Archive for Commuting
August 13, 2008 at 12:01 am · Filed under Commuting, Running
This grotty summer weather is doing wonders for my running. It just needs to threaten drizzle and I’m grabbing my trainers, or at least I’m thinking about grabbing my trainers as I’m the world’s worst procrastinator when comes to running.
I’d scheduled a run for first thing Saturday morning but although I kept putting the garmin into training mode and heading towards the door, I didn’t actually manage to get out until 3pm on Sunday. That is some dithering! At least the delay meant it was chucking down for the best part of my Sunday pootle.
It was grey again today so I seized the opportunity to schedule another running commute and my long run for the week. The unseasonable weather meant traffic chaos this morning and I was kicking myself for leaving the bike at home when I arrived at the tube station to find it closed due to flooding. I wasn’t much happier when 6 o’clock came round and I had to start running.
Turned into a jolly pleasant run though, a bit of salsa popped up on my iPod towards the end and I managed my own personal interpretation of dancing. Things are looking up for my running if I can manage a bit of merengue after 6 miles.
For any Garmin 405 owners, there is a new firmware update. It should improve the pace reading and stop the annoying freezing of the bezel, amongst other things.
Popularity: 12% [?]
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Tags: commute, Forerunner 405, Garmin
July 10, 2008 at 10:23 pm · Filed under Commuting, Running
The race packs seem to be dropping thick and fast through the letter box this week, after the painfully slow 5k at the weekend I came home and opened an envelope to discover I was entered in the Great Capital 10k in just 2 weeks time. Goodness knows when I signed up for that, I hadn’t bothered to note it in my diary anyway.
I’m thinking that’s its probably impossible to turn around the worst ever 5k race time within the space of 2 weeks given a backdrop of 5 months of lacklustre training, but I’ve got to do something to ensure I don’t collapse before the finish line. I’ve therefore embarked on a 2 week anti-Stella campaign to be combined with regularish running commutes.
JogBlog is not the only one completing an old new running commute, I’ve shifted jobs yet again and am right back where I started with the very first running commute of 18 months ago. Happily I’ve picked up a bit of local knowledge over the months and can now get from asylum to home with barely any need to run on the grotty streets, it also seems to save me 500 metres which is no good as it ruins my perfect 10 k route.
Running along the edge of assorted waterways provides plenty of opportunity for water related incidents and playing around with the forerunner 405 touch bezel does not reduce the likelihood. I stumbled over some barge docking related paraphenalia but managed to steady myself in a rather sturdy clump of stinging nettles. I’m still itching but I did discover a rather cool new screen on the forerunner.
It the HR graph option and shows your heart rate displayed on a backdrop of HR zones. Quite neat but probably only useful if you are doing intervals, for most of my run it appeared as a flat line between zones 4 and 5. The photo was taken after I stopped.
Distance: 9.58km
Time: 1:22:00
Popularity: 18% [?]
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Tags: commute, Forerunner, Forerunner 405, Garmin, Stella
July 4, 2008 at 8:16 am · Filed under Bikes, Commuting, Cycling, Equipment, Road
Here’s a quick pictorial introduction to the new bike recruit.
The Brompton is squeezing alongside the other two bikes and trying to carve out a niche for itself.
So far it’s doing very well and I’m beginning to worry about what I’ll do with the other two.
I wonder if I could have a go at a sprint tri with it? It certainly needs to have a go at some sort of challenge event just to cement it’s street cred.
A marvel of British engineering.
Here it is in transition mode - notice the sweet pea holder built into the Brompton bag - how useful is that?
Just to continue the bike porn theme, here it is in full glory.
I’ll just finish by plugging the WizzBike - the best bike shop I’ve come across so far. Superb service, it’s based in Brentford but well worth the trip if you are interested in Bromptons, folders or Pashleys.
Popularity: 19% [?]
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Tags: bike, Brompton, Brookes saddle, folding bike
April 11, 2008 at 9:53 pm · Filed under Commuting, Running
Well you all creeped me out with your comments to my last post, how am supposed to run along the canal without fear of being shot by some misplaced American gunslinger or tumbling into floaters of dubious origin? I’d planned another running commute yesterday and even went as far as packing my running clobber and endured the horrendous public transport ordeal, only to find at the end of the day that I had forgotten the Enell contraption, otherwise known as the shoulder boulder holder. No running without that I’m afraid.
Of course you know me well enough by now - I love this running malarky so much there’s no holding me back. I’d even sacrifice a friday evening of partying (for partying, read evening watching Gardeners World) for a trog along a deserted canal and a rendezvous in a terrifying canalside dock. I was deeply absorbed by the thrilling audiobook playing on the iPod when I took this snap. I was in the middle of a WWII bombing raid over West London when two cyclists bore down on me, yelling for me to get out of the way. For the second time in a week I had to throw myself to the ground to avoid a premature bath.
Apart from that little adrenalin rush, the rest of the run was rather peaceful. I left work later than usual because we are in the middle of the most exciting month end of the year if accounts can ever be described in those terms. The canal was deserted apart from some frisky bunnies and a convoy of Herons working their way down the waterway. I wasn’t quick enough to catch the clumsy birds dragging their lanky legs behind them so instead you get a photo of these pretty little plants.
They may be pretty in a prehistoric sense but I have a feeling that they may be specimens of the evil horsetail. I will therefore have to take my body, shoes and clothing through a decontamination zone before I set foot on the allotment. Wouldn’t want to transport it.
Good luck to any nutters plodding round the London marathon on Sunday!
Popularity: 16% [?]
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Tags: allotment, commute
April 7, 2008 at 9:03 pm · Filed under Commuting, Running
5:30 arrived and there was no getting around the fact that I had packed for another running commute. I did a quick risk assessment and decided that if I left immediately I’d be able to take the canal route while all potential murderers were still dithering on their doorsteps, wondering whether to grab their umbrellas or not.
There were a remarkable number of people enjoying the Grand Union this evening and I followed Jogblogs guidance and decided solitary blokes were ok so long as they had dogs with them and runners of all varieties were fine and dandy so long as they were running in the opposite direction to me.
There is one particularly spooky part of my route - a dark, disused wet dock, harboring bats and bird flu. I hate going through there, I always feel like I’m entering the murder scene out of a new Prime Suspect. Today I turned the corner and bumped into a runner and then an old geezer on a mountain bike. I would have screamed but the biker saved me the trouble, he looked terrified and wobbled so much on his bike that I had to grab him before he fell in the oily harbour.
Job done, I think I may force another running commute upon myself this week.
Popularity: 15% [?]
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Tags: commute
April 2, 2008 at 11:17 pm · Filed under Commuting, Running
I’m in desperate need of a new running routine, and what better way to kick start a routine than re-starting the running commute torment?
I wanted to take the canal route but as I was preparing to leave work, a huge grey cloud was obliterating all the light of day. I spent so long trying to decide whether I was risking imminent murderising of the dark, isolated, canal kind that it got so dark I couldn’t find the opening to the waterway anyhoo. So instead I got to chalk up another grim run along the Uxbridge Rd for posterity.
I was really hoping to avoid people today, an isolated canal (minus the certain death) would have been perfect. As it was I had to put up with the look of panic on the faces of everyone I passed. People at bus stops would look quickly away and push past each other to put distance between them and me. They were clearly terrified that they were going to have to “do something” when the lolloping beetroot running towards them, collapsed and required CPR.
I was pretty hot today, it’s been so long since I last ran consistently that I haven’t noticed the seasons changing and I went out in a thermal long sleeved top. Very uncomfortable. It was so hot in fact that the Thames had dried out leaving an amazing array of litter and assorted boat wrecks. I was tempted to wade in and search for bullion.
As unappealing as this run was, I need to continue with this kind of torture. I have a plan of the crazy running kind and it needs a level of commitment and endurance that I seem to have discarded by the wayside. More details to follow.
Popularity: 18% [?]
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Tags: commute, thames
February 14, 2008 at 11:17 pm · Filed under Commuting, Running
I’m off oop North this weekend to visit Rach so my weekend long run is looking unlikely again, in fact it’s worse than unlikely - it’s just not going to happen, I’m packing my bag now and the trainers and garmin have not made their way in.
Today I was working in central London so decided to squeeze in yet another mid-week long run. I was aiming for an intermediate length run, a light 10k dash across town but my internal GPS system went awry and it took me more than 13k to reach home. Good run though, you’ve got to love London, it’s full of inspiring routes. Tuesdays run took me along the Grand Union Canal, the Thames, Kew Park and then past Virginia Woolf’s house in Richmond, today’s jaunt started in Regents Park, through Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens past Radcliffe Hall’s house, through Holland Park and then back onto the Thames.
I suffered some weird magnetic interference in Kensington gardens and then again as I left Holland Park, and had to ring Shakti to see if she could guess where the hell I was and direct me out of the aberration known as Shepherds Bush.
Popularity: 25% [?]
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Tags: Garmin, GPS, thames
February 12, 2008 at 11:40 pm · Filed under Commuting, Running
My social life has been unusually brisk over the last week or so and while it hasn’t entirely prevented me from running, it has interfered with my blogging. Not to fear though, it looks like I’m going to be starting yet another new job, way back out west again in the public transport no-go zone. This will act swiftly to curtail any mid-week social plans and force me to refocus on important stuff like running and writing about running.
It also means I can pull the bike back out of the shed and I get to throw some brand new running commutes into the mix.
I had an interview at the new place today so I thought I’d trial a new route for the way home. It proved to be a great opportunity to squeeze in the long run I missed at the weekend.
This route bears some resemblance to my first running commutes (the ones where I was brave or foolhardy enough to run along the canal) but now I appear to have taken up residence in the shed, all running commutes have to end at the allotment rather than my flat. That nicely adds about 5k to any route - an absolutely essential addition to any half marathon plan.
The new shoes came out with me again, I know I suggested I was going to save them for the big day but I can’t resist the temptation, and they really do make the long runs so much more appealing.
New route: 14.23km
Time: 1:50:13
Popularity: 23% [?]
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Tags: allotment, commute
December 11, 2007 at 11:19 pm · Filed under Commuting, Running
I’ve finally managed to wangle a work placement within a civilised radius of my home, so that means the running commute is back! I’ve been looking forward to this for ages, at last I can enjoy some scenic running routes rather than suffocating myself on fumes as I run along the edge of the A4. Not that scenery counts for much at 5.30 on a wintery UK night but it still feels good to know the river is just a wrong foot and a slip to the right of you even if you can’t see it.
Turns out it’s a piddling little route, only 4.3 km but it will make a huge impact on my training mileage if I start running both ways. Until I sort out the gym (and therefore shower) membership, I’ll settle for a walk in and run back.
I’d forgotten the faff involved in planning a running commute. I used the first day to plant essentials at work, like smart shoes and a jacket and then tried to walk in today with the lightest clothing possible without risking hypothermia. In previous RC’s I’ve been able to leave a lot of clobber behind at work knowing that I’d be able to cram it in my bike bag the next day, but as my plan is for daily running I need to carry everything home. I couldn’t cram everything in the asics barrios bag, so had to attach a load of my clothes to the outside, knotting them around the shoulder straps.
I ended up bounding along the streets with my bra and trousers flapping out behind me in the slipstream.
You’ll probably not be surprised to hear that I’ve already been on to wiggle and ordered the slightly enlarged Inov8 Race Pro 18 - review will follow.
Popularity: 18% [?]
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Tags: asics, commute
May 25, 2007 at 10:42 pm · Filed under Commuting, Cycling, Gadgets
A whole new commuting challenge lies ahead of me. My new job is flippin miles away, just teetering on the edge of the metropolis called Greater London. If I lose my balance I’m liable to stumble into the central reservation of the M25.
Thought I better take a ride out today to check out my route - don’t want to turn up both sweaty and late on Tuesday.
It’s a heck of twisty, turny trail that’s gonna take me forever to memorise, luckily I have a host of GPS gadgets in my bottom drawer or I think I’d still be out there shredding my paper map in a fit of frustration. Todays choice of handlebar thingumy is the GPSMap 60C, a pretty cool mapping device, that lets you get completely lost, confident in the knowledge that you can just follow a trail of dots back to your house. I always come very close to death when I ride with this though, I spend too much time chasing the arrow on the screen and too little time checking what the other nutters are doing on the roads.
Total round trip comes out at just over 26 miles, which means, if I want to stay in the running commute club, I’ll have to build myself up to half marathon distance pretty sharpish. Good grief.
Popularity: 34% [?]
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Tags: commute, GPS
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