Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Back From The Sea Side!
Back from my weekend at Wells-Next-The-Sea! It was a nice break, even though the weather was rather rubbish... typical Bank Holiday weather actually, howling gales and driving rain...
Saturday wasn't too bad. It took me about 3 hours to get there rather than the usual 2 1/2 with the traffic, but it was quite warm and sunny and once my big sis and her family arrived we set off for a walk with the dogs (although with Gemma, the miniature Yorkie, it's more of a case of going for a carry).
We walked a fair way along some tracks, leading round to the Pinewoods which gives the site it's name, and then on to the beach. I did get some sprinting done on the beach, mainly racing my nephews! We threw sticks into the sea for Jake and I got this action picture of him;
Jake- The Ginger Tosser
Jake is lairy- full on most of the time and into absolutely everything! He's so friendly, affectionate but rather dim!!
Katie and her boyfriend Dan arrived, and we took the dogs back on the beach with the nephews- we ended up running quite a bit, up and down the dunes- everyone was taking quite an interest in my training!
Sunday was wet and blustery, so we walked into Wells, or rather me, mum, Bob and the dogs walked and everybody else elected to take the train! We had a walk round the town, looked into the quaint little gift shops, and had a coffee- luckily most of the pubs around Wells are dog friendly. Thought I'd better do a bit after tea, so I loaded up my rucksack to about 6 kg and headed to the beach with my nephew, Matt. We slow jogged up the beach and ran up and down a line of dunes for ages- running in sand requires a whole new technique. The sand seems quite firm until you suddenly sink up to your waist! And when we turned round and headed back- whew! We were running against a really strong headwind and god- it was tough!! I had to keep slowing to a walk several times, but we were out for about an hour so must have done some good.
Monday I really impressed myself- I woke up at 6.15am, had a quick cuppa and headed out for a run! I switched on the Garmin, plugged in the MP3 player and decided to head up the track alongside the woods and then run back through the woods themselves. The first part of the run went well, apart from a slight knee pain which went off quickly and luckily hasn't returned... I got up to a pool called 'Salts Hole', turned, and headed into the woods for the homeward stretch. It was lovely in the woods- running along little sandy trails through the trees.
In The Pinewoods
I even found a steep sandy bank to use as dune practice. I had been running a while before it dawned on me that I should be back at the holiday park by now... I kept going, but after a while I still hadn't seen any sign of civilisation, so decided to head off to the right to see whereabouts along the track I was... except instead of the track and fields beyond I found myself looking at the sea... which should have been on my left...
Yep- I'd managed to turn through 180 degrees somehow and was running back the other way! Fantastic sense of direction... not...
I ended up running 7 1/2 miles and was still back before anyone was awake! We went shopping in Norwich later, and mooched around the centre; had to detour on the way back as a fallen tree had blocked the road so just shows how windy it's been. I was woken up at 2am today by driving rain and wind against the caravan and felt sorry for all the folks who had decided to camp. We had a couple more walks Monday night and this morning, but otherwise not done much today apart from drive home and eat chocolate fingers!
Wells Beach
So... a nice break, with some useful training on sand, with winds but minus authentic heat (as it was bloody freezing!!)
Back to the grind...
Saturday wasn't too bad. It took me about 3 hours to get there rather than the usual 2 1/2 with the traffic, but it was quite warm and sunny and once my big sis and her family arrived we set off for a walk with the dogs (although with Gemma, the miniature Yorkie, it's more of a case of going for a carry).
We walked a fair way along some tracks, leading round to the Pinewoods which gives the site it's name, and then on to the beach. I did get some sprinting done on the beach, mainly racing my nephews! We threw sticks into the sea for Jake and I got this action picture of him;
Jake- The Ginger TosserJake is lairy- full on most of the time and into absolutely everything! He's so friendly, affectionate but rather dim!!
Katie and her boyfriend Dan arrived, and we took the dogs back on the beach with the nephews- we ended up running quite a bit, up and down the dunes- everyone was taking quite an interest in my training!
Sunday was wet and blustery, so we walked into Wells, or rather me, mum, Bob and the dogs walked and everybody else elected to take the train! We had a walk round the town, looked into the quaint little gift shops, and had a coffee- luckily most of the pubs around Wells are dog friendly. Thought I'd better do a bit after tea, so I loaded up my rucksack to about 6 kg and headed to the beach with my nephew, Matt. We slow jogged up the beach and ran up and down a line of dunes for ages- running in sand requires a whole new technique. The sand seems quite firm until you suddenly sink up to your waist! And when we turned round and headed back- whew! We were running against a really strong headwind and god- it was tough!! I had to keep slowing to a walk several times, but we were out for about an hour so must have done some good.
Monday I really impressed myself- I woke up at 6.15am, had a quick cuppa and headed out for a run! I switched on the Garmin, plugged in the MP3 player and decided to head up the track alongside the woods and then run back through the woods themselves. The first part of the run went well, apart from a slight knee pain which went off quickly and luckily hasn't returned... I got up to a pool called 'Salts Hole', turned, and headed into the woods for the homeward stretch. It was lovely in the woods- running along little sandy trails through the trees.
In The PinewoodsI even found a steep sandy bank to use as dune practice. I had been running a while before it dawned on me that I should be back at the holiday park by now... I kept going, but after a while I still hadn't seen any sign of civilisation, so decided to head off to the right to see whereabouts along the track I was... except instead of the track and fields beyond I found myself looking at the sea... which should have been on my left...
Yep- I'd managed to turn through 180 degrees somehow and was running back the other way! Fantastic sense of direction... not...
I ended up running 7 1/2 miles and was still back before anyone was awake! We went shopping in Norwich later, and mooched around the centre; had to detour on the way back as a fallen tree had blocked the road so just shows how windy it's been. I was woken up at 2am today by driving rain and wind against the caravan and felt sorry for all the folks who had decided to camp. We had a couple more walks Monday night and this morning, but otherwise not done much today apart from drive home and eat chocolate fingers!
Wells BeachSo... a nice break, with some useful training on sand, with winds but minus authentic heat (as it was bloody freezing!!)
Back to the grind...
Labels: sand, Wells-Next-The-Sea
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Not Quite The Sahara...
Got back last night after a couple of days in Wells-Next-The-Sea (why isn’t it called Wells-Next-TO-The Sea?? Bad English if you ask me…)
It was a nice relaxing break, I didn’t dare do too much though cos of my Achilles… although it seems to be getting better (touch wood!) I can feel it slightly when I’m walking but it can no longer feel it all the time.
We did do a walk Thursday, along a track alongside the pine woods, down to the Victoria pub at Holkham for a cuppa, back up the track to the small stagnant pond called Salts Hole (famous for being left over from when the land was reclaimed from the sea) before walking back along the beach and the pine woods.
It was a very gentle paced walk, mainly due to my stepfather’s bird watching tendencies (the feathered kind… there seems to come a point in people’s lives, as they age, when they start to develop slight bird watching tendencies. As this progresses, they might start to buy books on bird watching, visit related internet sites, buy the magazines etc until, before you know it, suddenly they are fully fledged ‘twitchers’ - yes, it could happen to your parents!!)
Not quite the Sahara...
Mum with Alex at Salts Hole
I went out for a short walk Thursday night along the path to Wells and back up to the beach. I found a useful steep sandy slope next to the steps leading down to the beach, so walked up and down this as fast as I could for about 15 minutes (definitely something to do in the evening when there’s nobody else around!)
Evening shot of the Albatross, Wells
I think I will try a slow, gentle jog tonight, maybe 2 miles, and see how I go… if I feel pain, I will stop. The gym sounds a good idea for tomorrow morning, not too much running but will get some cross training done hopefully.
It was a nice relaxing break, I didn’t dare do too much though cos of my Achilles… although it seems to be getting better (touch wood!) I can feel it slightly when I’m walking but it can no longer feel it all the time.
We did do a walk Thursday, along a track alongside the pine woods, down to the Victoria pub at Holkham for a cuppa, back up the track to the small stagnant pond called Salts Hole (famous for being left over from when the land was reclaimed from the sea) before walking back along the beach and the pine woods.
It was a very gentle paced walk, mainly due to my stepfather’s bird watching tendencies (the feathered kind… there seems to come a point in people’s lives, as they age, when they start to develop slight bird watching tendencies. As this progresses, they might start to buy books on bird watching, visit related internet sites, buy the magazines etc until, before you know it, suddenly they are fully fledged ‘twitchers’ - yes, it could happen to your parents!!)
My mum also has 'twitching' tendencies, but hasn't quite got the hang of it... my sis tells me that mum was convinced she'd spotted a completely new species of robin until it was pointed out that she was watching a mars bar wrapper.
The sands round here are blessed with sand dunes, and, although I didn’t dare run, I did walk up and along the lines of dunes to try to get a feel of walking uphill through sand. I couldn’t replicate the heat, of course, but it’s better than nothing. Obviously we are not going to be tripping over sunbathers, kids or loose dogs in the Sahara dunes…
Not quite the Sahara...
Mum with Alex at Salts HoleI went out for a short walk Thursday night along the path to Wells and back up to the beach. I found a useful steep sandy slope next to the steps leading down to the beach, so walked up and down this as fast as I could for about 15 minutes (definitely something to do in the evening when there’s nobody else around!)
Evening shot of the Albatross, WellsI think I will try a slow, gentle jog tonight, maybe 2 miles, and see how I go… if I feel pain, I will stop. The gym sounds a good idea for tomorrow morning, not too much running but will get some cross training done hopefully.
Labels: Marathon des Sables, sand, Wells-Next-The-Sea
