donderdag 30 juni 2011

Month total 1139

So now... only 9 hours and 10 minutes behind schedule.
92 minutes extra for the next 6 months.

Yellow Dog

29 min
Start 21.30
First a quick circuit of the grounds and then Joep and I ventured out the gate to have a short run along the overgrown path towards Ijsselstein. On the few hundred meters between the gate and the start of the path I had him on the lead tied round my waist and we were fair flying along. My stride becomes about twice its normal length as he pulls me through the air during the moments my feet are off the ground. I heard that there was a high pollen count today and my lungs were doing a very faint wheeze when I got back so decided it probably wasn't a good idea to make an attempt at a new circuit record. And I was starving and looking forward to my omelette. (Blogpost title is the same as the Martin Amis book I recently finished.)

woensdag 29 juni 2011

Desert Island Discs

32 min
Start 16.00
2 and a bit circuits with Joep. No waterbelt and camera with me as I have a bottle of sap and water on the table at the front of the house next to the dog's water bowl so quick pic of us looking pleased with ourselves at the end. Listening to the People's Choice edition of Desert Island Discs on mYpod.

dinsdag 28 juni 2011

Wet ears

68 min
Start 5.00










It was already warm when I got out and by the first roundabout on the Benschop circuit I could feel my earphones sliding from the sweat. Good run round though, well inside the hour. Took off my waterbelt and camera when I got back and did one fast-attempt circuit. 10:34 exactly once again. After this I got the branch cutters from the shed and jogged round to Laura's building as I'd told her I'd have a go at cutting back some of the undergrowth surrounding it, so this was my cooling down session.

maandag 27 juni 2011

Wet knees

63 min
Start 4.45
Weather is threatening to be hot today so made sure I got out early to avoid this being an excuse not to run. As usual it was almost easier to just turn the alarm off and go back to sleep but I had lots of fresh new podcasts on mYpod so that was the extra push I needed to actually make the first difficult step of getting out of bed. After that the rest is easy. Investigated the new route via the outer edge of Ijsselstein. The cycle path finished at the garden centre so climbed up on a dijk that ran parallel to the road and ran along that till I reached the last roundabout.
From there it was back home along the almost non-existant path with the cold wet ankle high grass and frequent thigh high yellow flowers. Good run. Lungs and legs both doing what they have to do without objecting at all at any point. (Though I may just have heard my soaked feet squeaking a wee complaint towards the end there...)

zondag 26 juni 2011

Twin Flowers

33 min
Start 9.00
2 and a bit circuits with Sproet. First slow warm up, second one an attempt at speed, 3rd cooling down. Time on fast run was 10:34, which is 11 seconds faster than my first measured run a week or so ago.

vrijdag 24 juni 2011

Week total 291

Good week of frequent shortish dog-accompanied runs all adding up to a decent total.

Ticks on the trail

61 min
Start 21.00
Took Sproet along the grassy trail path towards Ijsselstein. Hard going through the long grass and uneven ground. At one point I had a wreath of sticky willy wound round my ankle.

When I got back I also found a tick crawling up my calf. Hope Sproet's anti-flea treatment is strong enough to repel them too as it's difficult to find them under his long hair.

donderdag 23 juni 2011

Fish and Flowers

53 min
Start 21.30
First a run round the grounds with Sproet, then outside the gate towards Ijsselstein through the grass. Will have to see how far this path goes when I have more time and something to drink with me as it might lead to a new longer circuit. Finished off with another circuit with the dog. Tried for a new record time but this was soon scuppered by a stitch in my side. I knew I shouldn't have eaten so many tatties... I thought I'd left enough time to digest them but big full plates of fried mashed potatoes and onions with sausages, green beans and paprika can apparantly still make their presence felt for some time afterwards. Ah well, I managed to recover from my stitch without actually stopping and it was good to be able to push through it and still makes some sort of extra effort on the last lap.

woensdag 22 juni 2011

3 Sproet Runs

58 min
Various start times
Sproet and I had already done 25 minutes in our first 2 circuits when we set out this evening for the sunset run, which took us round the grounds once again and then out onto the road to the junction Benschop/Ijsselstein and back.

dinsdag 21 juni 2011

RunRunLive almost Live...

No time to update podcasts right now but have been running regularly - off to meet Chris Russel from the Run Run Live podcast who's briefly in NL.
---
Ok, it's now 21:21, back to the start of my day:
13 min
Start 8.00
Got in a quick run with the dog before breakfast this morning before heading off to Do Stuff in Utrecht prior to picking Chris up at a pre-arranged time and place on the motorway where his colleagues dropped him off on their way up to Amsterdam. It's all very odd this meeting folk you only 'know' from their disembodied voice on a podcast and the occasional email. On the one hand complete strangers but somehow it doesn't feel like that at all. Trusting soul that he is, he got into my car and let me drive him off to my weirdish latest residence.

He then happily ran a lap of the grounds with my overenthusiastic Great Danish Lodgerdog regularly trying to tackle him while I wobbled round them both on the bike. And despite all the canine intervention he still managed to complete the circuit 2 minutes faster than I've managed to do it so far. I then showed him the (approximate) 5 mile circuit to Benschop and he loped off in that direction for a 'proper' run after his warming-up dog-hindered circuit.

maandag 20 juni 2011

Quartet

48 min
Start - various times throughout the day
Just put my running clothes on in the morning and every time Joep needed a walk we did it at a gentle running pace - so 4 in total spread out over a day spent Doing Other Stuff in the house.

zondag 19 juni 2011

Come Rain or Shine

26 min
Start ??

Few days ago now... Various short Joep runs in between rain showers.

zaterdag 18 juni 2011

After the Bookexchange...

32 min
Start 22.00



vrijdag 17 juni 2011

Week total 363

Yes, that's this month's extra 100 minutes booked, now I just have to keep the second half of the month on schedule...

More water, more cherries

38 min
Start 14.00
Joep and I had a meandering run about different paths, surprising builders putting in the new doors in the sheds further up - I don't think they were expecting a curious Great Dane coming up to inspect their work. Forgot to take any pics till we were back at the house, where yesterdays downpours filled a huge water container that was exactly the right height for Joep to drink from.

donderdag 16 juni 2011

Between Showers

30 min
Start 21.30
Joep arrived after an evening of torrential rain and we managed to get out for a few circuits of the grounds before it got dark.

woensdag 15 juni 2011

Ijsellstein

111 min
Start 5.00
Finally online again to update my blog. No pics at the moment as my internet connection is dubious and I don't have much time. I've just quickly noted the minutes I've run in the last week. (Later, have now found photos for most days.)



maandag 13 juni 2011

Benschop

57 min
Start 21.00



zondag 12 juni 2011

Bunker Climbing

75 min
various start times - with Joep in the morning, in the evening alone.
Found a path through the undergrowth to go up onto the bunkers at the end of the woods.



zaterdag 11 juni 2011

Great Danes don't eat cherries

52 min
Joep and I did a couple of exploratory circuits of the new terrain.