Saturday, February 19, 2011

Solihull Lecture & SHAFF Arcteryx Adventure Shot

Couple of events coming up. I'll be lecturing on the 3rd March at the Old Edwardians Sport Club in Solihull, you can find more info here http://www.solihullmc.org.uk/I'm also judging at the Arcteryx Photo Comp on Saturday 5th March, part of the Sheffield Adventure Film Festival. This is a superb rowdy event here is a link for more info and further details about the competing photographers http://www.shaff.co.uk/content/16/arc-teryx-photo-comp

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Lucky

Even though I live in a big city - Sheffield, within 300 yards of my house lies Ecclesall Woods. The more I run in it, the luckier I realise I am to have such a superb resource so close. The stats say its 350 acres of woodland with 15km of public footpaths but I bet this is only the main ones, as there are hundreds of small tracks branching off in every direction. As I discover more of these pathways I'm gradually building up a collection of circuits ranging from 20 minutes to an hour, all through rolling woodland with only a single road that needs to be crossed once out and once back. Terrain ranges from wide even bridleways through to rough sinuous tracks slaloming through the trees.

I've a couple of mates I run with, one who, again luckily, is up for dragging me out at 6.30 most mornings, but I also often head out alone. My last solo jog was accompanied by the echoing rat-tat-tat of woodpeckers throughout the forest. I'm hoping to take my camera out on a few runs over the next week to see if I can post up something that captures the experience of running through this beautiful spot.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Park Run Fun

Did my first Park Run this morning - and didn't get injured - yipee!
Park Runs are informal timed 5k running events held at over 50 locations in the UK. It's free to enter and whilst everyone runs together the vibe is more one of racing against yourself than others. Your times are recorded and logged so that the website can track whether you get a pb, etc. I was slow - 21.06 (when I was "fit" at the beginning of 2010 I did the second half of a 10k in about 19.30) but it was great to open up a bit after just over a month of gentle plodding. I'm planning to do one of these Park Runs each month as a way of tracking progress with the hope to get down towards 19 minutes by mid summer. The priority however is slowly-slowly building up to make sure I avoid yet more injuries.
If you do any running at all, from racing to moderate jogging I would highly recommend checking out your local Park Run. At the Sheffield event there were some who finished in the low 17s (low 16s in previous events) but also others closer to an hour, so its the sort of low pressure event open to everyone. More details here http://parkrun.com