miserable weather

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Aliveandrunning2013 December 19

We swept through the subtle gloom of late night Cambridge, negotiating dark alley ways, racing over bridges and exploring barely imaginable aspects of the City asleep. We were 17 super heroes running, nay sprinting, our chosen course and helping to keep Cambridge safe. Great deeds, too numerous to mention, were done that night. Modesty precludes relating their nature save one. A baby fell from an upstairs College window and seemed certain to be dashed on the aged Cambridge cobblestones below. But Archibald D’arcy-Smithers, the lead super hero runner spotted the falling tot, increased his speed exponentially and caught him in his arms in the nick of time. The group dutifully ran on the spot, waiting for the child to be reunited with its negligent father who stammered his thanks and admitted he had become over absorbed in Wittgenstein’s Tractatus. Only in Cambridge ! A few words of advice later, we were soon on our way again and dispensing more good karma.

Generally speaking I have few idiosyncrasies and odd habits (except for collecting books, hoarding newspapers and magazines, sometimes cultivating,always tolerating, spiders’ webs, disliking having my daily newspaper opened up and roughly loosened by someone else (yes, you Lorna!), justifying buying a book by not buying food, regarding a visit to Tesco as mystical experience, holding contrary opinions (example – detaining Daily Mail and Express readers in a holding centre on the Isle of Wight preparatory to their re-programming and re-integration back into sensible society) and having my porridge ritual devalued by Lorna who regularly extracts the spoon out of the glutinous mass as it’s cooling down and licks it !) Apart from the above, I’m completely normal.

Parkrun again in a couple of days. Forecast is rain and plenty of it. I don’t have trail shoes yet and the poor traction will slow me down, My cunning plan to run a faster time consists of cutting my toenails and swinging a kettle bell during the week. I’m unlikely to get below 24 minutes for the 5K. I know how Superman feels when his powers are temporarily removed by kryptonite. Bring on the Spring weather NOW.

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Aliveandrunning2013 December 11

I continue to run but I have mislaid the Winged Sandals given to me on loan by the Greek god Hermes. I’m not flying along effortlessly and I can no longer kid myself that it’s still late summer. A 45 minute run a couple of days ago was a lacklustre affair and drew no comments from passersby like “Wow, you strongly remind me of Usain Bolt” and “There goes a top class runner we are proud to have living in the Cambridge area.” I missed an outing with the club yesterday and instead heard Ian Rankin. UK crime writer interviewed in a rather lovely church in central Cambridge. See my other blog http://oscardiamond.wordpress.com/ for my very brief review and my view on Scientology following a Supreme Court ruling in London today. Scientology, you couldn’t make it up ? Or could you ?

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/05/pope-francis-approves-panel-fight-clerical-sex-abuse The Catholic Church appears motivated to set up a high profile commission of experts to fight clerical sex abuse but, as explained in this article and another the previous day, the Vatican has refused to give a United Nations panel information it requested on clerical sexual abuse. Additionally there is still no clear plan to examine the issue of bishops’ accountability in clergy abuse cases. You would assume that a religious organisation that has caused, and allowed to continue, so much harm would be highly motivated to make whatever amends it could. Unless that organisation was so thoroughly self serving and saturated with hubris that it decided to continue to minimise the impact of abuse and make an industry out of lip service and crocodile tears.

I have a cunning plan to encourage myself to be more sociable. I will invite more people to come around for coffee or (in exceptional cases where the person is very discerning) lapsang souchong. At the point of invitation I will give them a card stating the maximum length of time they may stay eg I hour, 2 hours, 3 hours etc. They know where they stand and the whole thing has a nice manageable feel for all participants. It also gives a chance for people to increase their favour with me and receive subsequent cards of longer duration. It can’t fail.

 

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Aliveandrunning2013 November 28

I’m just starting to get back to longer weekday runs. It’s still an effort though The dull weather is dulling my mind and motivation. I can’t wait for the return of sunny weather and my sunny disposition. Only four more months until the Spring. Mmm….I think I’ll curl up here under all these Guardian newspapers conveniently hoarded by me and hibernate until the climate is more conducive…..zzzzzzzzzzzzz.

By contrast, running in the dark is fun and exciting. I rarely go running at night alone but in the Autumn and Winter I’m out with the club in and around  the streets of Cambridge. Two evenings ago we did a mixed ability four person relay (curtailed because of too much standing around ) and a paarlauf (where you have teams of paired runners and one rests while the other runs). It’s like a relay. Regard me as easily pleased but it’s quite exciting  waiting for your partner to reach you before you go sprinting off into the night. I felt like a greyhound despite being one of the slowest runners I still can’t outrun several of the seventy year olds.

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Aliveandrunning2013 November 17

Cambridge  parkrun 5K yesterday morning. It wasn’t as cold as expected (around 6-7C) although for the last 4 years since I had my heart attack, I am much more sensitive to low temperatures than before. I presume this is due to the side effects of medication. This is a manageable problem if I wear appropriate running gear. This means I might have a heavier duty running jacket, long sleeved running top, heavy duty gloves, beenie and track bottoms. No wonder I’m slower at the moment. I can look like an Arctic traveller. It’s also highly likely I will be standing next to someone who has vest and shorts when it’s below zero. I think these types of runners should have their own separate race where they are free to run naked in the snow if they choose. Anyway, the going was soft to muddy and the degree of traction wasn’t great so I didn’t get under 24 minutes. In the finish tunnel there’s an occasional holdup and I can always be easily identified because I am doubled over with exertion and lack of breath. This egregious state of affairs doesn’t last long because I recover quickly but not before someone asks me if I’m OK. I gasp “Yes, yes” but deep down I know I’ve never been the same since Cream broke up in 1968 and Jimi Hendrix died in 1970. And don’t get me started on excellent magazines which are now defunct. Particularly The Listener, invariably described as the ” official organ of the BBC.” Not glossy, not full of celebrity froth but crammed of interesting, explanatory articles and the text of talks and discussions from 1929 to 1991, weekly. So, when I finish exhausted, it’s hard for people to realise there is an additional component of loss, anger, unfairness, bewilderment and wistfulness  to my presentation. Probably they should ask if I needed counselling rather than help for my temporary physical state.

Anyway, there were 372 finishers at Cambridge yesterday. The fastest ran 5K in 16 minutes 19 seconds and the last person’s time was 39 minutes 6 seconds. Peter the oldest park runner (80-84 age category) is not actually running at present but has taken to walking the course IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION and greeting everybody he knows as they pass. Long may he do so. Here’s the link :     http://www.parkrun.org.uk/cambridge/

Is there an equivalent nationally organised, weekly free race, run by volunteers (no pun intended) happening in the USA ?

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Aliveandrunning2013 November 11

Grey skies and rain here today in Cambridge. Just the kind of weather to bring my mood down and stop me running. It wasn’t too cold, however, and I wanted to get back into a running routine. Now that my tolerance to cold temperatures is reduced, I do tend to wear a lot of kit when it’s chilly. The temperature was around 7-8C, not particularly cold for most people, especially runners. I put on a heavy duty running jacket. long sleeve top, good quality all weather gloves and running tights. In this outfit I look like a speedy pixie. It’s not the kind of image that a cool dude of my standing would want to cultivate. Why, on one occasion I heard a small child ask her mother “Mummy, that funny man over there, is he a magical creature?” Another nail in the coffin bearing my sef image as hardly indistinguishable from Clint Eastwood circa 1965. Anyway I went for a short run (18 minutes) without ridicule or humiliation and tomorrow I’ll go running with the club.

Bonus grumpy point : why do my ears change size? I don’t listen to anything when I’m running but I do listen to BBC Radio 4 podcasts (doesn’t everyone ?) when I’m walking Rupert, our dalmation. The earphone often does not fit my right ear and falls out whereas previously it did not exhibit this irritating behaviour. Perhaps I am a magical creature whose magic has turned against him bigtime !

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Aliveandrunning2013 November 9

I haven’t run for a full week. I’m not injured but the weather does interfere with my motivation. Autumn, I have accepted, is really here. More rain, less sunshine and lower temperatures. Rain’s OK but cold and grey skies certainly do have a negative impact on my mood. I’m probably a very mild case of seasonal affective disorder (SAD). It doesn’t help that I’m more susceptible to cold now compared with  much greater tolerance of it prior to my heart attack four years ago. I think it’s due to the effects of the medication I take. The same medication that regulates my heart beat, keeps me well and STOPS ME RUNNING FASTER. Today, I ran Cambridge parkrun which featured plenty of mud and large puddles. I felt good running but the time was inevitably slower than usual because of the conditions under foot. Poor traction always makes for greater effort and slower times. I was around 20 seconds slower than last week’s slow time but overall I was happy with my performance. Last week I was still coming back from injury so my displeasure is on the meagre side. My arch rival Mike easily beat me again. I need to choose some less fast arch rivals and install them into my mind. Then I can relegate Mike to ordinary running dude and friend rather than evil competitor.There’s clear need to get some trail shoes to negotiate muddy and  wet conditions which are a regular autumn/winter feature of both Cambridge and Wimpole Estate parkruns. At Cambridge, in particular, there are lots of tight muddy corners and it’s easy to come a cropper.

Interesting article in New Scientist November 9 2013 concerning the benefits of exercising. Current research is suggesting a correlation between consistent exercise and maintaining cognitive health including a lesser risk of developing severe cognitive impairment through dementia. Research also points to the importance of physical activity in the development of a range of cognitive abilities from childhood. Increasingly, exercise is linked with a number of health benefits including lowering the risk of heart disease and certain cancers and preventing the onset of type 2 diabetes. I did have a heart attack but my general level of fitness, as a result of running, has greatly helped in my recovery with no real loss of running ability. It’s left me with few obvious deficits in my overall health (except the medication STOPS ME RUNNING FAST).

What a bunch of shits comprise this coalition government and principally, the Tories. They are very skilled in creating an atmosphere of public loathing and condemnation of certain groups of people whom it is in their interest to demonise, those they would describe as  benefits scroungers or work refusers, and highlighting people taking  benefits on medical grounds which are supposedly insubstantial or non existent. The non working mentally ill, NHS “tourists”, housing benefit claimants and anyone who isn’t a hard working tax payer, all come in for a drubbing. There is a cruelty and a lack of humanity about their policies which is more obvious when you understand how they are implemented. See Polly Toynbee article http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/08/duncan-smith-poverty-benefit-sanctions-easterhouse

More dusting yesterday including cobweb removal. Dusting is not particularly interesting but dust itself is ! There’s so much of it and each, occasionally visible individual speck makes its own individual journey before its final resting place (unless you blow it elsewhere). What tales dust could tell (or not), what lessons could be learnt from history if dust had a voice. What a noble substance ! Don’t mess with it.