Exercise and heart disease

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Cute butterflies and pollinating insects most welcome : rabbits and deer, remember you are edible!

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Green Minds, the therapeutic gardening project, continues to develop slowly but will need to speed up considerably now the growing season has arrived. The rabbit proof fence is almost fully intact and I am hoping other wildlife will not be a problem. I went out in the field with Rupert the dalmatian and surprised two roe deer. Rupert gave chase to one and I saw the deer leap over a 1.3m fence with ease so if they see something really delicious in my little compound it won’t be difficult for them to get in. I’m thinking about venison at the moment.,

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Since this pic was taken I’ve acquired several more tables and planted a lot of seeds. I’ve got a lot of digging to do both inside and outside the polytunnel. I’ll also need to install sliding doors at the entrance where you can currently see green netting. We had some very strong gales last week and the net openings could not cope with it.

Wimpole estate parkrun last weekend.Blue skies, sunshine and warm enough for me to wear shorts and long sleeved top. It’s one loop over park land and includes a short, steep hill, a run along the lake side and a route which takes you to the front of the big Hall and down the main drive. Trail shoes needed. I usually walk up the hill, striding as strongly as I can. This time I jogged up which wasn’t any quicker, really, and took me longer to recover at the top. This is followed by a flat 400 metes before a descent to lake level and a view of the folly on the far side. Sometimes you need to run close to large cows with dismayingly sharp curved horns. This requires a degree of bravery. Other runners refer to us as possessing “Wimpole courage” and I accept the compliment. One can gradually acquire this unique form of courage by acclimatising to danger by running past sheep which are also thick on the ground at Wimpole. This stage is known as  Wooly Thinking.

I met an old running club friend whom I hadn’t seen for some time while I waited  for Lorna to come in.  After a fine coffee with running chums, I took myself off to the pre-loved book shop where crazy people actually donate their unwanted books, an oxymoron if ever I heard one. I limited myself to two essential purchases.

Today, I went for a short 2 mile run and tomorrow, if I get back from East Londinium in time, I’ll go road running with the club.

 

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Don’t jump in!

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Trinity Hall’s Jerwood Library, completed in 1998 and opened in 1999, just 649 years after Trinity Hall was founded in 1350. That’s a long time to wait for a decent library. I was a little anxious about the vaguely Alfred Hitchcockian man gazing down at the punt about to pass beneath him. I had a vision of him vaulting the railings, landing on the punt and crashing through the wooden floor.Needless to say, it was all in my head and no punt related incident or tragedy occurred.

I am now a returned club runner having virtually stopped attending from October last year. Yesterday was a pleasant, sunny day in Cambridge (see visual evidence above) but when I left home at 6.10 pm it was overcast cold and raining. By the time we road runners left the warmth and shelter of the Cambridge University Athletics clubhouse it was raining hard and continued to do so for three quarters of the session. Of course I under estimated the severity of the weather and didn’t wear the right jacket. I got thoroughly soaked and if the temperature had been lower I would probably have given up. However, after warming up and running the first of 4 x 1500 metres, I felt much better. On my return I had a shower and tasty meal and overall I felt energised, alert and more alive. So that’s my advice. If you’re feeling tired, lethargic and generally lackadaisical, go for a hard run (in the rain preferably) and you’ll find yourself on top form again (disclaimer : you need to have a certain amount of running fitness or you might go from bad to worse, and this approach  might only work for me. Has this advice been helpful? I’ll leave the world to decide.

I saw something relatively unusual today. A man and a women, probably in their mid seventies, passed by me riding a tandem tricycle. They weren’t sporty and didn’t look as if they were fitness advocates.They were cycling together, out in the sunshine, enjoying themselves and going places. The tandem tricycle was stable and they didn’t have to continually focus on balance. Marvellous!

I’m reading the third book, The Conscience of the Rich, in C.P.Snow’s Brothers and Strangers sequence. I think it’s the right one. They weren’t published in the right sequence and I’ve managed to mislay a number of them after I was forced to tidy them away. Note to self : begin to stack books in towers throughout the house so they are ever at hand.

 

 

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Lorna listens to the whispering grass

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Good Friday arrived with some reasonable weather. We went to Wicken Fen, the first nature reserve to be owned by the National Trust in 1899. It has a range of wetland habits – fen, reedbed, wet woodland and open water –  on a deep peat soil which is kept wet by rainfall and clean, chalky river water. It’s currently around 255 hectares but there is a hundred year plan to gradually buy up surrounding farm land and increase the wetland area to 5,300 hectares extending southwards to the edge of Cambridge.

We had a nice coffee, and later a simple meal, at the National Trust cafe and managed to bump into two running couples we know from Cambridge parkrun.

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A small smock wind pump built around 1912 and the last surviving wooden wind pump in the Fens. Still in occasional use in summer.

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Just over half a mile from the entrance to Wicken Fen is Wicken Corn windmill and still milling flour. Of course I went in, climbed to the top and took some pics of the giant wooden cog gearing. A beautiful structure, inside and out, restored by this man, and his colleagues, over several decades. A fantastic achievement!

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Hey! Is this a running blog or not? Last Sunday I ran a five miler at Swavesey, on a road surface, alongside open fields. The course was flat as a pancake. The sun shone and it was a good run for me. I did feel a little envious because a lot of running chums were taking part in the half marathon which was on at the same time. Interestingly, a lot more ran the half compared with the 5 miler. I’m still recovering my running fitness and it would have been a mistake to do more than 10k but it’s fascinating the power a little bit of warmth, blue sky and sunshine  can exert on my motivation and running well being.

Tomorrow is parkrun and the weather forecast is overcast with rain in the afternoon. Last week the field was 450. That’s a large number on  narrow trail paths. Part of course is by the side of a lake and recently anglers have pitched their tents so half the narrow path is obstructed. A good example of passive aggression.

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Top man sees red in print

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It’s Sigmund Freud, of course, smoking a cigar as usual. Is it symbolic? Well, as the top man said, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar! That’s just his opinion. Certainly it must have contributed to, if not caused, his cancer of the jaw. Was he a runner? I doubt it. Missed out there then, didn’t he.

I’m trying to get my running back on track. Today’s parkrun was a reasonable time for me at the moment and tomorrow I’m running a five miler in Swavesey. There’s a half marathon going on at the same time but I’m not up to that distance at present. My ex arch rival, Mike, will  be doing the five miler and he’ll be around four minutes faster than me. Another rival, Kerry, will do the half. Having missed the recent Cambridge half due to illness, my next half will be the Flaming June, which unsurprisingly, is run in June. I’ve got various 10k races in the pipeline. Training with the club seems to have taken a backseat and I don’t think I’ve been out with them since I injured myself during the Wimpole half marathon last October.My enthusiasm for training in a group waxes and wanes and currently I still prefer to run alone.

Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, has resigned over Osbourne’s Budgetary  cuts to to benefits received by people with disabilities alongside tax cuts for the richest. He stated that the cuts were “simply not fair, not right” and it was wrong to finance tax cuts for the better off by “taking money away” from those with disabilities. David Cameron professed himself to be “puzzled and disappointed.” George Osbourne is left with egg on his face. They’ve all got blood on their hands as far as I’m concerned. It’s more of a case when thieves fall out. Iain Duncan Smith is hardly a man with a conscience.

Nearly forgot. Did the Freud print at my print making class. It looks okay but the quality is poor. The point is that the more you practice the better you become and this is only a first try.

 

 

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Focussed but looking weird

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Cambridge parkrun today. I feel the pain caused by the eyes boring into the back of my head as I desperately attempt to stay in front. Should I gel my hair back, should I get it shorn ? Or shall I grow it, with a beard, so I am indistinguishable from Saruman the White (later of Many Colours). I’m talking Lord of the Rings here, of course. No contest! It might take me a couple of years but I’m sure I could find fame as the Wizard of Cambridge parkrun. A further omen was clearly given to me when I noticed that Heffers bookshop front window displayed a full range of wands, real magical broomsticks and other wizard paraphernalia. Makes you think, doesn’t it?

I’m getting over my third cold this winter and still haven’t fully recovered from the food food poisoning that stopped me doing Cambridge half marathon two weeks ago. My appetite hasn’t returned to normal, I still feel queasy several times a day and my taste for sweet foods is diminished. None of the above is having a beneficial effect on my running. Moan,moan moan! Roll on the warm, dry weather.

I occasionally buy the weekly magazine New Scientist if there’s an interesting article. Today, the reason to buy it was a piece on placebos. The first few paragraphs made me laugh out loud. A woman with irritable bowel syndrome for 15 years saw a TV ad recruiting participants for a new study. Desperate for help she signed up despite learning that the potential treatment she would be offered consisted of either nothing – or pills filled with nothing. Needless to say, her condition improved considerably. She’s hoping to sign up for a similar new trial and she’s been trying to get hold of more of the pills filled with nothing ever since the old trial ended. I laughed because it’s so counter intuitive. The placebo works even though the recipient is fully aware that it is a placebo. This is now an accepted given. There’s now loads of evidence that placebos work and many of the medications we are prescribed are little better than placebos, with much greater side effect profiles   You couldn’t make it up.

A computer programme, Alpha Go, has beaten a top Go master (human). Oh dear! I used to play Go with an old chum but no longer. I miss the game and unfortunately there’s no-one around me that plays it. Cambridge has a couple of Go clubs but they look rather intense. I don’t think I would fit in. You can’t take these things too seriously.

 

 

 

 

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Daffodils barred from leaving the flower bed

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It’s Day 6 following poisoning by cheese cake and my forced withdrawal from Cambridge half marathon. I haven’t run since then until today when I jogged a couple of miles. I can recommend food poisoning (in my case) for first class nausea and vomiting, an over riding urge to lie very still, weird fluctuations in temperature,subsequently knocking back my appetite, occasional mild nauseous feelings and loss of interest in sweet foods. It’s around 359 days to go before the next Cambridge half but I’m guaranteed to remember not to eat New York vanilla cheese cake the night before.

Good news on the two runners who went into cardiac arrest near the finish line. They received very prompt treatment and are now said to be recovering well in Addenbrookes hospital.

The weather looks cold and wet tomorrow for Cambridge parkrun. I won’t have any problem doing 3 miles and I’m volunteering afterwards by collecting the course signage. I don’t find this task onerous. It’s very pleasant walking around the deserted woodland trail path and only takes 17-18 minutes.

Very interesting article in yesterday’s Guardian on narcissism It’s surprisingly difficult for people to disguise or hide narcissistic traits on social media although most are not motivated to do so. It seems to be deliciously tempting to reveal you’ve been for a cup of coffee, or a restaurant and so easy to become adept at making inane comments and compliments with the intention of having them returned. I blame ourselves, the facilitating social media platforms, cultural dumbing down, lack of emotional and psychological awareness and, as usual, the Evil Tories (although I haven’t refined their particular responsibility yet but I’m working on it).

 

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My Cambridge half marathon -sabotaged by a cheese cake!

IMG-20160228-WA0006From the left my son Dan, family friend Jemma (both ran) daughter Isobelle, Ben and daughter Shanti. I am conspicuous because of my absence. Where am I? Lying in a sick bed, in a darkened room, at home, having been laid low the night before by a rogue cheese cake. Only myself and son Nick ate this vicious dessert, bought and defrosted that very morning and both of us were laid low. The other six people eating with us didn’t have any and didn’t have any ill effects. Woe is me! (Note to self : get a grip, it’s only a run, better luck next year).

Dan got a PB, running around 3 minutes faster than last year and Jemma got under the time she was predicting for herself. The father/son rivalry race failed to take place because of my food poisoning but I grudgingly admit I probably couldn’t improve to the extent of making up the 25 minutes I would need to improve by to beat him. Of course next year is a different matter.

Overall the race was a success. The weather was cold but bright. The only substantial sour note was two male runners in their 30’s and 40’s had cardiac arrests just before the finish line. Help was quick in coming and one was immediately assisted by a paramedic who had just finished the race. Both are in Addenbrookes Hospital. See local paper Cambridge News for reports of the half marathon and some idiotic, uncharitable comments and some sensible observations.

Still, parkrun time is gradually improving again although I haven’t regained form from last October.

 

 

 

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“Cambridge half marathon almost imminent,” he blubbed tautologically

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In two full days and two bits of days, the Cambridge half marathon will happen (or ‘appen, depending on your accent). Am I ready? Ask any quarter serious runner and stereotypically you’ll get a similar response – inadequate preparation centred around lack of training, particularly mileage. The usual culprits are family and work commitments, diminished motivation due to poor weather, cold weather, excessive wind, dark nights, colds, flu, injuries (cue runners taking it in turns to describe their dodgy calves, Achilles, ham strings, quads, black toe nails, sore bits, weird knee aches and pains in the butt). If they haven’t pulled out, the traditional response is to confirm they’ll take it easy and hope they finish the race.

So, am I ready? No! (see reasons above) I’ll just take it at a gentle pace etc etc. In fact I’ve deliberately done fewer miles than intended because I think less is more! I’m taking it very easy this week but I’ll still do parkrun the day before.

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Family wise, it’s just myself and son Dan running this year. I suppose I will finally have to accept he will finish before I do. The facts unfortunately support this prediction. His last local parkrun place was 5th out of 247 and mine was 174th out of 478.I know there’s only a slight discrepancy but it’s time to hand my crown over to him. He’ll run off with it!

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Cambridge half marathon a fortnight away, walking along the cam and those evil Tories again.

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A cold, sunny Sunday in Cambridge yesterday. Plenty of eights on the river powered by the gilded youth, loads of runners and cyclists to knock you flying, hordes of couples mooning  around (St. Valentine’s Day) and shoals of tourists shimmying from one photogenic setting to another (it can be such uphill work getting people to believe you’ve actually visited somewhere unless you are able to show evidence of yourself in a snap with relevant backdrop).

I’m a creature of habit when I go into Cambridge. I always go into WH Smith to look at the magazines and usually buy one or two, I often go into Heffers bookshop or Waterstones, walk around the market square and visit the second hand book stall and take photos on a particular bridge over the Cam. Out of preference, I like to have a nice coffee and a tuna and cucumber baguette in the marvelously anonymous Eat cafe and possibly wander around John Lewis, a rather civilised department store. I like to trip through the extensive cosmetics area in a vain attempt to identify any of the sales operatives who have abstained from caking themselves in their own products. They are always immaculately turned out and attractive but wearing no or minimal makeup doesn’t appear to be an option. Are they contractually obliged to over do it?

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These grand and beautiful trees are on Jesus Green. How lucky are we?

Cambridge half marathon is only two weeks away. I haven’t done the training I would like to do because other things have got in the way. Nevertheless, it’s good to know that despite not having put the mileage in, my overall level of fitness enables me to step up quickly to do 13 miles. It’s speed that suffers, of course, but if speed is your objective you are following a false god! The very shallowness of the concept of speed! Does anyone really care about this over valued aspect of running? I rather like these fall back arguments when you’re getting slower and slower.

Anyway, I did 13 miles today and 9 miles a week ago plus a 5 miler and a parkrun since the beginning of the month. I might do two more parkruns and a couple of long runs up to 10 miles and that will be that.

A government task force has published a report, A Five Year Forward View for Mental Health, which is very critical of the state of Engand’s mental health services, click here to read Observer article Today’s Guardian headline is NHS vows to transform mental health services  with extra £1bn a year. The report talks about a sharp increase in the number of suicides, estimates three quarters of people with a psychiatric condition do not receive help and documents that children are being sent all over the country to an available bed that may be hundreds of miles from their families.

The Tories and the coalition government have presided over savage cuts to bed availability, support services, staffing levels and overall funding of mental health facilities. Cameron in his ever so reasonable, we have learnt lessons, we must all pull together and defeat stigma, senior Tory style is presenting the spending announcement as an innovation and Tory triumph. David Cameron and his mates are duplicitous, fraudulent, own class supporting, unfeeling,  and lacking in basic humanity. They appeal to the voters who share their values – the cruel, the selfish, the self centred. May God help decent and vulnerable people.

 

 

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February 6 2016 Back in the running!

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The last time I ran was on January 26th until today, when I went for an evening jog of two miles. I managed to do 26 days of running during Janathon and 5 days of walking. My cold was persistent and brought my energy levels down. I went for a couple of late night two mile walks after Janathon but that was it! The 2 mile run tonight felt fine and my pace has not changed from previously. The challenge now is to train up for Cambridge half marathon in three weeks time. As long as I can run consistently I will only need  to run a variety of 2 milers, 5-6 milers, a couple of 10 milers and perhaps one 13 milers and that should be it. I’ll probably do them randomly or possibly take advice from the Wise Old Owl who flies beside me at night and offers sage counsel.

Final Janathon 2016 total : 95 miles including 10 miles of walking. Last year I did 104 miles and I recorded the 2014 Janathon at 95 miles, the identical mileage to this year. The secret of my successful increase in mileage last year? Brussels sprouts and plenty of them.

An unusual occurrence today. I missed parkrun due to a family occasion. We went to an auction and very interesting it was, too. We stayed about an hour and sat around an enormous modern table (board room size) on pink suede chairs (everyone sits on the various chairs which are parts of lots} Our particular lot was originally £14,000 (with a sideboard) and went for about £3,500 including VAT. No obvious good taste was discerned.