darkness

With Grim Night Terror less than 3 weeks away, I decided now was as good a time as ever to order a proper head torch. I had a silly little one that was enough to use for changing a fuse in the dark but nowhere near substantial for an 8 mile run around MOD property in the pitch black.

So good old ebay was trawled and a suitably cheap (£12) and suitably bright alternative was purchased. Once it arrived, there was nothing for it but to take it for a night time test run. Out and back along the canal towpath should do the trick so I set off a little after 5pm for an 11km trot. I was worried that the light would slip off my head once I began to work up a sweat but it stayed put and worked admirably. The only modification required was a dab of Blu Tac to hold the adjustable lens in position – a trick discovered whilst training for last years Dunwich Dynamo. 

There was something very peaceful about running along in the darkness with only about 3 metres ahead visible. Bushes to the right of me faded away into the darkness and to the left of me there was about a metre of mud and grass before it all dropped away into the inky (and no doubt icy) blackness of water flowing along the canal. Steam from my breath occasionally caught the beam from the headtorch creating ghostly glows in front of my eyes. It was all very surreal.

Good fun though… and now I’m looking forward to Grim even more than I was. I just need to find something to strap my (weak) right ankle as if I can twist it running Grim in the daytime, imagine the damage I could do to myself in the dark.

Soundtrack to this post: Orbital – Dr Who

maintenance

A glance at my last post indicates that it is a while since I last blogged. So to bring us up to date I wish you all a Very Merry Christmas. And a Happy New Year. If I’d have left it any longer, I’d be about to wish you a great Easter too but fortunately here I am.
Christmas was good and very busy socially and I felt I should take time to wind down a little so subsequently eased off of the blogging. I’ve still been running though, just nothing exceptional. 10 to 12kms every 3 or so days just to keep me in practice and to ward off the advent of the “Cheese Baby” that I could potentially have looked like I was about to give birth to.
I knew I had eaten a lot (although not perhaps as much as previous years) so did something that I very rarely do… weighed myself. I was prepared for the worst so was very happy to find that all of Xmas’s excesses had only culminated in an additional 2kgs on top of my average normal weight. To be honest, I would have been surprised at anything under 5kgs so 2 kilos seemed like a pittance.
Over the Xmas break, I signed up for the Marlow Duathlon in March. I’ve decided this year will not be a year of many races and instead I shall attempt things that are a little out of the ordinary of things that I haven’t done before so a Duathlon seemed as good a place as any to start. I also plan to do the running bits in the Vibrams and the cycling bit on the single speed… I’ve a feeling I may incur the wrath of the “serious” duathletes but I just want to enjoy it as much as possible and I’m not too hung up on how long it takes me to finish. With that in mind, I was laying in bed last night just before falling asleep and decided that today would be a good day to do my first bit of Duathlon specific training. I would get up and take the bike out for a spin and then return, change shoes and go straight back out and run.
It took a little will power this morning when I awoke to a chilly and overcast Sunday morning, but 1 capuccino later I was ready to take on the world. I prepared everything (bottle of juice for my “transition”, change of shoes, cycling helmet) and grabbed the bike from the garage. I’d decided on a 20km ride followed by a 10k run (the actual race is 7k run / 25k bike / 7k run) so jumped on the bike, hit start on the Garmin and set off on a vague idea of a route that I thought would cover about 20km. It was mostly winding country roads and once the initial chill of the January morning was overcome, it was a very pleasant ride. I pushed where I felt I wanted to but just concentrated on maintaining and steady but quickish pace. I arrived back at my garage after 21.25km, eased the bike back into position past the other bikes and my motorbike, changed into the Vibrams, swigged at the juice in my bottle, locked the garage and was on my way again. The shift from bike to run was the hardest bit of the whole exercise and felt a bit like Bambi as my wobbly legs struggled to go from a circular motion to a stride. Once the legs remembered what they were supposed to be doing, the running felt slow but steady and I soon got into a comfortable pace. I knew the route I was going to run (my usual out and back 10-12k) so turned off the brain and daydreamed my way through the next 11kms.
At the end, I felt better than I had expected. No worse in fact than if I had just done the run on it’s own. The overall distance was 7kms short of the real thing (4kms bike and 3kms run shy) but the 25km ride is topped and tailed with 7kms of running at either end and that is what I must tackle next. It’s all very well to attempt a run after a cycle but imagine that will feel an auful lot different if I have already run 7kms before the cycle and then have to go and do it again. Still, time will tell and today’s little excursion has boosted my confidence and given me an insight into what I still need to work on next time.

Soundtrack to this post: Louis Prima – Jump, Jive An’ Wail

cold feet

3 runs this week. All along the same route, all just under 11kms, 2 in Vibrams and one in the Saucony Kinvara 2′s.
The more I run in the Vibrams, the harder I find it to run in regular running shoes. The Saucony’s are magnifcent – light, comfortable, bright yellow(!) but it becomes increasingly difficult to transition from no elevation from heel to toe and no padding to a minimal running shoe with only 4mm of lift and a little cushioning – perhaps I need to take the plunge and go for the Saucony Hattori’s with their flat, minimal soles.
The problem with the Vibrams is one of temperature…. in as much as my feet get bloody freezing in temperatures below about 5 celsius.
Vibrams are great for feeling exactly what is beneath your feet and this is also true when the ground is icy – you feel the ice on the surface and the cold. The slippery sensation is oddly reassuring – big padded trainers only usually let you know that the ground is very slippery as you lose your footing and scramble to maintain your balance. The Vibrams allow you to feel exactly how slippery the surface underfoot is and you are able to adjust your pace / gait. Unfortunately, they offer little grip but I suppose forewarned is forearmed. Perhaps some of the other more “off-road” style VFF’s may offer more grip but I’m not about to shell out £120ish just to find out. And the problem with your feet getting cold is that you lose feeling and end up pounding the ground harder as you can’t feel exactly how hard your feet are hitting the floor. Ah well, roll on Spring… we’re only 3 days from the shortest day and then we commence the giddy descent into longer daylight hours. And that was my attempt at optimism….

Talking of Spring and Optimism, I am currently thinking of races I could take part in that would be a bit different from the standard 10k and Half Marathon. I’m already signed up for the Grim Night Terror in February but am considering a Sprint Duathlon in the Vibrams and on the Singlespeed. I’ve never done a duathlon before, and perhaps making it more difficult by doing the run in minimal footwear and the ride with no gears is lunacy, but I think it has the potential to be fun. And I’d like as much fun as possible please before I begin seriously training for the Berlin Marathon.

Soundtrack to this post: DRC Music – Hallo ft. Tout Puissant Mukalo, Nelly Liyemge

grim original 2011 – wetter and better

Saturday marked my now annual participation in Grim Original. This was the third time I have taken part – you can read the previous years experiences here and here.
Grim is always fun – attracting, as it does, reasonably serious runners who don’t take themselves too seriously. On the start line this year were, in addition to the scores of slightly nervous looking runners in normal running attire, a number of men in dresses, a few in just speedos, one in the MOST HORRIFIC MANKINI and another in the best cardboard and gaffer tape approximation of Optimus Prime I have ever seen. All this effort to run, wade and crawl through puddles and mud and over obstacles.
This year the organisers had tweaked the course slightly to abbreviate what has become known as “the boring bit” and included some additional obstacles such as logs, railway tracks and some concrete blocks. This does actually make the course beter, if a little tougher, as they all come in the last half of the race when you are soaked and muddy and begin to get tired.
This years race was an odd one for me for a couple of reasons – Firstly, it was surprisingly mild. Last years event was postponed until January as there was snow on the ground, puddles were frozen solid and roads were impassable. Not so this year which was a positively balmy 11 degrees and had me wondering weather my combination of long sleeve top and wooly hat were perhaps a little pessimistic. Secondly, this was the first Grim at which I managed to slightly injure myself, going over on my right ankle within the first couple of miles and then subsequently as it was weakened, about another 4 times before the run was complete. Not enough to stop me from completing but enough to temper my usual child like glee that I have squelching through mud and jumping in puddles. And besides, the ankle now, 4 days after the event is a quite fetching mixture of blues and mauves and purples.
It is a great race, made much better by the loss of “the boring bit”, the addition of the extra obstacles and the increased amounts of rain in the days prior to the event making the puddles that little bit deeper and the mud that little bit squelchier. I’ll be back next December but before that I am already signed up for Grim Night Terror in February – more of the same but at night. With just headtorches. I can’t wait.

Soundtrack to this post: Rocket Juice And The Moon – Here We Go (Live)

go outdoors – even when it’s cold

I’d been toying with the idea of getting a warm running top for the colder months for some while but as November had, until now, been very mild, I’d been putting it off. When I could no longer deny that the nights were drawing in and the temperature was dropping, I meandered onto the Go Outdoors site to see what I could find. First stop was their “Thermals” section which had thermal base layers for skiing and walking but nothing for running. Changing tack I looked at their Base Layers range which seemed to be just the ticket. I was pretty picky discerning with the features that I was looking for (must be long sleeve, must have a zip that comes at least to mid chest level, good technical fibre, preferably black). The Helly Hansen Warm Freeze Half Zip Men’s Baselayer Top seemed to have everything that I was looking for so ordered it. The first surprise was that I ordered it on Friday afternoon and on Sunday (yes, Sunday, day of rest and all that) a delivery driver knocked on my door to hand the parcel to me. Hurrah!
The second surprise was when I took it out of the pack – I had always been wary of buying a technical top made of Merino Wool. I know everyone says it is a very good technical fabric but I was worried that it would look / feel a bit “jumper-y”. So I was delighted when I pulled it out of the pack to see it was not in the least wooly and was very soft, light and technical looking.
So, having delighted me twice already, the acid test would be to take it out in the cold and see how it performed and, right on cue, nature dropped the temperature a few degrees -enough for a heavy fog to descend and for ice to form on the cars parked in the street, so I heaved myself out of bed, pulled on the top and my shorts and set off into the mist.
Oddly, I like running in the fog… but I also like running in the dark… perhaps it’s the sense of isolation or being able to “tune out” of the surroundings but I was really enjoying being out and planned an 11k round trip. The top was performing admirably and I was pleased to note that the cuffs were long enough to pull down over my hands to keep them warm at the start of the run. Also, the back of the shirt is long so that it doesn’t ride up and keeps the warmth in between top & shorts – both positives. In fact, I found that around 6km it was keeping me warm enough to be able to open the zip at the collar to let some cooler air in. I noticed people waiting for buses wrapped up in big coats with scarves and hats and me running past, dressed in black, collar up and top open to the mid chest level. I must have looked a bit like this

Or maybe not. Anyway, I returned home 11kms later very pleased with how the top had performed. The temperature was about 4 degrees and although this is supposed to be a “base layer” I had used it without any outer layers and was kept warm and comfortable. So now I’ve really got no excuses to not get out and run – even when it’s below freezing. Bugger!

Soundtrack to this post: Butch Cassidy Sound System – The Putney