Running On Empty

Another day in the office, another run at lunchtime. After scouring the map for decent green spaces within reach in Gateshead and only coming up with what turned out to be a cemetery, I decided to stick to what I know and head back to Jesmond Vale. This time, I made it a more direct route so that I could get further into it. Looking at the maps for my two forays, however, I'm not sure it's that much of a difference. 😐 Spot the descent into Jesmond Vale (and the climb out again) on the elevation plot Anyway, I'll keep this one brief. I didn't set out with a specific goal in mind other than to do about 6km again and prepare myself for this weekend's parkrun. I guess the latter meant I wanted to increase the pace a little, to see improvement over my previous 28:35 for 5K, but not so much that I couldn't hack the greater distance. In the end, while I felt like I was running well, I only just scraped an improvement, reaching 5K after 28:26. I really need to start d...

Today saw me make up for the lack of a Saturday parkrun — an absence brought on by a worryingly clicky left knee — by putting aside the time for a slow recovery run out to Heaton Park from work. The knee had seemed fine on the previous day's junior parkrun, so I figured I'd give it a fairly flat route and definitely not do any stairs or steps. So, heading out the back of work onto Pilgrim Street, I immediately headed eastward towards Shieldfield... going up the spiral staircase by the Blue Carpet. 🤦 Okay, that was foolish. But I took it slowly and gently enough to avoid any clicking. From there, my route took me from the Manors footbridge over the central motorway, past Sainsbury's and through Shieldfield (mmm, smell those herbal cigarettes) in the direction of Cradlewell. I'd planned a route that went further in that direction than I'd run before, so I was spared the dreaded boredom. Passing the now-closed-down Little Green Social (to be fair, it was a pretty ex...

Just a very quick post to record and celebrate the fact that Daughter the First was presented with her Half Marathon wristband at yesterday's junior parkrun on the Town Moor. Congratulations, popplet! ❤️ She also got a time that was almost half a minute better than her previous week. Get in there. 😁

What with guide running and junior parkrun being my only weekend outings, and work lunchtimes proving tricky, I was keen to get back out for a decent run this last week. I finally made it on the Thursday, but that meant I'd gone over a week without proper exercise. And, in the end, it showed. Working at home on the Thursday, I decided to give myself a bit longer than usual, sacrificing lunch, to get a slightly longer run in. Intending to follow the advice of Mark Lewis  to go longer at a slower pace (to ultimately make 5K seems easier/quicker), I even considered a 10K. A colleague at work had recently shared a 10K route that goes pretty close to me, which was tempting: These are not the roads you're looking for. In the end though, I just didn't have that much time to play with. Instead, I thought I'd take inspiration from it, even if I didn't do the full route. I figured maybe I'd start heading north, do the upper half of the eastern edge, then the whole of the...

Writing this almost a week late, but last weekend (18/19 Mar) was another one where I didn't do a regular parkrun, but did get out to two parkrun events. On the Saturday, I racked up another volunteer credit (unexpectedly) by being a guide runner for a visually impaired colleague who was getting back to doing exercise after having a little boy. This time last year, she was just starting out on a Couch to 5K program and never actually got to complete it, so to start that journey again with a parkrun was amazing. It did mean that we walked most of it, dodging (as best I could) the multitude of puddles and boggy bits on the Rising Sun course , but getting a fast time certainly wasn't my focus (I got a 52:08, which has made my charts on the 5K app a little interesting 😂). On the Sunday, it was Daughter the First's eleventh junior parkrun, meaning she's now completed a half marathon in total. 👏 That means that she'll be presented with a wristband tomorrow when she do...

My new role at work has, so far, freed me up from a number of meetings, which is glorious. It won't last of course, but it meant I had the chance for a slightly longer run from the office today. And actually, it's now that it's struck me that that means I can reach new places. Being bored of heading out in a particular direction can get in the bin, as I've still got the potential to explore new areas. And today's new area was St Peter's Basin. Entering the marina area at St Peter's Basin, Newcastle upon Tyne In the end, I spent a fair chunk longer than intended out on the run. And not all of it was running. First, there was a phonecall from the wife, which was really hard to pick up, given my phone was in an armband that I couldn't get it out of. That paused things for a couple of minutes. Then I decided I wanted the odd photo of where I was running. Ordinarily, if I hadn't already stopped, I'd just plough on a sacrifice the photos in favour of m...

This weekend was the 7th anniversary of the Town Moor junior parkrun and, to mark it, they were going to be running the course in reverse. The daughter and I were quite looking forward to this, as it would mean a slight downhill to the finish line. Alas, the recent snowy weather meant that... you know, I don't actually get why the weather meant they could run it in the normal direction, yet not in reverse. But... that was the reason given. Instead, they'll be doing the reverse configuration next week instead. Barring something like Mars aligning with Saturn or whatever. Always nice to have the wind behind you on this stretch; and the sun was a pleasant surprise too Regardless, the daughter set herself the goal of doing the first kilometre without any walking today, which I was more than happy to set the pace for. I was even more happy when she achieved that goal. At the halfway point, if we'd kept up that pace, we might've troubled her PB (13:04). In the end, it appear...