Sunday 12 July 2020

The Virtual Run

COVID-19 HAS forced us all to look at how we are living our lives and how it could be done differently.   Some have been really effective and some not so good.   One thing I am going to take away when all of this does come to an end is "simplicity".    We all live complex lives but it doesn't always have to be like that.   When you are forced to simplify things then everything becomes easier.

The vitual run has sprung up everywhere and personally I am not a big fan of it.   However, due to COVID-19, the lockdown and social distancing it has been a way to run events in a simpler and easier way and I am thankful that people have taken the time to plan and execute them to such great effect.

It doesn't replace meeting people at the events, looking and talking to the sponsors, running with groups of likeminded people, the crowds who help motivate you on or crossing that finish line.    But with the times we are living in it does keep you motivated and engaged with the running community who are so isolated at the moment.

I have managed to compete in three virtual runs over lockdown.   There were other ones that I wanted to run but I couldn't work out the cross country routes and I needed some assistance with places that I have never run before.   So I put those to one side and perhaps when lockdown ends I can reconsider them again.

The Surrey and Sussex Healthcare (SASH) was the first one that I entered.   It's run by the people who organise Run Reigate and Run Gatwick aka Run Series.    The aim was simple but very effective you pay to enter and then record your mileage on their website with evidence (screen shot of Strava) to show you did the run.    Everybodies mileage is accummulated and is then turned into cash.   All money goes to SASH which means the NHS.   It was a great idea and I recorded all my training and normal runs adding to the accumulated miles.   The final result was an amazing 122,000 miles run by everybody (the target was 30,000) and £13,224 for the NHS.

The other two were arranged by Haywards Heath Harriers for the senior endurance groups.   Three 5km and 10km runs.   The window of opportunity was opened over three days allowing runners to take part at any time over the days that they wanted to run it.    The route was set up on Strava as segments which recorded and created a leader board for each event.   This was a great idea and a real race allowing people to particiate when they wanted without a lot of runners turning up at the same place and time.   Great work in planning, organising and executing by Haywards Heath Harriers.

Over the last few weeks Haywards Heath Harriers have returned to training.   Due to lockdown it has been by invitation only, ensuring that the numbers are kept manageable and team leaders taking people for specific run training.   Again the planning and organising has been amazing.

I may not be a big fan of virtual runs but they certainly have their place and have kept people motivated and running during this very difficult time.

Safe running.


Sunday 5 July 2020

A tentative return to normality

THE LOCKDOWN has forced everybody to abandon their old routines and start to create new ones.   To begin with I felt out of my depth as I was off work with a high temperature and cough which left me fatigued.   Then I had some leave booked so had that before returning to the work place as a key worker.

Within all of this I started to create new routines but longed to return to what I knew.   It wasn't until I went back to work and slipped into a familiar routine that I started to feel better about things.   In between we managed to get a lot done.
  • Decorated the bedroom
  • Cleared the loft creating a pile for charity
  • Cleared the front and back gardens
  • Created a pile of rubbish for the dump
We even managed to deal with an emergency when the water tank in the loft started to leak.   This was the bank holiday weekend in the middle of lockdown!   And led to 10 days of showering at work and having to fill the cisterns of the toilets up with a bucket.

The last couple of weeks has seen a slight return to normality with Haywards Heath Harriers starting their training schedule.   But with so many restrictions still in place it can't be the same as it was before, so what is the new normal?

With a large athletics club you can't have everybody just turn up which means it has to be done by invitation only.   Ensuring that the numbers are kept to a manageable level maintaining the current restrictions.   This week I got my invitation and it felt like I had found Willie Wonkas golden ticket.   It had perfect alignment with my working week and gave me something to look forward to, that oasis of normality starting to return.

The runners are split into groups and each group has it's own activities.   This means that they are getting as many runners as possible to attend the sessions, but limiting them in each group ensuring distancing is maintained and safety is the priority.

The group that I was in went for a steady long run around Cuckfield, down towards Haywards Heath and looping back through some of the amazing footpaths that Cuckfield has to offer.   It was amazing after so long just to go for a run with other people, enjoy the countryside and have a chat about running in lockdown.

There are a lot of people that you miss but don't realise until you see them again.   The interaction you have had with them is either on Strava or a virtual run.   That one and a half hours of training has made a difference in terms of having social interatction with the people you have missed.

There are three main elements to good mental health ...
  • Sleep
  • Eating
  • Moving
As long as you can maintain those then you are maintaining a good mental health.   But social integration also has go play a major part of it as well.   Lockdown has not helped in this area but there have been ways around it with telephone, Skype/Zoom and emails.   But the physical act of seeing someone and having that face to face interation has been so missed.

I have to thank Haywards Heath Harriers committee, coaches and run leaders for the work they have done through lockdown.   Keeping eveybody together as much as possible and sorting out the return to training schedule.   It wasn't an easy or quick task but they have all done an amazing job.






Monday 29 June 2020

Running with my past behind me

I WAS born in Redhill, Surrey where I was brought up close to my maternal grandparents who lived in Earlswood.   At the age of 18 I had had enough of the place and moved to Brighton but slowly began to drift back.   I got all the way to Haywards Heath in West Sussex and settled down.

Redhill is a big part of me.  As I child I was always on the commons from dawn to dusk coming home covered in dirt and filth.   I knew all of the footpaths and hidey holes around the area and loved it.   A chance to have a run around the area is a must as it brings back so many memories.   It's difficult to think of your pace because I have to stop for a moment and just look; it was my home and a big influence on my life.

Going to visit my Dad I knew he would be shopping so I dumped my car on his drive and set off for a run down the road and into the town centre.   When I was little Brighton Road was the main road through Redhill and if you drove at 40 miles an hour and blink, you have missed it.   Now it has a small shopping centre and the whole of the centre itself is pedestrianised, they even have a weekly market.   It's a totally different place to the one I left so many years ago.

The cinema, opposite the railway station, shut down many years ago.   When I was young both my Mum and her best friend worked there and would sneak me in to see films.   Her friend's eyesight was never very good and as I turned up to see a film once she said, "You again?   I have already let you in three times!"   So three kids had an unexpected treat and got in for nothing due to a case of mistaken identity!

Opposite used to be the offices of the Surrey Mirror which stood proud in the middle of three car parks.   When I left school I did a four year apprenticeship in printing there having to go to college first at Reigate Technical College before it shut down and then at Brighton Polytechnic.

Turning left up Station Road I headed towards Raffles Bridge.   Home of the Red Lion pub where you can get your fix of live music. Many a time I have seen "The Muttz Nutz" there.   There is also a great fish and chip shop.   From there I headed for Shaws Corner where the war memorial is situated opposite The Hatch pub.   As I travel around I am amazed at the amount of pubs that have closed down, but not due to Covid-19 as they were already closed before it took off.   All those places from a misspent youth, with so many memories, all gone.   After a good night out, with plenty of beer, I could do a pretty mean Kate Bush impersonation on the way home!

Down into Reigate, an old Market Town and home of the cinema that I frequented when Redhill was shut down.   I saw classics such as Star Wars when it first came out.   The first film I ever saw here was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.  I was small at the time and my mum took me to see it.   Before the film started a man appeared out of the floor playing the keyboard; a trend that stopped a few years later but to a small boy it was magical.

Cutting round to The Priory where I did a lap of the park and lake taking one of the footpaths which was shady and cooler.   The Priory was redeveloped a few years ago with footpaths put in place around the lake and trees repositioned with money from The National Lottery.   It is the start and finish point for Run Series event RunReigate which I try to do every year and Reigate Parkrun which I have done a couple of times.

I headed out of the park and right towards Meadvale and The Angel pub.   Another one that has shut down but they are doing a lot of work on it at the moment.   It looks like it will have a new lease of life as flats.   At the time the father of my friend from next door, who had a strange addiction to "sav and chips", was the landlord of the pub.

Turning left I headed for Earlswood where my maternal grandmother used to live.   Taking the footpath to the rear of the village school, where my grandmother was one of the school dinner ladies, I headed for "top common".   This was one of the places that I once loved the most.   Running around, making camps in all the thick bracken and kicking a ball around.   We used to get as much money as we could and buy bottles of cream soda.

Opposite the turning behind the school is the site where Redhill General Hospital used to be.   This is where I was born a long time ago which made me a Redhillian.   The amount of times I have been there for broken bones and stitches - once being knocked over by a car on a crossing opposite the old cinema aged nine.   The site is now a housing development with a new hospital having been built between Earlswood and Salfords.

Looking over the view you can see aircraft taking off and landing at Gatwick and St. Johns church where my parents were married and where I was christened.   You can just make out "The Ring" where the local cricket club play.   There are so many memories that I stopped and smiled.   A few years ago I found a letter written by my grandfather to my grandmother and mother when she was little.   She had been evacuated during the war to Warminster, he talks about barrage balloons being put up on the common which is amazing to think of.   One evening my grandfather went out to the toilet (they were outside then) and he got blown through his toilet door by a doodle bug that came down on Earlswood Common.   He was shaken but uninjured.

Running down from the top and middle common I took the main road through (that separated the middle and bottom common) and went right down Mill Hill.   This is a steep hill with the main Brighton Road at the bottom of it where my Mum scared the life out of us when she was learning to drive.   We were little at the time and cowered on the floor thinking we were all going to die, we didn't have seat belts in those days!   I ran down the hill going past the bottom common and The Garibaldi pub.

The Garibaldi closed down some time ago and was due to be redeveloped.   But a group of locals got together and managed to get it designated as a community public house.   The redevelopment didn't happen and it's now run by the community for the community which is a great thing.   From here I am very close to my Dad's house.

Garmin is great training for your next event, but every now and then you just need to take some time out and look around you.   Just do a run for yourself and enjoy it for what it is.   Don't worry the world will not end and you may remember why you run in the first place and rediscover yourself in the process.   Just do it and enjoy it.


Sunday 14 June 2020

Why am I struggling?

JUST BEFORE Lockdown started I went down with a high temperature which put me into self isolation for 14 days.   This led into booked leave and I went back to work with a cough which led to another 7 days of isolation!

As I went back to work (for the first time) I suffered an overwhelming feeling of fatique I had not been running for quite a while but eventually I started again.   Although very tenterativly and slow; somedays I stood there on the start line and thought, "I don't think I have the energy to complete this".

Even though I was doing some harsh shifts I was getting out running on a regular basis for training.   I had entered two events to keep my motivation up.   Surrey and Sussex Healthcare (SASH) though Run Series raising money for the NHS and Haywards Heath Harriers 5km and 10km runs.   All being virtual runs.

I had started to look at cross country routes around Lindfield, Haywards Heath and Cuckfield trying to link them all together with the aim of creating a really good half marathon route around my area using road, foot paths and cross country.

But underneath that I was struggling and found hills that wouldn't normally cause a problem were now a struggle; what had gone wrong?    Could it

.
be the result of the illness or the shifts I was working?   I had to stop and think about life before lockdown.   Outside of running I was going to the gym, doing a little swimming and taking part in Hybrid Boxing.   When lockdown occured I lost everything but continued with the running.

And there was the answer.   I had stopped the strength and conditioning exercises and hadn't realised it.   The gym gave me weights and core exercises but Hybrid


Boxing brought everything together into one amazing conditioning session that really helped support my running.   The muscles I really needed to push me up hills from core, glutes, quads down to calfs were not being exercised which was impacting on my running especially on hills.

Clearly some action was required so I got all of the weights I have at home and a scaffolding pole (I got off my dad) and set up my garden gym.   The aim was do a cross between Dame Kelly Holmes core workout, gym and hybrid boxing.   A few days later I was due to go for a run but stuck in the middle of four early shifts so I switched it for a second garden gym session.



Two days later I moved to my last two shifts for the week and I was ready for a test.   I did a clean tempo run round Clair Park and sailed up the hill that I was struggling with.

Never underestimate the positive impact of a strength and  conditioning session can have on your running.   Enabling you to take on the more difficult parts of your course and feeling good at the end of it.




Friday 5 June 2020

COVID-19 Lockdown

WHEN THE government put the country into lockdown life changed for all of us.   Old routines ceased and we had to start making new positive ones.   Not just in terms of how we are temporarily living but how we want life to be after COVID-19.   Please be aware that none of the groups are currently running but they will be back.. check the websites.

Ardingly 8km Village Run
A result of this is a lot of people have decided to start running.   People run for different reasons whether it’s to compete, improve their fitness or maintain good mental health.   Behind each person is a journey and a story of how running has impacted on their lives.   Running isn’t for everybody but for those who enjoy it there are huge advantages.

Running isn’t a destination, it’s a journey and here is mine with the intention of giving people options and ideas on what they can do, whether that’s to just continue with what they are doing or try to improve from where they currently are.

Three years ago, I suffered from work related stress and didn’t know how to deal with it.   I knew that exercise was good for stress so I joined the Dolphin Leisure Centre.   This was my first steps to improve my stress and fitness levels.

Worthing 10km
The Dolphin and its sister The Triangle in Burgess Hill were amazing. As a novice they gave me a personal trainer for three sessions as an introduction.   This gave me an overview on how to use the equipment and a tailored fitness plan to work with. This was when I discovered running machines.

I started to think about running outside instead of using a machine and downloaded the C25K app. (Couch to 5km).   There are many of these available but they are all roughly the same with the aim of getting you off the sofa and running.   The apps work in easy digestible chunks, slowly building up your endurance.

The (trainer realising that I was running more than rowing) asked if I had ever heard of Parkrun.   He explained what, where and how I could get involved so I looked it all up online, joined and by the end of the week I had completed my first 5km run.

Run Gatwick Half Marathon
Running suddenly took on a different meaning for me.   Up until now I had gone out on my own.   Suddenly it was about community and running with other people.   Parkrun isn’t a race, it’s about going out and completing the distance any way you want to do it.   Run, walk, run and walk it doesn’t matter. What did matter was the community around it from the runners to the volunteers.  Parkrun is held every Saturday at 09:00 in Clair Park, Haywards Heath.


Later I discovered the “Run Together” group J&M Running.   They are a registered England Athletics run group and teach people how to run using coaches and experienced runners.   Instead of using an app you can join a community from the beginning who help support and motivate you.   There is a small fee for the lessons which offer great supportive practical lessons.

Once I was established as a regular Parkrun member, I started to learn about other local events that anybody can take part in.   Lindfield 5km and 10km and Ardingly 8km both held on their village days and all monies received from the running goes to their local charity which is well worth supporting.   These were big changes for me as I had got used to running 5km. I was now pushing it out to 10km runs around the villages and countryside of Sussex.

Haywards Heath Harriers
There are a lot of running events you can sign up for and they can cost a lot of money.   You need to be choosy about which ones you want to do.   After starting to achieve 10km I wanted to have a go at a half marathon.   Being born in Redhill, Surrey I signed up for Run Reigate 10km and the following year I completed the half marathon as well as RunGatwick.   Because my wife is from Wales I ran the Cardiff University Half Marathon as well.

Still a member of Parkrun and enjoying their runs I started to talk to Haywards Heath Harriers and managed to get three taster sessions.   From there I joined and this really expanded my running.   I got regular training sessions with a qualified coach and support by both Harriers and England Athletics to run events including cross country.

Through running with Harriers I learned about the WestSussex Fun Run League, 18 affiliated clubs who organise one run per year for all the clubs to enjoy and race.   They are also open to anybody who wants to join in.   Current price is £3 per run which is fully marshalled and all are very different.

Cardiff Half Marathon Race Bib
Along with being a member of The Dolphin, once a week I do Hybrid Boxing for full strength and conditioning training which is about cross training for running.   This strengthens my core which helps to lift me through the difficult parts of a run.   Hybrid boxing costs £10 and is held every Sunday at Sussex Zest at 10:00.

From Parkrun through local events, Haywards Heath Harriers and West Sussex Fun Run League there is a real sense of community full of people who support and motivate you to join in.   As I said at the beginning it’s not just about running, it’s about community.

If lockdown has started you running and you are wondering how you can take this further then I hope this has given you some ideas.