Tom Roper's Weblog

Until the end of this week, I was not looking forward to the Seaford half. I felt unprepared, acutely aware that I was not running the miles an off-road half-marathon requires. This week’s three runs, each different, changed my perspective. …

This week’s running consisted of leading the second week of the Seaford Striders Couch to 5k group on Wednesday, where we took advantage of the lighter evening to run down to the golf course, and along, to run on grass.…

Next Wednesday I coach the first session of a new venture for my running club, Seaford Striders, a couch to 5k group. Based on the NHS Choices programme, I’ll lead a group through nine weeks of runs,  increasing until we…

Having spent the weekend preparing and marshalling so that others might run, it seemed only right that on a beautiful March day I should run myself.  As I did, I tried to absorb the experiences of the 2017 Moyleman. From…

A short plod this evening, in dreary mizzle. There’ll be little time for running this weekend. Tonight the organisers will soothe our nerves with the finest thrash-skiffle know to humanity, offered by the Curst Sons; tomorrow we mark the course.…

Back to this race, after nine years away. When I entered, rashly, I imagined an early spring day on Brighton seafront, soft sunshine, a light breeze at most. What did I find? Cold fog at the start, a chilly wind,…

There is but one week to go before the Brighton Half. In a week’s time I will be relaxing with my first alcohol for four weeks, while those around me top up my glass and feed me the choicest and…

This was a good week; using up some annual leave, I had four days at home, allowing two five mile runs, and two swims, rather than the customary one. The first five miler, over Seaford Head, took place in mild…

  Eleven miles today, the longest distance I’ll run in training. It was hard work, grey skies, a cold northerly, and I plodded to Newhaven and back, running up the hill to St Michael’s. I couldn’t see a way in,…

I ran for the first time today in my Stroke Association vest: eight miles around Seaford, in a cool wind, but nowhere near as cold as it has been.  I was pleased, as I had no knee pain, and I…

There was not much training this week, a family visit preventing anything but a short outing on Sunday. When I did finally run, I found it hard after a week’s lay-off, and it was only towards the end of a…

Week ten being at an end, that means there are six weeks to go. This week wasn’t a hard week, only three runs, two short ones round Seaford and today’s cross-country event at Ashdown Forest.  A.A. Milne lived at Cotchford…

 A much better week, thanks to a bank holiday on Monday, so I could fit in an extra run, the Peacehaven Resolution Run, a dry-run for a Peacehaven #parkrun, which is in development. It was cold, and the north wind…

Week eight of sixteen weeks means I’m half-way through. Broadly speaking, I’m pleased with the way things have gone. I need to start covering longer distances, but I’ve wisely taken it easy with the knee. From now on, Sunday long…

That was the last run of 2016, a short jog on the foggy seafront. I ran 690 miles in the year. That’s further than I’ve run in any year since 2012, when I ran 691 miles. In the intervening years…

I have completed seven weeks out of sixteen of half-marathon training, and festivities meant that this week’s mileage was low, and consisted of only two runs, a Striders run on Wednesday, refreshed by satsumas served by the club captain on…