photography | Matt Gets Running

Simple Bank Holiday 5K

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…

But Is It Art?

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.

Mad Dogs and Englishmen

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!

Quickie

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.

It’s a Sign

The Bristol 10K is approaching. It’s on road signs now, so it must be official!

My plan to do a few runs in this penultimate training week is going well; I got out for another 5K this evening. I also managed to get to the other side of the river before the high tide and the bridge swing separated the north from the south, so it was out along the towpath and away from the traffic. Much more civilised.

Also, at the suggestion of a couple of friends on Twitter, I checked out Blacks for technical tops in large sizes, and at least found a couple claiming to be XXL rather than XL, with one that even looked as if it might not be in the desperately unflattering figure-hugging style they mostly seem to come in. Hopefully they’ll arrive in time for me to try them on, and try running in them before the 10K.

So, I’ll probably do one or two runs before the race, maybe getting out on Saturday and Monday, seeing as it’s a Bank Holiday. I’ll definitely check back in here before the race, whatever happens… See you then!

Distance

Like I said in my last update, I fancied getting out for a nice long run this weekend, and this morning I made good on that.

I ran from home, out along the towpath under the Suspension Bridge, all the way to the far entrance to Leigh Woods, then up into the forest. I did a fairly big loop of the forest, then came out to head back across the Suspension Bridge into Clifton, then all the way around Clifton Down and Durdham Down, and back to Clifton Village.

All told, it was just over 15km, although I lost GPS signal for the last kilometre and a bit, so I can’t be certain. I manually fixed the route in RunKeeper, and it came out at 15.59km, which can’t be far out.

I also took out two new things: First, The Indelicates’ new album, Songs for Swinging Lovers, available right now for download — for the price of your choice, including “free” — from the Corporate Records website.

Second, my shiny new Panasonic Lumix DMC-FP3 camera. So, I took a load of photos, too 🙂 They’re all here in this set on Flickr, but there were two I particularly wanted to post here, because they say quite a lot about my route. They’re both photos of the same place, the “Sea Wall” railings at the top of the Avon Gorge, at the edge of Clifton Down.

Here’s the first one, taken on my way out, about 2.5km into the jog. The railings are just about invisible on the skyline, at the top of the cliff:

And here’s one taken of the same railings, at the 10.5km mark, up close and personal:

So, yeah, think that gives some idea of the vertical height involved in my jog today, as well as the overall distance!

I reckon I can declare myself ready for the Bristol 10K. And it’s nice to have done roughly three quarters of a half-marathon, too 🙂 I don’t, on the whole, feel too bad, although I’m not entirely convinced I’ll be able to move tomorrow! I might give myself a few days off and not do a mid-week run until Thursday, this week. I think I deserve it!

Lighter Days

Quick update tonight, because I’ve got loads to do. Went out for a simple 5K, and I’m still really appreciating the fact that I can get out in daylight, which opens up the prettier riverside routes.

This is also hopefully one of the last rubbish-quality photos of quite a nice view you’ll see, because my new camera arrived today. It’s a similar camera to the one I ran through the washing machine a month or so ago, so hopefully it won’t take me long to get the hang of it. And hopefully I’ll remember to check my pockets a bit better in the future, too 🙂

Anyway. Should be getting out again on Saturday or Sunday, and I might try to do a decent distance — we’ll see how I feel! Catch you then.

Running on a Cliff Edge

IMG_0760 2.JPG Today was an okay run. I wasn’t very focused — losing an hour in the transition to British Summer Time can do that to a person; I still haven’t even changed all my clocks, so I’m living with one foot in the past — but that was okay. Sometimes being unfocused means your run is over before you know it, and that can be a good thing.

Today I got back into my more usual more-than-5K, less than 10K Sunday routine with a fairly slow 7K that took me out up Bridge Valley Road and around the Downs.

Bridge Valley Road is helpfully closed to traffic at the moment because of “emergency wall stabilisation works”. While it worries me that I’m running up a road carved into a cliff that needs emergency stabilisation, it was nice to be able to run right up the middle of it, instead of being relegated to the narrow footpath. And I conclusively proved that my uphill running really is faster than a walk by passing an exceptionally rare pedestrian on my way up! Hurrah!

The blocking off of the top of the road also diverted me onto a slightly different route around Clifton Down, leading me to a lovely little clifftop section I’ve not run along before. This was lovely running, views out along the Avon Gorge like the one in today’s photo. But still with enough of a wall to stop my fear of heights kicking in 🙂

Anyway. Off to see Chris Addison at the Tobacco Factory this afternoon, so I’d best go get ready. See you later!

10K. Again.

Yup, went out and did another 10K today. Wasn’t entirely sure I was going to — if I’d not felt good I’d have cut it short — but it was fine. Nice and slow, up Bridge Valley Road, around the edge of Clifton Down to the Water Tower, a loop around Durdham Down, then back the way I came, in a kind of lasso-shape. As you can see on the RunKeeper map, if you want 🙂

About the only bad thing was that I finished off at my normal lamp post in Clifton Village at 9.85K, so I had to run a bit extra. I ended up on Royal York Crescent, which at least has a nice view!

On the way I passed this crow, hanging out by Sea Wall, who looked vaguely photogenic. Looks better bigger.

Anyway, that’s all for today! It’ll probably be another fairly quiet week, this week, as I’m sure I’ll need a few days to recover!

Craziness

Well, turns out I’m actually crazy. Crazy like those weirdos who go out running when they’re ill and tell you that it actually helps.

Because it helped. Not only did it help, but in some ways, the illness seemed to help the running, too. My lack of concentration made me a bit forgetful. I forgot I was thinking of limiting myself to 5K max, I forgot I was going to stick to a flat route, and at one point I forgot about having a stitch so successfully that ten minutes later I thought, “Oh! Hang on, wasn’t I worrying about a stitch? Where did that go, then?”

I went out along the towpath where I started all this running malarkey. I figured it was flat, and more pleasant in the daylight than the boring old A4. Only I didn’t actually turn around at my halfway point, because I’d not really figured out where my halfway point was going to be.

So I ended up at the far entrance to Leigh Woods, a lovely little area of forest on the other side of the Avon Gorge. I used to do a walking route through these woods every weekend, so I figured I’d just follow that, despite it being a bit hilly.

When I say “a bit hilly”, according to the RunKeeper log and map, the middle of my route through the woods maxes out at about 100m higher up than when I started. RunKeeper reckons I climbed 147m overall, including the undulations here and there.

My run ended up with me crossing the Suspension Bridge — for the first time, while jogging — and that’s today’s picture; the view from the Bridge down toward Hotwells, where I live.

And it also turned out a bit longer than I figured, at 8.23km. Not bad for someone who was so tired he didn’t get dressed until about 2pm.

Mind you, I’m knackered now, and while the run seemed to make me forget about being ill for a few hours, I can feel my nose starting to clog up and I’m sneezing again, so I reckon it was only a temporary respite.

Still, at least it’s eased the I’m-not-running guilt, and that should last a couple of days, anyway!