Tonbridge parkrun (inaugural)

Please note: As of August 2019 there is an updated venue guide: Tonbridge parkrun new blog

My history with Tonbridge began in 2009 when me and the-soon-to-be-mrs7t rented a flat just off the High Street. In early 2010 we were married in Tonbridge Castle and later that year our daughter was born - in Tonbridge of course. Around this time, I took up running and spent many a happy hour plodding around the local streets.

Tonbridge Castle

My first (and to date, only) half-marathon was the inaugural Tonbridge half-marathon back in 2011. The only other race I took part in in Tonbridge was the Tonbridge Wells Mental Health Resource 5k, and is held in the private grounds of Tonbridge boys school (the Australian Olympics team stayed here during the London 2012 Olympics) , which you can see across the river during the early and late stages of the parkrun.

The River Medway

I first discovered parkrun while I was living in Tonbridge and for 18 months I commuted - mostly to Riddlesdown - to get my weekly fix. While it did cross my mind to look into setting one up in Tonbridge, the time wasn't (and still isn't) right for me to take on the responsibility of being an event director. When we finally moved away, we had our check-out and handed the keys back to our former landlord on Friday 9 November 2012 - Exactly one year before the inaugural Tonbridge parkrun!

A view from the course

So, on Saturday 9 November 2013, I and the ladies drove down to Tonbridge. There is ample car parking near the start line but you do have to pay. The first car parks you'll see as you approach the park are the Castle Grounds and Upper Castle Field car park. However, if you continue past these and take the next left hand turn, you'll arrive at the Lower Castle Field car park - this is much closer to the start line. Another option for parking would be to park in Haysden Country Park, which is at the far end of the course, but it is much cheaper to park there (70p for up to four hours as of Nov 2013) and you can enjoy a lovely 2km walk to and from the start line.

Tonbridge Juddians

Those travelling by train will simply alight at Tonbridge train station and take a short walk down to the park. On the other hand, if you fancy cycling, the closest bicycle racks (approx 8) are just outside the swimming pool, which is also right next to the main car park. The main toilets are in the rugby club house, but there are also some public toilets within the park and are located just on the other side of the car park (across the footbridge). If you were to park in Haysden Country park you'll also find toilets there.

Start/finish area (feet already feeling a little wet)

If you wander around the immediate vicinity of the start/finish area, you'll find Tonbridge Castle, the swimming pool, the miniature railway track, and a few separate meandering branches of the River Medway. Walking a bit further across the park, you'll find a children's playground, crazy golf, outdoor gym, tennis courts and just outside the park, the Tonbridge war memorial gardens. Tonbridge is also famous for being the birthplace (Pembury) and home (Hildenborough) to double Olympic gold medallist, Dame Kelly Holmes.

Runners assemble!

The start of the run is in Tonbridge Racecourse Sportsground and starts on the grass next to Tonbridge Juddians Rugby Club club house but before the inaugural run could get underway, there was quite a long list of people to thank for helping to make this event a reality. The course is flat and is on a mixture of grass, tarmac, trail, gravelly paths and a couple of wooden bridges thrown in for good measure. In fact, there are seven river crossings during the course of the run and as it is an 'out and back' (or even a lollipop) route, you do them all twice. Some of the crossings are very narrow.

My biggest and littlest fan

Although road shoes could be worn on this course, my preference is for trail shoes - especially during wetter weather conditions. The wettest/muddiest part of the course is the start/finish area which tends to hold onto quite a bit of water. The trail section can be a tad muddy or slippery when covered with leaves. Buggy runners will be fine on the course but there are a few pinch points to watch out for.

262 runners heading towards a tiny hole...

Once under way, the runners (262 at the inaugural event) make a 90 degree right hand turn on grass and head towards a hole in the hedge that leads onto the tarmac river path. As the hole is only suitable for one runner to pass through at a time it does create a bit of congestion and it took over two minutes for everyone to pass through, which is a shame but unavoidable as the alternative route would see runners negotiating a bridge which has trip and slip hazards and was recently damaged by the fire brigade rescuing a dog from the river. However, I have heard that the event director is looking at options to resolve this issue.

262 runners filtering through

The first part of this section along the river is pretty much single file (unless you venture onto the grass verge) so lining up sensibly is crucial (ie line up approximately where you think you'll finish). However, the path does open up a few hundred metres later where it joins Regional Cycle Route 12 (quite a nice ride from Tonbridge Castle to Penshurst Place and almost takes you all the way to Penshurst Off-road Cycling Centre - read about my visit here).

The first part of the path through the park

The course then takes a quick detour around the edge of one of the rugby fields before returning to the cycle path and immediately leaves the park by passing underneath the main railway line. Runners may need to slow slightly while passing through as there are some bicycle calming barriers in place at each end of the short underpass. An additional point to note is that while the underpass has sufficient headroom for the vertically challenged (that's me), taller runners may feel the need to duck whilst passing through.

The trail section

The run now enters its trail section where runners cross a small bridge and again run alongside the river (take caution, as there are some short wooden posts in the ground along this path), a few hundred metres later the course swings left, passes over two more bridges and continues along the river - eagle-eyed runners may notice the small world war 2 pillbox hidden within the line of trees. The next significant point you'll reach is Lucifer Bridge...

Lucifer...

... which is very narrow and may require runners to stop to let other people cross (not great for your 5k time, but crucial for the reputation and future of the event). On my way back across the bridge, I and another runner who was on his 'out' section as I was on my 'back' section managed to squeeze past each other. This is followed immediately by Little Lucifer Bridge. A slight right hand turn through a forest path takes runners into Haysden Country Park.

Barden Lake

The country park is a beautiful, peaceful area with the centrepiece being the glorious Barden Lake, which runners will see as they cross the wooden bridge upon exiting the trail section. Runners will now need to complete one clockwise loop of the lake. They turn left and where the path splits in two follow the outer path where there is the ever-so-slight suggestion of an incline, before passing the duck feeding area at the far end (roughly at the half-way point) and then on the north bank, fishermen (or fisherpeople). Interestingly, the lake is not a natural feature but the remains of a sand and gravel excavation pit which was in operation between 1974 and 1980.

Almost finished

Once the loop of the lake is complete, it is just a simple case of following the previously trodden trail, grass and paths all the way back to the rugby club house. As runners near the end of the course they will have to negotiate the hole in the hedge in the opposite direction, which is slightly tricky because it involves taking a sharp blind right hand turn through the hedge - thankfully there are marshals here. After this it is a frantic dash on the (waterlogged, muddy) grass towards the finish line.

The final bit

The post-run social gathering takes place in the rugby club house, but as the rugby takes priority, the swimming pool cafe may sometimes be used as an alternative. Sadly I couldn't stay for the post-run fun because I had to be in central London by 11am. Tonbridge parkrun brings the total of Kent parkruns to eight and rounds of 2013 nicely for the county. It's definitely worth getting yourself down to Tonbridge to give this one a go but definitely bring a spare pair of shoes and socks!

Please note: The course has been modified and the start-finish is now in a slightly different location. Please see the official Tonbridge parkrun course page for the latest information.

Edit: I made a video of the new course and it can be found on this page.

Tonbridge parkrun freedom run

After running at the inaugural Ashford parkrun, I thought it would be fun to stop off just down the road at Tonbridge to have a little run around the planned Tonbridge parkrun course. I will save the detailed course description and venue information for my blog post after the inaugural event. However, as a teaser....

.... on the course you'll run under the main railway line into London, cross a number of narrow bridges (I think you cross seven different water channels on the way out, and come back across them on the way back - so fourteen crossings in total), and you'll run a lap around the stunning Barden Lake in Haysden Country Park.

The course covers a mixture of surfaces - grass, tarmac, trail, wood, and stony paths are all represented. You could quite easily run this course in your normal road shoes, but I decided to go with trail shoes purely because I like my road shoes to stay looking nice and shiny.

I had a very leisurely run and did my best to dance around the puddles and avoid the mud, but as you can see in the photo, it still managed to get me! Change of shoes and socks are recommended - especially if the wet weather continues. The inaugural event is on the 9th of November and starts on the grass next to the Tonbridge Juddians Rugby Club House - not far from the swimming pool and miniature railway.

There are a few car parks close by (Tonbridge Castle / Swimming Pool) but you will have to pay - I know that the Castle car park charges £1 for an hour, £1.70 for two hours and £2.30 for three hours so I imagine the others are similarly priced.

I did of course log the run as a freedom run so it appears on my official parkrun log.

Running, man (Janathon day 30)

The running man was a christmas gift from my mother-in-law.

Not much time for blogging today. Work was too busy for blogging. I did, however, find another potential piece of #runart that I would like to try to create, it should come out at around 14-15km making it my longest piece to date. More on that when I get around to doing it.

Today's run was supposed to be a 'very short' run but instead it ended up being a 'short' run. I went out at around 6.20am and it was cold, but I soon warmed up. This was definitely one of those runs where you just put in the miles and then get on with the rest of the day. Absolutely nothing interesting happened. Sometimes that it just what you (I) need.

27 minutes (5.1km)

You're having a... (Janathon day 29)

I got up early on Sunday morning and was pretty excited that I had a #runart attempt lined up. I got into my starting position and headed off.

Here is what I drew:

There's nothing like a bit of #runart before breakfast.

6.8km

Riddlesdown parkrun thirty-three and an H (Janathon day 28)

We all know what happens at parkrun, I do end up telling the same story over and over again, but it's what I do in these posts..

So for what it's worth..

I ran the first kilometre at a nice easy pace with Pete, then I headed off at my own pace.

The ground was wet and the mud was very slippery. In some sections most of the effort I put in was wasted as my feet slipped around underneath me. I caught up to and passed many people over the next four kilometres and somehow during my last kilometre I was only about 20 seconds off my 5k pb pace from last September.

I stood around chatting for a loooooong time after the run had finished and when I tried to find Mrs7t, I couldn't. She had already gone to the pub.... with the car key!! So I had to go all the way to the pub to pick the key up and then walk all the way back to the car. I say 'all the way' but it is only a few hundred metres. It was fine.

On the way to the pub I found a little lost dog who answers to the name 'Molly', she was wandering very close to the road and she looked like she was lost. I knelt down and had a chat with her and when I asked her to follow me I was happy that she did (I don't have much dog experience so this is probably just normal). Once we were back at the entrance to the downs she spotted her owners and ran off on their direction. They looked pleased to see her.

Once all the parkrun things had drawn to a close we headed off to Tonbridge, but before arriving home I had a very special task to complete.

An idea grew out of the runart project. The idea was for nine janathoners to each draw a letter using their GPS tracking so that we could spell out the word 'janathon', of course janathon only has eight letters.. The ninth was for the hashtag. I had been lucky enough to be given responsibility for creating the 'H', so we stopped off at the cemetary so that I could draw it. Once all of the letters are complete I'll put up a collage on the runart blog.

So for day 28 of Janathon I ran the following

5km (23:55) at parkrun
0.8km drawing the H

5.8km

Tap dancing (Janathon day 27)

I did't know what to write about for my blog post so I decided to scrape the barrel..

You know how you go into the toilets in an establishment and they sometimes have the taps (see photo) that you push down and it lets water run? The tap then returns to its original position and cuts off the supply. Usually it will run for 10-20 seconds - just enough time to wash your hands. Quite good really - It helps to prevent drunk people forgetting to turn them off afterwards, thus preventing a flooding incident.

However, every now and then you will encounter a set of taps where the on/off mechanism has worn out and after pushing it to the 'on' position it returns to its 'off' position almost immediately.

Some clever people will try to push the tap down and then get boths hands under the tap before the water cuts off.. this is rarely successful. What you end up doing is using the one-handed mode. You hold down the tap with one hand while trying to scrub the other hand with itself. Then you switch hands resulting in a spot of (sorry) tap dancing!

I know a place where this happens and I go there every week (I'm not naming it). I've got used to it and instead of finding it annoying I actually look forward to my weekly hand-washing-faff.

Consider the barrel scraped.

-----

Janathon
3.4km (17 minutes)

Hoppípolla (Janathon day 26)

The weather forecast for the morning of Janathon day 26 was for heavy rain. Heavy rain has never stopped me going for a run before and it certainly wasn't going to today...

some things i must not forget (i removed some personal details from the id tag - badly)

.. I stepped out onto the wet high street, the rain was not as bad as the forecast had suggested. However, it had been raining all night and was still coming down.

If the sun had woken up I could have avoided them, but at 6.xx in the morning I had to rely on luck to dodge the puddles.. and yet again it was the puddles that caused the problem. On at least six occasions I landed right in a big one and soaked the opposite foot. I may have swore out loud a few times.

My glasses had been soaked by the rain so I ran along not able to really see anything, and for some reason I kept my hands in my pockets for almost the entire run.

5.1km (27 minutes)

Animals (Janathon day 22)

Because my hamstrings needed a rest I had already run all the miles that I wanted to run this week I thought it would be fun to play around with some GPS drawings instead of going for a real run. It also gave my legs a chance to have a bit more recovery time.

Firstly, I should explain the story behind this. A few days ago @buriyako posted a link to one of his runs and I noticed that it looked like an ant-eater. In the conversation that followed we decided that we would embark on an animal-themed GPS drawing challenge. @buriyako then posted another run where he had drawn a rhino. It was awesome.

So onto today. It was my turn to try to draw something, I had a look at the road map of Tonbridge to see if anything stood out. After a while I spotted that I could also draw a rhino (but not quite as cool as @buriyako's).

So here is my first effort at drawing an animal using the roads of Tonbridge, I know it's not great but I was working with the roads that are there..

a rhino, yes really!

As that was a very short run I thought I might as well go a little further to make it worth the effort of going out. So I headed off down the high street to attempt to draw a snake..

a snake, but I think I need to find a wider road for the body

The body is a bit too slim, but I did at least make an attempt at drawing the head (the part at the 1km mark).

I am now hard at work looking for other animals to draw on the roads. However, it would probably be better to find an large open space and try something freehand. Watch this space for more, and hopefully better, animals in the future.

1.7km for the rhino
2.1km for the snake

3.8km of recovery running (approx 20 minutes in total)

Han Solo (Janathon day 17)

Temperature: -3

On the coldest day of the year so far, I had planned a very early morning run (official start time 06:10).

It was absolutely freezing, but in a very calm 'everything is frozen' kind of way. The sky was completely clear and moon was shining brightly. Once I was off of the main roads and away from the light polution, my eyes adjusted and a previously hidden skyscape of a million stars revealed itself to me. It was stunning.

Still, it couldn't take away the fact that I was freezing. I wore my Nike Free 3.0 v3's, which are pretty minimal, so my feet had very little in the way of insulation. My face had frozen into it's 'oh fuck it's so cold' expression - I think it is still like it!

I even managed to get to work on time, but then I went for breakfast and arrived at my desk 15 minutes late.

7.27km (36-and-a-bit-minutes)

Ice age coming.. (Janathon day 15)

.. ice age coming, let me hear both sides, let me hear both sides, let me hear......

//we're not scare mongering, this is REALLY happening... happening.

I felt a bit like a toy that's been left in the attic for twenty years and then pulled out again. Not flowing particularly well. I wasn't really sure what I was heading out to do distance wise, but I knew that I wanted to spend an hour on the streets. I dialed the speed right down to very slow and plodded along with my current favourite soundtrack - Radiohead.

Everythiiiiiing.... in it's right place..

Round and round the streets, trying not to run down the same street twice - I like to keep my GPS lines from crossing on the map!

I've been waiting... patient. Patiently.

I ran past a very self-important looking runner. Clearly taking herself way too seriously and not even able to squeeze out a smile or a hello.

Give me an answer, give me a line..

It was a lovely crisp, clear morning. Having a lie-in on a Sunday is nice, but can't match running in these conditions. Once I had finished, I took some photos as the sun was rising above the houses (see above). Then I crept back into the warm house to have some breakfast and watch 'click' on the iplayer.

11.2km (one hour and one minute).

On a Friday (Janathon day 13)

A cold, frosty morning awaited me as I crept out of the flat quietly* so as not to wake the two sleeping ladies.

I had taken a two day break from running. Usually there is only one reason for me to stop running, I now have two. They both begin with 'h' and end with 'amstring'. Anyway, the latest part of the steve-and-his-dodgy-hamstring(s) saga started on Tuesday whilst performing some squats. Eagle-eyed readers may have noticed that the squat session on Tuesday was shorter than the chin-ups and push-ups. That's because during the squats my right hamstring (the good one) felt sore, so I cut the session short. Alas the damage had already been done, and the pain worsened during the day.

So, back to Friday - the pain had gone, so out for a run I went. I gingerly made my way around Tonbridge, slowing to walk a few times to avoid become the focus of attention for some mean-looking dogs on adjacent areas of grass.

Forty-odd minutes later I arrived back at the flat feeling good.

After breakfast the baby (Matilda) handed me my push-up bars - A hint maybe? I didn't want to disappoint her so I cranked out a few sets. As you can see, she also did a few.

Running: 41 minutes (7.1km)
Push-ups: 10/10/10/10/10/10/10/10/10/11 = 101 push-ups.

Matilda: push-ups - 1-and-a-bit.... ish.

------

*The wife will probably disagree.

Repetition (Janathon day 10)

Week two of Janathon is going to continue to be a week of less running, but more body weight strength training..

View from the train

Day ten started with a run to the playground to do a body weight workout. I say run, it was more of a jog. As I was going straight to work after the workout, I was wearing quite a lot of clothes and my back pack. Not my favourite way to run, but it worked yesterday, and again it worked today. The route was extremely boring - about 1km (via the long route) to the park, and then laps (approx 400 metres) of some houses until my GPS hit my target time/distance.

The workout was pretty much the same as yesterday. 5 chin-ups - 10 push-ups - 10 squats. Then repeat a few times. Once done with that I headed off for the train station. I missed my preferred train because I got out of the house late, missed my back-up train because people in front of me walk too bloody slowly!! In the end I got on a train that got me into London about 10 minutes late.

I had plans to do some other stuff later in the day, but work etc took over and I didn't get around to doing the rest.

3km run (19 minutes - including stopping to take some photos)

5 x 5 chin-ups
5 x 10 push-ups
2 x 10 squats

7t.

The full moon (Janathon day 9)

Starting week two of Janathon 2012 I decided to change things around a little.

this full moon may be from last month (when I say 'may' I mean 'is')

I started with a warm-up jog, which lead me to the playground. Once in the playground I did the following body weight workout.

5 chin-ups / 10 push-ups (feet raised) / 10 squats

I repeated that sequence five times, then I got on the train to work.

So...

3km warm-up jog (19 minutes)
25 chin-ups
50 push-ups (feet raised)
50 squats

At lunchtime I did a very lame core workout featuring the side plank, crunches and another one where I raise my legs until my toes are pointing at the ceiling and then push up from my hips (I'll try to find the name). I didn't count exactly how many sets I did, but each set contained ten reps.

Steve.

Roadworks (Janathon day 8)

There are definitely some roadworks coming up in my running schedule. This purely because I don't think my hamstring is ready for this daily running streak that I have embarked upon. Janathon day 8 marks day 11 of this streak.

Tonbridge High Street this morning

At precisely three kilometres into my run I felt a slight twinge in my hamstring. Someone that hasn't been suffering with hamstring problems would probably just carry on and 'run it off'. I don't have the luxury of approaching it from this angle, so I took a walking break.

I walked for about 1.5km, the intention was to cut my losses and go straight home. However (there is always a however), the twinge had worn off and I eased back into a gentle jog. As I reached the front door I continued running. I thought I'd just make the total distance up to 5km.

I made it to the far end of the high street and still it felt ok. I went around the back of the high street and towards the industrial zone - still felt fine. I continued to run along without any discomfort. My pace can only be defined as very very slow. But that was fine, I was happy to be out there.

I finally made it back home and eased back into a walk to cool all the systems down.

I'm going to have a think about how to progress with Janathon/my running streak. I might have to revert to my previous running schedule and cross-train on the rest days (which I'm quite happy to do), or just reduce some of the training days down to 3km runs. We'll see what happens.

9.1km (including some walking - 58 minutes)

... and 52 push-ups.

Watch me dance... (Janathon day 6)

... I'm a puppet, you can almost see the strings.

some of the old houses in Tonbridge, I finished my run here and took the photo.

Day six, thankfully the winds from the previous day had disappeared.

In my vague training plan for Janathon, Fridays and Mondays are down as recovery days - that's to help me ease into and out-of the weekend's tougher running schedule. The plan is for the distance to be reduced down to a token 3k on these days for the sake of Janathon, and to keep my running streak going. All without annoying the hamstring.

When I reached the 3km point this morning, it was no surprise (to me) that I carried on running.

When I reached the 4km point this morning, it was no surprise (to me) that I carried on running.

When I reached the 5km point this morning it was no surprise (to me) that I carried on running.

Today also marked the first time this year that I had taken my headphones out with me. This morning I listened to Radiohead (on shuffle) - hence the quote at the beginning of the post.

As you may have gathered, I don't really like running less than 5k at a time. Next week may be different because I have a different split of my weekly mileage in mind. Maybe I will finally do that 3k run.

(If I do any kind of workout in my lunch break, I'll update this post)

5.6km (31:07)

7t.

Almost silly o'clock (Janathon day 4)

Back to the early morning running..

The Tonbridge christmas tree's days are numbered

I was fortunate enough to be starting work at 10am (or to be more accurate 10:16am - whoops), so I didn't have to wake up at silly o'clock in order to fit in my run.

Over the last few months I've been suffering with a dodgy hamstring. It is on the mend, but I really do need to be careful with all of this back-to-back running. After today's run it was feeling a tad tight, so I'll need to keep an eye on it. It would also help if I actually followed the training plan I created to help avoid such tightness. It follows the hard-easy-hard-easy principle of training but adjusts it to an easy-recovery-easy-recovery pattern. The only exception being parkrun, where I run a bit harder (tempo-ish pace at the moment).

So far I've been keeping the pace in my easy or recovery zones, but not cutting down the distance on the recovery days. I need to stop believing that I'm some kind of machine and accept that my poor, aging human hamstring needs a tiny bit of help with its recovery every few days. With that in mind, tomorrow (day 5) I am going to run a tiny 3km route starting underneath big ben and looping around the River Thames, hopefully avoiding the mass groups of tourists.

In addition to the running I did 5 sets of 10 push-ups during my lunch break.

5.1km (28 minutes)

First day back at work (Janathon day 3)

I didn't sleep very well on Monday night. Partly due to my brain working overtime and partly due to the ferocious wind and rain that was lashing at my window all night.

The last few days of the seasonal lights

The good thing is that it didn't affect my running plans the following morning... that's because I had already scrapped them the night before when I realised the chances of me getting out of bed at five-silly-something after having two-and-half weeks worth of lie ins were so slim that I'd only have to come up with a new plan on the day. And I do like to be organised.

So off I went to work and got on the miserable train full of miserable people (including myself) who were most probably all going through the same thing as I was (probably minus the Janathon thing).

At work I took one look at my overflowing email account and just decided that the easiest thing to do would be to hold my finger down on the delete button until all my problems had disappeared. In retrospect it probably wasn't the most sensible thing to do, but I've now emptied my deleted items folder. I'm ok with it.

I have a strange set-up with regards to where my belongings live. For example my dumb bells live in my Dad's flat, which is conveniently located just across the road from work. So I headed over there for part one of my Janathon-day-3 workout.

Weights Session: (2 x 6kg dumb bells)

• Shoulder Press
• Arm Curls
• Triceps extensions
• Bent over rows

Technically Janathon-day-three was complete. However, my personal goal for Janathon is to run every day of the month. So when I arrived home after a very nice sleep* on the second miserable train of the day I changed into my running kit.

I headed out into the dark for a very short stretching of the legs. Or maybe it was a stretching of the short legs. Either way, I ran. Oh, and it was longer than I had intended.

5.2km (27 minutes)

7t.

* It may have involved snoring.

Bank Holiday (Janathon day 2)

As Monday was a bank holiday I decided to make sure that all the banks on the high street were actually closed. They were.

Running along the River Medway, with Tonbridge Castle in the background (photo:7t)

With that done I started my exercise for Janathon day 2. My brother-in-law is still in town so he accompanied me for a recovery run. We had in mind to run 3km at a stupidly silly slow pace.

To help with keeping the pace slow we took our cameras and spent the first 15 minutes running and photographing ourselves.

When we reached 3km we were about a kilometre away from home so turned back towards home. Then we decided that if we were going to run 4km we might as well just carry on and make it 5km.

Of course, when we hit 5km we thought we'd run around the back of the high street instead of straight down it.

So finally we made our way round to the flat and simultaneously hit stop on our GPS thingys. The pace was a little bit faster than stupidly silly slow, but still slow enough to be classified as a recovery run.

5.5km (32.xx minutes)

The Deacon Trading Estate

Today was a scheduled running day. I didn't go out first thing in the morning because I'm on holiday and can run whenever I feel like it instead of having to do it before the sun rises.

Deacon Trading Estate (part of the Tonbridge industrial zone)

As the clock approached 11:30am my breakfast felt like it had digested. I decided the time was right to hit the road. That way I could run and shower before it was time to have lunch.

My brother-in-law is staying with us at the moment, he is also a runner. He decided to come out with me. It is very rare for me to have someone to run with, so it was nice to head out for a nice social training run.

It was unexpectedly warm outside. The forecast said 7 degrees but it felt more like 10 or 11.

We headed North along my usual flat-ish route. About 1km in and I was already unzipping my running top to let some cooler air in.

After 6km we arrived at the dreaded industrial zone. We went through to the far end of the zone and then did a loop before coming back along the other side of the road.

As we ran past the Deacon Trading Estate I notched up my 1000th running mile of 2011. It was typical that my goal for the whole year was reached in my least favourite part of Tonbridge. However, the moment was always going to be special no matter where it happened and my fist very discreetly punched the air. It was very nice to be able to share the moment with someone.

Then we cut through and headed back up to the High Street, where we arrived back at the flat one hour and two minutes after we started.

Total: 10.5km at an average pace of 5.55 per kilometre.

A long run and a recovery run

Part one...

Sunday

Not the best conditions for a swing-swing

It was a cold, beautiful morning. I left the house just before the sunrise and decided to explore some of the back streets of North Tonbridge.

As it was Sunday (and I had no pressure to get to work) I decided to stick my headphones on and listen to some Radiohead during my run. I headed along Shipbourne Road.

About 3km down the road I turned into Whistler Road. At this point I felt amazing, the sun was rising and there was frost on the ground. I continued along and worked my way through the houses until I came out onto the Ridgeway. Then I turned off into Rochester Road, which I had always avoided because it says that it is a dead end... well it is.... if you are a car.

I cut through the alleyway (no scary things this time) and eventually came back out on the main road before heading back towards the High Street.

It was a brilliant run. The hamstring didn't hurt, but it did feel fatigued. This was probably to do with the side roads being quite undulating. I'll stay on the flat roads for the rest of the week.

Sunday 10.3km (Easy pace)

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Part two...

Monday

The runner's view (Shoes: New Balance Minimus Road)

Today the weather was probably a tiny bit colder than Sunday. Still lots of frost around. I had to go to Sainsburys to buy some fresh bread for breakfast. Rather than walk there I thought I could go for a recovery run. So I did. I kept the pace just inside my recovery run pace (by 1 second per kilometre). I headed into the dreaded industrial zone and eventually wound up at the door of the supermarket.

I bought the bread and went home. We had breakfast and then we drove to Gatwick airport to pick up my brother-in-law.

Monday 5.2km (Recovery pace)

7t.