Hash, Dogging , Trig Planking, Swinging, Beer, Cake and Strumming a Little One in the Pub

Monday was Hashing with the Guildford Hash House Harriers. The hash met up in a pub car park in Westhumble. Popeye was the hare so we knew we were in for a treat. The last hash he led involved us being in a row boat across the Guildford Canal in santa hats so we were expecting some surprises.

typical running kit on a hash

When you get to the car park and you notice the hare has been setting a trail that required a lifevest, grapling hook , karabiners and a divers knife you outwardly smile and inwardly panic.

Popeye explained that the original plan was to end the hash with a 300m rope run down a very steep part of the hill and across the river......but.....when he laid the trail the river was so deep and strong from all the rain he had got his arm caught and been dragged under and very nearly drowned.

Popeye made it VERY CLEAR that the advanced route he had laid was OFF LIMITS because it was suicide. And in hashing speak suicide means suicide and then some.

Claire back on the North Downs Way at Box Hill

It was great to be back on the North Downs Way after our Sunday Runday the day before. We were further east this time and having found the previous run about 'flat and samey' this was about to be the opposite.

Claire running up Box Hill on the North Downs Way

We crossed a bridge and began a flour trail leading up Box Hill......and I mean up. We climbed and climbed and climbed and climbed and climbed and climbed and climbed (and when I was not in sight of anyone I slowed to a walk and got my breath back) and climbed and climbed and climbed and climbed and climbed and climbed and climbed and climbed.



Google Phenomenom Lee Trig Point Planking on Box Hill

The climb was well worth it. The view was another great one, but better than that we saw a Trig Point . I was dancing around with glee in front of a bemused family eating a mcdonalds on a bench. They slurped milkshake as the guy with half of Field and Trek on his back started to 'hump' the trig point and shout 'am I straight?' 'do I look plankly enough?'

Claire Trig Point Planking on Box Hill on the North Downs Way

I got a well deserved rest taking a picture of Claire planking as well. Hasher 'Ponce' was unimpressed with our antics and made a note in his naughty book which got us a down down later that night. my explanation that 'we were one of the highest ranking google hits for 'trig point planking' pictures fell on bewildered ears.

'Sminging' - smiling with your swing

As we ran through 'liquor box' *fnar* on the top of Box Hill we also found a swing so we had a go at a bit of swinging and I played 'Nigel' to Claires 'Tyra' .

Hash Dog on Box Hill

Ive hashed before with a few dogs and always found them quite annoying. They charge about, are buggered when we reach a stile and usually lost ffor ages.  On this hash though we met a new hash dog who was ace. He even seemed to understand the shout 'On On' and go bombing off along the trail. We reckoned he has been trained to sniff out flour.

Guildford Hash House Harriers running across Box Hill on the North Downs Way

At the peak overlooking Westhumble we paused for a well deserved Beer Stop. Popeye was standing infront of the 'advanced' route that we couldnt take anymore. I took a quick peek and it looked terrifying. It reminded me of some abseiling I did in South Africa once. Glad we didnt do it.

Popeye guards the 'advanced route' on the beer stop.

We then enjoyed a gentle descent without anyone dying or drowning towards the pub we parked in called the Stepping Stones.

Hash On Inn sign planking by lee

I got some On Inn planking done (and a sneaky power nap) and claire did some 'Smubwaying'



Claire does a Smubway

It was hasher 'Glob' s birthday recently so we got cake in the car park as well as the usual Beer. He had also got a ukulele for his birthday and had asked Claire to set the intonation ( make sure all the notes play perfectly in pitch on each fret) by gently filing the nut and using a tuner. Once in tune and playing well the pub was treated to a Johnny Cash number by Claire.

Claire plays a bit of ukulele in the pub

I reckoned this was the most scenic Hash we've ever done. Claire pointed out it was the first hash Ive ever done that was daylight all the way through. It was great to mash ukuleles with hashers again, we are doing our 'hashjam' run in 3 weeks time. It was also great that the North Downs Way got a chance to showcase a hill that was a worthy opponent for Leith or Holmbury Hill.

This week is going to be a great varied week for training. Later this week Claire and I get to run along some of the Cornwall Coastal Path, taking in the Cliffs and Sea Views (and keeping an eye out for Basking Sharks).

 I must remember to pack my lifevest, grapling hook, karabiners and divers knife......

In the meantime please take the time to visit our webpage if you havent donated already
www.charitygiving.co.uk/greensandway2012

Virgin Hares, Hash Golf , Underdeveloped Ankles and Twin Peaks

After running 55 miles in a weekend what could be better than a little 6 mile run the next day in Hook Heath with the Guildford Hash House Harriers?

We tee d off in a car park in St Johns a wee bit late (everyone had already left) so we knew we were going to have to run hard to catch up the pack. The front side of the run was going to be hard work with us being this under form already.

Scrum Muffin getting ready for the Hash in the car park

We set off at a very rapid pace led by Scrum Muffin (Claire). We both still had our full Greensand Way running packs on too. We had Scrum Muffins dad Loose Article in tow as well.  We started across the Golf Course in Woking following the flour trail as we went. I like running across footpaths that lead over Golf Courses as they always make me feel naughty.

Scrum 'tiger woods'  Muffin and Loose 'Colin Montgomery' Article Hashing across the Golf Coure in Woking

Loose'Colin Montgomery' Article not having a wee in public as that would be illegal

We chipped over small bridges and navigated through tricky bunkers and thought we could see the pack in the far distance. It turned out we were reading the green badly and we were much more behind than we first thought.

Scrum 'tiger woods' Muffin doing a great 'bail out' on Woking Golf Course

As you know I get very excited about type 22 WW2 bunkers on the GHQ line so I was pleased to get to interact with a new class of bunker that evening.

Little 'nick faldo' Pecker finds a new type of bunker on a Woking Hash

What we thought was the main pack turned out to be Under Developed walking with a very hurty ankle. The poor guy was surrounded by Scrum Muffin and I with our large packs offering our caddy services....

• Walky pills for the pain?
• ankle support?
• little drinky?
• Mars Bar?
• Space Blanket?
• First Aid Kit?
• 9 iron?

In true hash style he didn't understand any of these things, only beer which we didn't have. We ran on leaving Loose Article with him checking he was ok. His handicap would be seriously affected by this mishap.

Leaving Loose 'Colin Montgomery' Article and Under 'Jack Nicklaus' Developed behind

As we aced our way out towards Hook Heath we crossed Blackhorse Rd and I was very pleased to find us running past Blackhorse Apiaries or 'Bee School' where I learnt to keep Bees with the king of Beekeeping and inventor of the Swarmbuster 3000 Jon Hamer !

Lee learns about the birdies and the bees here - Blackhorse Apiaries

Loose 'Colin Montgomery' Article caught us up again so I got the chance to try mirror posing with another member of  Scrum Muffins family. We gave it our best 'Smirror' Smile with a mirror.

Smirror - smile with a mirror.

We had a virgin hare setting the trail, that is someone who hasn't laid a trail before and so a number of the hashers seemed to be taking the piss out of how much flour she had put down. At one stage Scrum 'tiger woods' Muffin and I came across 3 arrows to show us which direction to go in.

Scrum 'tiger woods' Muffin narrowly avoids an oopsiwahli

As we entered the back nine of our hash we were still very much still bogeying. We ran on as the darkness came and eventually came across 'Twin Peaks' a new hasher we hadn't met before. So named as she is a Doctor and has ....er.....big.....er........lady things.

Scrum Muffin and Twin Peaks

We ran on and back towards the Golf Course again. We had a chance to do some Smollarding too - Smiling with your lit Bollard.

Smollarding

Eventually we got the sign that the 19th Hole was approaching and we were at the dead ball stage of the run. We finally got back to the car park about a minute or two  behind the main pack having spent the entire run near the back.

Scrum 'tiger woods'  Muffin at the 'On in' hashing towards the 19th Hole

We retired to the 19th Hole for beer and to discuss how well we all faired on this run. At over 6 miles this was quite a 'runners run' and involved a fair bit of running in the 'rough' (along busy dark main roads) but all in all we enjoyed it.

Scrum 'tiger woods' Muffin and I were also surprised at how well we had done give the mileage we had done the previous 2 days.

All in all we enjoyed hash golf and would do it again.

Legs, Bums, Tums, Swims, Sprints, Poses, Pumps, Circuits and Zumba

Hey ! At time of writing our fundraising is nearing the £1500 mark. Thankyou to everyone that has contributed. If you havent allready why not donate just £1 towards our cause? You can do so easily here -

www.charitygiving.co.uk/greensandway2012

As you know we marshalled the Sport Relief Mile 3 weeks ago at Charterhouse Gym in Godalming. As a little gift we got 3 weeks free membership to their facilities. We set out 'Greensand Way' Style to take full advantage of this kind offer and basically do as many classes as possible in 3 weeks.

Circuit Training - Doing a little sick in my mouth

I used to do a lot of regular circuit training at University. I forget that this was 13 years ago and so I was confident that I would excell at this class and show everyone there how an ultra marathon runner can keep up with the best of them.

Lee and Claire doing circuit training at charterhouse gym

We arrived a bit late and soon got into the swing of the running followed by repetitive hardcore exercises. Typically this might involve sitting in a stress position for 45 seconds against a wall, then 10 lunges , 10 star jumps then a run to the other end of the astro turf and back.

It took me less than 15 minutes to be utterly destroyed physically and 'do a little sick' in my mouth' during the exercises. We would work as a team of 2 with one of us doing a number of reps whilst the other did another type of exercise.  I smiled outwardly, and cried inwardly. I might be an ok endurance runner but my fitness was way off for this.

My body shook like a nervous dog as we had to hold press up positions. I was utterly beaten by the end of the hour session and so was Claire. It was a great way to mix up our training, even if we had to scrounge water off 'teacher'.

We both agreed we would 'definitely' do it again.

By 'Definitely' we meant 'never'.

Swimming - Titanic style

I am a diver and am therefore used to certain things when I'm in water. Being warm by wearing a wetsuit or drysuit, and easy propulsion using fins. The Charterhouse Pool is excellent, and is the right temperature for competitive swimmers to bomb up and down the lanes without overheating.

The pool is just the wrong temperature for a hobbit with no fins on and no wetsuit who is slightly drowning and slightly freezing to death as he inches along the pool at the speed of an iceberg. My ample chesthair creates so much drag its like swimming with a woolly jumper on.

Whilst Claire darted and moved like a graceful mermaid, enjoying underwater swimming and sitting on the bottom of the pool, I stayed on the surface with my eyes squinting so I didnt loose a contact lense.

Everytime I went swimming it gave me a great appetite though!


Zumba - Strictly No Rhythum

I had no delusions here. I cant dance....at all....This was going to be the class from hell. The music started with a groovy latin beat and every lady (yep I was the ONLY guy) moved as one in groovy rhythum to the music...and I er......sort of....shook about a bit.

Lee and Claire do Zumba

Claire had done one class allready and was moving like J Lo compared to me. I tried VERY hard to keep up. I could follow what the feet were doing OR what the hands were doing...BUT NOT BOTH. It doesnt help that there are mirrors all round the hall so I could see myself dancing like a drunk dad at a wedding from multiple directions.

Lee and Claire 'Smubaing' Smiling with your Zumba

Everytime I nearly had a set of dance moves down it was time to change to the next song and routine. After a while I gave up trying so hard and just kind of ....went with it. I started smiling more and enjoyed it. No one was judging my moves. It was all good.

Not Lees best performance

 All in all it is a fun class. Over the 3 weeks we did it twice and I was less worse the second time. I reckon I'd only need about 30 years to get good at this. It was a good sweaty workout without being so mental that I wanted to cry......and Claire loved it!

Legs Bums and Tums - Finally ! Something we are good at!

Legs Bums and Tums was exactly that. Aerobic exercises for legs, bum and tummy area. For the first time there were no real surprises. We were fit enough to do it even straight after a Zumba class and I could do almost all of the moves as they were more simple than Zumba. Its only 45 minutes and works those areas hard. This was a class I was good at and enjoyed even more than most of the others.


Baby got Back



Freestyle Fitness Yoga -

I've done a few yoga classes in the past and have a neat trick I can do with my legs and hips that most men cant do. I also play the sitar so I got my inner 'Om' on and was ready to show everyone how good I was at poses like  'dead cat' , ' sleeping dog' 'road warrior' and ' rotten tree'

Again (noticing a trend here ?) I was in for a surprise. This class had gentle chillout dance music and although most of the moves were familiar they were done in a series of 'sets' at quite a rapid pace one after the other. Rather hectic compared to classes I'm used to but still very challenging.

We even did some 'stack planking' where up to three of us planked on top of each other and best of all I did a hand stand !

We left the class feeling very stretched out ....and went to the pub to celebrate.

Marathon Running Training with Waverley Harriers - Good Form + meeting 'hasher X'

We were delighted to meet a few runners from Waverely Harriers who ran with us on the Easter Runday and they kindly invited us to do a session with them at the Charterhouse Track one Tuesday evening. It was a beautiful evening and we got to enjoy the sunset as we trained with them.

BOOOOOOOING !

Meeting up with the Waverley Harriers training session meant we got a chance to hand Linda the box of chocolates she won in the Easter Sunday Runday Raffle.

We were also delighted to meet a hasher from guildford Hash House Harriers. She was keen to remain 'Hasher X' as she would incur many down downs for being in another running club!

Claire with 'Hasher X'

The training session with them was absolutely excellent. We did timed stints of running fast and slow. For us this was a chance to strip away the weight of a rucksack, the mental burden of navigating off road and the physical challenge of uneven off road terrain and concentrate entirely on running technique.

We were both treated to encouraging shouts of 'Good Form' from our lovely (but stern) female trainer and I learnt loads that night about breathing and stride distance and that I need to get a foam roller.

Everyone at that session was going on to do a marathon shortly so we really felt like we were in the 'Top Gun' of running training school.

Body Pump -  Heavy Metal Rockarobics

I attended a Body Pump session on the Thursday as my final workout before our big weekend run (and the end of our three weeks of classes).

This class uses a lot of weights to tone all body areas and I had no idea what weight amounts to choose. I pushed common sense to one side , sized up the fittest (as in tone not whether I fancied him!) bloke in the class and decided to copy his weight amounts.

Bad idea.

The fittest guy in the class was fit, and I had nothing on him. The weights I used were too much and I fell behind on the reps as I struggled to do each movement and not dislocate every joint in my body.

By the end of the session I was on weight amounts that were more resonable for me (about the same as the ladies in the class) and managed to not hurt myself for the full hour.

This was a very intense session and my breast muscles still hurt on the Kent Training Weekend 4 days later !

Best thing about Body Pump? It has a Rock Ballad soundtrack! Dave would have LOVED this class. Working out to nickleback is so much better than the ooph chi ooph chi dance tracks. The first track we worked out to was the Red Hot Chili Peppers!

Lee does Body Pump to a rock music soundtrack

So how was it overall?

Please put my lighthearted idiocy to one side. The facilities at Charterhouse are excellent and the classes are all very, very good. The monthly fee provides far more value for money in my opinion than a fitness first membership (Ive been a member with Fitness First in the past). All the staff there were very welcoming, very enthusiastic and we genuinely had a great time.  Find out more here

http://www.charterhouseclub.com/

I loved the fact that I was exercising in the evening instead of the morning, that everything was different and I learned I'm not very flexible, not as strong as I thought and I shouldnt forget my skills and experience and endurance fitness is in one niche area only. There is a whole world of exercise out there!