Pyro's Yard v2.0

So, for both the first Janathon and this year's Juneathon, I took it upon myself to plagiarise well known poems or prose as a little light entertainment, to break the loneliness of the long duration runner. It seems only appropriate to begin this Janathon the same, in a light-hearted vein, with a visit from our patron saint* 'Twas the night before New Year (or "A visit from St Jan") With apologies to Clement Clarke Moore 'Twas the night before New Year, and all down the street, Not a creature was stirring, they were resting their feet. Their running shoes sat by the back door, so near, Knowing that Janathon soon would be here. And me, I was nestled, all snug in my bed, While thoughts of the month to come danced in my head: Thoughts of lycra, and fleece, of my windproofs and cap, While pre-emptive leg pains tried to threaten my nap. Then out on the lawn there arose such a racket, I woke from my slumbers, muttering "Oh fackit..." And away to the window...

Evening all. And Merry Whatsitsnamey. Y'know? Thing. That day where a fat bearded bloke (not me) comes and visits and brings pressies (definitely not me). Aye, you got it, that one. Thingy. Not wanting to get into the soppy reflective stuff, but 2011's been an interesting year: Running an Ultra was something I wasn't expecting this time last year, but neither was getting back into proper kayaking form, building a couple of new bikes, taking my Dad down the Tyne in an open canoe or... well.. a lot of stuff. It's been good, really good, So what's 2012 got in store? What big adventures to concentrate on now? Firstly, Janathon. Because it's an awesome start to the year, a great way to kick the winter blues and, while it can be hard work, the collaborative atmosphere is fantastic. I'm happy to say I'll be participating again. Secondly, and lasting a bit longer Twelve : Fifty-Two is a new project to build on the photography stuff I do. A weekly chall...

It's been an awesome weekend. One of those weekends that just feels good, doesn't involve stress and just seems to go, on the whole, pretty damn well. I like weekends like that. I reckon I need more of 'em. Saturday night was Pie Night 2011. Like previous years, there were 3 varieties of pie on the table, with mash and peas - I like the traditional 'Pie & Pea Supper' idea, it's nice and simple - plus a few beers/wines/drinkies, whatever people brought or nabbed from the fridge. This years pie selection was: - Steak Forestiere  (inspired by our meal on the way to the GRP) - Spiced Pork and Apple (suitably autumnal/wintery, I thought) - Seared Tofu with Gingered Veg and Watercress (because I have to think of something to feed the veggies...) 'twas a small gathering, very enjoyable and fun, even if (as usual) the paddlers disappeared off into paddle-talk and everyone else wondered what the heck we were going on about. A small select batch then headed ...

So there's technical and logistical write-ups of the race going to other sites elsewhere, they're the ones that tell blow-by-blow story of the area, the trails, the race organisation etc. But this here is my blog, and this here is the personal side of things, so this here is the personal account of the Grand Raid des Pyrenees. In the beginning... A year ago, I would never have thought about running an Ultramarathon. A year ago, I rarely ran anything over 5km, except in races. Longer runs tended to butcher my feet with blisters which stopped me wanting to run. Road racing holds no appeal, and I'm not a skinny racing whippet so I'm never going to win anything doing it anyway. I run only for myself, for enjoyment and catharsis, to clear my head and shake out my legs. Because of that, the whole build-up to the GRP has been very strange for me - not unpleasantly strange, but strange nonetheless. Running, as I have often said, is a weak discipline for me, so entering t...

It was the fourth of July - Independence Day, if you’re an American - and the garden was very quiet. Florence, Dylan and Brian sat at the foot of a tree, dejected. Dougal had been missing for a whole month, and they were worried that he’d gone for good. “My old shaggy pal” moaned Brian “Run into the ground by the Juneathon” “He’s, like, gone to a better place, maybe” said Dylan. “Like, Bristol” “I think it’s time to talk to Zebedee” said Florence. “Maybe he can magic him back” Right on cue, Zebedee boinged into the garden, right next to where the trio were busy lamenting. “You called?” he said. “Zebedee!” said Florence “You have to help us!” “Do I?” said Zebedee. “With what?” “We’ve, like, lost a Dougal, man” said Dylan “And it’s, like, de-shaggied the garden.” To prove this point, he then fell asleep. “That was careless of you” said Zebedee, somewhat mischievously. “How did you manage that?” “We were doing a Juneathon” squeaked Brian “And we think the silly clot got the rul...

So, wrapping-up Juneathon, as I did with Janathon: Firstly, have some graphs. They look kinda pretty, in a "Ooh, squiggly lines. Wassat mean?" kind of way. The first is a profile of daily run distances in km, contrasting Janathon this year with Juneathon. <<JanvsJun2.PNG>> It shows, rather nicely, that I spent much more time in the "10km-and-up"  zone than I did in January: Length          January June 20km+           1               3 15km+           3               7 10km+           6               14 Those 'long runs' in Jan were the preserve of weekends, pr...

So, Juneathon is done. Honestly, at lunchtime today, I want sure I'd make my target. But, we got there, and in relatively fine style. The run itself was again unexceptional, a slightly weird experience running down Briggate, the main shopping street in Leeds, but after that, I hit the canal for 5 miles of steady trot to the Abbey Inn (and a bit beyond) before looping round Rein Road and up to the Better Half's place, to pause the clock at 18.1km. A quick can of something caffeinated and back out for a quick loop of Abbey Park and the Vespers. Back to the house to stop the final tally at 21.4km - a half marathon to finish on, and a final monthly haul of 323km, 201 miles. That's enough for me. A big thanks to Cathy and co for another month of fun, and well done to everyone who's joined in. And a huge thanks to everyone who's provided amusement, encouragement and mild abuse as well. Pics and map when I've set up my PC in the new house. Cheers all! Pyro

So. 8.74 km yesterday, early in the morning, takes me over 300 km for the month. That's my original target passed with a day to spare. Woo! Cake for the moment, 300 candles (and a fire extinguisher) on order. I have, of course, already declared another target - 200 miles, 322 km, which leaves me in need of a half marathon tonight to finish. However... My legs are, frankly, shot to shit. As well as cracking the mileage over the past 3 days, I've also been moving house, and yomping boxes up-and-down a couple of flights of stairs has done me in. Add to that last nights whopping 4hrs of sleep and you get a rather blitzed Pyro. Not admitting defeat just yet, not for certain. But low and slow will have to prevail for me to make it. Please, if you read this before 6pm, send me good vibes. I may need them.

Another 12km in the bag, the reverse of a 10 route from the other day with a wee diversion tagged on around Clarendon Road. Nota a massively exciting route (non of the recent ones have been, really) but more miles in the bank and a step closer to the end. And nicely accompanied (continuing our world tour of hip-hop music) by the Dust Junkys 'Done and... Dusted' and Everlast's 'Whitey Ford Sings The Blues'. All good. (Map when, as stated on previous post, MemoryMap stops being a sh*t...)

Oh blummin' 'eck! Nearly forgot about the blog bit again. Fer smeg's sake! Anyway, sneaking under the 24hrs, just (since it was 11 when I went out last night. Too flipping hot...) I ran a 10km loop to bring me up to 280km this month, making my 300 a relative stroll in the park. It looked a bit like this: (Map to be added when I work out how to stop updated version of MemoryMap playing silly sods!!) However... I still have a job to do. A 22km job And that doesn't fit in with the '20km over 3 days' numbers. But. It does fit into the 'I like nice round numbers' plan. And the 'I like to finish with a tester' plan. And the 'I like a challenge' plan. 321.86, here we come.

So. Day 26 was a short-ish run, and a very gentle one, and I'm blogging this now so I can catch up and stop slipping behind again. Before I start on 26, let's just nip back into history to fill in some blanks about Runs 24 and 25. They were both long, as you can see. Not intentionally so though, in either case. Despite my insitence that I wouldn't do, I've found myself 'running by the numbers' more in the later stages of Juneathon. Not specifically going "I have to run X-km tonight, so I'll do Y-route" but definitely going "This could do with being a long one because I want to make Z-km this week so I can hit my 300 by the end of the month". My recent runs, and both 24 and 25 in particular, started out with a particular route in mind and just went off-plan at some point, but turned out okay. 24 was going to be a short recovery run, just an out-and back to the Ramada hotel at Golden Acre, about 8km. Then I got to the ring road roundabou...

No song lyric in the title, just the way my legs feel now. Turned out to be another long one - just shy of 20km. Again, got distracted by interesting looking trail and ended up miles from where I was intending to be. Worked my way back slowly as, due to not anticipating a 20km, 3hr run, I hadn't taken any food or water with me. Must rethink that particular strategy, I reckon... Anyway, it looked a bit like the map below, was lovely and sunny for the vast majority of it's length, and took me far too long, but I don't really care. I do care about my sore legs though, so I'm going to have a cup of tea and put my feet up. Which is nice...

Still behind, but catching up! I WILL get tonight's run blogged tonight.. but first yesterday's! I ran ten miles. Don't ask me why. I think I took a wrong turn somewhere. But ten miles it was and ten miles I'm quite proud of, in that it was only just over two hours. So faster than I would normally do. 's not bad, really. Looked a bit like this:

Aargh! I'm getting behind with these, aren't I? Must try harder... (story of my life...) Last night was a short, slow, 6km loop of the block to the Better Halfs and back via Headingley, becuase after a faster 11 on predominantly tarmac on Wednesday I've got sore feet. Recovery runs yesterday and probably tonight and we'll try and shift some longer ones over the weekend to push the distance back up. The juggernaut is still rolling on!

(after the rather wonderful Deltron 3030 track...) Not many words about yesterday's run. Just a map. I was faster and more flowy than usual, may have been down to the combination of Deltron and Rise Against whopping through my headphones. Never a bad thing. 11.3km, 1:20, which is fast enough at this point in the month. Now into the final full week, 220km down, 80km to go. Smoke me a kipper...

I couldn't work out what this said. So - replacing the placeholder post with something proper about Run 21 and the end of week 3! Took me a while, I know, but hey. Juneathon 21 was a really lovely run, for a few obvious reasons: 1) It was out in the woods and scenery, not just hacking round the local streets. 2) It was a really lovely evening. 3) There was a trig pillar involved.  The Shepherd  All of these things make me inordinately happy.     I'd decided I was sick of being stuck in an office and trailing the local streets and woods day-in-day-out, and I'd planned a run up on the Chevin for a little while. There's a trig up there (in the side marked as Caley Deer Park on the OS rather than the Chevin itself) which I'd not bagged, it's only a short drive from home to get there and it would make for a good uppy-downy woodsy run. Plus, as can be seen above and to the right, there's a bunch of sculptures in there which are quite interesting and ...

As the days continued, everyone in the garden kept up their running. Ermintrude and Brian pottered in circles, distressing the garden flowers and drinking more cups of tea than is probably healthy for a snail. Mr McHenry tricycled every day, finding new tracks he'd never tricycled before and looking for new places to dig flower beds. Even Mr Rusty managed a few short laps of the roundabout, mainly chasing runaway horses or pinging sprockets, or occasionally the odd flyaway child. Dylan kept count, chalking up everyone's scores on a blackboard in between naps: Florence was the clear leader, but then, Dougal still hadn't been seen in days. Dougal, it seemed, hadn't really understood Florence's idea. Dougal was now a very, very long way from the garden. And he was lost. Very lost. Somewhere near Crewe he stopped for the night, bedding down in an old barn. As he curled up in the hay, a small Welsh voice sounded out from the shadows. " 'scuse me, boyo. Would...

(In this particular case, the very beautiful Apocalyptica version of the Metallica track. If you haven't heard it before, have a look here ) A short bimble tonight - well, 6km, short enough for me, and the first time my run has been under an hour in a while - because, frankly, I need an early night! Whether it's achy legs, various stresses (both the Better Half and I are in the process of moving houses*), work, the hundred-and-summat kilometres I've run this month or whatever, I'm not sleeping properly. Because I'm not sleeping properly, I'm spending the day propped up on large quantities of caffeine so I don't make silly mistakes at work. Because I'm propped up on large quantities of caffeine during the day, I can't get to sleep at night. Because I can't... you get the picture! Like Pacman, it's a vicious circle. So tonight I went for a short run and am going to go to bed early to try and break it. In other news, I'm happy to report...

So called because it was slow. 10km, but slow.o Enjoyably slow, though. Can't complain. Nae bugger listens...

Blimey. This feels odd. It's just gone 2pm and not only have I done my running for the day, I have a chance to sit down and blog while it's actually daylight. This is very strange indeed. Today was a 'long run day', but I decided it would be more fun, and less stress, to split it down into three shorter ones. It seemed like a good idea, and meant I could do all those important sport-y things like warming up, cooling down etc. Stage 1: For once, I actually got up when my alarm went off (instead of hitting the snooze button repeatedly) so I was up and about and more-or-less functional (okay, I'd had a coffee at least) by 7:30. I set off slowly, jog-walking around the back of Beckett's Park and through the trails, tracks and backstreets down to Hyde Park, taking about an hour for what tracked out to be 5.6km - 10 min km's is respectable enough when you're bimbling warming up. Stage 2:  Hyde Park parkrun , though I didn't have a barcode with me...

Nice bimble up and onto some new trails today, ones that branched of familiar ones, or ran close to them, but I'd not looked at. Not much to report since it was just a long, slow 10km, but that does get me up to 100 miles this month, so that's a pretty cracking achievement again. Aside from that it was just a nice steady trot up towards Cookridge and Holt Park, but then past the normal turn-off and looking for the track down to Lane End and Rushes Farms. I deliberately kept it shorter and turned right towards Paul's Pond, despite there also being another trail into the back of Bramhope to take otherwise, so I can save some other interesting pink dotty lines for another day (and it's part of a loop pointed out by Gary V who  fortunately for the rest of us sadly isn't doing Juneathon this time). Plus, the right turn made the loop nice and heart shaped (ish. Near enough. Real hearts don't look anything like that that shape, anyway...) After a couple of hard ...

A quick blog for what turned out to be a reasonably quick run for the second night on the trot - no, I haven't deliberately kicked it up a gear, it's just the way things have worked out. I'll add the map in later, but the gps track failed due to pilot error. Using a new piece of software (ViewRanger) for nav and tracking, but it handles the route recording differently to any other system I've used and I haven't quite got used to that yet. Fortunately it was an easy all-road loop to trace into Memory Map, and I managed to keep an accurate time for once so we have our stats. The loop was from home, down to and along Kirkstall Road, then climbing up Woodsley Road top the edge of the university before turning left and heading back along the Otley Road to home, all of which was much enlivened by Modest Mouse's 'Good news for people who love bad news' plus a few other random tracks, and also by the Corsa full of girls who cheered as they passed me trying t...

It was all very hectic in the garden. Summer was in full swing, the flowers were in bloom, and the Roundabout gleamed in the sun. Everyone was happy, except one: Dougal. Dougal sat in his house with a cup of tea and a sugarlump and watched the summer through the window. "Everything alright, old chum?" enquired Brian, appearing at the door. "Don't you ever knock?!" snapped Dougal. "I can't hear myself think for you sneaking up silently." "Sorry, dear captain" replied the snail "but I am a single-footed master of stealthy approach" "You are a noisy mollusc. Now what did you want?" Brian considered this a moment, eyeing the teapot. "Well, offering me a cup of tea would be pleasant, dear hound, but mainly I came to ask if you wanted to join in our game. Florence is organising it" "Hmph. Well, I suppose I've nothing better to do. Come on then, snail." Near the roundabout, Florence, Dylan, Mr...

Long thin map today. "You can't stop me, I'm close enough to kiss the sky..." Those were some of the first words that fired out of my headphones as I set off tonight, and I guess in a way it's true. You can't stop me. I can stop me, if I want to, but just for now I guess I don't want to. So I'll keep going. "If pain and mania show what we are, I'll draw your skin and push us too far..." I'd been down to the Better Half's house for dinner straight after work, and letting it settle and relaxing had taken a bit of time, so it was nearly half 10 when I finally wandered out the door. That said, cool evenings suit me a bit better than hot muggy days, so tonight was perfect. I hit play on the mp3 and was greeted immediately with the opening riff of the Guano Apes 'Walking on a Thin Line' album. From that point, tonight was going to be about trying to move quickly. The music dictated that. "The beast is a rhythm...

So, end of Juneathon Week Two. How's it been so far? Hmmm. Distance wise, I'm on course for my arbitrary targets and exceeding my own expectations and perceived limitations. I've run two back-to-back 40 mile weeks, with multiple runs over 10km and three over 10 miles. Not something I would normally consider myself capable of. Physically I'm standing up pretty well, aches and pains are present but nothing that I would get alarmed about. I'm running off-road wherever possible, stretching before, during and after runs, warming up well on longer runs (they tend to start off at walking pace anyway!) and warming down pretty well. I've got the odd wee blister, but what do you expect?! Unfortunately, I've hit the doldrums motivationally. My last four or five runs have been alright time and distance wise, but in terms of 'head space', rubbish. Tonight started badly and, fortunately, improved gradually (thanks in part to some textual  abuse  motivatio...

Short lap last night, in the dark, sure to spending too much time viewing house and yakking with potential future housemates, 4.1km sprint lap around the ring road and West Park in just over 22mins, so about as fast as I get! Back to longer plods tonight. Woo!

A short jaunt in the rain today - round the back way into Beckett's Park, a couple of half-arsed, unenthusiastic laps, and then back home. Legs feel surprisingly trouble-free after yesterdays long run, but I'm still grumpy and un-motivated. Oh well... That is all.

Okay, I got my long run. It wasn't the long run I'd been planning, but it was a long run all the same. And, for most of it's length, it felt rubbish. I woke up cranky today, as opposed to the past week where I've just gone to bed cranky. I slept way later than I was planning and as usual that completely hoofed my Plan A for the day. Reverting to Plan B would have meant sitting on the sofa with the other half of last night's dinner and vegging out until 6pm when I'd acknowledge that I still needed to do my run for the day and stumbling out for an hour or so, arriving back still cranky and no better off and feeling guilty about it. It's an awkward situation where mind, mood and motivation seem to all be in the doldrums, maybe because of the distance I've already run this month or just because it's the weekend and I'm feeling a bit flat. The solution was to stick some music on and just walk out of the front door, start the tracker, and see wh...