Foster Runs – Page 24 – Observations of an occasional runner

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!).

December 9, 2012December 9, 2012

Reluctant tempo

We went to an awesome party at Clive & Nats last night, with an excellent live band and lots of interesting folk to chat to.

If there was a Mens’ Sussex Fitness Party League, then Clive and Nat would consistently be at the top… both in terms of quality and quantity. Meanwhile I can count the number of parties we’ve held recently on no hands at all!

After such an excellent evening this morning was flat and grey and I had little inclination to run. However, I know that in order to be able to have the occasional run like last weekend, whilst also keeping this blog trickling along, I need to keep my running going.

So I reluctantly climbed aboard the magic carpet machine, dialled in 7mph and set off in the general direction of the cheese plant.

One hour later, having covered, er… 7 miles (but strangely not yet reached the aforementioned plant) I went outside to stretch and cool down. By that time the sun had come out and it was relatively mild… just as well as I was standing there steaming in shorts and shoes only!

So a good tempo run and a few more words to the wise: all worthwhile stuff, reluctant or otherwise.

December 2, 2012December 2, 2012

Extempore

I’ve had a brilliant week! One of the myriad challenging books that I’ve read recently suggested that there are just two critical measures that we employ when we are assessing how good something was (for examples my week or someone’s life): the high point and the ending.

So despite last week containing a sludge of stress and frustration, the duel high points of spending Thursday evening chatting with some really engaging Brighton Business School students and spending Friday working with the amazing Terbell PostGrad students, allied to the week-ending run I have just completed, make for a really positive memory overall.

The air temperature outside had an Arctic feel to it this morning as I ran off down the road and I quickly resolved to keep the route short. Inevitably though, as with life, when we get interested in something and delve a little deeper it can draw us in and we suddenly find ourselves doing things that we could not have hoped for.

I ran down Ockley Lane and out through copious quantities of icy wet mud to Oldlands Mill, which had clearly turned its back to the low sun.

The view to the South was beguiling, but I still had in mind to follow a relatively short route.

Anticipating that I might not come back this way, I ran down Lodge Hill (I normally only run up it) and thus saw the village of Ditchling from a different angle for a change.

I felt a little guilty as I ran down the high street leaving a trail of watery mud on the neat pavement. I could see it in my peripheral vision, flying through the air from my slowly whirling trainers.

Although it had not been my intention, I found myself on the path to the Beacon, ignoring the junctions which would have led me home more directly. And then I was running up the Beacon itself.

A series of comments this week had been spinning around in my head and I suddenly decided to try an odd experiment. Daren had mentioned that his tactics for getting up the Tank Tracks (a path which approaches the task of getting up the steep scarp slope by simply going straight up it) is to innocently ask me to explain something complex at the bottom and let me distract him with my reply until we reach the top. With this in mind I turned on the video camera and extemporised for the duration of the hill.

The result is difficult to watch because of the fast moving scenery and also hard to understand through the heavy breathing, but I enclose it here for in case it’s of random interest.

And then I was on the top of the Downs chatting to a couple whose young children were occupying the highest point in Sussex… the top of the concrete trig point on the top of Ditchling Beacon.

Ahead of me I now had the task of running home, but I smiled as I enjoyed the initial down hill section. My homeward route was going to be through the marvellous mud of the wonderful Weald… seemingly one part icy water to one part earth in places today… and this started before I had even reached Sporting Cars of Brighton at the bottom of the hill.

This route (especially at this time of year) is not for those who like to keep their shoes clean. It has gloriously beautiful views…

… but the soundtrack is consistently splashy…

… and at times you have to have faith that your feet are still attached.

There was even one hill that looked to be a wide and curving lawn, but was in fact pockets of water disguised by tufts of grass, all the way to the top.

Eventually I returned via Ditchling Common and back home, my woollen Thurlo socks being the only thing that stood between my feet and frostbite.

Just over 10.6 miles in 1:57 is an average of 5.45mph… a glorious end to an excellent week!

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!

October 31, 2012

Amnesia

Short of time to run on Sunday before we went out to lunch, I took to the machine for a 7mph tempo run.

At that speed the conscious seems able to detect thoughts bubbling up from the subconscious and I managed to find some really inspiring ones before I finished. These I captured briefly on the white board in my office as: Emotion -> Problems, conscious/subconscious.

Alas, I now seem to have amnesia about what those ideas were… somewhat frustrating as I was clearly excited about them! My memory is not my strong suite though so there’s no point in beating myself up… hopefully I can rediscover them on a future occasion!

5 miles in just under 43 minutes.

October 21, 2012

More workshop material

A damp, grey morning did not inspire me to want to run outside. I knew that my favourite paths would be ankle-deep in cold and watery mud and running on the road didn’t especially grab me either. Instead I headed for the machine.

After a half mile warm-up at 6mph I jumped to 7mph and then increased by 0.2 each quarter-mile until I reached 8mph. I returned to 6mph for a quarter mile and repeated the exercise before returning to 6mph and running the final mile at 7mph. This may seem a little convoluted, but I saw it as a mild form of interval training.

Though I focused my cognitive resources on the mechanics of running for a change, I also alighted upon an interesting exercise for a workshop later this week. It’s amazing how similar the approaches for training people to run faster is, to helping people to think more creatively.

5 miles in 42.35, a little over 7mph average.

October 21, 2012

Mud, sweat and fears

It’s always a challenge to write about my in-run thoughts when I return, let alone a week afterwards. It’s a little like trying to recall the salient details of a vivid dream as input from the senses rushes in to fill the newly awakened conscious mind and crowds them out.

Had I written this post last week it may well have been a lengthy and candid expose to the way I was feeling that day, hence the fears in the title.

I shall instead focus on the mud and sweat, but the fears are a side-effect of the material I have been reading and developing for my workshops on self-awareness, team performance and creativity. Honestly embracing our fears and failings, alongside of a demonstrable understanding of our skills, experience, motivations and goals, is a solid foundation onto which we can each build a truly fulfilling life.

This is not to say that I was in a morbid mood… I was not. It was a totally glorious day and I was on top form, both mentally and physically… hence my thoughts flowing freely.

I decided to run towards the Beacon but be satisfied if I turned around at Ditchling. The sun was so bright through the trees on Keymer Road that I was super-careful with any passing cars lest they did not see me through the glare.

There was sufficient surface mud on the path to Oldlands Mill to use ‘straight through’ tactics, but it wasn’t deep enough to drench my feet or throw more than a thin layer of splatters onto my back.

Lots of people were out and clearly also happy, as more people returned my cheery greetings than normal.

I soon found myself running up the steep Beacon track and arrived at the top in 56 minutes.

I shared the top and a little conversation with a lovely couple from Clapham who had walked from Jack & Jill and intended to return via Wolstonbury… a more involved walk than most of the numerous people thereabouts.

I then retraced my steps down the Beacon track, through Ditchling, up onto Lodge Hill (intensely hard work for a couple of minutes), back past Oldlands and on home.

Longs and three layers proved on the warm side, but not monumentally so, though my hat and gloves got stowed before climbing the Beacon… it must have been at least slightly chilly.

I’m pretty sure that the time was 1.45 when I returned… slightly slower over the 10 mile route than on the 2nd September due largely to the conversational pause at the mid-point.

Overall a great run and good thinking time!