Archive for July, 2007
July 29, 2007 at 11:05 pm · Filed under Running
My GNR training plan includes the dreaded interval session which is gradually turning ino the dreaded and therefore avoided interval session. I was hoping that a regularish visit to BPTT would suffice as my speed training component but that does rather require me to get there. This Saturday was missed as I was volunteering at a bizarre little charity event - Breaststrokes. I was by the Serpentine in Hyde Park by 5.30 am directing swimmers in to the path of rather bemused swans.
Thankfully the long run component of the schedule is working pretty well. Today I did my first circumnavigation of Richmond Park. Shakti cycled alongside me after I discovered a system for restraining her speed - I ran with my hand hooked in the cycle lock around her waist. Quite a relaxing system and she carried my water bottle for me.
Chuffed to bits with the distance but it was pitifully slow. At this rate its going to take me more than 3 hours to finish the half, quite a bit more than 3 hours actually. I clearly need to make room those dreaded intervals.
Weekly summary:
Mon: 42 km bike
Tue: 11.55 km run
Wed: 42 km bike
Thur: 42 km bike
Fri: zilch, zippo, nada (seems to be the Friday theme)
Sat: 20 km bike
Sun: 12.17 km run & 5 km walk
Popularity: 12% [?]
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Tags: BPTT, GNR
July 24, 2007 at 11:25 pm · Filed under Running
My long run in the Road to GNR program was booked in for tonight, so of course that means one of those grotty running commutes. My requirement was for 8 miles. I’m still unsure why I set my plan in miles when I can only run in kilometres, on either scale it meant I had to run past the accidental bus stop. Quite a struggle.
Three quarters of the way home I ran out of water. Plain ole drinking water is a bit of premium in the UK at the moment, it has reached prices in the region of £15 per litre in some of the flood hit areas. Given my tight budget I thought tonight was the time to try Lucozade Sport.
Yuckee!
It played havoc with my intestines, what a sickly drink. I struggled a bit with the bottle as well. Its clearly a good design in some respects as it doesn’t leak at all even with the cap off and a bit of vigorous shaking but I found imbibing fluid to be a struggle. The first squeeze sent a high powered jet of gloop to the back of my throat. My soft pallete hadn’t been forewarned about the incoming missile and so half made its way into my trachea, by the time my throat swung into action the bottle decided to splutter and give up a bolus of high pressure gas, straight to the oesophagus this time.
No wonder I felt ill. Maybe I could skip running training and just spend the next 9 weeks teaching myself how to drink. Anyway, the upshot is, I discarded the sports drink outside my local Stella shop and opted instead for my favourite recovery tipple. Who needs chocolate milk.
Total kilometrage was 11.55, I believe that is slightly short of 8 miles but you can’t shake Stella so that had to be my limit. Plus, the fumes along the A4 are so intense that I’m almost running on pure carbon monoxide, which in my mind equates to everest style altitude training sessions where 11.55 km = more than 8 miles sea level running. Yes?
Popularity: 18% [?]
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Tags: commute, GNR, Stella
July 22, 2007 at 11:19 pm · Filed under Running
Something bad happened this week.
I got rather too drunk (it was my birthday) and OGB took the advantage to turn the tables and bully me into a running event. I don’t know what came over him, that’s supposed to be my job. I wake up on Tuesday with a hangover fitting my extended age and a charity entry into the Great North run - thats a half marathon! Way out of my league.
It seems he’s been getting a bit stressed about all the running commutes I’ve been writing about and taken himself off to the gym to run a punishing 10 miles on the treadmill. Now he can take on the world he wants to rub my nose in it. Shame he didn’t read my posts to the end where he would have discovered that most of my recent commutes have been pitiful 5 k events with a bus ride at the half way point. He’s going to finish me off.
Bear has come to the rescue with an emergency 10 week half-marathon training plan and he wasn’t keen to let me off easily this week just because it was a short one. Here’s my limp lettuce training for week 1/10 on the road to GNR.
Mon: 5.3 km run
Tue: Drinkathon - does that count?
Wed: 20 km bike
Thur: 42 km bike
Fri: zilch, zippo, nada
Sat: 5 km BPTT (I’m back!)
Sun: 9.3 km run & 6.6 km walk
Popularity: 13% [?]
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Tags: BPTT, commute, GNR, OGB
July 15, 2007 at 9:36 pm · Filed under Event, Running
The day dawned excessively early as Shakti and I were off to the Trailblazers event in the South Downs, Shakti was booked in for the 4 mile walk and I had opted for the 6 mile trail run. We both like to arrive places early so with each of us allowing for emergencies we arrived 2 hours too soon. We had a minor row on the way down as I made Shakti circumnavigate a roundabout a few times while I eenymeenyminymoed about which exit I was going to choose - the wrong one as it happened. She unreasonably questioned why someone would have no less than 3 GPS enabled gadgets and not actually use any of them.
No need to stress though, we were hardly threatening to miss the start. I had plenty of time to reassess my initial understanding of the phrase “Trail run”. When I signed up I was thinking trail = muddy, which I thought would be fun, when I arrived I was reminded of the alternative translation, trail = f’kin hills! Not quite so much fun.
It was a little tricky to find the start at this early hour, I spotted a group of women walking along a ridge and strode after them assuming them to be the running sisters of the Brighton and Hove Running Sisters fame. Shakti held me back and insisted on asking a passing Gurkha for directions. Turns out the women were doing Trailwalker. Sounds similar enough to Trailblazer but in practice it would have meant a difference of 90 km and more than 24 hrs. Lucky escape methinks.
Trailblazers at EveryTrail
Map created by EveryTrail:Share GPS tracks
The route was wonderful, it started with a cobbley incline but soon enough turned into a delightful downhill run on lush grass. This coincided with a great tune on my guest playlist - Redneck Woman by Gretchen Wilson and I am now convinced that Country music hits the spot for trail running. I was bounding along and felt like leaping in the air clicking my heels together. The spirit of Judy Garland obviously inhabited me for a moment.
Trouble with downhills is that they are too often replaced by uphills and the music changed to a very freaky song with lyrics along the line of “BannanaTerracotta” and knocked me out of my heel tapping mood. The next descent was steep. I’ve read fell running books and know to relax into the gradient but I very rapidly became a very rapid, out of control orange blur. I think I scared a number of exhausted Trailwalkers who must have thought they were going to be engulfed by a tango rhino. My thighs are going to make me suffer tomorrow.
I lost sight of all running bodies in death valley, not really the place to be abandoned and I had to climb the punishing Snake weaving in and out of the poor Trailwalking souls. They had covered about 90km by this stage and had been walking for more than 28 hrs which put my pain into perspective a bit and encouraged me to keep trogging up the hill.
I finally came in to the heroes welcome reserved only for the last runner plus a bit of jibing from Shakti who was basking in her second place in the walkers “race”. Unlike the race organisers, I knew there was one more runner out there - we had been battling for the back of the starting group before the gun. She has run every single Trailblazer event so I knew that regardless of how slow she seemed, she’d be steady and well aware of the challenges of the course. She would definately be finishing!
She crossed the line maybe 10 mins later, stealing the legitamcy of my blog title. Still, I believe in artistic licence and we are still in the TdF season so Lanterne Rouge is staying.
Great run, well organised, super friendly marshalls and its not often you get cheered on by Gurkhas.
Popularity: 16% [?]
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Tags: everytrail, GPS
July 14, 2007 at 9:17 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
This is just a quick update as I somehow managed not to run this again, opting instead for the comfy seat at the registration desk. I seem to have developed a fear of actually running at BPTT.
The winning runner finished in a mere 15 min 55 secs, he had a massive lead but looked fit to collapse at the end. I would say it took him a couple of minutes to make it the final 10 metres to the registration desk, we were tempted to drag the desks over to him. Turns out its his wedding day today and he had to rush to make the ceremony - he’ll be in trouble if he’s late.
Big news on the UK Time Trials front is that they are expanding again - next park to succumb to the early morning races is Richmond Park! What great news is that, it should mean an extra half hour in bed for me every Saturday.
I’m preparing for another early start tomorrow, I have to head off to Brighton at the crack of dawn for my first trail run race. I’m desperately trying to put together the playlist that No Wetsuit Girl suggested - I’ll be relying on it to get me to the end. I like the idea of borrowing someone elses iPod for a run, but I am hoping its not full of rap, that would be quite painful.
Popularity: 14% [?]
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Tags: BPTT
July 13, 2007 at 11:17 pm · Filed under Running
Well I did a repeat of yesterdays lame run and managed to extend my efforts to almost 6k.
My accidental bus wasn’t waiting for me at the usual spot so I opted for a bit of impromptu fartlek - trying to get to the next stop before the bus overtook me. I managed 3 stretches of a panicky head over shoulder, sideways sprint before I gave in and waited for my cheating carriage.
On the second stage of my run, along the river, I was stopped by an old woman (her description not mine) who wanted to warn me about a gang of lads who were hiding in the bushes and threatening passers by. I considered re-routing but decided I would probably be able to summon more energy for a fight than I would an extra 5k run. I moved ahead tentatively, expecting some grotty yobs to leap out and scare me half witless but when I finally spotted them they were about 7 years old and had already taken to slapping each other so I didn’t need to bother.
Ran on unscathed and relaxed enough to admire the sky.
Popularity: 10% [?]
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Tags: commute
July 12, 2007 at 11:21 am · Filed under Running
Now, I remember quite clearly stating that I was never going to do this grotty running commute again. Trouble is, since that stroppy utterance I have barely run at all - nothing at all since the British London 10k, and that will just not do.
This morning I didn’t feel like cycling into work so I was looking around for an excuse to catch the tube/train combo and I spotted my discarded running gear. Excellent opportunity to get back on form.
My intention was to catch a bus part way home and then start the jolly jaunt along the A4 - aiming for about 10-12k. Plans changed 1.2k into the run when I accidentally climbed onboard the 2nd bus of the day. I only jumped off this because I spotted a great rainbow photo opportunity which disappeared the moment I pressed the bell. Still, it got me moving again and I managed to finish my run along the river. Total distance was a pitiful 5.2k broken in to 2 sections and was about the slowest I’ve recorded for 5k. It was shockingly humid out there though - weird weather we having over here, it seems to be constantly threatening a thunder storm but is still pretty much as hot as you’d expect a July to be.
I am tempted to force a re-run tomorrow, see if I can find my legs again. Maybe I’ll take that can of red bull left from the BL10k, it really seemed to do the trick for me there. Sunday see’s my first trail race/run on the South Downs so I would like to have a confidence boosting run before then.
Popularity: 10% [?]
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Tags: commute
July 12, 2007 at 7:49 am · Filed under Equipment, Gadgets
I propose that the Nokia N95 is the essential runners phone - check out my review on the gadgets page and come back with counter suggestions if you think I haven’t proved my case.
Popularity: 27% [?]
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Tags: n95
July 11, 2007 at 7:23 am · Filed under Cycling, Event
The tour came to London this weekend and I was lucky enough to be on the marshalling team for Sunday’s Stage 1 from London to Canterbury, not that I felt particularly lucky when my alarm went off at 4.45am.
I was shipped out to Woolwich, not one of the more delightful spots of the route but it was downstream of Greenwich which means that the cyclists were in the midst of the race proper as they passed by unlike the Depart fictif played out through central London.
Being a marshall was a good wheeze, I was showered with loads of tour goodies - t-shirt, medal and baseball cap, and was ferried out to one of the best viewing spots available. The crowd were so well behaved I didn’t even have any marshalling type activity to do, which left me a bit of time to play with my new phone and catch a video of the proceedings. Unfortunately I was holding the phone the wrong way round and haven’t fathomed out how to rotate it so you’ll have to flip your monitors over if you want to see this in its full glory.
The roads were closed from 5am which gave the early morning runners the opportunity of running their own private London marathon route. Where supporters were already lining the streets the runners got a few rallying calls of Allez allez.
Popularity: 18% [?]
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Tags: t-shirt
July 3, 2007 at 12:46 am · Filed under Running
As usual I wake up on race day, filled with absolute dread. Looking back it seems quite an appropriate apprehension. The British London 10k had already been billed to me as being just about the worst race in the UK calendar and with just moments to go before the start I found myself enveloped in a Hitchcock movie wondering just how bad this day was going to get.
OGB finally came and rescued me from the tramps and the birds and dragged me off to the baggage drop. More angst followed, as he joined the longest toilet queue in the world and I decided that using a portaloo after 20,000 nervous runners wasn’t high on my pre-race agenda.
By the time OGB made it out of the potty zone, the holding area was deserted and we had to hot foot it to the start - 1.5 km away. By the time we arrived I was absolutely desperate for the loo but we’d missed the starting gun by 30 mins so I had no option but to clench and start running. I spent the next 10k looking around for toilets and wondering how the heck I was going to get to the end without an incident.
It was a fantastic route through central London, taking in Picadilly, the Embankment, Westminster Bridge and Millbank. It was my first road race and I did find it quite peculiar, it was hard not to stop everytime one of the traffic lights turned red. Stacks of supporters lined the streets and helped to generate quite a festival atmosphere, encouraged by the strange dad’s army style orchestras - very last night of the proms.
Apart from needing to wet myself from the very start, I had a great run, not a pb but not far off either. I felt comfortable throughout and I was able to walk at the end, which is just as well as the nearest toilet was another 2k away.
Garmin records 10.3 km in 74 mins. No official times will be reported as the organisers could only manage times for the first 400 and I would guess that I fell just outside this ranking.
Early morning runs aren’t the best, obviously you have to get up ridiculously early but more importantly you end up finishing before the pubs open. We did find somewhere open but they were only serving soft drinks til midday - what hapened to 24 hr licensing hours? My mum rang while we were waiting for the clock to strike 12 and we had a strange conversation:
Mum: Where are you?
Me: London, I’ve just run in the British 10k
Mum: Oh thats nice, were you walking?
Me: Did you just ask me if I was walking?!
Mum: Well yes because you couldn’t drive it could you.
Me: I ran - it was a running race.
Mum: You ran? How many metres did you say it was?
Me: That would be 10000 metres.
Mum: Did you finish it?
I was thinking to join in Lardathon for July but after an afternoon in the pub I had a slight hiccup in an otherwise exemplary day (beer being classed as legitimate carb replacement therapy) and polished off a twin pack of cream doughnuts. In my defence, I went shopping for the weeks groceries on Saturday and actually put back my multipack of hula hoops as I couldn’t face confessing my sins every day on the blog. I therefore claim that the two net each other off and I’m in the clear.
Popularity: 11% [?]
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Tags: Garmin, OGB
