Running Towards the Night & Home

Tuesday 10th February

Run # 41

13.5k Road & River to Richmond from Victoria

So I finally bit the bullet and ran home for the first time this year. I did the work-home runcommute a few times last year. (Never home-work though you understand: never been quite that organised.) 

The first runcommute I ever did was in response to the tube strike, which crippled the London transport system, as they tend to do.

 Photo credit: independent.co.uk

And I'll be honest, at the time the 13 odd k felt a very long way and took a fair bit of psyching up to. Given that my long runs rarely exceeded 10k that wasn't very surprising.

What was surprising now, and nicely so, was how short this route felt tonight, relative to the chunkier distances I've been doing most Sundays. And nicer still was leaving the office in the light - a fairly recent novelty that crept up on me until I suddenly notice this Monday that I am both getting to, and leaving the office in the light. Spring is indeed on it's way.

What this meant was that I left in the light, and arrived in the night, dusk having been and gone on the run. Knowing this would be the case, rather than rabbit on about how the run was, I thought I'd let the pictures I took en route, tell 1000 words. Or maybe some anyway.

Run #41 - runcommute in pictures:

How To Not Not Run

Monday 9th February

Run #40

2k Trying to Keep it Slow

After yesterday's long run and the plan to run home from work tomorrow I knew I needed to keep tonight as light as possible. Outside of The Streak I'd call it a rest day and not think anything more of it. Hell, a justified rest day was one of my favourite aspects of being a runner.

But one if the biggest challenges, I'm realising, of running every day is not actually the running, but the not not running: trying to plan how to fit in longer runs, harder runs or faster runs without the days off in between. To see if there is a way between all the research and conventional wisdom that dictates is necessary and needed by your body to recover sufficiently to not get broken on the bigger efforts.

I have headed out for 'short' runs in the last few weeks but, feeling good, once out a few k has become 5 or 6. Which may not sound like much but for me to be back-to-backing 5ks daily is considerable when 25k a week was my usual (and not frequent) max pre-Streak.

But as the days are going on I am realising that, if I never get a rest day, I really need to get as close to a rest day as possible while running, if I'm not going to get an overuse injury. I'm sure there are a lot of people that could run daily with no issue at all. But back when I stopped running a decade ago it was shin splits that put me off. So, once bitten, I am running scared of running too much. To counter this I'm trying to remember to stretch religiously after every run and build in some recovery running.

So tonight I was determined to keep to the minimum 2k, and keep the pace slow enough that I could breathe solely through my nose. I managed it, but it's amazing how difficult it is to slow down. Especially when it's chilly out! I consciously reminded myself the entire way that ‘this is not a run: it's a recovery disguised as a run’ and it needs to be short enough and slow enough to be as good as a rest. And so it was. 

Fancy Pants & Doggy Differences

Sunday 8th February

Run #39

16.1k (10 Mile) Teddington / Kew Riverside

M gets a kick out of my inability to stop shopping for running kit. The way I see it, if it's buying clothes for exercise it's legitimised shopping, and not just 'buying myself more clothes' 'cause exercise is good for you, right? Anyway this essentially means I have far more running kit that I need, with no signs of stopping the purchasing any time soon.

This doesn't make me a faster or better runner. While it might make me more comfortable on the run it's largely, as M has labelled me more than once, a case of 'all the gear, no idea'. But I am happy to put my hands up and say, yes, I get a kick out of matching my socks to my running vest. And yes, I will feel better heading out for a run when the zips on my jacket clash pleasingly with my gloves. Whatever gets you out there, right?

Today's run was the maiden voyage of some new full length Nike run pants. Thick almost-compression-tights-but-not, they have fantastic barcode of reflective stripes down the outer half of each leg. (Yes, these photos are the model wearing them, not me. Trust me, this is for the best)

I wasn't sure, after the weather took an unseasonable turn for the milder today, if they were going to end up being too warm. But my legs rarely overheat me in the way that my top choices do and these were fine. They'll be perfect for an evening run commute I reckon so I think I'll try and work one of those into next week.

Photo credit nike.com

 At about the 6k mark I passed a woman running in the opposite direction wearing the same leggings. Her cheery holler of "nice pants" and my "nice pants!" reply had me still grinning half a k later. 

This was the first run I'd taken along the riverside this winter but I felt I wanted a change from the familiarity (and hills) of Richmond Park. It was muddy but a lot firmer underfoot than I was expecting. I was happy to be in my trails but did a lot less slip-sliding than the last few trips round the Park.

One thing I did notice was the distinct difference in dogs: there is always a great variety of dogs being walked around Richmond Park - one of my favourite things about running there - but on the whole there is a majority lean towards golden retrievers and Labradors, collies and the russet Hungarian Vizslas. Being walked along the riverside today there were a lot of racing dogs: greyhounds and whippets, mostly wrapped up in coats, and all-black spaniels. There were grey weimaraners and, oddly, 3 men in army fatigues, with Jack Russels. Not the same fatigues (khaki vs desert, head-to-toe or just trousers) so not the same guys. There must have been some kind of memo go out to Jack Russel owners today.

I don't know if it was the flat route, extra carbs (sweet potato wedges for yesterday's supper), the drinking lots of water (or just not drinking any wine!) or the time I took to work the knots out of my PF last night. Or maybe just the Spring-y sunshine and bluebird skies. But overall this one was a really great run and I clocked my PB over 10 miles.

parkrun: Not a PB. Just.

Saturday 7th February

Run #38

Richmond parkrun

We'd originally chatted around the idea of running over to Kingston for parkrun today. But i was out Friday night and, when I rolled in at midnight and quizzed a catatonic M it seemed like the easier plan would be to just set the regular alarm and keep it local. 

Arriving 10 minutes to 9am meant it was yet to get busy - In contract to Longrun meadow where turning up with 45 minutes to spare seems to be the norm, Richmondites never seem to get to parkrun with anything more than minutes to spare. Arrive too soon and you'd be forgiven for thinking it might have been cancelled. But wait until 08:50 or even :55 and suddenly people arrive from every direction until up to 400 people are gathered ready to go. 

One thing I do like about the winter months is that they do seem to bring out the more colourful attire. Even when not twilight running people's cold weather gear more often offers splashes of highligher pen hues and neon brights. 

This parkrun was one that M decided to run with me and I let him dictate the pace, electing not to look at my watch. It felt hard. But not in the way that pushing your top pace feels, more in that way that your usual steady pace feels when you're tired, rundown or hungover. The major difference I noticed when our times were uploaded later was how much more even the splits were. When I pace my own parkrun I always go out too fast, leg it down the big hill to try and buy as much time as I can then die between 4 and 5k. Turns out today was the quickest I've ever done the 4th k with far more even splits. 

Once we got home M turned and asked: "what was your previous Richmond parkrun PB?"

"Dunno" I replied, "but at least 15 sec faster than we did today I'm sure"

"No, 4 seconds faster than you did today" was the response.

Though today felt a bit tough, it certainly didn't feel like pushing the pace into PB territory. Which really does suggest I should take the time to find out my PB before I run. Just in case I'm that close to hitting it again. Missing out by seconds is just unnecessary. And dumb.

Runch Distracted by Blue Skies & Dogs

Friday 6th February

Run #37

6k Battersea Park Runch

Having taken a runch earlier this week and known that, really, it was a bit of a skivey 3.5k with a lot of photo stops, I thought I’d head back to Battersea and try and make myself run a bit more and stop a bit less today.

It was another bright sunny cold day and I felt pretty buoyant heading over Chelsea Bridge, stopping to snap a quick pic of the old Lister Hospital building, the red brick of which was glowing against the bluebird sky.

Once in the Park I decided to follow the path around the boating lake. Twisting left and right I more than once had to double back from a dead end though not paying enough attention to my feet and too much to the skeleton trees and flocking ducks. A clump of snowdrops clinging to a grassy knoll distracted me again, but only fleetingly and were a welcome reminder that Winter won’t last forever.

My plans to run right through were squashed when I encountered the multi-dog walkers. After checking it was OK to take a few photos I managed to acquire muddy dog paw prints on both leggings and jacket as I stopped to fuss the dogs who were more than happy to say hello.

I’d only planned to fit in a 5k but due to a few extra winds around the lake and maybe a twist in the wrong direction it ended up being 6k. Which deposited me exactly outside the door of Starbucks. A decaf Americano was a very welcome end to a pleasing lunchtime run.

Lighting up the Thames Path

Thursday 5th February

Run #36

10k Cruisey Run w M

After the 10k ghost run of #34 M and I planned to run together again for his next recovery run. The notable difference was that the day before this one had been a long run for M with a good chunk of ks at pace and, though this was firmly in his recovery pace, he was certainly more tired today and both the pace and the conversation were notably lower key.

With M apologising for not being as chatty as usual I tried to assist by contributing more conversation from my side – always a challenge. I have a tendency to talk fast in life and doing so while running quickly lose my breath moving swiftly from chirpy conversationalist to grunty, mono-syllabic mouth breather. But the pace wasn’t fast and I did OK, if I didn’t try to rabbit on too much.

So, in the necessary gaps in conversation, the sounds of the night: the wind in the trees along the river-edge, and the lapping of the Thames on the houseboats accompanied our twinned footsteps.

The lights along this stretch of the Thames have recently been upgrade to environmentally considered halogens that shine a dim glow until their movement sensors are tripped when they up the brightness for a limited time, before dimming again after you pass. It’s a bit of a surreal experience as you do feel like you’re dragging a pocket of light along the tow path with you.

Despite planning the 10k to end not too far back up the hill to home, to allow for a cool down walk home, the chill of the approaching night meant we both ended up jogging a good bit past the end of the 10k toward home, tea and hot showers.

Seeing the Rich & Famous for Lunch

Wednesday 4th February

Run #35

3.5k Runch Round Belgravia

After a pootle round a few of the roads behind my office on the #28 runch I had been thinking about the blue plaques I'd run past. Blue plaques have been gracing buildings since 1866 and are used as a marker that 'commemorates the link between notable figures of the past and the buildings in which they lived and worked'. Apparently there are over 800 in London by my recent jaunt made me think that there are probably a fair few more local to my office, so today I decided to incorporate as many as I could into my runch, and try and snap a pic of every one I passed.

Yes, I was fully aware this was a great excuse for a reeeeally relaxed pace run with plenty of stopping. But having clocked 15k already in my evening runs I wasn't up for feeling too guilty.

I googled a quick map of nearby blue plaques and constructed a haphazard route that I thought might do. Then made a thoroughly poor job of committing it to memory and forgot it at the first turn off the first road. But getting an understanding from the map that it was pretty much going to be like shooting fish in a barrel, I went where the fancy took me. Every now and then a road name popped up that I remembered from my map prompting more than one 180 about-face and several weaving across roads and unpredictable direction changes. I'm sure my Strava will suggest serious drinking had occurred pre-set off.

  

I hadn't really figured for the traffic after my last jaunt around Belgravia being fairly traffic-free. But this route took in a few more main roads and odd intersections and it was only after nearly sprawling Trainspotting style over the bonnet of a passing car (a Rolls Royce no less. Belgravia is nothing if not predictable) that I started exercising my green cross code.

 

Photo credit: trainspotters.canalblog.com

As expected the elapsed time was almost twice what the distance would suggest. But I had a load of fun, got to nosy through the window of some amazing house, and escaped unscathed from the bonnet of a car worth 10 times more than I earn in a year, so all things considered; a winner.