Category: Short run

Posted on

A Bok in sheep’s zimming

Public apology: It has been pointed out to me that the reason for Nick slowing down prior to the final hill last week was not, as I had guessed, to gather his energy, but rather for my benefit, ungrateful sod that I am. 

Oh, and to make sure that his heart hadn’t exploded… more of which later.

Meantime, please bear in mind that one of the things that I really love about running is getting out into the fresh air and allowing my mind some space to think.  In my work I occasionally help teams to be creative and one of the easiest ways to facilitate this is by getting people to leave the office, with its myriad distractions, to go for a walk around the block or into a park.

This morning was overcast but relatively warm and whilst it threatened to rain, it actually held off until we were back.  We took a different route out and having warmed up gentle-like, bowled along at a quite reasonable pace.  Behind the Royal Oak there’s a most beautiful and ancient church and this morning we ran past this way, up the driveway and across the main road into the back of Wivelsfield.  From here we followed my Sunday route for a while and it was on this uphill through the wood that I first realised something was amiss.

I was undoubtedly on good form, probably due to my shorter-and-faster-than-normal Sunday run, whilst I suspect that the Bok had spent most of his weekend ambibing incohol and being deprived of sleeping it off by two inquisitive sons.  As we pushed heartily up through Hundred Acre Wood, my inner peace was disturbed irrevocably by a recurrent beeping.  The Bok looked sheepish, which was a sight in itself, confessing that his nuclear-powered externally mounted satellite global heart position monitor was warning of impending disaster, with threat to life and limb. 

I think I preferred it sans power… it was more peaceful.

At the top of the wood the Bok started to gallop again, only to refuse at a small brook.  If there had been a rider on his back, they would definitely have got wet.  If I had’ve been behind him at the time, then he’d have found out how deep the brook was, head first.

Ho hum.  Next time!

We eventually worked our way, beeping and gasping, across to Ditchling Common and it was when we were crossing the next road that I first realised there was a second, more subtly irritating noise.  This clacking disappeared once we were back on the muddy stuff, only to reappear at the bottom of the hill as we ran along towards Wellhouse Lane.  The unmistakable sound of a Zimmer frame dragged my mind back, kicking and screaming, from whatever peaceful haven it had found.

We slowed for the Bok to regain his composure whereupon he amazed me utterly by sprinting forward 100 feet, leaving meto carry the Zimmer.  And good job that I did, because he promptly collapsed back onto it when I caught up with him.

My prognosis of alcohol abuse linked to sleep deprivation was confirmed a couple of minutes later when he saw me take a swig of beer from a can of Grolsch: I actually took a swig of pop from a bright blue bottle as I passed a discarded beer-can laying in the grass… I can only rest my case!

And back again we were at the gentle uphill and the fast rise past the Station, me being admonished for misrepresentation to the beeping soundtrack of his exploding heart. 

I was determined to finish gently, but he dumped the Zimmer outside Daren’s place and started to motor down the hill, me tagging along in the wake of his testosterone.  As with last week I tagged along behind down the last 400m, but this week he increased the pace to try to shake me.  As with last week I gently closed the gap and out-sprinted him to the finish.

The run was done and the results were in: and they were not pretty!  We had covered 6.8 miles in 1 hour and 50 seconds… a mere 6.69mph compared to last week’s tantalising 6.99mph and my triumphant, if damp and windy Sunday 7.07mph.  But still better than the race-off-as-quick-as-you-can-and-then-collapse-in-a-heap 6.63mph on Wednesday 21st.

I’m sure the Bok will back at fighting weight next week and ready to mete out some much deserved punishment, but in the meantime I shall have a well deserved bask in the warm glow of his discomfort.

Posted on

Swimming

With driving rain and severe gusts of wind blowing the cobwebs of of the trees, it was certainly not the weather to be going for a run this morning.

The principle that Kurt at The Run Shop advocates for fair weather runners like me is to wear the right gear so that you’re always comfortable.  So I donned my goretex jacket, beanie hat, long tights and woolen Thorlo socks and out I went for a run.

The going was somewhat more than wet underfoot, but we’re not far enough through the season yet for the mud to be all-encompassing.  Most of the water was either sitting on the surface or running off and judging by the backs of my tights, even Nick wouldn’t have noticed if I had splashed mud on him!

I ran out to the Royal Oak and across to the outskirts of Wivelsfield before cutting up through the woods towards Hundred Acre Lane.  Here it was just a lickle scary, with long gusts tearing through the trees above and raining twigs and other detritus down on my head.  The expectation of something larger following them down was ever present.

I swung in a large arc through the wood to come out near Lew’s place, looping around Ditchling Common Industrial Estate and heading back down the magical path.  I reckon the gradient must go this way as it was easy to speed through, hastened by the wind whistling through Damoclean branches above.

I knew the common would be waterlogged so I used the road to circumnavigate it, scurrying along the bank where it too was underwater.  And then it was back up into the ‘Hill with a quick sprint where Nick usually speeds up, followed by a slow jog back to the house.

My neighbours looked at me aghast… I’m sure due to the fact that I’d come back after only 45 minutes!  I had been quite sprightly though, managing to cover somewhere around 5.3 miles and returning a speed of over 7mph.

And lest you think that it was nasty horrible wet & cold out there, it was not… I was just luvverly, snug and warm in my gear and I can verily recommend the woolen thorlos!  Overall, it was a great excuse to get out and, er, swim through some fresh air.

Posted on

Breathless!

My plan yesterday morning was to start off slow so that I didn’t run out out of puff further round and see whether this would improve the overall time.  Nick arrived with a cold and a wine-induced headache, which helped me convince him it was a good plan.  Alas, the slower start only lasted for five minutes by which time his faculties had magically reappeared (BOING!), but it at least gave me half a chance to warm up!

The going was wet in places and downright slippery on some of the little wooden bridges that we cross, but otherwise it was a mild and pleasant morning.

On the return leg there is a downhill section that is always hilarious in the wet.  Both Nick and Daren always max it down there, irrespective of the conditions (which reminds me, I really must write a review of the marvellous book Feet in the Clouds by Richard Askwith – don’t bother finding out what it’s about, just buy it and dive in!) and today I took their lead and chased Nick down the hill.  Risky strategy, which could easily have ended in tears, but I managed to hang on to just enough grip to change direction in all the right places before I ran into anything.

After that there’s a gentle uphill, where Nick slowed considerably, I’m guessing to gather his energy for the faster uphill drag by the station.  Somewhere in this slower section Nick almost took a pearler (alas unnoticed by me), but at the last minute remembered that I didn’t have my camera so managed a recovery to save it for another day!

We hammered up the rise to the top of the town, after which it’s all downhill, which was a good thing as I was all-in! 

In the same way that Nick doesn’t warm up, he doesn’t cool down towards the end either!  The last 400m is tarmac and gently downhill and here he generally stretches out ahead of me, slowing towards the end to allow me almost to catch up.  Today I hung onto his coat-tails sufficiently that in the last 100m I could sneak strategically into his slipstream, enabling me to sprint past him to the finish.

It was a pyrrhic victory as I was then pretty much speechless for a couple of hours while I tried to breathe normally again!

Deliberately following the same route as the last two runs meant that there was a time to beat, which is an interesting exercise (especially for adrenalin junkies!) but detracts from some of the enjoyment.  We’ll go a different route next week.

Oh, and the time?  54 minutes, which beat both the previous weeks by a good margin.  Now, how do I persuade Nick to let me have a slightly longer warm up?

Posted on

Heavy air

As excuses go, it’s not a bad one: believe me, having employed thousands of freelance staff over the years, I have heard a goodly few reasons why people can’t do something.  What sets this one apart, aside from the fact that I’ve not heard it before, is that the Bok ventured it as the probable reason why I was not running so well this morning.  This is a third-party excuse, making it far stronger.

He is such an amazing friend that he completely ignored the scientific control group: the fact that he was breathing the very same heavy air and yet, if anything, appeared to be faster than ever!

It’s fairer to say that I didn’t run on Sunday, that I had a glass of wine last night and went to bed late.  But then he didn’t run Sunday either, probably had a bottle of wine last night and got woken from his slumber several times by his sons.

He’s just faster and there’s an end to it!

It was lovely to run in the warmth again though – a whole 9 degrees (Centigrade I hasten to add!) and although the sun didn’t really break free until we were back, it was a bright morning.  What was very different was the amount of standing water present en route and by default, mud!  It’s a great workout for the core stability muscles and they were well used today: I had one moment and Nick had at least two that I saw, but neither of us even came close to hitting the deck.

Give it time though as the mud only gets thicker and more tricky as the autumn progresses!  I hope it’s a day when we have a camera with us… whoever it is that goes down!

We proved that we were rubbish at cattle herding on a narrow bridge, where we just couldn’t get the bovines to pass us.  Instead they stood in our way for as long as they dare before turning around and fleeing from the two strangely dressed bipeds!

In the end we ran the same route as Friday in 58 minutes – three more than I thought it took before, although Nick’s watch, very conspicuous by its exhausted absence today, had claimed it took us 57 minutes last time round.  The mud was definitely a factor in this, but I suspect it had more to do with my walking at several points while the Bok could have bounded on!

Different tactics will be applied next time out in an attempt to experiment and we’ll see if we can’t get the time down a little (ergo, speed me up a little!).  Watch this space for the results!

Posted on

Warm toes

dsc01514.JPG

It was SO cold out this morning that it seemed appropriate to roll out my new woolen Thorlo’s for their inaugural voyage!  And before I get distracted with other matters, let me tell you they were FAB…. really toasty!  Although the real test, I guess, is when they get wet and there were no puddles at all this morning… just lumps of ice!

Nick and his additional X pounds of weight had returned from Oman and after yesterdays false start, he duly arrived this morning at 7.30 and we ran off into a wonderfully crisp, clear morning.  I think that he must have called in a favour with the National Coal Board, as his power-hungry watch-thingummy was fully charged and rearing to go.

We ran out to the Royal Oak, then along the magical path where I always seem to have more energy, then down and across to Wellhouse Lane, past the water tower and back along the railway.  As always with the Bok, it felt hellishly quick and very much like he was dragging me along most of the way.  When we were almost back he muttered something about having got me to carry his extra weight around for him, hence the reason that he was able to bounce along like his jacket was filled with helium, whilst my legs felt like lead… I almost think that he wasn’t joking!

Our circuit this morning was 6.5 miles according to the digital navigator, but having given us that great news it then changed its mind (or Nick’s eyes started functioning again as they warmed up), deciding it was only 6.3!  No matter, at 55 minutes (by my reckoning) the overall speed was 6.87mph.

Nick kindly took a couple of photos on my mobile to show how beautiful the morning was… I’ll upload them with the ones I took the other day when I figure out how to send emails on it!

Posted on

Circuit training

I joined Burgess Hill Runners at the Lewes track last night for their monthly session there.  Despite being an interloper (this is Kim’s club) I was once again made to feel very welcome indeed… they truly are a wonderful bunch of people and Stuart is an excellent coach!

I warmed up with a gentle 1600m, although when I say warmed up I mean just my muscles – my hands started to get incrementally colder with every passing minute from the moment I got out of the car!  It was fweezing!

Next came hops, skips, jumps, scissors, running backwards and a stretching session to create a little pliability from the part-frozen bodies present.  This was followed by a session where we ran slow until the whistle, then fast until the next, slow, fast, turning round to run the other way when it sounded twice.  This enabled everyone to run at their own pace without stretching too far around the track.

The main course of the evening was the interval session, with 1,000m sprints followed by 200m walks, or staggers in my case as the session progressed.  I started by trying to hang onto Stuart’s coat-tails but quickly found Jo’s pace (a few seconds slower at 3 minutes 55) more to my liking… at least for the first three intervals.  The last two intervals I hung onto Jo until the 500m mark, then fell away to come in 100m back and then only 50m back.

Next came all-out 100m sprints with teams of three relaying.  600m later and I was very grateful when the circuit lights were extinguished!

We stretched out comprehensively by the light of the swimming pool (they looked oh SO warm in there!) and it’s a testament to Stuart’s stretches that I can still walk this morning!  My hands even got warm again.  But only after about 20 minutes in the car on the way home!

I’m already looking forward to the next session – if my behaviour in the meantime is good enough to get invited again!

Posted on

Going in circles

I had this strange feeling this morning that I had forgotten something as I ran down the road around 8am.  But it was a lovely morning and I did a quick double check to make sure I had all my clothes on, which I did, so that was okay.  There’s nothing worse than forgetting your clothes, or a trainer or two, when you go out in the morning… unless of course you happen to live in a Travelodge hotel.

I had a plan this morning, the thinking behind which was seeing a field up on the Downs last weekend that looked like the right size and gradient to run around.  Unfortunately it’s a bit of a schlapp to get there, but there is a poor facsimile on the common and I thought I’d at least give it a try.  It’s about a ten minute jog to get there so I was just about warmed up by the time I arrived.

I reckon that the ‘track’ is about a half mile oblong, sloping gently up to one corner.  The going underfoot is soft and fairly even but not level by any stretch of the imagination, which means that it’s a good work out for the ankles even when you’re concentrating on where you place your feet!

I started off by doing two laps where I sprinted, well, er… ran faster at least… along the uphill back straight, gasping my way down the next short side and jogging back round to recover.  After two of these circuits I was, er, I was tired (it’s before the watershed and this is a family show) and had to the walk slowly round two sides to recover before jogging the next two.

Next time around I jogged the first long side, ran fast up the shorter end, jogged the long side to recover and ran fast down the other shorter end.  I repeated this a second time and then somehow managed to persuade myself to go around a third time, despite feeling well past my prime by then.

 A gentle ten minute jog back to the house completed the session which was a total of 55 minutes.  Distance-wise I have no idea and this was one occasion where Nick’s supercomputer would have… hang on a minute… Nick… where was Nick?  I knew I’d forgotten something!

Posted on

Nick’s training clinic

The great thing about sharing your thoughts is that people tend to share right back.  Building on the focus on your foot-falls and on your breathing, here is a couple of further tips, this time from the Bok himself, Nick! 

For running, the focus of our energy should be in our legs, whilst the upper body should be relaxed as in skiing or Tai Chi.  To help achieve this, focus on relaxing your arms, your shoulders and most importantly, your jaw.

Once you are relaxed it is easier to tense in a positive way, particularly by stretching your fingers forward and using your arms like the connectors on the side of a steam train.  This will propel you forward in a most amazing way when you need that extra punch of speed.

Yesterday morning was beautiful and despite initially cold hands, it was a lovely run.  People who don’t run, or at least don’t run in the morning, are really missing out on some magnificent views!  We followed a route out past Wivelsfield Church and then got lost to the north of Wivelsfield Green, circumnavigating a wet field before going back the way we had come!  It’s reassuring that I don’t just get lost on my own, although Nick wanted to go the other way first time around!

Once we hit the village we got lost again, trying to find a path that wasn’t there (the ‘this could be a path that’s here so that this guy can keep his hedge trimmed’ turned out to be just that!) and backtracking, although looking on the map afterwards it was clear that we didn’t go quite far enough… to the other side of the house with the nice hedge!

We came back through Hundred Acre wood (as I think of it) and back across the common in the warm sun.

The pace was generally quite fast, although the errors meant that this is not reflected in the time.  There were also several faster sprints which again left me feeling ill by the time we got back!  We ran about 7.75 miles (possibly a little more with the switchbacks) and came back in 1 hour 17… a mere 6.2mph.

Nick’s GPS would have been excellent to give us a better feel for what we had really done, but I feel duty bound to report that it won’t hold a charge! 

That’s a bit like me when I’m racing Nick!

Posted on

A big gamble, little Lambkins!

dsc01478.JPG

You can tell that Nick and Daren spent many formative years running together because they both bound along, almost playfully, when they run with me.  There is more than a hint of reserve energy that can be turned on, in Nick’s case particularly, the moment there is the merest hint of competition.  Is this man competitive?  Nah, not much! 

In trying to describe his running style, we started thinking along the lines of a deer, maybe Bambi, but he’s not that uncoordinated; he certainly has the energy of a big puppy, but he doesn’t slobber so that’s not right; we decided that he’s a little like a lamb when he gambols (a good reason not to gamble in my opinion) but they’s mighty big gambols for a tiny lickle lamb.  The closest so far I think (other suggestions welcome) is a Springbok, with it’s endless energy and fast changes of direction.

All of which neatly segways into why I’m so knackered again this morning, which is that I went for a run with Nick!

The morning started darn early and even the sun wasn’t out of bed when the coffee pot went on.  How did I ever get up far earlier than this for so many years?!  Fortunately the overnight cloud cover had sent the hard frost packing, so the twelve layers of thermal clothing set out ready were not to be required. 

Now, having worked with thousands of field staff over the years, I am seldom stunned by the creativity of the excuses that people give when pitching up late or not at all so when Nick called aroundabout sunrise with some c&b story about a flat battery on his van, I knew he was just getting out of bed and that I was lucky that he was phoning, let alone going to turn up.

He duly arrived and what did stun me was that he had actually remembered to charge his watch – though why he actually did this twice I didn’t manage to get to the bottom of.  And duh!, was the van really the best place to charge it from?

We eventually set off and within minutes I was out of breath and realising that I should have started at the correct time and let him catch up.  Have you ever tried keeping up with a gambling springbok?  Normally we have a nice even-tempo chat as we enjoy the fresh air, but today my

sentences

were

truncated by

big

gasping breaths!

The going was quite firm and though my hands were pretty cold, two layers were actually sufficient, me having been persuaded to leave a third behind on threat of being called a wuss!

I tried to outrun the ‘bok on three occasions, all fruitlessly, and the van-powered watch recorded a fastest sprint time equivalent to a 4 minute 35 second mile… although whichever occasion that was, it was nowhere near a mile and was followed by an increasingly long recovery time whilst trying to stave off the nauseous feeling in my stomach!

I am quite pleased that the heart-rate element of the Swiss-army watch beeped on two occasions to warn of impending heart failure… and relieved that I wan’t wearing one because I’m sure the constant beeping would have drained the battery.

So, 6.67 miles were covered according to the on-board satellite navigation department in just under 58 minutes which I make to be an average speed of 6.97mph. 

Keep that up on Sunday and I’ll come in at 1 hour 52 minutes… on a stretcher, of course as it’s twice as far!  Definitely three of us joining Kurt  (and 1,300 other folk) at the start line and I hear tell that Cliff may be persuaded to grace us with his presence too.  Anyone else not got a good excuse?

Posted on

Repetitive Power Outage Syndrome

It pains me to share this, but Nick is a much faster runner that me. 

I would like to believe his assertion that he charges the batteries in his shoes rather than his watch before he comes round, but frankly, I don’t think he would remember to do this even if he could. 

In my vivid imagination, I have read research into satellite positioning technology that claims that it can adversely affect the memory of the user… apparently aliens are hiding under the cover of trees and using them as a kind of wi-fi port to access the inner workings of the runners mind.  This might help explain why the dumb things never work properly in wooded areas.  I reiterate that this is all in my mind.

Although… I note with interest that Dai is suffering from a similar memory loss, as per his comments on October 15th about his Sunday Roast.

What can I tell you about our run this morning?  Well, the weather was beautiful, the sun came out and it was wet-muddy underfoot, to such an extent that the rear of my longs and the front of my top (that I hung around my waist as it was that warm) were liberally spattered! 

Kim’s instructions to me were fairly clear, that I was to run Nick ragged.  Alas the tables were well and truly turned, with Nick sauntering ahead at high speed several times and nonchalantly slowing to wait for me, most especially during the full-out sprint challenge when we were almost back where I just couldn’t keep it going!

I’m tempted to unfairly take the wind out of his sails by telling you it was only six miles that we covered in one hour, five minutes, but I couldn’t carry it off.  In fact we ran 7.2 miles, or 11.5km in European money, making 6.65mph.