Heart disease

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RantRantRantRant…..probably not running enough !

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This Is a clever card on several levels. It encapsulates a British 1950’s sentiment of wholesome perfection, middleclass values and almost religious rapture. It identifies three modern activities which are associated with relaxation, fun or enjoyable self indulgence and, more darkly, a suggestion of medical treatment. And then reveals the existence of hidden and shocking aggression. Of course this description robs it of all humour which is recognisable instantly at first reading. Never mind! It still has the ring of truth if taken literally.

What it highlights is the common existence of feelings of passive aggression and an urge to exact physical retribution with no clear reason why. The right wing and gutter press are full of it with their emphasis on free loading benefit claimants, rhetoric against migrants, lukewarm belief or outright scepticism of asylum seekers and rubbishing as outmoded socialism, or trades union extremism, any policies which are designed  to benefit the majority rather than appeal to the personal gain of individuals. What you get with the evil Tories are clearly defined groups which purport to  threaten, steal, sponge or unfairly gain at the expense of ordinary hard working people, huge business subsidies and tax breaks to benefit their own class, and worthless but convincing reassurances like “The NHS is safe with us”.

Add to this the relatively recent vogue for extended news coverage of titillating emotionality (victims’ statements, views of neighbours expressing incredulity, people demonstrating extreme grief, shock or distress and highly charged press conferences), it’s all too easy to feel emotionally manipulated, diverted and  deceived. You think you are caring to feel upset but in reality it’s a passive, contrived experience which exploits both the grief stricken and the viewer. Not all the time but a lot of the time.

Thank God some great people have the capacity to keep it real. Dead pan humorous  real. Kanye West has just announced his bid for the 2020 American presidency thus giving a lie to the stereotypical view that Americans don’t get irony.

Not too much happening on the running front. Last week I went out with the club and we did a fartlek around Cambridge. I enjoyed it. The newer coaches are trying hard to be inclusive of all running abilities and I feel they are succeeding. It’s not easy to cater for fast runners in their teens, 20s and 30’s as well as slower people in their 60’s and coming up to 70. But the will is there. I think the key is two coaches per road running session so the less fast runners don’t feel neglected or a drag.

I marshalled at Cambridge parkrun on the weekend which I always find an education. My position allowed me to see the start of the race. Those lads at the very front are labouring under the misapprehension that parkrun is a race judging by their stance, concentration, and ability to filter out all extraneous distractions including encouragement as they hurtle around. At the other end of the spectrum are the runners struggling to improve despite carrying an awful lot of weight but wanting to succeed. And they are!

Jeremy Corbyn, prospective leader of the Labour Party has spoken about introducing women only carriages on some trains. I support this. I know this proposal has been roundly condemned by a sizeable proportion of talking heads but speaking on behalf of the male population, we really can’t be trusted to consistently behave ourselves appropriately. Everyday sexism and hormone inspired conduct is still rife. A compete indictment of male behaviour? Certainly.

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What’s this, then? C P Snow’s eleven novel sequence of novels,. Strangers and Brothers, Penguin editions published between 1962 and 1982 (not original published dates). Two missing but easily obtainable. I have read several of them decades ago but I will now read the entire sequence. They follow the life and career of Lewis Eliot from a provincial town in England to London lawyer, Cambridge don, wartime service in Whitehall, senior civil servant and finally retirement. The novels were published between 1940 and 1970. They encapsulate a previous age and culture which I find absorbing. Otherwise I wouldn’t be reading them, would I? The paperbacks are quite old and the pages are tanned. I think these aged Penguins are a marvel. Estimated time to completion : 2017. So many other things get in the way.

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An increasing circle of running friends

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Last Saturday at Wimpole Estate parkrun. The weather was excellent, we all had a good run and then had coffee and homemade cake to celebrate a 100h parkrun.

Six years to the day, today, since I had my heart attack at 58. Within 3 hours, I was stented, returned to the ward, spent two nights in hospital, discharged home to the care of my wife, Lorna and began a period of recuperation and recovery. I attended an excellent rehab programme at Addenbrookes hospital in Cambridge consisting of a series of cardiac, diet and lifestyle talks and later physical rehabilitation in the hospital gym where it was a sobering sight seeing very ill or disabled people struggling to recover. Concerning the national uptake for cardiac rehabilitation, Addenbrookes was one of the highest at 46% (that is, 54% of suitable cardiac candidates declined the opportunity). 12 planned sessions of increasing, monitored activity. I enjoyed these sessions and had complete confidence in the experienced staff (cardiac rehab nurses, sports scientist and dietician).

My only serious criticism of the Addenbrookes cardiac care path was the absence of psychological and emotional focus in the rehab programme and particularly the impact on close family. Probably my experience of a myocardial infarction wasn’t typical. I quickly self diagnosed I was having a heart attack, I didn’t experience pain, I wasn’t frightened, I had complete confidence in the ambulance crew, the paramedic and the hospital staff. Unfortunately it was very different for Lorna who wasn’t with me at the time and had to make her own way to the hospital and wait a long time for information about me. It was a far more traumatic experience for her. Subsequently, the rehab programme seemed to marginalise the family and didn’t appear to recognise that some patients were depressed, anxious or frightened,

Overall, I feel lucky to have had a cardiac episode in the Addenbrookes/Papworth Hospital area. Even when I made a discreet complaint (to the cardiac rehab nurse) about the arrogant and rude attitude of a registrar at an out patient appointment, it was sorted out quickly and without fuss.

Six months later, I discovered Cambridge parkrun which had started 5 weeks previously and I’ve never looked back. Running didn’t stop me having a heart attack but it furnished me with a level of fitness that allowed me to recover and continue running at a satisfactory level which includes 10ks and half marathons. That’s more than good enough.

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Fast Fruit?

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Wimpole Estate parkrun. I look like an escaped banana pursued by smoothie bounty hunters but this astute and discerning photographer saw through the comic potential and recorded this classic, timeless running image. And to top it all, I was the first person to come in at number 76.

The weather was very kind on Saturday, the cows with their scary pointy horns sat around playing Monopoly, forsaking their menacing poses and ignoring the runners  and even the sheep, famously daft, kept out of our way. Three of our friends from deepest Essex, came up to run with us and we gave a lift to another pal who usually runs at Cambridge. Post race, we had coffee and a bite to eat in the National Trust café and sat around chatting for an hour. A brief visit to the pre-loved bookshop yielded only three old OS maps despite being horribly tempted by serendipity, and then home.

Gorgon Brown, ex Labour prime Minister for a month or two after Tony Blair, gave a speech today containing a “coded message”, warning against choosing a Labour leader who would be divisive and make Labour unelectable at the next election. Using skills gained during a visit to Bletchley Park several years ago, I rapidly decoded the hidden message and concluded he was referring to Jeremy Corbyn. This is the same Gorgon Brown who, as Chancellor of the Exchequer so proudly boasted of light touch regulation of the banks and financial institutions which allowed them to run amok. The same Gorgon Brown in the Blair government that was utterly determined to pitch into the Iraq war with the Americans. The same Gorgon Brown, who along with all the other Labour heavyweights and the Miliband shadow government, utterly failed to address the evil Tories’ onslaught of rhetoric which continually blamed the Labour party in power for all the debt and economic ills whilst affecting a “we care about the common people and your NHS” stance. An extremely poor judge, to put it mildly!

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This pic features Ms Alive and Running establishing whether or not it was safe to go near to the edge. This was an independent decision, undertaken without my consent. I’m sure if I had done this, severe  criticism would have ensued.

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Part of the Seven Sisters, East Sussex between the Birling gap and Beachy Head, the coastal bit of the South Downs. Very hilly. Excellent running country. Useless for high diving or cliff top homes.

Cambridge Half Marathon, end of February 2016 : interest registered.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Running, punting, yakking, gasping, digging, reading, gardening and other -ings

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Ms Alive and Running and I ran Gorleston parkrun, near Great Yarmouth, Norfolk recently. It was a fine, warm, sunny day and the course comprised of two simple laps of a lower and upper sea promenade with only one steep zig zag path connecting the two levels ie we only had to ascend it once because we started at the top and finished at the bottom.

 

 

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We stayed in this little hobbit house overlooking the sand dunes in Winterton -on-Sea. I went for a lovely run to an adjacent seaside town by way of the dunes. I struggle to make an appropriate comparison but suffice it to say that one was a WI stronghold and the other a magnet for fast food and candy floss lovers. The latter was undeniably colourful in every sense and I found my senses being overwhelmed. Winterton, I suspect, is a Tory and UKIP kind of place but I might have found evidence to the contrary when I fell into conversation with Peter Chapman who was painting images onto his camper van. It transpired he is the uncle of the Chapman Brothers, Jake and Dinos, nationally and internationally known visual artists with a controversial portfolio. He is also an artist and sculptor and gave me a tour of his studio and garden.This was very generous of him. I can confirm that he is not exactly a typical resident of Winterton.

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Thanks, Peter!

Back to Cambridge. I like to watch and take pics of the punts, particularly from Garret Hostel Bridge or King’s College Bridge. Today I went to Queens’ College and went onto the Mathematical Bridge.DSC_0973

 

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My Druid book finally arrived, by Amazon (non-drone) rather than Guardian bookshop who said it was out of print. Naughty Guardian bookshop! My spiritual and magical renaissance is still on hold because I’m reading Gut : the Inside Story of our Body’s Most Under-Rated Organ. Very readable, very interesting, a complete education in intestinal health, ill health and poo related facts. Warning : sitting on a Western style toilet seat is not good for gut health. Squatting is much better.

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Lastly, I’ve been doing plenty of digging and planting donated plants. My therapeutic gardening project continues to progress at a glacial pace for various reasons but is set to take a leap forward when I cover the constructed skeleton of the polytunnel with its plastic cover in the next fortnight. I’ve visited another gardening project, Gardening with Grace, in Bedford and they’ve visited me. It’s been very helpful and given me a different perspective on how to go about what I want to achieve.

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A Rather Large Statue at Kings Cross St. Pancras Railway Station

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Kings Cross St. Pancras Station. The Meeting Place, a 9 metre statue by British sculptor Paul Day, situated under the clock, or two clocks actually.

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I was in London recently, travelling down from Cambridge, to attend an outpatient appointment at Moorfields eye hospital which I calculate to be around 3 miles from the station by foot. This was the fourth time I had walked to the hospital and the first time I got lost. I have a sixth sense when it comes to choosing a direction and almost always I choose the wrong one when I decide to “improve” the route.  I got even more lost when I walked back to Kings Cross. No matter. I find it very pleasurable walking in London. I crossed over the Grand Union canal a couple of times. I think all of it is walkable along its tow path right up to Birmingham, 137 miles away.

I’m having “issues” with myself concerning running with my club and I’m not running so regularly at present. A number of the slower, older runners of which I am one, now seem have to have dropped out and I’m road running with much faster, younger clubbers. I’m missing some training sessions but I’ll still hang on. I continue to do parkrun weekly and I’m only 12 away from the 250th which is pleasing. I did a 10k race at the beginning of the month and another 10k at the National Trust Wimpole Hall Estate last week. But part of me wants to run alone as I did for nearly 30 years before loads of races started appearing  and before parkrun came along. Am I reverting to type? No, not really but the reality is that I don’t have much in common with most runners I know apart from running. And I have a limited capacity to talk about running. Or any sport!

I’ve signed up for an introductory creative writing course, starting in September and 10 sessions in length. I’m looking forward to it. It should kick start my interest in writing again. Hopefully I’ll be motivated to look again at the 70,000 word children’s novel I wrote but never revised. I completed the bare bones of it following my heart attack nearly 6 years ago but it’s lain fallow for the last 5 years. I was told that children can smell the author’s own moralising a mile off when it’s superimposed on characters. But somebody has to tell the young what’s what! They gotta learn, aint they? All right!Guilty as charged.

Jeremy Corbyn, prospective Labour Party leader, in the upcoming leadership contest and now apparently a real contender. A relatively radical left winger and old style Labour activist. The moderates and moderate Right Labour MPs are now having kittens at his unexpected support, fearing they will be unelectable as a Party at the next election. A modern acronym sums this up : LOL! What the left needs to do is create a new and compelling response to the black propaganda spewing out from the evil, self serving Tory party for the last 5 years.

My bloody book on druidism still hasn’t arrived ! I ordered it from the Guardian Bookshop nearly 6 weeks ago. My spiritual enlightenment remains on hold.

 

 

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SHOULD I KEEP RUNNING OR BECOME A DRUID ?

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With all the drama and heightened significence of a single droplet of water falling to the floor in a tropical rain forest in the rainy season, when the volume of rain has been extreme, even for a rain forest, I resurrect this blog !

Aaahhhh……. the pull of nature and mysticism. We went to Glastonbury recently to visit the town and climb the Tor (not to attend the Festival). We like Glastonbury. There’s a feeling that the 60’s never went away, a Center Parcs for old hippies, a place where you can easily buy a magic wand and no one bats an eye lid if you wander around in cloaks, habits or pointed hats.

But prior to entering the enchanted town, we  stayed at Montacute and ran the Yeovil Montacute parkrun in the grounds of the eponymous House which is owned by the National Trust. And a very nice late Tudor country pile it was,too.

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A lovely parkland course, the weather was clement and the run director and volunteers could not have been more friendlier or welcoming. We’ll definitely be returning (when the omens are auspicious and the sun moon and stars are correctly aligned).

Forget Dubai, New York or even East London, Glastonbury is the cool destination to hang out if you are an actual or even a  closet pagan. It’s so easy to buy a wand. I spent a lot of time looking in a wand cabinet, perhaps too long and Mrs Alive and Running bought me some patchouli oil.  We ate in the vegetarian Rainbow’s End cafe, natch, and generally tried not irritate the wizards and witches by treading on their robes.

And so to the Tor!

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Magical, mysterious, steeped in spiritual history, overlooking the Somerset Levels and the Isle of Avalon, the Tor is topped by the roofless St. Michael’s Tower. The hill is associated with King Arthur, paganism, goddess worship and having a mystical positioning. It’s a beautiful mound to climb and then sit around thinking about nature worship, astral planes and magic while bracing yourself against the wind. By a wonderful coincidence (or was it pre-ordained) we arrived at the top of the Tor as 60 or 70 druids were climbing up the other side to gather for an early summer solstice celebration.They belonged to the Order of Bards, Obvates and Druids and were chatty and friendly. They were quite happy for people to watch their ceremony, respectfully take photos and ask them about their beliefs. They were down to earth (no pun intended), articulate, intelligent and sensible. We liked them.

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Yesterday, it was very warm (although not as hot as London’s 34-36c today). Instead of running with the club in the evening, I went for a 9 mile morning run before the sun got too fierce and took a large bottle of isotonic drink in a holster belt. Sensible or what? It’s coming up to 6 years since I had my heart attack and I’ve run consistently and longer distances since then. I don’t know any other runners with coronary heart disease but it would be nice to know how they are faring and their experience of taking the obligatory medication. Are there any out there in the blogosphere?

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Alive and Running May 1 2015 London Marathon 2015

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The London Marathon 2015 on Sunday April 26. I was there as a participant (a participating spectator), enduring the cold and ogling the thousands of runners lucky enough to obtain an entry.

We journeyed down early from Cambridge and were drinking coffee in a Canary Wharf coffee shop by 9 am. This enabled us to see the whole race beginning with the racing wheelchairs, then the runners with a disability, the elite women. the elite men, the fast club runners, the huge number of regular and occasional runners, the walk and jog runners and finally those men and women bravely attempting the distance, who would probably make it eventually but were really struggling.

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Brendan Foster on BBC TV commented that the London Marathon is unusual for having fancy dress runners. Marathons outside the UK don’t seem to attract them. Thank God I live here then. Fancy dress is a good corrective to the intense seriousness of the faster folk  who would probably trample you to death and run on if you stumbled in their path. The elite runners are fascinating for the few seconds they remain in view and the runners with a disability are clearly triumphing over considerable adversity. We like to see them but as they run past they appear completely detached and out of sympathy with anyone else apart from themselves. I found myself  not particularly interested in them or their speed on this occasion, with the exception of Paula Radcliffe. She wasn’t running with the elite pack (which I knew) and she was on top of me (metaphorically speaking) before I clocked her. I got a couple of shots in from the side, grinning, so I was happy.

We were opposite the elite runners drink station. The tables only hold a few well spaced bottles which the runners easily recognise as their own as they approach. It was comical to see a succession of marshals and volunteers pick up Paula’s bottle to be photographed holding it. It was disappointing not to snap them taking a swig for the camera!

We managed to see a number of people we knew but the bulk of the runners I knew from the club seemed to be running around three and a half hours, give or take 20 minutes. Unfortunately, at Canary Wharf, between miles 18 and 19, at the time they would have been passing us, we went for coffee and a bite to eat. We really needed a break from the cold and inactivity. Who are really the heroes? The marathon runners or the the brave spectators? The latter, obviously.

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 We stayed late into the afternoon and saw the official end of the marathon display car drive past which announced that roads would now be open and the course closed. Immediately behind followed a succession of lorries and tractors picking up signs and barriers, spraying painted markers on the road with a solvent and collecting rubbish. And weaving in and out of this maelstrom of vehicles, dozens of runners were still attempting to finish the course. The crowds were gone, the marshals had left their posts, the roads up ahead would be open to traffic and I presume direction sign posts would be removed. They still had between 7 and 8 miles to go! A few people gave them encouragement to which they enthusiastically responded but others appeared exhausted. It was very poignant.

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These are the strongest and bravest people. They have peak endurance and emotional strength far greater than the runners who trained up and worried about their times. My monies on them!

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Alive and Running April 11 2015

DSC_0632And so to Londinium last Thursday, when we left the safety, and intellectual inferno, of Cambridge, breaching the capital’s defences, and finding ourselves at Kings Cross station, bewildered and disorientated. Sodom and Gomorrah or what? We witnessed people smoking on the street, crossing the road at undesignated points and publicly eating the fastest of foods.  I felt like Christian negotiating immorality in the Pilgrim’s Progress. We sought sanctuary in the British Library (pictured above and inspired by Brutalist power station architecture) and later ran for cover to the nearby Wellcome Institute to see the Forensics : The Anatomy of Crime and the Institute of Sexology exhibitions. Neither were lurid or explicit, just interesting. It took us quite a long time to get along the Euston Road but eventually we made it to Covent Garden (via Tavistock and Queen Squares) where most of the world was congregating. I think Dr Johnson said *He who is tired of McDonalds is tired of hamburgers”. I would simply adapt this famous phrase and suggest that he/she who is tired of London is tired of life but I’m no Dr Johnson.

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Parkrun at Cambridge today, my 225th. Just 25 more and I receive the golden running top. Thereafter, rose petals will be strewn in my path as I run and the gods will favour me with fair winds a fleet foot.

The going was much firmer today and I didn’t need trail shoes. The temperature was around 8-9c, not cold but I still wore tracksters with a top and no jacket. I ran my fastest time this year so I was quite content with that. Next weekend I’ll do parkrun on Saturday and then a 10k race on Sunday which is part of the Hoohaar series.

Last club night on Tuesday, my road running group is still fast and we again ran a pattern of varying paces. I was able to keep in sinc with everyone else because there were three whistles blown at each change of pace and I was able to hear it despite being one of the slowest.

The Tories have gone up a notch in my estimation. They have clearly demonstrated their appreciation of irony by continuing to state that the NHS is safe with them. They’ve just enhanced the comic potential by pledging to spend an extra £8 billion on the NHS in a bid to prove how much they care. Does anyone, bar the most credulous, believe this crap?

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I may be way behind with getting this small charity off the ground but, thanks to Len, the sign’s completed and suspended gracefully between the two silver birches. It’s a start!

 

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Alive and Running April 3 2015

 

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I’m really pleased with this sign! My father-in-law Len created it for me and I think he’s done a wonderful job. It needs to be varnished to protect it from the weather and then I’ll be able to hang it between two silver birch trees which are situated at the entrance to the field where the project is sited. I think it looks very professional and welcoming. It augurs well for the gardening environment and atmosphere I want to develop. Thanks, Len.

Decided against going for a club run on Tuesday. The large variety of pace changes and duration seemed complicated and I thought it unlikely I would hear the whistle at my running speed. Instead I went for a regular run of 5.25 miles and incorporated a couple of sprints. This felt fine. We are doing long 2.7 mile loops with the club next week and this will suit me better but I still feel the pendulum is swinging towards the faster legs. In a couple of years, superannuated runners like myself will be escorted from the club by burly security men. A few years after that, elderly runners will be hunted down and eliminated to prevent embarrassing episodes occurring at a future date. I’m not known for exaggerating.

Alternatively, rather than do road running I could opt for track training since the club is based at the University of Cambridge Athletics. This attracts the fastest and slower runners and seems to work for both groups.

Cambridge parkrun today. For some reason my brain convinced me that it was dry enough not to wear trail shoes whereas the reality was rather different. Nevertheless, I had a good run despite the mud.

Can’t blog any more tonight. I’m watching The Imitation Game having finished watching the end of Harvey Milk an hour before. A very, very sad end to Harvey and Alan Turing.

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Alive and Running March 29 2015

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Wimpole Estate parkrun yesterday which explains the appearance of these three Penguins I rescued on the 30p table which sits outside the second hand book shop, in the open but under the over hanging court yard roof. Any further description would require a little drawing. Suffice it to say they should be kept in a warm but well ventilated room not partially exposed to the elements. I also rescued this orchid (Phalaenopsis) earlier in the week. The garden centre was selling it for £3 because part of it had rotted and the leaves were sparse and damaged. It may or may not survive but it’s a magnificent thing despite being poorly. It looks like a bookish plant so it’ll be in its element.

I wasn’t displeased with my parkrun time. The grass course was mainly dry and firm and the temperature reached 10-11c which meant I had to take my running jacket off during the race. I did this by executing a series of elegant manoeuvres and rakishly tying it around my waist. I walked up the short but vicious hill and avoided getting pranged on the horns of the long haired cattle the National Trust has imported to intimidate runners. I managed to nod my appreciation or actually articulate the words “thank you” to the encouraging marshals including the one who said “well done, you’re still looking fresh.” Clearly this was the opinion of someone whose judgement in these matters was extremely suspect. I ignored the urge to stop and remonstrate with him. I make looking as if I’m about to collapse into an art form. I can’t have people randomly commenting I look “fresh”.

Carol Morley is the director of a new film called The Falling which is out in the UK at the end of April. She has a fascination with mass psychogenic illness (mass hysteria) and her film tells the story of a fainting epidemic. The article in the Observer http://bit.ly/1IIfFsX is well worth reading.

Cambridge junior parkrun this morning. Unfortunately the loss of an hour with the clocks going forward combined with the rain more than cut numbers in half. Nevertheless, as usual, the children and adults had great time.

There had to be a down side to today. Tesco had entirely run out of Brussels sprouts. I narrowly avoided exhibiting The manager should fall on his sword!