Woke at 5:30am. Within moments I was up and out. Another lovely Berkshire morning: fresh, cool, bracing. No time for a warm-up, so it was straight into it. My usual 3.67 mile circuit. No deer this morning (see last week), just a rabbit or two and a squashed fox. This is a great time of day to run if you can get out of bed in time.… READ MORE.... …
Month: August 2002
Good 4 miles in the twilight: report coming shortly. Hmm, well that’s what I wrote to remind me, but I’m buggered if I can remember it, other than that it was fast for me – about 09:30 pace.… READ MORE.... …
The Theale run meant a reorganisation of the weekend’s schedule, and I decided to push my 16 miler back to the Monday which, as luck would have it, was a holiday. The conditions, cool and overcast, were ideal for running, and absolutely traditional for the late Summer Bank Holiday. For only the second time since I bought it in June, I put on my water-belt and headed for the canal.… READ MORE.... …
If the Burnham Beeches Half left me mulling over the quality of the race officials, the Theale 10K was a sharp reminder that I should be grateful for any marshals at all, however dozey. Ten kilometres isn’t a very appealing distance on a weekend when I’m supposed to run 16 miles, but I made an exception here as it’s my local race, and thought it worth supporting.… READ MORE.... …
Tuesday of this week I’m up early, 5:30am, for a 4 mile jog around the lanes. What a great time of day this is to run. It’s cool and quiet. Some rain must have fallen recently, and the village church is half hidden in a light mist. A few minutes out I’m in a long lane off the Bradfield Road. I begin to hear something crashing about on the other side of the tall, brambley hedge.… READ MORE.... …
Today I did the Burnham Beeches Half Marathon. Or was it the other way round? So despite the sense of incredulity that had lasted all of last week, I did make it to Burnham, though in keeping with the precedent set during my London training, everything was thrillingly last minute. I was up early enough for my condemned-man breakfast of dry toast and coffee.… READ MORE.... …
This morning the scales showed me 4 pounds heavier than yesterday. Hardly a surprise after yesterday’s binge. Another bagel-filled day. Plenty of healthy carbohydrate, but calorific. Two for breakfast with bananas, two for lunch with molten cheese and HP Sauce, and one this evening with more fruit. I’m also guzzling gallons of water, partly because it’s such a sweltering day, and partly to pre-hydrate before tomorrow’s Burnham Beeches Half Marathon.… READ MORE.... …
Am I really plannning to run a half marathon on Sunday? After a generally successful first half of the week in terms of runs, weight loss and optimism, it’s all started to go wrong. This morning I had a sudden overwhelming urge to eat. Cereal, bagels and fruit before I left home. Healthy enough, yes, but it filled me out, leaving me feeling leaden and out of condition.… READ MORE.... …
A terrible run this evening. Should have been 4 miles but it was so hot – even at 9pm – that I barely reached a mile before I stopped to walk. I ended up feebly half-walking, half-jogging for the rest of the way. Returned home feeling that I’d been for a pleasant evening stroll rather than a run.… READ MORE.... …
All things considered, a glass or two of some decent New Zealand sauvignon blanc in the garden might have been a more sensible way of passing a warm, airless midsummer evening. But no, I decided to dress up in a skimpy number and run 7.34 miles round the streets instead. Not very quickly, it’s true, but I did it. It was tough, but I have a half marathon to run on Sunday and I need to do some preparation.… READ MORE.... …
A good 5.5 miler this evening. Supposed to be just 3 miles, but I think I need to up my mileage a bit. It’s pretty modest as it is on the novice marathon training course, but if I will insist on missing long weekend runs I need to at least pay some lip service to making an extra effort during the week.… READ MORE.... …