You may have noticed that I’ve not posted in more than a week, which is a bit unusual for me. Nothing to worry about, but I’ve been laid low with some coldy/fluey thing that’s been going around at work.
I seem to be recovering now. Hopefully I’ll be back out and running soon, probably on Wednesday. Catch you then!
Got out early this morning — well, before 9am, anyway, which I thought was pretty good for a Sunday — and trogged up and around the Downs for 8K.
Getting out early was a good idea for two reasons. The main reason was to avoid the midday sun that nearly fried me the last time I went for a long run on a sunny day. But, as it turned out, another good reason was because today is day two of the Race for Life on the Downs. And I managed to time things just right, getting out early enough so that some of the roads were already closed to traffic, but not so late that I had to put on a number, a wig and a pink tutu in order to be allowed on the paths.
Looks like a marvellous day for it. I wandered up to take some pictures of yesterday’s 5K, and it certainly looked like everyone was enjoying it, so hopefully today will be just as good.
Anyway. I have a Boston Tea Party chocolate crunch to eat as a reward for getting around 8K on a Sunday morning, when any sensible person is obviously still in bed, so I’ll leave you to a hopefully sunny Sunday, wherever you are…
I’m crazy busy this week, so this is going to be a quick post in between me coming home from my run and stretching 🙂
I just got out for 5K, for the first time since last week, and it was okay. I wasn’t really feeling like running — I think I might be coming down with something, I’ve been feeling a bit off the last couple of days. But: I’d had crisps at lunchtime along with my sandwich, in anticipation of burning off some calories this evening. So, the guilt kicked in and I got out of the door.
I tried my new Iron Man hydration pack thingy that I bought. It took lots of fiddling with the straps as I was running to get it comfy and stable, but I got there in the end. I’m finding that I have to suck pretty damn hard to get water out of the thing, which is annoying, and feels a lot more restrictive than the water bottle. Maybe I’m doing it wrong, or the couple of crimps in the tubing are slowing things down. I’ll have to experiment.
Anyway. Yes, the momentum might be building back up a bit now, I’ll definitely head out for a longer run this weekend, and I’ll catch you after that. Time to stretch!
In a fairly rare move for me, I didn’t get out for a run this weekend. Or this evening.
I’m trying to give myself a break about this. This weekend I was out of town visiting friends, and I’m still playing catchup on the thousand things I should have done at the weekend if I’d been home. So I think I should probably cut myself some slack. Sometimes, you just have to accept that you have to skip some things in order to do others, and you can’t always play catchup.
One thing I can think about at moments like this is how far I’ve already run. Last time I looked at my RunKeeper profile I had a bit of a surprise: since I started using RunKeeper, back in September, I’ve run 506.72 kilometres. That’s more than 300 miles. And, apparently, more than 56,000 calories. Pretty cool.
Plus, I’ve got one guaranteed weekend run coming up in the shape of Pants in the Park, a 5K run for Prostate UK, on 27th June. I’ve been to a couple before, but only as official photographer, not actually to run. This time I’m running it instead 🙂 My race number should be nice and easy to remember, too, as you can see from the pic 🙂 As my friend Kavey said, “Aww! Three little ducks…”
So, I think I’m just going to accept the fact that I can’t do everything at once, and resolve to get out for my normal midweek run tomorrow or Thursday — probably depending on when there’s a gap in this week’s rain!
Then, though, I must start deliberately setting aside some time for some longer weekend runs, because I want to head up towards half-marathon distances again. I’ve only got until September 5th…
Due to a Flickr meet last night, and getting up late this morning, I only just have time for this update:
I did 5K last night.
Today’s jog was a very simple, slow 5K out down along the towpath and back. I almost didn’t go; I’ve had a fairly busy weekend, not enough sleep, and I was pretty tired.
But I bought this chocolate flapjack, see, at lunchtime, from Chandos Deli in Clifton Village. And it was meant to be my reward for going on a run. So, in order to eat it with a clear conscience, I struggled out along the towpath and back again. On the way out, I stopped to snap this photo of the old combined (double-deck) road and rail bridge that’s gently rotting into the Avon.
And that’s all I’ve got to report. Over the next month or so I’m hoping to start improving my distances, to get somewhere near half-marathon distance again. But not today…
Just went for a simple 5K along the towpath tonight, nice and easy. Although RunKeeper’s showing it as a slow 6K, because I included the warm-up and cool down, and forgot to stop the tracking when I’d finished the cool down…
About the only thing of note — apart from the rather lovely view I spotted on the way back — was the lack of graffiti on the pedestrian ramp down to the towpath. It’s had some fairly offensive stuff on it for months, with the relatively recent addition of a swastika.
On last week’s run I took a photo of it — I’ll spare you the image itself — to remind me of it when I got home. Thus prodded, I found Bristol City Council’s graffiti reporting web page, and stuck in the details.
And sometime since last Wednesday evening, the council have painted it out, so I don’t have to look at it and feel mildly annoyed by it. Win! This being Bristol, home of some seriously good street art (and no, it’s not just Banksy), the council tend to be a bit more switched on to either extreme of the stuff-painted-on-walls spectrum, I guess.
Wow. That was quite an intense 7K. Not because it was fast, or anything, just because I didn’t get out until about half past eleven, which meant I was running in the midday sun. That’s not been a worry so far this year. But on wandering outside, it was pretty obvious that we are no longer in Spring. Today is definitely, clearly, 100% summer. It’s a cloudless 24C out there, and that makes quite a difference to running.
I’d used up all my water by the end of the run, and the middle section — around the Downs, without much tree cover — was particularly punishing, just because of the relentless sunshine.
Still, I managed, and it’s all good experience. I’ve not run through a summer, yet. I only started this lark in July last year, and for the first month or two I was mostly walking, and even then it was mostly in the evenings. I guess there’s one important thing I learned today, if nothing else: if there’s a chance of it being that damn sunny at midday, I should drag my arse out of bed and go running at 8am, not 11…
Anyway. Today’s picture is the shadow of the Suspension Bridge at the start of my run. Enjoy the day, wherever you are!
Just a quick blog today. I got out for a simple 5K out along the towpath. No RunKeeper log to show for it today, as the GPS just didn’t want to lock. So I ran for about eighteen minutes, then turned around and ran back, on the ground that that would be at least five kilometers.
Not sure what’s going on with the GPS thingy; I tried turning it on and off again, and it wasn’t having any of it. It normally works. Today it was in an armband, though, although (a) I’m sure it’s worked fine in there before, and (b) it’s normally in a pocket of my shorts, which you’d think would be worse. Ho hum.
Anyway. Just making sure I keep up the momentum, with both jogging and blogging.
Today’s photo shows bits of Clifton and Hotwells, and the muddy banks of the river.
This month has been pretty slack for me, running-wise. But that’s a fairly conscious choice. I didn’t want to too much the week before the 10K, and I felt like resting on my laurels a bit after it. Plus I normally take it easy after any long jog, and 10K definitely counts!
But today I got back on the road again, out for a normal Sunday jog. A lot quieter than last week’s, and sans cheering crowds, but still nice. Bridge Valley Road remains closed to traffic, which means you get to jog right up the middle of it rather than being relegated to the narrow strip of pavement up that runs up the one side, plus it was mostly sunny.
So, I guess today marks the end of my training for the 10K. And the start of my training for the Bristol Half Marathon, which is on 5th September. Which feels both a long way off and scarily close at the same time, bearing in mind I’ve never done a run longer than three quarters of that distance…
Before I go, I’d like to thank everyone who sponsored me on my Just Giving page, and elsewhere. If I figure in the Gift Aid for the UK donations, and the £250 my company are going to donate, I reckon I raised a total of £709.08 for St. Peter’s Hospice, which is fantastic! Thanks all!
