Morning Run: All things bright and beautiful

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I expect the title will bring back memories for some of singing hymns at school or church. That is one I do remember. It is another lovely morning and I have the day off work, so I can run a bit later.

This was towards the end of the run. You may just be able to see some horses in the distance. Some were lying down and others were sheltering under the footbridge. There were also lots of geese around today.

River

I am fortunate to have some nice countryside on my doorstep. It has been a long time since I used the programmed workout feature of my Garmin watch and I decided to do a routine that a friend showed me of 800m sprints with 200m recovery. We did that on some farm tracks and I headed for the same place today. Despite the lack of rain it was a bit muddy in places.

Route

I did most of my intervals in a loop around the pair of lakes, but they are screened by trees so I did not really see them. Some time I will go and take a closer look. For the last sprint I headed off uphill to take the long way home.

Intervals

My pace was not too bad. I managed to stay under 5min/km for some of these, but I gradually got slower. I was walking between the sprints to recover.

Segments

I did get two personal records on Strava segments. I ran down the 'muddy hill' (across the middle of a field of crops) on one of my sprints and got good speed as it was all downhill. 'Arlesey gates' is a concrete path along the river. I had done my intervals by then, but decided to sprint it anyway to see what time I could get. It is always nice to see improvements.

These are all views from the highest point of the run. You can see it is fairly flat and that various crops are grown around here. The farm buildings are in the distance in the third with RAF Henlow on the right of that.

View south east

View north

View west

I took it easy on the last bit across the meadows and over the railway bridge as I was tired by then. I am volunteering at parkrun on Saturday, so I will not be running then. As I type this I am having some fresh coffee made with beans from @whiterosecoffee. They do a special Hive roast. I get the beans to grind myself for use with my Aeropress.

Coffee

Run free and stay well.

running arlesey teamuk runningproject sportstalk proofofbrain coffee
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36 comments
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Looks like a really cool place to run. I love seeing all of the green. We are just starting to see some of that here. I will know things are really turning when the daffodils start coming out in the woods behind our house. All the water has to move out of the way first!

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Our daffodils have been up for a while. It's a nice time of year, but I guess spring comes a bit later for you.

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Yes, I still expect us to have one or two more snowstorms before we are finished for the year.

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In that first pic that river is so still seeming I thought it was a road. Looks like a very nice surrounding area!

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It has a bit of flow to it. It's a chalk stream and pretty shallow. I see the odd fish in there. I passed where an old mill used to be and there is a bit of a weir there where people go swimming (not me).

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I wouldn't be a fan of swimming in any of the rivers near me. Just because of the cold! Very scenic though, I do like spring and the onset of summer

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I'd rather swim in a pool. We'll get ours set up when it's generally warmer.

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I have been trying to convince the kids that it is not yet time to set up our pool in the garden. (Big temp affair thing) :OD

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We need to get past the risk of frost. I think it's viable here from about early May, but it can still feel cold when you get in.

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Great place to run! If I had a place like that nearby I would probably be in much better shape :P

COngrats on those records too!

!hivebits

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Cheers. I know some people like to live in a city, but it's nice to have all this space.

!BEER

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Ha, nearly a guitar shape on the trail app!

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That wasn't planned :) It can be nice around here.

!hivebits !BEER

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Nice images, and, I was able to spot the horses.. lol
This is not near the station, is it? We walked the dogs there once through a little wood. Have to do that again, as it was lovely and we've got a TwoTogether ticket..

Interesting about the coffee and that you can buy it here! That's amazing!
Is it strong type of coffee you've got there? Can't spot a number..

The Aeropress made me chuckle, looks just like a design by Mr. Dyson.. ha ha

Well done on the run!

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The horses are up the other end. It's just over the railway from the True Briton. There is a way to the meadows just up the road from me, but you can walk through from the station since they opened a path a few years back.

The coffee place have loads of different beans. He will take payment in cryptocurrency, but I have not paid that way yet.

The Aeropress is really simple, but effective. I have tried other ways, but this is convenient for making a quick cuppa.

!BEER

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Your route looks like a hand giving the middle finger. Just though you might like to know....

🤣🤣🤣

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The design was not planned :)

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Haha I thought maybe it was like the boat that drew a giant penis with its GPS navigation right before lodging itself in the canal in Africa last year

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800m interval are a great test of the fitness, I like to try and hold my target parkrun pace as long as possible getting my body used to that pace and trying to feel comfortable. !BEER

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I should maybe try doing these slightly slower so I can maintain the pace for longer. I was aiming for 80-90% of my maximum pace, but wasn't checking it all the time. I still think it's a good workout to improve my endurance and it was recommended to me by an experienced triathlete.

!BEER

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I find any sort of speed work will help. How did the legs feel the day after? I struggle to hold that sort of max pace over repeat 800m at the moment mainly because I like to run every day, but if your fresh it is a great workout. Definitely wont hurt to build the workout up slowly over a few weeks.
!BEER

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You need to stake more BEER (24 staked BEER allows you to call BEER one time per day)

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The legs are pretty much okay today. I just don't run every day, so have time to recover. Next run will be on Sunday as I'm marshalling at parkrun tomorrow.

!BEER

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