London 2012 at 5cm resolution

I had such a cool afternoon playing with some of the latest image mapping available in Europe. BLOM are a company that my company are exploring as a data provider. Hence, they have sent us some sample datasets and an online web portal to check out what they have. BLOM  are the people behind the oblique and birds eye views on bing maps.

I obviously can't show any of the stuff they have sent but to give you a flavour of what they are doing, here is a picture of the Olympic Stadium (pre-track being laid). The actual image is to a 5cm resolution and was taken using a c.196 megapixel camera (a normal camera has about 10 megapixels!). So this is basically a bit like google earth but much cooler and much more detailed. Very exciting!

My Achilles Heel

People often say that the hardest part is admiting it - well I am ready: "I am injured". Phew, with that over I can plough on with rehab (ice, ice, rest, ice, stretch, ice, massage, ice, ice, and jog!!) 

The story follows: I had an "end of season" tight achilies which I attributed to lots of hurdling. So I took a break. Then I resumed "jogging" on holiday where my tight achillies persisted and here I justified it as "dehydration and wearing flip flops". I returned from holidays and embarked on winter training during which my poor achillies gradually got worse and worse and the "start of winter training" excuse eventually fell flat. A full week off (that coincided with lots of biking during the late Sept heatwave) and I set off on my 3 mile jog return....ouch, back to square one. Then, I did what every runner knows they shouldn't but always does, I raced. Not good. Whilst my warm up was fine (a dull ache) racing over cross-country in spikes tested it a bit too much and left it feeling very vulnerable and sensitive.

Time to take some days off and get it fixed properly before resuming running! Booo hoo! 

Cononley

Gosh, it has been a long time since my last blog addition but the good news is that I have now moved house, my husband has joined me in Yorkshire, we have internet connected and it is substantially faster than my Aunts house and following my last blog, I have been reinstated as the English Champion and am the proud owner of a shiny gold medal. The full story behind this reinstatement is somewhat long winded and not for today. The only bad news that I can think of is that I appear to be even busier than before and have less time to write up my thoughts in a blog.

But I shall make a effort to squeeze a 15-min blog writing session into my weekly schedule.

I suppose I should really spend a paragraph or so writing about our new house - or rather about our new village, Cononley. Captured below on a misty, early morning last month, our village is a little gem. Nestled against the edge of a classic Yorkshire Dale, our olde-worlde village is almost perfect. It has an amazing pub featured in the Good Pub Guide 2011, a postoffice/shop selling local fruit and vegetables and locally produced milk, a train station, cricket field, hair dressers, abundant supply of blackberry bushes that continue to burst with fruit and its very own heard of dairy cows that walk right past our house twice a day! Yet despite its rural sleepiness, it is 3miles from Skiptonia, 30mins on the train to Leeds city centre and 10mins drive (or 20mins fabulous bike) to work! Awesome!

English Champ - I don't think so!

Wow, how do I sum up that weekend's racing experience - eventful, emotional, gutting, wet!

You would think that winning the English Championships 3000m steeplechase would be a joyous occasion. Instead, the first feeling I had to overcome upon crossing the finish line was a dripping sense of baffled embarrassment having spent a short time fully submerged, upside down in the water pit on the last lap. I can't help write this without smiling, but I still don't know quite what happened other than at the crucial take off moment, my brain failed me and that unique ability to tell your legs to jump (when logical sense actually says - big barrier, deep water, potential danger) sent me clumsily falling sideways and then onto my back into the deep end. But with a comfotable lead, I resurfaced and splodged home slowly in first place. 

This is what I must have looked like the second guy.......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9haxOZvlAFs&feature=related

But then the real horror of the day started to unfold when I learnt that I was disqualified from the champs on the grounds of ineligibility (although I had started to suspect this from about lap 3 when the announcer starting talking about me as a "guest". What, how, no????????? Aparrently, 11 years residency is not sufficient to allow one to win an English title. Or so they say......but oddly enough we can't find a single rule that confirms this and as such we are in the process of appealing this DQ.

Even though the rain had now stopped, there were a few tears as I made the long solo 4-hour trip back up the M1 from Bedford with the only thing making me remotely smile being the mental image of myself splashing into the pit! 

Race Preview

On the eve of possibly the biggest race of my summer season, I thought I would spend my lunch break writing some pre-race thoughts as some form of mental preparation. After all, blogs are suppose to be reflective and running is as much about what goes on in your head as in your legs. 

Tomorrow is the English National Track and Field Champs and on paper, I am by far the fastest entrant with Sarah Hood (running as a guest) my nearest rival. I feel a bit nervous but also excited about the prospect of winning the race and adding this title to the Scottish one that I won last year. I suppose it is "being favourtie" that is actually making me nervous with my friend and rival Sarah causing me greatest cause for concern. And particularly since she is long overdue a big chase PB.  

In terms of training and race-prep, things have improved over the last two weeks and aside from a total lack of track training and track races, I am confidently fit as a fiddle. I really have whacked in the summer mileage and over a 7-day period ending last sunday, I ran 70miles, raced a 5km, ran two sessions, did some hurdling and lots of core/arm stuff. So I have no doubts about my endurance and leg strength. Furtehrmore, based on my 5km race two weeks ago and the session I did last Saturday, I sure do have the longer endurance and 80sec/lap leg pace. Plus, with 10-days of hurdling reguarly now in the bag (albeit using my wooden hurdles hammered into a slightly rough grass field on a gently hill), I am confident about the barriers and actually think my left leg leads are OK. And after Loughborough and am more than happy about the water jump - I just need to attack away.

Having said all that, I do naturally, have some reservations. First is a lack of anaerobic work (or 1500m work) which some suggest a good steeplchaser needs - but I can overcome this by starting steady and not running into the anaerobic zone until the later stages. A big error would be to go off too hard. Indeed, given the "championship" nature of the race, I am keen to relax and cool the pace down early on. The other main area of concern I am hanging onto is that I am about 4 pounds above my racing weight - although what this is in the first instance is somewhat debatable since you only need to look at the likes of Helen C / Erin Don etc and note that being stick thin does not always equate to running fast. Furthermore, steeplechase is a strength event and perhaps these 4-pounds are muscle and will help propel me around the track.

All in all, I have a plan in my head, I am confident of beating everyone and fundamentally, the most important thing, is to be relaxed - if I am relaxed, then my hurdling technique will take less out of me. Oh and one other thing, I really do want to race and to win - something I was admittedly lacking earlier in the season. 

So good luck to me and I do hope that my next blog entry is a happy one!

Pendle Witches

Last week, I climbed Pendle Hill with five members of my work team. We discussed the story of the Pendle witches and only Jane knew a version of the story. I decided that it was my duty to investigate the story some more and report my new knowledge back to my team. Here goes:

Pendle Hill in Lancashire, is a lump of hill made of millstone grit (I think) that was tougher to erode that the surrounding limestone dales during the last glaciation. Hence it was left. In glaciology terminology, it is like a giant drumlin, with a steep east facing end and a gentler westerly side. Other than moorland grass, not a lot else grows and it is relatively featureless. Hence, it is a good job that it is shrouded in the mysterious story of the witches.

In 1612, twelve people, mainly women, were accused of the murders of ten people by use of witchcraft, put on trial and all but one was found guilty and hung. They all lived in the area around Pendle Hill and most came from two families and included four generations of women. The Lancashire witch trials were unusual due to the number of simultaneous hangings with fewer than 500 executions of witches in England between the 15th and 18th centuries.

We all have to work somewhere....

The consultancy firm I now work for, have their HQ in the Broughton Hall Business Park, just outside Skipton. Unlike most work-related parks that have fancy names because they were built on top of historic structure (such as the Victoria Park Shopping centre, built on the Victoria Park, or the Castle Business Park in Stirling which is merely in sight of the Castle), we really are housed in the Hall's South Barn. It's rather clever really: the upkeep of Broughton Hall (the fabulous stately home of the Tempest family) must cost a bit so Mr Tempest rents out his outbuildings, barns, orangery and courtyard to a moderate list of small and medium-sized businesses (including the Dalesman magazine, local radio station Fresh FM, and some funky BBQ provider next door). In return we get an amazing place to work.

JBA occupy one of the larger properties in the estate, the South Barn, which is distinguished by its blue-faced clock on the end wall facing the car park. With 5 or so open plan rooms, each seating 15 of so budding flood experts, a kitchen, a couple of meeting rooms and a room full of high-powered computers, it has pretty much everything the company needs. My room is at the top of the barn with high ceilings, exposed wooden beams and a few token exposed wall features. Outside, there are fields with sheep, birds of prey, an old railway, a river, a tennis court and outdoor pool, secret gardens and the large manicured wall gardens (including a fancy, modern glass sided cafe within the garden for visitors). So when I sit reading my book over lunch between the immaculately rounded evergreen trees and bushes, overlooking the glass domed roof of the Hall's rear glass house and listening to the 1pm chime from the bell tower, it is easy to become immersed in Jane Austin's Emma and imagine that Broughton is instead Highbury. 

It definitely beats London! 

Howling Wolf

High up, on one of the many rocky outcrops that run along the edge of the Wharfe valley between Addingham and Ilkley, crouches a howling wolf. 

Photo borrowed from the Ilkely Gazette website: 

Legend (in the form of the Ilkely Gazette) has it that he just appeared one day with no owner, no one to take credit for their masterpiece and not even a fresh footprint in the peat. One can only conclude that he was either deposited by a helicopter with a precision aim, or that perhaps he's a ghost, frozen on the edge of the crag as the wind changed direction? His positioning close to the edge of the forest on the mysterious Rombald's Moor; home of many a Yorkshire fable including magical creatures, witches, ghosts and giants does indeed support this theory. As does the fact that wolves once roamed this area? I discovered him on a run, so I only managed to capture him on my phone (with dreadful reflection on the screen) but vow to return to the crag on a summers evening with my DSLR to take some better ones!

Racing Yorkshire Style

Last night, I decided to truly embrace the Yorkshire running ways, donned my Bingley vest and tackled the Beamsley Beacon 5.5mile fell race. Having been told about the "lovely walk" and "stunning views" from a work colleague last week and hearing a group of Doss running friends were planning on racing, I threw caution to the westerly breeze and heavy rain showers and rocked up in Addingham for my fell running debut (I discount the Peel Hill Race in the Isle of Man since you can wear flats and it is always sunny!). I wouldn't say I was nervous (couldn't get more low key) but I was apprehensive about the task that loomed before me - after all, I am accustomed to bouncing around a track and running races lasting less than 10mins - this was going to be a new experience.

Having memorised the verbal description of the best route to descend (any permissible route was allowed) I revealed my rather short, fashionable, track-running, hot-pant shorts and tried desperately to hide my amateurish shoes which only loosely resemble trail shoes. Which makes me wonder - why is it acceptable for fell runners to spend lots of money on the latest Inov8 or Salomon fell shoes, but if their kit doesn't contain an array of holes, each of which tell an epic near-death fell running tale, then it is simply not worthy?

A group assembled outside the pub with an average age of about 50 and an average build that could be described as knackered and scrawny, we set off at the usual alarming pace (it is only ever tactical track races that runners set off slowly!). After a mile on tarmac and a mile of gradual accent up the edge of a wood, things started to get tough - the moor opened out, the gradient steepened and the beacon emerged above. I made it until about 2mins from the summit before admitting defeat and taking a cheeky (power) walk. From the summit, I took a split second glance of the view and began my descent. 

Here is the view I would have enjoyed if not racing!

Having proudly reached the top in 12th place, and just behind Shane (who I thought would be a useful person to follow as he had provided me with the description of the complex route down), I suddenly found myself in a lot of trouble. Aside from the fact that my calves had turned into dried out rubber bands ready to snap clean, I discovered I had something that no-one else around possessed - a genuine concept of consequence! If I fall over on one of these rocks now, it will (a) hurt, (b) ruin the rest of my summer track season, and (c) be somewhat embarrassing. Plus, I had the comfort of not seeing any other women nearby (yes, I did have a good scan behind me during my momentary walk up)  - although there was always the risk of a good female descender. Despite losing sight of the many men I passed the summit with, and a whole load who had since overtaking me, I was fortunate enough to be steered into the "ginnel section" by a nice man (who no doubt reached the summit a good minute after me). He then made the error of being a gentleman and letting me enter it before him, only to be stuck behind me along its entirety - although I no doubt took the full force of the nettles and thistles that lined its narrow, steep and rocky sides - perhaps this is the reason why all fell runners are skinny?

Shortly after the ginnel, we re-entered civilisation and I was pleasingly cheered on by Sel, who had wandered out to watch. I also managed to regain a few places that I had lost on the downhill - showing my speed off in a lovely striding sprint finish back to the pub!

I won the women's race in 41 something, a few minutes ahead of the next lady (who I suspect also has a sense of consequence) and was rewarded with some booze for my efforts!

Today, I can hardly walk! 

The Peacock

On the first day of my new job, at JBA (flood consultants), at Broughton Hall Business Park, with moderate levels of nerves/excitement/apprehension, I met the Peacock. Unofficially named Percy, he was standing just around the bend, in the middle of the single track road, in full feathered display! Thankfully, I was driving at a dribble and was able to stop and navigate around him with a bit of persuasion.

In the days that followed, I have heard Percy more than I have seen him. And oh boy, he is a noisy little bird - shrieking and squawking. This is particularly disturbing when having an outdoor meeting (well it was nice and sunny) about event sets, probability distributions etc and he joins in! But anyhow, I have also been warned to "avoid" "run-away" and "do not touch" as apparently he is a vicious little bugger.

This aggressive streak my help explain his appearance on the Broughton Hall estate a couple of years back. Whilst he blends in with the Manor, walled garden, game keepers etc, he comes from a previous owner. Caught on CCTV, a white van turned up in the dead of night, opened its back doors and pushed poor Percy out before scarpering off!

Well, I quite like him and look forward to taking his photo in the not too distant future!

Busy in Yorkshire

It is a reflection of how busy I have been over the past 10-days or so that this is my first blog post since I packed up (some of) my things and moved in with my Auntie in Yorkshire. This is the view from my new temporary home, and although it is now dusk, is the same view that I can see out of the window just behind my computer screen....lovely!

Since my Aunt's internet connection is rather in the dark ages, I will have to limit my photos on here but I will add some to Flickr (also when I get a moment)..... Emma's Flickr Photos

With so many new sites, sounds and experiences to write about, I don't really know where to begin. Perhaps a list of stuff would suffice and hopefully over the coming weeks, months, years here in Yorkshire, I will write a piece on them all:
The Broughton Hall Peacock
Peaceful lunchtimes
Morning 2-mile jogs (the furthest without excessive elevation gain/drop)
Hardistys Farm
Work - tea consumption; birthday cake, learning the ropes, nice new work colleagues, the deep end!
Friday bacon butties
Rubbish weather in June
Knackered running legs
The Hobbit on audiobook
Missing James
South Barn (my new work place)
Timesheets / clients / exciting projects
Our impending move to Cononley
Sel, Frenchie and The Fleece
The River Wharfe......Bolton Abbey
New running routes that feel really long
Cancelled BMC
Hadrians Wall Fell Race and
There is so much more to Ilkely Moor than the Cow and the Calf!

Bistro 21, Aykley Heads, Durham

This is a restaurant that I have always wanted to go to, but until last night, have never been. With precious few days left until I depart to Yorkshire, we decided that it was now or never so booked ourselves in for the three course, early evening menu (so that we could also go to the Duke of Wellie Quiz after).

Bistro 21 is part of Terry Laybourne's group of NE restaurants, of which we have previously dined at Cafe 21 on Newcastle Quayside. Sandwiched between the Police HQ, Hospital and County Hall, this little Mediterranean/French Bistro is somewhat out of place. Upon entering, you almost forget that you are in Durham (apart from the strong local accent of the customers) with its wine/beer cellar bar and rustic, country-living dining room (the restaurant occupies a 300-year old farmhouse). It was a lovely, relaxing ambience and by no means pretentious!

The locally sourced and seasonal food was delicious and beautifully presented. Although there were a few things James and I would have changed, it was great value for money, interesting and tasty, and importantly for two runners who had just run 9miles, sufficiently filling! The creme brulee  I had for pudding was particularly special and not something I would normally go for!

Take That

Take That, Progress Tour, Stadium of Light, Sunderland

Friday 26th May - opening night!   

What a gig! Not only was this TT's first concert in 15 years with all 5 members, but it was also Robbie's return to the stage since 2006. And boy did he make an entrance! After a good set by the Pet Shop Boys (loving the square backing singer costumes!!), Gary, Mark, Jason and Howard burst onto stage with a few of their pre-Robbie recent hits! Then Robbie performed a good 5-6 of his greatest solo hits. Finally, the main show began and with water canons, aerial acrobatics and a head dive by the Robster, the gang performed the Flood in amazing style! 

The show progressed (ha, excuse the pun!) with a lot of drama, an amazing Angle of the North stylie mechanical man (see below) and a mixture of old and new classic Take That songs. Certainly a night to remember and worth the sore feet! 

Cocktails, young folk and trendy music!

Last night was my works leaving do. After a traditional leaving meal in the Court Inn (perfect pre-drinking, deep-fried stodge) and a cheeky neon green shot, we hit the newest and hippest bars in Durham: Popolos: basically still Brown Sugar but with a 10-flavour, Moijto Wednesday cocktail menu (although all flavours came out pretty much the same!)
Osbournes: a nice, classic establishment (very quiet) down the alley by Klute. Bargin mint aero shooters / jeager bombs / tia maria and coke. By this point (around 10pm) concern over our stamina was arising but we embraced the sugar highs and headed to....
Fat Buddha: This place is either packed and 10-deep to the bar or dead - last night,  we were the only ones in there. I had a nice blackcurrent bellini!!
Lloyds: our final destination and somewhere to dance. With our average age of c.28, it was somewhat disturbing to feel about 10-years older than the average drinker. And, with full length jeans (albeit skinny and ticking the figure hugging dress code) we were somewhat overdressed. Even so, with some awesome dancing, the young unemployed folk of Durham and a few token students who were avoiding revision, seemed to appreciate our presence. As did the DJ as we bombarded him with requests for songs we thought were modern enough for such an evening! The reward was a free bottle of sparkling something (wine/cider/vinegar...hard to tell) and lasting till 1am before the thought of work in the morning kicked in.

All in all, a very fun and memorable night with a brilliant group of friends who I am going to miss!!!

You can just about see us all through the dry ice, which I suspect was trying to mask our age and dancing!

 

Windy Weather

What is going on with the weather? Well it is all about the Jet Stream - an oscillatory air stream over the northern hemisphere that is largely responsible for our weather - it brings in the wet weather from across the Atlantic. In the summer 2007, it "unusually"* sat further south than normal in June and July and led to the most costly floods the UK has ever experienced. In the summer of 2008 it again seemed to get stuck over northern England leading to more floods in Morpeth and in 2009 and last summer, we had unsettled, rubbish weather pretty much all summer. Looking at its current patterns (see below), it seems once again to be hitting the UK pretty hard and blowing us to bits....and little sign of moving northwards anytime soon!! But early indications suggest that things may pick up in early June - fingers crossed?

Climate change? Well, yes, maybe, but umm, no, maybe not - as with all the weather extremes that we get (like the heavy snow over xmas) we must be careful when blaming climate change as these types of weather have happened in the past (e.g. my big sis Claire's birthday when we were kids, on May 21st, when it snowed!!) so may just be part of much largely and longer cyclic weather behaviour (perhaps over decadal length and timescales longer than our instrumental records). But on the other hand, they may be related to anthropogenic climate change - probably best not getting into my views on climate change - all a bit complex!

Crap summer?  Ha ha, who knows! Not even the best models in the world know this! Most likely it is in the hands of the gods!

Running? Dangerous, frustrating, hard work and darn right annoying when racing and everyone who raced on Sunday across the UK knows. Big well done to bro-in-law Ross who ran an amazing 2:23 in the Edinburgh marathon in this wind!! Whoop!

Image courtesy of www.wunderground.com

*So given that the reoccurrence of the jet stream's southerly summer tracks, 

perhaps it isn't so usual after all! 

Chasing at Loughborough

I made my seasons debut over 3000m steeplechase on Sunday whilst representing Scotland at the Loughborough International. I was 2nd in 10:33 - so solid but not quite the outcome I was after. To say it was windy, is an understatement. I took the race on in a determined fashion leading for 4 laps, but felt my strength lacked in the last km, and my hurdle form deteriorated a bit. 

Watch the race here:

http://www.athleticos.org/coverage/238787-2011-Loughborough-International-Athletics/video/491818-3000m-Steeplechase-Match-Women

I made two errors in the race I think. First was the opening 3:20 km.....far too quick, especially considering the wind and hence the last 3 laps were lactic hell. Second was failing to relax making my hurdling more energy consuming. This reflected nerves about my seasons debut and not knowing what steeple shape I was in, and also if I would remember how to water jump (which I did fairly well). With this out of the way, I now can't wait for my next steeple outing at the Watford BMC in a few weeks!!!!!! 

Photo courtesy of Edinburgh Sports Photography and taken from the SA FB page. 

New race experience: False start!!! 

You're stood on the line with spikes gripping the track, the stadium is quiet, your heart is pounding, you feel a bit sick, you would give anything for the ground to swallow you up and BANG, you are off and your brain flips into race mode - all is OK again!

On sunday, after 50m the gun goes bang-bang-bang-bang, 60m and there are yells of "stop, come back girls, come back"......what the hell.....a rather delayed false start. The field ease to a jog, then a walk and look back to the start in confusion. 5mins later and we are back on the start line enduring the worst 30seconds of racing all over again!!! Not fun!     

Prologue

With a major new chapter in my life about to start, and having often wondered about writing a blog, I have decided to give it a trial run and start making regular updates on my life. I don't have any specific plans about what I will blabber on about but I suspect running/athletics will feature highly alongside updates on our move to Yorkshire and anything else that happens to engage my brain.

I don't intend this to generate a high number of followers as quite frankly, although I think I have a pretty interesting and exciting life, I doubt many others will be that bothered about what I get up to - although I suspect my Mum (Hi Mum!) may become my number one fan!

So here goes.....