Category: Running commute

A slight change in half-marathon plan

4 comments

I am tempted away from going to my personal trainer open evening by an offer of wine and pizza so this morning I get up not very bright and not very breezy after four hours’ sleep and think oh shit I’ve got to do a running commute tonight and before I leave for work I email the organisers of the Brentwood half as I haven’t got my number yet and I’ve heard from others that they have so I ask them if they’ve all been sent out and if so, can they check I’m entered and I keep checking my email and I get a reply from the organiser who says that they have no record of my entry. Fuck. But I’m sure the cheque has been cashed and will have to check on the cheque situation when I get home but in the meantime I decide to enter the Woodford half instead which is on 2 March. As in A WEEK ON SUNDAY. Oh my god. It’s only a week before Brentwood but I’ve been following my training schedule diligently which finishes on race day which is 9 March not 2 March and it also means I’m going to have to drop out of the Heathside 5 but I must be destined not to do the Brentwood half as first I had problems entering online and now my postal entry has been stolen by a postman with a half-marathon postal entry form fetish. Just my luck.

And while I’m at work muttering “bastard half-marathon postal entry form fetishistic postmen” a lot, an email comes through from HR asking if anyone’s interested in getting corporate gym membership and I think hell yeah, and I email Kate and say woo hoo, I’m getting free or cheap gym membership although I really really don’t want work people in the gym when I’m there and she emails back and says yes, I wouldn’t want to have to make polite chit chat first thing in the morning and I email back and say yes and apart from that, I really really don’t want to see people I work with naked, seeing work people with no clothes on is JUST PLAIN WRONG. Very very wrong indeed.

5:00 eventually comes around and I go to get changed and go to do my running commute and my right knee and left shin are niggling a bit and I think why niggle now? you’ve been fine for two days and I’m hoping they don’t get any worse and my running commute is uneventful apart from nearly getting run over by a motorbike when I lose concentration due to turning up my iPod to an ear-bleeding volume when David Bowie starts asking is there life on Mars and when I get home my right knee and left shin are no more painful than when I started out and I think yay and I check out the chequebook situation and the chequebook is new and the first used cheque is dated after I would have sent off my Brentwood entry and I think shit I can guarantee I would have thrown away the stubs from the old chequebook and so I go online to check my bank statements but the website is down.

I am jinxed.

Oh and Phil aka sorelimbs is back in blogland, hurrah. Go and check him out.

Stats:
 Distance: 6.31 miles
Time: 1:10:12
Pace: 11:07 m/m
Calories: 593
Changes in half-marathons: 1
Postmen with a half-marathon postal entry fetish: 1
Motorbikes nearly running me over: 1
Music:
Courtney Love
Plain White T’s
David Bowie
Faith No More
Graham Coxon
Scissor Sisters
The Strokes
Black Wire
Charlotte Hatherley
Elliot Smith

Three quarters of a running commute

5 comments

Due to having plans to go out on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, I bunk off the SAS in favour of a running commute so I can get home early and do exciting stuff like wash my hair and do my washing and I get to work knackered due to me having had too much sleep after sleeping solidly for 10 hours instead of 10 minutes for a change and I don’t get to go out at lunchtime as I have to go to a meeting and I think what the fuck? how nice of them to arrange that when I want to go out for a walk so I can loosen up a bit before my running commute and by the time I get to go home I’m stiff after having been sitting down for eight hours and as I start to run my shins hurt and I think ouch and then my knee starts hurting and I think oh shit that doesn’t feel right at all and I think I’m going to have to get on the train at Hackney Downs but I decide to continue but when I get to four miles my knee is hurting so much and I force myself to stop and to walk the last two miles home and I’m hoping my knee isn’t properly injured and when I get home there’s a man outside my house on the street and there’s another man talking to the  man next door and I’m hoping they’re not Jehovah’s Witnesses or something as I won’t be able to pretend I’m not in due to them having just seen me go in my house unless they’re blind which they’re probably not and when I go through my front door there’s a leaflet advertising a gospel concert and a second later I hear someone come through my gate and I think oh shit, I don’t want to talk to them, I want my dinner and then my doorbell rings and I think what’s more important, being polite to Christians or getting my dinner? so I go to put the oven on and have spicy bean lasagne, yay.

Stats:
Distance: 6.01 miles
Time: 1:16:56
Pace: 12:47 m/m
Calories: 522
Knees hurting: 1
Christians ignored: 2

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

Running commute #7

3 comments

I get soaked on my way to work this morning and although I put my rucksack in front of the heater to dry, it doesn’t occur to me that the contents might be wet so come 5:00, I open my rucksack to find my running kit cold and damp.  Nice.  Still, because I am hardcore, this does not deter me and I go and get changed and do my commute which is pretty uneventful really, in fact it’s not eventful at all, as I don’t even stop at Somerfield to buy wine as a) I’ve got some at home; and b) I’m going to the pub.  Where I shall probably get drunker than will be good for me but today I think I did the right thing and I don’t think I’ve done that before.

Stats:
Distance: 6.61 miles
Time: 1:18:43
Pace: 11:54
Calories: 619
Somerfields: 0
Right things: 1
Music:
Hole
Faith No More
Polyphonic Spree
Bobby Conn
Devo
Rollins Band
The Cure
Manic Street Preachers

Running commute #6

3 comments

Oh yes, I am hardcore.  Two running commutes in a week and today’s one makes me especially hardcore as I did it with a hangover after spending the evening drinking white wine, red wine, lager, cherry beer and some strange green drink that the restaurant gave us.  But because tomorrow is my birthday, fitting in a run and writing this blog before showering/washing hair/drying hair/putting on make up/straightening hair and getting out by lunchtime for my birthday pizza, only left me with four options:

1) Do it Friday.
2) Get up super-early.
3) Do it on Sunday.
4) Don’t do it.

2) is possible but still the timing might be a bit tight.  3) is probably the most unlikely thing in the world, due to having had been out drinking all day on Saturday.  4)  isn’t the actions of a finely tuned athlete such as myself.  So 1) it was to be.

And earlier in the week I had been wondering how I was going to manage three runs in a week as I have trouble getting out the door when I get home and stupid Niketown don’t answer their stupid phone so I couldn’t check if their running group was still going and then my saviour comes along in the form of the Runner’s World Running Club which is a group of runners of all abilities meeting up at Speaker’s Corner every Tuesday evening at 6:15-6:30pm to run around Hyde Park, so get yourselves down there, first run 8 January 2008.  And if that wasn’t perfect enough, there’s even a visit to the pub after.  So with that and a weekly running commute and my usual Saturday run, that’s my three runs a week sorted, hurrah.

Stats:
Distance: 6.3 miles
Time: 1:19:02
Pace: 12:32
Hangovers: 1
Music:
Hole
Ween
Radiohead
Janis Joplin
Arctic Monkeys
The Pretenders
My Bloody Valentine
Hard-Fi
Rollins Band
The Cure

Running commute #5

5 comments

In an attempt to get three runs in this week I pack my running rucksack the night before in preparation for a running commute, not forgetting to pack the essentials of my personal alarm and don’t fuck with me look, due to part of my route taking me up what is locally not very reassuringly known as Murder Mile.

And while I’m at work the managing partner comes round with this  year’s Christmas gift which is a very nice box of handmade biscuits, shortbread fingers, cinnamon stars, Belgian chocolates and a bottle of wine which is a vast improvement on last year’s box of soft centres.

But by 4 o’clock I seem to have accidentally eaten the whole packet of shortbread fingers but I think oh well, I need fuel for running don’t I and it gets to 5 o’clock and my boss says I can go home and I go to get changed and he says haven’t I got a coat and I say I’m just going to get changed, I’m running home tonight and he says oh, I was going to ask you if you wanted to go for a drink but obviously not and I think that’s weird, that’s twice in a week he’s asked me to go for a drink and he hasn’t asked me to go for a drink since last Christmas and I wonder if I can get out of it with the running commute excuse on Friday just in case he asks me again then and I think I’m going to look a right div changing into my running gear on Friday when everyone else is getting dressed up to go to the Christmas party which I’m not going to because a) I hate office parties; b) there is a very high risk I will get obscenely drunk and say something I shouldn’t; and c) my birthday is the next day and I don’t want to be hungover.

So I begin my running commute and a mile up the road I’m in Angel and I’m at the lights waiting for the cyclists to stop going through the red lights and then I’m at some more lights waiting for the cars to stop going through the red lights and I think is it National Go Through The Red Lights Day or what? and I continue down Upper Street and there’s a lot of people and I think to myself I should be grateful of the safety in numbers thing while it lasts because once I get to Hackney I’ll be on the street by myself because people in Hackney are too scared to leave their houses and I’m thinking is this running commute in the dark really a good idea and I’m thinking if a friend said she was going to run through Hackney in the dark I’d say noooooooooooooo, that is the worst idea ever ever ever, don’t do it and so I think maybe I should get on the train at Hackney Downs and then I get to Hackney Downs station and I carry on and then I’m surrounded by housing estates which is a bit scary and then I get to Murder Mile and a police car speeds down the road, siren wailing, and then I’m over the roundabout and not too far from home but there’s fields on both sides and it’s a bit scary and then I go past B&Q which no one has petrol bombed yet but surely it’s only a matter of time due to them being incompetent fools and just as Somerfield appears on the horizon I stop to do my shoelace up for the third time and I wonder if I’ve deserved a bottle of wine and I decide I probably have so I get one and then I’m home and I’ve done a running commute without walking most of it for the first time ever.

Today’s route

Stats:
Distance: 6.36 miles
Time: 1:20:49
Pace: 12:42
Calories: 557
Packets of shortbread fingers: 1
Shoelaces coming undone: 3
Walking breaks: 0
Music:
Hole
Mark Ronson
The Cure
Idle Vice Pirate
Hard-Fi

Juneathon Day #28

3 comments

Because I’ve decided my running commute is seriously bobbins, I decided to attempt 10k on the treadmill but almost had an excuse not to do it when at 5:20 my boss asked me to do something which would have involved me leaving work late but then he changed his mind and so I trotted off to the gym and started my running commute which wouldn’t get me home at the other end of it and neither would it take me past Somerfield and their plentiful supply of chilled white wine.

When I get to the gym I’m told that they’ve swapped round the men’s and women’s changing rooms and she does tell me why but I didn’t hear and I say is it every day and she says no just today and I wonder why it’s just for today but I don’t bother to ask her and so I go into the men’s changing rooms which is v. weird and they’re bigger than our changing rooms and there’s a girl in there who puts deodorant on and then puts on her gym kit and goes to the mirror and does her hair and make up and I think what is the point in that and I go and get on a treadmill and six minutes later make up and hair done girl gets on the treadmill next to me and starts walking on it really slowly and I’m thinking ha, you lightweight, you need Juneathon and then she starts running on it and she does 35 minutes and at the end she looks exactly the same and I think well if my hair and make up stayed the same I might do the same thing but I look like a drowned rat after about five minutes and then another Juneathon candidate gets on the other treadmill next to me and she walks really slowly on it for five minutes and gets off and I think well at least she’s in the gym and a year and a half ago I wouldn’t have dreamt of going in a gym and then I’m watching the news on the telly and they’re showing politicians but I don’t know who they are and then they’re showing the Spice Girls and I think Posh looks kind of freaky and not in a good kind of freaky way like Bobby Conn but in a Bride of Wildenstein kind of freaky way, especially next to the other Spice Girls who look healthy and normal and I think Posh probably thinks she looks the best out of all of them and then Keane comes on my iPod and I think what the fuck is Keane doing on my iPod, although it’s the song that sounds like U2 which I will admit to sort of liking although I don’t actually like U2 but I’m still thinking what the fuck is Keane doing on my iPod and then it gets to 53 minutes and I’m thinking I’m quite enjoying this and maybe I’ll turn the speed up a bit when it gets to 60 minutes and it gets to 60 minutes and then it goes to 59 minutes and I think what the fuck, I must be hallucinating, I thought it was on 59 minutes before and then when it gets to 60 minutes it goes into the cooldown mode thing and I think what the fuck, bloody hell, that’s annoying and so I turn the speed back up and then a minute later it goes back down again and I think oh no, I’m going to have to turn the speed up every minute and that’s really annoying and so I think well, the quicker I go, the quicker I get to 10k so I turn it up faster and and keep doing the turning it up every minute thing until it eventually gets to 10k and then I let it do its cooldown thing it obviously so desperately wants me to do and as soon as I finish on the treadmill, a girl jumps on it and I think ooh, I did hog it a bit, oh well never mind.

Stats:
Treadmill: 67 minutes
Distance: 10k
Speed: 9/9.5/10/10.5kph

Juneathon Day #19

8 comments

Although yesterday’s body pump class (description here for those of you who want to know what it is) left me unable to move my arms this morning, my legs weren’t so bad so I packed my rucksack in preparation for a running commute.  But as I sit at my desk for 99% of the day my legs were beginning to stiffen up and so I went for a walk at lunchtime to loosen them up but because I don’t do walking for the sake of walking I went shopping and bought some clothes which I was in dire need of because I hadn’t bought any new clothes since this morning when I bought some on the way to work.

During the afternoon I was still feeling pretty stiff and was wondering if I should maybe wimp out of the running commute and just take my new purchases home to try on instead, because not only had I made two shopping trips today but my delivery of new running kit had also arrived and I wasn’t sure I was patient enough to leave everything overnight in the office and I had a shitload of stuff to do tonight anyway and then at about 5 o’clock it starts raining and I think oh no, it was warm and sunny all day and now it’s raining, maybe I should wimp out of my running commute and I check my email and there’s an email from Bear saying don’t think you’re wimping out of your running commute just because it’s raining and I think ha, how little do you know me, I don’t do wimping out and I say I’m not wimping out, and I leave my purchases on the floor under my desk and go out into the rain although it’s not actually raining any more and my Garmin takes about three weeks to get a signal and I eventually start running and as usual after about two feet I want to stop and it’s chokka at Angel as usual and I go past a pub that says it’s the coolest pub in London and I think that needs investigating one day and then it starts raining which is nice and cooling and I’m doing a lot of walking and I’m thinking this running commute really does go through the dullest, grimmest and most boring route possible and I’m wondering if I can do six miles on the treadmill instead  without dying of boredom because this running commute thing isn’t really doing it for me and I get to Pembury Road and I decide it’s a hill and walk up it and then I’m still walking and still walking until I get to Murder Mile and I take a little jog to the roundabout and get to Lea Bridge Road and I think I’ll go through the marshes because it will be more scenic and also has the added bonus of saving me the trauma of seeing B and bloody Q and not having cyclists running me over every three feet so I go through the marshes and I try to run but I end up walking again and I get to the stables and stop to stroke a horse and I manage to jog a few feet but have to walk again and again and again and I think when I get through the factory I’ll run the rest of the way but that doesn’t happen either and I end up walking home like a lightweight and when I get home there’s a card from the Post Office to tell me there’s a package there for me and that’ll be my new pink digital watch, hurrah.

Stats:
Miles: 5.99
Total time: 1:26:28
Average pace: 14:25
Total calories: 484
Music:
Calvin Harris
The Damned
Bobby Conn
Courtney Love

Running commute #4

15 comments

Continuing this week’s theme of not being an idle git after going to the gym on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, this morning I packed my running gear into my running rucksack in preparation of doing a running commute tonight and sat at work trying to think of reasons to get the train instead like, it’s too hot, I’m going out for lunch and I’m not sure a big plate of Thai noodles is good running commute fuel and the law of averages would dictate that the more times I go through Hackney, the more likely I am to be murdered. But spurred on by the fact that I’m carrying half a stone of lard around that I’d rather be without; I’m supposed to be half-marathon training; I need to beat Gary in run the Crisis Square Mile Run in two weeks; and I probably won’t get murdered, I got changed after work and started my commute and banished any thoughts of cheating and getting on the train halfway at Hackney Downs.

I manage to get past Hackney Downs station without getting on a train and even manage to get to the roundabout on Murder Mile without looking at my map (or getting murdered). Yay. I had planned on making the running commute where I do it without looking at my map the last running commute, but now I have a new goal of doing a running commute without any walking breaks. Bah.

I get to the ice rink and then have a dilemma. Do I go through the marshes where it’s prettier and probably quicker? Or do I carry on going down Lea Bridge Road? Hmm. If I go through the marshes, that will have the added bonus of not having to go past B and bloody Q, but it also means not going past Somerfield and as usual I need to buy cat food and also fancy a bottle glass of wine but then I think oh shit I haven’t got enough money for a bottle of wine anyway as I only brought out enough to buy lunch and some cat food and I think ah Somerfield do the little bottles of wine, I can get one of them and some cat food and next time I do a running commute I will get a bottle of wine and cat food the day before so I can go through the marshes and so I continue down Lea Bridge Road and eventually get to Somerfield and they have a sign saying great value Go Cat, only £1.05 a box and think you lying twats, that’s not great value at all, my local shop sells it for 79p and I pick up a box and then go and get a little bottle of wine. Yum.

Masterfoods (who make Mars chocolate) update:
A few weeks ago Masterfoods – who make amongst other things Mars Bars, Snickers, Twix, Bounty, Maltesers and Celebrations – decided to change their recipe to include animal rennet (a calf’s stomach lining for those who don’t know), therefore making them unsuitable for vegetarians (they actually said they were unsuitable for strict vegetarians because the fuckwits obviously don’t know that you’re either veggie or you’re not. Duh.) Due to 6,000 consumer complaints in the first week (I can’t tell you how long it took me to send all those emails, heh heh) they’ve changed their minds and won’t be using the cow recipe after all.

However, and this is a big however, they have said that Twix, Bounty and Celebrations will continue to be not suitable for vegetarians. Oh shit. That to me sounds like they were never vegetarian. Oops.

Some say it was all a publicity stunt. I say they’re twats and I’m sticking to my Peanut Butter KitKats.

End of veggie rant. Just letting people who asked know what the situation is. You can go back to your bacon sandwiches now 🙂

Today’s route

Stats:
Miles: 6.18
Total time: 1:20:29
Average pace: 13:01
Total calories: 428
Walking breaks: 6
Expensive boxes of cat food: 1
Music:
Maximo Park – Trial and Error
Mark Ronson – Toxic
Klaxons – Totem on the Timeline
Scissor Sisters – Tits on the Radio
Arctic Monkeys – This House is a Circus
The Damned – There Ain’t No Sanity Clause
Kaiser Chiefs – Thank You Very Much
The Libertines – Tell The King
PJ Harvey – Teclo
Pixies – Tame
Scissor Sisters – Take Your Mama
Primal Scream – Swastika Eyes
Primal Scream – Stuka
Maximo Park – Stray Talk
Mark Ronson – Stop Me
Scissor Sisters – Step Aside For The Man
Good Charlotte – Something Else

Running commute #3

7 comments

As my running commute #2 and a half needed rounding up, I jumped on the tube tonight and went to the train station to get the train half way home and to run the rest of the way.  I was wondering how I was going to drag myself off the train when I was half way home then realised that I didn’t need to get my train but could get any train that goes to Hackney Downs so I looked at the departure board and a few trains were going there and so I chose one that was leaving in six minutes and was stopping first at Hackney Downs but when I got to the platform it didn’t say Hackney Downs, so I got on the train and asked a woman does this train stop at Hackney Downs and she said yes, I’m pretty sure it does and so I stayed on the train thinking I hope this train does stop at Hackney Downs, I don’t want to end up in Cheshunt, I don’t even know where Cheshunt is, then over the speaker the man said that this train is calling at Hackney Downs and so off the train went and a few minutes later I’m standing outside the station wishing my Garmin would hurry up and get a signal as I’d rather be a moving target than a sitting duck and then I’m off to do my half a running commute and I get to the road that I remember being really hard to cross so I try to cross a bit earlier and a man tries to run me over because I’m standing where he wants to park, so I go back down the road and cross at the zebra crossing and then there’s another road to cross and the cars are coming from all directions and some are turning where I want to cross but hardly any of them are bothering to indicate first and so after I while I just cross and hope I don’t get run over and then I’m on Murder Mile and remember where my exit is at the roundabout and then I’m feeling pretty knackered and walk over the bridge and a cyclist is coming towards me so I have to stop anyway and then I think why is there a cyclist on the pavement?  And then two more cyclists come towards me and I’m thinking EXCUSE ME CYCLISTS, PAVEMENTS ARE FOR PEOPLE and then I realise that half the pavement is a cycle path but it’s the narrowest pavement in the world and there’s not enough room for cyclists and pedestrians and I cross the road hoping there’s no cyclists on that side of the road but I’m going the same way as the traffic now and the cyclists are coming up behind me which is even worse so I have to carry on walking and then the cycle path gets cut off by some roadworks and there’s a cyclist right behind me so I stop to let him go past me and he’s stopped too and we’re both standing there saying no, it’s ok, you go first, no you first, no you can go, and so I end up going otherwise we’re going to be standing there all night being polite and I get to B&Q and I can see all their garden stuff and I’m wishing B&Q was further away so it would be easier to boycott when I want to go shopping in the Summer for plants and flowers and stuff and then I get to the corner and I think I’ve done a lot of walking, maybe I should do some running now and I run until I get to Somerfield and buy some cat food and there’s a man in there throwing a strop but I don’t know why.  And I don’t really care.

Today’s route

Stats:
Miles: 2.70
Total time: 34:19
Average pace: 12:42
Total calories: 220
Cyclists on the pavement: millions
Men throwing a strop in Somerfield: 1
Music:
Ween – Strap On That Jammy Pac
Maximo Park – I Want You To Leave
The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster – The Dancing Girls
The Horrors – Dragger’s Rant
Bobby Conn – Winners
Belle & Sebastian – The Boy With The Thorn In His Side
Soft Cell – The Art Of Falling Apart
Catatonia – Part Of The Furniture
Levellers – One Way
Courtney Love – But Julian, I’m A Little Bit Older Than You
Mark Ronson – Amy

1 2 3 4