running

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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.

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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 March 5 2014

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These daffodils are immediately outside our front door and they are a beautiful reminder that winter is BANISHED! Yes winter , you are SO last February, you are a past season; please don’t return until January 2015. The  little daffs below the larger, more in-your-face big ones are, of course, their children, born as a direct result of flowery procreation. Is this a load of nonsense? No, readers, it’s the complete truth……like Scientology.

Last Sunday, I ran a five miler, not quickly, but “nicely” (whatever that means). My strained intercostal muscles didn’t hold me back too much and I don’t think Cambridge half marathon is in jeopardy. We met our chums there, some of whom were doing the local half marathon just before our 5 miler went off. Weather was mild but very windy at certain points. This is fen country, very flat with few trees. The winds always feel fierce no matter what the season. At one point I didn’t feel I was making much forward progress at all.

Today I ran just over 5 miles to the river Cam and back, around 5 miles and I felt fine. The temperature was 10c which is good for me although too cold to wear shorts and top. The weather is predicted warm over the weekend, around 14-18c so I may be wearing shorts for the half marathon on Sunday. I’ll do parkrun the day before. I’m mildly under trained because of injury and I don’t follow a fixed running schedule. I’ve already done two long training runs of 13 miles. It’s the speed I do rather than the distance which might let me down. I think I’m talking nonsense again. If I run 13 miles at any speed, there will be no egg left on my face. Egad!

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Aliveandrunning March 1 2014

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Cambridge parkrun today, albeit 4-5 minutes slower than I would  normally hope to do it in. Why? Because I enrolled on the If You Have An Injury, You Too Can Make It Worse Course For Idiots earlier in the week. Having strained my intercostal muscles (rib cage – my diagnosis) by throwing stuff onto a skip, I went road running with the club after first doing some painful stretching exercises. The following day I still continued chucking stuff on the skip. I despair of myself and will administer a severe reprimand when I’m in the mood to accept it. The end result is that it will take possibly weeks to heal. Certain movements are quite painful, like vacuuming, getting from sitting, lifting, leaning forward and breathing deeply. The good news is running doesn’t seem to make matters worse although speed is capped by increasing discomfort. Tomorrow I’m doing a 5 mile race and next Sunday it’s the Cambridge half marathon. 

Actually, because focus wasn’t on speed and effort today, I enjoyed the run more. I was also lapped by several runners. It was rather sobering when the winner swept past me with an eventual time of 15 mins 53 secs, nearly twice as fast as me. I’ll have to up my game. I usually place myself mid way in the 250-350 strong field, among the sturdy squires and minor landed gentry which are behind the running royalty and aristocracy. Today I moved back a bit further and mingled with hard working tax payers and no nonsense types not in receipt of benefits. And very enjoyable their company proved. Lorna volunteered again, as official photographer on this occasion, and took around 400 great snaps.

The top photo is the start of Cambridge  parkrun. The weather was overcast and misty this morning and the course is still very muddy. 256 runners took part which is a small for Cambridge. I seem to have successfully seen off any adjacent runners at this point and came in at 28 mins 7 secs.

This link takes you to an article in the Guardian concerning the tragic death of a mentally ill man whose benefits were stopped following an ATOS assessment which found him fit for work. He starved to death four months later. Who cares? Not the coalition government, surely, otherwise they wouldn’t award contracts to mercenary for profit companies only too willing to find any grounds to stop the benefits of the most needy people. It’s a many pronged attack on vulnerable people experiencing serious mental illness. The contraction in community services and support will ensue more incidents like this will occur. At the very least we’ll be entertained by tabloid stories of mentally ill people eating tins of dog food. Thanks David, Nick et al.   http://bit.ly/1mNinpU

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Aliveandrunning February 26 2014

Out with Cambridge and Coleridge running club last night. Usually, I feel like the fleet footed Greek god Hermes , moving freely between mortal mankind and the divine, delivering messages and protecting travellers.This time I felt wounded, as if Zeus had unleashed a thunderbolt at me in a fit of godly pique. A spot on my right rib cage  felt painful and sore on movement and when I breathed more heavily. The reason for this was rather less exotic than being struck by Zeus’s bolt or tapped by Thor’s hammer.I think I asked too much of my muscles by lifting and throwing heavy items onto a skip we’ve hired.

I ran up and down the garden path for a few seconds earlier in the day and pronounced myself fit to run and lo, when we did an 800 metre warm up on the track it felt reasonably OK. However when I did the dynamic warm up exercises and stretching I don’t think I did myself any favours. It felt OK when we jogged over to where we start our road training and then we did 5 x 600m, with a 600 metre recovery jog back to our start position each time. We split up into 4 groups of 5-6 runners according to speed. I was in the slowest group and the slowest in the slowest group. Oh how sudden was my fall from grace! The ignominy, the trashing of my reputation, the shame! Actually, I just ran less fast because the soreness increased and it interfered with efficient breathing. Still, I won’t go running again to the weekend. Parkrun on Saturday and a 5 mile race on Sunday. I’m sure I’ll be back to full fitness by then.

Today, I did a dreadful thing. I hereby make my confession on this blog. I bought a copy of the Daily Mail! I somehow resisted the temptation to blather an excuse about “conducting research” and “not usually making this kind of immoral purchase.” Why did I do it? To compare content with other papers I am more familiar with. I want to confirm my prejudices and pet theories. A preliminary scan of the news (or lack of it) suggests confirmation won’t be difficult. Working hypothesis : the Mail is harmful to your mental health. You risk a substantial increase in levels of anxiety, depression, anger and antagonism. Forensic analysis to follow.

Another interesting snippet caught my eye as I read yesterday’s paper today. Thanos, a Christian thinktank, has found a widespread belief among those surveyed that the poor are to blame for the perceived woes of the welfare system, putting ordinary Christians at odds with bishops who have been protesting about the effects of government cuts. One of the problems with organised religion is that when you have God on your side, you often feel the freedom to express all manner of harsh opinion, unkindness, bigotry and hostility. Faith and righteousness can provide excellent camouflage for aggressive, selfish and class attitudes. All too frequently there is nothing less Christian than a self confessed practising Christian.

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Aliveandrunning February 23 2014

 

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Two random pictures. These trees are silver birch (betula jacquemontii) which have ghostly white, smooth bark. There is a beautiful group of them in the Anglesey Abbey gardens, Cambridgeshire. On the right is the main house in the grounds.

Two weeks to go before Cambridge Half Marathon! Last Sunday I ran 13.2 miles and today I ran the same course  around 3 minutes faster. No sunshine today and I reckon that accounts for about 4 minutes extra plus it was very windy which adds on another 3 minutes. Several runners did not respond to my greeting which dismayed me and resulted in a temporary slower pace while I recovered emotionally; add on 2 minutes. Finally, the river Cam anglers, notorious for their complete disinterest in anything other than catching ridiculously small fish and hoisting them out of the murky waters, kissing them and then depositing them back into the water, were all dressed in dull, drab, dark, dismal jackets and heavy duty trousers. This also resulted in a brief lowering of spirits and accounted for a further 2 minutes. So, if better conditions prevail, I could run it 11 minutes faster on the day!

I certainly felt more tired today compared with last Sunday. This is probably because I am still recovering from last week’s run. According to Lorna, I should now “taper” my runs until race day. My response is tapery wapery or bish,bash,bosh. I may defy running convention and run 20 miles mid week and 25 miles next weekend. But I may not. One of the reasons for not doing further long runs, apart from being deliberately idiotic, is because I tend to lose too much weight. When I returned today, I weighed 9 stone 5 lbs which is on the light side for me. I have a good appetite but I can still lose weight easily and look thin and gaunt; more like a moving match stick  rather than a young Clint Eastwood.

 

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Aliveandrunning February 21 2014

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Yesterday evening was particularly spooky as the terrifyingly atmospheric image attests. To distract myself from the raw fear of the unusually odd noises outside, I made myself a date and raisin cake. You can imagine the shock, and a sizable amount of horror, I experienced when I climbed the ancient stairs in our home and opened the door to the master bedroom.

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Spock, on my side of the bed and indisputable evidence of having consumed three quarters of my cake before it had cooled down. I remonstrated with him and demanded he beam up without delay. The sadness caused by the loss of my cake was assuaged by the decision to nip off to a 24 hour Tesco and buy new ingredients with a view to immediately bringing a new cake into the world. The journey turned out to be quite a trek. It was late at night. There was life in the store but not as I knew it. I gingerly negotiated the aisles and weird nocturnal shoppers, paid up and returned home.

On the running front, I ran 13.2 miles plus a 5k parkrun last weekend and this went well. In two weeks it’s the Cambridge Half Marathon. Lorna will be giving good support and four of my children will be running as well as loads of friends. I’ll probably go for a further two long runs before the Half. I don’t carefully taper down before a long race. I just listen to my body, man; it’s in continual/continuous dialogue with me.

Tomorrow is Cambridge parkrun. A running acquaintance in the 65-69 age range had a heart attack during a half marathon two weeks ago and apparently he will be starting the race with Peter who is in his mid 80’s and still runs. Well done, Terry. Get back to running fitness as soon as you can.

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Aliveandrunning February 14 2014

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Nice break from the wind and rain on Thursday around the Cambridge area, at least in the morning. I went for an eleven mile run, including a long stretch by the side of the Cam, stopping only to take some pics. I decided not to eat before running and therefore I didn’t have my daily porridge until around 1pm. Then I had my lunch at 1.30pm.

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Before the run I took Rupert for a walk in Worts Meadow.This tree is fascinating. It’s a walnut and despite having a huge hole in the trunk, still produces leaves and nuts. The sap still rises! The pool in front of he walnut is magical. Don’t scoff at the tree’s condition or suggest it should be cut down. The water will suck you down then spit you out like a cannon ball. It will remember you as well. Don’t take any risks. Openly offer the tree compliments. It’s very susceptible to flattery.

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Yesterday evening I made spaghetti bolognese, seen here in all its multi coloured glory, with mixed salad, chopped raw onion, cheese and red onion flatbread and broccoli (a reasonable substitute if you’re fed up with sprouts. Was it Dr Johnson who said “If you are tired of sprouts you are tired of life?)

I went for my annual cardio-vascular review at the surgery yesterday morning. I’m not sure if I saw a practice nurse or health care assistant. She clarified whether or not I had a problem with a high potassium reading (no), asked me a few questions to check for depression and took my weight and blood pressure, didn’t seem to know I had a heart attack 4 years ago and couldn’t tell me if my BMI of 20.4 was outside the “normal range”. She was friendly and pleasant but I couldn’t help wondering if the appointment was a waste of time. It’s more about ticking boxes to achieve a particular standard. It tells me nothing about the current state of my heart disease.

Extremely windy in the Cambridge area today although the trees in Milton Country Park (where Cambridge parkrun is held) gave a lot of protection. Still plenty of mud around to slow me down, though. I gathered up the signs and direction arrows again after the race. It felt odd retracing my steps on deserted trail paths, and curiously enjoyable.

I read today that two cyclists in Berkshire have been killed by a car being pursued by the police after a domestic incident. I suspect that giving chase to cars not willing to stop are regarded as a perk to the police and almost no consideration is given to public safety. If you accept the transactional analysis  model of our behaviour reflecting adult, child and parental elements in our personalities then the police frequently reveal they are stuck in the immature adolescent stage. This results in a motivation to drive fast cars fast with no reasonable justification and a mandate to provoke a lethal pursuit.

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Aliveandrunning February 12 2014

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Out running with the club last night. No rain but there was a bitter wind and after we left the track and made our way to where we ran 2 k loops (around a landscaped tech park), the wind chill only got worse. We broke up into 4 groups according to speed and whizzed around 4 loops. At one point I considered giving up. However I persevered and it got better. I wore SealSkinz gloves, a vest and two running jackets plus Ron Hill tracksters and still felt overwhelmed by the impact  of the wind. A large group of juniors were also running on the site and it was marvellous watching them suddenly apppear in a train form, running very smoothly and fast. Quite a few of them were kitted up in a top and shorts and seemed supremely comfortable.

When I returned home with wind trauma, I immediately self medicated with this banana cake, having baked it earlier just in case the wind turned nasty.

Decided not to run today and have a longer outing tomorrow. The River Cam is high at the moment and my son Nick had to negotiate a stretch of water covering the cycle path which runs into Cambridge. I’ll see if the path  is usable and, if so, do another 10 miler. I might need to offer a sacrifice to the appropriate wind god. But which one? And which culture? Greek, Egyptian, Aztec, or Japanese ? I’ll offer a libation to Zeus and ask his advice.

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Here’s a gratuitous picture of me in a typical insouciant pose just before taking Rupert out for a walk. Let the elements do their worst ; my trapper’s hat will see it all off.

I listened to America’s Horse With No Name while cooking this evening. Great lyrics! I particularly liked “In the desert you can remember your name cos there aint no-one for to give you no pain.” Nice triple negative. Does it mean there are no people who would do no harm to you but, by implication, plenty of people who are a threat to well being ?

 

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Aliveandrunning February 10

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     Last Sunday morning and we are on our way to a 10k race in Greenwich Park, London. These pics were taken on the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) before arriving at Greenwich . From the left, daughter Isobelle, her boyfriend Joe, daughter Shanti, daughter Sophie and son Dan. I tried on Joe’s bare feet running shoes. Very interesting, very odd. It would be nice to try a pair on grass.

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Two of us did 5k and four did 10k. The course was either  one or two laps of Greenwich Park, each lap including to long hills. The wind was bitter and there was no shelter before the race. On the positive side it didn’t rain and if you could get out of the wind, the temperature was relatively mild. I wore 2 shirts and a jacket plus gloves and took nothing off during the run. Dan stripped  down to a vest in the belief that the less he was wearing the faster he would run. By this logic, he’ll do best when running naked. And he’ll be a YouTube sensation as well.

It was an enjoyable race and it was great running with my children. I can even cope with being beaten by them. Only Dan is faster than me at the moment but (on this course) Isobelle and Sophie weren’t far behind.

Steve Greenwich

 

 

Here’s me running in my chosen open mouthed style. I couldn’t run any faster in these conditions and particularly with the extended hills which completely knocked me out ie I slowed down to the extent that striding might have been faster.

Parkrun on the previous day was the muddiest yet and again my trail shoes came into their own. A slow time because of the conditions but I ran better than last week when the conditions were similar. I also volunteered after the race, trotting around the course to collect the signs and direction arrows. I got back just in time to have coffee with our friends and our circle is still growing.We seem to be out growing the cafe and the weather’s not good enough to sit outside. For the first two years of parkrun I left directly after running but after Lorna started to come along I started to collect friends every week. How things can change! Lorna continues to recover from her Achilles tendonopathy and volunteers most weeks so despite her injury she’s still part of the running community.