Laid Up

Well, not exactly, but I’ve been unable to run since last Wednesday’s 10 mile run back along the canal from Maitripushpa’s in Lisson Grove to Bethnal Green and then around Victoria Park. I had a stomach bug a few weeks ago and it feels like I’ve had an ‘echo’ of that over the last few days, which has meant that I’ve had little energy for running. I find this a bit frustrating but figure that it will probably do me good in the long run (ho hum) to rest properly now when I am slightly ill. I will hopefully head out into the park for an easy four miles today - I’m feeling a bit better this morning after a big lie-in over the weekend.

Heartfelt thanks to Maitripushpa for all your support in so many ways: for taking this picture of my poor feet, for generously carrying my bag back to Bethnal Green when I run back from Lisson Grove and for your encouragement, excitement and sensible counsel about the marathon amongst innumerable other things. I am so lucky.

A Marvellous Night for a Moon-run

I was at Padmaloka retreat centre this weekend, just outside Norwich, and thought I’d gone well prepared for my long run on Sunday by plotting out and printing this 16 mile route.  What I hadn’t clocked was that the only time I could run this route, given the programme of the weekend retreat that I was attending, was 6am and that it would still be dark at that time. I set out running regardless - I knew the first part of the run from previous visits to Padmaloka, and hoped that by the time I needed to consult the folded up map in the pocket of my shorts there would be enough daylight to actually see it.

The first part of the route is through Surlingham itself, which is part of the Norfolk Broads and “sits south of a bend in the River Yare near Brundall, about five miles east of Norwich“. I heard a cockeral crowing as I left the village and fortunately there was enough moonlight for me to see the road ahead. I could see a thin line of light on the horizon by the time I got to Ashby St Mary at mile 5, whose beautiful church was silhouetted against the moonlit sky.

I have a thing about Norfolk churches, especially now that I don’t have to actually go to them any more (my dad, especially, was a strong Christian). I just find them to be so interesting, often, as historic buildings. I’m also interested in why there are so many of them - any ideas? According to English Heritage, “nearly 1000 medieval foundations are recorded, of which over 600 are still in use. In addition to these Anglican sites, approximately 650 nonconformist sites are known from the county and, although the number of Roman Catholic churches is small, some are of exceptional architectural importance.” Churches in Norfolk are often so visible, because of the flat landscape, and so isolated and varied. It is one of the highlights of running this route and I would love to have time to cycle around this area visiting some of the churches and learning about their history.

Unfortunately, it all went a bit pear-shaped after leaving Ashby, which was around mile 5. I ended up in a place called Thurton, which was just off the edge of the map that I’d printed and is on the main A146 Norwich Road, which was too busy, even at that early hour of Sunday, to run alongside. I turned back and went through Carleton St Peter, the delightfully named Claxton, which also has an amazing church, and back towards Surlingham, where I did another, smaller lap, finishing the run at 830am, having covered about 14.5 miles.

It was a really enjoyable run, especially once I’d given up trying to follow the route that I’d planned. One of my reflections from the retreat was that I cause myself unnecessary pain by wanting the world and other people to be a certain way, which it hardly ever is - to control the world, in short, mainly because I am fearful of it. The run was another example of when I can let go of my expectations and plans and just enjoy the view, so to speak, then life is so much more enjoyable and meaningful.

Launching ‘Run Writer’ - the sister blog

Comment from my big brother about my blog: “you just need to work more on the content  -isn’t reading about running for 4 months going to be boring??” Fair enough.

With that advice ringing in my ears, I’m pleased to announce the launch of a sister site to writerunner… yes, it’s runwriter.wordpress.com! This will be running-related, probably, but mainly I will focus on writing - mine and other people’s. Check out the first post now.

Time to Add Volume

The end of training week 4 and I’m just about still smiling - that’s a good sign. I was glad of a rest from running on Friday having run around 54 miles in the previous eight days. The old joints are holding up at the moment, which is a relief. I’m following the Runner’s World ‘Ultimate sub-3-15 min Training Programme’ and my aim for the first month of training, according to this, was a sub-40min 10km race or a sub-32 min 5 mile race. I was in Norfolk this weekend so couldn’t actually compete, but I did do this 5 mile run on Sunday http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1566669 in around 34 minutes. The training schedule says ‘If you’re up to two minutes slower than your target: You’re close enough to the target not to panic, but you may need to work harder in your speed sessions to improve your speed endurance’ oh dear, I hate the speed sessions. I’m not really the panicking kind anyway, but could do better seems to be the message from my on-line coach.  

I used a heart rate monitor for the first time during this run (kindly lent to me by Anthony Wright) and I’m going to continue to try this to see if it will help me stay in the right zone for my training, whether easy, ‘brisk’, fast or whatever the programme says. The worry is that I’ll be tempted, with the prospect of this new data (max heart rate during the run yesterday, for instance was 178 - how interesting!) to build a marathon training spreadsheet, which I’m trying to avoid. Let’s see if I can restrain myself over the next month of training, the target of which is to complete a run or around 2 hrs 40 mins to ‘add volume’ amongst other things - I thought that was something to do with hair-dos?

Blossoms, bells and ‘digging in’

OK, so I understand a little better what I have let myself in for after doing this 15 mile run yesterday:

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1545591

(Thanks to Anthony Wright for the gmap-pedometer site - a real delight for the data geeks amongst us.) 

    

It was really fantastic, taking me past lots of London landmarks: down Mile End Road with the Gherkin and the City at the end of it; past the Tower of London and across Tower Bridge - I love going that way because I know it’s part of the marathon route; past City Hall and then right the way along the South Bank past the London Eye to Westminster Bridge and Parliament. This was Sunday morning so the tourist count was still reasonably low and there were quite a few other runners out. The bells were ringing beautifully at Southwark Cathedral as I ran past it, and Big Ben chimed eleven o’clock as I made my way into St James’s Park, where I saw a tree in bloom with a Japanese woman standing underneath it looking up and smelling the blossom - a lovely moment. Then down the Mall which is part of the closing stages of the marathon, with Buckingham Palace in view, and into Hyde Park. So far so good. I ran past my girlfriend’s place in Lisson Grove, old romantic that I am (she’s away on retreat at the moment) and then followed the canal route back towards Bethnal Green (described below). I was really feeling it by the time I got to Angel, Islington and was so delighted to see a newspaper vendor who also sold Lucozade - I could feel some za za zing returning to my legs almost immediately. Then the final three miles home for a big bowl of pasta from the night before.

      

I feel like I understood more deeply the meaning of ‘digging in’ now, as a running cliche. Fifteen miles down and I would have had over eleven to go in the actual marathon. But it was such a great run and I feel so alive today. I’m really looking forward to another long run next Sunday in Norfolk.

Rain Runner

Went out this morning, despite the rain, for a fourish mile run in Vicky Park, as it’s known in these parts. The rain is only grim when looking at it from the inside - when I got out in it it was fine. Another thing I enjoy about running is other runners. I thought I might be alone in the park this morning but there were two or three other members of the running community out. I like trying to guess at this time of year whether they are ‘resolution runners’, marathon-training runners or something in between. With this weather I think they must definitely have been marathon runners. It’s nice to have the company, even if, being English, or thereabouts, we don’t speak to each other.

Back in training

Week 3 of training for the London Marathon in April and I went out for my first run since last Saturday. I’m being quite ambitious in my training, trying to run around forty miles across six days a week aiming for a time of 3 hours 15 mins in the marathon, which will be my first. This amount of running is definitely catching up with me and I was laid up with a cold the last few days. So it was great to get out again this morning. I ran from my girlfriend’s place in Lisson Grove, close to the Edgware Road, right along the canal, pretty much, to Bethnal Green. This run is about 7 miles I think. I really enjoy setting out when it is still dark, running past London Zoo, through Camden Lock to Islington, where I have to take a diversion through Angel before rejoining the canal, then through the badlands of Hackney to Victoria Park in Bethnal Green. It really sets me up for the day!