November 2011 – Not a Jogger

A Favourite Run

By Dan Crane

“My current favourite run takes me from home in Upper Holloway, North London, down through Tufnell Park, Kentish Town and Camden to Regent’s Park. I do a lap of the Park and head back the way I came. I tend to do it as my weekend long run, which is usually a steady session with no intervals or hills. That direct route is about 9.5 miles but I can add miles by going around the top of Hampstead Heath at the beginning or coming back through Kings Cross and Angel.

Whichever route I take to get there, the highlight is the lap of the Park. I enjoy it so much for several reasons:

1) In my pre-running days I used to accompany Notajogger to Regent’s
Park 10K races. I think the early morning race buzz was a big
contributor to me getting the running bug.

2) Being able to get there so easily, without using public transport, makes me feel more connected to the city in which I’m living. London can feel pretty vast and impersonal, but this makes it feel a bit more local.

3) It’s flat and in the early mornings not too crowded. There are lots of people there, but they’re there doing things. Walking dogs, playing football, cricket, lacrosse, or cycling round the outer road.

The next time I’m in there will be for the 10K race this Sunday, when I’ll see if the last 8 weeks of training pay off.

Wish me luck.”

We’ll call it a draw (The return of Mr Notajogger)

By Dan Crane:

On Saturday I did my second parkrun. parkruns are “free 5k timed runs every week all around the country, and around the world”. Have a look at www.parkrun.com. Once you’ve registered with them online you can turn up to any run without booking, so it’s dead flexible. My nearest is at Finsbury Park, which is a perfect distance from home as I can get there with a 10 minute jog (can I say jog on here?), leaving me warmed up and ready to go.

Not that I should need a particular reason to take part, but both times I’ve used it as a tempo run session. It fits neatly in to my 10K training schedule, which has a 20 minute tempo session each Saturday (I don’t think I’ll ever be able to do a 5K in 20 minutes, but that just puts me in training credit, right?).

So, I did my first parkrun about a month ago, in the first or second week of the training schedule finishing in 21:13. That was a 5k personal best and, as a tempo run should be, I was going as fast as possible whilst still being able to complete the distance. I didn’t time any splits but I felt like I was maintaining a pretty even pace. At the end I was knackered.

My second was after 5 more weeks of training. The plan was, as with the first, to just go as fast as I could without timing any splits and to only look at my watch at the finish line. I felt like I started at a similar pace but, in contrast to the first, during the second lap (it’s a two lap course) I was seriously flagging and felt like I slowed down considerably. I expected a finish time of around 22 minutes, so was surprised when I finished bang-on 21:13 again.

After a few moments of happiness at being faster than I thought, the following questions sprang to mind regarding my identical times:

Does it mean
a) the training has made me no faster?
b) I am generally faster but more tired on the day after some heavy training weeks?
c) I started too fast and the time lost slowing down in the second lap negated time gained in the first? or
d) I need more decimal places on my watch?

And with regard to the 10k race I’m training for:

i) My previous best is 43:57, and I’m aiming for a time faster than that, and as near to 43:00 as I can. So, if after 5k at 21:13 pace I’m knackered, do I have a hope in hell of staying on similar pace for twice the distance?

ii) But, the 5k course has two hills per lap (one long and gentle, one short and steep), whereas the 10k course is pretty much flat. Does this mean I can expect to be faster? How much time do those hills add on?

Well, if anyone has any answers, please let me know because I don’t. All I know is that the training is good, worthwhile and will contribute to my overall fitness. I’ll prepare as best I can by eating sensibly and getting a good night’s sleep before it, but my time in the race will probably rest largely on how I feel on the day. I’ll keep you posted.

The Craziness of the (very) Long Distance Runner

Sent to me by a running friend on Friday 18th November:

“I was already starting to worry even before I saw the flashing lights of the police car. It pulled up alongside me and the window opened. “What the hell are you doing? You can’t run along a motorway!”

To explain why I was stopped by the police this morning running along the hard shoulder of the A1M, I must first rewind to the Barcelona marathon in March 2010. This was my final major training run before attempting the Marathon de Sables in April 2010 – six marathons in seven days, in the scorching heat of the Sahara, carrying all your own gear and food. The Barcelona marathon went well – I finished in a respectable time – but the nagging pain in my foot which had been there all week was starting to throb by the time I crossed the finishing line. And by the time I disembarked from my overnight train to Paris and headed to the Eurostar for London, I was in agony. Two days later a scan confirmed a severely inflamed tendon and six months of training was for nothing – there was no way I’d be making it to the start in the Sahara.

The Marathon de Sables is always fully booked more than 12 months ahead, so I had to defer my 2010 place to 2012. Except now my life is very different – we have a wonderful 18-month-old son, and my wife was understandably not thrilled at the prospect of me disappearing to the desert. So we struck a deal – I could attempt the desert run, provided my training did not dominate our weekends.

So I’ve got creative during the week. Running in from home (Kings Cross) to the office (Charing Cross) is easy but fairly pointless since it’s only 2 miles. But a client meeting in Chiswick? Now you’re talking – suit in a bag, run 12 miles along the Thames, and hope they have a shower room. Ditto for Shepherds Bush, White City, and even Watford. The more you run around and across London, the smaller it seems. And so this morning I set off at 5am, suit in backpack and Google directions in hand, to cover the 30 miles to Luton Airport to catch an 11am flight to Inverness for a friend’s wedding tomorrow.

The start is fairly easy to navigate – Holloway Road, Archway, Highgate, East Finchley – but once past Totteridge it became more challenging. After High Barnet the pavement became a dirt track; then that disappeared too; and now I was approaching the junction between the A1M and M25. At this point, both Google’s directions and the motorway signs failed me – or perhaps I failed them – and rather than the intended B556 I found myself on the hard shoulder of the A1M. This clearly wasn’t good. I wasn’t sure whether to be worried or relieved when the police car pullled up alongside me.

The policeman shook his head in bemusement and pointed to a bridge crossing the motorway about 50 yards ahead. “You want to be up there mate. Just scramble up the bank and get on the bridge and you’ll be fine.”

So scramble I did, and after that the directions were easy even if the run was not. I bailed out at St Albans after 20 miles to take the train to the airport – partly from tiredness, partly from concern not to miss my flight – and as I now sit at Luton Airport I am chuckling at my morning and reflecting that this is why I love running. Not for the buzz, or achievement, or runner’s high; but for a sense of adventure. How many other of tomorrow’s guests will have been stopped by the police en route to the wedding?”

Why I run (An Italian Perspective)

By Brian:

Why do I run? This is a question that would be quite difficult to answer because it has now become something I just do, like why most people watch TV. They come home, sit on the sofa and switch on the TV, there’s no thought process to it, they just do it because that’s what you do when you come home from work. It’s the same for me with running. Although I love getting outdoors, I don’t take great pleasure whilst actually running unless, perversely, it’s in heavy rain. I always feel great afterwards though, which is probably the point; I think this feeling could also be due to having a nice hot shower and the guilt-free eating and drinking that ensues.

When I was younger I was very active, in addition to eating and drinking: football, walking, tennis and martial arts were all a part of my daily routine, but then I moved to London and I stopped doing everything, except the eating and drinking, which at the time were definitely not guilt-free. However that was 15 years ago, and I now live surrounded by the awesome beauty of Italian Alps.

I eventually got my act together and started running.

So, why did I start running? Now, that’s an easier question to answer. I started just over three years ago due to a personal crisis, which I won’t go into here. This compelled me to get out of the house, thus giving me an opportunity to try and resolve certain problems and also fantasise about how I would spend that lottery win (I still do this now as I never listen to music while running). In sorting out my head it helped me tremendously, especially when I started shedding weight, I lost about 9kg in two/three months; it was nice to feel svelte again.

My running schedule is very regular (four or five times a week), but lacks focus due to the fact that I’ve never entered any races, a situation I hope to change next year. I have three main routes that I use, well I say routes, they’re all along the same cycle path which follows the River Adige. The distances I run are: 8k (when I’m tired), 11k (my regular distance) and 14k (my weekly long run). I can’t tell you my personal bests for each distance because I’ve never done a race and Notajogger reckons training doesn’t count. However, I can say that if I entered a 10k race, I would expect a sub-42min-race and my target would be 40 min.

For those who may be interested, here are my monthly distances and times for the last 6 months:

November:	85.0 km	6:14:23
October:	150.0 km	10:58:05
September:	176.0 km	12:56:34
August:	139.0 km	10:33:30
July:	177.0 km	13:07:23
June:	180.0 km	13:19:06

The distances usually drop off during the late-summer due to the ridiculous heat in Italy and I also visit the UK, where I mainly do forest runs and I don’t keep an accurate log of distances run.

Next time I hope to take you on a run down the River Adige with me.

Keep your head up (Mr Notajogger speaks)

By Dan Crane:

“Keep your head up. This is what I find myself repeating each time I have to do hill sessions on my current training plan. A good bit of advice given by Notajogger, it keeps good posture and other technical things like that, and means you can see where you’re going.

I’m training for a 10k race in 2 weeks’ time. I’m on week 5 of 8, each week having one hill session of either 10 x short hills (run fast up a hill for 1 minute, jog back down), 5 x long hills (run fast up a hill for 2 minutes, jog back down), or 10 x tempo hills (run fast up a hill for a minute, run fast back down). As Notajogger has said before, this can look pretty strange to passers by. Like you keep remembering something really important and forgetting it again, or are rapidly indecisive.

Today was 5 x long hills and the session followed a typical pattern.

Despite the 5 minute warm up, the first rep is a bit of a blur as I’m still waking up. On the second I’m in my stride – awake, alert and capable of maintaining speed and composure all the way up. The third is like the second, with the added boost of it being nearer to the session’s end than the beginning, but I‘m beginning to feel tired. On the fourth I’m genuinely, officially tired and start to drag my feet a bit. On the way down my trainers squeak from scuffing the pavement.

The fifth is both great because it’s the last one, and messy because I’m a stumbling, sweaty, drooling mess. Not pleasant, but when I’m struggling to get enough air in to my lungs it’s easier to drool than not to.

But throughout I was keeping my head up. I didn’t run into anyone, hopefully I didn’t injure anything, and anyone out and about early enough really got to see me drool.”

You think I love running? Meet my friends…

I won’t be running for the next few weeks, but many of my friends will be and I am delighted to say that some of them have been volunteered to write about it in my absence.

If you, dear Reader, would also like to share a thought about your running (in general, or a specific run just as you finish it) on this blog, that would be AMAZING – just email it to me on gina.crane AT googlemail.com.

Stay tuned for some interesting stories told by other runners, not joggers. Ok, maybe some joggers too…

Running out….

I’ve been talking about it, I’ve been thinking about it, now I actually have to do it. I have to stop running.

Just for a while, maybe four weeks. To some people this would be an early Christmas present, or at least not a big deal, but not to me. I first put on my trainers with intent in 1994, ran a half- marathon in 2000 and have run 3-5 times a week ever since, barring injury.

I run on holiday. I run on Christmas Day. I run therefore I am.

Is this right? An awful lot of how I feel about myself is defined by running. How I feel about my body, about food. I sometimes think that my self-esteem is propped up only by running. As a literal example of this, when I was seeing a psychologist for a while last year I used to run to and from the sessions, and sit there sweating for 45 minutes in between.

Hmm.

It’s good to run, objectively. Running is a good thing, good for the body, the mind and the soul. However, I am not entirely made of running. Should running define me? Most people who meet me have no idea I run, I hope. Does that mean they don’t really know me? I don’t think so.

Last Gasp of Autumn

Sunday was the kind of day that we used to call ‘unseasonably mild’: 17 C (62 F) in mid-November. I wonder if it’s now ‘seasonably’ mild? In any case it felt like spring, not winter, was around the corner. In my garden the rambling rose which began flowering in April is again in bud.

The last of the falling leaves were calling me outside. My bed was warm, but the sunlight was warmer. I think this might be my last ‘long’ run for a while. I managed an hour, stopping to walk sometimes, taking my weekly mileage to a weakling 15.

Enough of the self-pity, it was an amazing run. As I crossed the top of Alexandra Palace park I was on a literal and metaphorical high. I slowed down to savour the view: trees, newly empty of leaves; a blue mist over miles of rooves and chimneys; a couple sitting on a bench far away enough always to look happy.

Mid-way across the park, this song came on my i-pod. Like all the best Low songs, it sounds like sadness and glory, fear and hope. It could make a grown woman, running across a sunlit park on a November day, cry. Especially me.

Gym Jams

I darkened the doors of my gym last night as it felt less risky than running outside. Lack of risk was in this case defined by proximity to toilet facilities, rather than likelihood of muggings.

The receptionist at Fitness First greeted me with suspicion. I think she was confused as to why I had come in two weeks in a row. Or did she greet everyone in this way? A strange feeling of unreality persisted throughout my visit. In the changing room a woman stood touching her toes, backed right up against a large mirror, naked but for two blue plastic bags on her feet. On the cross-trainer next to mine, a woman was pushing out the miles, head down, with her chin touching her chest for 25 minutes. I never saw her face. While stretching, the woman behind me stopped lifting weights periodically to do a handstand against a pillar.

As I was leaving, waiting to swap my locker key for my membership card and get the hell out, the wary receptionist handed me a ticket for a spin class instead. I was wearing my coat and scarf. “Don’t make me go back in there”, I said.

A run-walk strategy

I love that there is a technical term for “walking for a bit”. Last night I adopted a run-walk strategy on my way home from work. This was sort of intentional, or at least inevitable. Cumulative tiredness has left me struggling to find the energy for running but I reasoned that: a) I had to get home somehow; and b) some of that ‘how’ could be running.

There were several bonuses to this approach. Within my ‘run-walk strategy’ I could find time for window shopping, for day-dreaming about shopping, and for actual shopping. The first was mainly indulged on Upper Street, and particularly at this shoe shop:

The poorly photographed boot (bottom right, ankle variety) had the most perfect heel I’ve seen. It was curved so sweetly it distracted me from the fact that my own functionally-shod heels hadn’t moved in five minutes. I plodded on.

The day-dreaming then induced by the passing slideshow of gleaming windows built into a theoretical orgy of consumption as I acquired multiple coats and dresses, more shoes, two woollen jumpers, a scarf and a 50s reclining chair from heaven.

My actual shopping was done in Tesco on the Stroud Green Road.