staring at the leaves of a cheese plant for three hours!

Today my aims were much more modest… a mere five miles. The machine shows progress around a quarter-mile track of LED lights and I decided to change the speed at each completed circuit. Starting at 6mph I increased through 6.5 and 7 to 7.5mph, before dropping back to 6.5 at the start of the next mile and repeating the process again.

This meant that at the end of mile four I was running at 9mph. In the final mile I reduced to 8.5, then to 8 and 7.5, but realising that I had the opportunity to run a sub 40-minute time, then increased the speed to 10mph to sprint to the end in 39.47, averaging just over 7.5mph overall.

Early on, Kim had noticed my get-on-and-run lack of preparation and had opened the door to the snowy garden, turned on the fan and had brought me a bottle of water… just as well since I had shed my shirt within a mile and by the end was dripping as if I was in a sauna.

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Conversational pace

Whilst I am generally up at 6am weekdays, I was clearly out of practice for early morning running, since Nick was gently tapping on the front door before I had even finished getting ready on Friday morning.

We took a road run around Burgess Hill that started at a pace that I had also forgotten… fast… such that I had to quickly deploy the sea anchors to slow us down to to a more conversational pace.  It was cold enough for longs, two layers and a jacket, hat and gloves… but of course the irrepressible Nick was wearing shorts!

After an enjoyable run we stopped for a brief chat before we went our seperate ways for breakfast and I then ran on back to the house.  A total of 5.2 miles in 46 minutes including our stationary chat, 6.78mph.

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Good and Muddy

After a really fun, relaxing and generally somewhat studious Christmas and New Year break, FosterRuns got back to business this morning with a delicious run on a BEAUTIFUL sunny day!

I had decided on the title above as I sat studying this morning, so there was little question about where I was going to run… it was back to the old midweek circuit.

I set off with considerable aplomb, charging down the road section in a manner which might have suggested, to the casual observer, that I hadn’t just spent two weeks laid low with a cold and unshakable cough.

I was well into the woods before my conscious mind put pay to the speed, but I had already started to deliberately splash through the middle of the mud by then so the fun continued.  As I’ve written in these pages before, there is a difference in frame of mind between avoiding the mud and plugging on through regardless and on this simple scale I was well off the latter end.

The mud today was thin and wet, so my socks were quickly wet through, but the upside was that my runners didn’t clog up.

I went out past the (currently boarded-up) Royal Oak, touched on Wivelsfield and then ran up through West Wood where the gradient had me slithering all over the place… with a big smile on my face.  Other folk mashing through the puddles were sensibly wearing Wellington boots… they must have thought I was crazy!

Once around the industrial estate it was on to the magical path… as magical as ever with the sun filtering through the trees!

And then across a sun-stroked Common, before heading for home.

5.2 miles took me 51 minutes, so a merest shade over 6mph and a great start to 2012.  I hope that you all have a most amazing year!

And PS. HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Cliff who is forty-something today!

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An absence of mince pies

We were at a FAB party at Clive & Nat’s last night, during which time Pete & Cliff reminded me about the Mince Pie ten mile race this morning. Though I remember saying that I ‘might’ see them there, even then I was somewhat doubtful… I could list the reasons for my doubt, but it will make no difference since they will still harangue me for not turning up to compete!

Suffice to say that I wasn’t there this morning: I made it only as far as my folks’ place by the start time.

It had been raining all morning north of the Downs as I sat re-reading Michael Apter’s Reversal Theory, both reading and raining being factors in my considerable prevarication. However, in sight of the sea to the south of the both the Downs and the coastal ridge, the day was chilly and overcast but dry and optimistic… sufficiently so that I opted to wear shorts.

I had a vague thought about running to the finish line in Peacehaven, but I honestly didn’t feel that energetic, so I sufficed by running down to Rottingdean and along the Undercliff Walk to its easterly end at Saltdean.

The sea was heaving magnificently and I paused several times to take photos and then to take a longer video… which I would share with you if Google hadn’t bought YouTube and messed up my passwords in the process.

I then simply retraced my steps back up the hill to Woodingdean, all the while feeling guilty thinking about Pete, who would have competed having already run from Brighton and then, in the absence of my car, may well have had to run home again afterwards! Heck, he’s the one who should be writing the running blog!

I notice from the results sheet that out of a record 327 entries, Cliff came 95th (average speed 7.4mph) and Pete 66th (7.7mph).  Good show boys!

For me, around 7 miles took me 1.17 (5.45mph), but this included all the pauses for 21 photos and an almost three-minute video, so I was running a smidge faster… and comfortably so, even though I took the Falmer Road in a relaxed fashion.  After all, it wasn’t the day for racing!

There are only a few days left to submit your humorous incidents for the competition ahead of the deadline!  Though if I hear one more person claim they’ve not had the time to spend five minutes writing a few words and sending them to me, I’ll be forced to, er, sob… publically!

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Et tu, beaut day

The LED starlights were out in force in the sky last night and that translated into a chilly but beautifully clear morning.  Apart from Thursday, where there might be a little rain, this is supposed to set the pattern for the week in the South, with some chilly nights but temperatures generally above average.

As I pounded away to relax my muscles after yesterday’s run, the temperature underfoot on the running machine was considerably hotter still.

I know this because I tend to run barefoot and having managed to get up to 7.5mph during my normal mile, I felt so comfortable that I continued on at that speed for a second mile too… the belt warming all the time!

So warm feet and two miles in 17.04.  Have a GREAT week peops!

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Monday run-off

After I pointed out the extreme clemency of the season yesterday, the weather made a half-hearted effort at producing winter last night.

The sky was so clear that the stars shone like LED’s and there was already a frost on the deck when I went to bed.  Likewise this morning at 6am there was a heavy frost on the cars outside, but as I write two hours later it is melting fast, ahead of another week of mild weather and heavy rain… the latter albeit in all parts of the UK except here, where the water companies are already talking about a hosepipe ban!

Despite only running 10km yesterday, my legs had that tell-tale stiffness this morning that suggested that I’d be back to walking like a penguin tomorrow… which is exactly what happened for what felt like a week after my token short run three weeks ago.

The only antidote that I know is to get my legs moving again the morning after the run before, so I duly climbed aboard the machine this morning for a gentle jog.

It’s a good way to warm up on a cold day and I was reminded of the time two years ago when I ran 20 miles whilst staring inanely at the white wall in front of me and the leaves of the overgrown cheese plant!

My barefoot Monday run-off covered a mile and took just over ten minutes.

Have a GREAT week peops!

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Back to the beach

It had been stormy overnight and I awoke to a wet, grey day… not an especially appealing prospect for a run.  Fortunately it was still unseasonally warm here, so at least I wasn’t going to get cold and wet.

I quite like running from my folks’ place in the winter and so it was 10am before I was there and ready to leave… into a most beautiful sunny day that had somehow emerged from the gloom!

So glorious in fact that I opted to wear the shorts and shades that I had somewhat ironically taken along for the drive!

My folks live in a village on a hill behind Brighton and most routes out involve going down… in this case two miles down to the Saxon settlement of Rottingdean.  It was an easy way to ease myself back into the running, but after a little gardening yesterday my back was still a little tender.

Rottingdean is such a pretty village, with its pond, windmill and mix of tiny cottages and grand houses… one of which housed Rudyard Kipling for five years at the turn of the previous century.

One of the reasons that I particularly wanted to come down this way was to see the sea after last night’s storm… I was not disappointed!  And I wasn’t the only one admiring the view of the whitecaps along towards Brighton.

A mile westwards from Rottingdean are the Ovingdean steps, which descend 25m to the Undercliff Walk below.  Originally constructed in the 1930’s as part of sea defences, this is still an impressive construction… though not quite as daunting as the vertiginous and more recently constructed steps at Peacehaven, which can be seen in my post earlier this year

Once down at sea level the power of the waves became apparent… I’m pretty sure that Curtis Ebbesmeyer and Eric Scigliano’s book Flotsametrics passes comment on just how much force each wave exerts (alas, I can’t locate my copy on my bookshelves right now) but the clap of sound as each wave hit home was thunderous.

Fortunately the wind was offshore (so the undercliff was sheltered) so whilst the waves breaking against the seawall below me were producing a curtain of water ten feet above my head, they were then dropping straight back down… otherwise I would have surely been drenched on numerous occasions as I ran along.

In the late sixties and early seventies when I was a child, we used to go down to Rottingdean and play on the beach and in the sheltered sitting areas.  I’ve not noticed these sitting areas for years, but now I ran up through them and the combination of this and the baking hot sun transported me back in time in a most delightful way.

Then all that was left to do was run the two or so miles back up the hill.  It’s not such a bad hill and it wasn’t as if I’d run the eight or nine miles to Shoreham harbour & then back again like I did last year, but after a few weeks off running it was still good workout.

I arrived back in 1.07 having completed 6.4 miles… a paltry 5.7mph, but a very enjoyable entrée back into the running world and I couldn’t have wished for a more glorious day to do it!

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Gazelle-like

Cliff’s offer of a run on Sunday morning was highly tempting, but my head presumably knew that I wasn’t yet ready for a long run so it didn’t wake me up until after he had started running… just in case!  Though if he had said there were going to be bacon butties afterwards, then I wonder if it might just have tipped the balance of my cognitive alarm clock!

But Cliff did plant a seed in my mind which germinated this morning with my first run in over three weeks.  Okay, so it was a short run on the running machine, but the poor thing hasn’t had much use lately either so it was probably good for both of us!

I started at a slow 5mph to see how painful it was going to be, but everything seemed to be working so I ramped up the speed to 6mph and then increased it each quarter-mile until I reached 8mph.  The three mile run left me sweating profusely but in all other respects my body took it in its stride.

3 miles in 26 minutes 53 is not exactly gazelle-like (thank you Russell… you know gazelles can hit 50mph?) but 6.8mph is not bad for me!  It may yet be a couple of weeks before I’m back on the Downs, but it’s entirely possible that there will be a couple more of these short runs in the meantime.

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Five at seven

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

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

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

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