Top 5 Running Hotspots in London (for this runner!)

I've been based mostly in London these last few weeks, which means more time than usual wading through crowds and chaos. And not just when I run. So I thought it would be a good time to write about my top 5 running hotspots--traffic hotspots, that is!

These are places in London that are busy year round, but absolutely crazy during peak seasons. You should avoid them at all costs but if you absolutely can't (or like me, naively think you can make it to the other side alive) then dive in with caution. And remember you're likely to miss out on your magic mile PB or struggle to hit your target pace if you do!

One small disclaimer--London is a big place and these are based only on places where I run, mostly along the Southbank which is near to where I live, and Piccadilly Circus, where I used to work. I'm sure there are a lot more hotspots (and some even more treacherous) than the ones in my top 5.

So, counting back from 5:

5. Hyde Park Corner, crossing from Constitutional Hill to Wellington Arch. Okay, not the worst in terms of crowds although there are always tourists around...but if you *just miss* the traffic light, you will be stuck for ages! You'll have to wait not once but TWICE, because the first crossing just takes you halfway, and then you need to wait again for traffic coming from the other direction. I'm not advocating risking your life, but do cross if you it's clear and you have ample time. And if not, don't forget to stop your watch!

4. St. James' Park, the entrance near Buckingham Palace. If you run around Green Park and then decide to go into St. James' Park (or vice versa), you have to cross The Mall.  The crossing nearest the fountain is one many runners use. The traffic light's not too bad and you can usually sneak across, but the entrance to the park is not very wide and filled with tourists. And to make matters worse, it's a downhill slope towards the pond. Just remember not to go in too fast and veer right, away from the crowds.

3. Thames Path Walk, behind London Bridge Hospital. Going West on the Southbank just before you come to London Bridge, there is a pathway just behind London Bridge Hospital that narrows before you either go straight and up the stairs to London Bridge, or left towards Southwark Cathedral. It's tough to go around people because there's just no room, and the sharp 90 degree turns means lots of chances for near-collisions. My one and only collision happened here!

2. Clink Street, from Southwark Cathedral to the Clink Prison Museum. Narrow with twists and turns, and always packed with tourists and regular commuters. Sights like the Golden Hind and Winchester Palace mean people also mull around in big groups. To top it off, cobblestones might add to the quaintness of the street but they are a runner's worst nightmare! They are really uneven in some spots, so challenging to run on and even worse when in rains. Navigating through the crowds AND having to watch your step always makes it tricky! Plus, LOTS of vans park to make deliveries here to the nearby restaurant, making things extra crazy.

1. The London Eye, in particular the area from Westminster Bridge to the London Eye. The chaos starts with all the random street performs as you approach the London Eye from the East side. But the real fun begins right when you hit the Eye itself. Crowds queuing up, people buying tickets, lots of large families, the London Aquarium and McDonald's, more tourists heading down from Westminster Bridge towards the Eye...the list goes on and on. And everyone moving so very slowly, looking around but not around them. At peak times this is the one place on the Southbank where I have to stop and walk. Definitely avoid!

So there you have it, my top 5 running hotspots in London. Run through them with caution! :) It's worth mentioning that if you get up early enough you can avoid a lot of the madness. (Early is always tough for me....)

So tell me, what are your top running hotspots? Either in London, Brighton or wherever you are!

My Three "Get in the Best Shape of My Life" Commandments

Been away from the blogging world for a bit but happy to be back! Had a great week in California with my family (my 1 year old niece and 3 year old nephew were exhausting--don't know how you parents do it!) and it took a while to settle back into things once I got home. Plus one big change...I resigned from my job and my last day was on Friday! After being there for 6 years it was strange to go through all my junk and pack things up, but the timing was right and it feels almost like a fresh start. I'm lucky to be able to take a short career break but it still feels strange right now. What will I do without a Blackberry?!

I'm going to spend a little time coming up with a list of all the things I want to accomplish over the next few months but there is one thing I'm already sure about: I'm going to take this opportunity to try and get in the best shape of my life!!

Now, this is no easy feat for lots of reasons. One being that once upon a (long) time I was in really great shape as a member of my high school swimming team! My friends have pointed out that trying to be 18 years old again is impossible (don't ask me how long ago that was, because I won't tell!), but I'm going to do my best now that I have the time to put into it. I have no excuse not to try!

So I've come up with Three Commandments for me to start following NOW. Why three and not ten, you ask? I want to start with small, simple changes that I can continue with once I do re-enter the working world. All of these might be no-brainers, but the fact is that I haven't been doing any of these things. And I hope actually doing them will make a difference to my running and general fitness. So here goes:

1. Get 8 hours of sleep every night. I'm a night owl (and a procrastinator) so it's always easy for me to lose track of time, especially when I'm caught up in nothing. Will make sure I get to bed on time so I can wake up early enough to have breakfast before I run.

2. Drink 1 liter of water everyday. I always struggle with this one! I don't drink too much other than a few cups of tea or coffee, and whatever I have when I run or exercise. One liter doesn't sound like a lot, but according to this formula from Runner's World it's more than enough for me. This is on top of what I drink when I run.

3. Eat as healthily as I can. Another tough one. Eating is big thing for my family--it's usually the main theme when we all get together. And although I'm a foodie I don't like to cook, so with long hours at work we usually go for convenience over quality. I've enjoyed reading about the perfect runner's diet on Jason Fitzgerald's great website, Strength Running, but all that feels a little too complicated for me right now. So while I'm going to start heading in that direction, I'm going to just start with a few sub-commandments:

• Watch my portions. Believe it or not it's hard to remember not to eat the same amount as my 5'11" husband. This is the biggest thing for me, making sure I eat enough to properly fuel my training but not enough for someone twice my size.
• Don't eat too many sweets. I can easily eat a bag of sour gummy candies in one sitting. And on Friday I *did* go to the amazing Hummingbird Bakery to get some celebratory cupcakes (red velvet and black bottom, my favorites). I won't cut these things out completely but will save them for special treats only.
• Make fruit and veg the largest part of my diet. I'm not a vegetarian but I'm generally pretty good about eating vegetables. Will just try not to eat too much meat. I don't think that I could ever cut out dairy but will try not to eat too much cheese!

So there they are, small changes I hope will start to make a real difference. These are outside of my fitness goals! Still working on them but here's what I'm thinking at the moment:

1. Continue to build my running base, eventually getting to about 50 miles a week.
2. Start strength training again. Gave this up after injury but I know it's important to do this if I want to stay injury-free.
3. Integrate yoga back into my training plan. The stretching used to make a big difference and was great on my rest days.

Of course, my most immediate goal is to run a sub-2:00 half in Dublin.....just 3 weeks left!

So whaddya think? I know all of this isn't going to be easy but I'll be excited to share my progress. Would also love to hear about any small changes you've made that have made a real difference to your health or training!

You think you're gonna have a bad run? Then you'll have a bad run....

I've been really happy with my running these last few weeks, with no motivation issues. In fact, I felt like I was getting better and better with each run! But this morning I just didn't feel like running AT ALL. I dragged my feet (more than usual!) and could not bring myself to even think about intervals. I don't know if it's because I'm about to go on holiday....or the depressing scenes around London and the UK that played over and over again on the news this morning.

I knew, JUST KNEW that if I did intervals they would be bad. So instead of my planned 5 mile run with intervals, I decided to do a 6 mile fartlek. Figured the extra mile would be good since I won't be able to run tomorrow, and the fartlek would let me throw in a few random sprints when it wasn't too crazy on the Southbank. How easy it is to just avoid something you're supposed to do!

Not the worst run I've ever had (like when I wasn't fueling properly), but I just never really felt comfortable. I definitely didn't feel the flow, not for a moment. Looking back though, I'm sure my lack of motivation and just that feeling of "why do I have to run?" contributed to my general blah-ness out there. If I had kicked myself in the ass I'm sure I would have felt differently. I've read so many articles on self-belief, visualization, mental toughness...and how it's just as important as physical training to set yourself up to do well. I thought I was going to have a bad run, so I DID have one! So next time I'm feeling reluctant I'm going to give myself a stern talking to! I'll remember my injury and tell myself how lucky I am just to be running! HA!

I'm off to California tomorrow morning....so excited to see my family, in particular my niece and nephew. I'll be busy spoiling them over the next week, but will definitely find time to squeeze in a run or two.

Ca-li-for-nia here I come....right back where I started from.....

Stay safe, London. I'll be thinking of you!

My first 14 miler and only 6 weeks left....

After last week, I decided to switch my long runs to Saturday so that I could stretch my legs with an easy run on Sunday. Yesterday I was up early to have breakfast before going back to sleep. I was really more in just a semi-conscious state but it was nice to think that I wasn't really getting up too early! I actually made it out the door before 9am with my Nuun and 2 High5 IsoGels.

Instead of making several loops along the seafront, I decided to see how far out of Brighton I could run. I went past Brighton Marina for the first time and while it was nice to have pavement to run on, it was hilly (at least, hilly for me!) and right next to a busy road. I had a good 5 miles or so before I started to slow down a bit, hampered by the ups and downs. But overall I still felt okay and was happy when I could finally stretch my long run to 14 miles!

My longest ever run and probably the highlight of week 10. Really excited to finally go further than half marathon distance. My running volume was the highest ever for me too--36.2 miles--and while I'm not quite hitting my target pace for the long runs yet, overall I'm feeling good. Can't believe that I have just 6 weeks left until the Dublin Half. With a few holidays scheduled from now until then, I know they'll fly by!

Oh, and a footnote to my review of High5 IsoGels. Definitely easier to take than traditional gels, I felt they took a while to kick in, about 15-20 minutes. I've used them on a few runs now including yesterday, and while I really like the liquid form I have to say.....IsoGels are off my list. Compared to the Kinetica and PowerBar gels, they work too slowly and don't give me the same sustained burst of energy. A little disappointing as I really liked the idea of a non-gel gel...

Could I be starting to feel the flow?

You've probably heard of flow, sometimes referred to as "being in the zone". One definition of flow from the LIVESTRONG website is:

A state of effortless concentration that results from a period of intense focus. It is the goal of all sport psychology because athletes report being in a state of flow during their best performances. Flow begins at the point that focus stops becoming difficult and starts becoming easy.

I've read a lot about flow but thought it only applied to athletes, those that have the capability to do amazing things at an unbelievably high level. I just always hope to feel good when I run, and so far this week I have.

Wednesday's steady run felt good despite the heat. My goal was just to keep an average pace of 9:45/miles for 7 miles. Can't churn 'em exactly on pace yet, but towards the end feel like I settle into a pretty good rhythm.

Yesterday's 6 miles of "controlled discomfort" was tough as I spent the first few miles running into the wind. Just haven't been able to find a way to overcome it! Pretending that the wind is not there doesn't seem to help. But once I changed direction I was probably helped a bit by a nice little tailwind. Goal was 1 mile warm up, 4 miles at half marathon pace (9:09) and 1 mile cool down.

Had a stitch through part of the run (maybe I didn't wait long enough after eating 2 slices of toast with peanut butter and honey). But I try to run through stitches so I can deal with them during a race if needed. 

Before this run I warmed up with a cannonball as recommended by @runlikeacoyote. I couldn't do the Rockies (well, I tried but I almost fell on my face!) but I was amazed by how the other exercises helped me to loosen up, in particular in my hips. I'll be doing this again and will definitely work on those rockies!

While these runs definitely felt good, I actually think that for a few brief moments on these runs that I might have been in the flow....a glorious minute or two when I felt like I was running--really running--with almost no effort! When I run I *DO* talk to myself and say things like "flow" and "relax" and "rhythm" but nothing really happens. I do it more to stay focused and stop my thoughts from drifting too much. So this happened without any expectations and almost no realization until I thought, "HEY, this is feeling different, feeling GREAT, feeling like I'M A RUNNER!"

Could a natural born shuffler like me actually be feeling the flow?! Is it really possible for ME to have effortless concentration?

All I know for sure is that I'm feeling good!

As a 150 pound man I'm a slow jogger....as a diminutive runner I know my own pace!

For me, Tuesday means intervals! I was woken up by a heavy rainstorm, but luckily things were dry by the time I actually got up. Following my new rule I had some cereal and yogurt for breakfast. Then after some general procrastination, I headed out for my run. I KNEW it was going to be hot today but I absent-mindedly walked out the door without any water! But (with my head still in a cloud) I wasn't worried, didn't turn around and figured I'd be fine. How wrong I was!

My Garmin always pesters me when I run intervals, but today it was ESPECIALLY bad. I actually started off with an amazingly fast (well fast for me!) warm up mile somehow, but when it came to my first interval this is what happened:


Garmin: Speed up! You're only going a slow jog!

Me: What? I'm going faster than my warm-up. And today that was FAAAAAST.

Garmin: I'm telling you, you're too slow. SPEED. UP.

Me: I am NOT going too slow! My arms are pumping, my legs are striding, I'm breathing hard. This has to be a SLOW RUN at least!

Garmin: WRONG. It's a slow jog. NOW SPEED UP!


And so we bickered this way for the rest of my 0.5 mile interval, until it suddenly hit me. Yesterday I switched my Garmin Training Center over from my work laptop to a netbook we usually use for traveling. Yes, so I could log all my runs while on holiday! I'd transferred all the data from my watch, but then I must've forgot to set my profile to my own specific paces.

My Garmin thought I was a 150 pound man and was using the default paces. Clearly someone's slow jog was MY run!

Good realization but it meant that it was down to ME to hit my target pace, without the help of my usually trusty Garmin. My run was hard in the end--I blame it on heat + trying to run too fast + stoopid you didn't bring any water. I did a lot of walking in between and even stopped during the 3rd interval. But after checking my interval times I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was pretty close to my usual 8:20/mile target.

When I first got my Garmin it made such a difference just to be able to know how fast or slow I was going. Now I'm really happy that I have some sense of my own pace, even without a GPS watch. And the next time I feel like I'm running either too fast or slow.....I'm going to trust my instincts, no matter what that pesky Garmin is telling me to do!

Rest Day Review: PowerBar Fruit Gel vs. Kinetica Energy Gel

Now that I'm finally doing long runs again, I've started testing energy gels. I've used a variety of different gels before, but I'm always interested in trying new ones. And luckily, I've never had any stomach problems...yet! A few weeks ago, I reviewed the High5 Isogel with Caffeine and since then I've also tried the PowerBar Fruit Gel with Guarana and the Kinetica Hydrating Energy Gel.

PowerBar Fruit Gel with Guarana
I've used PowerBar gels before and they've always worked well, so I thought it would be nice to try the new fruit gel. Mango Passion Fruit sounded yummy, and the fruit gel is supposed to have a slightly thinner consistency than the regular.

I used this gel on a 13 mile run--my second gel at the 8 mile mark. No problems with the package, and I though the mango passion fruit flavor tasted really good. As with other PowerBar gels I find they are a bit saltier than some, but this doesn't bother me and is probably due to the higher sodium levels. It has been so long since I've used gels that I couldn't tell if this one was actually thinner than the other PB ones. However, to me they are definitely thinner than some of the other gels out there (eg SIS GO gels) and the small pack size (41g vs the typical 60g) means there is less to go down anyway. You do have to take this gel with about 150ml of water.

I felt an energy boost soon after taking the PB gel, and feel like it gave me extra energy through the final miles. I didn't feel too full after taking it and had no stomach issues.