Short run – Page 14 – Foster Runs

February 22, 2013

Warm up

After eighteen days away working in warmer climes (we won’t dwell on the international news stories about the attendant cyclone and the flooding it generated in the local area!), the UK was a COLD place to return to.

The hot and humid weather on the other side of the world was not conducive to any exercise other than the occasional evening dip in the swimming pool so I have no running to report during that period.

As a result of these two factors, exacerbated by jet-lag, my run last Sunday was in the warm embrace of the running machine and at a gentle 6mph warm up pace.

I have nothing much more to report, other than my memory remains as fickle as ever… even five days after the event, I’m struggling to remember the myriad thoughts I had.

I’m not even certain about the time & distance, but I’ve decided the most likely combination is 5 miles in 49.5 minutes.

January 20, 2013

The snow thickens

With the snow following me back from Scandinavia this week and without the benefit of Martin’s running spikes, I opted for a run on the machine this morning.

On a scale of enjoyment, running on your own on a machine compares poorly to running with friends in interesting places, so my aim today was to get on and off as quickly as I could.

I set my goal as 45 minutes, dialled in 7mph and got on with it.

What can I say? The cheese plant waved gently at me as my head bobbed up and down. I got the stitch after about 25 minutes and I couldn’t shake it. I needed my mental stamina to finish. I counted down the minutes rather than watching the distance increase, amusing myself by trying to do mental arithmetic to see whether I needed to increase the speed to get an average of 7mph… the machine takes long seconds to get up to speed initially.

And failing at the arithmatic: 60 minutes divided by 7 is…? The seconds make it a complex calculation to do… and to then compare with the current time/distance equation, especially when you’re running… and especially when your body is rebelling.

I was about 6 seconds adrift at the 45 minute stage, covering 5.24 rather than 5.25 miles and thus averaging 6.98mph. But who cares… I was just glad to have finished.

It’s still snowing outside, harder now and I’m hoping that trains, planes and automobiles will all be running on time as required this week!

January 20, 2013

The Stockholm Syndrome

There were a number of facets of my run last Sunday that were unusual. It was dark, minus ten degrees and the ground was covered in packed snow with a layer of powder snow on top. Oh, and I was in Stockholm.

My brilliant host Martin had persuaded me to take my running gear and he augmented this with an extra pair of running tights, a head-torch and a set of running spikes for the bottom of my trainers.

I was particularly glad of the latter. My outside runners were covered in mud from the previous run so I had packed the pair I use on the running machine. Only when I put them on did I realise how slippery the soles were: a combination of the rubber hardening with age and the silicone lube we use on the machine.

It may have been minus ten, but it really didn’t feel that cold, which may have been due to low humidity. We ran gently along one of Martin’s training routes, through his neighbourhood, around his local lake and up into the forest. It was beautiful and I could certainly get used to this being my local run, snow and all.

All too quickly we were back at the house and I felt elated… 55 minutes had passed in a flash! I’ve no idea how far we ran, but we were chatting constantly so probably about 5 miles.

After work the following evening, Martin decided I should experience more of the local way of life. We headed to a local recreation centre and I once again changed into my running gear… this time swapping the slippery-soled runners for a pair of long Swedish ice skates.

The last time I can easily remember being on ice skates was around 1995. Whilst standing nonchalantly with my hands in my pockets I had slipped over and fractured a rib! Not wishing to worry Martin, I withheld this information!

Not expecting to go far, we set off along the track… across the surface of the lake. You might think this sounds crazy, but the track would have been maintained by a tractor, so the ice is pretty thick. Having driven on frozen lakes in the past it wasn’t the thing that was concerning me… I just didn’t want to make an idiot of myself by falling over!

Fortunately some basic elements of the technique (none of them glamorous, alas) came back to me and we completed the lake circuit… a whole 3km!

That was the hors d’oeuvre. We changed, showered and climbed into the the typically Swedish sauna… it was a mixed session and everyone was naked, though clearly no-one seemed to give a hoot.

Having been thoroughly heated, Martin led me outside, across the snow and down to a small jetty on the lake… still naked, of course. Here there were a pair of stainless steel handrails and between them the treads of a ladder descending into the black water.

The water on the handrails was frozen, as was the surface of the jetty and only a submerged fan prevented the surface of the water freezing over like the rest of the lake that we had been skating on.

I thought a little trepidation was probably in order, but I didn’t want to show myself up as a weak-minded Brit so I grasped the icy handrails and started to step down until only my head and hands remained in the air.

It’s possible that my mind has blanked out the experience, but it didn’t seem that bad… probably because I had been recently super-heated . I counted to five before I retraced my steps out of the water and then walked back across the snow. We even sat outside for a few minutes chatting before returning to the sauna… with our feet lifted off the frozen ground!

Probably determined to get a girlie squeal out of me, my wonderful host then repeated the exercise… this time with a camera to capture the moment. Two photos were taken though, despite the effects of the cold water, only one is publishable!

Worried about my place in the Brit-dip-list and also strangely enjoying this new experience, I returned for a third time to lower myself into the icy water. I actually can recommend it… highly!

We showered & changed & headed out for food and a celebratory glass of beer!

I now understand why Stockholm Syndrome is so named… despite the generally chilly winter temperature, snowy weather and extended hours of darkness, it’s a beautiful and fun place populated by really warm-hearted people. I can’t wait to return!

January 6, 2013January 6, 2013

The mud thickens

Aristotle claimed that true excellence comes from repetition and is thus not an act but rather a habit. I find habits fascinating, especially the ones that you create or optimise in a deliberate conscious way.

The whole point behind this blog for example was to create a habit of running and of writing… helping me to stay fit whilst forcing me into the habit of explaining myself in words.

Even after five years though it’s not a fully formed habit as it still requires conscious effort… I don’t yet suddenly notice that I’m leaving the house with my running kit on. In fact, if anything, I’ve got into the habit of getting up late on a Sunday and reading before I even think about running.

Good or bad, a fully-formed habit is like a line of computer code that is run by the subconscious. Hitting the snooze button is a good example of a suboptimal habit. Better to set the alarm later to the point that you want to get up, thus elongating the length of quality sleep. And then get straight up, thus helping develop conscious resilience.

Left to its own devices the subconscious will persuade the body to remain in the current comfortable state until a different motivation causes it to re-prioritise. Only our conscious is concerned with the longer-term benefits of getting to work on time.

Driving or playing a musical instrument is an example of a different kind of habit. Here the task is way too complex for the conscious to handle with its limited bandwidth. Instead. a period of practice is needed in order to show the subconscious what pattern it needs to repeat and under what circumstances. Provided the pattern is learned patiently and precisely, then a high degree of competence is feasible.

Higher degrees of competence are possible when you repeatedly break the pattern as you learn it, each time pushing the performance bar a little higher. This is the power behind interval training, where both muscles and mind learn that they can do more. Unfortunately the approach is also frustrating, as it constantly delays the reward of ‘felt competence’ for a future time.

Three years ago tomorrow I embarked on an experiment. Despite having played the guitar for 35 years, I had not progressed for 25 years and my use of the instrument had slowly declined to zero. I embarked on a series of 52 weekly guitar lessons and forced myself to practice for at least five minutes each day.

I’m still no virtuoso but my ability has improved and with it my passion. This progression has been typically non-linear. There was very little progress for a long time and then everything started to improve at the same time as the subconscious started to take over.

In the last nine months I have composed several songs and learned two short jazz pieces. The experiment continues and is now part of an interesting meta-habit… a habit of experimentation, of creating other sustainable habits.

Meanwhile, I finally relinquished the fascinating Wired 2013 magazine I was reading this morning, climbed into my running gear and set of into a grey day.

The surface water had subsided from last week, but the mud had thickened. When your feet are wet, it’s easy to persuade yourself to run straight through the puddles, but with the glutinous mud today and relatively dry feet I tried to stick to a dryer line. This meant that I was constantly testing the limits of my core stability muscles as my feet slithered this way or that on the steeper gradient at the margins.

I ran the same short route as recently, out to Wivelsfield and back via the magical path, with the latter still being uncharacteristically waterlogged.

At one point I stopped briefly to balance across a particularly wet bit and experienced a Forrest Gump moment… you know, the one where he just stops running and turns his attention to new challenges.

It was momentary, but palpable and that’s where the power of habits really come into their own. Rather than give in to the subconscious feeling (and hit the snooze button) I just started running again.

The time was slower at 55 minutes for the 5.2 mile route and it didn’t have the highs of my last run… as you can see this has made the task of writing more complex, hence my rambling post. But it was still a worthwhile step in the slow pursuit of excellence.

December 23, 2012December 23, 2012

An exercise in core stability

It’s been a rainy few days, though I think that we got away lightly compared to the rest of the country. Even so, my run today had a way higher proportion of splash footfalls to thud ones than normal. And inevitably with a fluid top layer, the mud was slippery!

I stuck to my simple local route and realising how wet and muddy it was going to be, adopted an approach of direct assault on every puddle or mud bath I encountered. Within minutes my trainers were wet through and my tights were plastered in mud… it was glorious!

Slip-sliding around always tests the core stability muscles and today more so than most, though I’m glad to report that I managed to stay right-side up for the duration.

The weather was largely overcast so the photos were more subdued than normal, but I did manage to find some vivid green moss.

The magical path runs along the shallow crest of a hill and is thus normally dry, but today it was waterlogged so I can only imagine the state of the normally muddy path lower down the rise!

Ditchling Common was strangely no wetter than normal but the weir from the pond at the bottom was flowing strongly. I decided to pause on the path back towards Burgess Hill rather than splash a nice couple wading through the liquid mud in the opposite direction.

Overall I was coated in mud right up to the middle of my back so upon returning I headed straight for the outside tap where I rinsed the worst of it off my tights, trainers and socks before I even bothered to try to take them off. I then hand washed them to lessen the mud content before putting them anywhere near the washing machine!

So 5.2 miles in 53 minutes gives an average of 5.88mph that doesn’t seem bad for all the sliding that was going on.

Happy Christmas to all!

December 20, 2012December 20, 2012

A short run on a short day

Tomorrow is the shortest day, although at only 4 seconds longer today comes a pretty close joint-second. With dark clouds and heavy rain it sure does feel like winter is about to start. Which is what made it a perfect day for a hilarious run with Daren!

We met ‘upstairs’ at Jack and Jill, laughing at even the notion of running when there was enough water on the roads to kayak comfortably. Perfect weather for clean trainers!

It felt cold to start with, especially with the rain biting at our faces, but soon laughter warmed us up as we dropped down past a difficult green on the golf course.

The path towards Pyecombe was a small stream and there was little point trying to keep our trainers dry… we just waded on through!

The path out from Pyecombe was probably less muddy than normal since it had been washed right down to the hard chalk layer. Moreover, when we reached the point that is normally thick deep mud, someone had tarmacked it over since our last visit. Odd.

We made good time up Wolstonbury but chose not to stand on the top to admire the (absent) view on account of the needling rain. The steep grassy decent was always going to more interesting in this weather but we both managed to stay upright… with the help of some girlie squeals and aerobatic body movements.

A subsequent steep incline led to more squeals and one moment that almost undid me… my uphill foot was secure in a hollow while my downhill foot slipped inexorably away.

The end of that path as we approach Clayton is always a mud bath, even in the middle of summer, but today it seemed somehow easier. Probably because we weren’t trying to avoid it in any way… we just waded right through the middle.

Eventually we came to the hard hill. The ‘tank tracks’ take the scarp slope of the South Downs head on and require every ounce of resilience to run from bottom to top… neither would have made it alone today but together we managed to triumph.

And then we were back in the deserted car park, stripping off sodden clothes while the rain did it’s best to soak our dry ones.

6.3 miles in 1;14 works out to 5.1 mph, which is actually a little faster than normal… you were right Daren!

My trainers have resumed their dirty state but I’m now brimming with positivity ahead of the approaching winter!

December 16, 2012

Dirty trainers

It was tricky getting into my trainers this morning… they were set like concrete from last weekend. Eventually I prevailed, but not for the first time in recent weeks I made a mental note that I needed to wash them!

The sun was out in force and the weather mild, so despite the general wetness of the ground I headed out to do my local circuit. The ground was a mat of leaves from now empty trees and this seemed to be soaking up some of the water… but not much. Within five minutes of leaving the house I could feel a tell-tale dampness on the back of my calves, the splattered mud already soaking through my running tights.

On days like today there is little point trying to skirt around the mud… safer to go straight through. The West Woods were sodden and squelchy but beautiful in the dappled sun. At one point I caught up with a couple who were out walking… they stood well back from the path as I splattered through, enjoying the mud but only on the outside of their Wellingtons’!

The magical path was just that and I decided to continue on down it rather than turn left across the Common.

I crossed over my outbound route at the Royal Oak and ran down past the simplest and most elegant church I know around here.

When I mentioned earlier that I intended to wash my trainers, I have envisaged doing so whilst my feet were not in them. But here in front of me the path had vanished under water and I had no option but to splash on through.

Now I was back onto paths that I used to frequent when I lived in my old house and soon enough I was running past it again… pleased to see that there was a sports car in the drive once more, even if the garden has been generally overgrown since I left.

A few minutes on the tarmac and I was home again, peeling off wet gear and finishing off the task of washing my trainers.

6.75 miles in 1:11 gives an average speed of 5.7 mph and a few pretty photos to boot (in reverse order for some reason!).

November 27, 2012November 27, 2012

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.

Splish splosh splash!

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!

November 21, 2012

More autumn colour

Sunday was another beautiful day so I followed the same route as last week… except that this time it took me 40 minutes longer. Somewhat worrying for a run of only 51 minutes!

The countryside around here really is lovely and the last of the autumn colours were out on show.

Somewhere past the halfway mark I came across the inimitable Lew and stopped for a short conversation. This clearly turned into a not so short conversation (we did put the world to rights), although it only seemed as if I had paused for ten minutes!

My modest run and large pause meant that I still had energy to spare to make the most of a sunny day by getting out to give the cars a long-overdue wash. The downside of this was that I ended up with a painful shoulder, but this had an excellent silver lining. My friend Evrim has been doing a sports massage course and she kindly worked some of her new-found magic on my shoulder, which now feels better than it has done in an age!

So 5.2 miles in (ahem, 91 minutes, but let’s call it) 51 minutes, followed by a similarly delayed post due to a busy few days.

November 11, 2012November 11, 2012

A muddy reward

I’ve had a particularly enjoyable week, lecturing at either Birkbeck or Brighton Business School on all five working days. My students were delightfully engaged post graduates looking to get ahead in some area of business or marketing and were suitably curious and cognitively challenging.

They were also flexible enough to allow me to experiment with both the material and the delivery and as a result I had FUN! To top it off, I had an additional meeting after the Friday session which has left my head buzzing with ideas!

Having spent yesterday afternoon and this morning finishing off a set of condensed notes for the students, I rewarded myself with a run.

The sun was bright in a chilly blue sky and having not run last weekend I opted for a favoured short route through the local woods. I first headed out to Wivelsfield, then followed the path through West Wood to Ditchling Common Industrial Estate.

It was beautiful, with autumn leaves covering the ground and sun filtering through the empty trees.

It was also muddy!

In the summer, or when the ground is largely dry, I tend to avoid any muddy puddles. But at this time of year there is no point whatsoever and I revel in running straight through the mud, avoiding only those patches that might stop me in my tracks or swallow a trainer… which has happened a couple of times in the past!

Near the industrial estate there a subtle fork in the track which reminds me of Robert Frost’s poem about two roads converging in a yellow wood. I call the one less travelled the Magical Path and it was on good form today, a narrow alley through the autumn trees.

At the other end I headed out across Ditchling Common and back towards home, my trainers sodden and legs suitably mud-splattered from the way.

5.2 miles was covered in 52 minutes, a steady 6mph average despite uncooperative lungs!