Foster Runs

The last few nights have been autumn-cold, but shorts and a t-shirt was still sufficient for my run this morning… just under 2 miles in just over 20 minutes.

The last few weeks we have been decorating the house, so my body has had an ongoing workout of infrequently used muscle groups… balancing on top of ladders, painting, moving furniture, carrying things up & down the stairs etc.

This appeared to make little difference to my run this morning, but it did make a difference to gardening at my Mum’s yesterday… I found that trimming her 80ft hedge and then cutting the grass with a push-mower was a lot easier than the last time I did it, with fewer after-effects.

The more you do, the more you can do.

Which segues neatly into the subject of Queen Elizabeth, whose funeral is today. Though I didn’t have the honour of meeting her, she has been an ever-present force in my life.

Lots of uber-wealthy people around the world have lifestyles similar to hers, but my guess is that very few of these people would consider themselves to be a public servant, or would work tirelessly (by all accounts) for the good of common people… in her case the people who make up this country and commonwealth.

Few people will have a high pressure career lasting more than 40 years, let alone one lasting 70 years… not to mention working diligently right up to the very end. She really was amazing.

I pledged allegiance to Queen Elizabeth as a Cub Scout fifty-odd years ago and, based on her work ethic across that time, I’m now very happy to transfer that pledge to her son and successor, Charles.

The Queen is dead, long live the King!

I was feeling my age this morning when I dragged myself out to the teahouse for the first of two quadspressos, but Mark’s suggestion (‘go on, you know you want to, go for a run‘) was sufficiently assertive that my body obeyed before my mind had a chance to spin up any excuses.

Next thing I knew I was running down the road… and this time with a key to get back in 🙂

‘Just over two miles in just over 20 minutes’ was probably not what Mark had in mind (as he stood on the top of a mountain somewhere) but at least I was out there 🙂

In other news, Andy P completed the 100 km UTMB CCC in 22 hours, showing more grit than some people might muster across a lifetime. Thinking about the circuit brings back very happy memories of my walking trip with Daren 🙂

The dry weather decided to break as I was doing my yoga this morning and by the time I walked out to the teahouse with a coffee there was a very gentle pattering of rain on the roof… slightly louder, though still gentle, as I drank a second cup.

I had been fearing a more significant downpour, which might have just bounced & run off the parched ground, but this gentle watering was perfect.

I had already planned to go running this morning and this was a great opportunity to remind my ageing runners (and me) what it’s like to be wet. Which reminds me, I really must go to RUN to get some new runners… it’s been so long that Kurt might no longer recognise me 🙁

The sky darkened as I prepared to go out, but the rain was still gentle… it got heavier as a ran further, and I was definitely wet by the time I got back, but it was never uncomfortable.

I wasn’t the only person out enjoying the precipitation as I passed another runner twice during my run, clearly revelling in the rain, and even the walkers I passed seemed in an extra-friendly mood, calling out to say good morning.

Just over two miles in just under 20 minutes… nothing outrageous, but I’m really happy to have been able to keep my feet in the game.

While I was writing it started raining more forcibly, with dark clouds and a few nice claps of thunder to accentuate the point, but the sky is lightening again now and the garden seems to be happy soaking up every drop that comes its way 🙂

We really are having a proper summer this year and the forecasts suggest that it may stay that way until the end of the month. I’m pretty sure that average annual rainfall stays fairly consistent from year to year, so we’re probably in for a very wet autumn. This is reminiscent of 1976, when I seemed to spend a lot of time getting drenched whilst standing outside in school lunch or bus queues in the pouring rain.

Beautiful morning today though and whilst I didn’t feel as if I was flowing along the road in a graceful way (more like the clunking of a square-wheeled car), I was at least happy that this was simply because i’ve not been doing enough running lately.

This said, I did choose to take the slightly elongated route, so 2.02 miles in just over 20 minutes.

Right now it feels as if I’m sitting in a sauna, drenched from head to toe, which must be a good way to clear out the pores.

When the temperature reaches the thirties, it’s easy to forget to run… or alternatively to be quite deliberate in finding reasons not to. This morning was cooler and my run was 1.9 miles in just under 19 minutes 🙂

I was hoping to get out for a run before the end of the week, but work and weather gave me sufficient excuse to delay… choosing not to do valuable long-term things is unfortunately an easy option for us all.

I sat in the teahouse in the heat of this morning, totally engrossed while I immersed myself in a particularly engaging messy problem. Three hours and several quadspressos later I realised that the sun had withdrawn behind grey clouds and the temperature had dropped.

Research into problem-solving shows the benefit of allowing ideas to incubate, so the arguments tipped in favour of a run after all. I wasted no time and have just returned from my short 1.87 mile circuit in just under 18 minutes.

There seldom seems anything meaningful to write home about this circuit, but while I was still sitting in the teahouse earlier a brave blackbird hopped right up to the pool at the base of the waterfall (which wasn’t running… the photo above is from yesterday) and had a luxuriously long bath. I remember that Joseph Jaworski wrote about our ability to be more synchronous those around us and with nature in general… this was one of those small joyous moments. 🙂

It’s been joyous to have visitors staying with us for the last two months, but this morning was an early start to get them to the airport for their flight home.

After sitting in an empty house for a while, I decided to head out for a run, despite my body suggesting that 5.15am might be a little too early!

The 1.9 mile circuit took around 18.5 really peaceful minutes, with only a rising sun to keep me company. Somehow I managed to maintain the same (slow) pace throughout, despite the second half being downhill.

My legs still felt heavy from my run with Daren on Monday and I had other good excuses lined up for not running this morning (such as, it was already too hot to sit in the teahouse, which is really rare) but run I did.

I did the simple short circuit of 1.88 miles in just under 18 minutes… it’s nothing to write home about, but hopefully it will build some much needed muscle memory to allow me to get back to running the tank tracks route again.

I met Daren and Lyra (his small and very well trained hound) upstairs at the Windmills this morning for a run along to Ditchling Beacon and back.

It was a b e a u t i f u l day for sitting in the sun drinking coffee, but we managed to complete our run and around half our conversation before we succumbed to Chelsea’s horse-box coffee shop for the other half.

4.29 miles in about 50 minutes… definitely a jog rather than a run 🙂