Running to Think: london

Showing posts with label london. Show all posts

Thursday, 19 December 2013

Urban running in London, the last two days

Something is working so good with my nutrition. I can feel it. For the third time in the last week I have been running very early in the morning, before breakfast. I've been pushing a bit and never felt tired. It must have been the oatmeal or the vegetarian diet of the last few days mainly based on peas and beans . Unfortunately, I cannot cook here, but I found a nice corner of fresh salads and vegetarian delicacies at the Sainsbury's. I've also found the same brand of oatmeal I was used to eat when I was living here some years ago.

I'm taking glucosamine as food supplement since 12 days, but I don't think all the energy is coming from there. Glucosamine is an amino sugar marketed to support the structure and function of joints and the marketing is targeted to people suffering from osteoarthritis. Fortunately I'm not affected by any joint related disease. I started taking it after running 32 miles, after which I was experiencing some pain from a potentially dangerous stress fracture. Some rest and glucosamine apparently solved the problem. If extra energy is a side effect of such a medication, well, good for me :) even though I really don’t think so.

Yesterday's run was fun. I've been running again to Hyde park and decided to make a running trip to Buckingham Palace. I would have had no time to go there in the afternoon. Hence, I had to kill two birds with one stone.

It was dark as night, except that it was 6 am and I was already in Oxford street, approaching Marble arch. When I run on the same course I feel more relaxed and concentrate on my running. After crossing the bridge on the Serpentine I met a girl running at an interesting pace to join her. Thing is that she was carrying one of these running backpacks used by ultra runners during self-supported races.

"Are you carrying breakfast for us?” I shouted.

She laughed and almost stopped running. I understood why she was reacting quite impulsively to my joke: it was quite dark, we were alone in a park, in London city. Not the most comfortable setting indeed.

We started talking about our hobbies and our own motivations to running so early. I honestly consider myself a freak, doing what I do. But Kelly was not a person we can consider “normal”, if normal had a meaning. She was actually running to her work. She said that she was working in the financial market for an investment banking firm and she was heading to the City. The backpack was her mean to carry fresh and clean clothes; her legs were her only transport mean. I found that quite normal even though she was doing something objectively cool and worth mentioning.

We ran together for about 6 km as I had no specific destination. Everything was so smooth. We were talking the whole time and pacing around 4’: 30” per km (miles?) When she had to turn towards the City I decided to set my gps back to start, since I had been running for 16 km already.

I suddenly found myself into St. James’s park. I had one of this old memories of London that reminded me that Buckingham Palace should have been quite close. After less than five minutes I saw the wonderful building and the gate, and some guards. Still no tourists, just londoners going to work.

How about ringing the buzzer of Elizabeth and propose a tea at 5pm?

Turns out, there’s no such buzzer.

Only back in the hotel I could see that I had been running for 23 km.

Monday, 16 December 2013

Urban running in London: sunday

Unknown 11:33:00 hyde park , london 0 Comments

It's almost Xmas. Still in London. After the run of yesterday I planned to have a shorter one today at a definitely slower pace. But plans are always hard to respect when I have no races ahead or when I am abroad and I want to experience new tracks or I just feel the need for disconnecting my mind from whatever is going on around me.
I woke up at 6am again, had a tea and dressed up. I was tweeting from bed something I barely remember. The temperature here in London is much warmer than Belgium. These steady 13 degrees are like a cold spring.
Starting from Kings cross, where my hotel is, I took Euston road until Marylebone, I ran ahead until crossing Baker street. Straight up to Oxford road and I suddenly found myself in front of Marble arch. When I got to the speaker's corner, I didn't find anything to say and I kept running into Hyde park for a while. It was still dark, the feeling was the same as those nights when people get out wasted from clubs. I actually met some of them coming back from a tough saturday night. But that night was almost over and there was very little time for the sun to rise and hit my warm and bearded face.

When I was on the bridge over the Serpentine I met a guy who was making a photograph of the sunrise. We were almost there. I turned my face as my eyes were the lenses of his camera and looked in the same direction.
It was divine.
Gooses and many other birds were living on the surface of the water, the light of the sun getting brighter and brighter, and it suddenly was daylight. The city woke up. I could feel it moving forward. Nothing changed for me. I was moving way earlier and way faster than them. Faster than everybody else.
The running pace got smaller and smaller, my legs were just not running. They were rotating, fixed only in one joint of the hips, my feet were brushing against the ground with high frequency, easy as the light, as fast as the sunrise.
4'10" min per kilometer and I couldn't feel it, as easy as drinking a glass of water.
On the way back I was so detached from the rest of the world that I just couldn't see that my hotel was now behind me and I was heading towards Camden town, in the wrong direction.
I had to stop and ask a guy "where am I, mate? where is kings cross station?"
"It's all the way down man, you're running in the wrong direction," he said.
Nothing is wrong when I am running.
I turned back and went to the hotel. It was in the room that I checked the mileage: 16 km, again, before breakfast.

Sunday, 15 December 2013

Urban running in London town: saturday

Unknown 13:18:00 london , running 0 Comments

Running in the city is something I was not really missing. When I cannot choose the surface I’d like to run on I try to be as less picky as I can. I am in London city and, to be honest my running experience is going beyond any expectation. First I forgot my running headphones and I could not play any music during my workout. That's a good thing since I pay better attention to the numerous hitches that definitely come from bikes, cars or buses. Running in the city is not a joke. Running in London is even harder due to the fact that, well, I have no clue where I am running. I just keep moving forward towards the unknown. My hotel room is two minutes from Kings Cross station and I am usually taking the St. Parnas road that takes me a bit out of downtown. One more thing; running on the pavement is not really my favourite. Yesterday, saturday 14th I decided to go out for a run before having breakfast. That helps educate my body to go on low fuel and metabolise fat faster. It's like simulating to "hit the wall" after a 25 km run during a marathon. Not something I do everyday, and you shouldn't either. But I have it in my schedule. The first part of the run was quite a slow pace, exploring the environment, measuring the new hitches and the noise of the city. It was like getting familiar with a very aggressive wild animal, after I ended up in his nest. The second part of the run was pretty fast. I realised I was pacing between 3'50 and 4'00 per km only at the end of the workout, and I was doing it for a while. When I looked at the timer I was surprised to read that the last 7 km were covered in a bit less than 28 minutes. I got back to the hotel room at dawn, when the city was waking up and the first cars were honking their horns at me, reminding me of one very fundamental thing: I was running in the wrong direction.