What a buzz going around the PWR's campus for the last few days! Well, emails anyway. And at the rec today was a rather dodgy looking character known as 'The Jogging Hippo' with a shh.....shed load of goodies in boxes that he was busy unloading from the back of his motor! And not even a lookout with him! Some of us had already 'heard' about the goodies that he had and had been to his lock up (his mums house actually!) and we were already wearing our 'stuff'.
I was sporting a brand new pair of NewBalance shoes, a new running top and a...... hhhem hemm, a shock absorber! The girls will know what I'm talking about! Everyone was all busy talking about what they had been given....free..... to test out! There is also some nutritional stuff to sample and test, and have tons of gadgetry to try out, from Polar watchs with/without GPS sensors, Garmins, and some sort of lung capacitor thingy! But the gadgetry is to be handed in at the end of the testing duration!
So there I was, like I say, brand new running shoes (one of two pairs I shall be testing) my new bra, shirt and jacket, and busy looking for at all the other new shoes, tops and gadgets as everyone was wearing as they came in. The notices were given, the groups organised and routes had been revealed. My group, group 1 with our illustrious leader, was going ......through the woods! "What about my nice new shoes" I exclaimed "Oh, they are nice and clean looking" said our illustrious leader "don't worry we can change that"
And let me assure you, she did! Oh well, there is nothing like giving a product a good all round testing! I also had the Polar RCX3 to test. I shall give that a thorough testing too! But I was also taking my Garmin, because the Polar does not have a GPS sensor with it, just a heart rate sensor.
To the woods we headed, through 'Poo Ally' and turn right almost immediately to head up towards Chislehurst. It's like running up Birchwood Road only more pleasant, what with the trees and roots, and......mud! It is still so much nicer than running on pavements though! We are Pettswood runners after all! I did expect to pop out on to the road though and then head towards Pettswood itself and do a couple of miles on pavements, but we continued to go through the woods! heading left!
Well I didn't mind, but there was my new trainers! Oh well, that is what shoes are for, save your feet getting muddy! (even though its easier to get feet cleaned up!) I must stop worrying about my trainers. My new jacket seems to be doing ok! It kept me warm, in fact too warm! I had to take it off. I had forgotten to bring the little carry bag thingy that came with the jacket. You can pop it in the little bag and then stick the bag on your arm, so you still have hands free running, and not carrying anything, but instead I had to tie it around my waist. Its very light weight, but when its tied around your waist it twists around, like all shower coats tied around my waist does.
I was at the back as usual, enjoying the run through the woods, and then rain started again. We were quite well sheltered with the leaves on the trees and branches over hanging us like a natural umbrella, but I still put my jacket on, as with the shoes I have to give it a thorough testing. My shoes were really going through it, the muddy patches were reall, really sticky in places.
All too soon I saw the familiar concrete underpass, fondly known as 'Poo Ally'. I had hardly noticed the time flying past as we ran through our beautiful woods! It was getting a bit dark now, I can't believe that the days are getting shorter already! Where is our summer?!
Now, of course, it's pavement pounding time. At least we will be able to shake of the mud from our shoes. We ran up Birchwood, can you believe that! The same hill as we ran earlier only on pavement and tarmac instead. We were going to run to the top and then right to the round about, then it's a lovely down hill section all the way to the 'sprinting road'
I prepared my self mentally and phyiscally, well, I ran down hill thinking about my sprint! I was still at the back of the pack. But I know that I am not that far behind some of the others that I can't catch them up, and even get in front of some of them. As we turned right, I sorted out my line, all the way to the rec. On the road, focused on the sign ahead, but then a car started to head down towards me, I knew I would have to go onto to the pavement, with all those up and down driveways. I was not going to let that slow me down though, I kept on pounding the pavements until I reached the sign.
I switched off my Garmin and the Polar! A lovely run today, with Naggy Neighbour and Hitchy as well, but they were in group 2!
So geeky stats, from my Garmin only, as this Polar doesn't come with anything to use so that I can upload to the laptop, unless I am missing something of course, and you all know how blonde I am at times.
No comments:
Post a Comment