November | 2017 | choose running

Hello and welcome back to my blog. The days are getting shorter and the mornings are becoming frostier. Following the hectic series of races which I had in the calendar through September and October, I have carefully left the rest of the year free to reflect on my achievements, reconnect with others and enjoy a little recuperation. Late Autumn is one of my favourite times of year to get out and be active in the world, the dry bright mornings have a glow to them which matches even the finest summer day. Its the perfect time of year to go for a chilled run and then retire in front of the fire with a fine red ale to reflect.

Although this pivot will reduce time spent and intensity, I see it as an opportunity to pivot back towards the things which I enjoy most from the sport and to get out moving through the world, exploring and feeling like a kid again. In the rest of this post I want to recount selected experiences from recent activities which the off season and a looser focus has allowed me to complete.

Cycling

Back in the summer I wrote post about how much I was enjoying getting out into the countryside on my bike. I explained how I enjoyed the feeling of freedom heading out to the North Downs, testing myself on some tough little climbs and how this has made me feel like a stronger runner.

In the focus of the September and October race calendar I stopped cycling. With major events coming up into the calendar, recovery was the focus and the bike sadly didn’t see the light of day for a number of weeks. One of the great benefits of being out of the other side of this is that I can now get back into the saddle not only out to work and back but also out to the countryside again.

A fortnight after completing the Amsterdam Marathon on a dry and bright autumn afternoon I decided to head out again for a solo loop on the bike. The winter air was chilly and I wore my short sleeve cycling top (I bought all my cycling gear back in the summer – brr) I opted for my familiar 60k route through Kent which I have ridden 4 or 5 times now both alone and with friends. It was interesting riding this as an autumnal route. Heading out of London and through the villages on the edge of Bromley there was a chilly breeze in the air and the sedate warm air had been replaced with a biting winter chill. This time of year brings great beauty with the colours of the leaves on the trees changing, this is true for running routes but is also true out on the bike. As I climbed up wooded lanes between little villages, the orange hues of the autumn trees were in motion falling down in front of my path and forming a stunning backdrop. In the height of the summer, the lanes are alive with groups of cyclists on a Saturday afternoon. In autumn this wasn’t the case. I saw at most another 6 or 7 riders out serenely enjoying the North Downs.

As I reached the high point of the ride at Knockholt my legs started to complain. I hadn’t cycled in a while and whilst this route was never a breeze, my 2 and a half month absence from riding had setback my stamina for riding up hills. Back in July I would have stopped at the halfway point for a snack before powering on back into London but with a chilly breeze in the air and feeling underdressed in my short sleeves, I decided to press on. This I was to find later would be a bit of a mistake.

One of my favourite sections of this ride is a short 5k stint down the main road from Cudham to Badgers Mount. Arriving at the T Junction which marks the start, I was greeted with smooth fresh tarmac. Lovely – time to cruise back towards town. Zipping through the country lanes, I was invigorated by the feeling of joy of riding a bike down a hill, freedom and excitement that you first experience as a child.

Woodland Runs – Epping & Green Chain

Racing each weekend and reducing the distance of training runs in between, you leave some of your favourite trails behind for a few weeks. in the last few weeks I have really enjoyed getting back out and rediscovering these corners of town in a new season.

A couple of weekends ago I ran through the Green Chain twice in the same weekend with James and then again with Vickie and Kerry. The woods which were green and teeming with life when I left them back in August are now cold, muddy and the ground thick with leaf litter becoming mulch beneath your feet. One of the great things about running in natural environments is the opportunity to tune into the seasons as they pass by. As we darted between the trees seeking out new secret routes it felt like we were children again and brought me back to growing up on Dartmoor as a small boy. I am forever thankful of moments of fleeting contentment like this. Heading down from the cafe in the woodlands towards Welling we found a mountain bike track and whooped and hollered our way down the technical trail section on our way back. Coming back the next day with Kerry and Vickie it was great to show Vickie around the woods and trails which I had enjoyed exploring over the past year and a half. On both occasions we finished up in a local cafe and then caught the bus back to the flat.

But its not just the familiar, one of the things I have been keen to reconnect with has been the sense of adventure that getting out and about on two feet can bring. Back at the end of October Ben and I took the central line out from Stratford to Theydon Bois with the plan to run south through Epping Forest. We got off of the tube climbed the hill and headed down through the ancient woodland. Epping Forest is a large expanse of woodland radiating out from zone four to Essex in North East London, there are a few trails which loop around but our plan that day was to run a point to point run initially starting out in Theydon Bois, running through the forest then switching to the Lea Valley trail at Chingford and heading back to our start point at Stratford. The forest was a lovely undulating run in the autumn leaves. We paused for a while at the top of the escarpment and took in the autumn air in the forest- lovely. We crossed a golf course and then a steep climb and suddenly we were out of the forest. After a short Snickers break at a petrol station we ploughed on following the road between the reservoirs and then turning left down the Lea valley towpath. This was a bit of a slog down the canal but we recorded some of the fastest miles of the day and then made it back to the olympic park. There was time for a quick celebratory Shake Shack meal before calling it a day and heading back.

The weekend of Bonfire Night I went down to visit the parents, Mum and Dad have recently moved out of town and now live high up in the Blackdown hills in an isolated cottage. It was our first visit down there and it was great to reconnect with the countryside. On the Sunday we ran the Herepath trail which is now less than two miles from my parents new place. We parked the car at the top of the trail at Staple Hill and then ran down through Neroche on the trail before turning around and coming back up again. The run was a little over 8 miles. The scenery is a mix of evergreen and deciduous trees, forestry tracks and ancient cattle droves with some sweeping flat sections and some tough technical climbs. Turning at the midway point we had to climb back up the 300m to get back to the car. The climb was a constant three miles at a nice gradient. The track winds upwards and is what I would call ‘annoyingly runnable’ – great training as we do not have anything like this in London. We made it back to the car, the hills had proven to be a tough training ground but a rewarding one.

So there you have it a whistle stop run through of a couple of recent adventures which have reminded me why I enjoy being active. Thank you to my friends for keeping me company and sharing these adventures along the roads and the trails. I hope that you are all having fun and have had a happy healthy autumn.