The snow was reflecting the weak winter ambient light just enough to see when I set of and by the time I'd got to my drive Paul was very kindly already outside wandering why I had not yet gone past his house. A punchy first mile to Ken's warmed us up and he was there in the middle of Couper Road as we zoomed along.
Ken took the early lead, but with his silly detour around Long Buftlers making almost a complete circle, a small mutiny ensured and Paul was elected our new route Maester.
Heartwood was declared as the new target and I was looking forward to some virgin snow to run on and hoping for some drifting too. I was not disappointed. While Ken was locked in some heart rate fixation at the back, Paul and I expored our inner child and froliced in pristine snow making fresh tracks were only foxes and rabbits had gone before. Ken was taking his time up the hills and Paul and I waited for him as we skirted the outer reaches of Heartwood and then again as we went into the main wood. The nice people at the woodland trust had predicted Paul and I would need somewhere comfy to wait for Ken so they had set up a bench for Paul and I to sit on. We admired the snow covered woods as we waited for Ken to catch up. We then just sat there and shouted directions at him and sent him all over the place in the woods. The woodland trust elves have also been busy since my last visit (in May, also with Paul) and not just planting trees (which they have done lots of): there were lean-too shelters (some pretty well made), a wonderful life size snow covered statue of a deer made out of twigs and an impressive looking set of wooden wind chimes.
The deer was too much of a photo opportunity to miss. We finally agreed on a pose that worked and as Ken stripped off the layers to avoid the reflection on the flash he handed them to Paul who promptly disappeared into the woods with Ken's clothes. Pure magic.
The clip back was fairly punchy as I had to be back by nine so declined Ken's wee extra bit at the end and took the direct footpath back with Paul. I was glad I did as after about 11 miles my legs were getting tired and I needed some warmth.
Cleared 12 miles and in those conditions doing it in around 1 hour 50 minutes is about as fast as you could safely go so no shame in that.
Saturday, 9 January 2010
Friday, 8 January 2010
Ducks and other interesting things, seven good miles
Having gone West last outing with Paul we decided East today and got as for as Canary Wharf.
I was frozen in the lift to the changing rooms and I was pretty miffed to find my bag contained no running tights or trousers, just shorts, and a distinct lack of gloves. Brrr.
Waited until 3 minutes left to go and then tanked it to the Honour God arch and arrived 27 seconds early and 3 seconds before Paul.
I really enjoyed today's run. The snow and ice kept us slow enough to chat and the cold forced us to go fast enough to keep warm.
As the number of London running days counts down to zero I'm all eyes and soaking up the buildings, views, parks, wildlife and culture on the runs.
There were several architectural oddities and highlights including the weird riverside buildings and curved bridges.
I like the statue of the giant duck and the dockside rope circle with knot. Very trendy.
On the flora and fauna side there were ducks everywhere and Paul's inability to shift the stubborn ducks on the small section of non-iced up footpath was amusing. Those ducks must have been out for a curry last night, or just could not be bothered moving in the cold after they'd performed. Yuck.
Any water not moving was frozen. Even some of the basins connected to the Thames were half frozen. The wildlife highlight was a the red brick canal where the water was completely frozen, with little bird footprints on the snow on the ice and there in the middle - three swans fast asleep on the ice. What a picture to find in the city, amazing stuff.
It was 3.5 slow miles to the turn and to liven things up we went as fast as possible on any non-ice sections which for some mad reason we felt compelled to add a manly cry to each sprint.
Came back on even more of Paul's mystery tours so he can show me as much of the East as possible before I go. Appreciating all this immensely.
Longer on the way back, and we accelerated as the temperature dropped and the grit became more effective as we got closer to the city proper. Waved to the Gerkin several times and wandered if Simon has found a shower yet.
To my delight the steam room is now fixed so I got to defrost in there while stretching out and then enjoyed some well earned spicy carrot and lentil soup, fish and chips, rounded of with the last of my chocolate milk. Yum.
I was frozen in the lift to the changing rooms and I was pretty miffed to find my bag contained no running tights or trousers, just shorts, and a distinct lack of gloves. Brrr.
Waited until 3 minutes left to go and then tanked it to the Honour God arch and arrived 27 seconds early and 3 seconds before Paul.
I really enjoyed today's run. The snow and ice kept us slow enough to chat and the cold forced us to go fast enough to keep warm.
As the number of London running days counts down to zero I'm all eyes and soaking up the buildings, views, parks, wildlife and culture on the runs.
There were several architectural oddities and highlights including the weird riverside buildings and curved bridges.
I like the statue of the giant duck and the dockside rope circle with knot. Very trendy.
On the flora and fauna side there were ducks everywhere and Paul's inability to shift the stubborn ducks on the small section of non-iced up footpath was amusing. Those ducks must have been out for a curry last night, or just could not be bothered moving in the cold after they'd performed. Yuck.
Any water not moving was frozen. Even some of the basins connected to the Thames were half frozen. The wildlife highlight was a the red brick canal where the water was completely frozen, with little bird footprints on the snow on the ice and there in the middle - three swans fast asleep on the ice. What a picture to find in the city, amazing stuff.
It was 3.5 slow miles to the turn and to liven things up we went as fast as possible on any non-ice sections which for some mad reason we felt compelled to add a manly cry to each sprint.
Came back on even more of Paul's mystery tours so he can show me as much of the East as possible before I go. Appreciating all this immensely.
Longer on the way back, and we accelerated as the temperature dropped and the grit became more effective as we got closer to the city proper. Waved to the Gerkin several times and wandered if Simon has found a shower yet.
To my delight the steam room is now fixed so I got to defrost in there while stretching out and then enjoyed some well earned spicy carrot and lentil soup, fish and chips, rounded of with the last of my chocolate milk. Yum.
Wednesday, 6 January 2010
Snow covered trails
Snowy Cross Way:
Fly past for the press, note the light footfalls and mid sole strikes on the footprints in the snow:
Paul actually popped round in the morning and we agreed between us that reps would be suicidal (let alone dark reps) and we would go out for a slow one at 2pm.
By then the less committed runners had all produced pathetic work based excuses.
So Paul arrived as ever on the dot and I was nearly dressed and then nearly committed a serious wardrobe error, as I had my compression socks and thermal under ware on, but omitted to put trousers on. My son pushed them through the door and that solved that issue. Funny how Paul never even blinked when I came out the house without trousers on.
We set out along Swan walk towards Wheato over the diagonal path up the field. There was a family sledging there who seemed surprised to see us. That climb set the scene for the whole run. Soft fresh snow forcing the light and fast steps. Lifting the feet out the snow made the thighs work hard as we need to lift the snow and concentrate hard not to slip.
Ok, so we did not actually cross the bridge over Batford Springs, but the photo was taken today and it captures the essence of the day:
Then we climbed into the clouds of snow on the other side of the Lower Luton road and doubled back on ourselves to come out at the wooden park near the Cherry Trees Indian. New ground for me here, and Paul led on the path down to the park which was more like a snow tunnel than a path. The holly bushes and trees had so much snow on them that the branches arched down and over the path so I was bent double as Paul pressed home is height advantage and (so he says) accidentally bumping the trees so I got covered in snow. Still it was great fun.
Came back along swan walk and Paul treated me to a loop of the little lake, named oddly "Private, keep out" or is it "Deep Water". Anyway, it was well worth it to see the snow on the frozen lake. Stunning. Good spot for some reps perhaps.
Seven point three miles in the snow. Great stuff and just a shame there were not more of us to enjoy it.
Fly past for the press, note the light footfalls and mid sole strikes on the footprints in the snow:
Paul actually popped round in the morning and we agreed between us that reps would be suicidal (let alone dark reps) and we would go out for a slow one at 2pm.
By then the less committed runners had all produced pathetic work based excuses.
So Paul arrived as ever on the dot and I was nearly dressed and then nearly committed a serious wardrobe error, as I had my compression socks and thermal under ware on, but omitted to put trousers on. My son pushed them through the door and that solved that issue. Funny how Paul never even blinked when I came out the house without trousers on.
We set out along Swan walk towards Wheato over the diagonal path up the field. There was a family sledging there who seemed surprised to see us. That climb set the scene for the whole run. Soft fresh snow forcing the light and fast steps. Lifting the feet out the snow made the thighs work hard as we need to lift the snow and concentrate hard not to slip.
Ok, so we did not actually cross the bridge over Batford Springs, but the photo was taken today and it captures the essence of the day:
Then we climbed into the clouds of snow on the other side of the Lower Luton road and doubled back on ourselves to come out at the wooden park near the Cherry Trees Indian. New ground for me here, and Paul led on the path down to the park which was more like a snow tunnel than a path. The holly bushes and trees had so much snow on them that the branches arched down and over the path so I was bent double as Paul pressed home is height advantage and (so he says) accidentally bumping the trees so I got covered in snow. Still it was great fun.
Came back along swan walk and Paul treated me to a loop of the little lake, named oddly "Private, keep out" or is it "Deep Water". Anyway, it was well worth it to see the snow on the frozen lake. Stunning. Good spot for some reps perhaps.
Seven point three miles in the snow. Great stuff and just a shame there were not more of us to enjoy it.
Tuesday, 5 January 2010
St. James and Green Park via Parliament Square
I decided I'd had enough intensity in the last week with Tuesday rockets, Kenny's 800s and Circuit's all in the same seven days.
Quick email exchange with Paul and a Westward Ho route was agreed in place of Rockets.
Paul was bang on time as he zoomed down towards me it looked like a full on tempo might be the order of the day. In the end we opted to run at steady or mid tempo pace, we could both talk but only just and stringing a few words together occasionally kept the pace from drifting faster. Between us we had no technology functioning other than a stopwatch so average pace calculation to come later, I was out for 50 mins and 6 seconds. To be fair I think Paul was more sprightly then me today, he had loads of questions for me on the way out, but I managed to make him talk more. At more point he actually asked me if the pace was ok. Like I'd admit I couldn't hold the pace? No, just ask those tell "me about" questions.
We headed down to the embankment at blackfriars and out as far as Westminster where we took a right onto Parliament Square and on round the Square. For me I'd never run on the far side of the square so not only did we get to see democracy in action with the camped out protesters, I got to run on new paths.
Then onto Birdcage Walk round St. James Park and the usual Hare and Hounds route. Followed embankment to wobbly bridge then home. We were overtaken once by a very fast lady, who almost immediately stopped. Disappointing to have no challenge. Only caught waddling new year's resolutions. They'll be off the roads in two weeks. The marathon trainers were also out in force. They'll be increasing the miles now, bit like our Ken.
Paul figured around 8 miles today for him so about 7.5 for me.
Quick email exchange with Paul and a Westward Ho route was agreed in place of Rockets.
Paul was bang on time as he zoomed down towards me it looked like a full on tempo might be the order of the day. In the end we opted to run at steady or mid tempo pace, we could both talk but only just and stringing a few words together occasionally kept the pace from drifting faster. Between us we had no technology functioning other than a stopwatch so average pace calculation to come later, I was out for 50 mins and 6 seconds. To be fair I think Paul was more sprightly then me today, he had loads of questions for me on the way out, but I managed to make him talk more. At more point he actually asked me if the pace was ok. Like I'd admit I couldn't hold the pace? No, just ask those tell "me about" questions.
We headed down to the embankment at blackfriars and out as far as Westminster where we took a right onto Parliament Square and on round the Square. For me I'd never run on the far side of the square so not only did we get to see democracy in action with the camped out protesters, I got to run on new paths.
Then onto Birdcage Walk round St. James Park and the usual Hare and Hounds route. Followed embankment to wobbly bridge then home. We were overtaken once by a very fast lady, who almost immediately stopped. Disappointing to have no challenge. Only caught waddling new year's resolutions. They'll be off the roads in two weeks. The marathon trainers were also out in force. They'll be increasing the miles now, bit like our Ken.
Paul figured around 8 miles today for him so about 7.5 for me.
Monday, 4 January 2010
Circuits
I enjoyed my rest day yesterday and seriously needed it.
Today was spent on cultural awareness and my best bit was the video conference with a lady who had looked out all the races for me in Geneva next year. The running scene is buzzing over there.
So I headed of to the first circuit training in ages and met all my buddies and took the slagging about the tan coming from a dodgy shop in Luton on the chin. First circuits of the year and the traditional new blokes on a resolution rocked up. One of them is a Manland dad so it was funny watching him struggle.
Lee already knew all my news from Paul and Simon - he joined a late Aro/Running Fource outing yesterday.
No weights tonight as they were frozen in Laurence's car so lots of running which suited me fine.
Highlight of the night was being teacher's pet - I was singled out to run the shuttles twice as my group was one short and let me quote "You are the real runner here tonight!". Of course, all the guys I usually whip now scented blood and especially those up against me on my double tap were really testing the effort I was prepared to put in. Needless to say I was curled up in a wheezing ball after each one and had to be reminded to get up for the next shuttle which came round all to soon. Mullered the last couple. Felt very good to run that fast again and to do it and not be freezing. Instant recovery and looking forward to skipping rockets tomorrow.
Today was spent on cultural awareness and my best bit was the video conference with a lady who had looked out all the races for me in Geneva next year. The running scene is buzzing over there.
So I headed of to the first circuit training in ages and met all my buddies and took the slagging about the tan coming from a dodgy shop in Luton on the chin. First circuits of the year and the traditional new blokes on a resolution rocked up. One of them is a Manland dad so it was funny watching him struggle.
Lee already knew all my news from Paul and Simon - he joined a late Aro/Running Fource outing yesterday.
No weights tonight as they were frozen in Laurence's car so lots of running which suited me fine.
Highlight of the night was being teacher's pet - I was singled out to run the shuttles twice as my group was one short and let me quote "You are the real runner here tonight!". Of course, all the guys I usually whip now scented blood and especially those up against me on my double tap were really testing the effort I was prepared to put in. Needless to say I was curled up in a wheezing ball after each one and had to be reminded to get up for the next shuttle which came round all to soon. Mullered the last couple. Felt very good to run that fast again and to do it and not be freezing. Instant recovery and looking forward to skipping rockets tomorrow.
Saturday, 2 January 2010
800m reps
I was slightly surprised to get a text suggesting reps this morning from Kenny, but I did not fancy another 120 minutes in the freezing cold so in spite of having done my first set of intervals in over a month only two days ago I decided to go for it. As Kenny pointed out, we have never actually done intervals together so it would be an interesting session.
I'm more of a do your reps on a route kinna guy while Kenny is in the backwards and forwards school of reps. I decided to go with his backwards forwards method, so if something bad happened we'd not be too far from home.
It had snowed overnight, just a light dusting, and while very cold the dusting of snow had neither frozen nor melted so was ok to run on. Kenny strategically placed the bottle of water 100m way from our start point so we had to wait until all six reps were cleared before we could get a glug, still it was a nice touch.
Having spent most of the previous evening trying to coax my Garmin in to metric then set up the "Advanced" workout I failed to press the start button (I was pressing lap) so captured no data until the 5th rep.
The first one was back to Harpenden from the Water station on the Harpenden to Luton cycle way, which has a slight incline on it. Barely noticeable on a normal run but as part of the 800m rep it made its presence felt.
We crashed through the first rep, I made a conscious effort to not bolt and hold the pace back at 10km. I think that worked, 2nd rep was hard. I felt good on the third and fourth. Kenny's footfalls just behind me were enough motivation to hold the pace on the last third. Tried to focus on form, staying light and upright with the speed coming from spinning the legs wide with the same cadence. Seemed to work ok as held of the big man. Finally, I worked out my Garmin issues and that gave me more confidence to let the gap between us grow (I was worried I'd do more if I could not hear Kenny's Garmin beep the end of the 800m) and push a shade harder. 5th was 3:45 with 156 max hrt and 6th was 3:48 with a max of 155. Took a minute to get back down to 120 which is pretty good for me.
Biggest issue today was gulping the freezing cold air at the end of each rep. Lungs could not cope with that. The two minute recovery felt just not enough which is exactly what we want.
As Kenny so aptly put it, that feels like the end of the Herts 10km. Yes. That's exactly the point. Job done.
I'm more of a do your reps on a route kinna guy while Kenny is in the backwards and forwards school of reps. I decided to go with his backwards forwards method, so if something bad happened we'd not be too far from home.
It had snowed overnight, just a light dusting, and while very cold the dusting of snow had neither frozen nor melted so was ok to run on. Kenny strategically placed the bottle of water 100m way from our start point so we had to wait until all six reps were cleared before we could get a glug, still it was a nice touch.
Having spent most of the previous evening trying to coax my Garmin in to metric then set up the "Advanced" workout I failed to press the start button (I was pressing lap) so captured no data until the 5th rep.
The first one was back to Harpenden from the Water station on the Harpenden to Luton cycle way, which has a slight incline on it. Barely noticeable on a normal run but as part of the 800m rep it made its presence felt.
We crashed through the first rep, I made a conscious effort to not bolt and hold the pace back at 10km. I think that worked, 2nd rep was hard. I felt good on the third and fourth. Kenny's footfalls just behind me were enough motivation to hold the pace on the last third. Tried to focus on form, staying light and upright with the speed coming from spinning the legs wide with the same cadence. Seemed to work ok as held of the big man. Finally, I worked out my Garmin issues and that gave me more confidence to let the gap between us grow (I was worried I'd do more if I could not hear Kenny's Garmin beep the end of the 800m) and push a shade harder. 5th was 3:45 with 156 max hrt and 6th was 3:48 with a max of 155. Took a minute to get back down to 120 which is pretty good for me.
Biggest issue today was gulping the freezing cold air at the end of each rep. Lungs could not cope with that. The two minute recovery felt just not enough which is exactly what we want.
As Kenny so aptly put it, that feels like the end of the Herts 10km. Yes. That's exactly the point. Job done.
Friday, 1 January 2010
New Years Day Half Marathon
Massed runners today. Roll call was (in order of appearance):
Niall
Simon and Darren
Dave
Ken (in the snowy mountain video shorts)
Paul
The plan was Brocket Hall, but a text from Ken changed all that as he had to be back home in an hour and was thinking of ducking out early. So we headed out and went up into the footpaths behind Wheathampstead and Gustard Wood to give him a couple more miles before he when home. The morning was crisp, cold sunny and really rather beautiful. Praise the Lord for mornings like this. The moon was massive, low and the detail on the surface was amazing. After a few miles the sun joined in and rose - a bight orange ball in the sky taking the chill off the freezing, but thankfully rare gusts of wind.
We never made it to Brocket Hall, but turned back on the Greenway and then over the other side of Wheathampstead returning into Southdown and the footpaths back to Station Road. I had to stop at Dave's mum's house for 2 emergency pints of water and when I tried to jog back from there to mine I'm sure I heard my clothes crack as they had frozen stiff as I had stopped moving. Dave's mum was shocked by the ice and frost on our outer layers. She though Dave had fallen over.....
Paul called 12.9 miles when I stopped, plus another .3 or .4 back to mine I am certain I did over a half this morning in tough conditions, ice and mud. Good start to the year and first long run in over a month. That plus yesterday's reps confirms that I'm back.
Niall
Simon and Darren
Dave
Ken (in the snowy mountain video shorts)
Paul
The plan was Brocket Hall, but a text from Ken changed all that as he had to be back home in an hour and was thinking of ducking out early. So we headed out and went up into the footpaths behind Wheathampstead and Gustard Wood to give him a couple more miles before he when home. The morning was crisp, cold sunny and really rather beautiful. Praise the Lord for mornings like this. The moon was massive, low and the detail on the surface was amazing. After a few miles the sun joined in and rose - a bight orange ball in the sky taking the chill off the freezing, but thankfully rare gusts of wind.
We never made it to Brocket Hall, but turned back on the Greenway and then over the other side of Wheathampstead returning into Southdown and the footpaths back to Station Road. I had to stop at Dave's mum's house for 2 emergency pints of water and when I tried to jog back from there to mine I'm sure I heard my clothes crack as they had frozen stiff as I had stopped moving. Dave's mum was shocked by the ice and frost on our outer layers. She though Dave had fallen over.....
Paul called 12.9 miles when I stopped, plus another .3 or .4 back to mine I am certain I did over a half this morning in tough conditions, ice and mud. Good start to the year and first long run in over a month. That plus yesterday's reps confirms that I'm back.
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