Six Mile run at the Saxongate Water Meadows Bury St Edmunds Suffolk

It was a cloudy grey morning as I set off for an easy 6 mile run. I decided to run around the Saxongate Water Meadows in Bury St Edmunds.

Water meadows in Britain are an endangered shrinking habitat constantly under pressure from road and housing development. The Saxongate Water Meadows depend on volunteer support for their general upkeep and well worth it is as it home to many wildlife species. The water meadows here surround the River Linnet and once belonged to the Church and the Abbots in the Benedictine Monastery in Bury.

Wildlife to be found here include

• great crested newts
• palmate newts
• smooth newts
• frogs
• toads
  

Wildfowl:

• coot
• mallard
• moorhen

Mammals:

• water shrew
• water vole
  

Birds in the area include:

• blackcap
• great spotted woodpecker
• heron
• kingfisher
• coal tit

I ran slowly this morning and felt tired from the off. The Runners World SMART schedule is leading me to increase my mileage every week and I am already at 36 miles a week if I complete  my long run tomorrow with no problems. Last year in 2009 I only ran higher mileage than this on 2 weeks of the year. I average 23.5 miles a week last year so the schedule I am following  is a significant increase. No wonder I am a little tired.

My 6 mile to day were run in 54 minutes exactly 9 minute miling so it certainly wasn't quick for me. My splits show 8.19,9.02,9.11,9.20,8.56,9.10

The 3rd photo on my post shows a lost childs umbrella probably dropped and then blown by the wind into the water.


I also completed the 1st session of week 6 of the hundred push ups programme. I stuggled a bit with this as well today and did sets of 40,30,25,25 and 40. I was supposed to do 50 on the 2nd and last set so I will need to repeat this session or go back a week before  I move on again.

1st January 2010 - New Year Day Run in Bury St Edmunds Suffolk

As I set out for my run a heavy snow shower had just begun.This if anything hastened me out of the door not knowing if we would get several inches of snow thus making the pathways too slippery to run on. As it turned out it was just a shower and blue sky arrived 10 minutes later.

My route through Bury St Edmunds is depicted in these photos below . The water meadows along Cullum Road are  still frozen as temperatures continue to hover around freezing.

There was no problems with slipping this morning despite the tiny covering of snow if anything temperatures were a little warmer than of recent.

It was good to get in my first run of the new year. I still haven't got round to planning out a training schedule and haven't yet signed up to any races but I want to do that in the next few days.

Last night I believe more fireworks went off in our area than on the 5th November bonfire night. Eventually these ceased around 1.30am ,so I should have felt a little jaded for this run as theses kept me awake but I didn't have any problems.

I am continuing with my push ups programe and have completed week 2 of the training which finishes with what is called an exhaustion test . Basically you do as many push ups as you can until your arms won't do any more.

It has turned into a bit of a competition with my son who isn't doing the training programme. As he had recently done 35 that was my target and some how I managed to just do 36 to become the champion for all of five minutes. Until that is Tom did 40 oh well it gives me a new target to beat and hopefully I can do this in a week or so.

As I get further into the run the snow continued to melt and I stoped to take this photo of St Johns Church in the centre of Bury St Edmunds - you can just see the spire.

My last photo is taken along Eastgate Street and has a view of St Edmundsbury Cathedral

River Lark & Water Meadows Run Bury St Edmunds

8.15am 7.2 miles in 1 hour 3 mins and 23 seconds

Year to date mileage 1320

Month to date 124 miles

Average miles per month 111

Average weekly rate 25.6

Weather Snow- heavy snow showers.

Course:Head out through the water meadows and then turn left at Bury Rugby Club . Follow the path through No Mans Meadow which is at the back of the Abbey Gardens returning to Southgate Bridge and then returning over the meadows for a 2nd lap.Return home up Southgate Street past the Police Station and through the Abbey Gardens graveyard then through town centre, Risbygate street, Westley road and home. The
snow that had been promised duly arrived this morning.

Very rarely do we get the chance to run in the snow here in Suffolk. as most winters I reckon we only get perhaps at most 5-10 days of snow.

As I set off the snow showers became more heavy and running into the falling snow made visibility difficult. There was a lovely crunching sound as the snow compacted beneath my feet as my shoes landed.




As the going was difficult I found I was running a lot slower. My time for running this course was 3-4 minutes slower than normal.

River Lark & Water Meadow Bury St Edmunds Suffolk

9.am 5.7 miles in 48min 16 secs.

Year to date mileage 1034

Month to date 83 miles

Average miles per month 109

Average weekly rate 25

Weather: A warm autumn day.

Course: A short run this morning through the Water Meadows, No Mans Meadows and by the River Lark.

Felt a bit sluggish this morning and I ran slowly, so slowly that I managed to run into a spiders web. There seemed to be an abundance of spiders webs hanging from bushes and trees,shining wet with morning dew.

I know many people are scared of spiders but it is said that without them we wouldn't be able to go outdoors so easily in the summer months as they keep down the number of flies, wasps, mosquitoes and gnats.

All spiders have venom glands but very few are poisonous and most cannot penetrate the skin. In Suffolk there are apparently over 400 types of spiders most of them are very small and hard to identify.

A spider that has excited naturalists in Suffolk is the fairly recent arrival of the wasp spider. Previously confined to the South Coast they are now spreading North and appear to be here to stay. If you spot one it is worth informing the Suffolk Naturalists Society.

Talking of spiders I have enjoyed both the first 2 spiderman films. I was always a reader of the Marvel Comics and still have a stack of these in the loft. The art work from Stan Lee and Steve Ditko was also impressive.Stan Lee was born in New York in 1922 and is now 83 years old.

An ideal music soundtrack to go with Spiderman 3 would be any of the Ramones Albums. I understand Spiderman comes up against the Sandman and it is released in May 2007

Favourite Beer!

River Lark and Water Meadows Run

6pm 7.2 miles in 56.42 Year to date mileage 912

Month to date 106 miles Average miles per month 106

Average weekly rate 24.4

Weather bright and sunny.

Course:Head out through the water meadows and then turn left at Bury Rugby Club . Follow the path through No Mans Meadow which is at the back of the Abbey Gardens returning to Southgate Bridge and then returning over the meadows for a 2nd lap.

Return home up Southgate Street past the Police Station and through the Abbey Gardens graveyard then through town centre and home.Ran this course in a new pb time.


I was generally running this course in 1 hour back in June so I may have improved a little though it was warmer of course.

One of the great things about living in Bury is the smells of the Town. I suppose it brings back memories from childhood. Today they were definitely brewing at Greene King and the lovely malty smell of what I imagined to be Abbot Ale floated on the breeze giving all passers by an intoxicating whiff of one of the great beers of this country.

Send me an e-mail and let me know your favourite beer I would have to say my favourites are

• Abbot Ale Greene King
• Speckled Hen Greene King
• Adnams Broadside Adnams Brewery
• Guiness
• Sneck Lifter Jennings Brewery from Cockermouth Lake District

River Lark & Water Meadows

8am 7.2 miles in 58.07 mins.
Year to date mileage 802
Month to date 122 miles

Average miles per month 101
Average weekly rate 23.3

Weather bright, sunny and warm.

Course : Head out through the water meadows
and then turn left at Bury Rugby Club . Follow the path through No Mans Meadow which is at the back of the Abbey Gardens returning to Southgate Bridge and then returning over the meadows for a 2nd lap.

Return home up Southgate Street past the Police Station and through the Abbey Gardens graveyard then through town centre and home.

Ran this course in a new pb time.

I saw several runners today seemed to be more than usual perhaps just a combination of the good weather and the bank holiday but maybe there is a a bit of a running boom at the moment. Interest levels seem to be quite high.