Genevieve's Journeys

I found out about parkrun this year after 3+ mentions of it in a copy of Runner's World - there was a cover article about 5k running, which is why I picked it up. I wondered if parkrun had sponsored the mentions, there were so many.

I've been thinking about going for months, but just before Double Wars wasn't the time to start. At that point I couldn't even picture getting out of bed before 9am on a Saturday.

Don't know why exactly today was the day - possibly watching the world championship athletics this week put it in mind - I loved watching it through lunchtime while I was in the gym. Beats the hell out of news and crappy music videos. Puts your own efforts into perspective, but in a good way, not a depressing way.

So today I ran the one closest to me - one I could find on the bus route - in Harrow.

I figure it was my running that inspired Mo Farah - he's just won the 5,000m in Beijing. :-)

Don't yet know my time. I was so shattered as I crossed the finish I didn't hear the time. I wasn't absolutely last, but I think I was the last runner - the rest were run-walkers.

I did walk 3x - there is a gentle slope on the course in this park, and I found on the laps that it was a good point to walk for 30 paces.

The run director was very kind - asked my name, how I'd found parkrun, then how I did afterward, my impressions, would I do it again.

I suggested setting one up in the local county park - he said he'd run x-country there, but it was potentially muddy - guess they have to choose routes that will be reliable and predictable, even w/ poor weather.

Went for a run today in the new nauseous pink shoes. Jury is still out.

My knees tell me they've done some different work today, because they're aching differently than before.

Spent much of the weekend with goncalves and the splendid J, in their new digs in Cardiff, and also visiting Bristol. J has lived there awhile, and gave the tour of the fashionable Gloucester Road, the 'centre' with its gruesome postwar buildings, the redeveloped bits close to the main train station where she works, and some of the S Bristol neighbourhoods.

North and South Bristol are a bit like N and S London, a few years ago - N London fashionable, S London up and coming, w/ big differences in housing prices between the two (now all London is stupid expensive, doesn't matter where you are).

I had no idea you could build a city on a site so hilly; I can't see how they could be built before cars existed. Horse-drawn transport just wouldn't make it up some slopes, at all.

Parts of Bristol are heavily populated by charity shops, which is risky for me because I can lose a lot of time in them. J says the better ones are picked over by Bristol students who have the time and motivation to shop regularly!

On Sunday we visited Caerphilly Castle in preparation for autumn Crown. It was a glorious late-summer day, great day to visit, and the castle was at its best. We had a good visit with the custodian, and have promising ideas about where to host 'noisy' space to keep the crash space in the hall relatively quiet at the event.

One downside: no fires or candles. In an 800 year old stone building, we're not allowed to light fires in the fireplaces - those designated, purpose built areas intended to keep fires contained and managed. Sigh.

The trips to and fro were uneventful, though it was vexing to find that my network card, bought to get me discounts on train fares across the NETWORK, doesn't apply in Wales. The answer was 'You're in Wales love'. Apparently I'd entered a discount free zone, whereas if I'd bought a return ticket, it would have applied on both fares. Stupid stupid stupid.

They were also very full - people standing leaving London for the first hour, and paying £40 each way for the privilege.

Robert and I spent a relaxed day today - first visiting the Tudor house within walking distance of us(!) that we'd never visited, then braving the hordes at Camden market for clothes from Braintree. I typically try to avoid the market on weekends and holidays, but we're pressed for leisure time between now and when my mum visits post-Easter.

We also stopped at my favourite running shop and scored with these - are they cool or what?

I'll be the envy of the runners in the park!



The best part is - I didn't even ask for them in purple. That's the only colour they had in this style. Awesome.

 ...two weeks running of running - getting out for a lunchtime walk/run 3x/week.
I find that getting out more than 3x/week starts to make a tangible difference - it actually gets easier to run - whereas when my running slots drop to 2x/week, it gets harder and harder to make the time, and the running itself is less fun, and more like work. (A bit like attending fight practice - you can keep it up once you've started, but it's a bugger to get started...)
I think I've worked out a maintainable rhythm: duck out just before noon, be in the park at noon, back shortly after 12.30, shower/change/lunch and back at my desk shortly after 1pm.
The trick will be keeping to that timing (ie. not taking a lot more than an hour total, maybe 1hr 15min) as I increase my distance, or time spent running. 
Alternately, I could keep the lunch runs short, and add a 'long slow' run on the weekend.
It's just hard to pry myself off the sofa on the weekends.
Unfortunately, I cannot speed up how long it takes for me to cool off; I can shower and change faster, but I just keep 'glowing' bright red and sweating for a fixed amount of time.
Makeup is a bit of a waste of time on run days - just makes the spots worse.
There's a fun run at work for the office summer fete in mid-July: 5km run or 2.5km walk. Possibly a good date to work towards completing 5km.

I went for the longest run I've had in years - 41 minutes, most of the way through Victoria Park.

Over the winter I felt like I'd never run again.

A couple of months ago, I did well to manage 21 minutes, and it took all my energy to manage it.

I'm hugely pleased.

*beaming*