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Aliveandrunning June 9 2014 Juneathon Day 9

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I don’t read these books, of course. I just get them for their titles or cover design. Or, if they are published by Penguin, I get them because they are published by Penguin. Why? The answer to this question must lay deep in my psyche. A large team of psychologists, psychiatrists and psychotherapists would have to work in shifts to explain this behaviour.

No, I’ve changed my mind. I will read them because they are clearly interesting. I’ll alarm myself with the Penguin and have a laugh with the short book on humour (except it won’t be funny).

Anyway, who buys hard copies of books these days. Surely only losers! They collect dust, attract spiders and clutter up the place. So last century. So much more convenient to download e-books onto the e-device of my choice. And as for buying hardbacks, that’s the equivalent of  acquiring a valve radiogramme  to listen to the World Service.

A short run this afternoon, simply to placate the Juneathon secret police who will surely persecute me if I fail to run everyday. It was hot, around 24c and I continue to feel tired running although this is mainly confined to the first 5 minutes. Tomorrow,  I’ll be running with the club in the evening. This requires a more sustained effort but we warm up properly and I find this more manageable.

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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.

 

 

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Aliveandrunning June 7 2014 Juneathon Day 7

 

 

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These landmine looking doughnuts were actually on sale at my local Tesco. I wouldn’t be surprised if people were actually buying them (using their hard earned money obtained by actually working hard}. It’s hard to imagine anything more over refined, food wise. But, then again, munching these may be just the thing to get you in the mood for the Footy to come. Just be careful not to swallow the football and choke yourself to death. Mmmm…..those food dyes look so scrumptious.

Thanks to certain people in Devon sending Cambridgeshire many buckets of rain, the parkrun course got a drenching but, thanks to my intervention by making sacrifices to the gods, the deluge didn’t happen until the last parkrunner came home. We repaired to the park cafe and drank coffee in the actual open air and then the Devon rain came down with a vengeance. Boy, did I do a lot of socialising today. I’m not a natural but I made a sustained effort and actually enjoyed chatting. The reason for this is that the vast majority of runners are very nice people and having now done 181 parkruns (mostly at Cambridge), I know a great many of them.

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Aliveandrunning June 6 Juneathon Day 6

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   Heaven has been restored. I have sourced some giant brussels sprouts which you see dwarfing, if not lording it over, the rest of the food on my plate. Unfortunately the air miles are not insignificant having been grown in Morocco. Never mind, I’ll do a bit of carbon off setting  and plant a couple of trees in the Autumn. I really should be growing brussels myself.

All this Juneathon running is increasing my appetite and I’ve increased my bread consumption which is not a good thing. On the hydration front, my sensible drinking continues to stave off excruciating night cramps. On my two long runs last month, I used a belt and a bottle, cunningly angled, for ease of withdrawal and drank all of it.

Today I ran to an adjacent village’s recreation ground and did 6 x 80m-100m sprints. Total distance around 6k. They have installed some impressive outdoor gym equipment on three locations around the playing field. It looks good quality but the individual pieces can’t be adjusted for resistance. They are all set for minimal resistance or none at all.

Tomorrow is Cambridge parkrun and substantial rain is predicted (in complete contrast to today which has been warm and sunny).

At the end of June, Cambridge junior parkrun is having its trial run before the inaugural run in July. All children between the ages of 4 to 14 will be eligible to run the 2k course in Milton Country Park. It’s a weekly event on Sundays. Lorna is involved with the organisation and will be one of the run directors.

 

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Aliveandrunning June 5 2014 Juneathon Day 5

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Oh no! I turn up to compete in the prestigious Kevin Henry 5K series of club runs (this particular one held at Newmarket, the horse racing town, 16 miles from Cambridge) and someone pointed out that I was still wearing my trusty, much loved and comfortable old slippers. How embarrassing. What a crazy, absent minded dude I am! What did I do ? I ran in my bare feet. Did I really run bare footed? No. Did I forget to wear my trainers? No. I made it all up. It’s called artistic licence.

But I did run at Newmarket, on the the Rowley mile where they they train race horses. Five clubs take part and probably around 220 runners came along this evening. The weather was fine and sunny and the course is over one big, flat perimeter circle. You can view the whole 5k with a slight sweep of the head. I ran it in 24 mins 27 secs which was OK for me (the going was soft to firm).

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I listened to Radio 4’s The Life Scientific where leading figures in the scientific community are interviewed by Jim Al-Khalili on podcast this morning. He spoke to Professor Sir Michael Rutter, the UK’s first ever child psychiatrist, about his lifelong specialisation in the field of child development, both as a practising psychiatrist and as an eminent researcher. This was very interesting in itself but I was particularly struck by his description of himself as a non-theist Quaker – that is he wasn’t required to believe in an infallible supernatural  entity and an afterlife. It sounds like a contradiction in terms- rather like UKIP or the BNP/English Defence League shrugging their metaphorical shoulders on hearing that sharia law is going to piloted throughout Essex and EU immigration to the UK is going to be encouraged and funded by the taxpayer. There is a non-theist Quaker website and an organisation for non-theist Christians. I think the emphasis is on the moral guidance and teaching provided by religious bodies rather than an all powerful supernatural being. That’s something those charming Bon Secours nuns in Tuam, Western Ireland, need to consider. A complete absence of feeling and humanity.

The Life Scientific on Radio 4, Tuesdays at 9 am and podcasted, Excellent. You don’t have to be scientifically literate, it’s not technical, it’s not hard or boring, just enjoyable. Listen to it.

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Aliveandrunning June 4 2014 Juneathon Day 4

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1. The sensible, go-through-immediately door (requiring the slightest degree of stooping) after it’s radical, no-nonsense haircut.

2. I am snapped assertively addressing a group of local residents and employing demonstrative body language to convey  I am in charge of the village. I am informing them that everyone is obliged to run 5k each day and eating chocolate products is forbidden.

3.This black hole spontaneously formed in the woods where I take Rupert the dalmatian for a walk. Spooky or what! What?

Juneathon Day 4. I took the risk of drawing the attention of the increasing number of zombies roaming around on the outskirts of our village and went for a lonely run down the course of an old Roman road called Akerman Street, now a wide grass track bounded by trees and bushes with cultivated fields behind them. The Roman gods were quiet today and I’ll attempt to commune with them on another occasion. It’s odd to consider this would have been a busy bye-way of transport, travel and commerce 1600 years ago. And now I run along it dressed like a banana. That’s progress for you!

Society in today’s Guardian has an article titled “Psychiatric support teams can save hospitals millions.” It describes how on-site psychiatric care in acute hospitals can greatly reduce, or much better manage, resources taken up by the estimated 25% of patients who have a mental illness in addition to their physical illness. Apparently, most acute hospitals are not equipped to deal with mental health disorders that come through their doors, according to a consultant psychiatrist. It was ever the same. Everyone working in general hospitals and psychiatric teams has practical experience of such problems and such a scenario will have been recognised for decades. This article seems to focus on the elderly but the same situation pertains to all ages. These well funded pilots and projects simply underline what can be achieved with appropriately applied services. No funding, no service country-wide but every so often a pilot gets some cash allocated and reinvents the wheel.   bit.ly/1ovTDiL

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Aliveandrunning June 1st 2014 Juneathon Day 1

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Juneathon Day 1 and the new Flaming June half marathon at Histon, just outside of Cambridge, UK. The weather was fine but on the warm side for running – around 20c . The course took us along roads, woodland paths and a lot of tracks besides the fields. I could have appreciated the environment a great deal more had I not been running and struggling to maintain my pace. I don’t think I’m fully recovered from my attempts to sabotage my fitness yesterday and during the last week (see May 31st post). My back only mildly ached and my ankle didn’t give me any trouble. I seldom get injuries unless I decide to lift something too heavy and too far. I have great difficulty in coming to the conclusion that I should ask for assistance. I have to test myself . On this occasion, despite some problems, I was still able to run successfully, so I was right all along. I can lift and run.

I did do something very sensible to mitigate this daftness. I took a drink at 3 drink stations and walked while I drank. I felt better for doing this although I wasn’t able to catch up most of the people who overtook me. No matter, this water and the drinks I took at the finish staved off dehydration which I experienced at the Cambridge half marathon in March. The medics were sympathetic and readily restrained Lorna from beating me about the head because of my stupidity (not only did I not drink during the race but hardly drank afterwards).

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I felt nauseous for 20 minutes after the race and needed a couple of hours rest in the afternoon. Apart from this, no ill effects. Overall I was pleased with my time of 1 hour 55 mins 16 seconds. Arch rival Kerry came in 4 minutes quicker. We stayed for the presentations which included baubles for the over 40’s and 50’s but nothing for the over 60’s! Can anything be unfairer than this? I don’t think it’s likely that Dave and Nick’s gangsta government (for hard working tax payers) will take up the cause and insist on including this category next year. And one more minor issue. Was it right and proper for me to be described as looking like a banana over the PA system as I ran, like a lemon,to the finish line?

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Aliveandrunning May 28 2014

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We’ve had a lot of rain fall over the past few days. This painting was completed, under cover, as the rain continued to fall and is an accurate depiction of a scene in an adjacent village. They had a convenient arc moored nearby and most of them were able to clamber aboard. Not sure why a substantial number of them are naked. I’m not going to speculate. All I can say is that our village is more conservative. We tend to keep our clothes on and stay indoors when it rains.

An exception to this is running club night although yesterday we all ran with our kit on. It was cold, windy and very wet but still managed to be fun. We ran nearly full pelt for a minute then recovered for a minute. We did six of these, recovered for five minutes then did another six. In terms of distance it wasn’t far but it was demanding. I can’t remember why it benefited us. I just follow orders and run. Drank 500 mls in the car on the way home and another 250 mls  of tonic water (with quinine) later. This regime is successful in warding off the extremely painful cramps I’ve suffered in the past.

Tomorrow, I’ll do a training session with Lorna and friends.

Saturday, it’s Cambridge parkrun.

Sunday, Juneathon Day 1. I’m doing the Flaming June half marathon.

 

 

 

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Aliveandrunning May 24 2014

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Zeus, Greek god supreme, is Lord of the Skies. Today, he determined that there be torrential rain in the environs of Cambridge parkrun (and elsewhere, for good measure) and lo, the heavens opened, the deluge came and we got very wet. And the mud did stick to flesh and it was all very squidgy and the puddles were deep. But we survived to run another day and our spirits were not dampened. Furthermore, because the rain is good, and helpeth my plants and flowers to grow strong and true, I stepped back into the life giving downpour and undertook my voluntary duty of post event closedown (like a lemon sole, I flopped my way around the parkrun course and collected the direction signs). And my reward was a wholesome mug of coffee with Lorna and friends in Milton Country Park tavern. And they saw fit to comment that I was steaming in the damp warmth which they positively connoted and were greatly amused.

So I did Cambridge parkrun in under 24 mins despite the crap weather! Having rested most of this week I felt refreshed and would’ve  got a faster time if the conditions had been better. The puddles and mud really do slow you down. The rain resulted  in nearly half our usual parkrun attendance. How strange that some  people don’t like running in it! Flaming June half marathon in 8 days. I’ll probably go for one longish run of an hour to an hour and a quarter this coming week and go out with the club. I’ll also do parkrun the day before. Parkrun continues to get precedence over all other races in terms of my interest in doing a particular time.

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Aliveandrunning May 22 2014

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This is a little game we are playing at the moment. The above  door is in frequent use. How long can we enjoy fecund nature (yes, fecund is a word that’s constantly on our tongues) before sheer necessity requires us to cut back to gain access? Probably quite long, actually. I can see us crawling through on our hands and knees in about a month’s time. That’s how ridiculous we are prepared to get!

I’ve cut down on running this week following tiredness due, almost certainly, to over training last week. I ran with the club 3 days ago and I’ll do Cambridge parkrun tomorrow but essentially I’m recovering. At present I’m feeling slightly listless. I had a haircut recently and I think my shorn locks weakened me further ( my stamina and strength was highest when my hair was long in the late sixties). Age shall not weary me but, as Samson found out, a haircut will! Just recently, someone commented that watching me run reminded them of the highly efficient T-1000 liquid metal shape shifting Terminator as he tries to catch nice Arnie driving away from the psychiatric facility with John Connor and his mum.

The club road running group did a Ik time trial then 4 further Iks. There were around 50 of us, split into 4 groups according to speed. I enjoy these !k distances. Yet again I made an effort to be more sociable and chat to people I don’t know. I’m still fighting an urge to run alone, to be the outsider, the maverick, the mysterious Runner With No Name like Clint in the Dollar films (minus the cigarillo for health reasons, of course).

Interesting BBC Radio 4 programme on May 20 called Personality Politics. The central idea was the contention that the brain is hardwired for political preferences. Our instinctive responses to danger, contamination etc may be exaggerated and over reactive and this might find expression in a correlation between political beliefs and our innate feelings of fear, disgust and threat. People who are socially conservative tend to emphasise punishment of transgressors, want protection from immigration, oppose abortion and gay marriage, have a stronger reaction to disgusting images and pay more attention to them. Conservative people are more focused on their personal feelings and more liberal people on the outside world. Apparently different parts of the brain are used corresponding to political preferences.

I can easily accept that particular beliefs and resultant feelings can activate different parts of the brain as an effect of those beliefs but not as a genetically hardwired cause. I think our early experiences, in the main, determine our degree of empathy, moral development and our response to difference and change. Disparities in brain functioning  would then follow the different beliefs and feelings as a result of those experiences, not the other way round. My head hurts now. I’m going to bed. Night night.