Enjoying life and enjoying running

Yesterday was a classic day, a day to make you feel good, great actually. 

I didn't do anything mind blowingly amazing just had a good time doing things I love. Unfortunately it was a work day so that took up a large proportion of my day and I can't see I really enjoyed that bit of the day.

It was an early start to the day, the early bird catches the worm and all that. I was up at 5.30 and out the door soon after 6 braving -2 temperatures as winter finally seems to have hit the UK. 

A train and a tube into central London brought me to Regents Park and meeting up with running buddy Tony.

An early morning track session was planned, as we jogged to the running track we both marveled at the wintry scene we were running through. 

Once at the track the hard work began, we had scheduled a 800m interval session, 4x 800m @ 5K pace sandwiched with 400m recovery laps. Physically it was tough but mentally it was OK as 4 sets of effort is a nice number to deal with, after lap one you know you are already a quarter done and before you know it your finished. 

It was a great session that left me buzzing through the day. I was showered and changed and ready for work before 9. I love achieving things before work, I like getting up with a focus in mind rather than the drudgery of just another day of work in prospect. 

After a pretty stressful and busy day at work it was time to enjoy the evening with an overdue birthday trip to Yo Sushi with the wife. 

I know it's not the most amazing restaurant and certainly not the best sushi venue and can have quite a marmite affect on sushi lovers and haters alike, but I like it, it's a fun place to eat out. 

Pretty soon we had wracked up an impressive tower of plates. 

It was soon time to head home and get an early night and time to reflect on an enjoyable day. 

It's always good to be thankful for the good things in life and to remember to enjoy life. 

The day was very much my kind of day; running, being busy and enjoying large amounts of food.

I also wanted to capture that day as it summarised what my blog is all about quite nicely, pretty easy going, understated ramblings including some running and some food. If you like this then check out my blog here, follow me on Twitter, like my Facebook page, or check me out on bloglovin. 

Happy running! 

Regents Park to Olympic Park run commute

On Thursday I completed one of the runs that has been on my to do list for a couple of years.

My plan this week was to try and get a long midweek run in as I am running Bacchus Half Marathon on Sunday, so without too much planning I stumbled upon the idea of running part of the way home along the Regents Canal.

I make out that it's a kind of run commute but that's a bit misleading as it is far from getting me home and it's a route that is far from direct in heading towards home. 

In reality it's almost two hours of running that replaces a 20 minute tube journey and one stop on the train so hardly a practical run commute.

My run started with leaving work and heading through a leafy and sunny Regents Park. Emerging on the north side of the park by Primrose Hill I joined the canal towpath for the first time.

The initial route of the canal heads to the vibrant Camden lock area before passing through some less than salubrious backstreet areas of Kentish Town and Kings Cross.

I was some what taken aback at the large volume of traffic on the towpath through this section, walkers making their way home, many runners and speed demon cyclists all vying for a place on an often narrow pathway.

The kings cross area took my route along several wooden pathway structures sitting directly over the water, these were so rickety and noises to run on and not very pleasant.

In the Angel area the canal disappears under a long tunnel which doesn't contain a foot path which left me to navigate through the back streets of angel for around a mile before reconvening with the waterway again.  Most of the path was well signed with small brass plaques dope ting the way but I soon lost this trail and managed to find my own route withal it'll help from google maps.

On this next section the canal dissects through the back streets of East London and Hackney before emerging some where near Mile End and Victoria Park. Here I decided to follow the canal into the Limehouse basin as opposed to taking a direct route homewards through the park towards West Ham and Stratford. 

The experience of running along the canal was a very pleasant one, I felt a million miles away from the hustle and bustle of Central London. Tubes, trains, buses and cars were no where to be seen, it was indeed a more tranquil way to get through London. The word I kept reflecting on was 'mellow' as that seemed to be the mood along the canal, a more relaxed pace of life, being alongside water certainly seems to calm and relax people while also providing a pleasant open space for recreation activities. 

So although not an efficient run that provided a time saving commute but an incredibly enjoyable run and a great way to see London from a different angle. 

Here is a link of the route I took as well as some links to more information on the Regents canal towpath:

https://www.strava.com/activities/388619511

http://lndn.blogspot.co.uk/2005_05_01_lndn_archive.html?m=1

http://www.runnersguidetolondon.co.uk/regents-canal.html

Trying out a new parkrun

This morning I headed over to nearby Raphael Park to run in their seventh week of their recently started parkrun.

http://www.localtennisleagues.com/romford

Only about two miles from home Raphael Parkrun is now my new local parkrun adding to the other local runs in Harrow Lodge and Brentwood. 

Having only found out about this new parkrun after a week or two of it starting and after a busy few weeks this week was my first chance to get over and try out the new event. 

I was eager to try out this new course as it promised to be a different challenge to my recent visits to Hackney Marshes parkrun. Raphael park in three laps of the park all on Tarmac paths as opposed to Hackney Marshes which is a completely flat there and back course.

I was interested to see how my run on a tougher course would compare with my recent PB on the super flat Hackney Marshes route. 

Arriving before the race I was greeted by a great turnout of runners of varying abilities, club runners, fun runners and walkers from a wide age range.

A detailed explanatory briefing was given to myself and the other news runners. The first six weeks of the race seem to have been blighted by confusion amongst runners as to the layout of the route. It seemed pretty simple though 2 long 2km laps and 1 smaller 1km lap and on the final lap you divert from the route into the finishing funnel. With plenty of explanations before the start and numerous marshals out on the course to direct runners I found the course to be pretty straightforward.

The route of the run really went all around the park and it really is a lovely park. The route starts at what most be the highest point on the main path through the park then heads down to the entrance on Main Road before turning right onto the water. Runners then hug the waters edge all the way to the end of the lake before heading up the incline towards the back of the park and the playing field and tennis court area. Right around the tennis courts before heading back toward the main park and the start area which takes you down and then up a dip before your back at the starting point for the second lap. 

A repeated lap brings up 4km and running parkrun as laps I found really broke up the race and made it go quickly. The third shorter lap starts the same way as the first two with the split then coming after the incline midway through the lap when runners on their final lap take a sharp right to head for home. Down and the up the dip and another sharp turn to the right brings runners into the only grassed area of the course where the course snakes in the last few hundred metres into the finishing funnel.

It was a tough run and I was interested to see my time at the finish. Despite being a more demanding course there times I felt really good and was flying round, I was able to maintain my pace when I started to struggle and I wouldn't have been surprised if I had challenged my PB time despite the tougher route. However my final time was 21.49 which represents my third fastest parkrun time. My regular speed work sessions in recent months are definitely making an improvement as my faster runs feel easier as I am used to running at faster paces. 

Overall I finished in 7th place out of 105 runners which I was really pleased with and it was nice to be involved in the business end of the race even if I wasn't anywhere near winning the race. My first km marked a km PB of 4.04 which was also pleasing but shows that I am still heading out too fast and this is something I need to work on.

Big thank you to all organisers and volunteers at Raphael parkrun for a well organised race which I hope will grow and develop for many months and years to come! 

Getting back into marathon mode

Following on from a successful Parkrun yesterday where I added in an extra fee miles from the course to the station and then the station back home, today I had planned a long slow run.

My plan was to get into 'marathon mode', to run long, run slow, forget about running fast and just relax enjoy the run and without being cheesy 'get into the zone' and really enjoy running.

I was taking my hydration pack out for its first spin in a while to get used to carrying it again ahead of hopefully completing a few marathons in the autumn.

I had planned out a proposed route of sorts, an ambitious there and back route of at least thirteen miles heading through some local parks and out onto the London Loop sections 22 and 23 towards Rainham.

In the end I only ended up completing about half the route, firstly as it was a lot longer than I anticipated, secondly I was more tired from yesterday's running then I though and thirdly last nights enchiladas had played havoc with my stomach, but the less said about that the better! 

My adventure began after around 5k when I headed onto the first off-road trail section of the London Loop section 22. A quite little residential road leads downhill into a dark wooded area that looks like it should be the setting of a horror movie as it is so out of place at the end of this quiet suburban road.

The trail is great though and an enjoyable but technical route to run.

It soon opens up into a large meadow which was beautifully in flower in this early part of the summer.

Some more trails around some ploughed fields and through hound woodland and I was soon back into built up residential areas. A quick lap around the Upminster Bridge area including the start of the London Loop section 23 And I then started on my return journey taking much the same route.

A slightly different path took me past some some lovely pink flowers.

I also had a quick stop to chat with the resident pony that lives in a little small holding along the route.

After a quick chat and a few handfuls of grass, (for the pony not me!) I headed onto through the fields and along some nice green trails.

Soon enough I was heading for home and back into Pages Wood and then Harold Wood Park before less than 2kms back to home to round off an 18km run in a snip under 2 hours.

Once home I was quickly into a cold bath to aid my recovery as these form a key part of recovery strategy after longer runs.

All in all a really enjoyable run, some great sights to see and really what I wanted in terms of just running slowly and enjoying the scenery. 

The London Loop is a network of pathways designed to provide a route encircling greater London, you can find out more about the London Loop on the TFL website here, the sections I partly ran were sections 22, Harold Wood to Upminster Bridge and section 23, Upminster Bridge to Rainham. I have previously ran these sections in their entirety and you can read about my experience doing that here. The best way to find out more about the routes make up the London Loop is by reading other peoples experiences, a quick google will bring up a plethora of pages. There are several pages by people who have walked, cycled or ran large parts and in some cases all of the London Loop, a particular blog I have enjoyed reading on this subject and many others is Diamond Geezer which is well worth a look, his post on section 22 can be read here. 

Hackney Marshes Parkrun 5th birthday celebrations

So this morning I headed off on what is becoming a regular trip to Hackney Marshes Parkrun for a showdown with running buddies Tony and Chris. 

With Tony still fresh from his Asics262 marathon triumph in Paris and Chris coming off the back of two sub4 marathons in three weeks I knew it would be a tough challenge to keep up with these two. A speed work session with Tony on Thursday morning over at the Regents Park running track where Tony left me behind while he had plenty more speed than me left in the tank had me wondering if I was going to compete with him today.

The reason for a running meet up this particular weekend was to help celebrate Hackney Marshes parkruns 5th birthday celebrations. And we weren't the only ones making the journey over for the celebrations as we joined a field of 176 runners. 

This was my third visit to Hackney Marshes and I must say its a great little setup, a super flat speedy Tarmac course, a nice green tree flanked route and a friendly mix of runners of all abilities, so I was pleased to join them for the celebrations.

An enjoyable part of the experience is my journey to Hackney marshes, although the train journey is quieter than a work day that's not the enjoyable part it's the gentle walk through the Olympic Park to the Parkrun start/finish.

So onto the run its self, a large crowd, prizes and awards for deserving regulars and a host of new timers made for an exciting atmosphere at the start. My excitement was heightened though by a bit of celebratory spotting as spied Ronnie the rocket O'Sullivan lining up at the start. I admit I do get pretty stray struck and am not one to pluck up the courage to strike up a chat or ask for a photo. I was pretty amazed when in the opening few hundred metres as I started to battle through some congestion on the course I felt a hand on my shoulder as another runner tried to avoid colliding with me and to look round and see the snooker legend himself sneak past me! Not only is he a speedy snooker ball potter but he's also a speedy runner as he finished in an awesome time of sub19 minutes.

Courtesy of Hackney Marshes parkrun facebook page

But how was my race? I was eager to try and replicate my form from my 21 minute PB a few weeks back but I knew I wasn't quite in the same shape. 

I took the first km or so a bit easier and breezed past Chris at around 1km, Despite our friendly rivalry I was conscious to try and run my own race rather than concentrating on competing. I maintained a faster pace and felt comfortable up to the half way mark which I reckon I clocked in a faster time than during my PB run.

The second half was a struggle as I tried to keep going after going off too quick  it was made harder knowing Chris was on my shoulder and I expected him to ghost past me at any stage. I managed to hold off the threat of Bramster but as we started to head for home I spotted Tony out of the corner of my eye starting to mount an attack in the closing stages. I struggled in the closing minutes, I still need to work on my strength, the finish wasn't helped by my anticipation of the end. Every time the course bent round I kept thinking it was the home straight only to be disappointed no have further to run! I mustered a semi sprint finish in the last 50m or so and crossed the line in 21.29 luckily having enough to hold off my challengers. 

Looking at my splits I was happy to see a decent even pace, the first km is quick though (if you think it would realistically be a good bit quicker due to a delay at the start), so I need to think about starting slower to be able to run faster later on in the race. 

After the race there was a delicious array of cakes for hungry runners to tuck into. 

Although I won the race between the three of us the performance victory goes to Tony with a shiny new PB in the region of 40 seconds! Chris as well worked hard to run strongly but by his own admission is struggling to recover from two sub4 marathons in three weeks and a half marathon PB shortly after. 

Whatever the results and achievements it was another enjoyable Parkrun and aanother day to celebrate why I enjoy running!