The Road To Thetford - Day Thirteen

I did run on Wednesday (Day10) but didn't get round to doing a blog - to be honest, my intent is not a daily blog, so I may well start to store up batches of runs and report them in the same blog.

There was meant to be a run on Thursday with a break on Friday but in the end I did neither morning, and with me working from home, the overalls steps per day was less than 5k - it also impacted my focus on the work I was meant to be doing those days and more widely my general well-being with some very poor food choices.

The positive is that up to two weeks ago, these poor days were happening day-in day-out, so now having five good days and only two poor days is a big improvement.

The concepts of Miracle Morning do have a big impact and most of it is common-sense.

Anyhow today, I did my planned five miles, and even though I had two days break it was a struggle but I got it done.

Some cloud cover was helpful as when the sun was free of the cloud I could feel the heat on my skin.

Photo below amused me with plant sale sign in front of a muck heap, although it would be good for your plants......

Horse muck - probably need to get some to store, allow to rot, and use over winter.

The Road To Thetford - Day Nine

Monday is a non-running day but should still have some exercise, so from my next non-running day (Friday)I plan to fit in some basic body weight exercises and some simple yoga - fitting in exercises has always been challenge but I hope at least on Mondays and Friday's that by making it a part of my miracle morning hour routine it will stick this time.

Anyhow as today is Tuesday I got up at 5.30am and did a 2.5mile run which shortly into it I spotted a dead hedgehog that had been hit by a motor vehicle, so spirits were a bit down after that and as a result I change my route so the return journey by-passed it.

Below is the Freethorpe Pump, used to wait at for the lesser-spotted bus (twice a week apparently).

Despite the endless cloud this morning you can see across towards Yarmouth the sun trying to blast its way through.

Closer photo of the ex-windmill that has had scaffolding on it since as long I can remember.

Good easy run - focus so far is on enjoying the runs and taking photos hence some of my miles are taking 12 to 13 minutes at the moment.

Going to focus on speed in a few weeks time.

The Road To Thetford - The Reverse Humpty Dumpty 10k

The long run this week is six miles, so I decided to do the reverse of 10k Humpty Dumpty route that took place last weekend.

Just outside of Freethorpe on one of the undulating parts of the back road to Reedham, there was a field getting a good dose of water.

Undulating......

Moo!

Another permissive pathway gone to fallow and unusable.

Allotments in Reedham near to the railway line - not a clear photo of what I wanted to show.

One of three bridges - this one shows where the lowestoft and yarmouth railway lines diverge.

The railway lines from Reedham station to this bridge.

I wanted to show this as when I want a very long run, the left road takes you towards the Wherryman's way route, where I can then run to Yarmouth or turn off towards Halvergate - great off-road runs that I am looking forward to being re-aquainted with.

The right road leads down to the the quay - it is this bit in the 10k Humpty Dumpty race that is the kicker as it is a short but steep uphill section.

Reedham quay

Statue of a boat-wright.

Coming up from the quay there is the war memorial but just before is a plaque to the US World War II B17 bomber crews who on 21 February 1944 collided over the Reedham Marshes with a loss of all lives having returned from their bombing mission in Germany. 

Reedham train station.

The only piece of off-road I had was heading out of Reedham, I could use the path on the Reedham Village Hall playing field that runs parallel to the road.

Square bales - they had plenty so they must last for ages given they probably harvested and baled last year.

More Moo!

Doesn't show up quite as well but the green half has lots of white flowers - always visually interesting when there are two distinctly different crops side by side - particularly like the aerial photos where farmland looks like odd-shaped different coloured pieces made into quilt.

Homemade Salted Chocolate Tart from my daughter's Tanya Burr cookbook.

The Road To Thetford Day Six - The Four-Miler

After a two-day break that were individually planned but I hadn't realised it would result in two days of no running, I went off on my run having done my Miracle Morning hour - early days but getting up at 5.45am is still happening.

Running from Freethorpe towards Halvergate, this is the view of the Halvergate Church across the fields.

I took a photo of this road sign in Halvergate because when I start doing the longer distances, I plan on doing a route I have never done to date, which is to run into Tunstall and follow the public footpath that takes you to Damgate Lane in Acle, and probably from there I would run to Beighton before returning home - probably a 12mile route so one for about three weeks time.

A few photos of rooks who few off as my lumbering feet disturb them - look for black dots (sorry too slow taking the photos).

A shot of a windmill across the fields that has had scaffolding on it since forever....

Wickhampton church in the distance.

Last year you could run along the permissive pathway which wound it way through the a sizeable field, and one evening I had an extra incentive with two horses also using it behind me.  Shame it has gone but the Government cut spending on this and the farmers all just dug them up and put extra crops in.

Weird to find a concrete wall on the field - at first I thought it was a wall to block travellers invading the field but looks like it is an area for trucks and lorries to load and unload - not pretty though,

Below is my brunch I had - Toasted Bread with Avocado and Tomatoes - I was a bit stingy with the lime juice so next time I will make sure I squeeze some more on.

The Road To Thetford Day Three - running wild

Again getting up early, I did a short run as part of miracle morning routine that I am so far sticking to.

I set out to run on the last remaining piece of accessible farm land near to where I live - last year I could 1.5miles laps but since government funding stopped for permissive pathways, most of the pathway has been dug up and the crop growing area extended into it.  The bit that is left is a mere 0.25 mile loop and had not been maintained as you can see below.

There is a path underneath the wild overgrowth which I carefully navigated through but there no enjoyment from it, and headed to the village hall playing field - one third of a mile loop but well kept.

Healthy eating for breakfast and lunch but fell off the wagon big style with three homemade pieces of millionaires shortbread - feeling the effects of the sugar but tomorrow is another day to get it right.

The Road To Thetford - Day Two - Poppies

I did a two mile run this morning and the fields either side of the country road had plenty of poppies at the edges.

I have also worked out what distances I want to do for the next nine weekends in order to be ready for the marathon on the tenth weekend.

For this weekend it will be 4 miles on the Saturday and 6 miles on the Sunday.

The Road To Thetford! Day1

Given all these top athletes are on the Road to Rio, I thought I should have my Route to Thetford given that is my big race of this year.

After a number of months with only sporadic bouts of running, today with just 10 weeks to go until the Thetford Marathon (http://www.marafunevents.co.uk/) I started my training - ideally it should have been six weeks ago but life got complicated and it has taken until now to mentally break the feeling of being overwhelmed by it.

I have been inspired from reading a book called the Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod (I got it out of the library but places like Amazon stock it as well), and I am using this as a starting basis to make the changes I need to make in my life.

I plan on using my Mike Reboot blog to report on whole aspect of applying the concepts from the Miracle Morning and on this blog report on the running aspect.

Tonight I will work out a manageable 10 week training plan to tie in with the Miracle Morning approach but as a starter I did about 1.5 miles this morning and I have been eating healthy today as well.

No photos today as I forgot to take the ipad with me on the run.