A Little Traipse Through The Woods.

Hello Blog lovers.

After an eventful evening I was in desperate need to chill out, with some fresh air this morning.  I was in need, but tired and not wanting to go!  So I was very pleased when one of Discorich's crew members wanted to come along with me instead this morning.  She was suffering with a bit of discomfort, but being a true runner decided that the best thing to do was to just run slower!  I unfortunately don't have that luxury. If I run any more slower then I will become a ...........walker! The mere thought fills me with fear!

I rode my bike to the rec and then realised that I had actually forgotten to bring my bike lock! You can see that I was in need now!  I was hoping that DiscoRich would be on his bike, which I expected he would be as the weather is like a beautiful spring morning!  It is positively like a late spring 'feel'! I was glad that I was right about him being on his bike.  I rode over to the bike stands with DiscoRich and we locked up the bikes.

We chatted with all the other people that were there, and then D.R. said that we is going to be doing a road route!  I couldn't quite grasp what he was saying!  Most of us will be racing on Sunday, getting up at a ridiculously nay ludicrously early time to be at Petts Wood in the morning, so todays run should be all about having a nice social one! Especially in the woods!

When I said that I was heading for the woods for a nice gentle one then two other ladies, Sacha and Nicola from his group jumped ship and joined me and Michelle!  As we were going to be going at a nice gentle pace and through the woods Nicola asked if she could be her little pooch along!  It's not the first time we have had a dog run along with us!  And she is such a cutie!

We ran in through Dog Poo ally, and turned right to run up the hill towards the main road.  It's just going to be the usual round loop, but going the easier way round, well I think it's easier this way round, at least we won't be running up Goss Hill! There is still a few hills in there that we can 'enjoy'!  I hope the other girls find it at least a tad challenging with hills!  

The pooch was totally enjoying herself running ahead of us, showing us how it's done!  I struggled up the hill, and then flailed my hand to indicate the direction which will be going as soon as we got to the top.  The girls just didn't seem to be out of breath, they were chatted away and didn't even sound out of breath!  It's something that I am going to have to aspire to be able to do!

It really was such a lovely run, we got to the top of the woods where the other little cheeky hill was.  It's steep but thankfully a short one!  It's great fun coming the other way but then running up Goss Hill is the challenge then!

Getting to Botany Bay Lane, I could quite easily suggest that we just carry on down and then up, instead of running towards Goss Hill, but really its just the lazyitus thinking that, and I call to the ladies to turn right  at the gates!

Goss Hill was a pleasure, I do love running down hill!  And then we we turned left to run along beside the river.  Now all dogs do love to explore, where there is water then a dog will want to go and investigate it!  The little pooch went straight in.  It looked so refreshing, I was really feeling quite warm, the sweat was dripping from me and I wondered "Would it look really odd if I joined the pooch in the river!?" You will be pleased to hear that I decided to act grown up and not go in the water!

It's just the last couple of paths now, along the rail way line and then back up to Poo Ally.  A beautiful run, and as I said, a much needed run!  I really needed to just 'get away' just for a short while, and it was a short while! Here's the geeky stats, as I said, a lovely nice and steady (read slow!) run this morning

Last Group 0 A 7

Hello blog lovers.

Well, the end of two runs on a Tuesday!  I will miss it, and I know there is one lady that just can't do the 8 o clock start! Which is a shame, as she is doing so brilliantly!  I hope that she keeps it going, and maybe be able to join in on the occasional Thursday morning run!

However, group 0 is not finishing all completely, we are just moving it to 8 o'clock.  It will be bringing group 0 into the fold, so to speak.  And also it saves me freezing during the winter months waiting to do group 1 afterwards!  It's easy in the summer, but the winter months are pretty difficult!

Today though I was just running in group 0.  After my trip up yesterday on the way to school I am a tad sore and stiff!  Why does it ache so much more when you get older!? I guess the answer to that is that it is further to fall!  Just down the right side of my body is where most of the aching is! And my left hand! But at least it not too bad! It could have been worse.

But it did make it a bit of a struggle, my side was hurting, and my arm as I was running along.  There was only Jenny today, yes, she with the long legs!  So I seemed to be running twice as fast! And we we was running up hill too!  The route I chose for the last  7 o clock run was the Birchwood route.  Mainly because it is the shorter one!  I don't think my aches and pains would have too much sympathy if I went on too long a run.

But Jenny did really well, that first 'warm' up quarter of a mile she did really well!  I am sure that we was running sub 11 min/mil, at least when I looked at my Garmin that is what it said.  It's no wonder that we didn't make it to the top of the hill!  I must remember from next week, to stay more mindful of my Garmin!

Today, however, I must have squeezed too hard as I switched the bloomin thing off!  Its a good job that Jenny has borrowed this fancy Garmin.  I will have to ask her to up load the geeky stats.  But todays run was good.  I think we did pretty good time! Next week the route will be at least a mile longer!  I know it is going to be brilliant!  For a start I have my pals that will be helping with the leadership, J.J. Wendimoo and Janet, and all the support from the other leaders!  It's going to be brilliant!  I think Jenny is looking forward to it too! Or was that a nervous laugh when I asked her!

So, hopefully by Thursday my aches and pains and bruises will be a lot better, for a nice easy run, just to keep my legs moving for a brilliant (speedy!?) 10k, ok maybe not speedy, but still a great 10k on Sunday!

A Little Solo Run!

Hello blog lovers.

Before I write about todays run I must tell you about Saturday!  Saturday was the last of the beginners Saturday morning meets at Willet Rec.  We have about 15 or so that has made it to the end, and the next time we will see them is at Parkrun in Normans park on Saturday.

I have been, as usual encouraging all the lovely people at the back, some unfortunately didn't manage to finish the course this time round, because of illness (darn that flu bug thing!).  But I do like to try to inspire all those that struggle at the back.

Tanya is going to be graduating from here, she did it last time but then life gets in the way, and she stopped running, and then the mojo gets buried under work, housework, kids, ironing and, well you know stuff!  So after Saturday, I have plans for her!  She will not give up this time,  she really wants to be apart of our club!

It is such a great privilege to be able to help and encourage people to reach out and achieve their goals. So now unto my run today.  Normally it would be a cycling day, but some of the ladies couldn't make it.  I could have gone by myself, but I do like company, especially for tea and coffee after, so I decided I would go for a run instead.

I have the Brooks 10k in Brighton on Sunday, so I thought maybe do at least 4 miles today and then take it easy for the rest of the week, in preparation.  My route was not through the woods, not on my own anyway, so I ran all the way to Normans park, once around the park and then home again via my local park.

I started off slow, as usual, warming up, by the time I got onto to main road I was up to my speed.  But then the thoughts came think and fast, even with my music playing.  This time of the year does get to me, especially when I am running.  Because the reason why I am running is not here here to see it. She never was.  She never got to see me run or at least walk my first 5k 'race' with the whole entire family.  She never got to see me run 10k through the woods.

I couldn't tell her that I 'secretely' entered the Virgin London Marathon for 2013!  My mum, she would have been at as many cheer points as she could have been, I know that!  She would have been the first to hug me too.  But she never got to see, because cancer got her first. I felt totally useless watching her suffer through the illness, and I felt totally devastated when she was no longer here.  The only thing I could do was to at least raise money for cancer research.

So there I was running, thinking about next week, thinking about 8 years ago and what she was going through.  Well, I cried, I cried on most of the run today.  I thought I might be able to cry it all away. By the time I was coming through my local park I was feeling a bit better.  This time of year is always hard, even though I think of mum every day, just this time of the year its tough!

Mind you, it didn't help matters when later on on the way to school I tripped up and fell arse over tit! Scrapping my hands and knees and elbow.  Boy, did I really want my mum then, there is nothing like mums cuddles to make it all better!

Geeky stats.

It's Raining And We're Still Running

Hello blog lovers.

It's Thursday, the kids are back at school......and it's raining!  Does that stop ANY  Petts Wood Runner...no I don't think so........all though occasionally it has been known to delay this particularly PWR!

I got to the rec, with just seconds to spare, I had issues with hunting for keys to the shed, and then my bike lock!  DiscoRich's group was looking particularly healthy with a good number of PWR's ready to do battle with the drizzle and in my group is J.J. and Helen, so just the three of us, but we don't care, we chat all the way around our running routes!

I had the Cinder Path route in mind, I just didn't think the woods would be a good idea, it will be a mud bath and slippy, and a slow slog round.  I need to do a little more practising in running ahead of people and at least 12:15 min/mil.  My group 0 at 7 on a Tuesday will be shifting to Temporary Group 0 at 8, and then there will be a big re-org later.  So exciting!

Anyway, in the end we didn't do the the Cinder path, J.J. mentioned going through Jubilee park, so thats where we went.  But not just the one park, we went through 3 of them. Yes it was our 3 Park Run route.  And really, we needed all the boost of clean fresh air that we could find today!  The weather was a totally downer! Not very inspiring at all, and of course my mojo is definitely acting like a teenager and not wanting to get out of the bed!  Fresh air is deffo what we need.

Helen usually runs along in group 2, she would have been running along with them but she has had a battle on her hands in a different way, one that she has won!  so know she needs a couple of weeks recovery runs, get her back into swing.  Mind you she still looked and ran like she was on fire!

The run up to Little Thrift had me and J.J. puffing....slightly......but Helen looked as fresh as a daisy.  I felt sure then that she would be doing some loop backs to us, to keep her legs moving! We ran along the path that leads to the bridge over the rail lines.  Thank goodness we are only crossing one bridge today......well, on the way back we cross a bridge but that one has no stairs!

The park, however, is totally worth going up a huge flight of stairs.  Breathing the unpolluted air is lush!  Oh why does it have to be raining, I could so have done with running through the woods. Still, having great inspiring company does just as good, if not better!  We came of of Jubilee Park and ran along Blackbrook Lane, looking forward to the next park!  So tempting to suggest going to mine for a cuppa! But running is our aim, and running is what we will do!

The rain was more intermittent, J.J. and I both had taken our coats off.  I had my cycling rain jacket with me, so I was rather toasty!  But I would need that on the way back from the rec on my bike.  Parkfield rec didn't seem to last long before we were running out of it and back on to the roads!  We ran along Lovelace Avenue to get to the last park. This one is even shorter than the last one, before you could produce a snot rocket we were already at the exit of the park on Southborough Lane!

We ran along to the high street, and I asked Helen how far we had come, I had forgotten my Garmin, so it was quite good to know that we had done about 3 and half miles with about another half mile to do, or we could run the other way and do a mile instead!  But I think we were all more than ready to call it day now.

So we ran over the walking bridge and ran down Petts Wood Road and turned left into Crossways.  So according to Helens Garmin we ran about 4 miles in 51:55 mins!  It's quite a respectable distance for a Thursday morning, although I think Helens few loop backs helped to push her miles a little more than mine and J.J.'s .

Club Run

Hello blog lovers.

 Club run this week was just group 0.  I wasn't feeling top notch today.  But it was a lovely perfect evening for running, not too hot or too cold.  I really got to get myself out of this slump!  Letting things get to me, letting germs get the better of me and letting my mojo have an excuse to go into hibernation!

Group 0 will be coming to an end soon, things will be changing.  That doesn't mean that we will totally abandon our new beginners, and 'coming back from injury' runners.  No! But instead, we will be bringing them together with the other groups that run on Tuesday! It's all very exciting, and when things I sorted I will let you all know about it.

But today there was just me and Jenny.  She was telling me that she was on a total high after last weeks run, and I am not surprised.  Looking at the geeky stats from that nights right, some of the speedy bits were quite speedy! She was totally thrilled with her run.  So this week, in some way, I am glad that I did a longer group 0.  I decided to do that after I made my mind up coming back down Hazlemere that I wouldn't be doing group 1 this evening.

We set off, a brisk walk to get us warmed up first.  And as I said last week, Jenny has this long legs, so although it was a nice brisk walk for her I was virtually trotting along beside  her.  I was taking her on the undulating route, which is along to Hazelmere and then stay on the road till you get to Petts Wood memorial Hall.  We were not stopping, we were going to keep on moving, just like last week.  It worked well last week.

When we got to the memorial hall we turned right and crossed over the bridge  to the high street.  We were doing pretty well!  I started to feel a bit iffy by then, and I was wondering how I would get on with the rest of the run!  I decided to just ignore things and just see how it all goes.  We ran through the high street, and I gave the boys at Petts Wood Kebab house a wave as I ran passed them, it's one of my favourite places!  I must learn to cook!

We run through to Tudor Way, under the bridge and then turned left.  We we going to go along the road, run pass the pub and then back the way we came.  Jenny was doing fantastically, I looked at the time and I could see we had done a good time too.  I decided that group 1 deffo wasn't going to happen for me today, I really needed to get home.  But I still felt it was possible to do just a tad further than our usual distance!

I didn't tell Jenny until we were virtually at cross ways.  I didn't want her to lose concentration or worry about the distance (and the hill) that we will be doing.  I was taking her up Birchwood, and then down Kingsway/Woodside and then back into the rec!

She took the change of plans in her stride, excuse the pun! We started up the hill.  I think she did say something about me trying to kill her her, and then I said "It's ok, the sweeties come at the on Woodside"  Just then her hopes picked up "Sweeties?" she said.  I then explained that the 'sweeties' is the nice down hill section, the very last road, and its a 'cheeky little bugger' of a hill, but thankfully we are running down it and not up it!.  "Oh ok, I though maybe they would come out and start offer chocolate" she said!  Oh, if only that were so, I could do with some chocolate!

Anyway, it was a great run, but I really needed to get home!  My tummy was feeling brilliant!  But I stayed to chat with the ladies!  I am really looking forward to when the new group can begin!  I am sure we will do well.  At looking a todays geeky stats Jenny will do just fine!

And that leads nicely into......geeky stats!

Club Runs - Love Em!

Hello blog lovers.

I do love my club runs, and running group 0 is an absolute pleasure!  Watching people just push themselves, seeing them realise that they are achieving their goals!  And today was a particularly great moment.

In group 0 today there was only Jenny, so I decided to do the route I had planned last week.  It's a nice flatish route and a great route for just practising your speed on.  We haven't done that yet with the latest members of group 0, so it's a nice change.  It's always good to 'mix things up' a bit.

So after a warm up couple of skips and karaokas and jogging along the path, we went out.  Just nice and easy at first and build the speed up slow and steady.  Now Jenny has these long legs!  Mine are a lot shorter.  Even walking I am doing ten to the dozen trying to keep up with her!  But we kept it going!

There was no stopping on this run, no slowing down, if we not running then we were power walking!  You can imagine what I looked like trying to keep up walking with those long strides Jenny was doing!  I was pleased that I picked a nice flat route!

I think Jenny was really working hard, she had a determined look on her face all the way round.  Even when we were power walking it was with steely determination, arms swinging!  God help anyway in her way!

The last stretch of the road she really went for it, as soon as we came under the bridge on Tudor way we flew up the road.  I was running along beside her encouraging her all the way, her long stride seemed to eat up the pavement.  I heard her let out a little groan, "Come on, just to the end  of this pavement, just where that car is coming out"  And she pushed herself just a little bit more to get to the road.

With just a little further to go, we took it nice and steady, slow the heartbeat down slowly!  We got to the gate and went in.  We walked a little bit and then did our stretches!  A fabulous run, and what was even better was that Jenny was still smiling!

Here's the geeky stats.

Group 1

Illustrious Leader was leading group 1 today. I was feeling pretty good, even though I did push a little harder today, but it's always good to try to extend yourself!  So our route was a favourite of mind, a nice simple rout, with a gradual up hill for the first half and then a brilliant down hills for the second.

Of course I was sweeping at the back with the usual gang, J.J. Janet, Auriol and Paula!  We all love our Tuesday club runs, chatting and having a laugh. me, J.J.  Janet and Auriol are doing the Brighton 10k next month, as well as about 100 others from PWR's, I am so looking forward to that.  We were talking about it and Paula wished that she had put her name down!  There is always next year.

After all the announcements were said we all left the rec to run with our group buddies.  Oh I so love running with this lot!  It's brilliant!  We ran down Crossways and Tudor way, our first stop was to be at the off license.  

We had a quick stop there, well it was a quick stop for me and the other back stoppers the front runners had a bit longer!  Then it was back to it, all through the estate.  The faster runners with extra energy we sent around the green to run off a bit of steam, while us chatting and sweeping at the back ran along the side.  

It was just at the end of this bit that I had this awful 'thing' happen in my right calf!  I have had problems with it for a couple of weeks now.  If I am going to get cramp it will be in that leg, for no reason whatsoever.  I can wake up just in time to stop it from cramping up and hurting me!  But this felt most peculiar.  It felt like a little elastic had broken and it snapped back, but it felt like it snapped and twisted and turned through my calves!  Most peculiar.  

Fortunately I was just slowing down at the time as I felt like it was just about to cramp up!  It hurt quite bad for just a minute or two and I thought I wouldn't be able to even get back home, but just as quickly it came it eased off to just a dull ache.  I could even run a little bit, after a fashion. But I didn't push it.  I walk some and ran some.  Janet stayed back with me and we chatted and walked and ran when I could as far as the Off License again.

After a little break we continued our way, but I told Illustrious Leader that I would continue down Crofton Road, J.J. Janet, Sara and Auriol  decided to come with me while the rest of the group went with along to Beaumont Road and St Johns.

We ran/hobbled all the way to the rec, but as we got to St. Johns Road we saw the rest of our group come running out of the there.  I am not quite sure if it is longer to go down St, Johns or not, but I do know there it is a more undulating way.  I think I made the right decision!

Even though I managed to do this bloomin thing with my calf I was still so pleased to be able to get out and run with my friends!  Love this club, I really do!

Geeky stats.

If You Go Down To the Woods Today......Wear Wellies

Hello blog lovers,

This morning I went for a lovely run with J.J.   I do love running on Thursday mornings with my running buddies and today it was with one of my besties!  J.J. "So is it just like Tuesday club runs?" she said "Oh it's better" I said, "as we don't have to keep up with the crowd, we can stop and smell the ......well what ever there is to sniff at this time of year!"

Because I now have a running buddy today we can head to the woods!  It was just the two of us, DiscoRich's group had about 6 or 7 members.  They did try and persuade J.J. to run along with them but she put them in their place, she knows how much and how fast she can do!

We all headed out of the rec with the woods being our destination!  Of course DiscoRich's group was well up the road by the time we started running up the road, I had to wait for the satellites to find me!  We went into the woods via Dog Poo ally and turned left.  The ground wasn't that bad!  We had some rain yesterday, it seemed it rained for the entire day!  The woods got a nice soaking.  I had my new shoes on (I should invest in some trail shoes!) but I thought I would just 'go for it' you know, not worry about the mud too much! ........Oh you thought I was going go full speed ahead! No!,  Save that for the races!

We were going to be taking it nice and easy! And it was just as well.  By the time I got to the little stream going under the tunnel by the bridge, I suddenly felt a little unwell!  Just like I was about to throw up!  But I slowed down to a walk and let the moment pass.  I was thinking that I should have had something to eat earlier, or at least a cuppa.  Maybe it was lack of sugar or something, but it's too late now.

The route I was going today was up Botany Bay Lane, all the way up to the very top.  I wanted to go through the estate with the lovely house.  Well, we enjoyed the run down to the stream and the little bridge, but then it was all up hill!  J.J. seemed to have a mission going as she attacked the hill, wanted to get to the gate, to the lovely little house that is there.  I slowly jogged on behind her feeling like every step was with lead weighted legs!

We got to the gate and just took a breather, neither of us speaking for a few minutes, we just bent over in that 'clutching at the knees' pose that runners do.  We then just started to walk up a bit to get our mojo put back into place to tackle the rest of the hill.

We got to the top and ran along the road to the pub.  Wouldn't it be nice to just pop in there for a coffee right now, but we carried on.  I made a bit of a boo boo along this bit of road, I turned right too soon!  You can see that on the geeky stats.  But we eventually got the right road and ran along and down......and up to the entrance of the woods.

We decided to use the most walked path, which brings us out onto the paths that we regularly use in the summer when running in group 0.  It really was a lovely run, we chatted and talked, and squished in the mud.  I do love the feeling you get after each woody run.  Your lungs feel like that that have been through a spa session.

Running along the path next to the road and we know that not long and our run will be over.  We walked and we run around this route today, and as we were running down by the railway we saw DiscoRich's group coming down another path!  Perfect timing I say!

They were just a little ahead of us, I wasn't really going to try and keep up with them, but I knew we were not going to be that far behind.

So glad I went out today, so glad that J.J. came along.  so glad we have these woods right on our doorstep!

Geeky stats for you!