A cycle trip to Hartest Suffolk

This was a lovely sunny lunch time cycle ride out to the village of Hartest. With the weather being so good I was keen to get back on the bike and go for a spin whilst I am unable to run.

What I am finding is that cycling requires a little more pre planning on a route to follow - firstly to avoid any of the major roads and secondly because in the space of an hour or two you can go a lot further in distance and need to ensure your route takes you back home and not leave you 20 miles away. I like maps and have a number of the ordnance survey explorer maps of Suffolk which have a scale of 2.5 inches to a mile. The map I use most often is the Explorer 211 for the Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket area which shows all of the public rights of way and paths and walkways.

The route I decided on was Bury St Edmunds / Nowton/ Hawstead/ Lawshall/Hartest/Brockley Green/Whepstead and back to Bury

The saddle soreness was immediately noticeable when I got on the bike today but is no big deal and was soon forgotten once I had gone a mile or two. After 3 miles when I reached Nowton there was very little traffic. From Lawshall I took a turning along Hartest Lane which was a narrow minor road which was pretty much a down hill section for nearly 2 miles.

Hartest green was around 10 miles in to the ride and the ideal place for a short stop for a drink and a banana and to take a few photos. Hartest is part of Suffolk which is little more hilly than most and is an area known as High Suffolk. I came down Hartest Hill into the village and I think this may be one of the steepest hills in Suffolk. Surrounding Hartest green are many bright coloured cottages. As with virtually every village there is a war memorial to commemorate those from the village who died in the 1st and 2nd world war the memorial was unveiled by Capt. E H W Backhouse on 24th October 1920, it cost £20.

My return to Bury was along the Brockley Road and here between Brockley and Whepstead there was a yellow carpet of oil seed rape fields.Extra Virgin Rapeseed Oil is said to be possibly the healthiest and most versatile cooking oil you can get.

My cycle ride totalled 18 miles in 1 hr 40 Min's. I was about 10 seconds a mile quicker than on Wednesday.

Pinford End and Whepstead Suffolk

After last nights race I felt ok but the weather continues to be humid and as a result I again ran slowly.

This run took me out and back from Bury St Edmunds 5 miles to Whepstead.

One of the landmarks on this run is this very traditional Suffolk Pink house at Pinford End. It is familar to any one who has run the Bury 10/20 mile road race. The Bull's Green Lane takes you through to Mickley Green on the Brockley Road.

Listened to a new podcast today from Phil the Twilight Runner at
http://twilight-runner.blogspot.com/

I was interested to read about the world war 2 airfield at Ballyhalbert at County Down. Well worth a listen if you enjoy listening to a a podcast.



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Now playing: Talking Heads - Road to Nowhere
via FoxyTunes

Whepstead Suffolk

2.30pm 10.2 miles in 1 hr 24 17 secs

Week to date mileage 10.2 miles

Month to date mileage 58

Average weekly rate 30.1 miles

Average monthly rate 131

Year to date 1485

Lifetime 9505

On a cold damp afternoon I traveled out to the village of Whepstead. On the B 1066 it is about 4 miles from Bury St Edmunds. I parked up opposite St Petronilla which is Whepstead's church on a hill. St Petronilla has connections with the old leper hospital of the same name in Bury St Edmunds.

This being my first run in Whepstead I set of in no particular direction taking chance as to what I might come across. I ran down a fairly sharp hill and headed up Pages Hill about as far as Harram Bottom before retracing my steps back into Whepstead past the church and down the Brockley Road. I took the first turning off the road past the Whepstead Hall this too proved to be a dead end and I returned back up hill to the Brockley Road.

The next off road track proved more useful and this took me along besides the River Lark. I followed a serious of paths across wet fields arriving at Gulling Green near Brockley.
I then went on as far as Rushbottom Wood. I then retraced my steps but on my way back in the fading light I took a wrong turning and some how emerged on a road. I realise now on consulting the ordnance survey map that when I emerged on the road I was starting to run in the wrong direction towards Rede. I got as far as Haws Wood and seeing no obvious house lights that I might be going wrong and decided to try running the opposite way.

My running became that much quicker with a slight sense of being lost only because it was becoming dark. I reached a small hamlet and not seeing any obvious place name I knocked on a door and the lady was helpful in confirming that I was heading in the right direction and that I was at Stonecross . I continued on and past through the main village of Whepstead that I had missed originally in the day light .

By getting a little lost I succeeded in running a little further than originally planned.

17th July Once Bitten Twice Shy!

8am 8.5 miles in 1 hr 10 minutes. Year to date mileage 607, monthly mileage 71. Hot and Sunny not a cloud in the sky fantastic weather.

Course: I planned to do 35 mins out and back toward Whepstead. At the moment my longest run is just 1 hour. As I want to do a 10 mile race in the middle of September I plan to build up mileage each week with a long run gradually adding 5-10 minutes extra.

Take the Whepstead road from Bury, this is a fairly quiet road with not too many cars, though being as the road is a bit bendy you have to anticipate the worst and switch sides of the road on the bends. After about 20 minutes I had to do a u-turn as I hadn't anticipated a dog on the loose which came charging at my ankles from a driveway at the house above. Not sure what type of dog it was but it wasn't going to let me go past and there was no owner in site to reign it in.

So having had my run messed up I will give this route a miss for a while.Instead I headed out towards Horsecroft. I went over fields quite a bit as the pictures of the wheat show before returning home.

Felt good and comfortable with the extra time and distance.