Foster Runs

… as in, the run was over and I was out for the count.

I met Mark up at Jack & Jill yesterday morning for our 14 mile circuit and though it felt like an early start, it was late enough to bump into Maria coming back from a later than normal 8-mile run!

We set out on good form but I didn’t get too far up the hill before my energy levels started to wane.  I seriously doubted that I would go the distance, even though I wasn’t quite ready to give up at that point.

Mark has a simple strategy for keeping me going… he asks me to explain something to him.  In this case it was the barmy idea that I alluded to last week, the explanation for which carried me about four miles… you can tell that Mark has tremendous patience!

By this time we were running down towards the A27 so it seemed churlish to bail out there, especially as we overtook a couple of cyclists on the lump and raced to get to the bottom of the next hill before them.  We reached the half-way turn (just ahead of the cyclists, by dint of the narrowness of the path) at 1.10, meaning that we had averaged 6 mph.

The return leg, by comparison, took us 1.30 and although I was guilty of a couple of lame-excuse pauses along the way, the real delays were due to a couple of people we stopped to chat to.

First there was a guy with a £3,500++ Cervelo R5 that even I could appreciate… what an amazing looking bicycle, and SO light!  We weren’t the only ones ogling, as another half a dozen people also stopped while we were standing there talking to him… he was waiting for his cycling buddy to catch him up Ditchling Beacon, which he eventually did!

Second was Gary, another of the people Mark has met running along the Downs over the years (I’m also one of them, if you remember).  This conversation continued long enough that I watched a girl on a horse approach, mosey past and continue plodding up and along the crest of the hill… long enough that it was hard work to start running again!

We ran the final mile or so to the cars, ending with time elapsed of 2.40 for our 14 miles, average 5.25mph (although the return leg actually averaged 4.66mph against 6mph outbound, due to the  various conversations).  Mark probably has a better sense of the running time, but it was way better that I had expected bearing in mind my initial energy levels.

I returned home and collapsed into a chair in the garden, falling asleep for long enough to get tan-lines on my legs.  I then stumbled lightheadedly through the shower and fell into bed where I stayed, comatose, for another four hours… even then I belonged to the sofa for the rest of the evening!

All of which pales by comparison to Pete & Cliff, whose weekend race was over 103 miles in distance and 13,500 feet in combined ascent along the South Downs Way.  It took them 29.5 hours to complete… I’d need to sleep for a fortnight after that!

Respect!  Over and out!

It was a Woodingdean day, partly because it was Father’s Day and partly because I had forgotten it was the London to Brighton bike ride.  In fact I only realised the latter en route and was then surprised how easy the traffic was… although it was only a little after 9am.

My intention today was to run to Southease, crossing sufficiently into Cliff’s back yard to call it an incursion without running the risk of discovery.  That’s nonsense of course… I just figured that if I ran the other 2.5 miles to Cliff’s place, then there would be little chance that I would feel like running back again the same day!

My outbound route took me the straightforward way, leaving Woodingdean on Drove Avenue and following the ridge (and the South Downs Way)  all the way around in an arc and down to Rodmell, where I found a new and may I say very open-minded footpath which took me along to the Southease road.

I crossed the bridge quickly (in case of Trolls) and ran as far as the station to prove that I really was there.  So far so good, with 6.6-ish miles taking me 67 minutes, 5.9mph.

The return leg was slightly more convoluted and seemingly, considerably more uphill.  I started by running up and through the deliciously pretty Telscombe (as opposed to the nearby Telscombe Cliffs, which I don’t personally find so charming).  The village sits in a hollow so there’s a very steep hill to climb to get out to the South.

At the top of the road I then turned right with the intention of running around in a little arc to Balsdean Reservoir, but on a whim instead dropped down into the back of Saltdean and ran up past the football ground.  It looked like it might be a more direct route… but wasn’t at all and rather than having to run up the short hill above the pumping station, I was committed to the longer, steeper High Hill above Pickers Hill Farm.

I always think of the reservoir being at the bottom of Woodingdean, but it’s a mile from there to the outskirts, all uphill of course.

Only then could I drop down Balsdean Road to get back without too much more effort.

The return leg was 7.5 miles and took me 90 minutes, a poor 5mph, although in my defence I did stop to take 19 photos en route.

So 14.1 miles in 2.40, giving an average speed of 5.3mph.

My fears about traffic were not unfounded and there were queues back to Falmer and onto the A27 going towards Woodingdean and also at least back to Pyecombe heading towards Brighton.  Fortunately I was going the other way and whilst it was sluggish in a couple of places, I can’t complain.

Surprisingly my legs have yet to feel tired… although there’s time yet!

 

First, let me say congratulations to Phil Stupples for getting a PB at Stockholm… and beating my Brighton marathon time by a couple of minutes to boot.  It sounds as though the Stockholm course also has more hills than Brighton, so I reckon that sorts out which of us is quicker… and we already know which of us is older too so you win on both counts!

This morning was a Woodingdean run and I set out into an overcast and windy morning with the aim of running to Blackcap & back… the run that I had intended to do the other weekend when I instead met Cliff & Joe.

As I ran down past Newmarket Copse I started to encounter cyclists coming the other way and it turned out they were on the Argus three-day event from Winchester to Eastbourne.

Sharing a narrow path with oncoming cyclists can be slightly irritating if said people are surly and lacking in spatial awareness, which many seemed to be today.  They appeared to assume that I was happy to get out of the way and to run through the stinging nettles & bushes at the side of the path… or stop and wait.  And all without so much as a thank you.

The few that actually thanked me, or were just good humoured & sociable, made it all the more obvious that the rest were just lacking in manners, including the one who almost ran me over despite the fact that I had stopped and was cowering well into the bushes.  An apology might have been nice!

As I’ve written here before, I totally understand how difficult it is for cyclists to open and particularly to shut gates, but this fact does not absolve them of the responsibility for doing so.  Horse riders have a similar challenge, if not more so, but they somehow manage the trick.

I ran up past where I met Cliff & Joe and kept going on up the hill, and up the hill, and up the hill, reaching the top of Blackcap at the 1.06 mark.

Here I unwrapped an energy bar, the latest in my recent trial of lightweight sustenance and after overcoming the shock of finding it to be pink, like chewing gum, started chewing.  Let’s be kind and say that it’s good for the jaw muscles, has a passable taste, but is not quick food by any stretch of the imagination.. it took me four minutes to eat half the bar, at which point I got bored and pocketed the rest.

I started running back and briefly caught up with a cyclist removing all the race markers and I suspected, ensuring that all the gates were shut after the ensemble.  Yeah, right!  Of the following five gates I followed him through he left three ajar, including one to a field of sheep.  Not great PR for the Argus methinks, or for the race organisers.

As I neared the A27, it started to drizzle and by the time I had climbed back up past Newmarket Copse again, it was light rain.  But it was warm enough not to worry, besides which the wind was now fully behind me.

Somehow the return leg took one minute less and the overall time of 2.15 for 12.4 miles, average 5.5mph, included the time to eat half a powerbar.

I couldn’t work out where to run this morning and having poured over the maps trying to decide and seen some new paths in the process, I felt I couldn’t just go & do a standard circuit.

I ran down Junction Road and out on Rocky Lane as far as the tunnel under the railway line.  The last bit where the road twists is perilous and I had to cross the road twice in order to stand any chance making it alive.

The reason for this, in part, is due to the way that the council aims to keeps speeds down on country lanes… by allowing the undergrowth to grow up to the apexes on corners and not leaving a verge.  This narrows the vision of motorists in the vain hope that they will feel less comfortable and slow down.

Actually, I think it scares the pants off drivers, particularly in the dark and in the winter.  The by-product is that you need to take your life in your hands if you want to cycle, whilst pedestrians must be mad to even contemplate walking.

Sad really, in view of the number of commuters who travel between Burgess Hill & Haywards Heath every day and have no real alternative to driving.  I have suggested they install a graded cycle path, but I don’t suppose that would be contemplated any time soon… maybe once the new section of road from Bolmore Village to Rocky Lane has been completed.

On the map there is a path that links the corner by the tunnel to Kiln Wood,  Rookery Way and the Haywards Heath end of Rocky Lane.  Eschewing the road, this is the route I took.

This gave me an opportunity to see the new roundabout at the top of Fox Hill and also to realise that there is a link through Southdowns Park to the Hospital, rather than negotiating the oblique right turn near the Birch Hotel.

I’ve not see Southdowns Park up close so I ran around both that and the hospital grounds before running off along the Lewes Road.

My aim had been to run to Scaynes Hill and then back along the Sussex Border Path, but I missed the path and rather than going back to look again, I continued out towards Chailey as far as Pound Common… despite the verges not being particularly welcoming.

Bearing in mind the hype around being green, there is not much encouragement to travel by foot around here!

At Pound Common I turned right towards Wivelsfield and bore right again onto the Common where I promptly got lost, running hither & thither to try to find a way that took me South or West.

I eventually happened on the road that leads to (and ends at) Holford Manor, but alas the path from there was not obvious.  I ended up running all the way around a very large field (which I hate doing) before I took a gamble and ended up going through Wivelsden Farm from the wrong direction, which meant I missed the path West that I could have taken.

Instead I dropped back onto the road by St Peters & St James’s and headed towards Wivelsfield.  I was way past knackered by this time, but curiosity still led me to turn left onto a path on the outskirts of the village and I ended up taking a circuitous route back onto the same road again where staying on the road would have actually better suited me.

From the Recreation Ground I took a straightish zigzag line back across the Common to the railway foot-crossing and back to home.

This pretty rambling route was somewhere in the order of 13.7 miles and took me 2.24, giving an average speed of around 5.7mph… not bad for all the twists & turns.

Sad to report that I did pause for breath on a number of occasions, although I could probably justify it as stopping to figure out where I was supposed to go next!  And I’ve been banned from groaning around the house (quite right too) so I aim to do the next best thing and sleep it off on the sofa!