Month: January 2016

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Janathon Day 11 Thanks David

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Archbishop Justin Welby, commenting  on David Bowie’s death which was announced this morning, remembered “sitting listening to his songs endlessly in the 1970’s particularly and always really relishing what he was , what he did, the impact he had.” That won’t be music to the ears of certain delegates to the Anglican Communion in Canterbury today. Bowie regarded himself as bisexual.

I couldn’t lay my hands on Ziggy Stardust but I did find Hunky Dory which I prefer. Looking through my old vinyl it was sad to come across past heroes, now gone – Kevin Ayers, Jimi Hendrix, Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa, Sandy Denny, Janice Joplin, Rory Gallagher,Lou Reed, John Lennon, George Harrison, Nico. All part of growing up and the excitement of music.

A cold day in Cambridge, some sun but mainly dull and overcast. I went for a late run around 8.30 pm. Only my head light brightened it up.

 

 

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Janathon Day 10 Oh dear…….

 

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A new Japanese meta analysis of research on the effects of statins has concluded that their use increases the risk of heart disease, the very opposite of their intended function. The report also concludes that statins block a molecule which assists in the prevention of calcification of heart arteries.

The findings are published by the Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology. Around 12 million adults in the UK are prescribed statins to lower cholesterol levels, including me!

What to do? I’ll obviously have to pursue this. The Express, of course, has a long history of crazy, exaggerated, wildly ridiculous headlines and it has extolled statins in the past (based on its interpretation of research findings). But it doesn’t look good.

Back to Janathon. A short 2 mile run today because I had to repair to Londinium to accompany my mother to a hospital appointment. It was chilly but still mild for January so I could get away with shorts and a long sleeved top.

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Janathon Day 9 We’re gonna be famous for 15 seconds!

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A very enjoyable Cambridge parkrun this morning. We had a record 504 runners and BBC Look East came along and filmed the whole proceedings. This picture shows our mate Kerry (who ran his 100th today) being interviewed by Jonathan Park. Kerry’s standing by a supply of cakes and a photo montage of Kerry centred pictures. Just out of shot is a couple of hundred drooling runners being held back by volunteers and gagging to devour the confectionery.

The run was very muddy, as anticipated, but the weather held. No rain and surprisingly mild. The camera man and interviewer Jonathan (who also ran) were very friendly and to blended in comfortably with everyone. They appeared to take possibly ninety minutes of film which might be edited down to a few minute or less. We’ll know on Monday evening when it’s scheduled to air. Hopefully it won’t feature me running with my mouth open and looking as if I’m about to collapse (my default appearance).

We tend to mark 50th, 100th and 250th runs as well as significant parkrun dates, and birthdays, with cakes at Cambridge. We also tend to take a lot of photos. Are we narcissistic? Obviously! Do the majority of other parkruns do this? Hopefully!

After the run we queued in the cafe and then enjoyed a lovely cup of coffee to further reward ourselves in good company. Next week, we’re off to Wimpole parkrun (cancelled today because of water logging)to celebrate their 3rd anniversary. For more of the same.

Perusing my wood pulp hard copy edition of that middle class, bleeding heart liberal, wooly, comfortable, arm chair lefty Guardian newspaper, I came across  an article :

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/08/church-of-england-fears-talks-on-gay-rights-could-end-global-anglican-communion

It discusses the high degree of likelihood of continuing fundamental disagreement in the world wide Anglican communion over gay rights and same sex marriage. As a humanist, I can only continue to marvel at the intrinsic lack of humanity, wilful ignorance and vicious, self serving prejudice in an organisation whose mission statement has something to say about love, tolerance, inclusion and diversity. And there you have it! It doesn’t say that sexuality is on a spectrum, varies within that spectrum for many of us and is often a biological imperative. So centuries old prejudices and sexual fears and anxieties are maintained and justified supernaturally. The church, with the clear conscience of the self righteous, can condemn and preside over the persecution of anyone outside of their definition of God approved sexuality. I think it would be more useful to return to the old, less cruel practice of estimating the number of angels who could stand on the head of a pin!

Sermon over.

I think these summit delegates would benefit from going for a 5k run before they begin to pontificate.

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Janathon Day 8 Frost, sun and blue sky

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Looking forward to the London marathon on April 24th. We’ll be spectating around Canary Wharf in Docklands again which is mile 18 or thereabouts. Last year we stayed until the sweeper vehicles went past heralding the official tail end of the race. There were still many going through in dribs and drabs and having to negotiate the extensive clear up operation all around them. Most of the the cheering crowd had melted away, the roads were opening up to traffic but they were still determined to finish despite having another six miles to go.

Cambridge half marathon is earlier this year, at the end of February, so only about seven weeks away. It’s a new one lap course this year rather than two laps within the City. Unfortunately this means the organisers have not been able to accommodate relay teams of two or three runners as they have done in past years. That’s a pity.

A cold and frosty start to the day followed by bright sun and blue skies. Despite the pleasant weather I didn’t get around to running until darkness fell which necessitated using my new Petzl head lamp for a second time. Very enjoyable. I may never run in daylight again.

Cambridge parkrun tomorrow where our chum Kerry will be running his 100th. Surely it will be a mud festival. Wimpole Estate parkrun, the nearest to Cambridge, have already cancelled due to water logging. Some of these people will come to Cambridge  and a proportion will go elsewhere. Some weird people will use the opportunity to stay in bed!

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Janathon Day 7 More gloomy light

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Heavy rain this morning and squally winds this afternoon.The quality of the light was poor all day After dark, the wind and rain eased off and I took the opportunity to use my new Petzl head torch. It’s a leap of faith if you can’t see exactly where you are placing your feet at night but the head torch provides sufficient strong light to illuminate a wide angle of the path. That means you can run more confidently. I don’t worry about running on a poorly lit pavement but a good torch makes for a more relaxing outing. Distance about 3.4 miles. Saw one other runner with a head light.

I subscribe to Heart Matters, the British Heart Foundation magazine which is free. https://www.bhf.org.uk/heart-matters-magazine. It’s very informative, easy to read, discusses all aspects of heart disease and treatment and is full of positive and inspiring stories. This month it features explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes who had a heart attack in 2003 and had to be resuscitated from several cardiac arrests. Following bypass surgery, three months later he ran seven marathons in seven days on all seven continents. In 2005, he climbed Everest and got within 300 metres of the summit before chest pains stopped him going to the top. According to his surgeon, Professor Angelini, who raised no objection to these endeavours, “his heart has recovered ; there was no damage.” Professor Angelini did advise him his heart rate should not rise much above 130 beats per minute.

Fiennes went on to successfully climb Everest on his third attempt in 2008. He is now aged 71. Last year he completed the Marathon De Sables, an extremely demanding  251k  race across the Sahara desert.

The article seems to be a puff for super hero Fiennes whose cardiac arrests, bypass surgery and heart disease appear not to have had any impact on his ability to undergo extremes of physical endurance. No mention of medication although NICE guidelines seem to put everyone on Ramipril, bisoprolol, aspirin and statins following a heart attack. Ranulph, why are you different? Is it because you are a knight of the realm and strong blue blood courses through your veins? I’ll be contacting Heart Matters and HRM Queen Elizabeth over this.

 

 

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Janathon Day 6

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I thought I would include a few cutting edge health tips in this blog although this is an October 2015 edition. Nevertheless, I’m sure it’s as true now as it was then. The Express has an endearing habit of leading with good news health stories (as in trumpeting a cure for arthritis or cutting heart disease by 110% or predicting everyone will be able to live until they are 127 years old within the decade). It currently has a daily paper circulation of around 450,000 compared with the Guardian’s 185,000 and the Independent’s 61,000.

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The Daily Star (sample front page above) has a current circulation of around 425,000, the Sun just under two million and the Daily Mail about 1,680,000.

What’s all this got to do with running? Not a lot. It’s just a continuing source of fascination how our British papers pander to specific demographics and it’s not a pretty sight. The tabloids, particularly, specialise in provoking hostility and anxiety, prejudice and condemnation or providing fantasy and sexual titillation. Several of them don’t meet the criteria for being regarded as newspapers. They are adult comics pretending to have gravitas.

Anyway, I managed to suppress my habit of snapping the more hilarious or outrageous headlines in Tesco today. I’m sure it’s not a healthy behaviour so I’ll try harder to restrict it to the most egregious examples (another positive New Year resolution).

I ran my default 2 miles today having run around 9k last night with the club. I feel I’m running well at the moment but not swiftly. I’m roughly five to six pounds over weight and it’s winter. Presently, the light is poor, and particularly today, when I felt obliged to switch on my SAD lamp. Having spent a lot of money on this lamp, obviously it works for me! So my investment was successful. I also need to stretch much more and do upper body work (that’s an aspirational New Year’s resolution).

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Janathon Day 5

Aha! Those quick on the uptake will notice Lorna is wearing our new head lamp. It’s a Petzl Tikka RXP (I’m sure I’ve ordered something similar in a restaurant at some point).

Lorna got to model it because there was an unseemly struggle (after I managed to prise the lamp from the packaging) and she won. Anyway, we are pleased with it and all we need is a little bit of darkness  to try it out.

Out running with the club tonight. We meet at the University of Cambridge athletics track. A track session is always offered but I opt to do the road running. We did an 800 metre warm up run on the track, jogged 1k to a particular point and then did 4 x 6 minute pace running with 4 minute recoveries. It all went tickety boo

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Janathon Day 4

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Impressively, Lorna chose not to utilise her new culinary skills accrued through watching The Great British Bake Off, Master Chef, Delia and Nigella stuff and all the cookery shows which comprise every other programme on all channels. The tray bake clearly turned against her! It tasted good but I had to severely mark it down for presentation. Thank God for Waitrose (or was it Tesco) who saved the day and provided some cakes to celebrate my 250th parkrun some while ago.

Just another two mile run today. The weather remains spookily mild in Cambridge and I ran in shorts and a short sleeved top. I felt more energetic than yesterday and covered the same distance in a minute less.

My new head torch should arrive tomorrow although I won’t wear it if I go running with the club in the evening. I’m bound to feel self conscious because I’ve never used one before. Will people crowd around me and steal my light?  If I’m a source of illumination, will I be regarded as wise? Should I wear it in the daylight to avoid these problems? Should I go to sleep now? Definitely.

 

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Janathon Day 3 Dreich day for running

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New Year’s Day parkrun at Peterborough which Lorna and I ran. Impressively they put on the normal parkrun the next day (Saturday) although we ran Cambridge.

Today it’s all  drizzle, mizzle, dreary light and damp cold. It’ll be pishing it doon later. I’ve started this blog but I’m struggling to get out to run. I’ll play for time and commit to New Year’s resolutions.

I should :

  1. Eat more broccoli, Brussels sprouts, leeks and cabbage.
  2. Invest in a pair of Gore Mythos wind stopper running tights.
  3. Cough more loudly as I’m running behind someone on the river Cam footpath to alert them to my imminent presence thus avoiding them jumping into the Cam in fright.
  4. Confront people more assertively with my alternative opinion. A Scottish phrase springs to mind to assist me. Yer bum’s oot the windae! ie you’re talking nonsense.
  5. Buy a good head torch for night running. Resolution achieved! It’s arriving in two days.
  6. Grow up (I may defer this one for another year).

Not too demanding, I think. Anyway, I did eventually go for a two mile run, at 5pm, in the dark and rain. Initially I felt tired and lacking in energy. The second mile was much better and when I returned home I was feeling alert and chipper. Prior to going out, I had prepared the evening meal slowly and without enthusiasm. Now I snapped on electric cooker knobs with panache and finished the food preparation with brio. Another testimonial to the benefits of running.

BBC Radio 4 The Food Programme broadcast at 12.30 pm today. It looks at how diet can affect running performance. It can be downloaded as a podcast on iTunes and is repeated tomorrow at 3.30 pm.

 

 

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Janathon Day 2 Into the gloop. Again!

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Vanity, vanity. All is vanity. Here’s yet another picture of me. This time I am running in today’s Cambridge parkrun. I’m just behind another open mouthed runner. It was very muddy but unlike yesterday, relatively warm so I made the right decision to run in a short sleeved top and shorts.

The gloop made for a slow time. I couldn’t convince myself I was sprinting like a gazelle. Nevertheless, I usually feel I am running faster than I am. I’ve done quite a bit of running in the last five days and although the speed isn’t there, the stamina is. I don’t feel tired or achy so that’s a good result.

After being completely splattered in mud, I showered the equivalent of several kilos of mire down the plug hole and then repaired, with Lorna, to a friend’s house where we had a delicious breakfast with a group of like minded running chums. And very relaxing and enjoyable it was, too!  We were invited to join a newly forming mid week evening 10k running group which sounded great. I’ll almost certainly take it up. Of course, I’ll need a head lamp, a very bright one to turn the Cambridge night into daylight. And if Lorna asks nicely, I’ll let her borrow it!

Cambridge half marathon in 8 weeks. Gotta get training.