running with heart disease

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Aliveandrunning June 21 2014 Juneathon Day 21

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A lovely, leafy, sun dappled long straight path in Milton Country Park, the venue for Cambridge parkrun. On the immediate left (out of shot) is a large lake, so useful for nudging arch rivals into. We have around 400 doing Cambridge parkrun now but by the time this point is reached, we’re reasonably spaced out. I had a good run today and finished only 23 seconds outside my personal best. I think getting below 23 minutes is possible after Juneathon, after I’ve had a few days rest, if  it’s not too hot, if I start nearer to the front, if I do some distance training, if I can fortify myself with lashings of Brussels sprouts, if any of the Greek goddesses are smiling at me from above, and if I’m feeling invincible. So, if all this criteria is satisfied, I’m suited and booted. If only!

We have two timers at Cambridge and Lorna was one of them today. It’s always a slightly anxiety producing job because of the sheer number of runners coming through in bunches, overtaking on the line (and funnel), being joined by children who may or may not have run, pressing buttons hard enough to register as a result and being distracted by the crowds around you. I collected the signage around the course after the run which allows me to take part in the race and volunteer. I came back to the cafe just in time to have a delicious coffee with friends in the sunshine. No matter what time you do, parkrun is such a feel-good experience. Tomorrow is the Hatfield Forest 10k. There should be plenty of shade, at least at intervals. It starts at 10. I’ll have to make a decision about when and how much porridge to eat in the morning. Probably a large bowl around 7 am.

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Here is a fine bed of nettles I’ve cultivated over several years. The key to such an impressive display is to leave them to set seed annually and also to cut them down but leave the roots. They thrive on the challenge to recover their strength.

I can usually pull the young ones up successfully. The older, much more experienced nettles that have been around the block and attended the school of hard knocks are a different matter. They find novel and ingenious ways to sting me, I try to grasp them with gloves and they duck out of the way so I clutch thin air, they hiss and murmur insults. This time , it’s personal. I’m going to apply a lot of time , effort and cunning to make you history, a small footnote in my illustrious gardening career. Anyone for nettle soup?

 

 

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Aliveandrunning June 20 2014 Juneathon Day 20

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I didn’t go into central Cambridge for a run today, as planned. However, I did go to Milton Country Park and ran along the river. It was warm but not too warm. Not many people around but I wasn’t lonely. I stumbled but didn’t fall. I perspired freely but didn’t jump in the water to cool down. I used Lorna’s Garmin but have no plans to possess one myself.

I ran 8.1k and took some snaps with my phone at intervals. Tomorrow, it’s Cambridge parkrun. I’m running and volunteering (collecting the direction and information signs placed around the course after all the runners have passed by).

On Sunday, it’s Hatfield Forest 10k, a flat course, I think. Haven’t done it before. Don’t know much about it. Lorna’s doing it as well. I’ll just turn up like a cool, unknown outsider, run it, win it and leave them wide eyed and wiping the grit thrown up by the wide tyres on my Porche 911 as I drive off into darkest Essex. That’s just one scenario. It’s more probable I’ll come half way down the field. That’s good enough.

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The picture on the left shows a branch from the extremely dangerous gooseberry bush, the source of the gooseberries in the glass bowl. My hands were cut to pieces after picking these. I’m surprised the thorns aren’t dripping with blood. I eat them raw. Sour but delicious. In a month or less the dessert varieties will be ready if the birds don’t get them first.

 

 

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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 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 16 2014 Juneathon Day 16

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A rumour swept North Cambridge today and caused hundreds of credulous people to line the river bank. I was there to catch the action. It was believed that a mystic, living in the farthest reaches of the Eastern Fen Lands, was going to walk on water and stroll into the centre of Cambridge via the  River Cam. After a 4 hour wait, another rumour swept the expectant crowd. He was indeed walking on water but had taken a wrong turn and was currently running down a minor tributary which went God only knows where! We were mightily disappointed and dispersed peacefully.

We had faith. Most people have a little faith in a lot of things and a lot of faith in a few things. I am losing my faith in :

1. The BBC news.

2. The humanitarian aspect of organised religions (the supernatural bit is gone already).

3. The coalition government’s views or interpretation of anything at all (particularly foreign policy).

4. The weather (it’s just not consistent).

5. Most people to consider almost anything in a fair, balanced, constructive manner.

6. Anyone who regards the Sun as a newspaper. It’s a comic just as the News of the World was a comic with a bent for sex, humiliation and raw prejudice.

Went for a 2 mile run and felt good. I think I was slightly out of salts when I ran yesterday (whatever that means). Club night tomorrow and that always goes well. Parkrun on the weekend plus a 10k race. i’m looking forward to running through the centre of Cambridge again and dodging through the meandering crowds.

A few other random thoughts when I was running :

A. Gardening therapy for people with mental health issues.

B. Uses of amenity land and setting up a charity/social enterprise.

C. How to get funding.

D. Must get an early Victorian stove pipe hat. I’d look very impressive wearing it at parkrun.

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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 14 2014 Juneathon Day 14

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Ms Alive and Running (right) with her Fen Edge Runners Club pals (and mine) at Wimpole Estate parkrun today. Fen Edge Runners take their running seriously but are very friendly and informal. They allow me into their inner circle despite my belonging to a rival club.

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Ms Alive and Running showing good form as she approaches the finish line and Wimpole Hall in all its understated modesty (is this tautology?)

The undulating course and a particularly vicious hill meant that I run it almost 2 minutes slower than the flat and winding Cambridge parkrun. We had rain on the way to Wimpole which was dry on arrival but started after the finish so I didn’t get any photos of their second hand, pre-owned, formerly cherished but now callously discarded book shop. I did venture in, however. After establishing they couldn’t provide a second hand e-book download of my chosen titles, I was forced  to buy the hard copies.

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I resisted explaining that I’m buying these books for a friend and not for myself. The George Orwell essays include the Art of Donald McGill, the saucy seaside postcard artist in which he explores the prevailing humour and assumptions underpinning it. This Penguin copy is old and looks like someone has urinated on it ( one of worst book crimes imaginable, second only to setting it alight). It possesses that lovely old paperback aroma (not faintly like urine) which e-books strangely lack.

In the afternoon, I went to the May Bumps which are a series of rowing races along the Cam. Very enjoyable and interesting. Took loads of pics. Very white, very upper middle class, very traditional. They set up road blocks along the tow path and you were only allowed admission to that section of the path if you could converse in Latin or Ancient Greek, attended a Cambridge college or had an air of smug insouciance. Am I being unfair? Yes!

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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 10 2014 Juneathon Day 10

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This is my little friend, Sidney and he lives on the rockery beside the new pond. He’s not a great conversationalist but he’s reliable and has a god heart. He has assured me that the mushroom he’s acquired is not “magic” and that everything is just fine in Fairyland.

Out with the club tonight. We ran just over a couple of miles to the foot of a hill, a Cambridge hill, which means some people might dispute whether or not it met the criteria for a hill. A wise person said it rose 23 metres. It looked like  a gentle incline from the bottom. We split into groups of 5 and chased up to the  top the top as fast as possible, a distance of around 400 metres. Not far, really and we did that 5 times.  A small group of runners, including me, went up a sixth time. And then we trotted back to the University Track. A highly technical person revealed we ran 7.3 miles. We warmed down , congratulated each other on our fine performances and went home to a nice cup of tea.

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Aliveandrunning June 8 2014 Juneathon Day 8

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Meet my two long legged friends, Ethel and Reginald. As befits literate spiders, they can’t wait to scamper over the book shelves. They have oodles of fun, they tell me. They are voracious readers but tend to confine  themselves to the text on the book spines because, obviously, they can’t turn the pages. Additionally, the font size is large  and it takes time to scan, so progress is slow. They are terrible copycats! Every Saturday at 9 am, they have bookrun while I’m at parkrun so I never get to see them in any great number. So far, no pics on Facebook. I still live in hope. I like spiders running over my books.

 

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Rather warm today. I intended to go for a short run (around 2 miles) because I’m still feeling tired. I ended up doing 1o k. I parked in the country park where we do parkrun, pootled around there for a bit then headed for the river. Plenty of people walking along the riverbank, some runners (avoiding eye contact with me), and cyclists, including trainers on bikes, coaching the rowing eights as they move at speed in the water.

In the above pic, an eight and a narrow boat pass in opposite directions. Next week the May Bumps begin and culminate on Saturday when the successful eights race against each other. The tow path will be full of people spectating and picnicking  on the banks and coaches will be whizzing along the path shouting out instructions to their own crews.

A number of eights wait in staggered positions and, at the firing of a small cannon, set off and attempt to catch up with the boat in front, “bumping them”, that is making contact with their boat or oar. Both eights then pull over. It’s not permitted  to sink another competitor or swipe at them with cutlasses. The crews are mainly Cambridge University colleges with a few affiliated clubs taking part (I think). What do class warriors think of this? Do they move seamlessly among the wicker hampers, jugs of Pyms and bottles of champers cluttering the banks, furiously stroking their chins in wonderment? Or shrug their shoulders? Or kick the picnics into the water? Or, like us, sit on the fence? We’ll enjoy the races but drink fair trade tea, brewed on a portable gas cooking stove, using water drawn straight from the river.

Anyway, no such dilemmas today. Just a lovely run along the river bank. I felt less tired following the run. Only my jaw muscle still ached, a consequence of excessive social intercourse yesterday at parkrun and elsewhere.