Running – Page 7 – About Stuff

January 22, 2017

Stuff

Pic of the week 22/1/17

A bit of an odd week, characterised by the demise of my computer from Wednesday.

It wouldn’t fire up in the morning and I left for school with that nagging away at me. Was able to pop home at lunchtime and managed to get it going, so I saved most of the files that I thought would be important onto a memory stick. Once it was up anad running I should have left it, but each night I shut it down, and each morning it took longer to get going. On Friday evening I tried restarting it again as it woudln’t connect to the internet (would connect to the router, though) and its never started again. It is an ex-PC, it has shuffled of this mortal coil, its pushing up the daisies etc. All a bit of a faff, but I’m less bothered about it than I thought I might be.

I now have the laptop fired up (with PC keyboard and mouse) – all I really use the ‘puter for is emails, surfing the net and a bit of Word & Excel, which the laptop is handling fine. Remember all my logins and passwords, however, that is a right royal pain in the postierior.

Ref’ed on Pitch 1 yesterday, a first for me, and a bit of an honour! 2nd XI (although boosted by approx 5 1st XI players who needed game time) v a side from University of West of England. Enjoyed it, was hard work, both physically and mentally, but I enjoyed the challenge and felt I did a good job. Today I reffed a cup game in the U16 Yeovil Youth Shield – Wessex U15 v Avishayes Combe. Thoroughly enjoyed it – a beautiful sunny afternoon, good football although Wessex ended up 8 – 2 winners. Flattered them a little, but another really good game and great to be out in the sunshine.

The pic above shows the hint of spring to come – its been quite a pleasant January thus far: pretty dry and occasionally sunny. Although I’m sure February will bare its teeth, with the evenings getting lighter one does begin to hope that Spring is now somewhere on the distant horizon.

January 2, 2017January 2, 2017

Goals, aims and targets – 2017

With 2017 up and running, its time to write down (and commit to) my goals, aims and targets for the year ahead. Looks like its going to be a physical year!

Run 300Km – a much lower target than I set myself last year, but not a target I met, completing 296 Km in 2016. Should be do-able despite the demands on my time from other physical pursuits (swimming, spinning, referee-ing and who knows what for 2017)
Run up the Tor. In the summer of 2016, when I was regularly running, I set myself this goal for 2017: to run from home to the tor, run all the way up the tor, and then run back again. This is a tough ask, particularly as I am not running as much as I did last year. Would be a real achievement to do so. If I don’t write it down, it wont happen. Think I’ll have to target the summer hols to do it, if I’m going to do it.
Swim 150Km (4,500) lengths. Toyed with putting in a higher total – I did 200Km, 6000 lengths in 2016, but don’t think I’ll be swimming as much this year as last, so have given myself a very achievable target to ensure that I do make it.
Gardening: 2016 was all about the structure of the garden, this year I hope to focus more on the planting. So this year I want to: plant raspberry canes & rhubarb, grow and eat runner beans, peas, courgette and onions and grow some sweet peas and sunflowers.
Refereeing – enter the promotion programme from Level 7 to Level 6. Promotion year runs from March to Feb so won’t be able to clinch promotion in 2017, but hopefully will be a significant way down the track.
Weight: before the Christmas excesses, I would say that my “normal” weight was 12 stone 7 (today its up around 12 stone 12). I aim to be back at 12 stone 7 within 3 weeks and establish 12 stone 6 as my “normal” weight (normal weight: allows a swing of 3 lbs each way, so range between 12 3 and 12 9 following a festival of feasting)
My maths blog: this was an aim I failed last year, and want to rectify again. Write at least twice a month on my maths blog – A Maths Teacher Writes

August 14, 2016

Glastonbury Tor

Pic of the week 14/8/16

Each morning, I fling open the shutters of my bedroom and gaze out at Glastonbury Tor, standing proud in the distance. The pic above was taken by Becky at 5.45am this morning before we set off for Cheddar and a car boot sale.

Yesterday, I decided to run up the Tor. Donned my kit and set off. It was almost exactly 4k to the bottom of the Tor – a fairly easy cruise, followed by a tough slog up to the top. I reckon I ran one third of the way up to the Tor (off and on), walking the rest.

After a brief moment to gather my breath & take in the view, I set off back down the hill. Halfway down, the 5th k kicked in, 4-5 k taking 9 mins something. Going back down the Tor was not that quick – despite the slope and gravity’s helping hand it was slower than running on the level.

Back on the level, I carried on home, running each k at an ace over 5 mins (annoyingly, my Fitbit didn’t load the splits), the run finishing at 9.72 km after 55.06 mins. (Regret a little not carrying on to make it a full 10k). My route can be seen below:

Was a little (pleasantly) surprised as to how I took the whole run in my stride (pun intended), both the run itself and after effects which I would describe as minimal.

Have set myself two challenges:

To run the Tor run at least once every holiday (including half terms)
To run all the way up the Tor by the end of 2017.

July 17, 2016

Smashed it!

Pic of the week 17/7/16

Personal bests? Smashed them all today. Ran the 7k run today for the first time since my knee injury in January, and, boy, did I boss it.

Have been running the 6K Tor View run a lot recently, which I think is actually tougher than the 7K run due to the whacking great hill in the middle. The 7K run is essentially flat.

It was still, and humid and warm this morning and I set of at a cruise – not aiming to go particularly fast or slow, just to run. But have been feeling fit of late and the first 2Ks clocked in easily. However, it was when the time for the 4thK came in at 18 mins something that I realised that I could be looking at a sub 24 minute 5K and so I kept up the pace, hitting 5k in 23:39. Was on the flat, just kept going still to hit 6K at 28:23 and, by the time I hit the hill at the end of 7K I’d done enough to get a 7K time of 33:29.

Am impressed with those times – will struggle to beat them, I think, but proud of being sub 24/29/34 for 5, 6 & 7K.

June 19, 2016

PB

Ran today, and surprised myself by coming back with a 5K PB of 24 mins 10 secs.

Ran the Tor View Road Six K run. Ran the six K in 29.09 which is 3 seconds of my PB for that. Not any easy run to PB in as most of the 5th K is uphill, from the mini roundabout past Morrisons and all the way into Tor View Road.

Got off to a cracking pace – although its all down hill, so should do, but then just kept going: felt good, felt easy, no wind, warm but not too warm. Wasn’t really trying for a PB, what was pleasantly surprised when I totted the Ks up. Splits can be seen below.

June 5, 2016

Half term

Pick of the week 5/6/16

What a manly half term:

I built a new shed:

I knocked down the summerhouse, fixed the car when it wouldn’t start, ran 6k twice, swam 2K twice, a mile once and totaled 288 lengths of the pool, chopped down the tops of two hefty trees in the hedge … and all of this in one week.

I’ve got 4 weeks back at school now, before the long eight week summer holiday – not sure how I’ll survive it, I’ll be a physical wreck come September!

The rain stayed away most of the time and sun shone on occasion, a great, fulfilling and productive week.

April 24, 2016April 24, 2016

Run stuff

24/4/16

Cold & windy – into wind outbound, at the back for the return hence the speed! Second post injury run and feels good. A 6K cruise – a great way to start the day. Now for a shower and toast, the highlight of my week!

April 17, 2016

Run and room

Pick of the week 17/4/16

This rather arty shot neatly summarizes the last week – (at last) we have moved upstairs into our new bedroom, and very nice it is too. And yesterday I ran for the first time in two months, (at last) my knee injury seems to have healed up.

In the background, I am donning my running gear – my florescent jacket matching the yellow of the duvet cover. Co-ordinated, or what!

April 16, 2016

Running Free!

It was with a slight sense of trepidation, but my knee has not been hurting of late, so I hit the streets today for my first run for 2 months.

On the whole, the knee felt fine, although I was conscious that I was monitoring it all the time. At about the 2K point I felt a twinge so looped round the B&Q roundabout and headed for home – figuring that 4K would be a good outing and I didn’t want to risk a relapse.

I hit 4K near Strode pool, so kept going for a bit longer to make it a 5Km run. Ended up with a time of 25.11 for the 5Km – not too bad given how long its been, but it wasn’t a walk in the park.

10 hours later, knee is still holding up, no pain, which is good. Good to be back on the road again – reckon I’ll look at running a 5k a week for the next six weeks or so.

February 18, 2016

Ouch!

I’ve decided to hang up my running shoes for a while.

I went for a run last Saturday and Sunday and, whilst I enjoyed them and the post run buzz as the endorphins kicked in, my knee has been hurting ever since. So I think I need to give it a good length of time to rest and recover and have made the decision to not now run until at least the start of the Easter hols (beginning Friday 26th March). So even if it my knee feels 100%, I shan’t run before then, to give it plenty of time to recover. (And if its still not feeling 100% by then, I won’t run.)

I’ll still do some refereeing and I’ll still do plenty of swimming – probably do a bit more swimming to compensate – but the road running is put on hold. I think that it is the impact of foot on road that is causing the problems, so hopefully by not running on the road it will make a full recovery.