After the rain...

 We went out this morning for our walk, as usual. This is a habit that will stand out as a good thing from the pandemic - we decided right at the beginning of lockdown 1 that we were going to walk each weekday, and barring the odd day when it has simply been too wet, or when one of us has had something happening early in the day, or the handful of days I have been away, we’ve continued ever since. It’s a great way to start the day - some movement, some fresh air, some daylight, and a chance to talk over whatever needs discussion before MrEH settles to his days work, and I try to not annoy him too much just by pottering about the place doing...whatever. 

This morning my plan was to walk with himself, then add on another few miles running afterwards. My kit was on, I walked in my running shoes to facilitate a smooth transition from one form of exercise to the next. And then, 10 minutes away from the end of the walking bit, the heavens opened. There had been a little light drizzle earlier on, but the actual “rain” wasn’t due until 10am according to the weather forecast app. The app is an inveterate liar - I know this. Today it proved it. 9.15 = deluge. Deluge to the point where I said “I’m not running in THIS!” and we squelched home. A change of clothes was needed by both of us when we got there too - as I say, a deluge! 

A few hours later though it was altogether a different story - the sun was out, the sky was blue and it was quite clearly perfect running weather! I love this time of year - the temperatures are great, far nicer to running than the sticky heat of summer. The colours are amazing, and the light too - just beautiful. So I found some dry leggings (there was no way the ones from this morning were going back on!) and some dry running shoes (ditto) and laced up and got out...to discover that my legs felt heavy, my breathing felt rough, and it generally felt like flipping hard work! Frustrating when this happens - there’s nothing you can do about it but grit your teeth and get on with it, or give up and walk home if it feels REALLY thankless. Today I was only after a gentle 3 miles to round off my week - usually I’d round it up to 3.1 for the straight 5k, but today, no - I reached the turn towards home and decided that the straight line rather than the “add a bit of distance” short diversion was in order. Of course when I got home, and looked at the stats on Strava I discovered two things - firstly that it was substantially faster than it felt, and secondly - THAT WAS WHY IT FELT SO TOUGH! Honestly - will I ever learn?! 

Robyn

Medal Monday...

 

In the running world, we love a #MedalMonday hashtag - and so you can imagine my glee when I heard the post drop through the door earlier today to discover that my medal and shirt from running the Vitality Virtual London 10k a few weeks ago.  This is a run that I would never have signed up for in its usual form - too busy, too crowded - so it going virtual because of COVID-19 gave me the opportunity to participate, albeit on a route near home rather than in London, of course. 

I ran it when I was really struggling with running a few weeks ago - with hindsight now I think it is pretty certain that I was suffering from some form of virus at the time - no, not THAT virus, not the right symptoms! I was SO determined to do it though  so went for it when really, I probably shouldn’t. It was slow, but I got it done, and the medal feels like a very well deserved reward! 

This morning I went out for my first run in just over a week - and things felt SO much better! From the full-on slogs of a fortnight ago, it felt great to be able to run the first mile at a decent pace, then switch to run/walk intervals for another 3 miles - bliss! Everyone has the occasional bad run - you expect that, and just have to shrug it off and remind yourself that it IS just a one-off, and that the next one will be better. When the one after that, and the one after that, and the one after THAT too is still grim though, it becomes ever harder to overcome and get out there again - hence the week off, in part, and yes, that break feels as though it has done the trick, thank goodness! It’s wonderful to feel enthusiastic about lacing up my running shoes and getting out there again on Wednesday now! 

Robyn 

Fulfilling a purpose...

 Our town has what might be considered a moderately unusual feature on the OS map, for a small town at least. It’s a heliport - and in fact we actually have a second helipad too - at the hospital. That one isn’t shown on the map though... 

In the 1950’s when Harlow New Town was planned and building began, and around 10 years since the first practical, economical helicopter had been flown, it was assumed that helicopters would be a method of transport much used in the future. So the town planner very sensibly designed a heliport to ensure that this brand new form of travel could be easily used. Of course, for day to day civilian transport they have never really taken hold, and so our “heliport” is now essentially an empty field...except, today, it wasn’t! 

We were walking towards the town centre - partly just for a walk, and partly as there were a few items of shopping we wanted to pick up - I’d been unable to get teabags during my regular supermarket shop so a trip elsewhere was needed, and hear the sound of a helicopter nearby...a quick check on Flightradar24 confirmed that it was the air ambulance and that it was landing somewhere rather closer than the hospital...so we diverted slightly and went to see if indeed, as we suspected, our “heliport” might be in use. 

By the time we got there the medical team had already left to attend the incident they had been called to leaving the flying crew to wait with the aircraft in the sunshine. I only had the phone with me of course, but it would have been rude not to grab a couple of photos... 

...she did look rather splendid casting a shadow with the sun behind her. It is of course to be hoped that the casualty they were attending had a good outcome, these guys don’t get called unless there is significant threat to life, or a strong likelihood of life changing injury, so although it is nice to see the helicopter in a location like this, it is always tinged with the knowledge that someone’s life had just undergone a dramatic change. 

Robyn 

Not doing “shoulds”...

The most beautiful sky on our walk this morning - one of my favourite routes as well, out along the lane, a diversion to get MrEH’s paper, then along the bridleway to the Common and it’s fabulous views, before heading back towards home. I’m still gritting my teeth and resisting running, but assuming it’s dry I’ll be back to that on Monday and there are three runs in the plan for next week. 

This week has - as planned - been all about strength workouts and stretching. A couple of stability sessions on the balance cushion, a weights session, and one of Alice Liveing’s workouts from her 28 day challenge that she is running on Instagram. Bless her - she taught live workouts almost daily through lockdown 1, and is planning the same for this month as well. I’m not going to be doing all 28 days, but will dip in and out and pick some of the workouts that will suits me as the month goes on. As with last time, there is a huge amount of pressure being created around “shoulds” during lockdown - using the time to build fitness,  complete DIY jobs, practise mindfulness....and so it goes on. For me, the only real difference is that e Erne is in the same boat, and I won’t be going to Scampton, or to catch up with friends etc, but of course with the weather getting colder I would have been doing less of that in any event! Doing strenuous exercise on a daily basis, with no room for recovery, wouldn’t suit me any other time, so I won’t be doing it now just because we are back into lockdown either! (To clarify, this is in no way a swipe at Alice - her workouts are carefully crafted to work different body areas on consecutive days, so are designed to allow for recovery). 

We do have a few small DIY jobs to be going on with, the front room curtain rail is threatening to fall down, and one of the fibreoptic light strips in the kitchen is flickering and needs re-fixing. There might be a few other odd jobs as well. We’re also planning a return to local walking - our local OS map will be out again, and our plan for the weekends at the moment anyway is to do a shorter walk one of the days and a longer walk the other. 

Do remember - you don’t have to feel that you must be making use of every second during lockdown. This is a stressful time for everyone, and this time round might be hitting you harder than before combined with the colder weather and lack of daylight. For me, it’s actually feeling easier than before - in part because we don’t have so much planned stuff being cancelled this time round - unsurprisingly we’d mostly not bothered planning much for the next little while! If that’s not the case for you though, remember the value of just curling up on the sofa with a good book, or a film, or whatever suits you if that is what you need to do. You do you - and don’t be made to feel guilty because of other people’s “shoulds”! 

Robyn 

Here we go again...

 

Today England starts its second period of full lockdown in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Numbers of cases have been rising across the country and with people starting to look towards wanting to be able to spend time with families over Christmas, it was felt by Government that the sacrifice of a months lockdown now might enable an easing of restrictions over the festive season. We will see if this proves to be the case - currently we are being told that once the lockdown finishes on December 2nd we will all be returning to our previous "tiers" which for a good many across the country means no mixing of households indoors, and for a good many more means no mixing even in private gardens or other outdoor spaces. For us here, in Tier 2, this will write off any chance of seeing family over the Christmas period - much as I would love to be able to spend time with my parents, and MrEH with his, our respective parents are all in either their later 70's or 80's, with varying levels of health issues, and a Christmas spent outdoors in very probably low temperatures and possible inclement weather is not something that would be practical for them.

Elsewhere in the world the Americans have been given a chance to redeem themselves for their ludicrous choice of president 4 years ago, and from reports it would appear that record numbers of them turned out to try to do just that. Currently votes are still being counted (I believe because of the higher than usual numbers of postal and ahead-of-time voting where people wanted to avoid the risk of attending polling stations on election day itself, this process is taking longer than usual). Meanwhile Trump is - as was inevitable - bouncing wildly from overconfidence (he made a formal address on election night claiming victory!) to toddler-tantrums, threatening legal action to any state where it looks like a majority might have voted against him. Terrifyingly in some states which are looking like going in Joe Biden's favour but counting is not yet complete, he is trying to get the counting stopped (it's reckoned that a higher proportion of the ahead/postal votes are likely to be for Biden). Even more terrifyingly, rather than stopping to think, and asking how the hell THAT would fit with democracy, some of his supporters are taking to the streets in support of his viewpoint. I'd like to say that you can't imagine a situation where that sort of anti-democratic behaviour would happen here in the UK, but to my shame after those who tried to overturn the will of the majority (and regardless of which side you sit on, that is what it was) on the question of leaving the EU, it would appear that the gradual Americanisation of many in the UK continues apace, as depressing as that thought is to many of us.

Anyway - Lockdown 2.0 as it is being called by many has a few key differences from the previous one. Schools and colleges remain open this time - it's been decided that the continuation of education must take precedence, and I have to confess that I can very much see that point. Losing substantial amounts of school time - particularly as a teenager beginning to work towards exams, is incredibly difficult to come back from, as anyone who was at school during the teachers strikes in the 1980's will acknowledge. The big issue with the schools and universities is the sheer number of children who having been brought up by the media and in a few cases, their parents, to believe that their rights are surpreme, are now deciding that even when outside their places of learning the regulations around social distancing etc are something that they are unwilling to adhere to. It's not all of them by any means, but it is in enough numbers to ensure problems when out and about generally at the times that schools are arriving and leaving for the day. Also different this time are the rules around exercise - the "one form of exercise per day" ruling of the first lockdown has now, thank goodness, made a reappearance. This time the benefits of being outside in the open air for movement are being recognised - something which is key at this point in the year too.

For me, I plan to continue working through old photos - any aviation fans reading may recognise the shot at the top of this post as one from 2014 - and the "stripes" Typhoon that the RAF Typhoon Display Team used for some of that season. I'm finding a surprising amount of shots to play with - mostly those that didn't get processed at all at the time, probably due to lack of hours in the day, but also some that I had processed previously and now feel I could make a better job of. Just looking back at some of the old memories is great in itself too - and more particularly allowing that it may well, from the look of things, be a fair few months before I get to socialise with  my aviation pals again. I suspect there will also be more baking, by some fluke of fate we purchased a jigsaw, some DVD's and some books from a charity shop on Saturday, and some more longer walks might be happening as well. As the days shorten, the temptation is more to curl up indoors anyway, so rightly or wrongly this month of restrictions don't feel quite so stressful as the first time round. 

Robyn

Pressing pause...

 

I’m not good at admitting when I need to step back a bit - this applies generally, but all the more so when it comes to running, and especially when I’ve been on a bit of a roll with consistency and distances. 

Last month went well - 3 runs per week, 11 in total for the month. I exceeded my monthly target of 50 miles by 7, increased my distance to beyond 10k, ran the Virtual Vitality London 10k, and got myself to within 50 miles of my annual mileage target too. I also did several strength sessions, a fair bit of stability work, and a LOT of stretching, however, I also aggravated a bit of a niggle in my left foot and ankle, and ran on when I knew I wasn’t really feeling “right” which has lead to me feeling rather out of sorts and under the weather for the past week. And of course in spite of THAT I ran some more... Add in quite a lot of walking and general time on my feet, all this on top of a LOT of mileage covered walking in September too, and frankly, my body is crying out for a bit of a break.

This week then is a re-set. No running for at least the first few days - instead either a strength or a stability session each day, and a longer yoga/stretching session too. Walking to get my daily aim of 5 miles in, but not too much more. Plenty of fruit and veggies, lots of water. Listening to my body and giving the niggles a chance to settle. All being well I’ll get a run in on Friday - just possibly Thursday - but I’ve suspended any weekly target for this week, and won’t be putting myself under any pressure to do too much until things feel right again. With what is now being referred to as “Lockdown 2” approaching, I think it’s likely that I’m going to want to be able to get out and run or at least walk plenty over the next few weeks, so a bit of stepping back now should help to put me in the best possible place to allow that. 

While I’m not spending too much time on my feet this week, I plan to turn my attention back to some of my old unprocessed photos. I’ve got airshow stuff going back years that I want to look back on - from the 2 Lancasters flying together in 2014, through to the various classic jets that we no longer see fly for various reasons, there is plenty of stuff to be working on, and the new laptop is proving to be an absolute delight to work on, too. Slightly more up to date software is also meaning I can get far better results from my processing, so that in itself is proving an incentive to work on some stuff that I ignored or just simply missed previously. I’ll maybe post some of the results here - but in any event a fair number will appear on Instagram (@robyn_pf) or Twitter (@EssexHebridean) and as usual everything will land up on my Flickr account (Photozone72) so pop over there and take a look! 

Robyn

Long walk Sunday...

With the news of a new national lockdown to start this coming week, we felt the need to get a bit of “proper normal” in our lives. We also needed to head into London to check what the situation was with parking in the areas that we usually use for work parking as MrEH has to go into the office next Friday (something that can’t be done remotely) and had no idea if the local authorities would have seized the opportunity during lockdown of having altered the residents parking zones. (Spoiler - they have, and my parking for the office is now going to be a complete nightmare!) So this afternoon, parking reconnaissance completed, we parked at Leyton ready to pick up the route from our last bit of Central Line walk, to continue on round what is universally known as “the loop” - the stretch of line that serves the stations of Woodford, Chigwell and Newbury Park, among others. 

First up is very familiar to both of us - Leytonstone, the nearest station to the office where I (usually, if not for the last few months!) work and where MrEH travels into the city from. I walk past both the preserved advertising panels (for stores long gone from the area) and the mosaic panels commemorating Leytonstone’s most famous son - Sir Alfred Hitchcock - on a regular basis but still think they’re beautiful! 

Next comes Snaresbrook - a beautiful station building (and spot the ring necked parakeet flying away!) We’re still on the main section of line at the moment - trains here head to and from Epping at the northernmost end of the line, and also our own “local” station, although at about 7 miles away “local” is relative. 

On to the first of the two Woodford stations - South Woodford, also known locally as George Lane for the road that the station entrance sits on. Sadly not the most photogenic of stations although that is true of quite a lot of them on this stretch - Snaresbrook was the last notable architecture we’ll see in terms of stations for a while now as our route mostly takes us to the secondary station entrances - some are altogether nicer looking from the opposite side of the tracks. 

Then Woodford - which surely must  get the title of scruffiest station on the network? There’s really nothing to recommend it is there, and after a brief stop for a drink of water and to roll coats up and shove in bags, we moved on... 

At this stage the loop peels away east, and we followed round to a station which truly does have a “title” - this time “the least used station on the network” - Roding Valley. In 2018 just 280,000 journeys were started or ended here - and we will shortly be heading on to the stations which take up positions 2 and 3 on the “least used” list, as well. 

While the back entrance to the station is distinctly anonymous, with no barriers here it is possible to walk straight onto the platform, and very charming it is, too! As I wanted to change my walking shoes for boots, we took the chance to use a bench on the (completely deserted!) platform. One notable on this stretch was seeing a Pomelo fruit carved as a Halloween lantern - we were unable to decide if this was the only carveable thing they had, or whether this was a middle-class statement!

Back on our feet and onwards - and we were a little surprised to find a gunsmith in a back street between Roding Valley and Chigwell! 

This was one of the most scenic parts of the walk too - alongside then over the river Roding, and admiring the handsome viaduct that takes the line over the top here, before taking a quiet lane which eventually lead us over the 6 lanes of the M11 motorway. 

Getting dark now - the glowing lights of Chigwell were very welcoming, this is number 2 on that “least used” list too, but there were a few people about - and a couple of cars outside including a taxi driver giving his vehicle a clean while waiting for a fare...

Feet aching now - and the last few stations had been entirely uphill too. Sadly that wasn’t to change for most of the way to Grange Hill station either. It should be mentioned that this is not the Grange Hill of children’s TV fame - that one was fictional. This one is very much real and yes, you’ve guessed it, sits in position 3 on that least used list... 

We departed Grange Hill - downhill, thank goodness - in the now full darkness, and having pretty much decided that Hainault would be our last station of the day. This was our longest walk since we were away in the Hebrides, and the first time on this amount of tarmac for a good while too, and both our feet and legs were really feeling it. Much as it’s never good to feel you’ve been beaten, it’s also sensible to admit when you’ve had enough! 

So into the tube at Hainault - my first time on public transport since March! (And in turn probably the longest I’ve gone without using the tube since I was a toddler!) Very quiet, thankfully, we were back at Leyton in what seemed like no time at all. A good walk - and definitely nice to get another section ticked off too. Next will be the rest of the loop, then the “home stretch” from Woodford up to to Epping. The west end of the line from Shepherd’s Bush will probably have to wait a while yet, though! 

Robyn