A three and a half mile run in the rain in the late afternoon. It was quite a struggle – I think I’m still a little tired from Sunday. Managed a fast time, however. An average pace of 9:41 is the fastest I’ve run in recent times. Ian Painter has a surprising entry today, being dismissive of those of us who expressed some sadness at the death of a fellow runner on Sunday. Many hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people saw this young chap drop to the ground and die in front of them. It would be a stoney heart that wouldn’t muster a little emotion in the circumstances. The best I can offer is something of a cliché, but the … …
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Hmm, a rather gloomy race report from Silverstone. Was it that bad? In the interests of balance, it should be said that, according to the Runners World forums, most runners thought it was a great day out and an excellent event. I’m glad I did it, but I don’t think I’d do it again. A lot of experienced runners dislike these big events, but I normally like them. I enjoy the festive atmosphere, and the sense that running is a mass-participation sport. It was the venue. Some people thought it hugely exciting to be running on this snakey strip of windblown tarmac. I just found it kind of listless and tedious. Near the end of the race, there was a … …
The inaugural “London Half Marathon” at Silverstone was a strangely soulless affair. I should be thinking of it as a good day’s work, as I knocked ten minutes off my previous best time, but I can’t help feeling disappointed by the event, and by my performance. We got there with no problems. The we includes Alfred from Mexico City, and Darryl from Chicago – two postgraduate Oxford students to whom I’d agreed to give a lift. Getting to Silverstone by public transport is more than difficult. It’s just about impossible. To get there from Oxford would apparently have required them to travel first to London – and even then the journey would have been complicated and uncertain. For some reason, … …
The story of the day has to be the one about the traffic warden who gave a parking ticket to a bus in Manchester, as it stopped to pick up passengers at a bus-stop. His employers rescinded the ticket, commenting that he “had shown a lack of judgement, and would undergo appropriate retraining”. I’m sure that M has hidden my hats. I used to have an impressive collection of baseball caps, woolly hats, and a Panama, and none of them can be found. Their sudden disappearance is suspicious, and my investigation has implicated her. Why? Mainly, her unease about my tendency to strut around the house with one of these objects balanced on my head. You’re too old to behave … …
Heard a good Freudian slip on the radio today. A senior Metropolitan Police Officer was being interviewed about their decision to put more police back on the street. “The great majority of police officers will be happy not to use cars”, he said. “They much prefer community beating.” Decided against running today, donating the saved energy to the Silverstone fund instead. I’m not going to reach my medium-term target of 2:10 this Sunday, but I need to take a positive step up from the 2:30 that I’ve hovered around in my three previous halfs. As there are three halfs in three weeks, I’m hoping to take this first one fairly sedately but get in below 2:20. If I do, I’ll … …
Another hard, hilly six miles in the West Berkshire countryside at lunchtime today. Bright sunshine, more dead foxes, and a crow eating a pheasant in the middle of the road. This run has become a weekly habit, and it does me good. It begins with a flat mile, followed by four sizeable hills, and a few other undulations, before looping round and finishing with the same flat mile. There are numerous opportunities to extend the run, but the unchanging heart is this four mile stretch of hills. Yesterday I bought a local 1:25000 Ordnance Survey map which has presented me with a hundred new routes, many on footpaths and other vehicle-less rights of way. It’s the one problem with today’s … …
An average pace of less than 10 minutes a mile goes down as a tempo run in my book. So that’s how today’s three miler can be classified. Working from home today, so once again I’ve had the pleasure of a run in the strong, late winter sunshine. I’m distressed to see so many people mooching around in their gardens, digging and scraping, interfering with the smooth operation of Mother Nature, and generally making a nuisance of themselves. Does this presage some requirement to do something in my own garden? I muse, fearfully, on this question as I tramp round the village. We have a large garden – about a third of an acre – and there’s nothing at all … …
I’ll spare the detail, but will mention that Friday evening and Saturday saw us get through around 36 pints and 5 bottles of wine between the two of us. It wasn’t pretty, but it had to be done. Some fairly unhealthy eating to report, too. In addition to the obligatory couple of fry-ups, Saturday night was crowned with an extravagantly hot curry at the Himalayan Hotspot. The venue afforded us ample humiliation opportunities as we insisted on practising our scant Nepalese on the bemused waiters. No run, of course, but we did fit in a walk of around 9 miles on Saturday afternoon. This can be marked down as cross-training, though it was far from textbook. There was a lot … …
My brief illness seems to be on the way out, and I felt well enough to do my hard, hilly 6.5 mile route at lunchtime. Felt knackered, but much better for it. The appearance of a few hills in my schedule has done me good. My legs feel different. Stronger. Having said that, my calf muscles and shins are sore this evening. Nothing, I’m sure, to worry about, but it made me think how undeservedly lucky I’ve been with injuries. Perhaps I’ve not pushed myself hard enough to make me vulnerable to overtraining injuries, but there are other reasons that should have made problems more likely. I’m still carrying too much weight, and I had no athletic base whatsoever before … …
Feeling slightly better, even managing a stuttering three miler at lunchtime. Needless to say, no speed records were in danger. It’s been bitingly cold, with the wind-chill taking the temperature down to something like minus three degrees. Just when you think Spring is here, Winter jumps out of a bush and bites you on the bum. I’m beginning to get fed up with feeling like this. What I need is a decent lottery jackpot win this evening. Mmm, yeah. That would do the trick.… …