heart disorder

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Aliveandrunning June 27 2014 Juneathon Day 27

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The madness of the off road runner. I was drawn to the on coming tornado like an iron filing to a magnet. I ran across uncharted fields, untrodden since medieval times. I felt an urge to embrace the tornado like some people hug trees and then to enter the centre of the funnel where Iwould experience a transcendent peace. As I raced ever nearer, I spied cows and pigs swirling around the vortex 50 metres off the ground. I sang Follow the Yellow Brick Road in my head. I was a few seconds away from being sucked in but at the last moment, it abruptly changed direction and at such a speed I was unable to follow. The heavens opened up and I got thoroughly soaked. I took it easy on the homeward journey but still got jogger’s nipple. It could have been a lot worse!

About 5.5k in all. The paths were very overgrown in parts. There was no-one around. The loneliness of the short distance runner.

Tomorrow we’ll go to Wimpole Estate parkrun as Cambridge parkrun is not happening.

Very interesting and thought provoking headlines in the Daily Star about a prediction by scientists that a new generation of rats will be the size of cows. The same paper tempted you with the front page description of another story inside : “Evil Savile Sicko Sex.” This is the level of a lot of discussion about Jimmy Savile’s decades long sexual abuse of men and women, adolescents and young children. It leaves you with absolutely no appreciation or understanding of how or why this behaviour might have come about, how a person might develop such proclivities. http://bit.ly/1mEcx8E This link to The Guardian’s Oliver James assists a more grown up view of what may be going on in this man’s head. Such a pity there is very little discussion at this level.

 

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Aliveandrunning June 25 2014 Juneathon Day 25

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I cooked a few noodles with plenty of vegetables this evening. There’s various stuff in it but it’s noodle light. This was put together after I went for a late afternoon run along Akeman Street, a section of the old Roman road which stretches from Ermine Street (near Wimpole Hall where a parkrun is held) to Cambridge, Ely and beyond.

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These short sections are recognisable as roads (or remnants of roads). Large parts of it are under cultivated fields and the existence of Akeman Street is often only traceable by consulting a map.

I went for a leisurely 5.5k run which took 32 minutes. I saw 3 people briefly on the old road. It’s a lonely run with only the ghosts of Roman soldiers for company. Being composed of mist and vapour, they didn’t have any trouble jogging beside me in full armour. They chatted  amiably in Latin and seemed very sociable. I mentioned (in broken Latin) that I was travelling to Londinium in the morning to see my mater. I think they asked me how many horses were pulling my chariot.

Lots of butterflies in the field where I exercise Rupert. All little Meadow Browns. Unlike the Roman soldiers, they had no conversation.

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Aliveandrunning June 24 2014 Juneathon Day 24

 

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This water lily is part-time! It comes out late in the morning and shuts up in the mid afternoon when it’s still warm and sunny. I bought it under the impression that it was a hard working, full time lily. I concede it’s rather lovely but it needs to put more effort into flowering time.

Out with the club tonight. We did a time trial 1k followed by 4 further kilometres. With warm up jog and getting to the run site we covered around 4.5 miles in all. The weather was odd – cool and clammy. I even put the heater on in the car on the way back.

Professor Sue Bailey, President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists said in an interview this morning that mental health services in England are “a car crash.” She said the services were in crisis and that Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt is not taking the problems seriously. I didn’t catch it. Was this an interview on Radio 4’s Today? I also managed to miss a feature on Woman’s Hour criticising anti depressants which asserted that they are as effective as placebo.

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Aliveandrunning June 23 2014 Juneathon Day 23

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Oh look!  An Anglais urticae has alighted on my verbena bonariensis. I’m not surprised because its larvae feeds on the common stinging nettle which thrives without embarrassment in our garden and in the adjacent field. In fact there are so many nettles they could easily support a swarm of these Small Tortoiseshell butterflies, blackening the sky like myriads of locust. In the meanwhile, a dozen or so flit around the verbena which is good this year.

I’ve trained 6 of them to fly above my head when I’m running locally ( they are not good at travelling in the car so I didn’t take them to yesterday’s Hatfield Forest 10k). The truth is I’ve become a butterfly whisperer. A noble calling but without much call for it.

Felix Dennis has died, aged 67. An extremely successful publisher in later years, he will always be remembered by a certain section of my generation as one of the co-founders of OZ, the 60’s counterculture magazine which was the subject of a high profile obscenity trial in 1971. Oz can be bought on ebay, should you be so minded, and I can recommend Tony Palmer’s The Trials of Oz, first published in August 1971 with drawings by Felix Topolski. John Mortimer was the defence QC and there were many famous witnesses speaking up for them. A still fascinating clash between culture and generations.

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A warm day in Cambridge. I felt  a bit lackadaisical after yesterday’s 10k and put off running until I had a heavy evening meal, a hot chocolate and it had started raining hard. Just over 2 miles; the second mile was easier and I could have continued but time was moving on. I got soaked through. I didn’t take the butterflies with me. They get in such a flap when it rains. They are prone to water logging and can’t flutter correctly. I gave them the day off.

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Aliveandrunning June 22 2014 Juneathon Day 22

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Who is this hopelessly ice cool dude? Why, it’s me of course. I’m wearing my uber fashionable Hoohaah hoodie allocated to me by the Hoohaah organisers of a series of 10k, 10 miles and half marathons for taking part in 3 of their races. This is my first ever hoodie and it won’t be my last. I might even get myself some shades to wear rather than borrow Lorna’s pair.

I picked it up at the Hoohaah Hatfield Forest 10k this morning. The weather was glorious, albeit a tad hot for running. The course was slightly undulating, over grass and shady forest paths. I stopped at the drink station and walked for half a minute which I think was sensible (I was in sensible mode). Despite being appropriately hydrated I still felt more tired than I expected at the eighth kilometre. I ploughed on, jumping nimbly over the runners laying on their backs gasping, having succumbed  to  the heat. Given that I’ve been cruelly  forced to run every day to satisfy the bloody Juneathon criteria, I was happy with my time. But then controversy broke out big time and I wasn’t the only one sent reeling by the disclosure that the 10k course was actually 10.3k. Not having a GPS device I was unaware of this but various people with Garmins confirmed it. Several of us fainted at this news and others found solace by hiding in their hoodies and  weeping. For myself, I took it like a man and assumed a sardonic smile.

The Hoohaah series is a great addition to the increasing number of paid for runs. Well organised, well marshaled, lovely courses and friendly people putting it on.

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This is what I looked like during the run (I ran with unfolded arms, obviously). Why do I look as if I’m wearing a skirt? (I’m not). You see I have that air of quiet determination and understated strength which allowed me to storm across the finish line after 71 runners who got there first.

 

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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 18 2014 Juneathon Day 18

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Just over half way through Juneathon and I feel I’ve got my energy back. I just ran my default distance 2 miles and I ran it faster and felt stronger than I have done in months. Perhaps I should continue and do a Julyathon and maybe an Augustathon!

So far I’ve run around 70 miles this month plus about 35 miles dog walking. My expectation is that after June, I will have a rest for a few days and then get a PB at parkrun. This is what happened last year. Why not this year!

I enjoyed a large Americano coffee at Costa this morning. They served it in a medium sized potty which I could only raise to my lips by using both of my hands. I drank all  of it. On the way home , I regretted not having an available medium sized potty.

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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!