Plan C - Return to Highbury

It has taken an age to get this blog post finished. We cover a parkrun over a week ago, another parkrun that didn't happen & a parkrun that is just about to happen for the first time!

parkrun #51 - Highbury & Islington

My Friday night was spent working overnight in London. These Friday nights can be short, they can also drag and kill your weekend. I generally view 4am as a natural cut off. Once you work past that the rest of the day is likely to be a write off.
I caught a couple of hours sleep between the end of my normal working day and the double up, waking to see the Dutch score a 5th against Spain in the world cup. I should have known at that point that the weekend might provide more twists and turns.
Whenever I have an overnighter in London I start scanning the parkrun map to see what events I could visit, keen to keep trying new events. My Plan A for Saturday was to head east and pay a visit to the Beckton event. Unfortunately TFL upgrade work put that plan to bed straight away, no Jubilee eastbound would make it implausible to get there.
Another consultation of the map provided a Plan B, head north west to the Hampstead Heath event. The journey was manageable & I was pleasantly surprised with how little effort would be required to get there.
With a second plan in place I got my head down for a bit of sleep between the working days and had to check I wasn't still asleep when I saw the Holland vs Spain score in the World Cup! On the overnights we order takeaway and this usually comes down to Chinese or pizza. Either wouldn't be ideal for me, I opted for a thin Romana base pizza from Pizza Express. This would be my first in over a month, a test to see how my body would handle a less doughy pizza. As someone that loves a good pizza ideas eager to not have an instant bad reaction as it would be nice to still indulge occasionally.
The good news was that I enjoyed the pizza and didn't suffer too much as a result. Opting for something thin and without much dough was a good decision.
Unfortunately the work side of things didn't go quite as well. Our role on some overnighters is to provide services assurance after other people have made changes, essentially babysitting the systems we look after. This meant our night was filled with Chile vs Australia, the first Bottom live show and then I introduced my colleague to some strong style New Japan Pro Wrestling. We didn't wrap up until past my deadline so as I got back to the hotel I decided against Hampstead Heath.
I set my alarm as late as feasibly possible to still make a parkrun, showered, checked out and headed north to Highbury & Islington. It wouldn't be a new event, but the Highbury Fields parkrun was at least on my way home and easy to get to.

The Run

My previous appearance at the event was at the start of 2013, where my lack of conditioning combined with a snow and ice covered route resulted in my worst ever parkrun result, 28:59. I'd fared better on my debut with a 24:47 and was hoping for a repeat performance if my sleep deprived body was capable.
The event has grown since my last visit and a field of around 100 lined up to be greeted by the event director. I started reasonably well, appeared to be around the 5:00/km pace or just above, every lap being just shy of a km. The course makes for an intriguing race. First you have to count your laps to make sure you don't go short. Essentially 30% of the lap is flat, at the top and bottom of the lap. There is then an equal split between ascend and descend, with the climb ending the lap.
The intrigue was brought by seeing how other people run, this kine of lap exposes everyone's various strengths and weaknesses. I tend to climb relatively strongly and use the downhill to relax and recharge for the next climb. Others struggled with the climb but sprinted downhill, making the most of the favourable angle. If I try too hard downhill I lose my shape and rhythm, better to run normally and naturally gain time for me.
The countdown nature of the event meant that my weary mind had a goal for finishing. My pace felt like it was slowing, not that I could do much about that and I realised my streak of sub 25 parkruns might be finished.
I had noticed that the course might be measuring short or that a lap of wasn't quite a full kilometre so kept this in mind. At the start of the final climb it looked like I was going to be ok, still within the 24th minute so time to spare on the target. As I finished the hill the course turns left as you head across the field to the finish funnel. I thought there was someone chasing me done so I attempted to kick and got myself across the line in 24:34.
I got my barcode scanned, picked up my bag and headed straight home via a mini Waitrose to pick up a post run snack.

The Conclusion

Perhaps a lack of sleep is the answer! I appeared to perform well despite the lack of energy and a genuine need for more sleep. The result was very satisfying, to be returning mid 24's without doing much training of late suggests I have a good base to start from for a summer of running. Once I finally get round to putting my Richmond Half plan together I will ensure it has two focuses, speed work and bringing that parkrun PB down further, then improving my second hour stamina so that I can do myself justice at half marathon level.

The Eat

I returned home to share yum yum cronut treats with Paula, definitely worth checking out if you have a Waitrose nearby. We spent the afternoon building bits of our kitchen alongside my mum and step dad, the sense of achievement when you do something yourself is something that I hadn't always appreciated with DIY!

parkrun DNS - Southsea

What was meant to be my 52nd parkrun didn't happen. In fact the whole of last weekend was close to a write off. I'd booked a half day on the Friday & spent the morning working from home in preparation for a visit to the south coast to visit friends. We were also due to take in some T20 Blast action at the Rose Bowl. I wasn't feeling great in the morning, presuming I'd eaten something dodgy the night before & put it down to our frozen food being a bit funky.

After passing through the in laws house to feed the cats we left Essex at 13:30, plenty of time for what is at most a three hour trek to Hayling Island. At half four we made it off of the M25, which was a complete crawl & with me feeling even worse. Stopping at some A3 services to swap over, I found myself hugging the Royal Doulton in the Little Chef, no so pleasant. Once I'd sorted myself out we were on the road again, only to come to a complete stop just north of Liss as the road closed all of 100 yards in front of us due to an accident.

By this stage it was just past 5pm and we were arranging to meet our friends en route to the Rose Bowl. We didn't make it to Hayling until past 7pm & gave up all hope of seeing the T20, abandoning plans & writing off the cash paid out for the tickets.

We ordered some take away & I opted for some plain chips in the hope I'd hold them down. I managed one chip & two bites of a prawn cracker before I was bounding up the stairs in our friend's house to hug their toilet! I was in bed shortly after with the shakes, not pleasant at all.

Saturday morning arrived & I felt better but very aware that a parkrun would be foolish. Even an easy plod would be hard work & with nothing in my season I felt it would be too much of a risk to even bother with the run. We'll visit again so I'll make it to the Southsea Common event one day.

Out prior arrangement to meet friends at the excellent Tenth Hole Tea Rooms in Southsea still stood so we headed across to look at the extensive range of cakes. Though I felt better, I had some toast before even attempting a cake to ensure I had some confidence in keeping it down! Our friends were equally impressed with the cake selection & we all enjoyed our choices, though a cream and jam topped Pavlova was perhaps a bit over ambitious!

After some crazy golf we made it back to our friends place in Hayling for some BBQ food that I successfully negotiated before we headed back up the motorway for a much nicer trip hope.

On Sunday morning I still didn't feel fully recovered so didn't make it to the start line for the inaugural Hoohah Hatfield Forest 10k. I'll make it there for next year, better to be healthy than collapse even if my DNS count has rocketed recently!

In all the illness took nearly 3lbs off of my weight, for once some pound loss I'm not happy with. By Sunday morning I was buying a loaf of Tiger Bread just to give myself some lining, Tuesday even brought a takeaway pizza in an attempt to put some load back on!

parkrun #52 - Great Notley inaugural

This Saturday sees a debut event in my home town. If you'd asked me in my formative years in Braintree whether I'd have willingly run a 5k I would have laughed. What will make it even more special is that I'll be receiving my 50 shirt & my mother will be in attendance to watch me run for the first time. Having never volunteered in my parkrun journey so far I'll soon be making visits to Braintree solely to cheer, time, point, do whatever required to support what is now my home event.

They even have a hill that looks a bit like the hill of doom from Wimpole.......