I’ve been clocking up the hours at work rather than in my running shoes, which has also meant limited blogging opportunities. Still, it’s worth mentioning that from a Septathlon challenge point of view I’m back on track, having just competed my fifth major event: the BUPA Great Capital 10k.

Again I was luck with the weather. The run was a very pleasant meander around Hyde Park, with the trees providing shade from the sun. Apart from the usual complaints about the shortage of loos, it was highly organised and the only real gripe was a lack of enthusiasm from the supporters, who were mostly made up of tourists passing by. I ran it in 57.37, which is way slower than last year’s Derby 10k, but if you saw the pictures, you’d realise that my paunch might have something to do with that.

The next event is the Nike 10k at the end of August, followed by the Experian Festival of Running (the dafted event name I’ve heard of), otherwise known as the Robin Hood half marathon, in September. It doesn’t leave much room for error to complete my seven events before the end of September, but I should just about hobble in and reach my goal.

I joined the work football team last night. We’re called the Citi Slickers. Slick we’re not: we managed to win our first game 3-0, but after running around for 17 minutes, we were spent and lost the second 3-1. The other team were coasting and we could have lost by many more than the scoreline showed. Still, I haven’t played in months and wasn’t the worst (or best) person on the pitch.

Predictably I’m a bit achey this morning. So tonight’s start in the Touch Rugby team will be interesting… 

I ran a PB last night, the first one since last year. Yay. But before I get too excited, I have to point out it was for a distance I’d never run before: 3.5 miles. I had been persuaded to run the JP Morgan Chase Challenge for work, which is basically an enormous corporate jolly.

Some 13,000 runners from over 300 companies took part in a run around Battersea Park. And, not surprisingly, it was incredibly crowded, but it was nice to do my first race in London. Most of the people that took part were banker, hedge fund managers and the like (and actually they did seem vaguely normal), and were enjoying the corporate hospitality in their marquees in the ‘hospitality village’. We, on the other hand, had a picnic and congregated round a tree - not that it mattered.

I ran a fairly comfortable 29.54 - still a lot slower than I was running last year, but probably a quicker pace than if I’d run around the Heath. Congratulations to one of our execs Jonathan who got a top ten place, coming in in around 18 minutes.

Team Stavmat are now in Oban on their cycling tour and seem to be steaming along quite nicely (I, on the other hand, haven’t been on my bike since London to Brighton) and can’t have many days to go before they reach John O Groats.

Mat’s blog has turned into some sort of cycling gastro tour - well a pie eating omnibus, at least. They even wrote up the top three so far:

1. Glovers, Bamber Bridge

Sold mainly pies, in tin foil pie dishes. They were all hot (cooked recently and on the premises), which is important, and well filled. I liked the custart tart which was moist, eggy and nicely textured and flavoured. The butter pie and the meat pies were excellent.
2. Name unknown, Wem

Lovely cold cheese and mushroom quiche and hot meaty (importantly - gristle free) pies. Nice big Danish pastry and a quiet, well planted community garden down the road in which to eat it all.

3. Blakes, Liskeard

Amusingly had “Blakes the Master Bakers” over the shop - try saying it quickly. A fine purveyor of traditional Cornish pasties. Well filled, highly flavoursome with a good mix of meat and veg. Excellent Lardy Cake, a sweet bready thing with raisins inside and sugar on top. Tastes a lot better than it sounds.

The rest - Monmouth, and somewhere on the way to Bristol don’t get a mention for some or all of the following reasons.

Number 1 offence has to be cold pies & pasties. Nothing says “baked ages ago” quite as well as stone cold pastry. Flavours come out much better in a hot pastry (probably because the fats are liquid, transporting flavours to the tongue and improving the mouth feel) and the pastry stays crisper.

Underfilling is not uncommon, neither is the horrible habit of using gristle instead of meat. Both make one feel a bit cheated. Thick, dry pastry is never good either.

Now they’re in Scotland, they seem to be enjoying the salmon (and, I hope, the odd whiskey).

It’s almost inspiring enough to put the wheels on one of the two bikes littering up my lounge and go for a blast.

Stav and Mat, the widely regarded fit cyclists of our Budapest to Krakow cycling holiday (above) have taken on a bigger challenge, this time cycling from John O Groats to Lands End. They’re not doing it for charity or as a result of some beer induced challenge. No, they’re doing it for fun. If, like me, you feel that they’re taking it all a bit far, you can read how they’re getting on on their blog. Good luck peeps.

I’ve been a bit quiet on my running blog of late (in fact, my training has hardly been pushing any boundaries either), so thought I’d post a quick entry about my new fave place to run: Hampstead Heath.

I think it just about qualifies as a running commute. Basically I get the Tube to either Highgate or Kentish Town and take a meandering run towards and through Hampstead Heath and then drop down into West Hampstead.

Tuesday night was perfect, starting off at Highgate and running (getting a bit lost) around Queen’s Wood. Hampstead Heath was populated with loads of other runners, as well as cyclists, dog walkers and picnickers (probably the most sensible of the lot, given the warm evening).

The only pain is that work demands, and meeting up with an old mate for a curry yesterday, meant that my only other window for exercise this week was tonight. Predictably a late job stopped me from going. Pants. I hope the warm weather continues, so I can get a few more runs in before my next Septathlon Challenge: the British 10k.

There were times during yesterday’s London to Brighton bike ride that I thought I was on the cycling equivalent of driving round the M25 on a Friday afternoon before a bank holiday weekend. I expected it to be a bit busy at the start, but I wasn’t prepared for the hordes of cyclists that had the potential to ruin what was gearing up to be an excellent event.

The start itself was pretty well organised and there was a pang of excitement seeing so many cyclists congregate on Clapham Common. We started in waves - having been alloted the 9.00 slot (the earliest was 6.00) - I was thankful for the good weather. Hanging around in the pouring rain wouldn’t have been fun.

The first mile or so were ok, but we were soon sharing the road with London traffic, which meant spending a lot of time at traffic lights, even walking the bikes at some point. As we reached the countryside I was hopeful that that was it, but within a few more miles it all started again. The congestion seemed to be caused by a combination of people stopping for rest stations (where you could use toilets, get some food etc) and occassionally at junctions, where at one point it took us half an hour to get about half a mile.

After that it was plain sailing for 20 or so miles and some of the villages had made a real effort to make people welcome. The atmosphere amongst cyclists was pretty good too and it was by far the most accessible event I’ve done (to the point where I wondered whether some pople had ever been on a bike before). Some people had made an effort to get dressed up while others were just riding unusual bikes (top marks to the chap that rode the whole way on a BMX).

Cycling the 54 mile course itself was reasonably easy going, apart from the notorious Ditchling Beacon, a seriously gnarly hill which basically take you over the South Downs. After that it was a five mile blast to the coast, where I managed to free wheel at over 42 mph. The hill was worth it.

The feeling of ‘actually this event has been pretty good after all’ wore off quickly, however, on the run in to Brighton, where it was queuing a traffic lights time. I think the problem was a combination of the police not shutting off enough roads and the organisers letting too many people take part. It’s a shame really, because the previous 20 or so miles had been great cycling.

The transfer back was, thankfully, better organised. Bikes were bubblewrapped and stacked in TNT lorries, while we all piled on coaches. But by the time the coach got back and I cycled back to West Hampstead it was 11pm - an exceptionally long day and 73 miles of cycling - but I think it was worth it. But maybe just the once.

London life is so far proving difficult to get the exercise count up and another week has gone by without a work out, only to have an exercise binge lined up for the weekend: this time it’s the London to Brighton bike ride. Like last weekend’s half marathon, I haven’t prepared properly (well apart from my big cycle holiday six weeks ago), but at least I do now own padded cycling shorts. The only decision now is whether to ride the svelte Specialized Allez (and have to wear a rucksack) or the more practical, but heavy, Saracen Skyline. Either way, I’m glad I’m not doing it on a mountain bike.

The sun beat down on St Albans yesterday and, as I sat on the grass putting Vaseline on my toes, I knew that there was absolute an certainty of putting in the worst time in the third of my half marathon attempts.I was proved to be right. Here’s my bullet point guide to putting in a PW (Personal Worst):