A late run home

With it being a Thursday I was hoping to make the track session in Regents Park this evening but, as sometimes happens, work got the better of me. So instead, a little later than planned, I decided to take the simple option of running home. It's something that I fall back on every now and again and usually I aim to skip the busy, noisy and congested section through Soho because it's never much fun. Instead I let the train take the strain and hopped onto the Bakerloo line as far as Regents Park tube station. Perfect!

From here I trotted over to the park to be met by the sight of the Taste of London food festival; talk about a massing of marquees and an attractive aroma for a hungry runner! Nevertheless I remained strong, looped round the lake and pointed myself towards the Hub and Primrose Hill. It's amazing how many people were out playing rounders and kicking a partially-inflated ball around; maybe running isn't the only fruit? Anyway from Primrose Hill the view was lovely but my job was to continue through Belsize Park and on to the Heath. In the evening this lovely open space is often quiet and you have to share your thoughts with no one. Great!

Dinner was on my mind though. So I took the shortest route possible and that meant a long jog along Sheldon Avenue; backing onto Highgate Golf Club this is one of the most prestigious roads in the area and if I had the dosh well there are worse places to live! Sadly we don't reside there and so over the Great North Road I went before twisting and turning my way through the back-streets to home. Happily my sore knee didn't need to complain throughout the short run and I feel ready for the weekend. Excellent!

Distance: 5.4 miles

Time: 43m 11s

Stanley Road here we come

Well what a day - wet and windy hardly describes the climatic conditions does it? That said at 8am this morning the conditions were just fine for running and quite a few of us thought so; me, Mike, Adam, Amanda, Mark, Daniel and even Ira (fresh from his health camp). With so many leaders and not enough followers it could have been chaos but nothing could be further from the truth; Adam took charge and we headed north through Golders Green and up to the mega-roadworks at Henley's Corner. It looks like it'll be great when it's finished but right now the area is a sea of cones!

Anyway we navigated the junction successfully and headed over towards North Finchley - where I successfully lobbied for a minor diversion via Avenue House. The gardens here are delightful in the summer and worth a trip; the only problem was this caused me to become the de facto leader on the road and so it was my task to bring us back home in the best way possible. What was neat was that I could see a chance here for some exploration around the area of the Stanley Road Playing Fields; I knew roughly where they were but had never managed to find them up till now.

So through the back alleys of East Finchley we continued until, fortuitously, a side-alley appeared and a sixth sense told me that this was the one. By this time Daniel was totally disorientated and even I had my doubts but no; a bridge appeared, we crossed into the promised land of Stanley Road and then we were in familiar territory. Only Winnington Road stood between us and a warm car seat! Now it's reasonable to say that Mark took an early and seemingly decisive lead on this long, gentle drag upwards towards the Heath but in the end I just couldn't resist and had to chase him down from the halfway point. Sorry Mark! After that it was a gentle jog and Amanda showing us a clean pair of heels at the finish; having been strong all weekend she had to end on a high note!

Distance: 8.0 miles

Time: 1h 11m 07s

Back with the Saturday gang

After missing last week's run I was quite eager to meet up with the gang this morning; so excited in fact that I decided to carve a hole in the side of my trainer to accomodate my painful bunion! This minor adjustment made I turned up, nabbed a parking space and tried to get my legs moving. Luckily there was a decent quorum present and everyone was happy to head off over Hampstead Heath and on towards Highgate. Now we could always have made the unpopular decision to take in Swain's Lane but instead the pack headed for Dartmouth Park Hill. On the far side of Waterlow Park this ascent is scarcely easier but it does have the virtue of being shorter.

Victims of Dartmouth Park Hill

After this a gentle downhill towards the Shepherds Cot Trust land, between Muswell Hill and Crouch End, ensued; clearly the website is in a state of development at the moment but we can all be grateful to the far-sighted folk who endowed this precious space to the community. On the other hand the area could certainly use a few drinking fountains! As it was we kept calm and carried on past Highgate Woods and back towards Kenwood House. A small amount of competition ensued and then, as if by magic, we were all back where we started (with the addition of Darren - a very late joiner today!).

Job done

Distance: 7.0 miles

Time: 1h 07m 37s

Starting the end of the week

With my art course (at City Lit) on this evening I decided to take the easy option and run in this morning - although easy is a relative concept when your knees, feet and various muscles still ache from a vigorous session the night before. So I set off gingerly in the hope that I wouldn't stir up any unpleasantness if I stuck to a steady pace. On the whole this worked and traversing the Heath was, as ever, a delightful affair with birds singing in the trees and the wind ruffling my hair (or what's left of it after Lenore sheared me with the clippers!).

However by Royal College Street (which is a long, downhill drag) all two of my legs joined in complaint and I began eyeing up the Boris bikes lustfully. How nice it would have been to unhook one of these noble steeds and continue in a relaxed manner to my place of work. If only. Luckily, perhaps, I'm not a member of the scheme and so I continued down through Bloomsbury and past all of the hotels where foreign tourists tucked into their bacon and fresh toast; how my empty stomach rumbled at that familiar guesthouse aroma. Still just another couple of kilometres and breakfast would be mine!

Distance: 7.8 miles

Time: 1h 00m 58s

Track Session III

Oh Father I have sinned; it has been a month since my last track session and I have been consumed by impure thoughts of ultra-distance events. I absolve your sins my Son; just complete six repetitions of three minutes running (with two minutes rest) in Regents Park and your conscience will be clear. And so it was. After Lotte's clarion call I resolved to attend the after-work session, along with Andy and a few more game triathletes, and try my hardest. As it turns out this is quite hard and I'm quite pleased with both the pace of my splits and their consistency:

1 - 5:45 min/mile
2 - 5:43
3 - 5:38
4 - 5:36
5 - 5:39
6 - 5:48

Okay events took a turn for worse in the final lap (of around 800m), which was more than painful, but I claim leniency on two counts: in the first instance I was kind of tired from being constantly chased down by Lotte (who has a great turn of pace) and in the second I was also hampered by an over-full bladder. This is not the way to achieve an effortless running style! Either way the result was a solid training session that can only produce dividends I hope!

Distance: 4.8 miles

Time: 40m 06s

Regents Park 10K - June

Today's race was always destined to be a rushed affair as I've had the kids all week and nowhere to leave them while I ran round the park; luckily our good friend Emma offered to take them off of my hands. In fact this suited Joshua and Christina down to the ground as Hal and Scarlet are their best friends and they hadn't seen them all week. So I turned up at Regents Park in plenty of time for a warm-up lap and another pit stop (the third of the day if you must know!) before mingling with the hordes; these summer races sure do attract a lot of charity runners and they really fill out the pack.

When the horn went I started in around 15th place, more or less, and the initial pace felt very easy. Almost without trying I moved past the nearby runners and placed myself in a decently sized group - which then seemed to ease up, forcing me to move on ahead. If this is what it feels like to race after a week of no running, with a solid sports massage in the middle, then I should take a break more often! As this first lap unfolded I still felt smooth and strong; even more so when the marshals shouted out that I was in 7th place (and right behind 5th and 6th). Unfortunately the guy behind was strong and breathing down my neck....

It all got a bit hard towards the end!

As we struck out on the second lap he drew level and so when we turned into the wind I made a tactical decision to drop back and draft; he was a big guy and provided plenty of shelter! At first this worked superbly and he slowly dragged me towards the athletes in front - one of whom decided to blow-up and effectively vanish from sight! However I could very much identify with his pain! The pace being set was just slightly outside of my comfort zone and I used every mental trick I know just to stay in contact with my pacer. Sadly as the second lap drew to a close, on the downhill past the finish, I just couldn't stay with him; my breathing slipped into the red zone and my legs gained twenty pounds. This was not good.

So whether I liked it or not the race became an opportunity to show my mettle, to suffer and not give in. Right now though I knew that I'd pushed just a bit too hard and needed to ease back; at the same time I didn't want to get caught from behind but equally I knew that I'd be hard to spot amongst all the back-markers. With 3km to go I counted the hills and the metres, dosing my effort and aiming to conserve energy; really the 8th and 9th kilometres were the worst with my times falling behind 4 min/km pace. Only in the final thousand metres did my body perk up a bit and I strove for the finish in a bid to cement an amazing 7th place! And it worked! Just 2 seconds back came my personal chaser but it was all too late for him!

What a race though; while nowhere near a PB I worked properly hard today for my 38:46 and it really paid off. A top-ten finish, first V40 by exactly a minute and my position at the top of my age-category cemented (with 3 out of 6 races completed). I'm very happy.

Distance: 8.8 miles

Time: 1h 01m 00s

Wellgate Community Farm

I always like taking the kids to city farms because they adore seeing and petting the animals and, for me, it's a nice change of scenery. So when I noticed that the Wellgate Community Farm was having an open day I thought that it'd be nice to try somewhere new - although I actually left the decision up to Joshua and he chose the farm (and Kung Fu Panda 2) over Legoland! Now I have to admit that I didn't realise just how far down the A12 we would have to venture but it all worked out in the end as the event hadn't even kicked off when we arrived - so we went for a stroll around the animals:

The purr-fect feline?

It turns out that the farm isn't especially capacious, a surprise given all of the surrounding fields, but it does manage to squeeze in the usual suspects: cows, sheep, horses, goats, pigs, geese, chickens and a lot of rabbits! These are all pretty close at hand, and so easy to see, although not as close as the bees! Behind just a pane of glass are a couple of busy bee-hives and these really caught the imagination of Joshua; after speculating for a while on what might happen to a bear hunting for honey we moved on to the main attraction for little children. Not the ice-cream vendor but, instead, the chance to cuddle a soft, little bunny:

I want one - of course!

As for the open day it was kind of fun with there being pony rides, stalls, a bouncy castle, farm displays (such as a farrier at work) and even a swap-shop! The little beasts were, however, less interested in this side of things and so we departed for Hainault Forest Country Park - the bikes were in the back of the car so I was well prepared for such an eventuality! It turns out that this is a really pretty 300 acre patch with far-reaching views back towards the capital. Immediately the open space and relaxed atmosphere appealed to me and when Joshua discovered an adventure playground on the map our course was set.

Off we cycled around the fishing lake and into the cool, shady forest; Christina wobbling and complaining on her bicycle, Joshua pushing on ahead as our scout. Amongst the trees there was peace - no road noise or planes overhead, just the chirping of birds in the canopy and the shrieks of excited children! It didn't take Joshua long to discover where there was ropework between the trunks and I took the opportunity to do a little sketching (since this is the homework from my just commenced art course). All in all then a lovely place to spend a hot summer's afternoon.