Observations of an occasional runner
We had a little debris in the garden yesterday morning, consisting of two fireworks that had landed on the lawn. Both had embedded over an inch into the ground and would, I suspect, have given anyone standing in their way a bit of a headache… or worse if they had been looking up at the time!
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!
I’ve been working with the guys at Qype and they have very kindly given me a link on their blog site.
Qype is a brilliant concept, whereby you and I can write reviews of the local places that we love, in order that other people can find these gems.
And when you’re going somewhere new, it’s easy to work out what to see and where to meet, eat or sleep.
It’s really well developed in Germany and although still relatively young in the UK, it’s already a useful reference tool, added to which it’s great if you like meeting new people!
Check it out and let me know what you think… you might even find a fab new place to go just around the corner from you!
It was another glorious morning and Jack was in a romantic mood, back-lit by the sun and softened with a hint of mist. It was one of those mornings where I too would have been happy just to stand in the sun and wave my arms around.
I certainly wasn’t in the mood to run, but heh-ho, here I was. Heading East from Jack and Jill, I passed Ditchling Beacon, where I paused to stretch and then headed for Blackcap, stopping on the way again to take a photograph of a persuasive sign saying ‘don’t stray off the path’… the words chosen for the purpose were ‘Firearms in constant use on this farm… for your own safety stay on the public footpath’. Sticking to the middle of the path, to avoid any doubt, I ran on and arrived at Blackcap faster than two weeks ago… which is amazing bearing in mind the stops and how slowly I felt as if I was running.
From there I backtracked a little and dropped off the Downs to Plumpton Agricultural College and headed North as far as the racecourse, then West. The houses around here are just beautiful and the little hamlet of Streat is charming, with the sound of its parishioners singing their hearts out emanating from the church. I had spooked a horse with an old lady aloft two weeks ago and then had to pass them a second time ten minutes later… the horse was clearly unsettled by something, possibly my bright blue gilet. Today she greeted me as I paused to let her pass, just in case, but the horse walked past nonchalantly. ‘ I’m not scared of you, you silly runner’ it must have been thinking.
Then I was back onto the old faithful track which goes North from Westmeston… I really love it because it’s been here since Roman times and I suspect that not much has changed since then. When I got to the railway though, I just had to stop and walk for five minutes as my mind was still not really in the run. It’s a powerful thing, that thing in your head!
There’s a path that runs along one edge of Ditchling Common that I think is magical and I ran down it today. It’s a narrow path along the treeline that winds between old trees and and through thickets and seems almost enchanted. For some reason I felt my strength return and I blew along it effortlessly like the wind.
Back out on the Common I had another pause though (bit of a habit today), ate a Tracker bar and then jogged home the last ten minutes.
Overall, particularly in the psychological department, a really awful run, which was reflected in the speed at 5.69mph. But it was 12.3 miles which is almost 20km, so it was not all bad. And nothing could take away the fact that, with the Autumn leaves turning shades of red and gold, it was a glorious morning!
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!
Was it me or the event timing that was running slow? 1.50.54 is nowhere near the sub-1.50 that I expected!
For a picture of the drowned rat hammering home, visit Antbliss – runner 1291 finishing 525th…
Enjoy!
Always write when the pain is still fresh… that’s what I reckon!
The day was gray & drizzly and curling up by the fire seemed like the best idea, but instead Mister Thomas’s jalopy turned up at the appointed hour to whisk us away to play. Cliff, the tall man with the gray hair, was already there whilst Pete turned up in the nick of time… not bad, bearing in mind that he had cycled from Brighton to warm up!
Cliff & Pete acted as the advance party, Kim brought up the rear, whilst Dai and I just cruised along in the middle, the beeps of his sat-nav watch suggesting that someone could have been more accurate with the mile markers. Seven, eight and nine minute miles were the order of the day, depending on the gradient therein, which augured well for the sub-two-hour goal.
The weather was basically pants (that’s a technical term) and although warm enough on the lungs and cool enough on the back of the neck, it played havoc with my hair, making me look like a drowned rat.
Two tips for anyone who’s interested. Firstly, when you’re running try to land towards the outside of your heel, rolling your foot forward as you pass over it to depart from your big toe. This is very efficient and is great for allowing you to lengthen your stride… which means that you can reduce the number of strides you have to take if you’re a lazy oaf like me! It’s also softer on your knees, welcome for the vets amongst us!
Secondly, judging by the gasping going on around me, the lungs are a greatly under utilised asset to many runners. Although I do accept that you have to do what works for you, I was taught (some 25 years ago by a Police diver) to run four paces breathing in and four paces breathing out. This slower intake means that you can breath in through your nose (helped today by a Breathe-Right strip, at least until the sweat and rain washed the sticky stuff away towards the end) and also means that you get to fully inflate your lungs. After five minutes focusing on breathing this way, it is amazing how easy the uphills are, as the blood has that elusive oxygen stuff, that muscles lap up, in abundance.
At the 12 mile marker my watch said 1.40 and I picked up the pace slightly to chase a new target of 1.50, helped by a kind man in a green vest. In the last 400m a tall guy came running past, kamikaze style, only to slow to a walk ahead. As he picked up to run again at the 200m mark, he became my new target in a sprint to the finish. I hoped the man in the green vest would come with me, but I ended up pipping the tall man and two or three others to the post alone.
The results are still not out, but my watch was a gnats whisker before 1.50 so I hope to have a one forty-nine-something time. Slightly better than Dai at 1.59 and Kim at 2.34, but not as good as Cliff at 1.42 and Pete at 1.36.
Pete was all set to cycle back to Brighton too, mad fool, but accepted Dai’s offer of a lift in view of the inclemency of the weather!
The fire was finally lit and a fry-up devoured along with copious cups of Earl Grey tea… Twining’s of course! And hey!, it’s only six o’clock!
For the finishers photo, you need to go to Dai’s site… enjoy the grins!
Why, oh why is it so confusing? Spring forward, fall back. Nice & simple.
Of course, if it’s late and you’re tired (and having watched the film Babel, emotionally drained!) and you have it in your mind that you’re due to lose an hour’s sleep, it’s a simple mistake to make. Going the wrong way.
Compound this with presumably having nudged the alarm to 6.20am in the process and you end up waking up at… er, 4.20am instead of the intended 7.30am!
Only the fact that it is dark gives the game away. Trying to explain that gaining an hour involves putting the clocks back is oh so difficult too!
I’m not a popular bunny!
Two minutes.
In the scheme of things, it’s a really little thing to mar the otherwise extremely positive experience of a washing machine. The problem is, it’s the last part of the experience, so however good it was up until that moment, this is the feeling you take away with you. It’s so frustrating that I often forget to empty the machine for hours.
What an earth am I going on about?
My Hotpoint Ultima machine beeps, loud and clear, when it has finished. Except that one of the designers thought it would be funny to, having grabbed your attention and drawn you to the machine, keep you waiting for two minutes before they allow the door to unlock. Barred by a little keyhole symbol!
Two frustrating minutes.
‘Ha ha, Gotcha!’ it screams. Or maybe, ‘this is to show you how safety conscious I am’. I don’t know, it doesn’t speak my language!
Why not beep when the machine is ready rather than two minutes early?
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?