Running

Two graphs depicting the distance run in the past year, split by week and by month. Notice a blip in June (post-Marathon), and in December (finishing thesis), and an almost complete absence since then (post-submission). In fact, if I were to go the same distance in May as December, the last 6 months would still lose to November.

Since mid-December I have not really been running. The hectic last few weeks of my PhD left no time for it, and the last couple of post-PhD months I have not felt like doing much at all. I've started back a few times, but not kept it up. So today I raced a half-marathon on ridiculously low training (my one February run was 10 miles on Wednesday). Nine loops around the meadows. Not at all easy, and I'll pay for it for the next few days, but I got around some time under 1:40. Slower than my first half, but then I did train for that.

Got another in 2 weeks, hopefully I will be starting to get some fitness back by then.

I'm spending an awful lot of time in the office writing away. Weekends, late nights and so on. Conveniently this afternoon the Braid Hills Cross Country race was on. Two laps of the bridle path around and over Braid Hill, for a total of about 9.2km, a little under 6 miles.

It wasn't too wet and muddy today, but my fell-shoes still seem to have been a good choice, good traction on soft ground. An odd experience of a race, initial placing is important as there is not much opportunity to overtake. Each loop consisted of a mile up a (car-width) track, followed by a steep descent then a single-file dirt path. The first lap I snuck by a few people in a few wider spots, but mostly there wasn't much more to do than follow the guy in front. By the start of the second lap, the track provided enough room to drift past people, and I made up a good number of places. I managed to reach the front of a group just before the descent, and with a big gap in front it was a case of "brakes off, brain off" for a much faster drop than before, great fun. For the remainder of the race then I was just trying not to slow down, maybe pick off the odd person. I went past somebody who seemed to have faded badly, at the finishing straight I got a shock when they shot past me...

I came in at around 39:20.

Good fun, and very convenient for KB. Now back to work.

Results are out. 1:25:01 and 32/855. Next time!

On train back from Aviemore. Tough race. I think with a strong finishing dash I may have just scraped under 1:25, but it's a very close thing.

My abiding memory from last year was the downhill road, I wonder how I managed to edit out just how hilly the forest tracks were, just how hard it is running on gravel and stone-strewn ground. I did recognise some of the better and worse bits as being the same as last time, and I passed people on the same couple of tricky bits as before.

Okay, there were some fun tussles with a couple of people, a bit of back and forth, and it's nice when these are acknowledged post-race. But I think I will have to forget a little before I'm ready to return.

Not cold-bound for some time now, just busy writing my thesis. I update only to note my continued existence, and comment briefly on the weather. A few lovely clear but cold days recently seem to mark the change of the seasons.

I have only one thing planned for the rest of the year: running the Aviemore half marathon (again). I'm looking forward to it, but I wonder if nice weather now means it will more likely get wet in two weeks? Not that it matters, I'm sure I'll enjoy it anyway. Looking to get under 1:25 this time.

Another week, another race. I don't have another planned for over a month, so I'll have to find something else to write about in the meantime...

The weather has been changeable recently. Some rain some days, some sun often enough. Wednesday was rather stunningly blue-skied, so I couldn't resist heading off for a cycle down to Cramond, with a run afterwards. This morning I felt like I hadn't quite got that out of my legs, nor was I fresh after running Friday and Saturday, so I didn't expect much at the Forth Bridge 10k.

A decent warm up loosened me up a bit, but my legs still seemed lethargic. The start was somewhat congested, with an immediate downhill with corners, under the rail bridge then turning uphill. This seems to me to make for a faster start, and I thought at this point I was probably going far too fast, but I stuck with it, drifting past the odd person but broadly holding position.

At the bottom of another hill we came to the start of the Forth Road Bridge, and so a gentle uphill. At this point I felt fairly good, and started passing people. Past the middle and down to the Edinburgh side of the bridge, then up and down and around to an underpass to cross the road, up and around back up the bridge. Still passing people with a bit of effort now; I've come to the conclusion that to maintain pace I need to regularly pass people from about a third of the way in right up to the end, as they fade after starting too fast. It certainly feels good to be able to do that.

Finished in 38:55. The race was won in a ridiculous 30:53—winning by almost three minutes, the solitary figure I could see running back across the bridge during the race seems to have been in a race of his own.

Woo! 39:44!

Another race largely along Silverknowes esplanade and around the roundabout at Cramond. For variety, we went around counter-clockwise this time. First km was downhill and surprisingly fast at 3:40, after which I kept a fairly steady 4:00 pace. A strange sight a quarter into the race as the concurrent 5k racers peel off and turn around a set of cones to head back, and then we head down to the roundabout. Some welcome water, and then back home.

On the return stretch it became apparent that it was generally down going out, and up coming back... I delighted in passing a few people on the hill heading up towards the finish area. That weekday run through the hermitage of braid seems to pay off. A few turns around the Scottish Gas building and suddenly the finish line is right there. Woo!

A light misting of rain after. I got a good 20 minutes jog along the bus route before catching the bus home.

Now excuse me, lunch is calling...

Just out of the shower after my morning run. The weather is so different from yesterday, colder, grey and starting to rain where yesterday was overwhelmingly sunny, not a cloud in the sky uplifting morning. Whatever, I feel good today too, positive effect of switching to running in the morning. The downside is that it feels a bit harder, particularly the morning after a gym night (mind you the gym is harder after a morning run than an immediately preceding one too). Could be something to do with stepping up to 3 gym visits a week, with a 5000m row; I never was any good at rowing, but I seem to be getting the hang of it, mostly.

The reason for the morning running (other than a couple of nice sunny mornings) is that I'm stepping up work on my thesis. Saves time and gets the day off to a well. Still lots to do, going well at the moment but currently looking like I will finish in December. So if you don't hear from me, that's why...

Back to the running, we're now 3 weeks into the 2nd half of the year, and my logs tell me in the first half I ran 944km (586 miles) in an inconsistent fashion (some longer weeks and off weeks). Minimal goal for the rest of the year is 1000km, or better to hit 2000 for the year, with a gradual build-up and more consistency. Anything else is a bonus.

Visited my mum's this weekend. Ran the Famous Grouse Crieff 10k today.

The race starts on the playing fields by Morrison's Academy (the local private school). Recently there has been a bit of rain around, but yesterday evening was a pleasant and clear one, and this carried over into this morning. So after milling around in the sun, we set off up the field in the sun. The first km or so is on road (gently up), before a turn off into the woods. Then we're off up some nice quiet tracks, past the odd bemused walker. Up 100m in the second km or so. The next 3km to half-way is a bit of a mix, some flat or slightly up mixed in with some big downhill sections. Not too steep, but you do have to fly down to make up time from the earlier uphill (watch those roots and the muddy patches by the corners). Hits the quads a bit I suppose.

Anyway, half way we pop out of the woods and get handed a cup of water. Still don't know what the guy said to me when he handed me the water. From here it is mostly flat, initially along a nice one-person-wide path with fields either side. The sun is beating down, suddenly seems very warm for a bit after 11am. Not a whisper of wind. Along the path, I'm trying not to drop any further back from the yellow shirt in front trailing the group ahead, while the guy (wearing the same top as me) who I tried to pull away from on the downhills was now no longer in view. Time passes, it's getting tough. The 10k is a race run a couple of percent above the "lactate threshold", where lactic acid accumulates in the muscles, and I don't think an early hill helps that much...

We are now going down a wide wooded riverside walkway. I experience the strange sensation I often have, when my legs are tiring and I feel I am fading, that I seem to be just jogging along so much slower than I was before—but still making hard work of it—and yet my pace can't have dropped much at all, I don't seem to be dropping back. Looking down, the legs still seem to move at the right speed...

A piper gives a bit of a boost, then shortly it's back onto the road, thinking about the approaching grassy finish. The guy I had dropped earlier is back, and makes to overtake me on the tarmac, but I move past again before we turn into the field. With the change of surface, I simply don't have the energy to keep up, and the he passes followed by another while I concentrate on a steady finish. 42:26.

Afterwards, doused in water, relaxing with tea and sandwiches on the grass, it all seemed rather civilised.

Went along today to the race being held on the Meadows. Part of the Self Transcendence Summer Race series, this one was a 5k. My second, 3 weeks after the Silverknowes one.

Changeable weather recently, earlier today I nipped to the shops on my bike wearing a t-shirt, then it was pouring down with rain, then sunny again. When I left to jog to the meadows for the race, it was starting to rain, but when I got there it was warm and sunny... Rather hot for 7pm. The race was good, after a 6 minute first mile/lap I was expecting to slow down lots towards the end. Second lap was a bit slower, although I don't think I was passed, while the third I managed to start passing people and ran about the same time as the first. Came in at 18:55, over a minute better than the last one. Complete lack of wind helped, of course.

Having surpassed the obvious sub-20 5k goal, what next? I've entered a few 10k races in the next 6 weeks, and the obvious goal there is sub-40... I'm not sure if that's possible on the second or third of those without a faster 5k time, but it's something to work towards.

Last night was the Black Rock 5. The race starts under the railway viaduct by Kinghorn station, heading up the road beside the station, the other end of which is a bridge over the railway. A strange start, for this year there is scaffolding up by the station, to reduce this road to half-width, for a slow uphill funnelled start... As we turned left away from the railway gently down the road to the harbour, I seemed to be passing people... I can never seem to resist in the early portions of a race. Down another wee hill and we turn around the corner to see the beach and black rock sands stretching into the distance.

The name of the race comes from this— a large part of it is run on the sands out to the "black rocks", the turn-around point. The race is scheduled according to the tide, but of course it's still rather wet, everybody splashing through wet patches and sand and salt water getting everywhere... At first the hard wet sand seems easy enough to run on, but I suppose it does take a little more out of you than asphalt. As we neared half way I was having trouble getting enough breath and my stomach or side seemed to be protesting, so I was happy to try to hang on beside the guy beside me and not let many pass. Somehow the anticipated slowdown never really seemed to occur, and I came off the sand beside the guy I was with at half-way.

Of course having started off by running down to the harbour, we had to run back uphill to finish... Somehow the uphills never seem so bad as one imagines coming down them, so I was okay as we headed back into town. I then started passing folk again on the flat and heading back down to the viaduct, where one sees the hill up to the finish... My legs were fresh enough for a bit of a sprint up this, passing some more people on the way, just in time to cross the line feeling like collapsing. The race is sponsored by the pub at the finish line, so we were supplied with water, banana and a bottle of ale. Great!

A pint and some food later, and it was off on the train back to Edinburgh. I think I'll do this one again next year, 'twas fun. Results are now up for the first 10, the rest go up later. The race was won in a ridiculous 23:12... I came in a little under 32...

I ran my first 5k race last night, the Sri Chinmoy Silverknowes 5k. The course runs from the tea room on Silverknowes esplanade down to the roundabout (which was the turnabout for the Forthside half), back past the start to turnaround some cones and finish by the start. There was a good bit of wind which started behind us, but of course was a headwind in the middle section.

The pain! I found the race hard, my heart was hammering and breathing hard from about 2k. I've not raced the distance before, and not done any speed work ever, so I'd imagine there is plenty of scope to get a good bit faster. Even so, I think my time mostly reflects my recent Marathon, while my legs feel fresh they seem to lack a bit of oomph, and my breathing is a bit quicker than usual to become laboured at easier paces. I'm happy with my time, but you can imagine that I was a little irked at the time to come in...wait for it... 1 second over 20 minutes, the first person to fail to be sub-20 and 2 seconds behind the girl I had been running beside for well over half the race.

Oh well, an obvious goal for next time!

Did it!

This morning I wandered down to Princes St with dearg, who kindly accompanied me to the start. It was raining. Baggage given away for transport and a last pee stop, I lined up in the 3:30-4:00 pen. After a short wait, we were brought forward to the start line, and the race soon started.

I intended to run 8-minute miles (3:30 marathon), and started off by the pair of 3:30 pacers (imported). I found myself drifting forward, at an easy pace, and by the half way mark was 3 minutes up. Hard to judge the pace there really, since either I was changing pace by about 1 minute/mile each mile, or the markers were off. Good signage, mind (and water/energy drink stations for that matter), just probably off.

At perhaps 15 miles I found myself running with a guy, with the odd bit of chat, and we seemed to be passing quite a lot of people quite effortlessly. Anyway, some time later after he took a pee-stop, a mile or two later he reappeared, and shortly disappeared in front, clearly my pace was slowing. Things were fine until about 22 miles, when my legs disappeared. Those last 4.2 miles were ridiculously hard, at a slow jogging pace with runners streaming past. I suppose at this point my remaining goal was to not drop to a walk at any point (a fair few in front had), which I am glad to say I achieved, slow as my pace was.

Finally at 26 miles we turned into Musselburgh Racecourse, and the .2 struck. The crowds, generally good throughout the course despite the rain coming in off the Forth (at one point almost horizontally), were bigger and louder here, and I really needed that support to push through to the end. My finishing sprint was still rather slower than my average pace, but finally I crossed the line in about 3:26. All that remained was to try to stay upright, and get home.

Last weekend was my final 20-mile run before the marathon. Now a little over two weeks to go, and I'm tapering (cutting back on running for the three weeks before).

Currently I'm considering doing a good bit of hill-walking this summer. I've some "big days" in mind, which I would have to actually prepare for, building up my hill fitness. Depends how I feel in the post-marathon month really. Maybe if I do I'll have something to write about...

May try to get in some cycling too. I wonder if I could work up to a 100km ride, seems feasible.

I went for my first ever 20-mile (32 km) run on Sunday. Seemed like rather hard work at the time (I felt tired to start with), but I finished feeling strong. Two repeats of an out-and-back course along the Water of Leith to Balerno, with about equal splits for each 5-mile leg, totalling about 2:52. I think that's about 3:45 marathon pace, so my 3:30 goal still seems soft... However, I still plan to aim for that as a first attempt on the distance, since I've not been able to get as much training in as planned.

The Water of Leith Visitor Centre was a nice place to finish. I arrived just as they were closing and had a cup of tea and bit of shortbread sitting out at a table in the sun. How civilised. I'm not really feeling any after-effects from the long run, other than the usual early-week lack of cycling legs.

Oh. Yes. Also. The weekend before last, I had a bit of an accident. Bought a Canon EOS 400D Digital SLR. Oops. Turns out I had more funds available than I had accounted for, so I gave in to a rather persistant temptation. Now I just need to start saving for the lenses I have my eye on...

I have taken only a few pictures so far to familiarise myself with the camera. I've been quite busy recently. Hopefully go out and take some more interesting shots soon. Oh yes, dearg bought a Nikon D80 at the same time. So we will probably be heading out for this purpose soon...

It seems I overdid it a little, when I wrote my last post, as I developed a bit of a swollen right ankle. Mostly from too much running on cambered surfaces that week, I think, although there are other factors. A week's enforced rest together with an easy start to this week seemed to sort it. So after a lovely day wandering about Corstorphine Hill in the sunshine yesterday, I decided to shoot for 1:30 in today's Edinburgh Forthside Half Marathon.

I had to get up early this morning, for a quick breakfast and then a walk to Princes St.—the bus which usually runs from outside my flat to Ocean Terminal, the start of the race, doesn't start until about 9 on a Sunday morning. Well, the walk woke me up, and I arrived at the start a half hour before the race. Which turned out to be exactly enough time to get to the head of the queue for the toilets, and onto the course for the start.

Starting out slowly, I kept pace with the runners around me, completely missing the first three mile markers and thus being generally clueless as to my speed. At mile four, I had been feeling a little worried about my ankle, and found out that I was a little behind schedule. It is about this point I find the race starts getting hard. Then came mile 5... where I found out that either my mental arithmetic was wrong, or the previous marker was, as I was actually running ahead of schedule.

From this point on, I spotted and got an emotional boost at each mile marker, I was doing great... After 7 miles the course takes a U-turn at Cramond, so you get to see the runners ahead of you heading back to the finish. As we headed towards this point, a very slow trickle of fit looking runners went by; after turning back and running for a mile alongside the oncoming (slightly) slower runners, those on the other side were more like four abreast to our single file, providing a good illustration of the bell curve.

From about 10 miles it's a bit of a struggle, and while I keep up with those I am following, my quads feel knacked, and it's clear I have no hope of regaining a couple of runners I was close behind earlier. I held on, and soon enough came back around Ocean Terminal. A last dash up the finishing straight, and I came past the line in about 1:25:30. Rather faster than I intended.

Update: results are up, 1h25m30s, position 102/2756. Bed now.

Recently I have been taking trips to various local places for my longer runs, by bus and train. Enabled by a new backpack I have which is suitable for running, I suppose. Probably this has not improved the training effect of my runs—quite the opposite, as I stop for photos and so on. But it certainly makes life more interesting.

In particular, recently I've been taking various runs around the local coastline. Around water tends to be quite a rewarding place to run, I find, whether around the coast, along a riverside or even a canal. Actually, that is probably my order of preference. Firstly, there's a very natural feeling to these trips; running can feel a little pointless, just picking routes to get the miles in, but a river or coastline gives a little structure to an outing and a feeling that you're going somewhere. A straight-line rather than circular route helps here too.

Secondly, the physical geography is interesting and varied. Sandy beaches, cliffs, mudflats, wide gentle rivers, little meandering burns... Next, and rather a mixed blessing, there's the human factor. Civilisation developed along rivers and coastlines, and running along one you pass through the resulting settlements, the city, towns, villages and grand estates. Of course then there was the industrial revolution, and one tends to see remnants of earlier such developments along riversides, and more recent heavier industry along the coast. Docks, oil depots and power stations aren't very pretty, but when running you don't stay in an industrial area for very long, and the beauty of the natural coastline is enhanced by contrast. And last point, passing through towns on the coast and riverside, you get to use the little scenic paths developed for local use! Often some nice little scenic walks have been developed.

These days these short local trails have often been strung together to give a long distance route, together with a bunch of less interesting (e.g. roadside) bits and perhaps even some custom-developed paths. I wrote about the recent trip along the Fife Coastal Path, lately I have been running along the other side of the Forth, part of which forms the John Muir Way, although this is still in an earlyish stage of development.

Last Sunday I ran from the local end of the Forth Rail Bridge, by Dalmeny, around the coast to Cramond, which includes an amusing diversion of about two miles to go to the nearest bridge around the outlet of the River Almond (the Cramond Brig). The section before getting to the Almond is very pleasant, as is the path from Cramond Brig up the Eastern side. It is then a nice run along to Granton, at which point you are into the city. That day I ran along to Leith, and then followed the Water of Leith back to Haymarket to pick up my bike to ride home. No camera last weekend, so the pictures are all from the section described below.

This weekend I continued from Leith again, and ran to North Berwick. Okay, not all at once, it's about 40km, but over two days. About 14km on Saturday, I ran from Leith through Portobello to Musselburgh (nice from Portobello but too much time on a seaward-sloping promenade) before picking up the John Muir Way to Prestonpans, where I got a train home. On Sunday, I picked up where I left off at Prestonpans, running around the power station at Cockenzie, past Seton Sands and then by some nice sandy footpaths to Aberlady. I noticed as I set off from Prestonpans that the Pentlands had seen some snow on Saturday night in the advertised wintry event ("here for one weekend only!"). Some appears to have been dropped in town last night, as I can see a dusting on the Post Office roof opposite. Despite this, it was a great day to go along the coast, with some sun and a strong North wind off the water. There was quite high spray at points, with timing essential around the power station to avoid a soaking, but I managed to get thoroughly wet feet after about a mile from a later very-coastal path around to a harbour. Oops.

From Aberlady there are then some lovely paths through the Aberlady nature reserve, a site of sand and mud flats providing a habitat for some rare plants and birds. From here there is a good long stretch of coastline stretching to the town of North Berwick, destination for the day, my map reckons after 26km of running. With so much off road on beaches and sandy paths, I'm not surprised it felt like a bit more, the aim was 28km and it did feel like that.

This started out as a long entry, but it splits nicely into two parts, this being the second...

On the fitness front, things are going well, and I'm looking forward to ramping the miles up to prepare for the marathon. Last week was a lower-mileage week, so after the week's longest run (only 10 miles) I ended up going cycling along the canal this Monday for about three hours... Rather enjoyable, I still want to take a longer trip that way to Falkirk or perhaps Glasgow. Anyway, this week will be my first week doing over 60km, and I'm looking forward to getting some longer runs in. Of course time management does start to become a bit of an issue, I attended a lecture last night which meant I ended up running after dark. Forgot my head torch, quite fun and atmospheric without!

The lecture, incidentally, was rather interesting, by Donald MacKenzie. He discussed the effects of mathematical models of stock options on the markets themselves—what happens when a model becomes widely used by those taking part in the activity itself. From the talk description:

This talk will ask this question mainly in regard to the most famous model in modern financial economics, the Nobel-Prize winning Black-Scholes-Merton model of option pricing, which is the core mathematical foundation of the global market in "financial derivatives" . (At the end of June 2006, derivatives contracts outstanding worldwide totaled $454 trillion, the equivalent of nearly $70,000 for every human being on Earth.)

The talk will describe how the practical uses of the model initially had the effect of making markets more like the postulates of the model, but will discuss how this effect reversed in direction in the 1987 stock market crash, with near-disastrous consequences for the global financial system.

What I got from the talk was that if a relatively simple but accurate model is useful enough (as a decision-making tool) it may be taken up by those participating in the activity being modelled. The model will not perfectly represent the actual situation, and while there may even be more sophisticated models which are better at this, they may not be useful to practitioners. Some activity guided with the model actually has the effect of making the model more accurate (in this case "spreading"), but some activity may not—when the model is too slavishly adhered to the inaccuracy may rear its head spectacularly.

I say this all in rather abstract terms, as I'm not comfortable with the details, but the talk was given quite concretely, and entertaining in the discussion of the sociology of Chicago trading pits.

Have a look at this paper if you're interested, it seems to cover much of the content of the talk.

Not been up to much interesting recently. This weekend, however, has been dominated by running.

Yesterday I entered the KB5, a local 5-mile road race. The shortest distance I've raced so far, with a bit of a faster field. The race starts from the University King's Buildings campus, and heads immediately downhill. I got caught up in a fast start, and supposedly did the first mile in 5'45, before soon starting to feel the pace. I was probably okay for the first 5k or so, but the last couple of miles rather took it out of me, and after holding out most of the way I let quite a few people past towards the end. Finished exhausted in 31'22, placed 69/218.

Today I recovered with a long slow run, along the Fife Coastal Path, from North Queensferry to Kinghorn, about 15 miles (24km). Rather pleasant, while I got soaked cycling both to and from the train station, once I reached Fife and got off to run it was dry, and it never really went past a very light occasional drizzle. It's quite warm for this time of year, so a little mist is just cooling... The Path was quite enjoyable, rather varied from sections past the industrial parts of the coast to paths by the sea, beside beaches and through the small towns along the coast. Certainly some sections I'd like to walk along at some point, only real problem is the sections which have to cut away from the coastline. I'd imagine the continuation of the path (it goes around the coast to the Tay) might have a slightly more coastal character as the industry is left behind.

Oh, and I dipped my feet in the sea while I waited on the beach for my train home. Got a strange look...

This was my first "official" week training for my first marathon, Edinburgh at the end of May. I hope not to go on too much of this, it's easy to become a bore when you spend so much time+effort on something, but I'll keep you updated. I've also been all motivated, and doing lots of other stuff too, so I've had a few runs at night with a head torch. An interesting experience... The start of this week was suddenly wintry, clear and crisp cold air, so I had a couple of excellent experiences there.

Yesterday I went off to climb a hill, for the first time this year (and in about three months too). When I changed trains at Perth, I met a couple of guys who were doing the same thing I was—cycling from Blair Atholl to walk up Beinn Dearg. We got talking, and subsequently spent the day together. Strangely, they were PhD students from Glasgow, one even knowing a couple of people from my department.

The weather turned out better than expected, and it was sunny for the cycle in. After fairly hard going up the start of the track, we soon reached snow, which proves difficult but fun to (attempt to) cycle in. After ditching bikes, a short walk leads to the bothy, and up the hill. Beinn Dearg is a flat rounded hill like most of those nearby, so as we neared the top the wind was consistently bracing.

The cycle back down was fast and fun, as you might expect. I do need to adjust my brakes...

I'm afraid I must be terribly British and talk about the weather again. Not to moan about bad weather, more to frame a couple of excellent days last weekend. Perhaps typically for this time of year, the weather is dominated by low-pressure systems coming in off the atlantic in a conveyer-belt effect. About 3 or 4 days out of 5 there will be some rain, and some days are quite wild, with strong wind (including gales) and big dark skies. This really serves to emphasise the other days; when it is clear, it is very very clear, in that way reserved for crisp wintry days, and it is inspiring by contrast. On some days it requires willpower to go out; others it would to stay in.

Last Friday I went out for a run before visiting the gym. The intention was to run for about 10km, which takes less than an hour, but the night was so clear that rather than returning home just after sunset, I kept going "just a little bit further", until I had run around town for about 2 hours (a nice tour of some of our hills) and still found it hard to make myself stop.

On Saturday it seemed nice again, although there was now a little wind, and I went off for a bike ride. I've not been out much recently—since I cycled back from Auchterarder, the longest ride was to and from the Pentlands for a run. Anyway, on Saturday I cycled out through Musselburgh to Prestonpans, and back via Portobello and Leith, maybe 30 miles. An excellent day out along the coast, the views over the water back to Edinburgh were excellent, as well as across to Fife.

Now I must pop out and get a run in.

'twas a dark and stormy night, the last of November, 2006, when I realised that if I didn't get writing, I would have posted no entries this month at all.

I've not been up to anything sufficiently exciting that I've felt compelled to run home and write about it, and yet I've not been bored doing nothing either. Since Aviemore I've been away from home for the weekend twice; once to a Halloween party in Bolton, and once visiting my mother for the weekend. Both enjoyable visits.

Most of the rest of the time has been spent on, or should have been spent on, my research, which is coming along nicely. I can't really get into details, but new ideas are occurring and the thing is generally building up nicely.

The weather is currently making itself known, rattling the windows and whistling through the trees. I wasn't fibbing before. The nights now start mid-afternoon (sunset is currently 3.45pm), and sun comes up after 8. We've had one cold snap, and although it is much warmer now I'm still glad the heating was repaired this week before the next one. Mostly the last few weeks it's been dull, wet and windy, or threatening to be so, maybe half the time...

So, I am still managing to motivate myself to go out running, but only just... Of the past 5 weekends, I've had three good long runs in the hills, one down the length of the Water of Leith walkway, and I missed last weekend's. The w.o.l. run was a logical outing I've been meaning to do for a while, but let down a little by the effort of getting to/from the ends, since I live close to the middle, too much concrete surfacing, and various less than inspiring bits; those I have walked past before, at least running they go by quicker.

The hill runs were fun, and that's something I hope to do a bit of next year, as there are plenty of local hill races. In Bolton I ran up Winter Hill and along the area behind it, which holds the record of my wettest run (although it was not raining). I think I'd rather run through miles of wet bog in light fell shoes than walk in any pair of boots; once your feet are wet they're wet, but light shoes let water out as easily as they let it in, and it is easier to grin and ignore discomfort running along in shorts, mud splashing up your legs, than it is to plod along getting wet and muddy with no view to see and remain so cheery.

Otherwise I cycled to/from the Pentlands for a 2-hour run (knackering hills), and from my mum's went out for a 3.5 hour jaunt in the Ochils (too tired to even jog up much of the ups at all, and easily my longest run to date). Shall probably leave the hills for a bit, but my calves feel bigger already...

I've not been out hill-walking at all recently, and I suppose the hill runs have satisfied that urge in any case, but now winter's coming I should probably make an effort to get out to the mountains particularly if I run on the flat, maybe once a month or so. Snow!

I might do a reading (etc.) round up in the next couple of months, otherwise I shall write again the next time I do something interesting—which is pretty much guaranteed next month, at least. So long.

Hello, I've been back home from Aviemore for a few days now. Time for a few pictures!

As I said the race was great. Times are now up, and I got 1:33:05 (65/598), which is a couple of minutes faster than the last one. Better, I felt much fresher at the end, and generally felt more in control. Should be able to improve quite a bit next year (and planning on trying a marathon).

The clear weather continued into Monday, and I went up Cairn Gorm with dearg. A nice day of great rewards for modest effort. Spectacular views. And then a nice dinner out in the evening.

On Tuesday I had a run around the woods behind the Youth Hostel we were staying in (rather nice), and we headed home. A very enjoyable weekend.

Hello from Aviemore. I ran the half marathon this morning. We got stunning clear sunny weather, and the scenery was fantastic. Great running through forest, and around Loch Morlich. Less spectacular down the ski road, but gravity and smooth surface were appreciated as the legs tired.

Nice finish, and I felt well enough to put in a final sprint to the end. Didn't remember to stop my watch, but I think about 1.33.

Yesterday I ran my last decent length run before next week's half marathon. More of a long jog, really, and feeling reassuringly easy (although I seem to have some digestive issues to sort out).

Hopefully I can add some pace and still enjoy the run next Sunday. The plan is to go up on Saturday, then stay on in Aviemore after the race and maybe go for a bit of a walk on Monday.

I would like to thank everybody who has contributed sponsorship for this event. And if you haven't done so yet, and would like to, please do so online here, or contact me if you would prefer to use cash or cheques. Any amount is welcome!

Thanks, folks.

I told you about running the Glasgow half-marathon. Six weeks after (that is, four weeks this Sunday) I shall be running another half-marathon, and this time I am asking for sponsorship. Let me tell you about the event.

This is the first year of the Aviemore Highland Half-Marathon. A 13.1 mile race for 750 entrants (not the 20,000 of Glasgow!) starting in the Badaguish Cairngorm Outdoor Centre, and finishing in Aviemore. The race is organised by the centre, with any proceeds going to them, and if you wish to sponsor me I ask you make a donation to them (as the Speyside Trust). About them:

Speyside Trust based at Badaguish Cairngorm Outdoor Centre is a small independent charity helping children and adults with learning difficulties and other special needs - they love the challenge of the outdoors too!

Read more here. Anyway, I'm just glad I managed to get in (the entry limit was reached at the start of August), and I'm looking forward to running it—to repeat myself again, sponser me online at http://smartgive.com/funds/nwolverson/

Rather damp out right now, so I shall think back and tell you about my weekend. For it was not at all damp. The weather was warm and sunny, like a last burst of Summer as we slide into Autumn.

This was rather fortunate for my plans. Firstly I went with dearg up to meet my mother and visit my grandmother in her new home. We had lunch and a walk about, and then my mum dropped dearg and I off at a little climbing venue not terribly far from Auchterarder. Benny Beg is a small bolted crag with low-grade climbing, which nevertheless as I have little experience was hard enough. I led three or four routes, and toproped one, and generally got the hang of things. Friendly folk and sunny climbing in the evening, will certainly return.

After enjoying mum's cooking on Saturday night, I eventually coaxed myself out for a run on Sunday morning, from Blackford up (up up) into the Ochils, around the Glendevon reservoirs and down into Glen Eagles. A nice long run, which convinced me of the need to purchase a hydration system—I now have a CamelBak waist pack thingy.

This morning I ran in the FRESH 'N' LO Great Scottish Run, at the Half Marathon distance, in Glasgow.

I got up at 6am to observe that it was in fact raining outside, rather convincingly. A fitting start to my first race, so I breakfasted and headed off (with the support of dearg) and caught the 8am train to Glasgow. A little delay meant that there was about 45 minutes to warm up (and keep warm) in slight rain.

Soon enough, it was time to line up, and here I made a bit of a mistake. I positioned myself in the middle of the first section of my assigned group, but this turned out to be much too far back. The start was very slow, and rather frustrating; there were over 20,000 entrants for the event (over half for the longer distance, as I understand it), and that is a big mass of people. Starting far back, even with a lot of weaving and suchlike it was rather slow and frustrating over the Kingston Bridge (narrow lane to run in).

As I made my way forward, and the course opened up through various streets heading down to Bellahouston park, I perhaps overcompensated for the slow start. In any case I made it to the half way point fast enough, and from the far point back towards the start found inspiration from the various pipers and supporters lining the route.

The last five miles or so were challenging (I certainly had no great burst of speed for the deceptivly long finishing straight), but I pushed on to finish in (by my watch) 1 hour, 35.5 minutes. Faster than I could have hoped for!

An excellent experience for my first race, the weather cooled by the rain but not too wet (but big puddles!), decent course and support (particularly considering the weather) and a time I'm very happy with.

I got back from Copenhagen on Monday, just haven't got around to updating yet.

The last two days in Copenhagen were spent at the Zoo and at Tivoli, an amusement park in the centre of Copenhagen. You wouldn't think you could fit a decent rollercoaster into a park in the middle of a European city...

Anyway, not there any more. But there is more excitement to come! Tomorrow morning I am running the Glasgow half-marathon. Fact of the day: since I restarted running about 10 weeks ago, I've run 250km.

Wish me luck!

Another weekend passes. I've been enjoying running, but impatient to run longer and more often. Which probably means I'm not building up too quickly. Restraint is trying.

Saturday was my longest run of the week, supposedly 8km along the canal and water of leith, plus a wrong turning diversion component. In about 6 weeks that distance should double. Hopefully longer runs will mean interesting routes. Anyway, later on I relaxed with a walk, out to dinner and the cinema (Pirates of the Caribbean 2). Nice.

Sunday, relaxing? Well, I took a little bike ride. Shouldn't be too far, as I felt somewhat tired as I set off. The pentlands sounded like a good idea; somehow I ended up on top of Allermuir then Caerketton hills... Would have been much quicker to walk up the steeper bits though. I'm not very good with the uphills. Or, in fact, the downhills.

I went to the Pentlands with dearg last weekend. Nice walk, as the weather turned out to be decent. Met people I knew there again, Ben from my office who I haven't seen in some time, somebody else from my department, and my uncle George. I don't know how often I should expect to see somebody I know in the Pentlands; it is close by, and I suppose I know quite a few people in Edinburgh, so even if I'm only there every few months (and always on a passable-weather weekend-day afternoon) perhaps I should not be surprised to bump into somebody every other time, say.

I am curious how pastimes are correlated with profession etc. For example, it seems that computer scientists are more likely to be into hillwalking than J. Random Officeworker, but perhaps my one-sided and anecdotal evidence is entirely misleading. I have no idea what the true figures are.

I've returned to running again. Just a couple of weeks so far, but I'm enjoying it. For motivation and something to work towards, I've signed up for the Glasgow half-marathon (the Great Scottish Run) at the start of September. Hopefully I will be able to gradually build up my weekly mileage between now and then to be able to put in a good first effort.

Before that, I will be going to Seattle in August for FLoC (Federated Logic Conference). My (joint) paper was accepted for the GaLoP workshop (Games for Logic and Programming Languages); I shall also be attending LICS (IEEE Symposium on Logic in Computer Science).

I started writing something and then lost it. About a week ago.

Further to the last post, I'm holding off running for a couple of weeks to get rid of shin splints, which I could probably feel coming on when I posted that... This is the second week off, and I've been cycling instead. Mostly around town, I went out along the Union Canal past Ratho last week, which was nice. I shall have to go right along to Falkirk at some point. Also, have the idea of cycling to Auchterarder some time, it's not that far.

Had a nice wander in the Pentlands on Sunday, along the ridge. Lovely day. And see the ickle lambykins!

I should learn to post less more often, as I used to. Now back to work, lots to do...

Okay, so more than a week. Making a commitment is scary. Doing so here means I'm serious about it; I don't want to change my mind or break my word. I shall be specific, as that is more useful, easier to motivate and stick to.

I shall run three times per week. At a minimum two of these will be 4km (as I often do on the way to the gym), and one shall be ~6km; ideally the shorter two would be about that, and longer run of over 10km.

Now the excuses. Doing something active at the weekend is not a get-out. A day's hillwalking should not interfere, but two or more days or a mammoth outing can. In that case a couple of runs (even on a treadmill) should suffice. On the other hand, I don't want to injure myself... sore or tired muscles can just suffer, but knees, ankles and shins cannot.

I've kept it up for the last few weeks, so we'll see how it goes. I ran 11k rather quicker than I expected last week, so it will be interesting to see how I go with longer distances once I'm used to running regularly. I have a disturbing ambition to run a marathon one day... It's probably not that crazy an idea (other than the inherent craziness)—if I run regularly and do some shorter events, and trained for it, that is. Okay, crazy.

Okay, some other commitments and crazy goals lest I forget other things I enjoy.

• A proper hillwalk at least once a month this year. A couple of the big hill days I have in mind (Bridge of Orchy hills, the Mamores, some 2-day insanity around Ben Starav, to name but three).
• Get to the climbing wall regularly.
• Actually get out climbing locally, be solidly leading easy stuff by the end of the summer
• Get out on the bike, to the Pentlands and so forth. Go somewhere on the train at some point.
• Finish PhD!

Incidentally, Spring is here. Pleasently sunny, t-shirt weather again today.

A non walking-related update, for once. An update without pictures, for the first time this year.

I've not been in the hills since my last post, and I have to admit I've not been missing it much. I have been busy with other things, work and play, although somewhat lazy. That has changed a little recently, and I've been feeling physically good for the last week or so. What I haven't been doing much in the last month or two is running, and I've been considering making a concerted effort to do that more regularly, as it's starting to feel less easy, and yet quite natural.

I'll decide next week, but I should aim for three decent runs a week, at least around a half-hour in length, and when possible make one of them longer or hillier. And keep track of how I'm doing. Question is how to fit that around visits to the gym; at present I'm taking a 10 or 20 minute run there, followed by cardio then weight work. And that's kind of convenient.

If I still feel like making the effort in a week, I'll post some kind of commitment here to help myself stick to it.

Wow, we're a week into December already.

I gave myself a bit of a shock this morning. I actually got up in the morning and went for a run before breakfast. Very glad I did. It must have been a cold, clear night, but even in shorts and t-shirt I soon warmed up once I got going. The frost on car roofs made pretty swirly patterns; the frosted pavement sparkled as I moved; the pre-dawn glow of the sky illuminated Blackford Hill as I ran past, and lit Arthur's Seat through a muddy haze. The city was waking up: a dog walker nearing the Hermitage of Braid; a figure here and there with big coat and gloves; innumerable cars sitting warming up, vast clouds of noxious fumes puffing up in the crisp clear air. Breathe in gently, you'll regret holding your breath in a minute. Stepping past frozen puddles. Icy. Slippy. Slowing down for corners. Careful on the driveways. It's getting busier—the cars are ready now, off on their way (off to work already?). And then around the corner, down the hill. Past the Supermarket. And back home.

A wash, and breakfast. Feeling so awake, for once.

I would point out various animatronic holiday wonders to her (my fake enthusiasm can be added to the list of "dumb things the holidays have made me do"), and her only pertinent question was "Why is this happening, Mommy?" There were no good answers.

mimi smartypants

A well-written, whimiscal diary, mimi smartypants entertains me.

It pours. It is, in fact, pouring down outside right now.

And of course having posted earlier today my first entry for an age, I shall now post another, now that there is no pressure to actually have something to say. We just jogged home from the gym in the wet; raining heavily, rivers running down and across pavements, the odd lake... Very pleasent, I could get addicted to this.

Seems like something to do through the winter anyway.