Author: jogblog

Running commute #8

2 comments

After this week’s festival of gluttony which saw me out most nights partaking in some over consumption of pizza, pancakes, beer and wine, not to mention the mega munchies I had every day which rendered me powerless to resist the lure of the crisps and chocolate in Sainsburys and the corner shop, although I am so tired this morning I forget to take my breakfast and lunch to work with me, I do however commit to my running schedule and take my running gear with me and after a discussion about whether when you have beans and cheese on toast should the cheese go on top or underneath the beans (on top obviously) I sneak out of work early and head off home and I wait at the bus stop in a pretending to wait for the bus kind of way and wait for my Garmin to get a signal but as usual it’s taking ages and a cute bloke comes to the bus stop and I think well at least I’ve got something to look at while I’m waiting but before he’s even sat down my Garmin springs into action and I think bloody typical.

All is pretty much uneventful until I’m about a third of the way down Essex Road when a red light appears on the pavement in front of me and follows me down the road, in a in front of me kind of way and I think WHAT THE FUCK?  what’s that?  is someone pointing a laser at me and I’m going to get shot or something? but I don’t want to turn round and see where it’s coming from and the red light eventually goes and I don’t get shot and I get further down the street and have to stop for traffic and something hits my foot and it’s a little red plastic strawberry shaped thing and I think why are little red things following me down the road and I think things come in threes, what’s the next little red thing going to be?  but there doesn’t appear to be any more little red things and the rest of the journey is pretty uneventful and red-thing-less although I’m very tired and I’m wondering if maybe I should jump on the train half way at Hackney Downs and I think no I can’t, there won’t be a Hackney Downs station half way round my half marathon and probably not one in the 15 mile cross country race I’ve entered three weeks after that either so I carry on and I don’t get murdered on Murder Mile so I can’t use that as an excuse for not running with the SAS on Tuesday and I don’t stop at Somerfield to buy wine as I already have half a bottle at home and then I’m home and it’s the weekend and the festival of gluttony continues, hurrah.

Stats:
Distance: 6.42 miles
Time: 1:18:21
Pace: 12:12
Calories: 592
Red things: 2
Festivals of gluttony: 1
Music:
Kate Nash
The Killers
Boomtown Rats
Haircut 100
Arctic Monkeys
Ash
Belle & Sebastian
Devo
The Bravery
The Brian Jonestown Massacre
Cardiacs
Citizen Fish
The Damned
Foo Fighters
Franz Ferdinand
Kasabian
The Kooks
Manic Street Preachers

Sober as Swans

2 comments

After much procrastination about whether or not to run with the SAS tonight due to me having had a sore throat girlflu stylee since Sunday and also my legs have been aching since Sunday due to them not having had the two days miraculous recovery time from that long weekend run thing, I eventually say ok I’m coming running with the Swans and we make a list and everything geek stylee and by the end of the day only one person has dropped out and miraculously that person wasn’t me and I went down to Hyde Park and met up with Alec, Francesca and Angela and we decided that me and Angela would do a slow half lap as I wasn’t really up to much and Alec and Francesca could go off and be speedy types and we’d see them next week.

We set off and Angela asks me if I know the way and I say yes of course I do, I’ve done this five times now but even though I’m trying my hardest to put on my convincing face, she looks unconvinced but I do find the posh private road to run down and not just because everyone else seemed to be running down there and then we get to her short cut and we get back to the street and she says how far have we done and I say 3.42 miles and she says shall we extend it? and I say errrrrr, if you want to and she says yes and I call her a slavedriver and we eventually make it to the pub and we’ve done 4.66 miles which isn’t far short of the usual 5 anyway and I exercise some moderation and only have three bottles of Bud instead of three bottles of wine and I make it to the tube sober and to the train station and I’ve missed my train by 32 seconds which pisses me off but then the train flashes onto the board and I think hurrah, it must still be there and I go to the platform just to see it disappear down the platform in a Bullseye “look what you would have won” stylee and I think gits, why did they put on the platform a train that’s left but another train comes 15 minutes later and I think this must be the first time in a long time that I’ve remembered getting home. Yay.

Stats:
Distance: 4.66 miles
Time: 57:00
Pace: 12:14
Calories: 428
Bottles of Bud: 3

More stats and pic of route here

How to turn 3 miles into 11

3 comments

Due to people turning up on my doorstep at 2am and making me stay up all night drinking, I spend Saturday morning in bed then go for a fry up at the local greasy spoon instead of training in a I’m a fat lazy slob kind of way, then spend the rest of the day feeling guilty like it really matters and then I go out and drink too much unlike Jo who very impressively only has one and a bit glasses of wine and I also eat too much and I think there’s no way I’ll be out running tomorrow and this morning I’m woken by my alarm and I think oh no I don’t want to go to work today and then I think hang on a minute, isn’t it Sunday today? and I think yes I’m sure it’s Sunday as I’m sure yesterday was Saturday so unless I slept for 24 hours it must be Sunday and I think why the fuck did I set my alarm then? and I get up and turn the alarm off and go back to bed and I wake up a few hours later and think I’m not going running and then I think well maybe I’ll just do three miles, it’ll only take half an hour and I’ll still have time to go to the supermarket and I’m wondering if I can be bothered to even do three miles but then I’m getting told off in text messages and on facebook for not training and I think ok ok I’m going to do three miles and I leave my house and just as I start off an old lady stops and says something I can’t hear due to the singer of the Wombats telling me Christmas has come early for him but I think she says ooh, you’re brave and I think why am I brave? and I get over the footbridge and up to the stables and I think maybe I’ll go round Hackney Marshes and do more than three miles after all and I think I haven’t got my alarm on me though and you shouldn’t really go to Hackney without an alarm and a gun and a big dog but I decide to throw caution to the wind and risk getting murdered or harpooned or something and I get round the marshes without getting murdered and then I’m back to the relative safety of Walthamstow marshes and I’ve done five miles and I think shall I head off home now or carry on? and I decide to carry on and then I’ve done 10k in my quickest time ever and I think yay and I decide to carry on past the marina and I get to seven miles and I think maybe I should do the full 11 miles and I’m wondering if I can manage another four miles and I think I probably can and I go into Tottenham Marshes and carry on past the bridge where the race last year started and I get to the point in the race where my leg started hurting and Bum Crack Girl overtook me and I think I remember there being a bridge up the top and I think I’m going to go up to the bridge then come back down and I’m carrying on going and I still can’t see a bridge but I can see Ikea which means I’ve run to Edmonton and I still can’t see a bridge but then the bridge eventually appears and I run back down and I’m back on the street with about two miles to go and a car stops and asks me directions for a street I’ve never heard of and I’m tired now and I think maybe I’ll walk for a bit but I keep running and I think I’ll walk for a bit when I get to the tube but I run past the tube station and keep going ’til I get home and my three miles has somehow turned into eleven, yay for me.

Today’s route

Stats
Distance: 11.01 miles
Time: 2:02:31
Pace: 11.07 m/m
Calories: 1,035
Ikeas: 1
3 miles turning into 11: 1
Music
The Wombats
The Like
Bobby Conn
The Killers
Hole

Sweet as Smokers

6 comments

For the fourth outing of the SAS, we were joined by Warriorwoman for our weekly drinking training session, but the lure of the pub was too strong for her and she bailed out halfway round and took a short cut that very helpfully led straight to the pub.

The remaining five hardcore proper athlete types continued round and finished the lap where four of us departed to the pub, leaving the other two to be even more hardcore and do more laps.

Healthy drinks were consumed in the form of milk which had a very unhealthy price tag of £4 a pint, healthy facts emerged in the form of us all being ex-smokers, then we got fed up of being healthy and got some chips and garlic bread with cheese.

Stats
Distance: 5.03 miles
Time: 59:39
Pace: 11:51 m/m
Pints of milk at £4: 1
Bowls of chips: 1
Garlic bread with cheese: 1

More stats and route map here

Saved by my N95

3 comments

Last night’s running commute was swapped in favour of free alcohol at an internet industry networking thing in keeping with [an anonymous friend’s] year of only drinking free alcohol and on our way to the geekfest we kept being offered free alcohol by owners of various Brick Lane curry emporiums and we thought that’s fate, we will go and get free alcohol then come and eat curry and drink more free alcohol although I seem to be drunk by 8pm and in the morning I can barely remember the restaurant and remember even less how I got home although I think it involved a bus and being in Chingford and some teenage girls and it’s 7:47am and I’m wondering why my alarm isn’t going off and I remember it’s Saturday and I think yay and I go back to sleep and I don’t wake up until 10:30 and I have a huge hangover and a stomach ache and I think can I wimp out of today’s run and I think no I can’t as I will be pissed off if I do so I get up and think that was a bad idea and I get back into bed but I immediately get up again and think how the fuck am I going to run 11 miles, I’m not even sure I can make it as far as the kettle but I do make it as far as the kettle and I make a cup of tea and drink lots of water and an hour or so later I’m feeling vaguely humanlike and I get my Garmin and my iPod and I think I haven’t charged my iPod for about a week, I hope it doesn’t die on me and I get to the marshes and there’s a group of people with WFHC on their tops and I wonder what the HC stands for and I have to stop at the bridge at the marina as there’s a cyclist in front of me wheeling his bike up the bridge and I get to the tennis courts and there’s a man at the fence waving me over and I go over and he asks me to throw his ball back that’s come over the fence and I find the ball and I look at the fence and I think oh shit that fence is a bit high, what if I can’t throw it that high, I’m going to look like an idiot but I manage to throw it over the fence and I continue on my run and hope no more obstacles like walking cyclists or wayward tennis balls are going to hold me up and I get round the marshes without any more obstacles and the singer from the Wombats is telling me for the third time that he’s moving to New York as he has issues with his sleep and I’m wondering why this song keeps coming up all the time and at 6.8 miles a boring Killers’ track comes on and I go to skip it and my iPod goes quiet and I think oh I must have pressed the off button by mistake so I press the on button which is the same button as the off button but nothing’s happening.  OH MY GOD MY IPOD HAS DIED ON ME AND I’VE GOT 4.2 MILES LEFT TO DO.  Fuck.  And I’m wondering if I can do another 4.2 miles without my iPod and I think well I’ll have to, I’m three miles from home anyway, might as well do the whole distance.  Bollocks.  And then something bleeps and I think maybe it’s my iPod coming back to life but I realise it’s my phone and I think am I allowed to stop and check my phone and I think probably not and I think I can check it when I get to the bridge but then I remember that I’m not going up the bridge, I’m going to continue into Tottenham Marshes to make the distance up and then it occurs to me that I have songs on my N95.  Yay, saved.  And I put my headphones into my phone and make sure the music’s coming through the headphones and not the speakers like I did last time and I go up to the bridge where the race started last year which was the last race I did and had to limp round the last half of it due to my leg falling off then not being able to walk for two months and then I head back towards home and I’ve got two miles left and I get to the park and I’ve got half a mile left so I do a lap of the park and then I go home and somehow I’ve managed to drag my hangover round 11 miles without stopping.  Sort of.

Today’s route

Stats
Distance: 11.11 miles
Time: 2:05:44
Pace: 11.18 m/m
Calories: 955
Walking cyclists: 1
Wayward tennis balls: 1
iPods dying at 6.8 miles: 1
N95s saving me: 1
Music
The Wombats
Cardiacs
The Killers
Peter, Bjorn and John

Sweet as Spaniels

5 comments

Due to people giving feeble excuses such as not being in the country, a sprained ankle, and imaginary spinning classes, I head off to Speaker’s Corner to meet the two new recruits to the SAS and as I am hardcore, I run down there from work but my Garmin doesn’t want to get a signal and so I stand in the middle of the road on a triangle junction thing until I realise I probably look a bit of a twat so continue on my way Garminless but it eventually picks up a signal about a mile down the road and I get to Speakers Corner early as I manage not to get lost and end up in Harlesden or Brighton and I wait for the others and we exchange the usual pleasantries like “is Hopping Bunny your real name?” and we head off round the park and I’m leading the way until I realise that I don’t actually know the way so I obviously haven’t been paying much attention although I’ve done it twice before and it’s practically a rectangle (although I actually think it’s more of a parallelogram) and I only have to turn off four times but I get confused about which four but we do a lap of the park without stopping and then two of us go to the pub for a quick pint where I am informed about the new spaniel-based recruit that will be joining us in a few months. Sweet as.

And also on the new recruit front, Angela is coming out to drink Stella run with us next week, hurrah.  Any other Londoners out there want to join us?  Go on, you know you want to really…

Yesterday’s route

Stats
Distance: 6.26 miles
Time: 1:11:59
Pace: 11:29
Calories: 589
Spaniels: 1
Pints: 1.5

Another milestone reached

2 comments

Due to there being no trains tomorrow to St Albans, getting to tomorrow’s 10 mile race on time would mean leaving the house at about 6am, so I drop out of my sixth race in a row and decide to do ten miles locally at a civilised hour; today’s civilised hour of choice being lunchtime.

It’s raining which is my favourite running weather and it’s quite busy with runners and dog walkers over the marshes but today the runners are a bunch of miserable fuckers and don’t smile or say hello like they usually do when it’s raining and I think they must be new year people but they are out in the rain which is usually only the preserve of the hardcore but then I see the man that I’ve seen three or four weeks in a row over there and he says hello and I say hello back and I’m wondering if he just runs round Hackney Marshes all day as I see him every week and I’m always out there at different times and I think maybe he’s my stalker and then I think he might be thinking the same about me. Hmm.

I get back to the marina and past the rowing club and remember that I was going to take a mile detour up Tottenham Marshes then come back down to the street as that should take me up to ten miles by the time I get home but then I think it might be too far and I’ll just get back to the park and go round there until I get to ten miles and I get to the park and I’ve only done 8.9 miles and I think shit, I thought back to home was 9.3 miles so I go round the park a couple of times and there’s a speedy type in there and he laps me and I think bloody hell he’s quick and quite cute too and I wonder how often he runs in the park and then I’ve done ten miles and I seem to have done it without walking or without stopping to take photos of cows or without walking over bridges or without walking up the steep bits, in fact I’ve run the whole ten miles non stop but I did make sure I ate properly yesterday so maybe there’s something in this eating malarky after all.

Today’s route

Stats
Distance: 10.20 miles
Time: 1:52:12
Pace: 10:59
Calories: 959
Races missed tomorrow: 1
Music
The Wombats
The Killers
Cardiacs
Hole
Tori Amos
The Like
Bobby Conn

Training with the SAS

3 comments

The Hyde Parkers are no more. We are now the SAS which stands for Sweet As Swans, the Swan being the most important part of the evening, i.e. the pub.

Four of us braved the weather and did 5 miles in the pouring rain then dived into the pub to rehydrate on beer, as prescribed by this month’s Runner’s World magazine which says beer is better than water after a run. Yay.

And if there’s anyone reading this that can get to Speaker’s Corner on a Tuesday evening by 6:30, come and join us, the more the merrier.

Stats:
Distance: 5.2 miles
Time: 1:00:06
Pace: 11:33
Calories: 489
Pints: 3

You can look at the route and more stats here

Food for fuel

3 comments

My hangover wasn’t as bad as originally envisaged so I got up early to go and do my scheduled 9 miles although I wasn’t sure how far I was going to get due to not having eaten since yesterday lunchtime which I wasn’t sure was the best training strategy nutrition-wise.

I get a mile and a half into the marshes and I stop to look at the sign to see how far Clissold Park is as londonjogger said there’s deer over there and it says 1.5 miles and I think cool, there’s deer just a mile and a half away but I don’t know how to get to the park and I remember that I was going to look in the A-Z but I’d forgotten and I think I can’t go now, I’ll get lost, so I continue down the marshes and the church has gone and they’ve replaced the grass they ruined by dancing all over it or whatever it is Christians do and I get to Hackney Marshes and a couple overtake me on the bridge and I think fucking cheek and they stop to walk round the puddles and I think lightweights and they turn off the way I want to go and I think bollocks, I’ll have to run alongside the river and dodge the puddles and when I get back to the path I see the lightweights ahead of me and I think fuck, I hope I’m not going to be following them all the way round but when they get to the edge of the marshes they turn back and I’ve spent the first 3 miles with the sun in my eyes and the sun must live in Hackney as when I get to the edge of the marshes the sun is huge and right in front of me, blinding me and I have to stop as I can’t see and then I get to the forest bit and there’s still loads of new year people out and I think I should be pleased as I’m usually scared when I’m on my own in the forest bit especially as the Cure song “Forest” always comes into my head at that point which doesn’t help me be any less scared and then I’m back in Walthamstow Marshes and I’m walking and thinking I’m hungry now and when I get home I’m going to have a bacon sandwich and then I remember I have sausages too and I think I’ll have a bacon and sausage sandwich and then I’m in a quandry because then I think maybe I should have one of each and I can’t decide and I think it would be nice if the only thing to ever worry about is whether to have a bacon or sausage sandwich or a bacon and sausage sandwich and I’m running and walking and I’m thinking I’m not going to make 9 miles oh fuck and there’s still loads of new year people and I think oh well they’ll be gone by the end of the month and then I think maybe they’re training for the London marathon in which case they’ll be gone by April and I get up to the rowing club and I’ve got about three miles left and I’m still walking loads and my legs are aching and I’ve got no energy at all and I think that will teach me for not eating and going to the pub instead and I walk most of the remaining three miles and think to myself that next week I will stay in and eat pizza and not drink because next week comes my next milestone of 10 miles, oh yes.

Distance:
9.22 miles
Time: 2:00:44
Pace: 13:05
Calories: 779
Churches: 0
Suns: 1
Sausage and bacon sandwiches: 1
Music:
Faith No More
Cardiacs
The Police
Boomtown Rats
Bee Gees
Bobby Conn
Catatonia
Devo
Primal Scream
Joy Division vs Missy Elliott
Kasabian
Manic Street Preachers
Muse
Sex Pistols

1 … 81 82 83 84 85 … 119