woensdag 30 november 2011

Month total 1059

Which means I'm 187 minutes, more than 3 hours, ahead of schedule. Which might come in handy if December throws some really bad weather at us.

Rush Hour in Benschop

60 min
Start 7.30

November is of course a particularly rubbish month for running somehow. Getting used to the shorter days. Trying to find the inspiration to run in the greyness. I've missed several early runs lately due to total inability to face going out in the dark. Did happily get out this morning when I saw the very first glimmer of lightness in the east when I peeked through the curtains. Yay, visible sunrise coming up! So ok there was also a light frosting on the grass when I was on the home strait alongside the cowfields but I don't mind having cold wet feet for the last bit when home is literally in sight.

maandag 28 november 2011

Bare Trees

32 min
Start 16.30Quick run round the complex before dark.

zaterdag 26 november 2011

3 Bitches on the Beach

62 min
Start 13.00
Picked up Dusty and then Minnie and we went for a run from 's Gravenzande to Hoek van Holland.

vrijdag 25 november 2011

Week total 257

Intratuin Circuit

62 min
Start 7.30
Very brief, slight and high pink mackereling of the sky but not really worth stopping to take a photo of before the grey tone for the day was set. Still, glad I got out early anyway. I suspect it may rain later.

woensdag 23 november 2011

Out and about

42 min
Start 12 & 16.45
26 minutes running about the complex and then later on the way back from Benschop parked at the last roundabout and had a last-of-the-light short run with Joep along past the 3 wind turbines.

dinsdag 22 november 2011

Sunny Afternoon

84 min
Start 15.00

After 2 days of impenetrable mist it was great to see the sky again this afternoon. Out to the watertower and back with Joep.

zondag 20 november 2011

Mist, lots of mist

29 min
Start 16.00
Whole day of such thick mist that I didn't make my planned trip to run elsewhere with Joep. We just had a meandering run round the complex, taking in all variations of the paths, including the newly tramped shortcut between the bunkers made by the uninvited visitors last week. No photos as the greyness wasn't very inspiring.

zaterdag 19 november 2011

Fire at Sunset

40 min
Start, various times
Few circuits of the complex today with Joep. Ended the afternoon burning some wood so took a photo of that before our last run.

vrijdag 18 november 2011

Week total 252

Despite missing a few days this week managed to catch up at the end.

Misty Cows

79 min
Start 9.00 & 14.30
Joep arrived this morning so we had a run round the complex. He was fascinated by all the scents left behind by the 1000+ uninvited party people last weekend. You could almost see the speech bubbles hanging above his head with "What's been happening hEre since last week?"











At sundown we went for a run alongside the ditch where the mist was coming up over the cowfields.

donderdag 17 november 2011

Urban Running

82 min
Start 16.30


Out to Bloeyendaal and then back through the city streets at dusk. I like running about in town when the lights are on but the curtains not yet closed. Nosey running.

dinsdag 15 november 2011

Buzzard Rescue

61 min
Start 16.15

Had only been out for a few minutes when I saw a buzzard flapping strangely some way ahead of me.


It disappeared into a ditch and when I caught up with it it was hanging on some thorns at the edge of the water. It didn't move off when I came closer and eventually let me pick it up. (Tip for handling injured, possibly aggressive animals, put your hand over their eyes to calm them down.) I had one hand holding its beak shut and in the other hand I had his claws. I walked back to the nearest house and rang the doorbell with my elbow. The man who answered the door was luckily totally unfazed by a madwummin in a yellow fluorescent vest clutching a bird of prey. He took the bird from me and said he'd put it in a box in the garage till the animal ambulance could pick it up.











Due to the birdrescueing interlude the run ended in the pitch dark along a busy main road instead of in the dusk back along the grassy path.

zaterdag 12 november 2011

Sunset Shadow

30 min
Start 17.00
After Joep left this afternoon went for a run with Shadow.

vrijdag 11 november 2011

Week total 265

Thought I wasn't going to get a run in today to bring me up to schedule but luckily I felt up to a quick run despite the snotty head cold that stopped me getting out yesterday.

Shadow at Dusk

20 min
Start 17.30
(The dog's called Shadow.) Back from Belgium just in time to have a quick run round the complex with Shadow who's owner left for a weekend in Germany this afternoon. He's much too excitable to sit still long enough for a posed picture...

woensdag 9 november 2011

Sunrise

41 min
Start 7.00






Good run out to IJsselstein along the (wet) grassy path. Sun had cleared a path for its appearance before it disappeared into the low-lying cloud again.






dinsdag 8 november 2011

Koenstwerk

45 min
Start 10.30 and 16.30
This morning a circuit round the complex. Strange monochrome sky with the sun occasionally just half showing through the cloudcover, looking more like a lost moon.



I discovered how to open one of the big bunkers and let Joep have a wee look inside.
Later out along the path to IJsselstein.

maandag 7 november 2011

Grey Morning

33 min
Start 7.30
Very dull plod around the complex but still felt good to be up before the sun.

zaterdag 5 november 2011

Long Way Round Cabauw

126 min
Start 15.00
So much for 'plan your run and run your plan'. I sometimes tend just to charge off like a toddler on a sugar rush and see how I feel on the way. So was it today, when I had a (vague) plan to run for a little over an hour. Starting at the watertower and then going west. Then south over the 'Kerkepad' to Cabauw.

And then... decision time... the plan being to go west again and then north through the fieldpath that would take me back to the path going back east to the water tower. Except I never found the fieldpath again and went the long way round, coming back via Polsbroek and getting back to the car with the very last of the light. (I stop to make photos along the way so am on the road for a bit longer than the 126 logged minutes.)
Great run though, despite it being a bit longer than originally planned. I've started thinking about how I'm going to do the 50 mile run on my birthday next year and keep hearing that the secret of ultrarunning is to take regular short walkbreaks to cut down muscle fatigue. (Listening to the Jeff Galloway Edition of the Extra Mile Podcast must be rubbing off on me at last...) So I've started taking short breaks every 5 minutes or so. Maybe only 20 seconds or so - just enough to take a drink. Sometimes the breaks come more often as I stop to take a photo of something and sometimes I forget them and by the time I look at my watch I see that 12 minutes has passed since the last one, but I am at least trying to incorporate them into my running routine.

vrijdag 4 november 2011

donderdag 3 november 2011

Benschaap

66 min
Start 16.45
Benschop circuit, on the way back came across a trailer loaded with sheep. Had mYpod on music instead of my usual podcasts because there was a lot of traffic and then I can hardly hear the speech podcasts.