A visit to The Great Yorkshire Show

Harrogate 

Graham and I 

Last Wednesday I had the opportunity to attend The Great Yorkshire Show at Harrogate in a sort of working capacity--talking about and demonstrating Nordic Walking with British Nordic Walking in the Discovery Zone courtesy of the fabulous North Yorkshire Sport.  It was an incredibly fun experience!  For those in the states I would compare the GYS to a state fair, with carnival rides, animal exhibitions/shows, food, agricultural displays, different branches of the military, fashion shows and so on.  Unlike a state fair which usually goes on for 1-3 weeks the GYS is on for 3 days only: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

While there are cultural differences between the US and UK the thing that struck me as the most interesting is that farmers are pretty much the same in both countries! I am not saying that in a derogatory way because a good portion of my family comes from agricultural backgrounds just remarking there is a certain demeanour and no-nonsense attitude that comes through quite strongly.

Because of being there in a working capacity and needing to get back to tend to the mutts I wasn't able to explore as much of the GYS as I would have liked. If I'm invited back next year with the team I hope to be able to be there for all 3 days.

A taste of home 

A few more traditional styles of walking sticks

Nordic Walking at Wollaton Park

Today I am having a very laid back and relaxing Sunday but this time last week it was a far different story!  We spent the day at gorgeous Wollaton Hall Park volunteering at the first event of the 2015 British Nordic Walking Challenge Series. While I absolutely love participating in events I think that volunteering is even more fun, especially seeing everyone's faces as they cross the finish line and collect their well-earned medals.   

One of the 5k waves setting off with Wollaton Hall in the background

It wasn't what I was saying but the 'ears' I was wearing!

The first finisher of the 20k striding it out

This guy came by to say hi to the Nordic Walkers

Smiles and medals! 

More photos from the event by Real World Image Retouching (RWIR)

Other links:

• Go to British Nordic Walking to find out more about the sport, other events, and find sessions/instructors near you
• Check out the article in the Nottingham Post about the event
• More info about Wollaton Hall
• Midlands Nordic Walking
• Register for the Cosmeston Country Park, Cardiff event

Ramblings and Nordic Walking

I had debated whether or not to write a blog-post about this and I'm sure my friends on twitter and facebook are already tired of hearing about it but back in late February I had the opportunity to meet Clare Balding when she came to Nottingham to record an episode of Ramblings with Catherine and her Bramcote Park Saturday afternoon EZ Nordic Walking group.  This season's theme of Ramblings is bonding and in my opinion there isn't/wasn't a better group to interview for it (I'm not biased at all!).  I occasionally help out with this class and enjoy my time with them immensely--it always seems like the hour flies by far too quickly!

Clare, if you haven't figured it out by now is kind of a 'big deal' over here in the UK and people either seem to love or hate her--all based upon her television/radio persona of course. I received my first inkling of this back in December when we had the chance to attend the Olympia Horse Show and my partner spotted her while she was doing her interview prep. He pointed her out and with an extremely rare tone of admiration (and a wee bit of awe) that I rarely hear from him said "There's Clare Balding! Watch how she works, it's amazing."  Of course there was the flip-side when someone else remarked they couldn't stand her because (paraphrasing here) she's always on every time they watched television.

The day that Clare spent Nordic Walking with the group has left me firmly in the camp of being impressed with her though, totally professional yet very personable.  She took the time to speak with everyone, was very patient, and appeared to never be anything less than fully engrossed in what each person had to say.  We were out in the park for several hours for her and her producer Lucy to record what ended up being condensed into 23 minutes and the result was fantastic and very moving--when one of the girls (Jessie) started talking about where she wanted to travel to Nordic Walk it left me in tears. Thankfully the only time you can hear my voice is in the very beginning during the introductions.

Rachel, Clare, Catherine, and me

And how did Clare do at Nordic Walking? She took to it quicker than anyone else I've met!

Ramblings: Series 29 Episode 5 Nordic Walking in Bramcote Park, Nottingham  It's already aired on BBC Radio 4 but you can listen online or via podcast

British Nordic Walking

Midlands Nordic Walking

Sport Nottinghamshire article

Broxtowe Sport Facebook

INWA Nordic Walking Facebook

Pulp Friction

On the 'hop

I love Timehop, it is always such fun to see what you've posted about on social media in the past--the good, bad, and the mediocre.  Today the Nordic Walking tweet was the first thing on my timehop! Yes, it is the first anniversary of when I started learning how to walk with the poles.  Honestly based on the first few sessions I didn't think I was EVER going to get the knack of it! Everyone else in our group seemed to grasp the concept of opposite arm/leg quite quickly but I kept trying to move the pole forward in conjunction with the leg on the same side (called "spotty dogging", NOT to be confused with another sort of outdoor activity!).  After much patience and trying many different methods, Catherine finally got me sorted out! I ended up loving the sport so much that I first became a Nordic Walk leader and took the British Nordic Walking instructor course this past autumn.

Cheeky grin because I'm having fun

Depending on what you want out of it Nordic Walking can be as easy or intense as you want to make it.  There are some days when it's more of a social outing and then there are others when I'm putting the effort in with intervals, strength, or tempo workouts, either way if you are making sure to keep good form it is a full body workout (targets the core, shoulders, triceps, back, and of course the legs).  I'm a little sore from yesterday's session because I added in some intervals trying to chase down the fastest person in our Tuesday class.

Strength and endurance training 

Participating in that first Nordic Walking session one year ago today also helped in other ways, it introduced me to more people which helped whenever the expat loneliness blues hit and I was able to get to know the area where I live much better than I otherwise would have had the opportunity to do so.  I have learned more about the history of several nearby villages than many people know that have lived there all their lives. It certainly impressed my partner when I introduced him to a few rat runs I learned from people I met in the class. 

We even get cheerleaders occasionally!

A slight change of subject but if you haven't already seen the #thisgirlcan ad campaign from Sport England then prepare to be motivated and inspired! Makes me want to get up and move every time I watch it and that's been a fair few times!  Love seeing un-photoshopped and non-surgically enhanced women and girls getting out there and MOVING!  Yes ALL the exclamation marks are necessary!!

#thisgirlcan

Normally I would do the handy little embed thing so you can watch directly on the blog but blogger and youtube are not playing nice for me today. Click the link, you won't be disappointed.

Busy Busy

Whew, the last two weeks have been busy.  I have to take my practical driving test soon so most afternoons involve getting out and practicing my driving for at least two hours. Tuesday ended up being a very long day of it with 4 hours behind the wheel and most of it being on Sheffield streets--not very fun.  That might not sound like much considering I used to be a truckdriver but imagine spending your entire driving shift focusing on getting the procedure perfect, with big city style traffic, on narrow streets (think Philadelphia), being on the opposite side of the road than you spent 30 plus years driving on, in a car that is less than stellar in the smooth ride department, and having someone next to you judging your every single move down to the most minuscule--yes, I'm stressed, lol.

Hopefully the next pic like this will be me next to the Mini holding my UK licence

In other news, I am now an INWA qualified Nordic Walking Instructor! I attended a British Nordic Walking instructor course last weekend and wow, was it intensive! Very fun though, I loved meeting the others who were attending and hearing about the varied backgrounds and why each was going for the NW qualification.  Part of the course is that you are filmed so that you can see how your form is progressing and there was quite an improvement in mine from when I took the leader course last spring and now. I think I managed to get all 10 steps into my last evaluation even--although the rotation is still hard for me to attain much less maintain for very long.

At the Bristol Challenge Event

Running has been sporadic but I did get myself out for an early(ish) run this morning.  If I hadn't shattered the screen on my phone I could have taken a beautiful pic of the sunrise and a covey of grouse pecking about in a freshly plowed field.  I ended up taking an unexpected detour though, one of my favourite paths is closed for maintenance until March 2015.  A cheeky dog walker was still using it this morning but I suppose I'm too much of a rule follower so I went the opposite direction...which ended up being alongside a major route during morning rush hour. Ugh, how the exhaust fumes burnt my nose and throat, I've gotten spoiled to not having to deal with that very much over the past year.  Today was also my first fasted run in quite a while, couldn't figure out why I was flagging at 4 miles in and then I remembered, no food in over 12 hours! Small issues aside, it was still a good run.  

The current state of my phone :-(

Weather, walking, and running

It's official, summer has abandoned us in England.  We gave up and turned the heat on for an hour in an attempt to take the edge off the chill and yes we are bundled up in hoodies and socks.  Out of curiosity I checked the weather back in Arkansas and it is currently 34C(94F) with a real feel of 42C(108F)...here? Slightly cooler at 13C(55F) with rain and wind.  I'd settle for something halfway between that :-)

A running friend spotted this not long ago, wonder how it ended up in the middle of England

The temps are nice for running however, a small group of us headed out for a mid-morning run yesterday and I wore a long sleeve shirt for the beginning of it although it ended up tied around my waist mid-way through. Except for the nearly mile long uphill to get to the meeting point it was a great route. The leader yesterday knows the area quite well so we went on some trails I hadn't ran before and it was all mostly spontaneous "Should we go left or right?" decisions, my favourite sort of run.  

We didn't stop here though

I'm sure you've noticed the frequency I've been mentioning Nordic Walking lately, it's something I decided to learn on the spur of the moment last January and I absolutely adore it. I've gotten to meet some fantastic people and it's amazing cross-training that's low impact.  If you're a new ex-pat that's looking to get to know the area you have moved to it can be an invaluable source of information for things like the best butcher, shops etc--little but important things like for me yesterday, where to buy fresh okra.  The British Nordic Walking site has some great information and you can search for groups and instructors nearby.  Running clubs and Ramblers groups are also excellent for meeting up with like-minded people that you wouldn't necessarily have a chance to get acquainted with otherwise.  

Don't we look like a fun group to hang out with? 

Fleeting

My memory. This summer.  Two things that fit the fleeting descriptor right now.  I have had so many blog ideas but didn't bother to sit down to put the words to screen or even ink to paper to remind myself.  Or I get busy with other things and while I remember the subject I no longer have the desire to right about it.  As far as summer goes, I think it has disappeared.  It never truly got HOT at night but over the past couple of weeks it's gotten steadily cooler and now in mid-August there is a distinct autumnal bite to the air even during the middle of the day.  Time to pack away the summer clothing, most of which didn't get a single wear at all.  I made a joke on facebook that it was a good thing I don't buy trendy because whenever I made my return to the states in a few years most of my shorts, sundresses, and vests would still be in nearly new condition.  And no, it's not just me as an expat grumbling, everyone is commenting on how chilly it's been and then laughing and saying welcome to British summer ;-)

Summer!

In fitness news, my speed and endurance seems to be gradually returning, emphasis on gradually.  Most Sundays I'm getting in a 10ish miler although the weekend ex Hurricane Bertha made her visit I kept it at 7.5 because of trying to avoid the rain and wind. I managed to get confused on the August handicap course again (blue arrows on the trail pointed in a different direction than what our route is) so ended up waiting for the next runner coming up to get me headed the right way.  It still wouldn't have been a pb but it would have been closer than the time I ended up with.  Unfortunately my Garmin 610 also decided to have a malfunction by freezing up and then refusing to download that day's data because the file was corrupted so I don't know exactly how much time I lost.

The final BDL of the summer also went better than expected, 5.19 miles in 40:52 and second in my age category.  Last Saturday's parkrun was a bit of a success with a time of 23:26, 4th female overall, and 2nd in my age.  Gives me hope I can start whittling that time down if I can keep from getting injured again.  I also managed to spot the photographer in time to smile and not look like I was on the verge of passing out or having a seizure. 

I look like I'm going so slow and the guy behind me has both feet off the ground.

Speaking of parkrun, I had made plans to attend a Nordic Walking class on Saturday so that meant I had to leave just as soon as I got my barcodes scanned but I did get to see a couple of Nordic walkers that were doing the 5k as well.  Such a great sight spying the poles and the red British Nordic Walking shirts! Once I get over this chasing a personal best business I need to do that as well but I think I would prefer a not so flat course, it's great for running but I prefer hills for the walking.  

First British Nordic Walking Challenge Series

July 13 was the first ever event in the British Nordic Walking Challenge Series with a choice of 20k, 10k, and 5k distances and I'm quite pleased I had the chance to participate.  Because it was held in Bristol which is approximately 2 hours away I hadn't planned on going but my partner decided he was interested in a road trip/day out. I'm not so sure he was happy about his decision when 5:15 am rolled around though ;-)

The drive over was fairly bleak, very overcast and we even had a heavy downpour once we reached Bristol itself, thankfully it was short-lived and friends who were approximately 20 minutes behind us never encountered any rain at all.  Typical British weather!

First view of the venue (bad phone pic)

Much better photo of the other side

Ashton Court is beautiful but I would love to go back to explore on a sunny day, yesterday's cloud cover while nice for the duration of the race obscured a lot of the scenery.  This website does an excellent job (much better than the "official" ones) of detailing the estate.  I was chuffed to be able to see the fallow deer during the race, we were all oohing and ahhhing over how pretty the herd was.  

Setting up--the woman on the left is Catherine Hughes who introduced me to this sport

Before arriving I was waffling about which distance to do--whether to amble about on the 20k or try to see how fast I could do the 10k but once there I opted for hanging around chatting with friends instead of immediately leaving out on the longer distance (it started an hour earlier).  I also decided to use part of the time to go for a short run in order to recce the course--highly recommended because I stopped to chat with nearly every course marshal which meant I got extra cheers when it came time for the race, it's all about the strategy, lol. 

10k Warmup

What a background!

Not that you can tell in the previous two photos but I missed most of the warmup exercises because I had to make a last minute loo visit! Nothing new there, I'm usually not in any group photos because of being in the toilet queues.  It's ok though, the instructor led a far more coordinated routine than what I can keep up with anyway, it was more akin to aerobics and I am always the one out of sync with everyone else.  

Finally made it to the start line, cheeky grins and all

In order to keep everyone from being right on top of each other and having to dodge poles we were lined up in rows of four across and then had to pause at the chip timing point for a few seconds--very much like an orienteering event.  

And we're off!

The course was a mix of terrain, we started off in a civilised grassy area that quickly turned more pasture like complete with hidden holes and where it had been mowed (bush-hogged is what we would call it in the southern US) the tall grass would clump up around your shoes and ankles.  It was almost like trudging through ankle deep water.  After we got through that the course turned sharply uphill on a rock and dirt road that was slick from the earlier rain, this was also a heavily wooded area so it was the most picturesque section in my opinion.  

I think there's far too much relaxing happening here

After the lung and quad bursting climb, the course turned left onto a path that was more open.  We were still climbing but it was more gradual, it was also covered in pea gravel and had several large speed humps built in that were a pain in the butt to Nordic walk over.  I'm guessing the humps served a two fold purpose, the first being to slow the cyclists down and the second to help prevent the path from eroding.  Once you got past those it was an awesome area for the poles, I was really able to get a good bite without them sliding about and powered through. The path did finally level out and there was a water station just before we started the downhill.  The volunteers told us we could walk on the grass alongside the path through here and I did so on the first loop but on the second there were far more golfers and dog walkers about so I stayed on it. Absolutely hated this section on the second loop because it was covered with a mix of large and small rocks that made it impossible to use the poles properly and it hurt my feet!  

"What is taking them so long?"

We then took a right onto the pavement for a short distance, it was noisy with the tips clacking but at least you could get a good pace going before making the left for the steep downhill back to the start/finish.  I knew the gentleman who was marshaling here so had a quick chat (still moving, mind you!) before negotiating the photographer gauntlet, both the professionals hired for the event and everyone down at the tents.

Reacting to a catcall

The above pic was me reacting to my partner yelling out "Be tall!" as I was starting the second loop, it got quite a laugh from everyone around.  Not long after that photo I was also finally able to chase down the woman who I had been slowly closing ground on for the last mile of the first loop, I was quite pleased with that because she started in the very first row and I started in the next to the last.  Unfortunately I'd lost sight of the other person in a blue shirt I'd been using as my rabbit as well.  The second lap ended up being slightly slower overall than the first (but only by 31 seconds if I read the timing slip right) but it also had a faster pace at certain times. According to my garmin stats I hit a 9:44 pace on one of the downhills and for walking that's very good--I'm fairly sure I know the moment when it happened, everything just clicked into place perfectly, stride length, pole planting, shoulder swing--such an amazing feeling.  

Stats for the race, click to enlarge

As you can see from my Garmin stats, the course was just shy of a full 10k.  I also forgot to push the stop button at the end! Nordic Walking is one of those sports that you can make as easy or as difficult as you want, you certainly have to expect a fair bit of teasing when you are doing it--if you think Forrest Gump running references are bad, wait for the "Where is the snow?" and "Did you forget your skis?" comments.  As for me, I am as sore today from yesterday's event as I am after running a hard half marathon.  I am not even sure I was this sore after doing the Marine Corps Marathon a few years ago.  

I didn't get one of these

But I did get this :-)

And a goofy pic like this!