Long Run Sunday from Bury St Edmunds to Sicklesmere, Gt Whelnethum and Stanningfield and back

This morning was misty, overnight there had been a thin covering of snow but nothing to really affect my footing and I didn't find it too slippery. I decided to repeat the same long run distance as last week and do 12 miles. I am very much still getting used to the distance again after such a long period when my long run was 7 miles. My weakest point is climbing hills I am very skow climbing these.

However hill training is something I am not going to work on until after my half marathon training has been completed at the end of March. By then if I remain injury free I wil have had 3 months of good training and this will provide a base to start adding a quality session such as hill training.

My route today was all along pavements initially heading out of Bury St Edmunds to Sicklesmere. At Sicklesmere you pass a round house which is a reminder of the days of coach and horses. One of the coaching routes ran between Norwich and London 4 times a day and used to run through Sicklesmere. The toll house was built by a Turnpike Trust in the 19th century as a lodge house. To use the road you would have had to pay a toll.

After Sicklesmere I headed slighlty up hill for a mile or so through Gt Whelnethum a village which ajoins Sicklesmere.

At about this point I removed a layer of clothes and my hat and gloves. I had been feeling slightly hot and bothered but felt much better after this.

The Jelly Belly Super Sours were also a welcome treat on this long run.

It was a snowy,frosty murky world when I entered the village of Stanningfield. Very few cars or people to be seen today.


I turned at 6 miles and returned home feeling a lot better in the middle of the run without the hat and gloves.

My mile splits were 8.50,8.56,9,8.50,9.22,8.41,8.37,8.12,8.41,8.50,9,8.56 this was an average of 8.50 per mile.

My total time was 1hr 46 mins and this compares well with my last 12 miles a week ago when I ran 1.49.16.

I am now half way through my 12 week Runners World SMART Coach Training schedule. So far so good no injuries.

George Parrott, known affectionately as "Coach George" on the Dead  Runners Society, presented this idea a couple of years ago.  He suggests  that a runner can run no faster in the Marathon than he runs his fastest 26.2 miles in a week during training.

At the end of week 6 my Parrott Predictator shows a time of 3.47.37 this compares well with last week 3.49.11 and week 1 of my training which showed 3.53.07.

Sicklesmere, Gt Whelnethum and Stanningfield Suffolk

8am 9.2 miles in 1 hr 15 mins 49 secs

Week to date mileage 20 miles

Month to date mileage 15

Average weekly rate 28.4 miles

Average monthly rate 124

Year to date 252

Lifetime 9845

I drove out from Bury St Edmunds on the A134 road to Sudbury. I stopped at the Rushbrooke Arms at Sicklesmere and parked in their car park.

Behind the Rushbrooke Arms is a path leading to Hawkers Lane and a run over to Rushbrooke however that wasn't my objective to do and I headed back into the village. The Toll House is apparently so named from the 19th century. In the 1830's the stage coach was the key means of transport. There was a 4 times daily coach between London and Norwich via Sudbury which traveled along the Bury Road which is now the A134.


Literally on the other side of the road there is a sign announcing that you are in Gt Whelnetham as Sicklesmere is really a very small hamlet. By contrast Gt Whelnetham is a fairly large village with a concentration of housing and a school. There is also the ruin of a windmill to be seen from the road.


I stopped by the St Thomas a Becket Church in Gt Whelnetham.


Continuing on towards Stanningfield on the right hand side there is the Mill Lane track which leads on to Coldham Hall. Mill Lane was so named as there was a post mill sited here. This was the Stanningfield Post Mill but I could see no evidence of it now though I have read that it was in use up to the 1950's for grinding corn into animal feed.

Arriving in Stanningfield I am always struck by the very attractive multi coloured cottages in Fox Row. There used to be Fox Inn situated here and beer was brewed here.
Continuing into the village of Stanningfield the central point is known as Hoggards Green. Here there is the Red House Pub.


I will post many other photos of these villages on my flickr site in time. I returned home by the same road. I had time to run around Sicklesmere and to venture up Hawkers Lane before returning to the Rushbrooke Arms Car park and home.

Hawstead to Gt Whelnetham Suffolk

10.30apm 8.6 miles in 1 hour 13 minutes

.Year to date mileage 1028

Month to date 78 miles

Average miles per month 109

Average weekly rate 25

Weather: A warm autumn day as the morning mist lifted.

Course: Hawstead Village is about 3 miles south of Bury St Edmunds. I parked in the car park next to the swings. The picture showing the grass field and road on the road is right in the centre of the village. For a Saturday being perhaps the busiest day of the week there was hardly a soul to be seen.

I started running out towards Lawshall but changed my mind as the road was a little too windy and this was a main road. Although there were'nt many cars I didn't feel comfortable. Si I returned and found another path along Bell Lane.

Bell's Lane leads up hill towards Gt Whelnetham. At Bell's Lane farm I managed to find a pathway across fields though the ground was rather sticky and stuck to my Saucony Trigon responsive shoes.

At Gt Whelnethum I took a path which takes you along side the grounds of the Gt Whelnethum Halland up Cocks Green lane to Cocks Green. I returned back to Hawstead.

The picture of the building shows some almshouses erected by a Philip Metcalfe