Archive for 100 mile Challenge
June 15, 2008 at 9:51 pm · Filed under 100 mile Challenge, Challenges, Juneathon, Running, Salomon Challenge
I went to London but missed the Queen. I arrived on her doorstep to see a trail of red as the horseguards shot back into their cubby holes.
I set off from West Hampstead and had an unremarkable run down to Central London but as soon as I entered Bond Street an ominous rumbling filled the sky, I looked up and caught sight of a WWII Lancaster Bomber, with a couple of Spitfires in tow. They were rapidly followed by hoards of other military planes that I was unable to recognise.
Turns out it was her birthday and I had narrowly missed the Trooping of the Colour with the celebratory flyover. That probably explains the high density of gents in bowler hats.
It’s probably just as well that I was a bit late, my route took me straight through the Horse Guards parade and I can’t imagine they would have been too keen on me running through the middle of the trooping.
I’m quite impressed with the jubilee line, for a grey line it’s proved to be pretty colourful. Even without the Battle of Britain re-enactment there seemed to be a photo opportunity round every corner and now have a picture of a Beefeater and the London Eye on my phone, I think I can claim to be a true tourist.
Salomon XT Wings Challenge
Today:
10 Tube Stations
9.37 km
Cumulative:
91 Tube Stations
80.79 km
See the combined progress map here.
Popularity: 21% [?]
Related posts
Tags: Jubilee Line, London Underground, Salomon Challenge, tube
June 5, 2008 at 11:58 pm · Filed under 100 mile Challenge, Challenges, Running, Salomon Challenge
For the last 4 nights I have left work with the declaration, “Right, I’m off to do the Piccadily Line”. Tonight all excuses escaped me and I finally had to knuckle down and get it completed.
It wasn’t as grueling as I expected, Garmin reported a total distance of 11.6 km but there were a lot of squiggles on the trace so it may have been quite a lot lot less.
Not much running in the proper central London bit, too much risk of being mowed down by a tuk tuk.
I started upping the pace around Piccadilly Circus as I didn’t want to make myself a sitting target for Eros.
After the lure of the bookshops on Piccadilly I managed to get a good stint of running done, past the Ritz through the relative oasis of Green Park and then out onto Wellington Arch and the traffic chaos of Knightsbridge.
Salomon XT Wings Challenge
Today:
13 Tube Stations
11.57 km
Cumulative:
52 Tube Stations
48.13 km
See the combined progress map here.
Juneathon Tally
Runs: 4/30
Total Distance: 14.6 m
Warriorwoman vs Jogblog 100m Challenge Combo
38.5 miles total
Popularity: 19% [?]
Related posts
Tags: Garmin, Juneathon, London Underground, map channels, Piccadilly Line, Salomon Challenge, tube
June 4, 2008 at 9:46 pm · Filed under 100 mile Challenge, Juneathon, Running
By adding a 30 minute run to my morning schedule yesterday, I managed to delay my arrival at work by 1.5 hrs. Not sure how I managed that but it required creative excuse making along the lines of “My gerbil was going blind”. It works, try it.
So last night I went to bed early and I remembered to adjust the alarm. It did no good though. Someone started sending me texts at midnight and once woken I couldn’t ignore the fact that my psycho neighbour downstairs was throwing pans at his girlfriends head. I think she should have left a long time ago, sometime between the end of the bonking period and the start of the “you silly little girl” screaming phase.
In the end I got up later than ever, ignoring all 3 alarms and didn’t manage to squeeze in the Juneathon run. Not wanting to fail at such an early point in the season I decided to run an extended route to my mates this evening, where I was expected for tea.
So today I managed a whole 1 mile of running but probably caught pneumonia for my troubles as I was required to stand in the garden to evaporate before I was allowed in to eat.
Juneathon Tally
Runs: 4/30
Total Distance: 7.4 m
Warriorwoman vs Jogblog 100m Challenge Combo
31.3 miles total
Popularity: 13% [?]
Related posts
Tags: Juneathon
June 3, 2008 at 8:33 am · Filed under 100 mile Challenge, Juneathon, Running
Forgot to set the alarm early but headed out into the pouring rain to complete the 3.5k river route again. I returned like a latent waterfall ready to release torrents onto my hall carpet.
These little loops are feeling damn tough, I’ve lost so much fitness over the last couple of months but I suppose June will either kill or cure me.
Short run and short post - jolly late for work now.
Juneathon Tally
Runs: 3/30
Total Distance: 6.4 m
Warriorwoman vs Jogblog 100m Challenge Combo
30.3 miles total
Popularity: 10% [?]
Related posts
Tags: Juneathon
June 2, 2008 at 9:34 pm · Filed under 100 mile Challenge, Juneathon
I was planning to run the Piccadilly line after work but strangely enough I didn’t feel like it by the time I’d finished. Nontheless, I am a committed challenge runner so I headed to the loos to change into my running clobber anyway.
I let out a less than silent whoop of delight behind the cubicle door when I discovered that I had forgotten to pack my t-shirt. Not wanting to run through Leicester Square in pinstripe, I headed home.
I can’t escape the fact that it is Juneathon, although I tried quite hard. I came home feeling knackered and ravenous, started to prepare a broad bean and pea curry and settled down to surf the web. Here I discovered that a whole host of people have jumped onto the Juneathon band wagon and after reading their Day 2 posts and comments on the facebook group and assorted blogs, I was duly shamed into going out for a run.
Yesterdays 3.5k river loop repeated and actually enjoyed.
Here are the bloggers on board so far (let me know if I missed any):
Jogblog
Joggerblogger
Londonjogger
Fit Artist
I Like To Count
Marble Cake
Juneathon Tally
Runs: 2/30
Total Distance: 4.2m
Warriorwoman vs Jogblog 100m Challenge Combo
28.1 miles total
Popularity: 9% [?]
Related posts
Tags: Juneathon, t-shirt
June 1, 2008 at 11:34 pm · Filed under 100 mile Challenge, Juneathon, Running
I rolled out of bed at 11 this morning, an all time record, and stumbled from mattress to the wii fit board where I proceeded to run the long distance course. Long distance note, that’s the advanced setting.
My mum’s mii overtook me within the first stretch and I had to start sprinting on the spot to retake the lead. My controller fell out of my waist band under the exertion and a 60 year old cartoon character passed me for the second time. By the time I retrieved it and continued to the finish line she’d lapped me.
How humiliating?
The wii informs me that I’m a VERY good runner though so I’m happy. I almost forgave it for screaming when I climbed on the board this morning. It told me to step up and then squealed “ouch” and after weighing me, squeaked “too high!” Cheeky little……
This afternoon I began to worry that perhaps my wii fit run wouldn’t be accepted under the exacting Juneathon rules and so decided a proper run is required until I can seek verification. I’m having a tube station aversion though so I head out on my old familiar riverside route where I promptly pull my calf and have to hobble my way around the 3k route.
Popularity: 10% [?]
Related posts
Tags: Juneathon, wii, wii fit
June 1, 2008 at 12:05 am · Filed under 100 mile Challenge, Running, Salomon Challenge
I completed the Hammersmith and City line today.
I had initially planned to run it as a single long run but in the end I took 3 attempts at it. I’m trying to take it gently with my back but today it was seizing up every time I stopped to take a photo and then I couldn’t get going again, as a result todays run bore a strong resemblance to walking in many parts.
Still, I did have to stop and take those photos, it’s not often that you get to look up a lady’s skirt without getting on your hands and knees.
This mid section of the H&C line was a visual treat. It started with the fantastic St Pancras building which is an absolute beauty from the outside and has now been renovated internally.
I can’t walk past the station without nipping in and gazing up in wonder at the roof and the clock. Strangely enough I manged to resist the longest Champagne bar in the world, I probably wasn’t dressed quite right anyhow.
Immediately after leaving the station and while the garmin is still attempting a lock on, I stumble into the grounds of the British Library and get acquainted with Newton.
I bet he’s got a bad back.
There are loads of interesting buildings to see on the Euston/Marylebone Rd so long as your vision is intact. All this running along busy highways is chucking all sorts of grit and general atmospheric pollutants into my eyes and I can feel my corneas abrading as I move.
This building is the St Marylebone Grammar School or Philological school, set up in 1792 to support families suffering under unexpected misfortune. Directly opposite this is the Samaritan Free hospital for women and children, where “Admission free, without letter of recomendation, poverty and sickness the only passport”.
It wasn’t all that long ago that life was tough.
Heading left, away from the grotty dual carriageway, I veered towards Paddington station. Here’s another area of fabulous architecture but shamefully it is one that has worked hard to develop a shabby overcoat. St Mary’s Hospital must have been imposing in its day and you can look up to the second floor window and imagine Alexander Fleming poring over his agar plates of penicillin.
From Paddington onwards, the interest in the route declined for me. The stations were such a flippin faff to get to. Royal Oak for example, is almost an extension to the platform at Paddington, I’ve often wondered what it’s point was but when you try to get to it by road you have to wiggle in and out of streets for about 2k. Ridiculous. Royal Oak to Westbourne Park is even worse and really, why would you want to bother. Get the tube that’s my advice.
Ladbroke Grove is the home of the Portobello Road market so there was a bit of colour here, but I’m disappointed that I wasn’t able to hire a nice red Ferrari.
Salomon XT Wings Challenge
Today:
10 Tube Stations
10.84 km
Sports Tracker map with photos
Cumulative:
38 Tube Stations
36.56 km
See the combined progress map here.
Warriorwoman vs Jogblog 100m Challenge Combo
23.9 miles total
Popularity: 15% [?]
Related posts
Tags: Garmin, Hammersmith and City Line, knee, London Underground, Salomon Challenge, tube
May 29, 2008 at 12:44 am · Filed under 100 mile Challenge, Running, Salomon Challenge
At 5:15 this evening I threw my non-conforming budgets into the air and stepped away from the computer. I had a bus to catch and it’s becoming obvious that I won’t be able to maintain my usual level of commitment to the day job and still hope to complete this challenge.
It took an hour and a half for me to get from work to Holborn, all for the joy of having me run an hour and half back the way I came. This is the absolute worst kind of running commute, the sort that seems to bare so very little reason and might just have been created for the sole purpose of making me work, a true Cinderella task.
The planning for the run started yesterday evening as I packed my bag and then lay awake fretting for most of the night listening to the raging wind, rain and thunder. In the end I decided that a torrential downpour was the best I could hope for on the day I cover off the whole of Oxford Street.
The weather proved to be ideal. A perfect running drizzle welcomed me as I hit the bustle of Southampton Row and headed on towards Tottenham Court Road.
It was busy but perhaps not the worst I’ve seen it. I could run about two paces before having to jump in and then quickly out of the path of a bus, to avoid bizarre zigzagging shoppers, waving cigarette butts around.
I tried a few Oxford Street avoidance routes, such as attempting a parrallel route through Soho but almost as soon as I did that I spotted an interesting piece of graffiti back across the other side. I must have made terribly slow progress towards Oxford circus.
Despite myself, I began to enjoy the challenge today. I’m stopping at every station to take a photo, partly as proof of my journey but it’s having the result of turning me into a tourist and I’m happy to see areas in a new light.
I now know for example that Farringdon (from Sunday’s H&C line) has a better class of graffiti artist.
While this blog is turning into an art appreciation forum, I’m going to slip in a photo of the Barbara Hepworth sculpture, tacked onto the side of the John Lewis building, a little after Bond Street. Isn’t it beautiful?
So I’ve traveled about 400 yards and already taken 12 photos, you won’t be surprised to hear that this was another record breaking slow run. But at least I was calm and didn’t feel the need to throttle any shoppers which is what normally happens when I venture onto Oxford Street.
I was almost tempted to commit some form of maiming on a lad who insisted on walking faster than I could run though. In the end I managed to catch him on the long downhill stretch to Shepherds Bush but probably only because he stopped at a cash point.
The journey along the Central Line between Holborn and the new Shepherds Bush station was just under 9km so I felt fit enough to tag on a few extra stations and grab the westerly section of the Hammersmith and City line as well.
View Larger Map
View Larger Map
Salomon XT Wings Challenge
Today:
13 Tube Stations
10.56 km
Sports Tracker map with photos
Cumulative:
28 Tube Stations
25.72 km
Warriorwoman vs Jogblog 100m Challenge Combo
17.2 miles total
Popularity: 13% [?]
Related posts
Tags: Central Line, commute, London Underground, Salomon Challenge
May 26, 2008 at 11:24 pm · Filed under 100 mile Challenge, Running
Smack talk from the direction of JogBlog had me climbing out of my pyjamas and into my running shoes, ready to head out into the cold wet night.
I thought a quickish blast around the block would be sufficient to stop her thinking I was anywhere close to slacking off yet, and also I could use it as an opportunity to calibrate the Nike+ sportsband which keeps coming in short.
Heading towards the level crossing I couldn’t summon up enough of a sprint to beat the descending gates so had to take a sharp left and run up along the tracks. For calibration purposes you have to maintain a steady pace, so no hanging around waiting for trains.This curtailed route took me too close to my flat to ignore and as my own shadow was giving me the heeby jeebies I thought it was time to go back to bed.
Total distance, a whopping great 1.34 km and over that piddling distance the Nike+ and garmin decided to agree for once. They must be sniggering behind my back!
Warriorwoman vs Jogblog 100m Challenge Combo
10.2 miles total
Popularity: 16% [?]
Related posts
Tags: calibration, Garmin, Nike, Nike+ Sportband
May 25, 2008 at 11:00 pm · Filed under 100 mile Challenge, Running, Salomon Challenge
It would have been nice to lie in with a cup of tea and the latest omnibus edition of The Archers but unfortunately I have about 200 tube stations to visit over the next 30 days.
Still, if you have to follow any tube line on a gloomy wet morning, it may as well be a pink one.
I took the Hammersmith and City line and Central line (due to closures) as far as Mile End, the most easterly point in my challenge, and immediately regretted cutting my tube map beyond Liverpool Street. It’s a pretty grim area, not the sort of place you want loiter for long, not that the garmin pays any attention to mugging fears.
I start running along a huge long road until I reach Stepney Green and pass a man rubbing himself up against a wall. This is not improving my appreciation of the area one bit.
The world brightens a bit as you approach Aldgate East and gets positively exciting around Liverpool Street, although its also associated with a GPS black hole and I spend about 50 mins wandering around in circles hoping to stumble upon Moorgate.
I get bored of running up and down the same street so opt for walking up and down the same street until I finally give up by Kings Cross and hop on the tube home.
I accidentally forget to switch off sports tracker which is fortunate as it boosts my pace to an acceptable level.
View Larger Map
Salomon XT Wings Challenge
Today:
9 Tube Stations
9.90 km
Sports Tracker map with photos.
Cumulative:
15 Tube Stations
15.16 km
Warriorwoman vs Jogblog 100m Challenge Combo
9.4 miles total
Popularity: 16% [?]
Related posts
Tags: Garmin, GPS, Hammersmith and City Line, London Underground, Salomon Challenge, tube
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