Brass monkeys

It seems Siberia is now having an influence on the weather conditions in the South East (along with most of mainland Europe and the rest of the UK). This became apparent when I stepped out of my front door at about a quarter past seven yesterday evening and was immediately met with a strong blast of ice cold air causing me to have momentary second thoughts about going for a run. However, run I did and it went pretty well.

Covering 10.5km in a little shy of an hour (57 minutes) is slightly promising, and means I may complete the Half Marathon in under two hours.

My knees continue to be a problem: the right one is still heavily strapped when I run, and the left is getting steadily worse. I can only assume this is due to the additional stress I'm placing on my left knee as I attempt to protect my right. Despite this there are moments when it's a joy to be out and about running through Tonbridge and it's outlying industrial estate. Some things I don't like are listed below:-

• As a cyclist you should either ride on the road or on a cycle path if one is provided. Do NOT cycle at breakneck speeds on a pavement that's a pedestrian-only pavement and expect to have right of way.

• As a cyclist: make sure you have lights on your bike! When it's dark outside and you're riding a bike without lights you are breaking the law and being bloody dangerous. Referring back to the previous point: if you don't have lights, riding on the pavement does not make it better.

• Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council: Painting a white line down the middle of an existing stretch of pavement and drawing a picture of a bike on one side and a person on the other is not always the best way to establish a cycle path. When a pavement is barely wide enough for two people to pass in opposite directions without rubbing shoulders it certainly is not wide enough to make into a cycle path. I know it helps with your end of year statistics: "We've created more than 3 miles of cycle paths in TMBC this year.", but it's a fudge. Perhaps you should publish statistics concerning complaints about, or accidents caused by these most inappropriate of cycle paths?

• Drivers: please do not put your headlamps on full beam just for the fun of blinding a jogger. It's hard enough to see the pavement given the the dodgy street lighting in Tonbridge (see earlier blog post) without some twat blinding you with their halogen headlamps.

• Thanks to the grit lorry for gritting my leg as I ran alongside the mini-bypass: much appreciated.

• Boy racers: the speed limit on the industrial estate varies between 30 and 40 mph, and is 60 mph on a short stretch of the mini-bypass. That does not mean you have to try to reach the top speed your car is capable of between roundabouts along the route. It's dangerous and a waste of fuel.

While I'm having a slight whinge, it seems that the GPS on my phone went slightly haywire last night. One moment I was running along the mini-bypass, the next I was pretty much back on the High Street. It never quite recovered after that. I include an image of the route my GPS thinks I ran below:-

The split times were very curious (see image on the left). It seems I was ambling along at about 5 1/2 minute a km then took a turn of speed to around 1 1/2 minutes a km. With the 2012 Olympics coming up, someone should be calling me very soon to offer me a place on Team GB.

Anyway, I managed to remove the erroneous GPS positions from the map data and you can find the correct details of the run at the following link below:-

http://runkeeper.com/user/grahamtutt/activity/69041311

Finally, a word of thanks to Amish Steve for the tip regarding strengthening the muscles around my knees by isolating them with a towel. I know you won't be able to read this blog as you have no electricity, or a computer for that matter, but thanks anyway.

Until next time: Nanoo Nanoo