Blue Runnings

Washington Trail 10k – 2017

by Sarah J.

The Trail Outlaws organise a series of ‘Urban Trail’ races from 10k to half marathon around the North-East (and if you fancy it, right up to the 100+ miles marker not for some of us mere mortals!), and this race around Washington is rapidly becoming a regular feature in my running calendar – so when I heard J was doing again this year (straight after night shift she was that keen!), I couldn’t leave her to go by herself! It also meant I might have half a chance of keeping up with her if I caught her when she would be already too tired for any sane person to consider going for a 10k run in the hills…

I don’t know if one of the Trail Outlaws guys has a deal with the weather for this one, but I don’t think I’ve done it when it hasn’t been blue skies and sunshine, or not far off it! This is appreciated in one respect because the riverside and the woods look fantastic in the sunshine when the flowers are coming out, and it makes you really appreciate the shade, but it also means that you cook when you’re going up the hills in the first half which are a bit more exposed…

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There are several loops to this race, passing through a common marshalling and refreshments area where there’s always a ready supply of drinks – water and cola this time – and if you’re lucky there might still be some jelly babies left even by your third time through! There are always several marshalls here handing out drinks, and it’s great to see the kids getting involved handing out beakers and giving power-up high-fives to all who pass through – no matter how many times they’ve seen you already! You come downhill from the start to join the river and start your first lap after passing through this area (Time 1), heading up through the woods and towards the main road before coming back down again to the clearing (Time 2). From here, you head out across a footbridge, up a hill (there’s quite a few of them) and across the stile at the top.

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North Tyneside 10k – 2017

by Sarah J.

I missed the Tyneside 10k last year – don’t remember why – but in 2015 when I ran it I achieved my 10k pb and was absolutely over the moon. This year, I know I’m not in the same place fitness-wise (though it is coming back!) and was not expecting to come in anywhere near last time’s 1h2m-something but under 1h10m would have been nice!

There’s a couple of hills near the start of this one – a gentle gradient from the start until descending to the Fish Quay followed by a sharp climb to leave it again! Down to the promenade and the last steep hill takes you up to Tynemouth Priory – then it’s follow the seafront until you find St. Mary’s Lighthouse about 4 miles away.

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As I was going more for ‘get round’ than for a time, I just focused on staying steady around this one. I’m feeling so tired this weekend I had a ‘maybe I should just drive home again’ moment in the carpark while waiting for the start; within a few paces of starting off though I just told myself ‘you’re moving now, you might as well get on with it until the finish!’ and did exactly that! I’m pleased with how steady my pace came through at – I was just working on getting round without walking even if that meant slowing on the hills, but I haven’t lost much pace with either gradient or distance so I’m taking that as a win. I even managed to pick the pace up to the finish line – ‘are we going to go for it to the finish?’ ‘well, we’re here now so we might as well!’ I spent a possibly unhealthy amount of this race talking to myself in my head…

Map

I was greatly relieved this is a race which always awards a t-shirt – it had been rather windy the whole way round, which is fine when you’re running but gets cold very quickly when you’ve stopped and I had a bus to stand around and wait for! I like the t-shirts this year; 2015’s was a white one with a similar image and the same route map on the back but last year’s was a neon green which tends to split the crowd – some people love bright running gear, others don’t wear it at all; I’ve never worn my marigold yellow t-shirt from my first half marathon at Liverpool just because yellow is not my thing, and I think I’ve worn the neon orange Kielder 10k one from last year only a few times.

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Mildly warmer with my t-shirt on and not cold enough to consider donning the socks on my hands (it wouldn’t be the first time!), I wandered down to St. Mary’s Lighthouse proper for the obligatory post-run finish line selfie (selfies are something I still haven’t got the hang of).

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I really recommend walking down to the lighthouse…not just as a cooldown, but because there’s often a fresh doughnuts van down there and they make an excellent post-run refuel – so if you’re intending to take nothing but your car keys, make sure you stick a few quid in your pocket for some well-earned treats! I’d just like it on record that on this particular occasion, I didn’t eat them all – though I definitely have previous!!!

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You might have noticed an unusual addition to my running headwear in the pre-doughnut selfie (and the video file at the top!)…I was recently gifted with a trail cam from my wonderful parents and have been trying it out in the hopes of being able to start producing ‘Runner’s View’ videos of the races I’m going to, but I’m still working on the best way to wear it! Wearing it on my hat is comfortable enough (certainly no worse than my monster headtorch) and gives a high perspective over other runners’ heads if the race is busy – but also makes for a bouncy video! Maybe I’ll try the chest harness next time…watch this space!

GPX data for this race can be downloaded from my Dropbox page below:

GPX file for North Tyneside 10k 2017

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parkrun – Preston: Cuerden Valley

by Sarah J.

http://www.parkrun.org.uk/

For information on this parkrun course, see the official parkrun page below:

http://www.parkrun.org.uk/cuerdenvalley/

This route involves 2 laps of 2 loops around Cuerden Valley Park – and several hills! The one to the finish is rather mean!!!

Runner’s View video tour of Cuerden Valley parkrun, taken 15-04-17 with a head-mounted (and therefore somewhat bouncy-recording!) Apeman camera.

My GPS map for this route:

Cuerden Valley

You can download the GPX file for this course from my Dropbox folder here:

Cuerden Vally parkrun GPX file

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parkrun – Consett: Blackhill

by Sarah J.

http://www.parkrun.org.uk/

For information on this parkrun course, see the official parkrun page below:

http://www.parkrun.org.uk/blackhill/

This route involves 3 laps around Blackhill Park – you’ll get the biggest hill out of the way at the start to really open your lungs up or completely wipe out your legs depending on how you feel about starting your run with a monster climb! There’s several hills of mixed length and gradient on this course, but a lovely long downhill for a strong finish. It’s generally thought of as one of the toughest in the area, but it’s excellent for training your legs up ready for cross-country or for a pb on a flat course!

GPS map:

Blackhill

You can download the GPX file for thise courses from my Dropbox folder here:

GPX file Blackhill

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parkrun – Prudhoe: Riverside

by Sarah J.

http://www.parkrun.org.uk/

For information on this parkrun course, see the official parkrun page below:

http://www.parkrun.org.uk/prudhoeriverside/

This route involves 2 laps around a local feature known as the Spetchells – fortunately it goes round them rather than over them as there’s some serious climbing involved to get to the top! There’s a bit of an incline round the back of this one, but nothing serious and it’s generally considered a flat course and good for setting a parkrun pb on.

GPS map:

Prudhoe

You can download the GPX file for thise courses from my Dropbox folder here:

GPX File Prudhoe Riverside

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parkrun – Chester-Le-Street: Riverside

by Sarah J.

http://www.parkrun.org.uk/

For information on this parkrun course, see the official parkrun page below:

http://www.parkrun.org.uk/riverside/

This route involves 2 laps of 2 large loops and one smaller one around Riverside Park – and is a blessedly flat route with a very high runner attendance (over 300 is not unusual!).

Due to its close proximity to the river (hence the name!), this parkrun has two courses – a winter and summer one. The summer one crosses the fields – making it inaccessible in the winter due to mud. The winter course is marginally longer – so if you’re looking for a pb, the summer course might be slightly better – but both are very flat and lend themselves well to people looking for a flatter Saturday morning: whatever the reason!

This course is also regularly checked for ice in the winter – and on particularly chilly mornings may be cancelled as you will go over on your bum on the corners! This doesn’t happen often though 🙂

GPS map for the summer route:

Riverside Summer

GPS map for the winter route:

Riverside Winter

You can download the GPX file for these courses from my Dropbox folder here:

GPX file summer route

GPX file winter route

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Run Nation – Cragside 10k 2017

by Sarah J.

runnation

Well, that’s officially my first race event of the year done (excluding cross-country at Herrington in January)! It’s bang-on 5 months since my last race at Sunderland for the People’s Run 2 Remember last November.

I made the decision a few weeks ago not to do the Trail Outlaws Dark Skies Half Marathon last weekend, as my stamina just wasn’t up to 14 miles and I knew they had a waiting list so I wanted to give someone else the opportunity rather than just deciding not to go on the day. It looks like everyone had a great time, and the weather was a lot kinder than last time I was there, but I think I made the right call for me – I need to work on my 10k game for the moment.

With the Cragside 10k being the week after Dark Skies this year, I hadn’t signed up incase my legs weren’t working after the half marathon, but clearing that from my diary meant this was an option again. I really enjoyed it last year – I was in a really good headspace where I was just going for training run in a fantastic setting and not going for a time; just determined to chill out and enjoy running somewhere I wouldn’t normally – a feeling I was really hoping to replicate this year.

Map

We got there about 08:30, and were probably in the last 15 mins not to be crammed in. After picking up my number, P went back to the car to get my visor for me while I went for the compulsory pre-race pee (!) and said it was chaos. We’d overheard one of the race organisers saying it was busy last year and they had an extra 100 runners this year so it was going to be incredibly tight. Personally, not sure why if you know you’re that tight on parking you take on another 100 people without maybe having a parking backup and shuttle buses or something but I am fortunately not in the position of having to make decisions like that 🙂 If you’re looking at doing this race next year – get there early and carshare if possible to avoid a headache. I got there for number pick-up opening time (about 8am) last year and breezed in – we were about 08:30 ish this morning and it was definitely getting busy. Race start time isn’t until 09:30 so it can be easy to be deceived into thinking you’ve got ages!

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Download Brain

by Sarah J.

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I suspect with the number of fitness-related things bouncing round my head at the moment this is going to be a little convoluted and subject jumpy – bear with me 🙂

I am taking a ‘do something’ attitude to exercise at the moment; as long as I’m out (or in!) doing some form of exercise, this is a positive. So far in the last week I’ve done 2 runs (5 mile and 2.7 mile), 1 walk (3 mile) and a cycle ride (12 mile – once again into a headwind the whole way home). Thursday was originally going to be a home workout day, but I spent most of it doing millions of steps and ladders at work and my knees and arms had had quite enough for one day, thank you very much!

I’ve also been working on improving my eating – namely, a lot less cake and chocolate (most of the time!). About 2 years ago I tried an eating approach called ‘paleo’ – essentially a pretty low carb diet with lots of veggies and meat, and for weight loss it was great; I lost about a stone in a month and didn’t feel hungry at all, so I’ve been trying that approach again for the last few weeks.

I was talking to P about struggling for energy (not feeling hungry but run down) today, and I thought it was because I was upping the exercise and reducing the carbs at the same time. He reminded me that I hit burn out when I did it last time and put myself into a ketosis state (you start burning fats instead of carbs, but it can also make you very tired and irritable, and going too far so you’re producing lots of ketones can be dangerous), which wasn’t my intention.

This time I’ve been trying to make sure I get some carbs in my diet so I don’t go that far (sweet potatoes, root veg, etc.) but I’m still feeling really tired – possibly justifiably: I’ve had a busy week with exercise, work and adjusting to a new eating regime over the last 2-3 weeks, but also possibly not… When I hit a really low-ebb crash I’m hitting the sugar – which will be see-sawing me between fat and sugar digestion which is making me feel slightly ill…

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So, as that doesn’t seem to be working for me at the moment I think I just need to go back to some carbs (pasta, rice and potatoes maybe), and keep the mental discipline – which 90% of the time I’ve been really good about (no cakes at work at all!) and keep the junk food a at a low ebb and keep focusing on the exercise.

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Why don’t I have a six-pack yet?!

by Sarah J.

In my mind, working out should be a bit like levelling up in a videogame (can I still call them that given noone uses videos anymore?!). When you complete a workout, your body should be immediately toned up afterwards, and then it gradually atrophies back to its pre-workout state the longer you leave before your next workout. Working out too hard would give you a super-buff appearance, but also a stat penalty like ‘pulled muscle’ or ‘gym ban’ which means you have to leave a certain amount of time before you’re allowed to workout again.

I read somewhere a while ago (a forgotten and unverified, likely click-bait source!) that it takes 4 weeks of a program – food or exercise – before you notice a difference, 6 weeks before your close friends and family do, and 8 weeks for everyone else. 3 weeks into my ‘healthy me’ kick – she says while chowing down on cocopops while writing this – I guess I shouldn’t be beating myself up about not looking any different yet. I should however get back to eating healthy. Tomorrow. Gotta play the long game with this sort of thing!

Anyway, we’re only here because I wanted to give a bit more detail on my gym workout yesterday and decided it would probably end up too waffley for facebook – so knowing I’m already writing a blog post, I have made it more waffley before I even get to the bit I wanted to share!

Facebook people will already know, P bought a ‘Smart Wonder Core’ just after Christmas, after I told him how much it would be to use the local gym each session while I’m at Run England. The theory was he’d have to use it 10x and it would have paid itself off, and every session after that would be ‘free’. So far, I don’t think he’s been on it more than twice but I’m sure that’ll change now I’ve provided exercise stickers for the calendar for him 😉 Nothing motivates quite like smiley face stickers.

I’ve had a quick low-resistance go through the exercises just to see how they feel, and a 2-circuit, 20 rep each go through of the seven exercises shown on the guide that comes with it, but last night was my first ‘proper’ session with it – and I was definitely sweating rather than glowing through it! Rather than having a rest and a reference check of what I was supposed to be doing between exercises, I made sure I had them in an order where I was not going to be doing the same muscle groups consecutively, and also chopped up the repeats so I wasn’t doing everything once and going back and doing everything again as a whole, and moved straight from one exercise to the next without a break – I’ll explain more in a minute.

The exercises on the guide are as follows;