Running On Empty

The River Wansbeck and Carlisle Park in Morpeth on a gloriously sunny morning Whew, what a scorcher! Only 16°C as I crossed the finish line, but boy did that feel hot! 🥵 So, it was Morpeth for the 2nd time today. Last time I was here , I actually had COVID but didn't know it (I found out the next day) and on that run, I got a time of 26:54. Today, my time was 26:02. Venue PB! Before the previous two parkruns happened, that would even have been my overall parkrun PB. So that's all of my last 3 parkruns that have beaten my best time from 2022. I am on a roll . 💪 This board shows only part of the route, as the out-and-back heads off to the bottom-right Anyway, enough blowing my own trumpet; back to the write-up. When I saw it was going to be good weather, I knew I'd get some decent photos for once, as the run in Morpeth is a lovely location. Another enticement to return here was simply that it's one of my favourite parkruns to date. It's a fairly small turn-out (6...

Summary : my Brooks trainers have worked miracles in the last 5 months and I couldn't be happier with them. Well, maybe if they'd been cheaper. 😉 And maybe a bit lighter. About 6 months ago, I splashed out a small fortune on the most expensive trainers I've ever bought. It was purely in the hope that they'd help with the pain I felt in my feet during and after running on even slightly uneven surfaces. That pain had made life outside of runs a bit miserable, with me unable to go around the house in stocking feet. After a run like that on the Town Moor, with its stony tracks, it could take months for my feet to get back close to normality. Even just walking on those surfaces in my old shoes caused pain. This was seriously limiting where I could run too. It was time to try something new, especially as my Nike Runallday were starting to feel like they'd suddenly lost a lot of their cushioning. In the end, I ventured into Start Fitness in Newcastle for gait analysis a...

One of my most uninspired and uninspiring runs in ages, the only thing of note about this was the perverse delight I took in making sure I finished near a Greggs so that I could get one of their new Vegan Mexican Chicken-free bakes . 🙄 Mmmm... 426kcal of mediocrity and self-loathing Yes, I really did. Sweating profusely after the run, I entered Greggs on the quayside and ordered that puppy, thereby demonstrating that my body is by no means a temple. Unless it were a temple to rubbish lunches. Hey ho. I got some apple juice too; does that make it any better? Whatever, the run route was simple: drop off some books at the city library, then use the skyways to get across to Manors, head past the Biscuit Factory  and Ernest for a moderately graded descent into Ouseburn, then up past the Hotel du Vin , over the bridge and past the Free Trade Inn , then down the slope to the quayside, before heading back upriver past the Cycle Hub and over the Ouseburn again before finally passing the ...

This was my second run at Rising Sun, just a couple of weeks after my first. In fact, it was my first time doing a second parkrun at the same place, so my goal was simple: beat my previous time at Rising Sun (28:19). I was also looking to finish in the top 55% of men, working towards the year's goal off getting into the top 50%. On the day, the weather was pretty hot, IIRC, but I did beat my previous time (with a 26:37) and get in the top 55% of men. In fact, I smashed my way into the top 50% of men, ticking off another of my goals. It wasn't all plain sailing, mind. Despite having been looking forward to the run the day before, on the day I truly felt like I couldn't be bothered. Halfway round, I was seriously considering dropping out and going home — it was probably the closest I've ever come to doing that. Which just goes to show that it's a mind game as well as a physical fitness thing — I would've missed out on a venue PB (by over a minute and ...

Never mind spring, it felt like summer had arrived today. And, like the fool I am, I decided to go out for a run when the sun was at its strongest. I'm now typing this with a headache that I'm pretty sure was brought on by it. 🤦‍♂️ The back garden, in the sun, sometime in the last week Like Sunday, I wanted to be away from the worst of the local traffic, so headed up the wagonway again, but this time I took a left into Weetslade Country Park . And that's where the heat really hit me. Up till then, I'd been running in the dappled shade of the birch trees lining the old railway line. But once out into the park, there was no cover at all and the sun was fully out. 🥵 I probably compounded things by running directly up the hill to the top rather than taking the long, gentler slope round the back. But, you know, hill practice and all that. From there, I headed back down the far side of the hill and past the ponds before getting back on the wagonway and retracing ...

If last weekend was character building for Daughter the First, this weekend was redemption time. Not that she needed to redeem herself , but she put in an excellent run yesterday; the best she's done since her very first, adrenaline-fuelled parkrun back in July last year. I should make a chart of her times actually ...and never show it to her . 😂 There'd be a steady decline from that initial high which could be quite demoralising. At least, it would be until you look at this weekend's time, which was 13:07, just 3 seconds shy of her best. I don't think she fully gets the magnitude of her revival, to be honest.  As for why she's suddenly faster, I'm not entirely sure. It might be partly down to having done a couple of 3K runs with me recently, but I suspect my influence is minimal. More likely was that a girl she likes to compare herself to at parkrun finally returned to the Town Moor run yesterday. She tried to keep pace with this pacesetter and managed it fo...

So, parkrun didn't happen on Saturday. Slightly disappointing to end a streak of attendance that was getting me back on track for the "30 parkruns in a year" goal, but life (and bickering kids in particular) happens. Anyway, looking at my work calendar last night, I realised I was unlikely to get another lunchtime run in until Thursday, which would mean I'd go over a week without a run. Couldn't let that happen, so once the kids were in bed, I got the trainers on. Heading out at 9pm, the birds were singing the dusk chorus, it was still fairly mild, and the sun had just about gone down. Lovely, actually. This time, I ran not carrying a thing — no keys, no phone — and it was really nice to just do it for pleasure. Deciding I wanted to stay in the birdsong rather than traffic noise, I headed up the nearby wagonway in the direction of Weetslade Country Park. A quick loop into a new build housing estate to extend the distance and then back onto the wagonway to Burradon...

Today was an "open your eyes to the sunshine and greenery; close your eyes to the fly-tipping, graffiti and arson" kind of run. Welcome to Gateshead! 😉 But then, being from the North side of the Tyne, I would say that. And it's not fair. Gateshead covers a surprisingly big area and it's bound to have its good and bad bits. Saltwell Park, the home of the Gateshead parkrun, is a properly lovely place, for example. But Dunston... less so. Anyway, enough apologising for a cheap jibe, today's run was actually pretty nice. After feeling pretty flat about the prospect of heading out to familiar territory again, I quickly looked on both Google Maps and onthegomap.com for inspiration before leaving the office. Gateshead remains my least explored area, so I looked there first. Onthegomap actually showed more green on the far side of the High Level Bridge than Google did, and accessing it would mean a bit of useful uphill, so that was it pretty much decided. A quick bit of ...

There's nothing quite like the slow pace of a midweek run to bring you back down to Earth. 🙄 That said, the fact that I can describe a run with an average pace over the first 3K of 5:10/km as "slow" just shows how far I've come recently. This is good. Anyway, about the run. The reason I mention the "first 3K" is cos that's how far I ran before having to tackle a steep climb. Yes, I'm overlooking the benefit I got from running down to the bottom of that climb, but... whatever. Here's the route: The inspiration today came from the fact that there's a work social do in the Ouseburn this coming weekend. That put the destination in my mind, but what cemented it was the fact I could use the climb out of the valley as more hill training. I had planned to climb out by going directly up Stepney Bank, but in the end, I opted for a greener route, passing the farm and then heading up one of the paths at the bottom of the City Stadium park. In all hones...

Yesterday was a... character-building day for Daughter the First. It started out with great promise, then hit a real low, before finishing with a mixed bag of emotions but also the achievement of having done her first 3K. Morning was, of course, junior parkrun time and for the first time ever, we set off for somewhere that wasn't the Town Moor. Instead, we headed to South Beach estate in Blyth. I suspect she was a bit outside of her comfort zone, but when the run began she was off like a shot. For the first time in ages I was running with her too and I was really impressed at her initial pace. Sure, she caught her breath with a brief walk before too long, but generally she was going really well. And then it happened. A few yards ahead, some lad was running with his dad and the pair of them seemed to be arguing about which side of the narrow path they'd be running on. Holding hands, they were dragging each other left and right and generally being a right hazard to the other ru...

So, I did neither Newbiggin nor Rising Sun in the end, instead opting for a 4th new venue of the year. The Riverside parkrun is set in the park that's alongside the cricket ground in Chester-le-Street and, as you might guess from the name, it's pretty flat. Hence the title of this post; going somewhere this flat just feels like cheating. At least when it comes to chasing a PB, that is. Was really nice to see that the council supported Parkrun enough to erect a big course sign And my time? 25:04! O...M...G. 😮 At the time of writing the first paragraph in this post, I still didn't have my time, btw. I'd overheard a lady who'd finished a step or two behind me telling her partner that she'd run 8-minute miles, so I knew I was looking at a PB. Not only that, but a PB that was tantalisingly close to the sub-25-minute target I've set myself for the year. It all depended upon how she'd rounded (up or down) to get that figure. Anyway, the PB is pr...

With confirmation that I won't be guide running at parkrun this weekend, that meant I should take it easy on today's run, right? And did I? What do you think? 🙄 To be fair, I was definitely running within myself today, but Google still reckons I averaged a 5:10/km pace. The route? I figured I'd run the town centre part of the Great North 10K, pretty much just for the hell of it. And to see whether there were any gradients I'd not remembered. Turns out there weren't; from where I started, it's as flat as a pancake. In fact, I think I ran the flattest part of the course possible. Way to go for making myself complacent! 😂 So, from the Laing art gallery, round the Monument and Old Eldon Square, then back to and through the Northumbria Uni campus, it was a plain-sailing, pedestrian-dodging extravaganza. Pretty dull, all told. It'll be interesting to see how they section things off on the day, as the run will get right in the way of the shoppers. 🤔 Once I re...

A bit later than hoped, but got back to the midweek runs today after my parkrun PB triumph on Saturday. Running from work, Lorraine asked on the way out where I was going to run and, typically, I didn't know. But I did say there's nothing attractive to the west, yet I'd not gone that way much. And that pretty much sealed it; west it was! Elswick Cemetery. Pity about the van in this, cos the building itself was pretty impressive. As soon as I stepped out onto Grey Street, I was greeted with sunshine... and properly leaden skies. The temperature was pretty mild (15°C-ish) but Google's earlier forecast for rain around 1pm was looking accurate. Sure enough, within a few minutes it started spotting and eventually drenched me for 5–10 minutes straight. My route took me along High Bridge, across the Bigg Market , and on down... a continuation of High Bridge? I don't know the alley's name (Update: turns out it was Pudding Chare) and went down it purely to join up parts ...

Back to the Spanner today for my second run at Whitley Bay. Location this time was decided by the fact that John Renney — colleague and one-time steeplechaser running for Great Britain at junior level, don't you know? — would be there with a mate. He reckoned he'd not be running due to injury... then went and knocked out an easy 25-minute time! Not bad for a 56-year old. 😂 Was still great to share the event with him anyway and he's super-encouraging, which is lovely. Cheers, John — hopefully see you there again sometime. Looking south towards the start/finish area and the restored Spanish City beyond Anyway, enough of the ringer, what about my run? 😉 As I write this, I've still not got my time and it's nearly midday. The 5K app reckoned the parkrun servers were down though, so maybe that explains it. All I know right now was that my time was somewhere between 25 minutes and 27 minutes — if we can assume that the pace runners did their job well (there was no 26-mi...

Wow. Another treadmill session, another shocker. Despite me having once got a sub-25 minute 5K time on a treadmill, the last couple of times I've hit a gym, I've had a nightmare on them. Last night, it was at Tumble while Daughter the 1st was doing her gymnastics. Let's keep this brief. I fumbled around on the treadmill's settings, trying to choose an interval programme, but when it started, it was taking an age to get up to speed. After a few minutes of that, I gave up and went to a manual programme, trying to maintain a 5:00/km pace... but instantly found it incredibly hard. Was it the urgent whining of the treadmill that made me feel like I was having to sprint, or was I just being found out for being unfit? Whatever it was, I ended up using the fact that I needed the loo to stop after just 2 kilometres. Weak. 😞 On returning from the loo, I got back on, but chose a more sedate pace of around 5:30/km. Again though, I didn't feel I couldn't sustain it. I was ...

Extra navel-gazing time! 😁 A couple of weeks back, I threatened to make a calendar of my runs (and injuries, etc.) to see what reasons I had for not making it to parkruns. I've done that now; for 2023, at least: I should've included a key really, but the second-last column is Saturday, with: orange parkrun logos for days I've made it to parkrun and ran black parkrun logos for days I've made it to parkrun  and volunteered mixed orange-and-black parkrun logo for the time I volunteered as a guide-runner black with any other symbol for days I failed to make it to parkrun Of that last category, these are the possible excuses: Injury: the knee icon (4 times this year) Family commitments: the parent and child icon (2 times this year) Holiday: the suitcase icon (1 time this year) Illness: the thermometer icon (1 time this year) While there's not a great deal I can do about these things — life happens, after all 🤷‍♂️ — it's still interesting to see how I got off to a ...

Bit of an odd run, this one. For starters, I was short on time again, so it was necessarily short. But mainly it was odd because I chose to start it with some very short laps. And each lap could be summed up as "down a steep hill, up a steep hill". After the pain of Chopwell Wood on Saturday, I figured I probably needed to work on hills a bit. So on leaving the office, I decided to head over to All Saints church — the only elliptical church in England, don't you know? — which sits at the northern end of the Tyne Bridge. Actually, it's a total lie that I'd decided to do hills by that point. I was actually just wanting to take a different way down to the quayside for some flat running. But when I passed All Saints and saw the street sign for (the crazy-steep) Dog Bank, the idea took hold. Jogging down it, trying to slow myself, I ran out into... whatever that little pedestrian area's called near Broad Chare and immediately started heading back up th...