24 April 2011

Long solo run

How the Industrial Revolution still keeps Britain’s residents fit. The landscape around here is littered with old rail tracks; they tend to be quite scenic, littered with industrial relics, and they don’t go up and down too steeply. And that makes them splendidly suitable for leisurely use!

I biked the old Brunel railroad from Plymouth to Yelverton several times. If I bike to Plymstock I tend to use the old track to Hooe. And when I did a long Dartmoor run with Neil we used the old railroad to Princetown.

I had planned to run the old track from Ivybridge north on Saturday, but with my car broken that didn’t really work. So I came up with plan B: bike to where the path to Clearbrook becomes scenic, and run from there. The path goes steadily upslope, so if you run up any distance you have a good chance of also making it back. So I just set off, seeing how far I’d get. And I got into a nice flow! One bridge after the other appeared. And after the third bridge I knew the next thing would be the tunnel. And that’s bloody far; even on bicycle that counts as exercise! But one can imagine the appeal of a tunnel. I got the idea in my head of running to the other side of it (of course) and back. And it stuck there!

I started expecting to see its gaping mouth after every bend, but of course it eluded me for a while, but finally there it was. I ran in and vanished from this world. If I run alone I have my iPod on, quite loud, because I like being lost in music while I run. But if you then run in the dark you lose all contact with reality. I had to take one ear plug out…


I took some pics, and turned back. And on the way down you can maintain a good speed! That is, until your body starts reminding you of the distance you have already run. I ran the last few kilometres desirous to see the end of the track, but that’s a good sign; I can motivate myself to run further than I had thought! And at the end I gladly greeted the sight of my faithful steed. Biking home is a nice cooling down. This might be a good routine actually! I don’t see many new things along the way; I’ve been there a bit too often, but it is a good venue for a nice carless run. Thanks, Brunel! And thanks for that bridge too, by the way.

1 comment:

  1. Koppeltraining laat je spieren wennen aan de wisseling tussen de verschillende sportonderdelen. Met name fietsen en lopen (triatlon) of meerkamp in de atletiek. "Fietsen en lopen zijn twee verschillende bewegingen in de triatlon. Wie dat bewegingspatroon regelmatig traint, zal minder problemen met deze overgang hebben."

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