No Irfan in town this weekend, but met up with Ian anyway for a slog around West London. Took a tube over to Earl’s Court to meet, and then a very scenic route West along the river on the picturesque South side towards Richmond. Passing Kew Gardens we saw the resident colony of wild parrots that are believed to have escaped in the 60’s and taken up residence in London!
(no I wasn’t carrying my camera, photos are courtesy of various flickr members)
Continued into Richmond town centre, and up the hill to the park. Was a beautiful view, as Ian had promised. Would have stopped to admire the herd of deer, but the mileage was calling.
The trip through the park turned us East, on a shortcut back towards Putney. I was keen to keep motoring, but around the 13 mile point (my 15 miles, as had put in a bit of warm-up distance getting lost finding Ian) my running buddy’s knee gave in, so we slowed to a walk for the last mile back to town. Ian’s on a Sunday night first date tonight, so he jumped on a bus home to shower and get back out, while I did a final mile along the river before packing in myself and taking the tube back home.
All in all, an awesome day out. Great weather, and a chance to check-out some lovely new areas of London I only had a passing familiarity with previously.
Another giant Sunday run planned this morning to try to get the total distance up a bit. Planned a 17 mile slog from home up to Hyde Park to meet Irfan and Ian, and then to either head towards Regents Park or Battersea Park. The boys were game, so we turned North alongside Park Lane and then cut through the Edgware Road backstreets, past Madame Tussauds and onto Regents Park.
Quite a bit warmer this week than last, I had to pocket one of my layers to keep the temperature regulated. A nice day though, so managed to convince the boys that was worth continuing the trek East, along the Regents Park canal, through Camden, Kings Cross, Angel - past Victoria Park (3), Hackney, and down towards Canary Wharf.
I’d planned to turn West back towards home for a 17 mile personal best distance, but my newly 36 year old (last week) left knee gave out around Angel, and I was limping the last few miles. Decided to let discretion take the better part of valour, and joined the boys to jump on the tube back to Mansion House and home.
Anyway, an interesting route. And great that I could motivate Irfan and Ian to push the distance a bit. Previous to today’s 13 miles their previous longest was 10K, an excellent improvement!
Had a blast from the past in the form of a running invitation to join Irfan in Holland Park for this morning. Apparently he’s been reading the blog, and my Nikeplus data encouraged him to ask for an iPod Nano and running kit for Christmas so he could start getting into the trudge himself.
A good opportunity to do some distance, so kept a rein on the potential drinking horrors of a Friday night out with Laura and Lisa (well, the last zambuca shot was a borderline decision), and got up this morning not too groggy to try to put in my longest run yet.
Irfan and Gino live in a rather nice part of Holland Park, just opposite Simon Cowell in fact, so it was a pleasant 6 miles route through some of the greener parts of London to get to him. Grabbed a quick glass of water from a fridge that looked like it’s never seen a vegetable (Irfan: “you think I keep looking this good by eating food?!”), and then joined the boys for their usual 5 mile jog through Holland Park and around Hyde Park. We lost Gino somewhere enroute, so I used the excuse to double-back through the park on a partial return leg to put some more distance in. Great to catch-up with the boys after so long, and we parted ways at the Serpentine with the promise of a repeat on an imminent future weekend.
The last half of the 4 miles home were pretty painful. Walked across Jubilee Bridge as a partial recovery, but by that time the effects of a 9am bowl of muesli on-top of a partial hangover had got the better of me. Was dreaming about huge piles of bacon sandwiches in the last leg along the Southbank! Finished my route at the “Eat” just around the corner from home. I literally fell in the door at the 15 mile point, grabbed the nearest piece of fruit and devoured it on the spot. The guy behind the counter looked rather incredulously at the pile of fruit salads, sandwiches and yogurts I started digging into before I could even get my cash out!
Anyway, back on the sofa several hours and several breakfasts later, and feeling much more myself. In fact, just about ready to do it all again (get hammered that is, not run!); which is rather handy as tonight happens to be my birthday celebration, so the champagne’s going to be flowing thick and fast.
And here’s the usual data, rather happy with myself that have finally snuck into seventh place in a Nikeplus London marathon challenge I joined about six months ago. The leader is about a 1,200 miles up on me (!!!), but top five looks achievable if I keep to the schedule.
(and here’s the Challenge widget, it may not be showing 7th by the time you read this as the data is updated real-time)
Just to prove I’m not resting on my laurels, spent an hour in Fran’s yoga class yesterday and then did the usual commute route home this evening. Not getting any faster, but did feel pretty great as I sprinted out the last stretch trying to keep up with some gangly looking bloke who tried to blitz me just past Southwark Cathedral.
This evening was apparently my 23rd run with Nike+, and just enough distance to push me over the 100 mile mark. Got a shiny certificate for my trouble!
Yikes, it’s been a while since I’ve posted, and frankly a while since I’ve run anywhere. At the height of the freezing temperatures last week I caught a couple of short sessions on the HSBC gym treadmill. Honestly though the treadmill is just too dull to keep up, especially given that I seem to be getting micro electric shocks in the eardrums from my headphones whenever the cable brushes against the heartrate bars!! That really can’t be healthy!!
So I at least managed to get out for a decent blast on Sunday. Was supposed to be a 10 mile run along the Thames, up and around Green Park, the Ritz and then home past Buckingham Palace. However was more like 7.5 miles in the end, and was in a bit of a rush to get back as promised Kat we’d test out the soapstone pizza stone I got for Christmas from the parents. Not terribly healthy, but quite a laugh trying to make and roll-out the dough from scratch. Here’s the data, and a pizza pic!
