Exercise and heart disease

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Aliveandrunning June 24 2014 Juneathon Day 24

 

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This water lily is part-time! It comes out late in the morning and shuts up in the mid afternoon when it’s still warm and sunny. I bought it under the impression that it was a hard working, full time lily. I concede it’s rather lovely but it needs to put more effort into flowering time.

Out with the club tonight. We did a time trial 1k followed by 4 further kilometres. With warm up jog and getting to the run site we covered around 4.5 miles in all. The weather was odd – cool and clammy. I even put the heater on in the car on the way back.

Professor Sue Bailey, President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists said in an interview this morning that mental health services in England are “a car crash.” She said the services were in crisis and that Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt is not taking the problems seriously. I didn’t catch it. Was this an interview on Radio 4’s Today? I also managed to miss a feature on Woman’s Hour criticising anti depressants which asserted that they are as effective as placebo.

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Aliveandrunning June 23 2014 Juneathon Day 23

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Oh look!  An Anglais urticae has alighted on my verbena bonariensis. I’m not surprised because its larvae feeds on the common stinging nettle which thrives without embarrassment in our garden and in the adjacent field. In fact there are so many nettles they could easily support a swarm of these Small Tortoiseshell butterflies, blackening the sky like myriads of locust. In the meanwhile, a dozen or so flit around the verbena which is good this year.

I’ve trained 6 of them to fly above my head when I’m running locally ( they are not good at travelling in the car so I didn’t take them to yesterday’s Hatfield Forest 10k). The truth is I’ve become a butterfly whisperer. A noble calling but without much call for it.

Felix Dennis has died, aged 67. An extremely successful publisher in later years, he will always be remembered by a certain section of my generation as one of the co-founders of OZ, the 60’s counterculture magazine which was the subject of a high profile obscenity trial in 1971. Oz can be bought on ebay, should you be so minded, and I can recommend Tony Palmer’s The Trials of Oz, first published in August 1971 with drawings by Felix Topolski. John Mortimer was the defence QC and there were many famous witnesses speaking up for them. A still fascinating clash between culture and generations.

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A warm day in Cambridge. I felt  a bit lackadaisical after yesterday’s 10k and put off running until I had a heavy evening meal, a hot chocolate and it had started raining hard. Just over 2 miles; the second mile was easier and I could have continued but time was moving on. I got soaked through. I didn’t take the butterflies with me. They get in such a flap when it rains. They are prone to water logging and can’t flutter correctly. I gave them the day off.

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Aliveandrunning June 19 2014 Juneathon Day 19

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A little bit of garden I tend. In the picture, it looks  busy and densely planted but it’s full of weeds including the delicate plants with white flowers. No matter. I do like the stipa gigantica, the tall grass seed heads just right of the conifer in the middle background. Couldn’t do much gardening today because I was placed in the unfortunate position of having to destroy  the homes of small spiders. They love our very old creaky cottage and want to live in harmony with us. All they ask is to be able to create a fine network of webs over everything. Why, you can hardly see them unless you’re really determined to wrong foot the little creatures, bless their little arachnid hearts. Anyway,  their finely spun abodes have been swept away and they surely want revenge. They’ll attack, on mass, in the small hours and we’ll just be relegated to a comic headline in the Daily Star “Spider Hordes Eat Family : Police Looking For Motive”.

Day 19 of Juneathon and my run was restricted to 2 miles. Short, sweet and unproblematic. May go running in Cambridge City centre tomorrow. Saturday it’s Cambridge parkrun and Sunday Hatfield Forest 10k. On June 28 there is a trial outing for Cambridge Children’s Parkrun (age 4-14) and the inaugural run is  on July 13. Lorna is one of the race directors and is assisting in setting it up.

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Aliveandrunning June 18 2014 Juneathon Day 18

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Just over half way through Juneathon and I feel I’ve got my energy back. I just ran my default distance 2 miles and I ran it faster and felt stronger than I have done in months. Perhaps I should continue and do a Julyathon and maybe an Augustathon!

So far I’ve run around 70 miles this month plus about 35 miles dog walking. My expectation is that after June, I will have a rest for a few days and then get a PB at parkrun. This is what happened last year. Why not this year!

I enjoyed a large Americano coffee at Costa this morning. They served it in a medium sized potty which I could only raise to my lips by using both of my hands. I drank all  of it. On the way home , I regretted not having an available medium sized potty.

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Aliveandrunning June 17 2014 Juneathon Day 17

 
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Into Cambridge city centre today. I took  the opportunity, as anyone would, to snap some bookshops because in 25 years or perhaps 5 years, they will have disappeared into history. “Books” will be downloaded directly into our heads as we sleep and we will awake with the full memory of the pleasure of the contents. Physical books will be regarded as unnecessary fire hazards which attract contaminating, throat choking dust, and the broad coalition government of the Daily Mail party, UKIP and Best Do AS You Are Told Alliance will ban them. The American Psychiatric Association  will categorise physical book reading as an unhealthy fetish and advise psychosurgery if the patient persists with his/her deviant behaviour. We follow suit in the UK.

Anyway, that’s the future. Let the unreconstructed enjoy today. I have included T.K. Max because this was where Borders had a three floor store before it went bust. I liked this large shop.It had a fantastic range of magazines, a good coffee shop, a wide range of books, comfy chairs and a relaxed atmosphere. After my heart attack 5 years ago, I couldn’t reach the second floor  because it was only accessible by stairs which I wasn’t permitted to use. I was disproportionately put out despite the relatively short ban.

I seldom go into the Cambridge University Press bookshop. Too many titles I would like to own, and expensive.

Heffers is Cambridge’s premier shop for bibliophiles, both for the general reader, the specialist  and students. A lovely, big, sprawling store with very knowledgeable staff.

Out road running with Cambridge and Coleridge this evening. We did 6 x 3 minutes with decreasing recovery from 5 mins to 1 minute. We stopped to a loud whistle so all speeds were catered for. We then returned to the position  from where we started, or where we reached at the 3 minute whistle. Then back home for fish and chips, baked beans and salad, accompanied by delicious flat bread. Alas, no Brussels sprouts!

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Aliveandrunning June 15 2014 Juneathon Day 15

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  May Bumps, always held in June, on the River Cam, Cambridge. Teams of eight, plus a cox, row to catch the crew in front and “bump” them. The two boats then retire to the side as others race past them, intent on bumping the boat in front of them.

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It was good, upper middle class, English fun. Everyone who participated or spectated were hard working tax payers (or will be) and everyone believed in solid British values. No-one was selling Socialist Worker. No drones buzzed overhead and blew anyone to smithereens.

To satisfy Juneathon’s  exacting requirements, I ran just 2 miles today. I see from my running record that last June I was up to a minute faster than this year for the same distance. No matter, it’s the run that counts, not the time.

The BBC should know better than to allow that sanctimonious and unctuous Tony Blair airtime to pontificate on the current crisis in Iraq. He showed utter determination to go to war with Bush and not allow any argument or opposing views or facts to impede him. His body language at the time illustrated his desire to ingratiate himself with the Bush team. Bush came across as a no nonsense, macho avenger. Blair revealed himself to be poodle and faithful lapdog. Both men are professed Christians, of course. As if!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Aliveandrunning June 13 2014 Day 13

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An oblique view of Kings College, Cambridge. WARNING : if you visit Cambridge , DO NOT walk on the grass. Kings College groundsmen and groundswomen are licenced to kill anyone who transgresses this rule. Anyone caught dropping litter onto the sward is led away to an inner court yard and placed in the stocks. The gilded youth attending Kings are then invited to pelt the hapless person with stale asparagus tips, rotten foie gras and guinea fowl, uneaten caviar and the like. This is the risky under belly of tourism. Beware (but have a good day).

Another warm day for running. Various chores got in the way so I didn’t pound the mean streets of my village until 5 pm and ran an easy 2 miles.

Tomorrow we are going to Wimpole Estate parkrun. It’s predominately over grass and undulating. It features  a short but steep hill which in the past I have walked up because I find it so exhausting. Wimpole is one of the loveliest courses in a beautiful stately house parkland setting. The cows might also be out in force as well as the runners so there will be an extra frisson of excitement (or terror).

The cafe is excellent and, to top it all, there is a good second hand bookshop staffed by the usual idiosyncratic and helpful National Trust volunteers. This is beginning to sound like a review for SAGA magazine!

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Aliveandrunning June 11 2014 Juneathon Day 11

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Ye old windy path that is troddeth by me nearly all days of the year accompanied by my faithful canine, Rupert. I particularly like this part of the woods. It has a mystical feel, as if  you could meet a country person from the Victorian age or the Middle ages or a wandering Greek god seeking a diversion from mythical responsibilities. I don’t run in this wood. Sometimes I meet other dog walkers but most often I’m listening to BBC Radio 4 podcasts. We are so lucky to have the BBC and to have such a range of high quality broadcasts. Today I listened to All in the Mind which featured a very affecting interview with an anorexic 22 year old woman and her carer mother followed by a discussion on current research on the role of the hormone oxytocin in mitigating some of the features of anorexic symptoms.I’m spoilt for choice. Woman’s Hour, The Life Scientific, In Our Time, Start the Week, the dramas, Beyond Belief, Open Book, Thinking Aloud and many more. Who needs music? Tip : Radio Times essential reading.

I felt fine after the late evening run with the club yesterday. We ran up and down a a short hill six times and covered over 7 miles. Today, I ran my usual default, just ticking over, 2 mile run. I run to an Indian restaurant formerly known as the Slap Up and now renamed the Bollywood Spice, salivate in response to any wafting Indian cooking aromas and return home along the same route. Might go for a longer run tomorrow. The world awaits my decision.

 

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Aliveandrunning June 1st 2014 Juneathon Day 1

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Juneathon Day 1 and the new Flaming June half marathon at Histon, just outside of Cambridge, UK. The weather was fine but on the warm side for running – around 20c . The course took us along roads, woodland paths and a lot of tracks besides the fields. I could have appreciated the environment a great deal more had I not been running and struggling to maintain my pace. I don’t think I’m fully recovered from my attempts to sabotage my fitness yesterday and during the last week (see May 31st post). My back only mildly ached and my ankle didn’t give me any trouble. I seldom get injuries unless I decide to lift something too heavy and too far. I have great difficulty in coming to the conclusion that I should ask for assistance. I have to test myself . On this occasion, despite some problems, I was still able to run successfully, so I was right all along. I can lift and run.

I did do something very sensible to mitigate this daftness. I took a drink at 3 drink stations and walked while I drank. I felt better for doing this although I wasn’t able to catch up most of the people who overtook me. No matter, this water and the drinks I took at the finish staved off dehydration which I experienced at the Cambridge half marathon in March. The medics were sympathetic and readily restrained Lorna from beating me about the head because of my stupidity (not only did I not drink during the race but hardly drank afterwards).

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I felt nauseous for 20 minutes after the race and needed a couple of hours rest in the afternoon. Apart from this, no ill effects. Overall I was pleased with my time of 1 hour 55 mins 16 seconds. Arch rival Kerry came in 4 minutes quicker. We stayed for the presentations which included baubles for the over 40’s and 50’s but nothing for the over 60’s! Can anything be unfairer than this? I don’t think it’s likely that Dave and Nick’s gangsta government (for hard working tax payers) will take up the cause and insist on including this category next year. And one more minor issue. Was it right and proper for me to be described as looking like a banana over the PA system as I ran, like a lemon,to the finish line?

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Aliveandrunning May 31 2014

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I asked Rupert to guard my trays of plants while I went to parkrun this morning. I explained that it was of the utmost importance not to take his eyes off them and, since he’s a dog  and not given to argument or debate, he complied absolutely.

Parkrun went reasonably well, although I just missed coming in under 24 minutes. A bloke in front of me crashed to the ground, injuring his knee. It’s risky falling over at the start of the race because 400+ runners are crammed into a relatively narrow path and your line of sight is blocked. Just after this incident my swift friend Kerry dropped his phone and had to walk back into the path of the oncoming runners to retrieve it, another very risky manoeuvre. He survived, as did the phone, and cruised past, leaving me wobbling about in his slipstream, a minute later. Lorna ran with a Couch to 5k running group, giving them support, and coming in at just over 40 minutes These were people in their 40’s and 50’s who had just taken up running and had just completed a short running course to get up to 5k. They were very motivated and felt a real sense of achievement. Fantastic! Very inspiring to everyone.

Tomorrow is the start of Juneathon and I’m kicking off with a half marathon. I’m lucky to be doing it, having done my best to injure myself a week ago. Those industrial paving stones are too heavy to lift, they said. You’ll injure your back, they warned. Don’t worry, I replied, I know my limits. I won’t take any unnecessary risks, believe me. I  lifted them into the car and noted I was on the cusp of getting away with it or injuring myself. A few hours later, my hip ached , two days later my back ached and three days later my foot hurt. I decided to go running with the club during this period and didn’t feel worse but did rest until today’s parkrun when I judged all symptoms had virtually disappeared. To celebrate, in the afternoon, I filled some heavy garden pots and lifted them into position. Will I ever learn? Why do I do such stupid things? Why jeopardise  my ability to run? I vow (tabloid speak) to listen to the wise counsel of my family in future (possibly). At least the dog does what he’s told!