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Hill Running (sort of)

After a GREAT party in London last night and a 3am bedtime, I didn’t much feel like a run this morning… mostly because I was still asleep!  When I finally did get out it was for a short run around the local roads of Burgess Hill.

The weather is still crazy warm so my shorts and t-shirt got yet another unseasonal outing.

I would show you some photos but new settings in BlueHost or WordPress today (dropping file upload size from 10mb to 2mb) make this too much hassle… any recommendations for a new host gratefully received.

According to Strava I ran 4.1 miles in 37 minutes, an average of 6.5mph.

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Social running

One of the nested reasons for keeping at this running thing is so that I’m fit enough to keep up when there is an opportunity to run with my friends.

Cliff, Mark and Andy were running in a Longman 28 mile run from Falmer today and Mark had cajoled me into joining them, at least for a short distance.  I started at Jack & Jill, their half-way point, and ran back along the top of the Downs towards them, passing the front runners as I did.   The leader looked on pretty good form but the guys weren’t actually that far behind… er, well, maybe two miles or so, which I suppose is enough.

I didn’t quite manage to get to Blackcap before Cliff came into view and I turned around and ran back to the Beacon with him.  Mark was 20m behind that whole way and he finally caught up while Cliff was eating Scotch Eggs and chocolate brownies at the refuelling station.  I then ran with the two of them back across to Jack & Jill.

When I reached their turn point Mark suggested that I run with them a little further until I found Andy, who was only behind on account of being in recovery from the flu… we reached him before we got to the top of Home Hill.  I then turned round and ran back to the turn point with him and then, for moral support, back up to the top of Home Hill again.

And then, obviously, I ran back down to the car.

Overall I felt as if I was on good form… idling along on a sunny day with friends who have run ten miles further than you will do that every time!

My efforts amounted to a run of 10.5 miles in 1.51, an average of 5.67 mph… you can see the route on Strava at ttps://www.strava.com/activities/252009307

I returned to base for a quick shower and then Kim and I went to Lewes for a relaxed walk and something to eat… it was a glorious day!  We even managed to drop in on my folks on the way back… they were on good form too, despite being somewhat more than ten metaphorical miles ahead of me!

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Bimbling

I met Daren upstairs (aka Jack & Jill) this morning and we went for a bimble around our normal circuit.  He assured me that I wouldn’t need a second layer and though it seemed sufficiently chilly that I took one with me just in case, in the event it was definitely surplus to requirement.

Our ‘normal’ route, for casual readers, involves dropping down the South Downs Way into Pyecombe, running up Wolstonbury Hill, sliding (at least in the winter) down and up and down to Clayton (aka downstairs), chatting along the base of the Downs, gasping up the tank tracks and finally ambling back down to Jack & Jill.

Its a really special 6.25 mile circuit and we dispatched it today in 1.15… an average of 5 mph.  This is a pretty good average bearing in mind the  significant up-hills involved!

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Ditchling sans beacon

The chairs on the sunlit deck this morning were damp with dew, so I opted to sup my quadspresso in the tea-house and took the opportunity to read a bunch of articles ahead of tomorrow.  It was warm on the deck, but the tea-house sits against the tall north hedge and it was thus a little chilly, especially with both the door and the side window open.  I didn’t realise how cold until I picked up my empty coffee cup for a refill… it might as well have just had iced-coffee in it!

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I was in ten minds about where to run this morning so in the end I just set out and followed my feet.  After a little gardening yesterday and the inevitable subsequent hay-fever attack from cutting the lawn and the grass on the green, I felt somewhat leaden-footed so I quickly realised my feet weren’t going to take me as far as the Beacon.  Or, more to the point, back again.

I cut through behind Folders Lane,  crossed onto the the common and headed down towards Ditchling behind all the garden centres.  It was firmer going than I had imagined, but still a little icky in places.

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I ran down through the middle of Ditchling… it really is a very pretty place!

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There’s an old house for sale at the south end of the High Street which always piques my interest as I drive past.  The length of time that it’s been on the market suggests that the price is set too high (and way out of my price bracket!) but I thought I would take the path round behind it to see if there was more to see… apparently not!

I have occasionally stopped to chat with one of the friendly locals and I bumped into her here, walking her dogs.  Bizarrely she also has a tea-house and a Japanese-influence to her garden… I reckon we’re probably in a real minority around here, but you never know!

I chose the direct accent of Lodge Hill and was rewarded with the glorious view to the south.

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Then it was back past Oldlands Mill (passing one of my most favourite houses in the area) and on towards Burgess Hill.

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Rather than take the road back into town, I took the detour that Daren & I used to use, passing the water tower and then running along the side of the railway.

Things have changed!  What used to be a very muddy track is now cinder & tarmac.  Whilst it was lovely to run along, it’s not as hairy as it used to be… I remember some really slip-slidey mornings!

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Overall the 6.75 miles took me 1:28, though this time includes the conversation about Japan & Japanese gardens so I might have been slightly faster than the 4.6mph average that this suggests!

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Research mode

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I’m in research mode today, reading reports on strategy & change management in large and unionised organisations to help inform a potential project.  My mind needs space and time to digest the information, so I thought I would try an experiment.

Last year I met the guys from Armadillo Merino, who shared the merits of the merino wonder-material… aside from its lightness, wicking ability and natural odour resistance, what really appealed to me was the idea that I could compost it when it was finally of no use to me as clothing.

As an experiment I bought three t-shirts from Armadillo, giving one to my brother Nigel (kayaker), one to Kurt (runner), the owner of the brilliant running shop Run, and kept the third for myself (lazy oaf?).

Since then, aside from wearing formal shirts for work, I have worn either the Armadillo t-shirt, or another similar merino one, pretty much non-stop.  It really is an amazing material!  Reports from Nigel at Christmas were that, despite already being a merino fan with a large number of garments, he too had worn it a lot because it was so lightweight and comfortable.

Sitting, working barefoot in the sun this morning I became aware that my t-shirt was just starting to pong… I hasten to draw your attention to the ‘starting to’ preface to ‘pong’, lest you think that I’m a slob.

The proto-pong was no real surprise as I had been wearing the shirt on and off since Sunday morning.  Hence, in a break between articles, I quickly hand-washed it, loosely wrung it out and, being in an experimental mood, put it back on. Wet.

It’s certainly more comfortable when it’s dry, but it was no so uncomfortable in its wet state that I felt the need to take it off.

After about 15 minutes the sun went in, which meant that the temperature dropped, my socks and shoes went back on and my fleece too.  I was aware that the shirt was wet, but it wasn’t cold and I was able to carry on working.

In all it took about 45 minutes for the body to become dry with the remnants taking another 15 minutes or so.  Not bad!

While Armadillo’s core target market is service personnel (army, police etc) I can’t help feeling that this is actually a backpackers dream garment too!  And if I still ran an agency I would definitely specify merino for riggers, event managers etc.  Hey, but that’s a whole different experiment!

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Two runs

Between imbibing brain food (aka reading), writing an article, preparing lectures and marking papers, I’ve managed to have a busy couple of weeks.  Such that I ended up deciding not to try to write a speech for a conference, despite it being a really interesting opportunity.  The amount of creative thinking and writing has probably had an impact on my motivation to write this blog, hence managing to skip it last weekend.

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We’ve had a period of breakages.  After one particularly windy night, I woke up Christmas Eve to find the fence in tatters… so much for giving the myriad visitors over Christmas a Zen garden to look out on.

The fence has been replaced, but the old bamboo front panels that I made won’t work with it so my mind has come up with a new idea to integrate the new fence into the garden… it’ll have to wait for the Spring though as it’s low priority!  However, the ideation process threw up a great solution for a completely different problem… I now have more than one reason to learn some joinery skills.

I then smashed a salad bowl by clipping it with the cupboard door, our cleaner managed to smash a vase, and I cracked a piece out of my favourite pasta bowl in a drying-up accident.

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As an incredibly versatile 15 year old ceramic bowl, used at least three or four times a week, it has survived more than 3,000 outings to the table and back to the cupboard via the sink.  If I can manage to glue the fragment back on, it might even see a few more!

What amazes me is how fast accidents happen (in the blink of an eye)… and how much they affect other things when they do.  Even when they are not health-threatening, they still affect our mood.  

My commercial background means that I automatically do a lot of risk mitigation (which must surely be a bore to those around me) but even with this it’s not possible to account for all eventualities or else we’d be living in flame-proof, hypo-allergenic cotton wool.

So, two machine runs to report:

Last week I optimistically started off at 8 mph, but was forced to reduce this to 7 mph after a mile as I just couldn’t hold the pace.  I completed 3.67 miles in 30 minutes, an average of 7.34 mph and was exhausted afterwards.

Today I was more circumspect and started running at 7 mph, but then increased the speed towards the end.  At 30 minutes I decided that I might as well run for a little longer to make the distance 4 miles, which I reached in 33.17, an average of 7.2 mph.  I even wondered about running further still… maybe another time.

I quite often walk outside to stretch afterwards, which I see as the English version of jumping out of the sauna into a freezing lake.  This morning there had been a really heavy frost so I was looking forward to a chilly cool-down, but by the time I got outside, maybe around 10am, the temperature had zoomed up and it was in the ‘cold for a summer day’ category.  England really is the place to go for changing weather!

Time to get back to the brain food… maybe prefaced by lunch!

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Slow thinking

I’ve written before about how my thinking seems to slow, running on the machine, as the speed rises above 7mph.  Today that didn’t seem to be the case, although it was this subject that I was thinking about so maybe it doesn’t count.

I was thinking that the reason why thinking slows is that the subconscious draws energy reserves away from non-vital organs to focus on those that really need it.  I remember from the Michael Mosley’s BBC series about High Intensity Training that that the energy-management programme errs on the side of caution, persuading us that our muscles are more tired than they really are, so maybe the same applies here… especially since the brain is such a power-hungry organ.

I remember from both the marathons I have run, Berlin in 2004 and Brighton in 2010, that I succumbed to what I can only assume is a version of ‘the wall’.  My experience was of an increasing internal dialogue, almost voices in my head, trying to persuade me to stop… which I eventually gave in to.  It’s hard to get going again afterwards as the conscious resolve has been weakened and the subconscious is more fully in control.

As I ran on I started to think how this related to hypothermia, where signs of early onset include disorientation… I wonder if this is the same mechanism at work.  A tragic example of this in extremis is mountaineers, such as those on Everest, who sit down for a rest and slowly freeze to death.  It often happens on the way down when their energy reserves are significantly depleted after 12 or 15 hours of extreme exertion at altitude, in sub-zero temperatures.

The intense fatigue prevents the climber from thinking clearly: it is this lack of judgement that allows the subconscious need to ‘maintain energy reserves’ to override the conscious need to keep going.  I have read and heard a number of chilling accounts of climbers finding someone technically alive though deliriously unable to move and one, though I can’t find the book in my bookcase, where the account is given in the first person by someone whose conscious fought back from the warm & comfortable seat in the snow.  In that case, though being given up for dead by others, he did actually manage to make it off the mountain… a herculean feat of both body and conscious mind.

3.77 miles in 30 minutes is an average speed of 7.5 mph was no such herculean feat.  Whilst my cognitive excursion might have it’s roots in all kinds of stimuli, it might also indicate that I’m at least adapting to the speed as a result of the recent fast but short Sunday runs.  Something more to ponder on!

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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.

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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!

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Mud transfer

After yet another curious AHA moment on Sunday from the book I’ve been reading, I went for a run to let my brain assimilate the new input.

I stuck to the short and simple route that I’ve followed the last couple of weekends but after a day of heavy rain on Saturday, it was no surprise that it was a little more muddy… and just plain stream-like in places.

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The last of the autumn colour had also been washed or blown away, allowing more blue than usual to smile through the now missing foliage.

After much sliding around I arrived home with a lot of mud on my legs..

… but, surprisingly, none on the soles of my runners, which had been caked in mud when I went out!

5.2 miles in just under 52 minutes again… 6mph is clearly a great speed for thinking!