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.
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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: 8% [?]
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Tags: Central Line, commute, London Underground, Salomon Challenge
April 26, 2008 at 11:41 pm · Filed under Equipment, Gadgets
I’ve taken my time to write this post because I’m not sure whether to come clean about my sins or to attempt a bluff.
I was sent the Nike+ Sportband to try out at the beginning of the week but as I don’t have holes in my running shoes I couldn’t possibly go running before I had some hi-tech means of carrying my speed sensor - you wouldn’t catch me putting gaffer tape on my Kayanos unlike Joggerblogger and Jogblog.
The little thingammy pouch that I ordered from ebay arrived just before I left for work on Wednesday though, so I pretty much had no choice but to pack my bags and prepare for an enforced running commute.
My first impressions of the strap weren’t great, I wondered why Nike would design the watch to have a ridiculous piece of plastic wedged underneath the usb face. It angled the watch and meant I kept catching it on my sleeve. Thankfully I spotted the photo of joggerbloggers sleak sportband before I went out in public, the plastic bit is meant to be thrown away! Moron. Now I’m wearing it as a watch although I have to ask the person sitting next to me to read it as I haven’t got used to deciphering the vertical numbers and the screen is too dark but I still think it looks cool.
Anyway, back to the running.
When I left the house it was chucking it down so I packed the long sleeve top again, of course when I left work it was flippin scorching and just to ensure that I got heat stroke at the edge of a deserted canal I left the building with my empty water bottle in hand. With no means of re-entering the building I had to set off sans hydration system - bollox!
3 seconds later the Sportband is telling me to start walking but the garmin is persistently ignoring my request to locate my position. I can’t start walking now or the garmin will have a paddy fit. By the time the gps picks up the Nike system has gotten bored and gone back into clock mode, who can blame it?
I was feeling hot, sweaty and lethargic so I pretty much ignored both gadgets for the first 4k as thoughts vacillated between diving in the canal and diving in the canal. When I entered Brentford I headed straight for the nearest shop where I knocked back a bottle of water before I reached the till and handed over 90p for an empty bottle of plastic.
I set off again but now thoughts were of cool beers, enjoyed by the rivers edge. As I’ve never been known to resist the lure of beer and I was just about to reach the Thames river bank, I rather shockingly dived into the next shop and came out with a can of Stella. Now beer can’t be shaken so I paused both gadgets while I wandered down to the river. I thought I’d just enjoy my can and then carry on with the run.
Oh baaaaad runner! I thought it would be rather pleasant sitting with my legs dangling in the river enjoying a refreshing brew but the reality was rather seedy. I’m clearly a runner - running clobber and shoes, beetroot face and sweat, not one but two running watches and headphones in ear, only I’m walking and not just walking, this is no-good can swigging bum walking. About 300 hundred proper runners came past me in and in the end I realised I wasn’t enjoying this whole cool beer thing and tipped it all away.
Running was pretty tricky from here on in, 300m run, huge gasp, hands to temples and then walk for 1km - repeat. Nice treat at the end as there was a new piece of graffiti on my steps. Not quite Banksy but it isn’t bad.
Painful but the Sportband faired pretty well.
Total garmin distance (running only): 5.78km
Nike Sportband distance (running only): 5.65km
No way of telling which was the most accurate but they were close enough to ensure that I’ll never bother calibrating the Nike Sportband.
Post run, the usb face automatically uploads (after inserting into the usb port of course) to the Nike+ website and displays whizzy graphs.
The Nike+ website is pretty good if you like online motivation. You can join no end of challenges to push you out of the door and it looks like the next Nike organised run will be a worldwide Nike+ only event. The sportband is a great way of a gaining entry to the event, its also got to be one of the cheapest available speed and distance monitors on the market.
Popularity: 32% [?]
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Tags: commute, Garmin, GPS, Nike, Nike+ Sportband, Stella, thames
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: 15% [?]
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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: 16% [?]
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Tags: commute, 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 25, 2007 at 10:26 pm · Filed under Apparel, Equipment, Event, Gadgets, Software
Today was the annual showing of the Christmas Bushy Park Time Trial and I’ve been looking forward to this particular event for about 340 days, since my first introduction to the wonder of the time trial phenomonen back in February. It would have been easy to stay in bed this morning, it was dark and gloomy and of course presents awaited. Still, you can’t really resist that level of anticipation.
As I cycled through Richmond Park in the light drizzle, I puzzled a little over the knowing looks I received from the exhausted reindeer. They obviously knew what was in store for me - that’ll teach me not to leave any carrots out on Christmas Eve. When I mentioned yesterday that a downpour was required to wrap up a thorough test of the Salomon pack, it really wasn’t meant as a Dear Santa letter. I could have waited.
The rain held off for most of the run and I was able to “enjoy” the 5k amongst good company. I was adopted at the midway point by a first-timer and her motivational cousin and was able to experience a vicarious boost that carried me over the finish line relatively unscathed.
I even remembered the new phone this morning so I got to try out the Sports Tracker Beta application. It required a little bit of juggling to switch on both the garmin and the N82 without dropping the phone into the path of a couple of hundred runners but then it is a bit overkill to use two different devices. Sports Tracker has been around for a while and I remember Jogblog took it for a whirl a while ago, but the new version is quite impressive. The phone application links flawlessly to the website offering a live update of your progress, with your route appearing online as you run. Pretty nifty stuff.
The website is particularly attractive and displays some respectable charts. You can view the page for the BPTT workout to get an idea of the detail available.
I can imagine this service being quite addictive and the stats will only get better as you add more workouts. I’m going to be using this again and have already downloaded the application to my N95, I’ll be interested to try it out on my next commute where I tend to have more trouble picking up a GPS signal. I’ll have the two phones going head to head against the garmin to see how reliable the reception is.
So, back to this morning, did I mention that it was raining? I finished up at the time trial and set off on the bike for 7 mile ride home. I was dreaming of roast potatoes and yorkshire puds when the sky starting lobbing buckets of gritty, grimey rain water at me. When I finally got home I was just staggered by the amount of water I’d managed to absorb and peeled the Salomon Raid Revo off directly over the bath expecting at least half a bucket of gulley water to come rushing out of the mini plug holes. As it happens the inside of the pack was still dry which is quite impressive given that no other part of me remained “dry” even my goretex jacket had failed under the onslaught.
Popularity: 41% [?]
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Tags: BPTT, commute, Garmin, GPS, n82, n95, nokia, OGB, salomon_raid_revo, sports_tracker
December 24, 2007 at 5:40 pm · Filed under Apparel, Equipment
Just made it back from todays running commute, it felt like a tough one but it was improved by the queues of festive travellers, I get a buzz from overtaking cars.
We were released from work a couple of hours early so I got to run on the scenic side of the river and cross the bridge all before it got dark and spooky. Of course today I was due to take my trial package on a test run, the package is the Nokia N82 Limited Edition Adventure pack which contains the phone, bundled with the Nokia Sports Tracker beta and the Salomon Raid Revo 20. A great set for the runner but not the forgetful runner - I now have two phones on the go and managed to forget both of them! I did remember the Salomon pack though.
This is a super lightweight package but unfolds to handy size. I got my trousers, shirt, coat and assorted “stuff” inside the pack with quite a bit spare and no need to use the compression webbing for attaching my undies. Good job the extra space wasn’t required as I somehow managed to break the webbing attachment within minutes of removing it from the box, it sort of unwound into a bundle of fluff right before my eyes.
The pack is made of very thin material and I’m not sure how it would stand up to rain, the pack has a couple of plug holes at the bottom for water to drain away, which makes me think it isn’t going to make much of an effort to keep the rain out. The zips look pretty snazzy though, they appear to seal up as you close them so maybe it is more water resistant than I think. Will update next time I get caught in a downpour.
It’s a pretty snug fit on the back, it drapes over your shoulders like a soft cuddly bear (yuk) and the chest and waist strap holds it secure. The chest strap is a great design as it slips up and down the pack to ensure a damn near perfect fit. All in all though I think the fit is just a bit to snug, the pack sits flat against your spine. By the end of the run my back was feeling hot and sticky and this is on a bleak mid winter day, run with this in the middle of summer and I think you’ll pass out before 10 k is up. In contrast my Asics Barrios has a layer of bumps that hold the pack well off your back and is relatively cool to wear.
So the pack is a good size, has really neat waist band pockets big enough to hold phone, keys and iPod securely but its held too close to your back, meaning that the padding will absorb loads of sweat and is bound to stink within a few months. I hope the Inov 8 proves to be a better solution, when it finally turns up.
*UPDATE* I got my wish for a downpour, and I have to say that the backpack held up very well. Check out the details here.
Popularity: 34% [?]
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Tags: asics, backpack, BPTT, commute, n82, salomon_raid_revo
December 23, 2007 at 7:36 pm · Filed under Apparel, Equipment, Gadgets, Technical stuff
You should see the floor of my flat - tis littered with no end of exciting possibilities. I could of course take a snap and show you but then you’d see the truth, which involves an awful lot of boxes, wrapping and all those other things that I haven’t quite got round to putting away yet.
There are about 5 more months to go before I get thrown back into exam anxiety so in the meantime I’m needing a new project, that’s in addition to the running project and the allotment project which have ceased to be a new and have now slipped into the realms of “norm”. In times like these my fall back project always seems to be “teach yourself programming”, so here I am with a floor full of teaching manuals. The trouble with programming is the plethora of different languages out there, and then there are different variations of the same language like C, C+, C++ and C#, what is the novice supposed to make of it? As I can’t be bothered to research this too much I’ve opted to dabble with two languages at the same time: Python and VB.Net.
I’ve got python cos its free and sits nicely with computer that I just broke and accidentally forced into being a linux machine and VB.Net because that goes with my windows laptop and because Sporttracks, the best program ever (that I should have written) was developed in dotnet.
I’m sure no one is interested in all that but the other thing fighting for space on my floor is a little package that I’ve been asked to trial. Inside is a running rucsac the Salomon Raid Revo 20 and the latest Nokia N-carnation, the N82. What joy eh? I can see that I’ll have to go out and do a bit of running over the hols to try both of these gadgets out. Is it possible that the N82 could beat the N95 as running gadget par excellence?
The Raid Revo 20 is particularly welcome, I ordered the Inov8 Race Pro 18 ages ago but it seems to have been lost by the Royal Mail. I’ll try the salomon substitute tomorrow on my running commute and report back.
Popularity: 30% [?]
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Tags: allotment, commute, n82, n95, Sporttracks
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: 17% [?]
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Tags: asics, commute
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