October 19, 2008 at 7:55 pm · Filed under Running
After any major event, of Great North proportions, me and OGB have a tendency to gather around a pint and discuss our potential prowess for next year.
So this year, as with last year incidentally, we planned to maintain our new found half marathon fitness by running at least 10 miles every week, thereby avoiding that tiresome fitness building phase before the next one. I also remember him suggesting we lose some weight, and while he couldn’t lose a stone without panicking his mother, I could easily afford to shed 5 of em, nevertheless I just nodded at him and ordered the next couple of pints.
Two weeks on from the beery bravado, I haven’t heard any hint of OGB sticking to the long distance running plan, he has however sent me begging requests to run another half in a foreign land. And he calls me expensive!
Although I’d planned a day of sheer indulgence, pouring over one of my accountancy text books, I was eventually shamed into heading out for my promised 10-miler. In fairness, I had also run out of other study avoidance techniques, there were literally no more clothes left to wash and iron and there really is a limit to the number of times you can scrub a bathroom sink.
I received a bit of stick from SHS1 in my last post, regarding my choice of running playlists. I think she may have hit the nail on the head really.
In retrospect, I feel some what betrayed by my body and the internal slob for last weeks failure to complete. Despite allowing both of them to convince me that I was facing imminent internal melt down, the predicted muscle damage failed to rear it’s head last week at all. I didn’t wince even slightly as I bounded down the stairs the next morning. That strikes me as a major cop out and I feel like the pair of them (body and slob) ganged up on me in a fairly outrageous fashion. Had they had a little private conflab, then come back to me with the view that the legs couldn’t be arsed to carry me any further and the slob was no longer having fun and just wanted to go home and play with the new computer, then I think I would have been quite reasonable about it.
In the absence of anyone else to blame then I have no alternative but to pick on the playlist. I started the Royal Parks Half with some fairly upbeat tunes but despite sticking somewhere near 60 songs on my list, they had run out by 10 miles. Then I had to scavenge through my iPod in desperation. There were no unplayed episodes of the Archers so I had to head to the audiobook section and the only unheard remnant in there was “Pontoon” by Garrison Keillor. I rest my case. That guy can induce a coma within 3 minutes, it’s a miracle I managed to push another mile out of those mutinous legs.
So today I refreshed my running inspiration and trogged up to Richmond Bridge and back.
Hip’s Don’t Lie – Shakira
Pon De replay – Rihanna
Jesus, Take the Wheel – Carrie Underwood
Jump – Madonna
Push the Button – Sugababes
Never Give Up – Melissa Ferrick
Ready to Run – Dixie Chicks
I Run For life – Melissa Etheridge
I’m not Dead – Pink
Run – Amy MacDonald
Breathe – Melissa Etheridge
Runaway – Pink
Get This Party Started – Pink
Of course 13 songs didn’t keep me going for 10 miles – I had to listen to that lot at least 4 times, so if I try that for another long run I’ll probably be chucking my iPod in the Thames.
Popularity: 22% [?]
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Tags: OGB, playlist, Royal Parks Half, SHS, thames
September 23, 2008 at 1:19 pm · Filed under Running
I was so excited by today’s proposition that I forgot completely that I always procrastinate for at least 3 hours before leaving the front door with my running shoes. By 8am I had crammed two mini cheese and cucumber pittas, 1 half bag of American jelly beans (I’d raided the other half the day before), a mini tracker bar, an emergency tenner, an emergency switch card and an oyster travel card into my tiny bum bag/water carrier.
I was gone by 9am, jostling my weeks groceries along the Thames path.
There’s a definite nutritional “issue” going on here. Take me away from my fridge and the cortisol levels start red-lining. Imagine if I was ever unfortunate enough to get a place in the London marathon, with my predicted time of circa 7 hours, I would miss both lunch and afternoon tea, the temptation of a mid run burger and pint would be too strong to resist.
As it was, I reached 4.22 miles before I felt the need to bolster glycogen levels. As a note to self, I think jelly beans are best avoided at public events. They cram about 30 different flavours in each pack and one of them is vile, of course you never know which one. I started patiently popping them in my mouth, savouring each individual nuance and then got bored and shoved 6 in at once. Of course the nasty one snuck through and I started spitting.
I started again, reading the labels this time, pink and beige spots – bubble gum flavour, a bit odd but I can keep it in my mouth. Dark green – liquorice, again not too bad, but possibly an offender in combination. I sensed the need for a scientific experiment, paired flavour combinations, perhaps I should have bought more packs.
I was busily testing watermelon and chocolate pudding flavour when I tripped over a bike wheel. I don’t know whose idea it was to combine bikes and runners on towpaths but you’d think he might have shouted or tinkled on his bell, it was clear I was pre-occupied with jelly beans and my iPod was playing full blast. I wouldn’t have minded if I’d been running at the time but no, I was in the middle of a walk interval. I wanted to shout after him that I wasn’t a greedy ox – I was on runabout!
Anyhow, did I mention the plan? I was to leave the front door, heading in a north-westerly direction towards the capital ring, running 1 mile then walking for 1/2 a mile until I could go no further.
By 6 miles, still feeling in fine fettle, I had left the canal and my workplace behind and was heading into unknown territory. I’d picked up the little capital ring arrows but almost immediately faced my first hurdle as it tried to direct me through a flooded tunnel. What with the excess pitta baggage I hadn’t made room for my wetsuit and decided to divert over the Uxbridge Road.
Back on track again I meandered for ages along the Brent river, ducking under the viaduct and avoiding flying golfballs somewhere in the region of Greenford. It was 10 miles before I reached roads, and houses and general city stuff, Celeste’s fear of getting lost in bush could almost become a reality.
A couple of turns later I was back in the wilderness and starting to get a bit lost. I am a little mentally deficient when I run but it wasn’t all my fault, someone had twisted the arrow around and sent me a mile of course. I almost bailed at this point but fortunately I had taken the precaution of downloading the audio guides of the separate sections and was soon back on the trail, cursing only slightly.
I climbed Horsendon Hill (site of WWII anti-craft guns) past quality Capital Ring walking cows and reached the summit to find the historic site was now home to a group of semi naked coca cola drinking Armenians.
I didn’t take a photo, although I would have loved a sip of coke, I thought naked men cavorting on ancient woodland were best avoided.
Down hill and vale and past other stuff that I can’t remember because I’d turned into one of the shuffling undead.
Suddenly Harrow Hill appeared, a veritable oasis where I could buy bona fide revitalising lucozade and admire this fine flint constructed church, not exactly on the route but almost worth the diversion, after all what’s another mile when you’ve already done 15?
Lost yet again, I found myself in the unusual position of being able to ask a topless, chainsaw weilding log carver if he knew where my style was. He pointed back the way I had come and said it was just after the bridge and river I’d crossed. What bridge? What river? Obviously my mental faculties were on a go slow again, the jelly bean effect was wearing off. Never one to go back when I can plough on regardless, I tipped myself over a barbed wire fence and stumbled back on to the right path, giving myself a nice sore graze on my back.
The walking intervals shortened from here on in, as it became easier to propel myself forward in a quasimodo style lurch than the alternative upright semi-graceful walk.
The audio guide informed me that a tube station lay beckoning like an exotic belly dancer and I staggered happily from the track like a weary desert traveler. I was not quite so happy when I arrived at South Kenton station to find the Bakerloo line was closed for the weekend. Public transport mayhem ensued and as a sweaty, irritable, broken and cantankerous woman, I probably didn’t make the best of seat buddies. It took me 3 hours to get home.
All in all, that Capital ring is a damn fine route for running along, I managed almost a quarter of its length and would be tempted to try for a bit more. It’s a bit of an omission that there wasn’t a single pub enroute, although that probably worked out well as I was convincing myself that I deserved at least a shandy by the 13 mile point.
Summary:
18 miles
5:35:00 (which includes an inordinately long time sat on a toilet seat resting)
Popularity: 15% [?]
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Tags: capital ring, jelly beans, runabout, thames
August 21, 2008 at 9:36 pm · Filed under Running
My running seems to be oscillating wildly between run one, love one, hate one. Today was time for another “love one”, thankfully.
I wish you could tell how you’re going to feel before you set off, when I get a duff run I feel like throwing in the towel and quitting, these are runs to avoid. Today I felt the starting of a cold so nearly didn’t bother going out but it turned out to be the sort of run that keeps me buzzing about the sport for ages. I’ve set myself up for a good weekend now I’m sure.
I drew up my half-marathon plan a few weeks ago and opted for a simple Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday plan. I hit problems the moment I transferred this to my pre-existing diary full of appointments (be-fitting my social butterfly status). Training plans clashed with life this weekend as I’m heading off to the coast to try out my wetsuit. This is a vital arrangement as I haven’t been in the pool since December and need to see if the 1 mile open water carnage otherwise known as the Great North Swim is a viable option.
So, running plans were randomly jiggled and resulted in me having to go out and pull off a 7-miler.
7 miles is an awkward distance for me. My commute is a perfect 6-miler and not much would persuade me to run half a mile beyond my final destination and back again. My other running routes tend to involve ever increasing loops of the Thames but the river fording points are limited and so throw up huge psychological tests or bridges that I seem too weak to resist.
I opted to run as far as I could away from my flat and then loop back round through Richmond Park. I loaded SteppenWolf onto the iPod and fortunately it kept me occupied for about 4 miles before I realised I hadn’t a flipping clue what was going on. By that time I’d reached the point of no return and had no choice but to push on forward.
I find it a little concerning that I have to actively mess with my own head in order to achieve simple training plans but I won’t lose sleep over it. At least I’ve found another good route with limited options for bailing out.
Right, I’m off to the seaside.
Popularity: 17% [?]
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Tags: commute, Richmond Park, Swimming, thames
June 10, 2008 at 9:32 am · Filed under Challenges, Juneathon, Running, Salomon Challenge
I woke with a stinking cold yesterday but as I was in central London for a meeting I could hardly evade a quick tube running session.
The plan was to tick off the yellow Circle Line, starting at Aldgate.
It seems to me that every photo I’ve taken on the tube map challenge has included either the telecom tower or the Gherkin, I feel like I’m doing a massive maypole dance around the two landmarks. Only its June so I can’t be.
I headed down the Minories of Jack the Ripper fame to The Tower of London and then promptly sat down for a rest.
Running this route along the north bank of the Thames is actually quite feasible. The tourists flock to the South bank so you have a relatively unhindered passage and the views are great all the way out along the Embankment.
Unfortunately I had to keep stopping to retrieve tissues from my rucksac and I gave up earlier than anticipated and jumped on the tube home at St James’s Park.
Salomon XT Wings Challenge
Today:
10 Tube Stations
7.25 km
Cumulative:
81 Tube Stations
71.42 km
See the combined progress map here.
Juneathon Tally
Runs: 8/30
Total Distance: 31.1 m
Popularity: 25% [?]
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Tags: Circle Line, Juneathon, London Underground, Salomon Challenge, thames, tube
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: 52% [?]
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Tags: commute, Garmin, GPS, Nike, Nike+ Sportband, review, Stella, thames
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: 17% [?]
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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: 21% [?]
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Tags: Garmin, GPS, thames
October 29, 2007 at 9:50 pm · Filed under Running
Strange morning on Saturday. I was running late for RPTT and found myself having to start the race long after everyone else had set off. On the first bend, alongside the road, I was dazzled by a thick blinding haze. I just had to stop, I couldn’t see a thing but I knew there were cars around me somewhere honking their horns in warning. In classic primary school literary styling I opened my eyes at this point, finding myself still in bed, blinded by the fake sunrise clock and with a growing awareness of the alarm that had been beeping for the last 30 mins.
Not a grand start to the weekend and as October seems to be a month of events with precious little training I can’t afford to miss organised runs this easily. I’ve had to resort to creating my own imaginary or virtual events just clock up a few miles over the autumn.
Sunday saw me completing the final 6 miles of the Cape Cod marathon in support of No Wetsuit Girl who was running the event on a rather heroic whim. I didn’t actually fly out to MA so I had to recreate my very own Cape Cod conditions here in Barnes. Cape Cod sounds like a wet and watery place and I wasn’t let down by the weather conditions here – how grim! I struggled my way around the Chiswick and Hammersmith Bridge loop of the Thames, contenting myself with the knowledge that NWG would be having a far tougher time than I was.
Seems I was wrong though – she had a stonking time of it, securing a pb and I’m sure a sense of invulnerability that will see her setting ever greater challenges for the future.
Popularity: 15% [?]
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Tags: RPTT, thames
August 17, 2007 at 8:06 am · Filed under Running
I took the day off work yesterday, I was just too fed up with it all to cope with a full 5 days, plus I have to deal with a girlie Hen weekend this week which will play havoc with my running schedule. It seemed the best thing all round was to take an impromptu holiday and go running.
Having dedicated an entire day in its honour it was going to have to be a long one. Time to try out the Oxford Cambridge Boat Race loop, a 4 bridge jaunt along the Thames in the summer rain. 16 km in total (10 miles) so my longest run to date if we disregard the runs that included a little bus ride in the middle.
I’m pleased to say, it didn’t take me all day but it wasn’t far off at 2:05:00 and it did play havoc with my muscalature and left me with strange blue patches round my mouth. The latter from the juicy blackberries that I had to sample on the final 2k stretch, yummy. This morning I’m aching like crazy, with stiff shoulders and mangled calves (is that the plural of calf? I don’t want any animal rights protestors on this blog cos I haven’t done anything nasty to baby cows!). Anyway, lets just say the pain has reminded me just how far this damn half marathon is going to be.
First blog update I check out this morning directs me to Bob Almighty who is in training for IronMan New Zealand to raise money/awareness for ALS, a terrible motor neurone disease that sends the afflicted into a rapid spiral of paralysis leading to death. Bob’s fundraising page is here if you are interested and I would really recommend checking out the home page for the war on ALS foundation. There is a video there showing the IronMan attempt of Jon Blaise (Blazeman) who faced his diagnosis with ALS by putting his body through that gruelling event. ALS usually results in death within 1 to 3 years, imaging dealing with that and deciding to train forIronMan at the same time. Watching him ride that bike with his arms strapped to the handlebars because he can’t hold on, and roll on the floor to try and relieve the pain in his legs, does put life just a little bit in perspective. There are some true warriors out there and I hope his struggle goes a long way to motivating others.
Popularity: 12% [?]
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Tags: thames
May 27, 2007 at 4:49 pm · Filed under Apparel, Equipment
Yesterdays ride was only supposed to be stage 1 of the workout, my intention was to get home, bundle the bike in the shed and get the running shoes on for a brick session. The idea is that if you regularly run directly after a long ride you get used to the peculiar feeling of running on rubber legs.
Unfortunately I couldn’t be bothered for anything that sounded as painful as a brick, I wanted a warm bath. Good news, is that despite a 24 hr transition my legs still feel like jelly and I reckon I could get exactly the same benefit by going out for a run now. It’ll also make me feel better about going to the pub this evening.
I haven’t mentioned running (in an active sense) for a while but I have still be getting out there. I’ve dropped the mileage a bit as I have patellar tendonitis and all advice points to rest and inactivity. It actually seems to hurt more at rest than it does when I’m running, (perhaps because I find it hard to dig my thumb under my knee cap and run at the same time) so I’m going to quit the rest. If I stick to flat runs and keep a steady stride, I don’t even notice a problem, admittedly I need a big stick to help me get up the steps to cross to the other side of the Thames but thats just working my upper body strength.
Today will be my first run, sporting the new Cho-Pat knee strap. What a lovely fashion accessory this is, should blend wonderfully with the tan tights I wear for every run.
Now I have it sitting in front of me it looks like a big old con and I can’t understand how I duped myself into it. Still, I suppose I should give it a go. I have to tighten it around my knee, and it will in return provide a bit of tension across my tendon, supposedly protecting it from further damage. Not sure how tight, I’m working backwards from blue toes till I find the optimum effect.
Popularity: 23% [?]
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Tags: knee, thames
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