Category: Short run

After a really fun but quite intense week at work, I have pretty much collapsed this weekend.  However, I was up at six this morning and sitting in a chilly tea-house by half past planning for next week.  In stark contrast to last weekend, I did not want to run and this was reinforced by how incredibly clunky I felt when I finally did jog off down the road.

It had been raining and I was not in the mood for mud, so a plan formed to run round a few pavements and go back.  I was soon enticed off down a little path however and ended up running on the paths that frame the south-west ring road.  

For a small town set in beautiful scenery, there are fewer paths than I would ideally like.  It’s easy to follow paths from Ockley Lane (and all points to the east of the town) to Malthouse Lane, but then it all goes wrong.  There is no way for a runner to safely get from there to Isaacs Lane, other than coming in to town or going for miles out into the country in a most convoluted way.  It’s a double shame, as the Triangle Leisure Centre is in the middle of this section, which means that more people drive to it than is absolutely necessary.  Just one more mile of pathways here would make it possible to circumnavigate the town and encourage a much more outdoorsey culture.

I did not have the energy for the alternatives, so I ran along the verge on the ring-road, dodging onto the road where necessary to avoid the low signage.  At Isaacs Lane I cut through the industrial Estate, behind the football club and across to Valebridge Road, going round behind Steve & Maria’s place.  I then took a detour to run past my old house, looking in amazement at the overgrown garden, before running home up Junction Lane.

My one hour 12 minute, 6.5mph run had only been 7.8 miles, but I was worn out as if I had run twice that distance.  Still, at least the sun was out, a real bonus on a day that was forecast to be gloomy.  Unless of course you were running the Seaford half marathon and wishing it were a little cooler!  Hey ho, can’t please everyone!

Have a great week everyone peops!

The morning was overcast and once again, I felt not at all like running.  This is the little routine that my conscious and unconscious go through from time to time… the unconscious, like a child, testing the boundaries to see how flexible they are.

It doesn’t always go down this way, but on this occasion I consciously made a black espresso, ate a banana and got out there.

There had been much rain the night before last and I half expected a mud-bath, but I was pleasantly surprised at how firm the going was.  This said, there were patches of mud to slide about on, or plough through, all over the place.

I should point out that, like the Inuit with snow and ice, I have become accustomed to many different types of mud.  The mud today was not ‘skating’, which is when there’s a really thin, super slippery layer of liquid mud on a firm base, but rather ‘graceful’, where the mud is a little thicker and gives you a better chance to stay upright.

Which I needed at one point when my left foot slid to the right, in front of my right leg coming through.  Because the slide was graceful, I had time to arch like a cat, extricate my right leg and apply traction to push me in the direction I was falling.  I felt the distinctive pang of overstretched back muscles and observed my first two fingers on my left hand sink half an inch into the mud, before the momentum kicked in and I righted myself.  Fun, especially in slow-motion like that!

It was only a quick run around the (increasingly) normal 5.2 mile circuit (Royal Oak, West Wood, Magical Path) and this morning it took me 44 minutes.  And despite the unconscious protestations, the running itself was pretty easy.

I’m quite often not in the mood to run on an early mid-week morning, but usually the feeling goes within the first mile or so.  Not this morning.  I forced myself to run and had to cajole myself to keep going virtually every step of the way.

Part of this was that it was foggy and very chilly… such that my hands were cold (even having dug out my winter gloves from the bottom of the drawer) whilst the air in my nostrils was actually painful.

I ran out onto the common and after a warm-up lap, did a further three laps: each with two sides at a normal jog (albeit trying to keep my knees up), one at a faster run and then one stretching out down the final hill.  On the last circuit I had to be content to walk the first side on account of being knackered!

The fast side cannot be more than 300m and is slightly uphill and though I try to hold a good pace the whole way, I really  don’t understand why this relatively simple task should affect me so badly… I’ll obviously just have to keep going back to see if it passes over time.

I’m having second thoughts on whether the circuit is 900m or only 800m so I’m not sure whether I ran 4.25 miles or 4.5 miles, but the time was 45 minutes… all I could manage today.  At least the sun came out when I got back.

Kim and I are possibly / probably / undoubtedly weird [delete as appropriate] and one of the signs of this is that we prepare a Weekend Task list.  This might include good tasks such as sculpting or going to the cinema, but more often consists of chores to be actioned.  Bleaching and treating the mould in the shower room is a frequent one, as is cleaning the stainless steel in the kitchen, cleaning the glass on the wood burner or taking rubbish to the tip.

I’m guessing that this in itself is not highly abnormal, but the relish with which we then attack the list surely is.  And the delight in crossing the chores off when they are complete.  

This last weekend, one of the chores that was added to the list after it had been completed and ceremoniously crossed out again, was sorting out the gazebo.  The wooden structure outside my study window, with its honeysuckle creeper and bamboo-cane roof, looked really pretty, but it was covered in green lichen and the bamboo canes were well past their best.  

Kim half-jokingly suggested I tackle it and instantly had second thoughts… but too late.  Within a short space of time the roof was off and the cross-members detached.  MUCH later, the structure was reassembled, cleaned and treated but sans roof.  Whilst this was primarily because the roof had fallen to bits upon removal, I was also interested to see the effect it would have on my office.

I can report that, what was the coldest, darkest room in the house is currently flooded with sunlight and is passingly warm… I suspect the roof will not be replaced!

Two other things on the list that did not get done on the weekend were a run and the writing of the blog… the latter is clearly in progress (will have been finished if you are reading this) whilst the former was dispatched earlier this morning.

I was not feeling much like a run, but Daren pitched up at 7.30am so I had little choice.  It’s always great to run with Daren as he favours a ‘chilled out’ speed, ideal for conversation and enjoying the scenery.  We headed out via the Royal Oak to Wivelsfield, south through West Wood and then followed an arc around to the south of the town onto Wellhouse Lane.  Crossing Ockley Lane  we went past the water tower to the railway line then north back the the house.

The 6.7 miles took us one hour, five minutes, a respectable 6.2 mph bearing in mind we were aimlessly chatting as we went.

I’ve been suffering from hay-fever lately so it was also good to find some more nettles to grasp… I still can’t categorically state that the old wives tale works, but I can report that it makes your hands tingle (even now) and it most certainly amused Daren!

One of the great things about getting up at six every morning coming out of winter was watching the dawn break earlier and earlier.  Now when I get up it’s already light and this morning was clear and bright and spring-like.  From inside, at least.  Outside, there was a keen edge to the wind which made me change my Rono long sleeve top for my Gore jacket at the last minute.  The super-soft Rono under-layer stayed firmly in place, as did the shorts… my token gesture to acknowledge it’s slowly getting warmer.

The aftermath of my Sunday run was not pretty… the back end of Sunday and pretty much all of Monday were spent energy-less… stuffing verily knocked out.  However, Daren encouraged me to run this morning so out I went.

The first thing I noticed was that it was not as cold as I’d thought.  I followed the same route as March 8th, being Royal Oak, Wivelsfield, West Wood, Industrial Estate, Magical Path, Common back and en-route came across Lew standing in his back field supping coffee.  If I was a serious runner I would have waved and carried on, but I’m not.  People are far more important and so we stood & chatted for a while over his garden fence, if that’s what he calls it!  I was glad I had worn my jacket, standing chatting.

En route back I realised why it had seemed warmer… I had been running with the light wind.  With it in my face across the Common it was way colder and once again the protection of the jacket was appreciated.

Mud-wise, the ground was springy, firm and beaten flat, with a small amount of surface mud from the rain yesterday.  I’m sure I’ll find a lot more mud as the Spring develops, but I had brushed off the caked-on mud after my Sunday run so at least today my uppers were clean.  Ish.

The 5.2 mile route took me 55 minutes, somewhat longer than on the 8th, but I had stood chatting for a while… if it was longer than 5 minutes, which I suspect it was, then I’m running faster than I was then.  That makes the exertion of Sunday more worthwhile.