Pad, pad, pad

A few drinks last night meant a lunch time run was not on the agenda. At lunchtime I go running in the aqua shoes.

This is a good choice of foot wear. I am now comfortable running in next to nothing on my feet but I can't run fast yet. I think the solution is to increase my RPM but it is still early days.

Down to Blackriars, along the North side of the Thames to Tower Bridge and back along London Wall. As I run along London Wall I feel great. I am not tired at this pace but concentrating on my form is keeping me busy.

Afterwards I do not even feel sore. Which is more than can be said for my head after all that beer.

36 minutes in the aquas

Strange days, but learning

If you told me 5 years ago that the best way to run was with running shoes with minimal padding I would have thought you were crazy. In the same way, the best way to get over a hard running session was more running.

Today I set off to recover with a lunch time run down Fleet Street. The plan was to run for 20 mins and then turn back.

As I reach Aldwych I realise I can turn this into more of a loop by running up Kingsway and Back via Holboln. I take an interesting turn off half way up Kingsway and past the LSE(London School of Economics, not the Stock Exchange)

The last half a mile my form feels naturally good, my feet feel so much stronger these days.

This morning I was so tired from last nights run I struggled to get out of bed. Yet by lunchtime I was happily running, feeling and much better for it.

The more you run, the more you know

25 mins, slow pace

Up and down but not hot and bothered

I have been looking for some shoes I can wear at work, but are minimal. The aqua shoes are too beach like for work. Normal shoes now repulse me with all their padding and heels. In the end I managed to find a pair with flat bottoms. £6 in Primark and they are basic; perfect! I can feel and work with my feet.

As I do my Tuesday night with PWR I think about my form. James Wong's group (group 4) pushes me nicely and at some points I have to cling on at the back.

Tonight Jerry(The Rotter) decides to push the pace. We run through Petts Wood, Chislehurst Common, Scadbury Park. At the top of the hill in Scadbury Park I spot my Mountain Bike Club out for a group ride. I shake hands with Sparky and he wants to stop and chat. But I know James does not stop, ever. If you see him walking, keep running before he starts running again. So I keep running.

Despite it being a hot day, it has nicely cooled and the countryside looks beautiful. As we near the end the peleton eases away, I finish in a group of one (within sight distance) and a couple of stragglers behind me.

What felt like a lively pace, the 10k was sone in 55 minutes, hardly race pace. The hills and bumpy ground possibly account for the perceived effort.

With aqua shoes at £4.99 and work shoes at £6 this investigation into Barefoot running could be saving me a fortune!

13km in 1hr15

Hare and Hounds Hurts

Hare and Hounds handicap race today. 5 miles. Very hot. I finished middle of the pack. But 2 mins down on my target time because we all suffered.

5 Miles - 40"55

In the countryside on a summer's evening

Tuesday night, and I'm out running with Petts Wood Runners. I'm feeling brave having looked forward to the run all day, and decide to go with James Wong. He always runs what feels like a minute/mile faster than he says he will. A large number of other people do the same. It is a large, friendly, social group with perhaps 20 runners. This is the second fastest of the groups, so it will still be done at a lively pace.

A beautiful evening, and I run at the front for the first half through the beautiful Petts Wood, catching up with a number of friends. Near Scadbury park we come to a long slow drag of a hill. I like hills, I really do. So I zip off, past Jerry. Then someone starts pushing, and before we know it we are both in an all out sprintin for the top of the hill. The thing is the faster groups don't really stop, even at the top of steep climbs.

Now I am in trouble. Having put in a full tilt sprint, I now have to keep going at a stretching pace. It takes me 3km to recover. I get talking to some interesting people and I slowly recover. Later on me and my fellow sprinter laugh at the ridiculousness of what we had done. He had suffered the same. But it was good training, in terms of character.

In the final hill up to the finish, the pace really picks up, I notice I am dropping to the back. I put in a huge effort and work my way up towards the front.

A beautiful evening, great company, bluebells. Just because life is a marathon and not a sprint, doesn't mean you shouldn't throw in the odd crazy sprint now and again.

12km around 1:09"00 (Garmin said 5"40/km)

Expensive shoes? Bah!

Having read Born to Run, I really am focussed on developing my barefoot running. I spent Sunday running around with the kids in my Aqua shoes (think plimsolls made from modern material)

So today the lunchtime run is to be in these. When you start running, you are told to go to a good running store to get corrective footwear. They watch you run up and down the road and then pronounce you are a "pronater". They then sell you some expensive footwear to correct your natural gait. The more you look into this quackery the less scientific basis it has.

I run to Waterloo Bridge and back. With no cushioning, and no support, apparently, I should be a crippled, injury mess. It feels rather nice. I can't run as fast. The lack of padding means each footstep has to be carefully, and mindfully crafted. It feels like learning to run again. If any pain or discomfort is felt, I am naturally able to adjust.

A number of people look at me, but they are looking at my work running club vest with my employers name splattered across the front. I look at the other runners, pounding in to the big cushions strapped to their feet. Their limbs flail and flap. I do not have such luxury, each footstep needs to gently flow, stroking the pavement.

I am running more upright, as my feet are flat rather than with a large spongey heel. I am using my arms more to aid forward propulsion. You may never run a race like this, but as a training exercise this is fascinating.

Perhaps, it was because I could not run as fast, I feel no fatigue. Some slight muscle soreness from using slightly different muscles but nothing uncomfortable.

My aqua shoes were £4.99. Less is more.

~5km, time not relevent

Blackfriars building

There is a building at the South Side of Blackfriars I go past each day on the train and it is spectacular. For a few weeks I have been minded to run there and take a closer look. Today I did it.

I am still Reading "Born to Run" and I try and bring some of that attitude to my run. And I do flow through the people like I'm on a Canyon trail, mindful of form.

In the end the building looked less interesting the closer I got. The closer I look at Barefoot running, the more interesting it looks.

30mins slow to medium pace

Born to run

I am currently Reading "Born to run". This is a book about some Mexican native people(the Tarahumara) who love running, run almost barefoot, hate crowds and sporadically have heavy drinking sessions. Maybe I need to check out my family tree? Alas they are rather good at running and that is where the analogy falls down.

Have just been far too busy to run recently in all aspects of my life. Today I was determined to get out. No pace or time targets, just running for the sake of running.

The Tarahumara run ultra-marathon distances. They seem to do this through their attitude to running. Light, airy and joyful. And that was how I ran today. The route was an old favourite: down to Blackfriars, along the north bank to Tower Bridge and back down London Wall.

It feels so good and I could run all day without tiredness setting in. However, work is calling. The last half km I sprint. I always tell new runners that it never gets easy, it always hurts, even for the best runners. Part of running is accepting this. But today showed me I am wrong.

Today I felt like I was born to run.

35"46, distance unimportant

Just looks like a big tent

It is the assembly league run at The Dome. The assembly league is a series of short races around but never 5k or 3 miles. I had missed the first Beckenham one because of the house move.

I had been led to believe it would be 5k and given the flat course a PB would be on the cards.

The standard is very high. To finish in the last quarter would be a good result.

I set off too fast. The course is complicated with many loops. The worst bit is a long out and back in section. On my way back in I spot Charlie from the running club at work, some way behind me. He must of started late and will soon pass me.

I push on to the finish, and at the finish there are already loads of finishers waiting to applaud us slower runners home. I take a female runner by suprise as I blast past. Charlie finishes just behind her. He had not been late, just taking it easy.

I look at the time and ask a marshall the course length. 4.5k apparently. (the Garmin had not recovered from the Tube journey). I calculate a 5k time of around 24 minutes and feel disappointed. I check with a Garmin wearing friend and they say it is 4.65km. This moves my 5km time to 23 minutes, 1 second above my PB (much better!)

I had tried to have an early dinner before the race (because of work I usually eat after evening races) but this had not worked and weighed me down the whole way round. A lesson learned there.

The organisation of these assembly league is amateur(in the nicest possible way) the results seem to be typed on a typewriter and posted out in an envelope. I await the results.

I haven't been that close to The Dome before, and it does look just like a big tent.

4.64km 21"28

PWR 10k(Petts Wood, Raining)

It's the Petts Wood Runners members 10k (my running club). Basically a 10k Race around the streets of Petts Wood in a route so complex, unless you ran there every Tuesday night you wouldn't have a clue. Marshalling is minimal, provided by Richard and Anne.

I'd set my heart on running this earlier in the week. My 10k PB is currently 53". This is ridiculous. On my way to the Reading Half PB (Well done Andy, still proud of you) I had run 10k in 49 minutes. It was time to set the record straight.

I wake up Sunday morning and it is raining hard, very hard. You get nowhere by quitting, so I decided to go for it. The atmosphere before the race is jovial. I tell Richard I plan to run a PB in an act of bravado. He needs a stopwatch to time the race and asks to borrow my Garmin. This is fine, but means running the race blind.

The race starts rapidly. After the first few km I am still in touch with the leaders, partly through fear of losing the route. At one point we cross a railway bridge with lots of steps. 5k in, the run up Birchwood Road almost breaks me, but given that I have braved the weather, I keep pushing. The loop round Kingsway also makes me suffer. Suddenly I can hear someone closing me down, but still to far to identify them.

At the end of the loop I see Liz standing marshalling, despite seeing her start the race. She ran the marathon last week and has obviously decided to quit. I ask her:
"Finished already?"
She ignores me and directs me in the right directiong. Gradually Emma and Sabina, who have been stalking me for some time, draw level. I know they are faster than me, but I think they are unsure of the route. We run together for a while, exchanging a little banter, but then as we near the finish they edge further clear. They are on more of training run but it has helped push me on.

Finally into the recreation ground, and I sprint the last 200m. I always sprint, as the sprint comes from different muscles and a different mental place. It shaves a few crucial seconds.

As I cross the line, I shout
"What was the time?"
Without the garmin I am blind
The time shocks me,
"Are you sure?"
And they are.

A tricky, hilly course, in heavy, heavy rain. Yesterday was spent in hard manual labour(for me) laying a new lawn.

10k 48"07 (PB)