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A return to Blackcap

It was a surprise this morning to wake up to a beautiful sunny morning and after getting my brain going with the help of a Sudoku puzzle and a Kri-Kri tumbler of quadspresso, I climbed into my running gear.

At the very last minute I changed my mind about running from the house and instead drove up to Jack and Jill… a good decision by all accounts.  The car-park was almost full and there were loads of people out enjoying the unseasonal weather… there was still an edge of chillness in the shade, but shorts and t-shirt were all I needed!

I ran along the top of the Downs all the way to Blackcap, encountering the back-markers on the Lewes Downland Ten as I neared my turn-point.

The return leg was equally lovely and with the vague breeze now behind me, it was even warmer.

Lovely, apart from the flies that is.  Fortunately they were not along the whole route, just where the cows were grazing, but there were ‘fousands of the little blighters, all out enjoying the sun, cow dung and alas, my sweaty face… YUK!

I returned to the car in 1:35 having run 9.4 miles or so at a pretty steady and comfortable 6mph.

The sky has now clouded over which makes my effort this morning even more worthwhile!

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Temporary support

Andy P was (and probably is still) running the Extreme Running London to Brighton event today.  Cliff had suggested that we run a section with him to boost his spirits so we went to find him in the largely unexplored territory beyond Forest Row… in fact we only narrowly missed leaving the county of Sussex, that’s how far north we were.

We were hampered in our quest to find Andy by the fact that we didn’t know the route the race was following.  This led to an interesting tour of narrow, only vaguely metalled roads and a short stand off with a 4×4 with a wood trailer attached… eventually the guy reversed the few necessary metres, albeit with surprising difficulty!  Cliff was not about to reverse as the next passing place was about a quarter of a mile away!

We eventually found Andy who was running with Daniel from Jersey, which meant that I could put in a plug for Gemma at Orchard Chiropractors in St Helier!

Bearing in mind they had got lost early on and were six hours in, they looked to be moving pretty well.

We ran with them for a short while, during which time they paused several times to discuss the direction and eventually went the wrong way (yet?) again, but they were clearly not alone in this.  Various other runners caught up and then scattered in different directions… most of them incorrect too in retrospect!

After half an hour we left them turned & headed back to Cliff’s car… an easy 15 minute run when you know where you’re going!

So a very temporary support crew but it’s the thought that counts!  Thank goodness for Paula doing the proper job… otherwise Andy’s crates of spare gear & dry trainers would never have made it!  I’m still thinking of him even now and he’s probably still counting down the miles to Brighton!

Our run was about 3.5 miles in 50 minutes… time well spent though!

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5 mile breakfast

After a couple of weeks off (read whatever poor excuse you like!), I broke my fast this morning with a five mile run, performed in 42.41, an average of 7mph.

However, while Mark chose to get his legs shot-blasted with the first heavy rain of the autumn, I chose to run indoors on the machine… call me what you like, so long as it’s prefaced with ‘sensible’!

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Six fix

A weekday run with Daren is always a great way to fix the cognitive fog which afflicts us all from time to time, although you can clearly see from the photo above that any fog could only have been on the inside!

We run so infrequently that we’ve not yet tired of our simple six mile route: starting from Jack & Jill, dropping down to Pyecombe, running up Wolstonbury, dropping steeply to Clayton, running along the the bottom of the Downs and up the ‘tank-tracks’ that rise directly up the scarp slope and finally dropping back down to Jack & Jill.

It’s not lost on me that this is the third windmill (technically the forth) that I’ve passed in three runs!

We were particularly appreciative of the rough steps that have been installed on a short and often slippery uphill section below Wolstonbury (Daren thought this might have been big bearded Charlie at work) and otherwise just generally laughed our way round, appreciating the weather, the view, our open schedules, life in general and so on!

We even had an unseen audience… Maria (from the top of the Men’s Sussex Fitness League) arrived back in the car-park ten minutes after us and said that she had seen us running up the tank tracks.  She had heard us first, of course… probably on account of our chatting loudly to be heard over our own panting up the hill!

Six miles in a leisurely 1:25, 4.2mph average or so, TOP value!

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Pull your socks up!

My Mother sent me an email earlier which mentioned Ofsted Chief Inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw’s comments from the Andrew Marr Show this morning… which she paraphrased as ‘pull your socks up, satisfactory is not good enough!’

She had taken it as a personal admonishment and though I didn’t see it until I got home, the cognitive essence of the message clearly came straight through to me as I ran the last few steps to the top of Ditchling Beacon.

It was my birthday yesterday (thank you all SO much for the myriad birthday wishes!) and this morning I was reflecting on my chosen career path, which seems to involve a greater number of ups and downs than those of more conventional 48 year-olds.

No prizes for guessing that I’m currently on a down, though, if I remember rightly, Malcolm Gladwell says that the path to excellence in any field is a steep, gruelling, arduous and inordinately lengthy 10,000 hours of lung-busting effort, being forced to stumble and fall at every turn, etcetera… so I’m pretty stoic about it.

It had been flat grey outside threatening rain (likewise in my head) as I downed two quadspressos, and as I changed into my running gear it started raining, so I left in a hat and jacket.  The rain was really light though and within half a mile I had removed hat & jacket so that I didn’t overheat… it’s clearly not autumn yet!

My plan was to run to Ditchling Beacon & back and I soon found myself passing Oldlands Mill where there is a lively open day today if you’re interested.

Ditchling was looking pretty, despite the number of houses being redeveloped and for sale boards… I’m sure that sometimes people are so fearful of change that they choose to (in this case) move, so that there is at least the perception of control.

The bare chalk on my favourite steep and gruelling route up the Beacon was damp in the occasional light rain and thus very slippery and I was glad that I discovered this on the way up the hill!

I reached the top in an underwhelming 55 minutes (5.45mph average for the 5 miles) so with little view to appreciate and presumably sensing my Mother’s thoughts, I turned round without a rest for the return leg.

It was not a good day to go quickly down this hill but I wasn’t feeling tired so once I got to the flatter ground at the bottom I started to push on a bit.  Nothing heroic, just a little more effort.

I laboured momentarily up Lodge Hill (if you’ve ever seen it, you’ll know why) then resumed my slightly faster pace, passing an already busier Oldlands Mill.  When I got back to the tarmac of Ockley Lane (with the rain now coming down a little more heavily) I pushed on a little harder still, though still not beyond a comfortable jog.

And thus I finally returned to the house, 10 miles in 1:41.

The quick mathematicians amongst you will notice that my return leg was 9 minutes faster than the outbound section… 6.5 mph average for the second 5 miles.  That gave me something to smile about!  Even the combined average of 5.95mph was faster than last week’s (brilliantly enjoyable) run.

Maybe my running mojo is getting its socks on ready to return… and maybe, with a little more effort on steep and slippery paths, that bodes well for my work too!  Thanks Mum!

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SAIL NOW ON!

After enjoying the camaraderie of running with the St Francis Running Club last weekend, it was great to receive an email from Andy last week announcing a Bank Holiday Monday run.  Not least since it also saved Karen & Cleo, down from London for the first half of the weekend, from seeing me drag myself sweatily back into the house after a long run.

It was like one of the eye-to-eye groups, with Andy, Cliff, Pete, Nikki, Kevin, Lydia and myself, whilst the start at Falmer could easily have been one of the checkpoints.  In fact it was for Pete, since he ran from Brighton to get warmed up!

There were varying agendas, but Cliff helpfully set a clear initial direction by saying that he wanted to take a closer look at the windmill at Kingston, as it looked from the road like they had at least one sail on.

And we were off… initially up the hill out of Falmer.  When I was doing more hill running I would deliberately race ahead up this to test my staying power, but today I took it more cautiously, mindful of the distance I might have to cover afterwards.  Happily I can report that it wasn’t too bad, though I could hear Cliff’s steps right behind me the whole way, which kept me going!

We then ran across to Newmarket copse, after which there is a steep hill to the top.  Although I was initially dubious, I have to agree with Cliff that either someone has flattened it off or we must be generally fitter now than we used to be.

Across he top and down into Kingston was at an easy conversational pace and we quickly reached the windmill, which did indeed now have a sail on.

Actually, I can see from the Sussex Mills Group website that it’s a reconstruction of the Ashcombe windmill… and that unusually, as far as I’m concerned, there are going to be not two pairs of sails but rather three pairs of sweeps (the correct technical term).

From there we ran down into Lewes, with the added excitement of a near-miss when I turned left across the front of Pete… luckily he was awake and has good brakes!

After passing the prison we ran up to Lewes Racecourse… in fact, Kevin nigh-on sprinted up there with Pete in hot pursuit… and then on up to the next gate.  Here I met a couple of runners who I recognised, though after a little to and fro (which involved a quizzical look when I said I was running with Martlet Kayak Club) we realised it was because he generally shops in Waitrose at the same time as me on a Friday evening!  Nice to finally put a name to a face, Mark & Rosie!

Next stop Blackcap and both Andy and I were were uncharacteristically restrained in our rivalry, arriving slowly and at the same time!

Here the group decided to split.  Pete would head for home, joined for a while by Cliff, Andy & Nicky who were going to run back via Ditchling Beacon.  Discretion being the better part of valour (we were already 1:25 into the run), I decided to join Kevin & Lydia in the more direct return to Falmer via Waterpit Hill… which just happens to be downhill all the way!

We three arrived back in 1:57 having covered 10.9 miles… about 5.6mph average.

If there is a point to keeping up my occasional running, other that staying fit enough to keep any cognitive lethargy at bay, it is to be able to join a bunch of good friends on a day like today!  Thanks guys!

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FosterRuns.com is five years old!

Earlier today one of the St Francis runners asked me how long I’d been writing my blog and it wasn’t until I was in the shower that I actually thought about it and realised that I had missed its birthday this week! It’s not the only birthday I’ve managed to miss this year either so my apologies all round!

Some hastily thrown-together stats show that I’ve had a somewhat lazy year… a teacher like Dai Thomas (who helped me start this blog in the first place) might mark me down as ‘could do better’!

Following the format from previous years the numbers are as follows:

Number of posts: 66 (83 in year 4, 110 in year 3, 102 in year 2, 156 in year 1 – the numbers below follow this format too). The original aim of the blog was to force me to run and to write in a virtuous, self-supporting circle, but other projects have been taking my attention this year and both body and mind have suffered as a result.

Number of runs: 41 (72, 92, 63, 67) although this doesn’t include the two more involved events, namely the informal Tour du Mont Blanc with Daren last year and the Eye-to-Eye (London Eye to Brighton Eye).

Mileage: 292 (653, 726, 538, 512)… this is the lowest yet, even if I added 108 miles for the TMB and 47 miles completed in the Eye-to-Eye

Hours spent running: 47 (113, 113, 84, 87)… excluding 53 walking hours for TMB (excluding breaks and overnights) and 13-odd for the Eye-to-Eye. Actually, these numbers make me feel a little better, although it seems odd to have spent more time on the TMB than running for the whole of the rest of the year!

Average run: 7.1 miles in 1.10 (9.4 in 1.34, 7.89 in 1.24, 8.14 in 1.20, 8.07 in 1.31).

Average speed: 6.1mph (5.8, 6.38, 6.05, 6.15) or 3.9mph including the longer events

Average minutes per mile: 10.4 (9.4, 9.9, 9.65) Slower than a slow thing!

Worst month distance: 6 in March 12 (31.6 in December 2010, 10.4 May 10, 13.6 Jan 09, 22.3 Feb 08).

Best month distance: 50 in Jan 2012 (68 miles in Jan 2011, 157 in March 10, 62 Apr 09, 68 Nov 07), whilst the average monthly mileage was 24 (52, 61, 40 and 44)

Total mileage to date since start of blog: 2724 miles (excluding the aforementioned 155 miles)

Time spent running since start of blog: 447 hours (excluding the aforementioned 66 hours)

Visitors according to Google Analytics: 1504 (Clustermaps: 1722, 1479, 1496, 2906 for year 1, the first year being higher as a by-product of my work with Qype.com).

I forgot to mention (by way of a vague token excuse) that a number of my posts this year involved cross training, including 8 visits to a circuit training class and 5 high intensity training sessions. Despite the fact that this latter involved a mere 5 minutes of exercise in total, it was actually more exhausting than anything else here!

The best part of running is doing so with friends and strangers alike and here’s to yet another sociable year of it!

Finally, my thanks to all that have stopped by at FosterRuns.com during five years of blogging!  FIVE years!

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Humidor

Humidor what?

After a beautifully relaxing summer’s day yesterday spent reading, playing guitar and just thinking, I was not much inclined to run at all this morning.  However, since my body and mind both need me to run regularly, I decided to make the most of another summer’s day to run outside for a change.  As a last minute afterthought I grimaced my way through a gel left over from the Eye-to-Eye… I was to  be grateful of it!

It was already hot when I left so my intention was to complete the woodland run that the Bok and I used to do in the mornings sometimes… a nice relaxing 5.2 miles.

Everyone I passed seemed to be in a good mood, each one returning my cheery greeting with a smile… somewhat different to running in Brighton!  Somewhere over towards the Royal Oak (as was, now closed) I met two runners who were slightly unsure of the path, which really does look as if it goes right up to someone’s front door!

Having put them back on the right track I headed out to Wivesfield and up through West Wood.  It really was muggy (and very muddy too, by the way) and yet I decided to take an additional loop out to Hundred Acre Lane to push the distance up nearer to 6 miles.

What was lovely was to see was a field of oak trees that I remember being planted… I used to run through when they were saplings and they are already growing above 10 feet.

Once back on the main route I headed up to the magical path which, with the sun still relatively low in the sky, really was in top magical form!

I could hear other people across to my left, with the occasional sound of a sharp whistle and when I reached St Georges Retreat I discovered that it was a group of runners, out for a morning run.

They kindly let me tag along and thus rather than head back home I headed on out.  All over the place as it turned out.

They were from St Francis Sports & Social Club and they had a neat system so ensure that no-one got left behind.  Every so often the whistle would sound and the front runners would turn round and run back to beyond the back of the group before turning round again to continue.

With a series of such loops we ran down to Worlds End, across to the fishponds and back across to Rocky Lane, mid way between Burgess Hill and Haywards Heath.  Crossing the railway line under the road arch we then ran on towards the Fox & Hounds but I peeled off right before we got there to make a start for home.

It was interesting that my energy seemed to desert me the moment I was back on my own, but I pushed on forward regardless.  It was lovely to see Theobalds Lane again and then to run down Valebridge Drive past my old house… the garden now looking in need of more than a little help.

I took the direct route back up Junction Road and reached home at 1.52 and a distance that worked out approximately to (at least) 11 miles.

Thank you to Lyndsey, Dom, Siobham and the rest of the gang for your generous hospitality and for giving me a good reason to run a little further than normal.

The group meets at St Francis on Saturday and Sunday mornings at 9am and several times during the week… if you live around Haywards Heath and are looking for a nice social group to run with, contact Lyndsey and Dom through St Francis Sports & Social Club for more information.

One final cross-post.  If you are a graduate or young person starting out into the job market (or you know someone who is), then you might find my thoughts blog post about the Art Director and Photographer Karen Storey worth a quick read.

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Spectator sport

I sat reading in the tea-house for the duration of only one cup of quadspresso yesterday morning, before climbing about the magic carpet for a run.  I was due to attend a quiet ceremony to inter the ashes of John Brooks and was expecting my eldest brother to collect me.

I continued the 7mph tempo theme of the last two weeks, this time counting down twelve five-minute segments… which strangely varied in perceptual length from ten minutes to only a few seconds depending on how deeply engrossed I was thinking about something else at the time!

I was about fifteen minutes from the end when there was a knock on the window and I turned my head to see my brother running on the spot outside, bobbing up and down neatly in time with me.

He graciously allowed me to continue and stood chatting while I finished the balance of my seven miles and allotted one hour.  I probably wasn’t the best conversational partner though since I was dripping with sweat and was more than a little breathy!

We continued chatting while I tried to cool down outside, but to little avail… in fact, even after showering and changing I still felt like I had just climbed off the machine.  Thank goodness for the aircon in his car!

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John Aubrey Brooks, RIP

The 19th Brighton Scouts was a fundamental part of my life growing up.  Both brothers had been Scouts and Venture Scouts there, one later becoming a Scoutmaster, whilst my mother was Chair of the fundraising committee that oversaw the building of its ‘hut’ in the ‘seventies.

I was both Cub and Scout there and one of the Scoutmasters, among many who gave up a considerable amount of their spare time to inspire young Scouts, was John Brooks.

I remember John on a number of different levels.  Long-standing family friend, master of camp-fire songs, knowledgeable country-man, passionate motorcyclist.  Two of my memories are more unusual.

In September 1987 I enrolled on a one-year City & Guilds evening course in Social and Documentary Photography, part of which entailed finding a social subject to document.

John had been a Traffic Warden in and around Haywards Heath for more than 20 years and he readily agreed to be the subject of my photo documentary.  Permission was gained from the Chief Inspector and I duly followed John around during a series of lunchtimes and occasional early mornings, taking photographs of him working.

I must have walked miles following him around and I even persuaded my then-boss to park his car on double-yellow lines and pose as an insouciant transgressor arguing against being ticketed.  John did offer to write out the ticket for me to photograph, but said that Ken would then need to pay it!

My efforts over the year were rewarded with a Distinction and a nice letter from the local Superintendent, and since John retired the following year, due to the increasing poor health of his overworked knees, my work really did become a piece of historical documentary.

For many years John had also been part of the annual Pantomime at Clair Hall in Haywards Heath and had encouraged my parents and I to attend.  It was always great fun, although the thing that I oddly remember most was the chilly drive home again across Ditchling Common with the impenetrable mist often hanging in the dips in the road.

Around the time of my photo assignment, John asked if I could audition for a role in the pantomime.  When I arrived one lunchtime it turned out to be only half a role: the back half… of Daisy the Magical Mrs Cow!  Since John was the front half, I was lucky enough to secure the role.

After hours of rehearsals learning to perform hilarious movements with Daisy’s hind quarters, and with the pantomime dates looming, John’s knees sadly became too precarious for him to continue and I was promoted to the front end role!

This was a real step up, not least as I then had air to breathe and different (even more hilarious) moves to make with Daisy’s front legs, eyelashes etc.  Under John’s tutelage, my rookie back legs and I had a storming week of pantomime, culminating with a performance with my parents and sister sitting in the front row… seasoned heckler that she is!

As the performance ended and the leading ladies received bouquets, the Director asked if there were any other bouquets to give.  My sister, in a loud voice, proclaimed ‘Mrs Cow’, and promptly presented the Daisy team with a bouquet of grass and gorse that she and her partner had collected from the Downs, neatly tied with an elaborate bow by a local florist!

That was a truly memorable moment to end a memorable week, but was not as hilarious as what happened next.

As I staggered home after an excellent end of show party, a Police car slowed to pass me, turned in the road behind and then pulled up alongside me.  The Constable wound down the window and asked what I was carrying… the answer left them chuckling and shaking their heads in disbelief as they drove off.

It seems like only a short time after that John and his wife Natalie moved to Wales for a more rural pace of life.   He passed away after a gruelling battle with Parkinsons, whilst she predeceased him by a couple of years.  I have happy memories of both.