Friday 29 May 2015

Keep calm and carry on walking


A good week starting with a visit to the North East with my sons to see our Newcastle United survive in the top flight of English football (soccer if you're reading this the other side of the pond) and visit the beautiful city of Durham and the Angel of the North.

Fast forward to Wednesday and I was joined by regular running buddy Brian and two other work colleagues, Matt and David for a midweek 12 mile walk. Along with our boss and his girlfriend, the six of us will be attempting the 3 peaks challenge in July.

Brian and myself have done some walking mixed in with our running training but it was nice to be joined by two other members of the team.

Down in the south of England we don't exactly have a mountain like Ben Nevis to practice on but we do have the North Downs, which has plenty of challenging hills to train on.


This panoramic taken near Newlands Corner at sunset shows the beautiful views of the Surrey hills beyond.


The quaint church of St Martha's and the views beyond are well worth the effort up the big hill that gets you here. You may have read my recent post of my struggle and relief of finally running up this hill!


David and Brian taking the lead with Catholic Apostolic church in the parish of Albury beyond.


The silent pool, an eerie still natural spring supposed to be haunted by a drowned maiden fleeing deeper into the pool from a horseman believed to be Prince John in the 1200's.


Another view of the  Catholic Apostolic church, Albury.

The picturesque village of Shere, this was our half way turn around point before doubling back. We didn't give in to temptation and stop at the inviting pub for a quick pint!


Selfie time at the Silent pool....is that the ghost of the maiden beyond....my mistake it's only Matt ;-)

Sunday 10 May 2015

Running up stairs

With only a couple of months to go till the 3 peaks challenge, it's time to get more specific with my training.

The last months training has involved a weekly hilly 10 mile training run, but extra leg strengthening training is required so I'm adding stair running.

The 3 peaks is a walking challenge but I'm trying to incorporate the training for this event into my running. At the end of the day I need to strengthen my legs to cope with walking 9800 ft of ascent so my thinking is that if I can run up hills, walking them should be easier.

If there is one thing a runner wants to take from the famous Rocky training scenes then its the running up stairs!

Go Rocky! (GIF from Gifmania)

Remember Rocky IV , When it comes to training I'm more Balboa than Drago! Who needs fancy gyms and technology when you can train with what's around you for free.

So this week one of my lunchtime runs involved running down to Woking town centre and hitting the flights of stairs in the multi storey carpark. The stairs I used were adjacent to the main lifts, so hardly anyone uses them which made the workout easier. In the time I had, I managed 5 ascents and descents, which accumulated to about 400 ft. Not bad for a lunchtime session and the legs knew they had done it.....*Plays the Rocky music*

My new gym...Woking multi storey carpark!