Russell Crowe!!

Part of my 8 mile run this morning took me through the Bourne Woods near Farnham. It's the location for the opening sequence in Gladiator where the Romans battle against the Germanic hordes. The same area of woodland has been used for a number of film and tv scenes over the past few years including 'Children of Men', (see video taken on James' phone!)http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=YNDyXRVhrvw 'Harry Potter', 'The Descent', 'Wolf Man', a Coldplay music videohttp://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=tNwQeedQfZE. 'Ultimate Force' and various other productions.

The latest film to arrive is called 'Nottingham' and is a Robin Hood film seen through the perspective of the Sheriff of Nottingham - directed by Ridley Scott. Apparently Russell Crowe is playing both the parts of Robin Hood and the Sheriff - that should be interesting!

It's early days in the production and it's mainly the film's art dept who are on location at the moment - designing a small village and a castle which will be built over the next month or so. The filming itself will start in March and continue through until May/June after which the latest Harry Potter film will be arriving. So plenty to see over the next few months as I run through the woods!

Getting lighter..

......the mornings that is!

Not much to report but have been getting up early the last couple of days and going x-country running with Jackson. It's now got to the point where it gets light before I finish the run unless it's a particularly gloomy day with lots of cloud cover.

Yesterday morning Jackson found a tennis ball in the middle of nowhere in the pitch dark, which was pretty impressive. He looked well pleased with himself when he came over to show me what he'd found! So we played 'fetch the ball from the thick heather in the dark' for the rest of the run, which involved me having to stop and throw the ball for him every hundred meters or so and then he'd race off in the general direction I'd thrown it and sniff it out and bring it back for the next throw! This kept us busy for a few miles and also meant that I was doubling up my morning sports activities to include running and ball throwing!

A good weekend...

Training went really well at the weekend.
Saturday I went off for a run with Jenny. We took Jackson on the long circuit round Hankley after which I ran home x-country but this time I added in a lap of Frensham Pond which took the overall distance to just over 12 miles. And I felt pretty good afterwards. Not tired at all despite the boggy conditions and hilly nature of the course.
Sunday morning I drove to Rushmoor for a hill session at the Devil's jumps with the rucksack. I was carrying about 8kg of weight and decided to see how things went, but maybe do three laps if possible. The first climb up to the top was a killer but, strangely, it seemed to get easier after that and I managed five in the end. I wasn't expecting to find the session easy as I'd done a long run the day before but maybe my increased fitness is starting to show benefits. Either that or I was just having a good day.
Sunday evening I had a little session with the punchbag and did some weights, chin-ups, skipping and core strengthening exercises. Have to admit I ached a bit on Monday but still managed to get in an 8k along the Thames.

Early morning breakdown...

Not a good start to the day. Firstly it was pouring with rain and v. windy when I crawled out of bed at 6am to go for a run with Jackson. Then, on the 3 mile drive to Hankley Common I drove through a massive puddle and must have got water in the electrics because shortly afterwards the engine stopped and refused to start again. So I pushed the car off the road and decided to go for my run anyway and hope that by the time I returned the engine would have dried out and I'd be able to get home.
The run itself was a pretty dark, muddy, wet and windy affair and I hardly saw Jackson at all; he must have been off chasing deer or squirrels. I did hear lots of shooting and shouting though as the army were out on exercise. They must have had a miserable night of it!
We finished the run at about 7.10 and I approached the car with fingers crossed, which must have worked because the engine started straight away. Phew!
note to self: in future keep some WD40 in the car - just in case!

Walking in Ireland...

Last week was a fairly laid back affair with a couple of easy runs on Monday and Wednesday, Kick-boxing after work on Tuesday and three days at the cottage in County Cork.
I flew out to Cork with Jenny at mid-day on Thursday and reached Union Hall early evening. Friday morning was spent sorting stuff out at the bank in Skibereen after which we drove to Lough Hyne and went walking for a couple of hours. The route we took involved climbing to the top of Soldier's Hill and then following a path down the north side of the hill and eventually emerging on a farm track. We then had a couple of miles to walk back to the car. The weather was bright and warm, in fact so warm that I was walking in a t-shirt; not bad for mid-January; that's the Gulf Stream for you!
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=FuqS8bkp0fI Video of the Lough Hyne walk.

Saturday saw a severe storm hit the coast causing all sorts of damage to trees and buildings but despite the wind and rain we went for a stroll along the beach at Clonakilty and somehow managed to avoid being blown away!
Saturday evening we consumed far too much alcohol at Bridgit's place and woke up Sunday morning for the flight home feeling a bit hung-over and queasy. But after driving back to Farnham from Gatwick I'd recovered enough to take Jackson out for a run around Hankley. He was very glad to see us return from our break and started his usual crazy dancing and jumping around and dropping his squeaky toy at my feet!
This week I've only managed to get out running on the roads around Farnham and today the Thames footpath but it all adds to the overall mileage so can't complain.

22 k Devil's Punchbowl run

Had a day off from all sporting activities on Friday apart from cycling to the pub!
On Saturday morning went for a leisurely 7k run with Jenny and Jackson followed by an afternoon swim at the Garrison Pool. Swam 1200 meters in about 25 minutes.
Sunday morning I set off for a long run from Stockbridge Pond through Frensham Common and the Devil's Jumps and up to the Devil's Punchbowl at Hindhead. I took a backpack with me but no added weight, just some water and bananas etc. I also took my video camera to get some footage of the route which I'll upload here when I get round to it. The run went pretty well and I managed to get to about 10 or 11 miles before starting to feel a bit of tiredness in the legs. The weather was brilliant though compared to recently; much less cold and with bright sunshine. The good weather seemed to bring everyone out for all sorts of activities; there were horse riders, mountain bikeres, ramblers, dog walkers and a couple of other runners.
I finished the run in about 3 hours for the 22k which wasn't too bad considering I stopped quite a bit for filming etc.

And then I was delegated the task of getting up at 5.50 on Monday morning to take Jackson out for a run! Despite it being pitch black and wet 'n windy I enjoyed the run and didn't seem to be suffering at all from Sunday's efforts. I also dropped by the Garrison for a swim on the way home from work. !600m in 31 minutes so getting a bit faster!

Swim 'n run

Wednesday I had a day off from running but dropped by the pool on the way back from work. As expected the pool was really busy not only with New Year resolutioners trying to get themselves motivated but also with gym users who couldn't go to the gym because it was closed for refitting or something. The start of January doesn't strike me as a good time to close a gym anyway - surely more people will be using it than at any other time of year. Anyway the long and short of it is that the pool was packed with slow swimmers in all the lanes so it was hard to keep up any sort of momentum but I persevered and eventually managed to get my 1000m done.
Thursday I ran from work along the Thames and spiced up the run with some fartlek training on the run in from Chiswick Bridge. I should aim to do more of those sort of sessions as a way to hopefully get faster. Had planned a long run for the weekend but will have to see how domestic duties go before deciding.

More night running...

I had planned a road run around Farnham and was thinking maybe I'll do a long-ish one of say 13 or 14k but then, as I got ready to leave the house, Jackson started jumping around in his way that he does when he knows I'm taking him for a run (which I hadn't planned to) and so I decided it wouldn't be fair to leave him behind on his own in the house but it also wouldn't really be very practical to run around the streets of Farnam for that sort of distance with a dog on a lead. So I thought, okay Jackson you win,and off we drove together for a headtorch-lit run around Hankley Common, which was probably more enjoyable and definitely less polluted by car exhaust fumes. The only thing I had to watch out for was that if I'd stumbled and broken an ankle or something I'd have been stuck out in the middle of nowhere with temperatures hitting -10 and probably would have ended up with hypothermia - so I trod very carefully on the frozen sand and rocky trails and even slowed to a walk in a couple of places. No such problems for Jackson though, he enjoyed himself, chasing around on the scent of rabbits and squirrels and in fact I only saw him a few times during the whole run but he was there at the finish and so I gave him a biscuit, put him on the lead and strolled back to the car, and pretty soon we were on our way home to get the fire lit and warm ourselves up.

Back to work...

Well 2009 has arrived and the holiday is over and it's back to the daily commute to London in the rush hour traffic. First day back wasn't too bad though and I took my new Mizunos for their first outing along the Thames Path at lunchtime. They looked very white and clean and probably gave the impression that I'd rushed out and bought some running kit as part of a New Year resolution to get fitter and be more active! I need to dirty them up as soon as possible!

Looking back over the last year since entering the MDS I feel that my training reached a bit of a peak last summer with regular 20k runs most weekends and highlights such as the Dorking - Farnham 38k run that I did with Simon. I suppose that with the onset of autumn and winter the days are shorter and there's less opportunity to get those longer runs in but I need to be building back up again soon and really putting in the miles. The other factor I suppose is that I've been entering quite a few races during the last couple of months and they've tended to take priority at the weekends when I'd otherwise be going out for a few of hours training. On a positive note, I've so far managed to avoid injury but I guess that when I increase my mileage there'll be more chance of something giving way. I think that the way to avoid that is to build up the distances slowly over the next few months. I've also got to bear in mind that I'm doing the 'Picnic' marathon in June which is a real tough one and I ought to really be planning the build up to that.

Gorilla video...

Went out with Rich on the Witches Cave run (with the backpack) - legs were a bit tired so didn't manage to beat last week's time. Still, it was a good workout and we made it round in about 51 minutes which wasn't bad. Weather very cold - down to about minus 10 and set to get colder tomorrow.
Had a bit of fun this morning making a Gorilla Training video for the Great Gorilla Run which James and I are doing in September. check it out http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=kLEkPSqGhRY

Recovering from Box Hill....

Made do with a short recovery run on Friday morning (7k) and a longer effort of about 14k this morning. Today's was a nice run in bright sunshine but the ground was frozen solid so needed to be careful not to turn an ankle. Also went swimming (1000m) late afternoon.

Here are some more photos of James and myself at Thursday's race....

Knacker Cracker...

Today it's New Year's day and traditionally that means getting over to Dorking for 10am to compete in the Box Hill Knacker Cracker 10k race. The race is described as the UK's toughest 10k and invoves running up and down Box Hill four times with a total height gain of 470 odd meters. The organisers encourage runners to come in fancy dress so I went along in Rambo/SAS type gear complete with camo face paint - and just to add to the challenge, James and I carried back packs with about 8kg of weight in them.


James was feeling a bit rough before the race having been out drinking until 4am and then only managing to get 3 hours sleep due to all the Red Bull he'd consumed with the alcohol. I was also suffering from a late night and a few glasses of red wine!
Despite the lack of sleep and all that we got round the course in 1hr 19 which was a pretty good time considering the hills and the back packs. And, as usual there was a great atmosphere amongst all the runners and a sense of acheivement at having started the new year in a positive way, getting out in the fresh air and pushing the limits a bit.