And goodness me I enjoyed it. According to Garmin 146 metres and back down over 4 kilometres. I wanted to try out the trail shoes once more before I invested in a better pair, they were fine, which makes me realise it was me and not the shoes last time I wore them.
I jogged gently up the road until I reached the track, spoke to a couple of people, turned and took some photos of the sea glinting in the distance. Realised I hadn't got anything to blow my nose on, looked back to where I'd left the car and decided if I went back down this hill I wouldn't come back up again, so onwards, very slow running but my legs feel good and strong so on I go.. a decision to be made, up over the top or round the outside? I looked left and the track was narrow, overgrown with brambles. Over the top it is then. So going up I remember what looks like the top isn't, it goes a bit flat and up again. Well worth the effort though, I stopped, turned full circle and gazed at the beauty that is the South Downs. It's steeper the other side so very little running was done going down, steep and narrow but through the gate and joined the round the hill track. It's 23 degrees but there's a little breeze which makes it feel perfect.
This track splits in two in places, just wide enough for a bike, a guy on a bike stayed on one track to let me pass, we exchanged a grin and I thanked him.
My poor feet had to go single file, one in front of the other, I can't run like that so I walked even though it was flatter. So narrow that a bramble grabbed my arm on the way past and left its mark.
Now down and down back towards the car, I'd taken a drink of water with a hydration tablet in it and nearly finished this. There was more water in the car which I drank when I got there.
So. ... I got really high this morning and had a wonderful time, saw flowers, trees, birds and butterflies, listened to gentle songs on my headphones, gazed across green fields, hedges and the sea, breathed sweet air away from traffic and realised how lucky I am
Happy weekend, run or rest well.
Written by
SueAppleRun
Graduate10
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🍏 No wonder you are on a high! Point me to the skies says that photo! The South Downs is remarkably picturesque with those vast skies especially when you are high up. Love your posts Sue.. you really take us along with you.. 🤗💝
Wow-what a run! Absolutely epic stats with all that climbing. Amazing pictures too. Massive well done to you-I’m smiling just reading about it. I bet you’ll be grinning for ages! ❤️❤️❤️
I have been hungry and eating since I got home, I wanted to go out today because that meant I'd worn all my running gear this week since Monday, it's now blowing gently on the line all ready for the coming week, yes I'm grinning, it's quite an achievement for me to run however slow up those hills, I used to have to stop to catch my breath just walking upwards 😁
It’s so wonderful to see progress like that. I think hills are brilliant for really showing up how much fitter you now are. You deserve to be super proud of yourself
that’s a brilliant run! You’re turning into a trail runner. Oh I can imagine how wonderful it was to look at the views after the effort of getting up there!
I've always loved it up there Jools, but haven't been for a while, hills are good for us aren't they? The going up was the easy bit, going down the other side was steep and the narrow tracks not safe enough to run, it evolves, I've been there before where there's nice wide tracks, it depends on the rangers going across in their buggy things when we've had a lot of rain to make the paths wider
Thank you Dexy5 I think I wasn't very well still and nothing felt right, I went out in my favourite Brooks the next day and they felt awful too, this morning I put the trail shoes on and they felt fine, at home, driving and definitely better for all that loose chalk and springy grass
Is the 146m elevation gain the raw one from Garmin, or is it what came up on Strava? I ask because I've noticed that recently my Garmin Connect elevation gain figures can be significantly higher than what shows up on Strava. Distance, however, tends to come up shorter on Garmin than on Strava.
I'm used to discrepancies if I record the same run on Strava with my mobile and also with my watch, and that's logical because they're not using the same GPS. However here I'm talking about discrepancies between the same run recorded on Garmin and how it shows on Strava - I assume there's a conversion between the two systems!
Thanks for the graphs. Looking at them I think that the 146m is probably height above sea-level, and the elevation gain (or vertical) is 111m. You started at 41m and went up to 146m, but then dropped and rose again, which is why the elevation gain total is more than 105m. That's pretty hilly, definitely the sort of thing that would give many forum members the screaming heebie-jeebies!
I live at 680m above sea-level. According to Garmin Connect, during my most recent run the lowest altitude was 539m and the highest 703m, overall elevation gain of 247m. But that was over 11-ishkm, so much flatter than your run!
Oh good, thank you for the explanation, I'll have to remember that unless I start from home I need to deduct where I start to sea level, anyway, it is steep, the hill is called Steepdown 😁 but much harder going down the other side where it's short and sharp, that once a week should make the flat river route feel easy
Garmin will automatically calculate the elevation gain for you - it's in the Garmin stats, and shown in that Strava image. It's just a matter of not assuming that elevation gain is the same as the maximum elevation, which occasionally people do. Happy trails!
Ah...don't get me started on trees, brought up on a farm called the Oaks and spent more time up a tree than on the ground. There is a small wood near where I was today but it was up another hill and just wouldn't have been sensible, but another day I'll park somewhere else and run through the trees
Thank you for taking the time to read it Brian, your head must be so full of travel and races, I'm surprised you can sit long enough to read anything, my poor arms always take the brunt of everything, between dog, cat, rucksack (don't ask) and brambles they are a bit of a mess, I could do with cold weather and long sleeves, but I heal fast. The Downs are my favourite place, when it's not the beach, river, park or just streets 🤣🤣
The blue sky has gone and rain and thunder are promised, I'll be out in it with the dog tomorrow.Hope you get some blue sky and sunshine before the next round of wind and rain
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Can I join the 10K 'on a high club' please?
Distance is coming back, got my first runners high for ages today! 
Finally I got out out 🏃🏼♀️🤗
