Armistice Day

Today, being Armistice Day, I went for a run to the Wellington Bomber crash site memorial in Lead Mines Clough, complete with poppy pinned to my top.  I do this every year on 11 November but usually I have to do it in the dark with a head torch, however this year I took advantage of my Wednesday working from home day and ran there with the aim of arriving at 11am for the two minutes silence.

I arrived at just after 10.50 and there was a group of three people already there.  A short while later, another man came along to pay his respects.

At 11am, I heard three different cannon blasts, marking the start of the silence.  Two minutes later, the three cannons sounded again.  I'm not entirely sure where the blasts had come from but am assuming Chorley, Bolton and do Horwich do anything like that or was the other one from as far away as Manchester?

At the end of the silence I ran back home again and the run itself was pretty unremarkable.

Total distance - 7.5 miles

Balance Board

Tonight, I just had a short jog with Ruby to combine exercising Ruby with a warm up for my balance board workout.

Further to yesterday's post, I'm still undecided about joining a gym but thought I'd spend the next couple of weeks doing some of the huge amounts of workout DVDs I have at home, together with other core workouts to see if I can stick to it and avoid joining a gym.

Tonight I decided on a balance board workout.  It's excellent for the core as you need to keep your core engaged to help you to balance.  It's also good for strengthening my feet and ankles which is something I really need to do at the minute.

It's so much harder than it sounds to stay balanced on that board and I really felt it as a decent workout.  I have just got the DVD/board back from Josie who borrowed it for a while but I'm not sure if she'll agree that it was quite a challenging workout, although she's probably got much better balance and core fitness than I have to begin with.

It wasn't an intense workout, just a difficult one.  I thought I had quite good balance but turns out I was wrong.


Total distance - 3.3 miles

To Gym or not to Gym?

This morning I went for a recovery run in the pouring rain with Rachel.  We just did the usual 3.2 mile route around the Ethiad Stadium and back to the office, where we arrived soaked to the bones.

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately about joining a gym to improve my core, especially at the minute as my back is killing me and my hip is a little sore too so I want to strengthen that whole area, amongst other things. 

The thing is, I can do the work I need to do at home but I just never seem to have the time.  There’s always something else I need to be doing or, in all honesty, I’d rather be doing.  There’s a gym opening in our building at work soon and I had joined under the pre-opening cheap rate (£25 per month) but have cancelled this before I’ve even started for a number of reasons:

1.    There are other gyms within half a mile which are cheaper (one is £20.99 per month and one only £16.99 per month).

2.    The other gyms don’t have a contract whereas the one in the building ties you in for 12 months.

3.    The new gym isn’t opening until March, even though they said it would open in December.

4.    The lady from the gym opening in the building didn’t meet me when she was supposed to, nor ring to apologise, which doesn’t give me much confidence.

5.    The gym opening in the building sends me patronising e-mails congratulating me on ‘taking the first steps towards an active lifestyle’ and welcoming me ‘on my fitness journey’.  Sickening!

If I join one of the further away gyms, I can just use the time getting there and back as a warm up jog and get changed in our office as we have showers here so I won’t be wasting any time, therefore it won’t be any different to if I used a gym in the building as I’d still have to do a warm up/cool down there anyway.

The thing is, I can’t make up my mind whether to join the cheaper gym or just try to be more disciplined at working out at home and I’m driving myself (and probably others – but nobody forced you to read this) mad going round in circles with it.  I just figure that my lunch hour is dead time but do I want to pay for something monthly that I can do for free?  I keep going back and forth, one minute deciding to join the gym and the next minute deciding to set aside some time at home for core strengthening.  If I don’t hurry up and decide though, the gym will be full of January New Years resolutioners and I might not get a place as there can be a waiting list for membership during busy periods. 

I don’t even know what to do in the gym really.  I’ll probably turn up there and just stare at all the machines and weights and have no idea where to start. 

If only there was somebody who wants the same thing as me out of a gym session and works in Manchester and could join me to keep me motivated and work out a good training routine with me…

Total distance - 3.2 miles

Remembrance Sunday

I went to the lower barn today and met with Josie, Erica, Mark and Abigail to join them on their regular Sunday run.

Today, being Remembrance Sunday, we wanted to include the Bomber Memorial in our run.  We did think about getting there for 11am but decided it would be too difficult to get the timings right so we headed straight there instead.

I felt quite strong on the run to Bomber Memorial but after that I seemed to run out of steam really quickly.

We ran through the boggy at 'Simms' towards Lower/Higher Hempshaws and then over to Hordern Stoops.  The climb up Hordern Stoops was a killer.  I was struggling to the point of not even being able to walk and was a bit shaky and dizzy.  I was pretty conscious of the guys waiting for me at the top as it was really wet and cold but they had found a nice sheltered spot to wait in where Josie took a couple of pictures:

 Josie, Erica and Abigail waiting for me in a nice sheltered spot (photo by Josie)

Me, struggling up the hill but at least there's a smile on my face (I think!)  (photo by Josie)

When we got to the top, the weather was pretty wild and we couldn't hear each other speak.

I did think about running straight to Two Lads and heading back to the car at this point but decided to man up and stay with the group, who were heading down to the shooting hut.

Just after the shooting hut, we crossed through Roscoe's Tenement coming out onto Coal Pit Road.

Coming out of Roscoe's Tenement - L to R - Me, Mark, Erica, Abigail (Photo by Josie)

From here, Mark and I headed back but the hardcore ladies continued on a bit further.

The girls at the Pike after Mark and I had left (photo by ??? with Josie's camera)

Mark and I ran along to Two Lads then down to the kennels and along George's Lane then turned off and zigzagged through the terraced gardens.

As we were running down the track off George's Lane, we were overtaken by a bunch of young girls wearing road shoes.  Embarrassing!

Good run with good company, one day I might be able to keep up with them all!

Thanks guys!


Total distance - 10.15 miles

A Day Trip to t'Yorkshire!

Today, myself, John and Ed travelled to Settle to meet up with Chris at his house, as he was taking us out for a day in 'God's own country'.  

We got the train from Settle to Horton in Ribblesdale and, after a short run along the road, headed along the Pennine Way and up to the summit of Pen y Ghent.  It was really foggy up on top so we didn't have much of a view but we couldn't complain because the day was lovely and warm and it stayed dry for us so a little fog wasn't going to dampen our spirits.  



Going down off Pen y Ghent was really slippery so progress was slow but Chris showed us a grassy trod we could use to cut out the second half of the slippery walkway.

From there, we descended into Stainforth where there were some amazing grassy tracks to run down which felt like running on carpet.  I absolutely love this kind of descent where you can go hell for leather, knowing that if you fall it won't really hurt and that there are no divots or pot holes to twist your ankle in.  Chris and I behaved like children zooming down the hill and I couldn't resist the urge to have a bit of a race! 

Eventually, after climbing a hill I don't know the name of and making our way through a field of cows (scary!), we arrived above the towns of Settle and Giggleswick.  

The next mile or so was all downhill and we eventually arrived back into Settle. 

Chris invited us back to his for tea and cakes which were very well received by all.  

Thanks very much to Ed and John for the lifts to Settle and to Chris for the hospitality and for being our guide for the day. 

Total distance - 12.25 miles 

Canal Slog!

Once again my run with Kathryn along the canal today was hard work, even though the pace was very slow.  I don't think there has ever been a canal run with Kathryn which I have found easy.  Maybe it's running at lunch?  Who knows, I just know that it's always really hard work.

Nothing exciting to report today but Kathryn was trying to talk me into pairing up with her for the Haworth Hobble and I must say, I'm tempted.  It's only 32 miles...!

Total distance - 5.5 miles 

Where is My Cake?

Tonight I met up with the Winter Hillbillies for their Monday night run.  Josie had tempted me along with talk of cake however when I arrived, it soon became apparent that there was indeed no cake!  I felt cheated, like I had been cajoled there under false pretenses.  I nearly got straight back into my car and drove home.

After a little deliberation, I decided that I was probably better off without the cake, given all the swizzles sweeties and Hershey's 'peanut butter pumpkins' I had eaten in work today and so I set off with the gang up through the terraced gardens.

We zigzagged our way up, coming out at the bottom of the Pike and then running up to the top.  The view was amazing tonight.  I have never seen it look so beautiful.  Unfortunately, my camera could never do it any justice so I have no photos and I'm not sure whether anyone else got one but if they did, I'll add it later on.

Edit - Photo by Mark Sammon (unfortunately, and no offence to Mark as it was nothing to do with his photography skills, the photo does the view no justice but it gives an idea of the colours in the sky):

We ran down off the Pike the along George's Lane to the kennels then up to Two Lads.  It was then cross country to the mast and up the road past the trig point.

We ran down the diagonal and, unlike two days ago, I didn't get any ankle problems this time.  Yippee!

We then followed the trod down towards 'Dangerous Corner' then ran along to the 'dogger's' car park and back to the cars at the bottom barn.

No cakes or sweets magically appeared so I'm not going next week.


....joking, kind of.

I won't be back next week but not because of the lack of cake, unfortunately I have other plans, but I'll definitely be back after that as I really enjoyed myself.

Thanks guys!

Total distance - 6 miles