dehydration

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Aliveandrunning May 18 2014

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I ran a good 5k Cambridge parkrun yesterday and todayI ran 7.7 miles at Willingham, Cambridgeshire. I felt tired warming up and tired during the race. End result? I finished around 6 minutes slower than last year. The temperature a year ago was 10C and today it was around 22C. I had 3 drink breaks and walked whilst drinking. I think the problem was more to do with me running too much over the past week without sufficient recovery time rather than the increase in temperature. I’ll go running with the club in two days and then rest until the next parkrun on the coming Saturday. I’m doing a half marathon on June 1st and may not do another long run before this.So now the world knows! Nothing is hidden. I’ve been completely open and frank. I have mortal weaknesses. My legs won’t carry me at the moment but my head is erupting with light and energy (see above picture). Possibly this is why children were running away screaming from me today.

Much euphoria  around the pond this afternoon. Lorna noticed two fat flower buds poking out between the lily pads. The air was electric with a frenzy of  exhilaration. It doesn’t get better than this. And that’s on top of watching two dragon flies copulating yesterday!

I cooked a delicious curry tonight. Unfortunately not accompanied by Brussels sprouts.

Signed up for Juneathon.

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Aliveandrunning April 20 2014

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Excellent day at Cambridge 5k parkrun yesterday. My youngest son Nick,16, did his first parkrun. He had a clear choice as a rite of passage. Either do parkrun or be dropped by helicopter onto an uninhabited island just off Iceland to fend for himself for two weeks. He wisely chose the latter and did well. Without training or ever having run outside of minimal PE at school and with a history of developing a stitch after a hundred metres, he successfully completed it, nonchalantly, in just over 27 minutes and is now motivated to run again. Great!

 Four out of five children were running yesterday. Shanti got a PB at Valentines parkrun, East London, Isobelle got the same time as Nick at Cambridge and Sophie beat me by ONE second having improved her PB by around 3 minutes. One second is nothing, of course, and barely qualifies as a tie. In fact, if I had thrown myself forward like the 100 metre sprinters at the line, I could have triumphed with a two second winning margin. So am I still top dog, at least in Cambridge? Technically no. I fully concede her victory Almost. Did Sophie take a banned stimulant? We’ll never know for certain because, inexplicably, there is no compulsory drug testing facilities at parkrun. Did I instinctively slow down at one point in response to the beauty of a nightingale’s song drifting through the trees? Quite probably. Anyway, rest assured I’ll be working on that second in the coming weeks. Not that it matters to me because parkrun is not a race. We are all winners. Particularly Lorna whose Achilles tendonopathy seems to be successfully resolving. She’s back running consistently and carefully, this week being her third parkrun since her serious injury.

Afterwards, the children went off together and we had a lovely cup of coffee with friends at the park cafe. I chatted about yurts and planned to get several following a win in the evening lottery draw (we were given 3 tickets at a wedding reception a few days before and expectations were high). Unbelievably, we didn’t win anything, not even the cost of  an entry to the next race.

This disappointment was not yet a reality after returning home from parkrun and I was able to enjoy my bowl of porridge. I like to eat around the edges and create a steep sided mound. Or alternatively I’m carving out a yurt like shape. Or is it mammary shaped? One thing’s for certain, it’s not just porridge, Dr Freud.

Another significant disappointment are the condition and taste of Tesco Brussels sprouts at the moment. I guess it’s the end of the season but Tesco must have abused these innocent vegetables in some way to produce such a weird taste. I’m thinking of setting up a Tesco sprout support group for therapy and lobbying purposes. On the other hand, broccoli quality seems to be holding up well so there’s a silver lining in the cloud.

Just back from Sweatshop Cambridge where I bought a nice angled bottle belt to  prevent dehydration on longer runs in the summer. It’s really an own goal when you become dehydrated when running and then require medical attention if it’s available at a race like the Cambridge half. I don’t understand how people an do this. They must have porridge for brains.<c

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Aliveandrunning April 6 2014

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Cambourne 10k, near Cambridge, today, with a field of 960 and I came in at 51 minutes 28 seconds, 32 seconds slower than last year. Not quite so windy as last year and probably the best temperature for running (for me) around 14c although I don’t mind it up to 23-24c. I am such a sensible person and therefore it was in keeping with my sensible nature that I drank at the half way water station and managed to stave off dehydration that cruelly beset me at the recent Cambridge half marathon. My two arch rivals, Mike and Kerry, beat me by about two and a half minutes, a margin which I found acceptable so we will remain friends (until the margin becomes a yawning chasm and then I will review the situation).

I noticed the Greek God Hermes sitting on a cloud watching my progress and smiling wryly but declining to assist me to run faster. At one point he swung his winged and sandalled feet back and forth to taunt me. So, no help from Mount Olympus today then.

Next weekend, we’ll be watching the London marathon in the docklands area with family and friends. This worked very well last year and we saw a lot of people running that we knew from Cambridge. We also caught the  the elite runners but if you blink at the wrong moment you’ve missed them. They are running machines like the the new improved cyborg T-1000 in Terminator 2 : Judgement Day. I wouldn’t want to accidentally stumble into their path. They’d use my body as a springboard and leave a sympathetic god to scoop me up.

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Aliveandrunning March 17 2014

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Following last weekend’s Cambridge half marathon when I ran a good time and then made it memorable by becoming dehydrated and requiring medical assistance (see blog dated March 10), I am now back to form. I ran with the club during the week and parkrun on the weekend. The Cambridge parkrun run director and her partner, who have bright red hair and a Mohican respectively, were stepping aside after four years. Dozens of regulars wore convincing wigs in celebration (see pic above). I think I should have spent more time finessing my coiffure. My lush Mohican came rather low and I had difficulty seeing my way around the course. I was also carrying a placard so my time was slow. Still, we had a lot of cake afterwards and everyone was very appreciative of the hard work they have put in since parkrun began in Cambridge.

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Here I am modelling my tattoo sleeves after the race. Generally I am anti tattoo but these sleeves are hardly distinguishable from the real thing (as long as they are viewed 20 metres away with sun glasses). I am now scouring the internet to acquire a whole body lycra  tattoo stocking! How cool would that be in Cambridge Central Library or a Tesco super store.

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It’s curious how many runners revere cake! Very few of them seem to worry about the sugar or fat or calorie content. Anyway, it was a very enjoyable, OTT morning.

I attended a funeral last week and had yet further proof that, all to frequently, there’s nothing less Christian than a practicing Christian. I’ve heard examples from family before and also seen it with my own eyes. The genteel, comfortable middle classes Church goers don’t seem to be able to welcome anyone who doesn’t conform to their particular norms. This is very clear when their services are attended by individuals whose behaviour may be loud or inappropriate or if they look different. They simply get ignored or sidelined or frozen out. I witnessed the good church folks in action against a women who probably has a borderline personality disorder in the reception after the funeral service. They really should have been able to accommodate her and make the effort to respond and make her feel comfortable. But they didn’t. And haven’t done on other occasions. I don’t like being around such hypocritical people. I don’t like to see such displays of prejudice and unkindness. They don’t take their own moral teachings seriously. They are self righteous nitwits!

Hot news! Scientists have found evidence of the signal left by the super-rapid expansion of space that occurred fractions of a second following the Big Bang, leading immediately to the creation of the Universe. That fraction is estimated to be a trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second. Wow!! That’s even faster than the Tories took to start dismantling the NHS by letting the for profit companies take over services. That’s why we need health union leaders of the calibre of Bob Crow who very sadly died suddenly last week, aged 52.

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Aliveandrunning March 10 2014

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Mea culpa! I’m on the naughty step. Here is a picture of me powering my way, discreetly, to the finish line in the Cambridge half  marathon. I’m focussed and in the zone. Or maybe I’m worrying about the the plight of the hard working tax payer, brought to our attention by the altruistic Tory government. Anyway the temperature was around 17-18c in a cloudless sky and a lot of people were uncomfortable in the warm conditions. I find the heat OK to run in, and having drunk a reasonable amount of fluid before the race, I didn’t feel thirsty. I decided I didn’t need any available water or gels as I went around the course. I was pleased with my time  and failed to drink sufficiently for over an hour while I met up with incoming friends and family.

As we left Cambridge’s Midsummer Common to return to the car, I started to feel very nauseous  and couldn’t continue walking. I managed to get over to a stack of concrete fencing equipment to lean on for support and simply felt ill and on the verge of being sick. Lorna was with me and I resisted her suggestion of drinking water or seeking help from the volunteer medics. But I failed to feel better and remained too nauseous to move so I agreed I needed help which Lorna immediately organised. A passing first aider advised me to drink water and I gave it a try. Within a short space of time I felt a bit better and was able to clamber into the nice Land Rover Defender which raced over the Common, blue light twinkling, to take me to the medical tent. I was able to give Lorna a cheery wave as I passed her, walking, to same tent. The diagnosis : dehydration, unbelievably caused by me not drinking enough! I drank around 300 mls of water while they were ministering to me and I quickly felt a great deal better. They were happy to discharge me and I tottered off trying to avoid Lorna’s glare which reflected her dismay at my failure to sensibly take on water during the race. Well, lessons have now been learned. I don’t want others to suffer as I did. If I can prevent just one person from being hydrated then it was all worth it (please add your own cliches).

Apart from this interlude, it was a very successful day. My three daughters and son all ran very well indeed and Lorna took some lovely pictures. I managed to beat four arch rivals, three of whom are much faster than me in 5 and 10k races. The weather was excellent and the atmosphere was great.

New running resolutions for this year (and subsequent years) : ensure adequate hydration when running and particularly when it’s warm or hot : have much more consideration for Lorna who worries about my health and thinks I don’t take myself seriously enough.

                                                            Family half marathon

Unfortunately I couldn’t be in this picture of my family since I was trapped on the other side of the fenced in course, collecting my baggage, before I felt ill. Still I recovered relatively quickly and we all went for an Indian meal in the evening. I had plenty to drink and ate humble pie.

 

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Aliveandrunning Janathon January 22

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Day 22. What a silly running god am I! I had a terrible cramp in the middle of the night following the reduced recovery sprints with the club. I managed not to take, or consume after running, a banana which was suggested by shazruns and Sam and I didn’t drink adequately when I returned home. As a consequence (apart from the tremendous pain in both legs at 3.30 am) the phlebotomist had great difficulty drawing blood for my annual full blood count today. She commented that I was dehydrated and that “the body wanted to hold onto the blood.” She asked “Did you have a couple of pints to drink this morning? You probably breathed that amount out during the night” “Errr…..no…but I did have a cup of tea.”Searching my memory banks, there may have been a similar problem last year which I completely forgot about.

What have I learned from this sorry state of affairs? 1. Listen to and implement sensible advice. 2. Drink much more water and not just the ambrosia that we gods just love to sup while reclining on Mount Olympus.

I ventured out for a 2 mile run with our dalmatian Rupert. I have never done this in the 9 years he has been with us because I didn’t think he would be able to trot beside me  and run in a straight line. We left at 8 pm ie when it was completely dark and honest folk were off the streets. On the positive side, at times he trotted very nicely and only crossed in front of me once, expecting to cross the road as we usually did, on a normal walk, at that point. On the downside he wanted to stop frequently. I pulled him on but we still stopped on five occasions for him to do a substantial wee (my fault – I should have toileted him before we went out). Plus he pulled for the first mile. My running form was shot to pieces by holding on to the lead and his collar came off. The run took 2 minutes longer than it normally does. Nevertheless, it was 67% successful and I might try it again. However, I won’t be taking him to parkrun anytime soon.

Pictures : Rupert after his run this evening and an elm tree, slowly succumbing to Dutch elm disease in Worts Meadow, Cambridgeshire.