Short run – Page 13 – Foster Runs

August 4, 2013

Two and a half bare feet

I had been lost in creative mode this morning, supping on a couple of quadspressos and time had flown by. It was past ten o’clock and already a hot summer’s day, so rather than miss a(nother) Sunday run, I stripped down to my boxers and jumped barefoot onto the running machine… it’s one of the real benefits of having one in-house!

After a brief warm-up I increased the speed to 7.5mph and ran along with my mind on other stuff. The run was a token gesture, 2.5 miles in 21 minutes, but something trumps nothing and I felt all the better for it.

July 30, 2013

Out of shape

It’s amazing how quickly you can get out of shape! Despite a holiday which involved many excellent walks and one fantastic run, ten days was all it took to return to (no) form!

Sunday saw me running out along my road route in a particularly lacklustre way and turning around at the 3-mile point.

I then retraced my steps and though I diverted slightly to discover a small park behind Marle Place that I’d not seen before, I essentially completed 6 miles in one hour.

I don’t even have any photos to show for it, but sometimes it’s important to just keep your hand in… or running legs and writing brain in this case.

June 23, 2013

Hard work

Rather than down an energy drink ahead of my run this morning, I opted for half a banana and a handful of almonds. Whilst probably more healthy, this combo did not have the same effect as the orange drink last week… every step of my run was hard work.

Is that really the effect of just one glass of wine last night?

Either way, with power reserves allocated to running, there weren’t a lot of interesting thoughts going on upstairs, or at least nothing that my famously fickle memory is allowing me to recall!

With dark clouds threatening rain as I got ready, I did think about wearing an additional layer, or even a hat, but in the event it was warm enough that I would have happily taken my t-shirt off and I was relieved that I had nothing else to worry about!

I took the same route as last week and then threw in the additional loop out to Hundred Acre Lane as per this April run.

Looking at the top of my left shoe, it’s clear that it’s about time for a visit to Kurt at RUN. I’ve noticed the same wear indicator with a number of earlier pairs… once the splodge has been extinguished and the shoe is past its replacement date, my toe starts to make a bid for freedom!

To be fair though, this pair started out on the TMB two years ago and by all accounts they are well & truly knackered.

As am I right now! The sofa calls, despite having run only 6.2 miles in one hour. I hope that my new shoes come with fresh supplies of energy… or I’ll be forced to drink the Beet juice drink that I’ve been avoiding!

June 16, 2013

Hocus Focus

In addition to the desire to rid myself of lethargy, there were a couple of small influences behind my fast-breaking run outside this morning. In particular, my mother pointing out how many days it had been since I last blogged when I saw her last week and the guys I met from Armadillo Merino on Friday who piqued my interest in technical fabrics.

Alas I needed something more than desire to push me out the door.

In September 2011, when Daren and I had just started the Tour du Mont Blanc, we reached an early low-energy point. Due to late flights we had set out at 8pm and intended to find somewhere to eat and sleep, but at 2am had still found neither and were on our last legs. At this point we each downed a Quick Orange energy drink and found a remarkable surge of energy which kept us going for another two hours until we found some rudimentary accommodation. [look at the site if you want to see the definition of rudimentary!]

Disgusted by the taste but amazed by the effect, I had bought more (this time Focus Energy Shot) for the London to Brighton run last year and had one left over… which I consumed this morning before setting out.

The effect was excellent and I went from tired to fired in a few minutes… the effect lasting at least for the duration of my short run!

My route today was the simple loop out to Wivelsfield, through West Wood and back via the Magical Path.

A little mud persisted from the rain last week, but otherwise the going was firm… apart from the point where I slipped sideways and instinctively stretched like a scalded cat to stop myself hitting the deck! It was a close thing… my face was low enough for a moment that I could smell the ground!

It was also the day of the London to Brighton bike ride… it seems strange to think that 23 years has elapsed since I participated! Where did that youth go?

I completed the 5.2 miles circuit in a Focus-powered 50 minutes (average speed 6.24mph) which whilst not great, is not bad considering how little running I’ve done recently.

I’m now thoroughly stretched, showered and breakfasted and just about ready for lunch now! Have a great week and keep that lethargy at bay!

June 16, 2013

Playing catchup

As many students will have heard me say over the last few years, the one thing that you can guarantee about habits is that they lapse. The key thing to remember is that when you realise that a habit has lapsed, you just pick up where you left off… with no emotion.

So although I’ve not blogged for six weeks, here I am back at the keyboard picking up where I left off.

Although I’ve not blogged, I have at least completed a few short miles: On the 12th May 5.02 miles in 40 minutes; on the 3rd June 2 miles in 18.31; and on the 4th June 2 miles in 18 minutes. All on the machine.

The lack of running and blogging was initially due to a busy few weeks, with conferences, a ten year reunion at LBS and the marking of 100 strategy papers for a friend at UCL. Then I just didn’t feel like it and found other things to do, like gardening, barbecues, researching or relaxing. Then, when I did do a couple of shorter, faster runs, I didn’t run because I could hardly walk for a week with a pair of wooden calves. [Memo to self, stretch after running!]

Eventually it was due to lethargy, which reminded me why I created this running/writing habit in the first place, way back in 2007.

It wasn’t just about keeping fit and slowly improving my ability to write: it was as an antidote to the tiresome physical and mental lethargy I feel when I don’t exercise.

So three runs in six weeks, totalling 9 miles in 78.5 minutes, average speed 6.88mph and a lapsed habit finally restarted.

April 24, 2013April 24, 2013

Short run & spring clean

It was a beautiful Spring weekend and breakfast was consumed outside both days. But this shouldn’t lead you to think it was a relaxing weekend!

Last week a visitor asked how often I cleaned the deck and whilst he seemed satisfied with my response, I now knew that it wasn’t only me that thought it needed attention.

Worse still, I knew that it needed resolving before I put the garden furniture on it for the summer.

It’s a horrible job, trying to wash off two years of weather & wear with a broom and a pressure washer. But Karen was down so it became a group activity and by the end of the afternoon we had completed the top deck.

My Sunday run then was a barrier to further progress so I made it a short one. I chose the Wivelsfield/Ditchling Common circuit and then added the loop out to Hundred Acre Lane for good measure.

It started cold (in my shorts & tee-shirt) but I soon warmed up and had fun in the remnants of sticky mud that barred the path from time to time.

I estimate that the route is 6.2 miles so the 58 minutes it took to complete meant that I averaged 6.4 mph.

And then it was back to the deck washing and treating, which meant that by the end of the day I was pooped!

The deck now looks like this…

… which is hopefully sufficiently nondescript for no-one to notice it for another couple of years!

March 10, 2013

Pain relief

My overarching reason for running this morning was to relief the muscle pain created by washing the cars & gardening yesterday. My shoulder particularly had reminded me that I had overdone it every time I turned over in bed last night!

A run seemed like the best way to loosen up.

I dialled in 7mph on the machine and after each five minutes I took a couple of sips of water and increased the speed by 0.1 mph. There was an ongoing conversation in my head about whether to run 5 miles or for an hour.

I settled on 45 minutes, after which time I had run 5.5 miles, an average of 7.3 mph.

My shoulder is still painful, but the muscles are a lot looser so it’s not grabbing my attention so much. More gardening required methinks… just not today!

March 3, 2013

1000 feet

Thursday I was feeling demoralised. Nietzsche said that you can have as much joy in your life as you are willing to tolerate sorrow and if that’s right then I have had a few days of being at the bottom of this sine curve.

An alternate way of looking at it might be to say that March had arrived (almost on Thursday) but the weather has not yet improved sufficiently to go outside without protection against hypothermia.

A run with Daren was a perfect tonic and with the same four high-performance layers as last week to keep me warm, we set out into the gloomy morning.

Runs with Daren can’t always be full of laughter, but it’s pretty much impossible not to have some invoked as a result of our discussions! I forget why we laughed, but we did laugh, especially when I almost landed face-first into the thick mud at the bottom of Wolstonbury Hill.

I almost wish that my hand hadn’t saved the day as it would have been a way funnier photo.

My subdued mood made the Tank Tracks seem even tougher than normal… Daren chose this time to nonchalantly share that our 10km circuit involved climbing 1000 feet… just three circuits would equate to climbing Snowdon.

I couldn’t help thinking again about Cloud Atlas as we ran down the hill towards the cars. This run is like a microcosm of life, with tough bits and easier sections and runners who are the same on each circuit, and yet always different.

We were surprised that despite feeling much slower, we dispatched the 6.25 miles in 1:15, the same as the previous week.

February 24, 2013February 24, 2013

Of wise men

One of the benefits of running on the machine is the amount of thinking that I do. Towards the end of my run I started thinking about what made the archetypal ‘wise man’ wise?

On a Strawbs album when I was growing up there was a quote from the Buddha:

As a man of discernment, standing on a rocky eminence, boholdeth those who are below and in distress; so doth the sage, who by his wakefulness hath put to flight his ignorance, look down upon suffering mankind from the heights of wisdom that he hath attained.

It’s from memory, so it might not be strictly accurate, but the question remains: how did the sage put to flight his ignorance?

The curiosity to observe what was going on around him and the humility to do it without judgement? The perception to see behind the obvious and the flexibility of thinking to embrace this new information. The courage to challenge dogma and the resilience to keep going when this got hard work?

These are all relevant sterling qualities, but is there also some reason they often seemed to favour living in the wilderness… even if it was only for 40 days and 40 nights?

I think the reason has to do with the way that blue sky thinking comes to us. To my mind the sky is on the inside, held as one of the millions of life-inputs captured within our subconscious. It is within this entity that ideas happen and all that is required to access them is a quiet conscious mind.

You’ll have to forgive this slightly kookie subject… it’s the kind of thing that happens when I stare at a white wall for half an hour. Along with myriad ideas for how to easily suspend an iPad in front of the running machine to give me something to think about while I’m running.

I ran 5 miles in 42.40, an average of 7mph and I’d like to leave you with something else that has been running around in my mind… if you have time to watch it?

February 22, 2013

Cloud Atlas

I thought Sunday was cold, but it was positively balmy compared to what greeted me as I opened the car door at Jack & Jill on Thursday morning.

Testament to the temperature was Daren’s somewhat uncharacteristic first question to me… ‘shall we go & get a cup of tea?’

The idea rolled around in our collective mind for a few minutes, but ultimately our good sense was overridden and we went for a run anyway.

It was twelve degrees warmer than my run in Sweden last month, but felt WAY more chilly and my nose physically hurt from the icy tentacles of the sharp easterly wind.

The normal route was undertaken which is largely sheltered from an east wind so normal hilarity soon returned to the dynamic duo.

As per normal we ran through all manner of discussion subjects… to give you an example, I likened our recurrent run to the novel (and now film) Cloud Atlas, with us repeating our journey again and again, facing different challenges each time but with the same key characters. In terms of Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, our ebullience appears to make each circuit greater fun than the last, albeit with the occasional exception. Life is like that.

Unlike normal, the obligatory mud at the bottom of Wolstonbury was not appealing to take head on. We attempted to skirt around the issue, on account of the icy water in the deep puddles… and both failed.

On a day when even the tank tracks could not quell our enthusiasm, it was a small price to pay for such an enjoyable outing.

We finished the supremely hilly 6.25 miles (10km) in a characteristically sedate time of 1:15… although 5mph is actually pretty good bearing in mind our shared paucity of runs over the last month.