January 2012

[marathondan]

Week 4 of 18
Lunar phase: waning gibbous, last quarter Sunday

Tuesday: with all evenings booked up this week, I tried a new canalside route at lunchtime, increasing my list of Canals On Whose Towpaths I Have Run to:

1. Grand Union Canal
2. Basingstoke Canal
3. Er...
4. That’s it.

No. 2 on the list is a short game of Dual Carriageway Chicken away from my new place of employment. It’s a very pleasant, leafy stretch of water, and as you get out of town you encounter some waterside properties which, judging by their size, are probably quite nondescript from the front, but boast party-worthy gardens and an impressive array of boathouses, jetties, decks and all-weather gazebos at the back.

The footpath turned out to be tarmac, rather harder on my joints than I was hoping, but I don’t expect to do this run very often. One and a half miles out and back took me, coincidentally, to the all-weather running track at Woking Athletics Club, but I don’t think there’s any possibility of my using that on a casual basis, other than by scaling the security fence - which could count as cross-training of course.

As for the run: three miles fartlek, hard going, it’s nice when you stop; always the possibility to go faster; I can feel it doing me good.

Friday: unusually, my second daylight run of the week. After dropping Emma at preschool, I headed up to the green for 3.5 laps at tempo pace. I always find running in daylight harder – maybe I’m somehow more aware of how slow I’m going – and this was always going to be a hard slog, at a slightly faster than comfortable pace. After a decent frost the ground was relatively firm, the sky was clear, the air crisp – perfect conditions. I shared the green with post-school-run, Barbour-and-welly clad mums walking the family pooch (invariably a black lab), and a couple of girls gently exercising horses in the opposite direction to me.

Audio accompaniment was a hastily-assembled playlist of uptempo tunes intended to prevent my pace from flagging. Over and over, to a comical extend, I was bombarded with 80s chart rock – apparently this is the mainstay of my musical taste; who knew?. But it did the trick, many a nostalgic smile spurring me on, and the hour or so went relatively quickly.

Track du jour: this came on with about a mile to go, finally ending the relentless 80s onslaught, and turned out to have the perfect tempo run cadence. The feelgood imagery was just right for a winter’s day, and it brought a huge smile to my face as I kicked for home: Beach Boys, Surfin’ USA.

Meanwhile, activity has continued in the brewhouse over the festive period, with the junior brewing assistants making themselves useful.