Well done Catton Park Run 200! But alas another run fail for Mr Nearly Ran

8.10am – Wife: ‘Aren’t you going for a parkrun this morning?’

Me: ‘Urrgghh – yep, going on my way’

Exit for kitchen, sound of kettle being switched on.

8:21: Me: ‘Cup of tea, for you’

8:34: Me (shouts upstairs to bedroom): ‘Where’s the keys to my bike lock?’

Wife: ‘What bike lock?’

9am: 200th Catton Park Run starts

A little bit of Unthank Road atop a Welsh Brynn and why I didn’t run the Swansea Half Marathon

I’ve just come back from a trip to Wales – Reynoldston in Gower, South Wales, to be precise.

It was great, we stayed in Hills Farmhouse a lovely farm cottage with views towards the bays, somewhere beyond the mist and clouds I think, and the in-laws were there, too, all of them.

It was great…

But actually, I’ve learned something on these trips, when it feels like there are too many people under one roof – take your running kit and head for the hills!

Weight for it – my real running goal revealed

How do you incorporate weight training into your running programme?

When I signed up to the Wissey Half Marathon I had a secret running goal in mind, to shed some weight.

The training has been going pretty well. I’m managing a steady three-ish runs a week – short, middle, and a Sunday long run – in fact last Sunday’s run included a bit of August’s Run Norwich route – the steep hill at the end up through to Castle Meadow!

And I’m sort of following the TrainAsOne programme which gets emailed to me most mornings at 6am.

But there is one thing that doesn’t seem to be happening, the scales are pointing stubbornly at 13 stone (that’s 182 lbs for US readers, and 83 kg for our friends in Europe – yes they are still friends in my book!)

Has anyone got any suggestions?

 

Let’s be brief the trouble with running is its pants!

Why can’t you buy running briefs anymore?

A friend of mine posted a very interesting question on Facebook this week. He was going away for three nights and thus wanted to know that all important question – how many pairs of pants should he pack?

There are a couple of answers here which you can select as appropriate:

 1.      3

2.      4

3.      6

4.      8

5.      1  (the Helen Mirren – don’t worry I’ll explain later)

6. 0

Or to explain in more detail

3 – keeps you covered

4 –  gives you a ‘plus one’ option

6 – is a twice a day change, like an evening wear option, so to speak

8 – is the same as four but you double your money, just in case

1 – is the Helen Mirren option (apparently, she never takes luggage when she travels but buys her clothes from charity shops when she gets there – I read that in a newspaper interview once, so it must be correct).

0 – the Pointless answer

But it got me thinking about a burning question of mine – why can’t you buy running briefs anymore?

 

Guest Blog: Why it’s time to say goodbye to the dorgs at Norwich parkrun

Man’s best friend gets the boot at Eaton Park and there’s a wolf about.. or is there, wonders Milton Lindsay

Spring is in the air and a middle-aged (56-year-old) man’s thoughts turn to…remembering to put the clock forward, making sure the cricket kit is in order, cutting the lawn, listening out for the first cuckoo….

In fact almost anything but CHRISTMAS!

Yet bizarrely that is what was on my mind at Norwich Parkrun recently.

The foot towel at the bottom of the stairs

For me the best time to write, I’ve found, is straight after a run, when my mind is bursting with ideas.

For my wife, it’s probably about 11pm when everyone is in bed, as she’s been left all morning with the kids etc and has a list of things to task me with.

It’s a creative difference.

Can you run in Norwich at lunchtime if you’re a coffee shop entrepreneur?

Do you run during your work lunch hour?

 

I’ve read enough to know that you should vary the times that you run, not least because it’s no good only running in the evenings when you are training for a race which starts at 11am etc.

 

But for me the reality is that all too often running has to fit in between waking up and getting the kids off to school, which means that sometimes it just doesn’t fit in at all.

 

Sound familiar?

 

One way I found round it was to try and go for a lunchtime run at work.

 

It used to be pretty straight forward – my former employer had a shower (albeit, a bit crummy, but shouldn’t complain, I suppose), so you could nip out, get some hills in or even get down to Whitlingham if you were feeling ambitious, and back again all cleaned up and at your desk for 2pm or 2ish..

 

Now I am usually working from home – nipping out during lunch is even easier.

 

But another problem has struck me. What happens on those days I’m working in the city? I’m one of those growing army of ‘coffee shop entrepreneurs’ who you can spot at their laptops sipping a latte, for me either at the Forum, or an independent coffee shop in the city – I’m quite partial to North, which used to be King of Hearts near Fye Bridge/Magdalen Street.

 

So can you be a coffee shop entrepreneur and go for a lunchtime run?

 

My question is – where are the showers?

Happy Mother’s Day Agnes – you kept your family together and we kept your name

 Agnes was only 45 when she died.

She was a mother to six children, and lived for all her life in an area of Norwich known as Pockthorpe – the bit from Bull Close then around Barrack Street up to Heathgate.

In 1861 she was living with her parents in Granby Row, and she later got married to George Lowthorpe at St James Church on the corner of Barrack Street – where the Puppet Theatre now stands. I used to run round there a lot as part of my Norwich ringroad runs or when heading up to the hills of Mousehold, little realising it was my home to my ancestors.

I’ve got a new toy – but will this running app make me a better runner?

It is my new toy.

A lot of people swear by running apps and I used to track my runs using a Strava app which would give instant updates of how far I’d been etc – much to the annoyance of Facebook friends, I imagine.

Are you a Strava/Map My Run spammer?

But I’ve had to live without Strava since switching from a Sony to a Microsoft phone (long story, don’t ask), and since I never got on with MapMyRun and most of my running of late has been around where I live in Hellesdon, the maps had got, well, a bit boring and unnecessary.

So now help is at hand – I hope – in the form of a Tom Tom ‘watch’.