Got a bit messy last night at our work Christmas do which was at the Imperial War Museum at Salford Quays and was an excellent night! I slept in until 10am and then forced myself out of bed and out for a run with Ruby, seeing as I hadn't run for the last two days.
It did not go well.
I only ran to the barn and back and was absolutely knackered. I was sweating a ridiculous amount for such a slow jog. I bumped into a friend about a mile from home and used it as an excuse to walk along and have a natter before continuing with the run.
Things must be pretty bad when less than 3.5 miles is that taxing!
I'll be out again tonight for the Horwich RMI Harriers Christmas do and I have a race tomorrow so it's not looking good...
Total distance 3.4 miles
http://www.strava.com/activities/229399253
Saturday, 13 December 2014
Wednesday, 10 December 2014
Windy Windy Windy
The weather, not me.
Just a quick road run for me this morning (shocker!) as I had a busy day working from home ahead. I ran on my own and just went up past Wylderswoode Stud, then did a right onto Brinks Row before running up Old Rake onto George's Lane. From there, I ran along to Chorley Old Road, down into Horwich, along to Lever Park Avenue then home, dodging my way around a load of school kids.
It was very 'fresh' out this morning and it seems to have got wetter and windy as the day has gone on. I think it's supposed to be like this for a few days now so take care everybody out running (or out doing anything really)!
Total distance - 4.1 miles
http://www.strava.com/activities/228022793
Just a quick road run for me this morning (shocker!) as I had a busy day working from home ahead. I ran on my own and just went up past Wylderswoode Stud, then did a right onto Brinks Row before running up Old Rake onto George's Lane. From there, I ran along to Chorley Old Road, down into Horwich, along to Lever Park Avenue then home, dodging my way around a load of school kids.
It was very 'fresh' out this morning and it seems to have got wetter and windy as the day has gone on. I think it's supposed to be like this for a few days now so take care everybody out running (or out doing anything really)!
Total distance - 4.1 miles
http://www.strava.com/activities/228022793
Tuesday, 9 December 2014
Wet Wet Wet!
About 10 seconds after I stepped out of the front door tonight, the heavens opened. They stayed open for the entire run. I didn't really mind the rain so much as the fact that I couldn't see a thing! All I could see in my torch light was rain. My vision was hampered even more when I hit fog and I might as well have been running without a torch at all.
By the time we got home we were saturated and when I took my clothes off they made a big splosh as they hit the kitchen floor (yes, I got undressed in the kitchen as soon as I walked through the door - good job I'm not overlooked through the back window (not unless somebody is standing on tiptoes peering over the back fence anyway)).
Great fun though and Ruby seemed to enjoy her little self splashing through all the puddles. She did not, however, enjoy her warm shower afterwards. Why is that? Surely a warm shower is nicer than cold rain?
Total distance - 4.4 miles
http://www.strava.com/activities/227891027
By the time we got home we were saturated and when I took my clothes off they made a big splosh as they hit the kitchen floor (yes, I got undressed in the kitchen as soon as I walked through the door - good job I'm not overlooked through the back window (not unless somebody is standing on tiptoes peering over the back fence anyway)).
Great fun though and Ruby seemed to enjoy her little self splashing through all the puddles. She did not, however, enjoy her warm shower afterwards. Why is that? Surely a warm shower is nicer than cold rain?
Total distance - 4.4 miles
http://www.strava.com/activities/227891027
Monday, 8 December 2014
Piling on the Pounds…
…and it’s unlikely to get any better this side of Christmas.
I’m eating way too much at the minute, although this is nothing unusual for me to be honest. I have a HUGE appetite and a distinct lack of will power. For example, this morning I had my massive bowl of porridge (made with 50g oats and 300ml of milk) at 7.45am. By 9.45 I was ravenous and ate the butties I had brought in for my lunch. Following my run at lunch I of course then had to buy a second set of butties. I also had a couple of snacks whilst at work today from my Graze Box. I just feel hungry all the time and if I ever do get full, it’s not for very long and then I’m really hungry again. I’m putting weight on bit by bit every week so really need to get back down to a good ‘racing weight’ but with Christmas fast approaching I think I’ll probably be fighting a losing battle. I got down as far as 8 stone 10 when I first slimmed down but am now up to 9 stone 2. It's only a matter of time before I get back to my 10 stone of two years ago.
Today’s canal run with Kathryn was very cold to start with and wet underfoot due to the bad weather we’ve had over the last few days (we got nearly as muddy as an outing on the fells!) but it was good to get out and burn off all those calories. We were commenting on how hazardous running along the canal would be when it’s icy and I can see it being a challenge trying not to fall in!
Total distance – 5.35 miles
http://www.strava.com/activities/227526156/overview
Saturday, 6 December 2014
Ned's Nine
Ed had put a post on the WFDBWGUA blog earlier this week saying that he intended to do the 'Baker's Dozen' this weekend which, as some of you will know from my blog post earlier in the year, is the Coope's Dozen plus Darwen Tower, a distance of around 25 miles. I thought that sounded like a great idea and decided I'd have a bash too so I turned up this morning at the top barn ready for the start.
At the start were myself, Ed, Kev, Mary and Jim. We headed along to the Pigeon Tower car park and straight away I was feeling tired. Climbing up the hill to George's Lane I had the realisation that I may not be in for the long haul and might have to cut the run shorter at some point but thought I'd just play it by ear and see how it went.
We ran up to Noon Hill and then cross-country to the Pike. It was really cold this morning and icy but it was still really boggy running across to the Pike and we were all trying not to get our feet wet this early into the run.
From the Pike we ran down onto George's Lane and then along to the dog hotel before climbing up to Two Lads. I was still feeling really tired and practically the whole climb to Two Lads was a walk rather than a run. Kev left us at Two Lads as he was racing later that day so wanted to preserve energy.
From Two Lads the rest of us crossed the mast road and headed out to the farms before coming out onto Coal Pit Road and running along, past the trespass stone and up the path which takes you to the back of the 'secret reservoir'. Ed and I took a bit of a magical mystery tour at this point and ended up wandering through the moorland trying to get back onto a path. We saw Mary and Jim up ahead who guided us to a stile to get back onto the path.
Then came my favourite part of the run, along to Whinberry Hill and Egg Hillock, however the best part is quickly followed by the worst part of climbing up through the bracken to Counting Hill. At least at this time of year the bracken is really low and only at shin height as opposed to head height like it was during the summer.
After the slog up to Counting Hill, we continued along to the trig point on Winter Hill. By this point the weather was getting pretty grim. It was really cold and there was an icy wind with a bit of rain. The fog was really down too and Jim and Mary soon disappeared into the distance and that was the last we saw of them on this run. They had said earlier that they were only going as far as Winter Hill so I assume the headed back home at this point.
Ed and I ran down to Hoorden Stoops and had a bit of grub for a few minutes. My hands got cold so quickly after taking off my gloves to eat and I couldn't get them warm again. I ended up running with my fists balled up inside my gloves with the glove fingers just dangling empty.
We were both pretty cold by now and had very cold wet feet and we made an executive decision not to bother going over to Darwen Tower. We then made the decision to leave out Old Adams too and just head straight for Great Hill, over Spitlers.
Once on Great Hill, the summits got fewer still as we agreed to leave out Round Loaf and go straight down to White Coppice.
You guessed it, by White Coppice we were both very cold and tired and decided to just head back to the barn.
At the point we decided to cut out Darwen Tower and Old Adams and were left with 11 summits, I decided to call the run 'Ed's Eleven'. However, as we had now also eliminated Round Loaf and Healey Nab, I had to come up with another name but couldn't think of anything which would go well with nine. I commented on this to Ed and said that it's a shame he isn't called Ned as we could call it 'Ned's Nine'. Ah well, I'm going to call it that anyway!
Funnily enough when we finished we found that we were only two miles shy of the entire Coope's Dozen route.
Another excellent Saturday morning run with great company. The run might have got shorter and shorter but it didn't get any less enjoyable.
Total distance - 16.47 miles
http://www.strava.com/activities/226761177
At the start were myself, Ed, Kev, Mary and Jim. We headed along to the Pigeon Tower car park and straight away I was feeling tired. Climbing up the hill to George's Lane I had the realisation that I may not be in for the long haul and might have to cut the run shorter at some point but thought I'd just play it by ear and see how it went.
We ran up to Noon Hill and then cross-country to the Pike. It was really cold this morning and icy but it was still really boggy running across to the Pike and we were all trying not to get our feet wet this early into the run.
From the Pike we ran down onto George's Lane and then along to the dog hotel before climbing up to Two Lads. I was still feeling really tired and practically the whole climb to Two Lads was a walk rather than a run. Kev left us at Two Lads as he was racing later that day so wanted to preserve energy.
From Two Lads the rest of us crossed the mast road and headed out to the farms before coming out onto Coal Pit Road and running along, past the trespass stone and up the path which takes you to the back of the 'secret reservoir'. Ed and I took a bit of a magical mystery tour at this point and ended up wandering through the moorland trying to get back onto a path. We saw Mary and Jim up ahead who guided us to a stile to get back onto the path.
Then came my favourite part of the run, along to Whinberry Hill and Egg Hillock, however the best part is quickly followed by the worst part of climbing up through the bracken to Counting Hill. At least at this time of year the bracken is really low and only at shin height as opposed to head height like it was during the summer.
After the slog up to Counting Hill, we continued along to the trig point on Winter Hill. By this point the weather was getting pretty grim. It was really cold and there was an icy wind with a bit of rain. The fog was really down too and Jim and Mary soon disappeared into the distance and that was the last we saw of them on this run. They had said earlier that they were only going as far as Winter Hill so I assume the headed back home at this point.
Ed and I ran down to Hoorden Stoops and had a bit of grub for a few minutes. My hands got cold so quickly after taking off my gloves to eat and I couldn't get them warm again. I ended up running with my fists balled up inside my gloves with the glove fingers just dangling empty.
We were both pretty cold by now and had very cold wet feet and we made an executive decision not to bother going over to Darwen Tower. We then made the decision to leave out Old Adams too and just head straight for Great Hill, over Spitlers.
Once on Great Hill, the summits got fewer still as we agreed to leave out Round Loaf and go straight down to White Coppice.
You guessed it, by White Coppice we were both very cold and tired and decided to just head back to the barn.
At the point we decided to cut out Darwen Tower and Old Adams and were left with 11 summits, I decided to call the run 'Ed's Eleven'. However, as we had now also eliminated Round Loaf and Healey Nab, I had to come up with another name but couldn't think of anything which would go well with nine. I commented on this to Ed and said that it's a shame he isn't called Ned as we could call it 'Ned's Nine'. Ah well, I'm going to call it that anyway!
Funnily enough when we finished we found that we were only two miles shy of the entire Coope's Dozen route.
Another excellent Saturday morning run with great company. The run might have got shorter and shorter but it didn't get any less enjoyable.
Total distance - 16.47 miles
http://www.strava.com/activities/226761177
Friday, 5 December 2014
It's Been a Looooonnnnggggg Week!
After starting the week all enthusiastic about getting stuck into some good hard training, things didn’t quite go to plan. I usually work from home on a Wednesday so was planning on doing a good speed session down at The Street. Unfortunately, I was asked to come into the office because we had a big project on and I had a lot of work to do to meet the client's deadline. I usually leave the office at 3.30 (having started at 7.30) but on Wednesday I didn’t leave until after 6pm. By the time I got home I was knackered and still had to take Ruby out and get tea ready, etc so I decided to postpone my run until the next day.
Thursday turned out no better though and, again, I didn’t leave work until late and then I had to log back on once I got home and was working until 9pm so yet another run missed.
Today I was dying to get out but I knew that a speed session was now out of the question because I have neglected Ruby all week and she has barely been out so I decided to have a slow run with her instead.
We just did our usual five mile route to the barn and pigeon tower. It was one of those nights were running with a head torch was proving hard work because all I could see was my cold breath in front of my face.
Only just over ten miles so far this week so I'd better get the miles in over the weekend! Should get a fair few in tomorrow as I'm supposed to be doing the 25 mile 'Baker's Dozen' but I haven't decided yet whether to do the entire thing or not. We'll see...
Total distance - 5.1 miles
http://www.strava.com/activities/226466685
Tuesday, 2 December 2014
Postponed Canal Run
Monday's run along the canal had to be delayed this week for various reasons so Kathryn and I met up today for a run instead. We also had a bloke called Andy with us who also works in the building.
We ran along to Old Trafford by the side of the canal and the river and then back again through some trails and wasteland and there was even a VERY short steep muddy hill to run up so we did have a teeny tiny fell experience during today's run to make us feel at home.
My legs were quite achy today and I was struggling to keep the pace a bit but Kathryn pulled me along which is one of the reasons I really enjoy this run because if I'd been on my own I would have slowed down a lot more.
Total distance - 5.35 miles
http://www.strava.com/activities/225578411
We ran along to Old Trafford by the side of the canal and the river and then back again through some trails and wasteland and there was even a VERY short steep muddy hill to run up so we did have a teeny tiny fell experience during today's run to make us feel at home.
My legs were quite achy today and I was struggling to keep the pace a bit but Kathryn pulled me along which is one of the reasons I really enjoy this run because if I'd been on my own I would have slowed down a lot more.
Total distance - 5.35 miles
http://www.strava.com/activities/225578411
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