Tag: canals

Day 6/30 – Tormented by canal desires

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First of all, an apology. I was absolutely knackered yesterday and actually fell asleep, laptop on knee, whilst writing up my Juneathon efforts. There was a much better entry planned in my head as I ran, one that was full of witty bon mots and insightful comment. What you ended up with was something barely literate and lightly dribbled on. After that, I crashed out for an hour before heading out for a lovely afternoon/evening with big sis and my adorable niece.

There was no way on this earth that I was going to get up for an early run. No alarm was set and yet I still woke up at bang on 5.45. Thanks Juneathon. Needless to say, I looked at the time, muttered darkly and fell back asleep. A bit unfortunate because a morning run should have been a given today as it’s my mate’s birthday and we were off sailing the dark and choppy waters of the Leeds-Liverpool canal.

I reckon that everyone should have a go on a canal barge at some point in their lives, it’s ace! It’s brilliant seeing things from a different perspective and at a different pace, even if it’s somewhere that you know quite well. The route that we chose took us down to where I tend to do my canal runs and the outward journey was pretty much a repeat of one of my most regretted and hellish runs ever. It was far nicer on a boat.

Where I start my canal runs, viewed from a barge

It’s definitely left me with a taste for a towpath run along a different section of canal. The downside of this is that I’ll have to park up at the ice cream parlour that we went to yesterday (and might well have accidentally called in at again today…) and resist the lure of a single scoop with sprinkles.

Oh yes, today’s exercise. I’m not sure what was the most amazing part of today – the fact that I stayed sober or the fact that I went for a run at the end of all this. Only 2.5 mile s (which was all that I wanted to do after my narcoleptic antics yesterday) and at a deliberately slow pace. I’ve come to the conclusion that if I want to start getting my distance up a bit, I need to keep an eye on my pace and this seemed an ideal opportunity to get used to using the nagging garmin to watch what I was doing. When I uploaded my stats, it was interesting (to me anyway) to see that my deliberately slower pace was the same as my average for yesterday when I was set off nicely then ground to a halt. I think that this should teach me something.

Junearrrghthon

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I can’t believe it’s that time of year, but Juneathon is nearly upon us. Last year I adopted a pretty flexible approach and used it as a chance to try new stuff (an aerobics class, driving range, crown green bowling…), but this year I thought “Let’s do this properly. Run every day, even if it’s just 20minutes”.  I thought that, signed myself up via the medium of JogBlog and momentarily felt smug.

The smugness lasted til I mentioned my plan to husband, who kindly pointed out that we’re going on our jollies a week earlier this year so the final week of Juneathon will be spent in a tent in Kent. This may prove interesting.

In other news, I had a lovely run along the canal tonight – sun shining, little duckies swimming, magic horses standing on the bridge. Mind you, I did manage a bit of thickery by setting off with my sunglasses (again) and having to tuck them into my bra. Had I not tucked them into my bra  it might have prevented a  fly from making a crash landing in my eye. No lasting blindness, but I think the chap I ran past while winking madly might still be disturbed.

Ducks, hens, bunnies

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I’ve been holding off posting until I could post somthing positive. Positive and about running.

Following my last entry, I was bouncing with enthusiasm for a nice long(ish) Sunday run on one of my favourite routes along the canal – I was chilled about speed, distance, time, whatever, even taking my camera with me so that I could stop to smell the flowers and snap the sheep in the fields. I set off. I managed a quite literally staggering 2 minutes 45 seconds and couldn’t go any further – my arms and legs felt heavy and it was like running through treacle. I felt absolutely exhausted, but wasn’t going to give in. Ended up with a total of 2.55miles plodding and plod/walking, oh, and a lovely picture of some sleepy ducks.

Sleepy ducks

Sleepy ducks

This was followed by another 30minute morning run on Monday, which was still slow, but this time my hands didn’t swell up like bear paws so I called it a success. Unfortunately, this was followed by a week where I felt totally whacked and reminded me of glandular fever.

Clearly, these are not the positive things that I promised in the first sentence.

I have also been knitting for Easter, creating an army of fuzzy chicks and a pair of egg cosies from a pattern by the awesome Little Cotton Rabbits.

Bunnies

Bunnies

Hens

Hens

It doesn’t take a genius to workout that I more naturally inclined towards knitting (with its sitting down in the warm) than running (with its moving around outside).

However positive that it is, it’s not positive and about running (as promised in the first sentence).

I had 2 lovely runs on Good Friday and Saturday, followed by a Tuesday night club run. I’ll admit that I’ve been avoiding these a bit recently as the gulf between the plodders at the back (me) and the speedy gonzales at the front (everyone else) seemed to be getting wider and wider. Last night, I was lucky enough to run with one of the coaches who, as well as being the most scarily positive person in the world ever, gave me lots of advice and encouragement. As well as getting me round 4.23miles (the longest I’ve run in over a month), I averaged 11.07 minutes/mile. I know that these stats aren’t exactly world beating, but at the weekend I was chuffed enough with  2.7 miles at 11.06 minutes/mile and I now realise that I could either be going further or faster.

Suddenly, the glass feels half full and I can feel a bit of confidence creeping back. It’s a rather nice feeling.

First run of the year

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Two posts in two days – get in!

It might have been blogging yesterday, it might have been the promise of a steaming bowl of porridge and the madness/genius of test match special, it might just have been that I’m fairly embarrassed by my inactivity – whatever it was, it motivated me to pull on my trainers and head out of the door. The plan was for 3 miles, nothing earth shattering, and I went my multiple choice route so I could choose where I ended up. Although I thought I’d do a there and back to my 1.5mile pub landmark (now demolished to be replaced with 3 and 4 bedroom luxury homes – I can’t say I’d fancy living in a house whose foundations have been sealed in ice for a week. They were like little brick icebergs isolated a sea of frozen muddiness), I ended up going past there and carrying on in a loop. The loop took me home at 3.72 miles, so I rounded up to 4 around the back streets. It wasn’t the fastest 4 miles in the world, but they were all my own work. And I had the great excitement of noticing a tiny wooden hut of a church on the main road. I’ve lived in the village about 2 and a half years now and have never noticed it before; this is not a great reflection on my observational skills, but was quite exciting.

In the afternoon, we had a bracing walk/slide down by the canal and called in at the running shop to buy me some new trainers. Running Amok’s description of his shoes kind of describes what my old ones were like, so I’m now the proud owner of a pair of Brooks Ariel. They’re a control shoe, so only one step away from being a special orthopaedic boot, but they’re damn comfy and when I’ve clumped round the house in left new shoe and old right shoe, I can see a difference in my alignment. I suspect that they’re going to take a bit of getting used to as my knees are rediscovering what it feels like to face the right direction.

I was also talked into buying some special socks (I was giddy and easily persuaded) – I’m sure proper socks are important, but have never ventured down that path (Surely socks are socks?) and have a nagging doubt that I’ve been sold sock-shaped snake oil. My question therefore, is – are socks good?

Frozen Canal

Snowing at the canal

Canal

Idiot husband "just testing" the ice

Today’s run – 4 miles, average pace 11.10.

NB. Husband would like to issue the following disclaimer “I did not actually walk on the ice and do not condone such behaviour from fellow idiots”. I can vouch that he didn’t walk on the ice, or even put two feet on, as he was holding onto me at the time, just in case.

Rain + rain = puddles

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A certain amount of thickery today… Despite the fact that it has rained pretty much every day since, um, ages ago, my little brain didn’t click that this would result in the canal towpath being mainly puddles. We nearly gave up before we started as our usual route is closed for lock repairs, we had to fight through hedgerow to get past anglers’ brollies, got distracted by ducks and then had a mile of puddle dodging/near drowning. I don’t mind getting wet or muddy, but have wonky ankles and a poor sense of balance so muddy puddles are fraught with danger for me, especially when they’re next to the cold, dark depths of the Leeds-Liverpool. After a mile we gave up on the towpath and went on the road to run through the town centre instead. Not necessarily the rural nature run I had in mind, but we did 5 miles.

Time: 01:00:32
Distance: 5.01 mi
Elevation Gain: 595 ft
Calories: 600 C

At what point do you realise that you have no shame as a runner? I think I’m nearly there after going to Asda post run, mud-splattered tights, windswept hair, bright red face, soaking wet trainers…and I didn’t bat an eyelid.