Running On Empty

So, I caught the bus out into the countryside for the start of today's run: Totally outside the city... right? Nah, just kidding. That's just a shot from Walker looking down the hill towards Walker Riverside Park (and an equivalent on the far side of the Tyne). Anyway, last time I was in this area, I didn't quite make it out this far, but still put in 8km. This time, I took the #12 bus to ALDI in Walker, so that I only needed to run back to the office. Consequently, I did a mere 5.25km today. The weather was good today — by which I mean hotter than I'd like and full sun — but the nice view that greeted me at the start was a genuine surprise. It was nice to pretend I was outside the city, but sadly, Walker Riverside Park is really little more than a thin, undeveloped and slightly unkempt strip of trees along the bank of the Tyne. I'm starting to spot a theme with the words "Riverside Park" as the thin strip of trees that is Gateshead Riverside Park is simil...

My 3rd run in 4 days and it's another 7.5+ kilometre run to give me another purple dot on my running calendar. All 3 runs have been pretty dull this week, but the point has simply been to keep myself in the habit. After today, I'll not get out for another run for a whole week. After that though, holidays are over till Christmas, so I should be able to improve my consistency. So yeah, pace wasn't a concern today. That said, I still had to remind myself of that on a couple of occasions when I didn't like the pace being reported by Google and was tempted into speeding up. Probably a good job I slowed down again as I was barely able to keep the run going towards the end. It was one of those days where you feel you might accidentally start walking at any moment, unable to maintain the bounce for a jog. So, after saying pace didn't matter, what was my pace? 😉 5:30/km, over a distance of 8.3km. So again that's about my 10K pace. And for 5K, that would tra...

Staying true to my word for once, I got back out at lunch today. Not as far as Monday's run — 5.15km today — but important to just get out there at all. After popping into the City Library, I passed Civic Centre, Exhibition Park and Leazes Park ponds After a depressing morning at work where I learned of 2 good friends being made redundant, at least the run put something else in my head for a few minutes. Pace today was hard to judge. Google reported a sub-5-minute-per-kilometre pace for the first 5 minutes, which was a pleasant surprise. Then after 10 minutes, it was up to 5:05/km. And then after another 5 minutes, it reckoned I'd done just another 400m or so. GPS was having a bad day and I couldn't trust anything after that. When I finally mapped the route on onthegomap, it seems I did 5.15km in 28:23, which is less than brilliant for me as it translates to 5:31/km. I felt like I'd gone faster than that. Granted, it's better than Monday's 5:50ish/km, but still ...

Ok, so where's the Penrhyn parkrun blog post?! In short, the fates conspired against it. First, I forgot to take my trainers to Wales. 🤦‍♂️ Then the car got a cracked windscreen the day before it that worsened with every trip. Then Storm Betty arrived and the parkrun was cancelled for fear of falling trees. Sigh. 6 months I'd been looking forward to that. SIX MONTHS. 😞 The lack of decent trainers on holiday also meant I didn't get any other runs in during my time in Wales, as I wanted to protect my feet ahead of the parkrun. So it's nearly two weeks since my last run. This is ruining my goal to be consistent. The lack of parkruns — I'll be doing none at all in August now — is also jeopardising my goal of 30 this year. But... back to today. Seeing that I had no real meetings booked for today, I slapped a blocker on 90 minutes over lunch for a slightly longer than usual run. Being content to just run and not caring where I went for once, I ended up ru...

Today was just about cramming in another run, even if it wasn't a full 5K. In fact, it was only just 4K, but I did aim to make it a decent pace. Ultimately, the pace was around 5:20/km, which isn't going to set the world alight, but that included a few occasions where I had to walk due to pedestrian traffic and an ascent of Stepney Bank. On the whole, it felt quick. I swore I would take a photo of the recent(?) mural at Bonello Auto Services (an Alfa Romeo specialist), but in the end I was too concentrated on not breaking my rhythm going up the hill. Instead, have this one that I’ve nicked from their website. I thought the mural was on both sides of the shutters, but if so, I can only find photos of the right hand side. Anyway, it’s truly lovely for the car enthusiast in me. But as I say, as lovely as it was seeing that on the way up the hill, my bigger concern at that moment was simply getting up the hill without dying. Somewhat surprisingly though, it wasn’t actually that h...

What are the chances I'll get to do the Fountains Abbey parkrun one day? Just discovered it existed thanks to blog7t.com and wow, it looks like an amazing course. The place itself is amazing and I've yet to visit the water garden area, but I would love to go back. And how awesome it would be to run it. Stunning. Anyway, here's the link to Steven's blog post about the Fountains Abbey parkrun . I think he sums it up nicely: "If this parkrun featured just the abbey or just the water gardens, it would still be a stunning venue, but to have both elements in a single event really makes this one of parkrun's truly iconic venues. If you have even the slightest hint of an opportunity to visit, it is definitely worth doing so."

What a difference two days make: Saturday : continuing miserable weather, long-running sinus headache, wimped out of parkrun, thoroughly down and wondering whether this was the beginning of the end for my running habit Monday : sun's out and it's warmed up, headache's finally gone, back out at lunchtime for a thoroughly enjoyable 6.4K run, loving the running buzz again So yeah, parkrun on Saturday didn't happen. I needed to do a local one (because $kids) but didn't want to break my tourist streak, so Jesmond Dene was on the cards. Knowing that that would be a tough and most-likely demoralising parkrun if done with a pounding headache, I chose not to bother, even though it would hurt my "30 parkruns in 2023" goal. In hindsight, it was probably the right choice, for both my mental health and for the headache. Even if my next parkrun's not till the 19th August (Penrhyn 🤞), I'll still be on target for 32 by the end of the year. Enough of that though....

It's getting hard to get excited about going for a midweek run at the moment. I'm almost out of new directions to take and a month of almost non-stop rain isn't helping. According to the Grauniad: "The UK had an average of 140.1mm of rain last month, the sixth highest total for July since records began in 1836." Awesome. And it looks set to continue for weeks yet. Meanwhile, continental Europe is on fire. Thanks, climate change. 😞 Anyway, back to today's (wet) run. I'd half intended to run due south from the office on Monday, seeking green areas in the direction of Shipley Art Gallery, Saltwell Park and Low Fell, but ended up getting back to Dunston instead. Today, I stuck to the half-plan. But what a dreary route. 😩 It wasn't really until I got to Shipley Art Gallery itself that I started seeing any little bits of park. Mostly, it was a trek past low-rent shopping areas and traffic. One spot of note was the Gateshead Registry Office where my brothe...