7.3m steady, but hard on the hills

By the time I left the gym I had no idea how to use the lovey day with the sun shining and a distinct lack of Tenke to keep me fast.

So I plumped for a "steady" run, no messing around and aimed to do 30mins out and then turn. The woodland path up by the airport seemed like a good plan and only the killer hill would present any problems.

Pleased with how the hill went. Was focused all the way up and stayed on the road, rather than ducking into the park which is less steep but with a dip so total climb is more. They guy in the yellow top did that and he was pretty surprised to have seen me 100m behind him at the bottom of the hill and then I got to the top just ahead of him.

Some serious guys at a short 50m track doing mega reps grabbed my attention.

Headed down to the end of the field and did the small woodland trail then headed home.

Three guys came out the park just ahead of me and were speaking English, I think they were pretty surprised when I over took them skipping and frollocking down the hill at top speed.

I'd warmed up nicely and was now focused on holding the "steady" pace all the way home.

Messed up the crossing at the Botanic gardens and missed the underpass, so had to cross a road and then the WTO building was all secure on the left and had construction work on the right so frustratingly I ran roadside for a while until I found a path down to the works and jumped the fence to get back to the lake side park. Won't make that error again.

Felt great. Loved the downhill. Held the home pace on the flat at 7:45s with overall time out was 58mins for the 7.3m making ave pace 8min miles, but remember the hill mile took me 9mins!

Anyway the heart rate was maily zone 3, drifting into 4 on the hill and the last section. But very comfortable.

8m I crossed the Aubonne!

Having dragged poor Jason on this route for an "easy 5km" which somehow turned into a 13km outing last weekend, today was time to do something I had wanted to do for ages. That is find the footbridge over the river Aubonne. In doing so I would open up the route to St. Prex and expand my running options massively.

So off I went, pace felt like lighting after yesterday. However it was an average of 8:40 min miles and the good news is that the vast majority of the run was still down in zone 2, a fair bit in zone 1 and a drift into zone 3 for a few minutes while on the Perroy hill.

Out and back downtown Perroy (for my English followers, that's P-eh-er-wah, trust me!) was jumping, old guys on push bikes, cars, pedestrians all headed to the source of the freshly baked bread smell wafting out of the bakery.

The kiwi trees have flowered by Allaman beach and the river side clip was a joy and the anticipation mounted as I drew closer to where I thought I could cross the river. A woodpecker made a racket doing it's thing.

I notice a lot of white water ahead and over the weir is a small concrete bridge with the yellow walking route sign on it. There's a small metal fence around it with a metal gate and the gate is not locked but jammed shut. I jump the gate and cross the bridge. Quick time of day check and admire the far bank and head back. Unfortunately I snag my shorts on the way back over the metal gate in a stray wire and stop dead when I hear a tearing sound. Luckly no pain or real damage done, just a small hole in the shorts!

Somehow crossing the Aubonne really made me feel great, another goal achieved.

Head back via Allaman village and down to the outbound route. I reflect on how I now know the area well enough to guess connections like that and even the village names all are falling into place.

Begining to belong!

7m with a nasty hill

Aiming to do around an hour "easy" with Tenke, which for mere mortals like me is usually a fair clip.

However we had plenty to chat about on the sunny day and drifted (easily?) over to the botanical gardens out to the trails we've touched upon last time.

The hill nearly killed me. I noticed after about quarter of the way up that I've stopped talking completely and Tenke is chatting away like the hill does not exist. But it does. I can feel the heart rate climb and the perceived effort rockets. I grunt and groan my way to the top and appologise as 3/4 of the way up as I can't hold the pace and live. Hey Ken, deja vue? We drop into the park and I recover before the last quarter of the hill. 300 foot climb in well under one mile. But then that's it, recover back to zone 3 and stay there the whole way home.

Highlights of the run include being one field away from the airport, fields of cows, then fields of horse right in the middle of the city and the best for last, the big broken chair statue to remind politians visiting the palace of nations that land mines are nasty things.

7 miles in 57 min ave pace 8:10s. Felt easy enough except for the hill. 33 in zone 3 and the rest split evenly between 4 (up hill) and 2 (downhill).

Route home was rubbish next to the road, saving grace was the broken chair thingy.

Regular river run 10km, 49min.

10km, 49min.

Smuggled Tenke into the gym (don't ask!) and then off we went for the river run. I tried to make us go slower by talking and it almost worked.

However, Tenke can talk and hold the pace on the hills. I can do neither. I was dragged up the hills and pleased I only had 25mins each way.

In the end got back a bit quicker than the outbound leg and total time was 49mins.

Felt harder than an easy run, but not quite hard enough to be a tempo.

10km in 52 mins: Rivers, parks and another ex-rocket

I'd arranged to meet an ex-locket today to get the inside track on running away from the lake.

Tenke was there right on time and we were away. Dodging in and out of the road works and trams and trolley buses we followed the Rhône as it flowed out of the lake and towards the med. We stayed with it for 3 miles, with Tenke calling the paths on the few occasions I drifted ahead.

The riverside path was great. Mainly woodland with some steep sections and a couple of bits so steep you had to walk up.

Tenke can do a half marathon in 1:14. Yes, I double checked that number. Not 1:24, but 1:14. So I was very glad this was an easy run - although I spent most of it in zone 3 or zone 4.

We were cruising at around 5 min kms, and ave pace was 8:30 min miles, but that was very lumpy due to the terrain.

I'm not so sure how I will get on if we try reps or a tempo, but that's for another day....

Limehouse loop

Martin, Paul and I met up for the Limehouse loop. Martin argued hard for the anti-clockwise route arguing it was easier due to cobbles or something. He then took us backwards (ie West instead of East) and then down through a building site.

Paul and I slowed to a stop as the footpath was completely closed, at which point Martin crosses the barrier ignoring the health and safety guy in a high visibility jacket and hard hat waving at him. A lovely side step and he is past the guy and dodging the digger he was being protected from. He then takes us to a duel carriage way with more traffic than I've ever seen and we need to use the green cross code to get over at some lights. By now Paul is fuming as his route has an underpass.

Best bit of Martins route is the wee blue lights in a tunnel full of mopeds then we're back on Paul's route sort of and heading down to the Limehouse basin. Over the footbridge and that's it we're on the end of the canal - a wee dream of mine achieved.

We switch around the leader a few times and I notice a drift out of the chat zone and start asking tell me about questions. Martin falls for it and chats away, but Paul is having none of it. You're only asking me to "tell you about..." so it is me that is talking. Er, well yup.

Made the 8.5 or so miles in 67 mins 43 seconds and given the wind I and recent activity, race, reps, long tempo - no surprise I am tired.

Might be more later, but off out for a black tie dinner so bye for noo.

Eastern Promise

I'd arranged to have several guys lined up for a wet lunchtime run. In the end Mark Westlake was still too tender from the night before to come out and left it to Andrew Stubs and I to hook up with fellow running fource buddy Paul.

I forgot my wet weather red jacket of marathon rejection, my cap and my snorkel.

However the cold had moved firmly out of my head into my chest, but I was not producing anything to worry about and knew it was safe to train again.

As I'd only done one run heading to docklands with a muppet who shall remain nameless who took me on a stair and road cross fest that was not idea I was a shade nervous about the new ground ahead.

Paul expertly lead the way entirely on virgin running routes as far as I was concerned. Some fantastic vistas of the docklands skyscrapers on the outbound leg and the vast majority of the running was canal or riverside. Going through St. Katherine's dock Paul wanted to know which of the rich men's boats was mine - I tactfully pointed out mine had already moved to it's new mooring in Lac Lemain.

Some nice drags for intervals down here. Treelined canals set back from the roads providing long straight sections - Paul knew the distance from each tree to the 800m mark and so on.

Low point was going under a bridge, I moved over to avoid a massive puddle under the bridge to smack into a waterfall about 6 inches deep that finished off the job of making me entirely soaked. Did I mention that it was tipping it down?

By now I was loving exploring this Eastern wonderland and caught up in the thought of glimpsing the end of regent's canal (where the lockett's rockets train) at Limehouse basin.

By now Andrew wanted to go back, but we convinced him to stay as far as the basin and turn there while we did a basin loop adding nearly a mile to the run.

Paul explained the rules to me. At a certain point I had to go much faster until another certain point. We must have pasted the first point before I noticed it because we'd both shut up as the work rate climbed and the pace shifted up a gear. Clearly, we both blamed each other for the 6:35 pace. My asthma caught up with me and so I had to slow down before the finish but Paul very graciously joined me at the recovery pace.

I ran into a wall and have a scrape on my arm to show for it. Left, when?, Now!, Ow!

We caught Andy on the way up from the river to London Wall. We slowed to his pace and for some mad reason I turned into a metronome and started beeping out the 90 cadence rhythm. We were all pretty much spot on.

Too wet to be described as candyfloss today, more like a sea weed kelp forest, swaying with the storm and yet strong and tall.

One very wet hour and 16 seconds was the total time on feet. Hope Paul can calculate the distance for me. My guess is about seven miles.