woensdag 31 augustus 2011

Month total 1115

Didn´t get out this morning so it looks like this is the final count for the month. That makes me now 2 hours and 3 minutes behind schedule so with 31 minutes a month extra for the rest of the year I should be able to catch up.

dinsdag 30 augustus 2011

Grey Morning

73 min
Start 6.00
Out to IJsselstein and back followed by a circuit here.

zaterdag 27 augustus 2011

Barefoot with Thunderstruck finale

102 minutes
Start 19.00
























Brilliant run - out the furthest I've been yet along the grass-between-2-streams path to the watertower. 52 minutes there. Once on the path and past the treebark strewn bit I took my shoes off and hid them behind a tree and spent the next hour listening to a couple of episodes of the RunBarefootGirl podcast whilst squishing throught the grass and muddy bits. Picked my shoes up on the way back and when I sat down to put them on I noticed how dark the sky behind me was. Not just approaching-dusk-dark but big black thundercloud dark. Switched from the podcasts to the music bit of mYpod and soon clicked though to AC/DC's Thunderstruck for the home strait. The storm was at my heels. A couple of times there was a lightning flash behind me, closely followed by the rumble of thunder and I could feel the light rain getting heavier. Suddenly a flash appeared in front of me and I realised I'd been overtaken - luckily by then I was only a few minutes from the gate and I got in the door just as the rain was reaching full torrential strength. Spectacular end to a really enjoyable run.

vrijdag 26 augustus 2011

Week Total 327

Wednesday´s total should be corrected to 60 minutes but the idiosycracies of my internet connection today mean that I can only place new posts, not correct old ones - photos are also not an option so these will come later. Anyway, good week with a fair number of morning runs, always a good start to the day.

Birthday Run

21 min
Start 8.00

donderdag 25 augustus 2011

Benschop with Shadow

56 min
Start 7.00

woensdag 24 augustus 2011

Paper and Pheasants

60 min
Start 8.00
Went out a bit later this morning as it was raining when the alarm went off at 5.30. As we were out later the paperboy had been when I came back (Shadow belongs to the nearest neighbours and I can collect their newspaper this week while he's with me.) The dog also flushed out a very noisy pheasant who squalked off into the hazelnut trees sounding very annoyed.

dinsdag 23 augustus 2011

Benschop (no camera)

55 min
Start 6.00
Low bank of cloud with the Lopik mast just sticking out above it meant no noticable sunrise effects this morning although there were some good cloud effects once it got lighter. Forgot my camera though as it was still in the laptop case I was using yesterday. Shadow and I had a good trot round the circuit. Most of the time he runs ahead perfectly without pulling but occasionally he'll make a sudden stop, causing me to shout as I almost fall over him. He's also not keen on bikes approaching from behind and will keep looking back till they've passed. Luckily it's not a very busy path, certainly not so early.

maandag 22 augustus 2011

Sunrise + Barefoot

60 min
Start 6.00

Another perfect sunrise, this time with a few wisps of cirrus high over a low mist bank responsible for the light effects.

Went out again briefly in the evening for a short barefoot attempt but the road here wasn't really very suitable and all the tree debris soon had me heading back home.

zondag 21 augustus 2011

Sunrise with Swans

64 min
Start 5.45

Perfect sunrise with lots of clouds for contrasting light effects. 3 obliging swans even made a circuit to come back into shot when I was too slow with my camera the first time they flew over. Took Shadow out to the Benschop rondabout and back.

zaterdag 20 augustus 2011

Short and Shadowed

11 min
Start 8.00
Somehow never got around to running any more after the first morning circuit with the dogs.

vrijdag 19 augustus 2011

Week total 349

Sil + Shadow

57 min
Start various times
Kept to the grounds to let Sil and Shadow run about together and get used to one another.

donderdag 18 augustus 2011

Run Barefoot Girl

60 min
Start 20.30
Excellent run. Have discovered a new podcast done by an American woman who runs barefoot. As I was on a grassy path when listening I took off my shoes and hid them under a bridge for collecting on the way back and did a good part of my run barefoot. Haven't done this for a while, since my brief flirtation with barefoot beach running and my occasional outings with the Vibrams. But it felt good (apart from the bit with woodchips, this slowed me down considerably). On the way back switched to music (and shoes) and was fairly pounding down the road.

dinsdag 16 augustus 2011

IJsselstein

72 min
Start 6.00
Out towards IJsselstein because there was a smudge of sunrise red in the otherwise grey sky when we set out. First bit with the dog on the lead then a bit at the end along a cycle path where he could officially run loose.

zondag 14 augustus 2011

Repeat run

80 min
Start 20.00



Bit of a repeat of last night.

zaterdag 13 augustus 2011

Cloudspotting

80 min
Start 20.00
Great run, out to the path between the 2 small rivers where the dog could run loose (after the first 13 minutes along the road to get there) and my feet didn't get tOO wet as the grass is kept reasonably short there. Have just finished the book The Cloudspotter's Handbook so was (even more than usual) keeping an eye on the cloudscape.

vrijdag 12 augustus 2011

12 day total 264

First week of August was a running non-event due to vague not-wellness so have some catching up to do now...

Grey Wet Dawn

56 min
Start 5.30
Having successfully loaded mYpod yesterday afternoon with fresh (running) podcasts I was really looking forward to getting out this morning and even though the first half of the run was dark grey and dull and the second half was light grey with increasingly heavly drizzle/rain I really enjoyed having RunRunLive chuntering away in my ears again. Did the Benschop circuit clockwise with Sil on the lead running at a good pace just in front of me.

donderdag 11 augustus 2011

Weak Week

Due to hopeless internet connection in my house-in-the-woods have been unable to update. And now that I'm in Utrecht I have of course forgotten to bring the list of dates and times that I've run this week. Have been doing short and frequent dog runs mostly. Hope to catch up in here asap.

woensdag 10 augustus 2011

Obstacle Path

32 min
Start 19.00?
Set out to run towards IJsselstein but the grass and nettles were too exhausting to plough through so turned back fairly soon.

dinsdag 9 augustus 2011

Benschop?

54 min
Start 20.00?

maandag 8 augustus 2011

Various, with dogs

42 min
Start ?

zondag 7 augustus 2011

Nosey Moth

26 min
Start 21.00
Ha, funny how you remember different things about runs. Before I got the chance to look up the photos I took during this run the main thing I remembered was that it was the run where a small white moth flew up my nose (I blew it out immediately and after staggering around on the ground for a few seconds it flew off apparantly none the worse for it's brief encounter with my snot). But now that I see the pics I remember it was when I set off in the sandals and long frock I'd been wearing all day because there wasn't really time to get changed before the woods got too dark to run about in. A sort of Amish running outfit... Luckily I'd had the foresight to put on my best running bra in the morning as that's by far the most important item of my running clothing.

zaterdag 6 augustus 2011

Short Sil Circuits

20 min
Start, 2 morning runs.
Had 2 trots round the complex with the dog in between doing other stuff

vrijdag 5 augustus 2011

Last Beach Run

34 min
Start 8.00
Still not feeling 100% after a few days with vague stomach upset symptoms but decided to make the effort anyway. Felt terrible on the way back, when the wind dropped behind the dunes I was sweating a lot whilst it was still quite chilly and thought I might have to throw up. Managed to get home without incident but certainly not the best run ever.