running by the river

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Janathon Day 18 Everyone’s gawping at everyone else

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I took this picture of Trinity College’s Jerwood Library, on the bank of the Cam, yesterday. The light was poor, I was cold and it was taken with the wrong lens. To make matters worse, I was just able to lip read one of the gilded youths inside the warm library. He turned towards another chap, who was probably clutching a teddy bear, and said “Look at that twit, standing in the cold, trying to take photo of us with his silly telephoto lens.”

Another cold day, today. The temperature didn’t go much above zero centigrade and tomorrow morning it will be more like -3 or -4c. I went for an afternoon run, starting in an adjacent village and running along the Cam in the opposite direction to usual, that is towards Ely rather than Cambridge, There’s no clay cycle path going this way and it proved to be very muddy. I did around 3 miles which felt enough.

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Janathon Day 17 At least the dog’s warm

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We made Rupert cosy last night. Instead of shrugging off the blanket, he fell asleep immediately. He was still asleep in this position when I brought him a nice cup of tea at 7 am this morning. He likes his soft toys as well and often carries them around with him.

The temperature hovered around 3-4c when I went for an afternoon run. I ran through an adjacent village and picked up the river Cam at a different point. Saw plenty of other runners and some odd people just sauntering (okay, walking). I ran just over eight miles and feel better for doing a longer distance. I could have carried on quite easily but you can’t spend your life running, can you? Can you

 

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A Late Decision to Do the Janathon Thing

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New Year’s Day and two parkruns, (at Huntingdon and Peterborough), ninety minutes apart to allow crazed parkrunners travel time. Here I am with Lorna and running chums enjoying coffee after the second run.esterday I ran a New Years Eve 10k at Ely and two days previously had an 8 mile jog along the river Cam. Tomorrow, Saturday, is normal parkrun day which I’ll do at Cambridge. So clearly I am back in the running groove.

The weather in Eastern England has been unusually mild this winter and most people have been running in summer kit. But yesterday was cold and windy and today was frosty. I ran in tracksters, a long sleeved shirt and a jacket. Of course some people still dressed for summer.

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I’m almost at the finish at Huntingdon here and battling with Diane in a sprint to the line. I’m slightly behind but two seconds later, I successfully catch her heel and she’s sprawling in the mud. I win this contest but then there is a steward’s inquiry and I am found guilty of malicious fouling and banned at Huntingdon for a year. I will instruct my solicitor to appeal. I refuse to go down without a fight.

Surprisingly, this scenario didn’t occur but only because the delay would have prevented me from getting to Peterborough for the second parkrun. Diane beat me by one second.

 

 

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Alive and Running February 18 2015

WP_20150215_002Disaster on the porridge front! I usually cook it on the hob in a saucepan except when I am pushed for time. Then the microwave comes in handy. The instructions are very clear concerning amount of milk to porridge and microwave time. So what happened? I’ve ruled out human error so that leaves the microwave machine itself independently deciding to exceed its remit. The situation could have been worse as in The Magic Porridge Pot (Ladybird) when an unauthorised user starts the pot producing porridge  but doesn’t know the magical word to stop it. Consequently, the cottage and then the whole village is  engulfed, lava like, in porridge. It’s rather extreme but who’s to say it couldn’t happen.

This wasn’t the only shock I had today. A marauding gang of limpets, the ones with the vicious, extra strength teeth gave chase to me as I ran along the river Cam footpath. Ah ha, you might say, these gastropods live in saline water and wouldn’t be in a fresh water river. Well, these were obviously an advance guard and thinking outside of the box. If they’re quick to adapt, we’ll all be at risk. Anyway, I managed to outrun them but an angler wasn’t so lucky.

Nevertheless, I managed a run of 5.5 miles. I think I was still a bit tired from last night’s run with the club. We did 4.5 mins running at between 5 and 10k race pace with 1.5 mins jog recovery. I think I like standing still recovery best! I enjoyed it despite being hard work. I’ll rest for the next two days and then do parkrun on Saturday. On Sunday or Monday I’ll do my last long run of 11 or 12 miles before the Cambridge half. Hopefully the limpet threat will have proved to be a damp squib and we’ll all be sleeping easier.

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Alive and Running February 16 2015

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Cambridge junior parkrun yesterday morning. They’re off, just over a hundred of them, running in muddy conditions and loving it. I volunteered as timer but this changed to photographer (or one of them).

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Seems to be rather a lot of adults running with their offspring and some of them are checking their watches. Good job it’s not competitive, isn’t it? You can clearly see how enjoyable it is for the children and they are constantly cheered around the course.

10366205_869057729799568_7495588904252193199_n On Saturday we went down to East Londinium and did Valentines Park parkrun in Valentines Park on Valentines Day for their 4th anniversary. Follow? I’m standing next to Joe who is marginally taller, marginally younger and marginally faster than me. You could say I’m living on the margins! We met up with some old work pals and friends from Cambridge, ran the race, had coffee in the large park cafe and then walked to a Wetherspoons pub in Ilford for a brunch. The food was surprisingly good and inexpensive.

We liked Valentines parkrun. Gill (not in the picture) also runs there. She is the sister of my Cambridge ex running rival, Mike and coincidentally someone I vaguely knew at work when I lived in East London (and had yet to come across Mike). Gill is also known to three of my children who also run sporadically at Valentines.

It’s Cambridge half marathon in 3 weeks. I’m back to full fitness but not running speedily. This is due to –

1. Being slightly overweight.

2. The cold weather.

3. Inconsistent running.

4. Taking my cardiac medication at different times before the run (possibly).

However on the longer runs I’m finding it easier. Yesterday I did 11.25 miles  comfortably and didn’t feel tired afterwards. As I loped along I thought how lucky I am to be able run such a distance, run regularly and take part in races despite having had a heart attack four and a half years ago. Since I was fit before my cardiac “event”, I regained my fitness levels relatively quickly. Of course I was highly motivated, my family were completely supportive and in Cambridge, the cardiac rehabilitation service was excellent and I had received treatment very quickly. But I was surprised that the take up rate for rehabilitation was only around 44-46%. Apparently this is regarded as a high. It consisted of a series of specific talks and physical rehab in the hospital gym conducted by cardiac rehab nurses, a sports scientist, dieticians and others over a period of several months. I found it extremely helpful. Why wouldn’t you take it up unless you had your head in the sand! Ah…there’s the answer.

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                                                                   Cambridge in the summer. Please bring it on…..quickly.

 

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Aliveandrunning January 14 2015 Janathon Day 14

WP_20150114_003 Unlike the North the weather was sunny in Cambridge today and not excessively cold. I didn’t get out until the afternoon when it had started to cloud over but running conditions were still very good. As a result I was more motivated to run further and did 9.8 miles in all. That took me 1 hour 36 minutes 50 seconds including four stops to take pics.

Unusually I was not accosted by seductive water nymphs, and the lonely river side path bathed in sunlight gave me the perfect opportunity to try out a new running strategy which undoubtedly will catch on like wildfire. I ran backwards for 10 to 30 metres at a time interspersed with what I now call old fashioned, conventional running. I felt quite comfortable with this new style and only experienced a mild sense that possibly I might bash into someone, despite knowing there was no-one in sight. I now urge everyone to give it a go. You’ll find yourself running as a toe striker and have a good view of where you’ve run from.

The success of this revolutionary running technique spurred me on to try another unconventional method. I turned around 360 degrees as I ran. Exhilarating or what? I did this several times and it went well. I almost felt I could fly! Pushing it a bit further, I did two 360 degree turns in succession, made myself dizzy and nearly fell into the river. Back to the drawing board on that one.

I saw 7 runners while I was out, plus a gaggle of 25 walkers, kitted out, unbelievably, for walking. Why would they be walking when they could be running? Funny people.