too boring to post

Running-wise, I don't have anything interesting to say, really. (But maybe it's not just running-wise.) The last time I put running shoes on was to jog over to the old place about a week ago to check for mail. (Why didn't we get it redirected through Royal Mail, you might ask? We did, but you'll have to wait for a rant on public-sector incompetence to find out more.) The jog took about twenty minutes, which is enough to qualify for a run in my books. The part that was slightly different than usual is that it took me through three hill-like sections. I don't mind the uphill parts, but the downhill parts don't seem to agree much with my knees. And "downhill" doesn't seem all that great when you know you'll have another "uphill" to come.

We are liking the new place very much. We're near a main road and a tube station and that's good for transport links. The garden is set opposite the garden belonging to the house on the other side, so if you look out the windows it's a long away to the house opposite, and most of what you see is trees, and it feels like you're in the countryside. It's nice to wake up to the sound of birds chirping and to hear them again as the sun sets.

There are two new routes that I might try when I'm more into running. One will take me past Alexandra Palace and it will largely be uphill and along nice quite trails. On a clear day the view from the top is lovely. It's definitely more a run for a day when I'm feeling in the mood to challenge myself.


Alexandra Palace (affectionately called Ally Pally)

View from the top (I need better pics)

A shorter trot is along the nearby trail called "the Parkland Walk" by locals, which goes along a disused railway track. The sides are now overgrown with trees and it's like a charming little city secret.

Parkland Walk

And maybe I'm a bit unsympathetic to today's youths, but I think it's such a pity that certain sections of a place like this have been handed over for the "expression" of youth - there's a skateboard park and a graffiti area (legit or not, I don't know).


Appropriate?

More photos of our area from this website.

So - plenty of new routes to run, pity that I'm not really into it at the moment. It's a busy period for work, and whatever free time I have, I prefer to channel it into doing the odd jobs around the house first, really. I like hitting the weights, though. I'm doing less supersets, and more "one set of everything" once every hour or two. I've even started doing ab crunches to stave off my middle-age spread. And believe me, there's more spread there than a year's supply of peanut butter. Time to start running soon.