I'm too old to give up but too young to rest by Johnf

Mentioned in a previous post that I had bought a Mac laptop to replace my creaking old Windows one, and accepting that in the main they are more expensive, I remain impressed with the speed it does all sorts of things, so I guess if frustration and time equals money, then perhaps they are well priced. 

Anyway the reason for mentioning it again is that you can get a free Garmin App that runs on Apple that looks very good  One of the problems of swapping PCs anyway let alone changing the operating system is all that software that you have got used to suddenly might not work.  So my Garmin Training Centre and SportTracks software which I ran simultaneously on my PC just won’t run.  However the Garmin App has uploaded all the files from the PC and I have to say it is a natty bit of software, good looking graphs, well I like them but then I like spreadsheets as well, and it has the ability to show you the run on Google Earth which is a well worth waste of 5 minutes in anybody’s world.  Check out the swimming pools of some of those houses you have run past.  It also gives you a very visible summary of your mileage per month and per year.  I just need to work out how to export the files from SportTracks (I think there may be a free plugin to do this) and I’ll be back in my statistical element!

Decided I would run a 15 miler on Sunday so headed off on a known route for most of it and memorised the final few miles after a scan at the map.  Caught up with another runner and we ran together for about 8 or so miles before I split off for my extra miles.  An American working in Belgium and living in Hadleigh.  Anyway the final 5 miles was all on country roads I have never driven before let alone run, and it’s always at this point that you realise how different it’s starting to look from your mapped memory!  For sometime I can see this water tower that I know is about 4 miles from home for me and is my aiming point if I take the wrong turning,  then it disappears for what seems like an age as I drop into a vale.  The road signs at the junctions are at this point exactly what you’d expect, useless unless you know the layout of every village and also where Suffolk Route B or Suffolk Route B2 on the brown signs take you!  So as I start to run up Sulley’s Hill, a road name that tells you what comes next,  heading for a village which I think will extend my run to more like 18, a left turn at another junction takes me back on track and home in just over 2 hours.

Next weekend we have stage 7 of the Tour of Britain coming through Hadleigh.  Looking forward to getting a good view of the country’s best cyclists, even if it will be over in a few minutes.  This is an extract from the official website and the writer surely must be as much a travel writer as they are sports.

Away from the scenic start on Angel Hill at the heart of Bury St Edmunds, Stage Seven heads south east past Nowton Park and out towards Lavenham and the day’s first Skoda King of the Mountains climb at Lavenham Hill, just before reaching the beautiful Suffolk village.

These early rolling roads through Lavenham, Hadleigh and Hintlesham should prove ideal roads for a break to escape on, with wind conditions likely to play a large part in how tough the day’s stage is.

The Tour of Britain route then cuts through the heart of Suffolk's county town, Ipswich, the birthplace of Cardinal Wolsey. A modest town with a big ambition, Ipswich is in the throes of cultural renaissance now boasting a state-of-the-art new DanceHouse and University located along the rejuvenated Waterfront amongst a bevy of bistros and restaurants. It's also a hub for sailing enthusiasts thanks to the Neptune Marina and has a remarkable maritime history that extends back to the Anglo Saxons.

Ipswich itself hosts both a Yodel Sprint, close to the town’s football ground on Sir Alf Ramsey Way, and a Skoda King of the Mountains climb in Christchurch Park as the race leaves Ipswich.

The following weekend is the Ipswich Half, plenty of miles in the legs even if I’ve not made them run as fast as I once did.  Rarely lose my running mojo but I am slowly losing the urge to run intervals and threshold runs.  Oh well c’est la vie!