Observations of an occasional runner
Here we are, mid-way through January and I am only just putting fingers to keyboard. Here’s a quick photographic catch-up on the first couple of weeks of 2009:
And just in case you are intreagued by the splash that I’m making above, here is the video that Kristin (www.planetkrikri.blogspot.com) took – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhkg4RU5xR0
More than two weeks have passed sans run, yet I am unrepentant… I have all my excuses neatly lined up.
I thought that I would add a little more to these pages before the closing of the year, but now I’m actually here, I can only report that Christmas went in a blur.
Along with 2008.
May 2009 bring good fortune, health and happiness to you all… along with great running conditions!
And for those of you having parties during the year, especially if you also will be 45, remember to invite us!
Tootle pip!
Based on the temperature forecast for this morning, I had decided last night that I wouldn’t run. But when it came to it, the lure of a perfectly clear, if pre-dawn, sky was too much for me to pass up.
There certainly was a heavy frost, but I’m guessing the humidity was low as the cold really wasn’t pervasive… and not all the mud & puddles were frozen. Once I got off the slippery pavements, it was a GLORIOUS morning for a run!
Half way round I stopped for three of four minutes to chat with the Best brothers of Middleton Farm Shop without even starting to feel cold.
The route was the same 5.2 miles as last Friday and I managed it in 48 minutes. Bearing in mind that I had stopped to chat within this time-frame, I was actually on top form!
What a gorgeous day it was! Mighty cold mind, but beautiful!
It was a real shame that I was favouring my ankle, as it would have been a great day to have run up on to the Downs. Still, not one for shirking the fitness regime (which basically involves trying to staying fit), I tagged along with Kim to the pool.
I think that I am right in saying that the last time I went swimming was in a rather exclusive pool in Thailand back in the spring. 2007. And even then I was more interested in keeping cool, occasionally swimming to the in-pool bar for another G&T.
So I was slightly worried that I would swallow loads of water, get cramp, feel exhausted etc. Actually it came back easily and I had little trouble breathing the air and though Nick or Cliff might smirk at my style, I had a really positive half hour.
Even then I wasn’t tired, but I’m now old enough to know that my body is able to do a whole lot of amazing stuff, if I ask it to, but it can be really painful after the event. Such insight!
I quickly lost count of the laps, so I can’t even give you an approximate distance, but having swum and then also cleaned the insides of all the windows in the house, I do at least feel exercised.
And both Kim and I agree that, even after only one week of doing the chi-kung exercises each day, we really do feel great. I doubly recommend it!
I had sat through a talk by John Dodds of BERR (the Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform) on Thursday night and realised how little common sense the politicians & civil servants, who churn out the policy that affects us and our businesses, appear to have. Quite honestly, it profoundly depressed me and I awoke in the morning with a real desire to curl into a ball and shun the day.
However, Meester Broom, who also didn’t really feel like running, pitched up to save me from my reverie. Despite being woken up by his kids a number of times at strategic points through the night.
We begrudgingly trudged (is that betrudged?) off into a chilly morning (apparently zero degrees by the gauge in Nick’s car) and I was soon warming (in a number of ways) to the theme of government policy incompetence.
Of course, we understand only too well that one of the key reasons that it is just SO frustrating, is that we have no control whatsoever over it. We can elect a political party into or out of office, but the bureaucrats remain in their twenty-two (or so) well-defended silo’s, their names never appearing against the latest piece of legislation to darken our doors.
For example, in the last 11 years, BERR has created 678 new offences – it is my contention that entrepreneurs and people running SME’s either spend a fortune complying with this endless diarrhoea of legislation, with the cost of lost opportunity as an incalculable additional amount, or stick their heads in the sand and ignore it. The latter might not be such a silly strategy after all, as it’ll be changed again tomorrow (admittedly, if you’re incredibly lucky) after the legislators have seen the misery of the side-effects.
I remember Jeremy Clarkson talking about the car maker TVR, of old, which appeared to design, build and sell a new car before getting their customers to do the product testing. Having had an almost new TVR Cerbera (which was off the road for a total of 6 months out of the 16 months I had it), I know exactly what he meant. The 22 Departments seem to have adopted the very same approach and it sucks!
I would be quick to admit that not all civil servants should be tarred with the same brush, but anyone that uses ‘no legislation’ as a frankly cringe-worthy excuse for ‘over regulation’, will find it hard to convince me that they are really part of the solution.
My internal hot air kept the temperature outside at bay very effectively and I hardly even noticed the run itself. We went out to the Royal Oak, up through the woods and back via the magical path. 5.2 miles took us 47 minutes (6.6mph) and was only really notable for the fact that it was a collaborative affair, even down to the final charge to the finish that we ran shoulder to shoulder.
Though I’m guessing that the run, which felt to me like it was over in a flash, probably seemed an eternity to Nick’s ever-patient ears!
Do what? I’m not sure exactly what I have done to my foot, but I decided not to run this weekend. Instead, after dropping in to see Kurt at Run yesterday to buy some warmer gloves, my exercise consisted of attending a Chi-Kung (or Qigong) course with Kim.
Chi-Kung (pronounced jee-gung) is a combination of simple motion and gentle breathing, performed in a meditative state of mind. It is hard to imagine it being prescribed as a restorative by a UK doctor, which is a great shame, but in China it has been a key part of medicine for the last 5000 years.
If you’re wondering why western doctors might tend to be dismissive of Chinese medicine, I have just formed a (clearly over-simplistic) hypothesis:
From my personal experience, western medicine seems to be based loosely on cure, whereas eastern medicine appears to focus more on prevention.
This may be because, historically, Europe and north America have been comparatively wealthy for the size of population and thus able to afford to develop a good ‘health system’, seeking to ease the symptoms or eradicate specific diseases and creating a range of drugs to this end.
In China by comparison, with traditionally difficult terrain, poor infrastructure and 20% of the global population to look after on a relatively shoestring budget, a system of self-help augmented by locally available herbal remedies makes much greater economic and political sense.
As a result of its focus on cure, western medicine now often involves some kind of medical distress purchase whereas eastern medicine focuses more on promoting the health of the mind and body on a daily basis.
Since a higher price can be charged for a distress purchase, western medicine has more budget not only to spend on the research of new compounds, enabling it to make technological advances, but on PR, which enables it to undermine its less costly competition. Furthermore, since revenues can be taxed, it is presumably likely to find strong advocates in government.
In case anyone finds this even remotely contentious, please excuse me and remember it is only a humble hypothesis… said he, quickly returning to the chi-kung lesson.
Sifu Robin Gamble, our tutor, was English and younger than I had expected, but also had far more vitality than I generally see in the people I meet. Bearing in mind the number of highly competent business people and talented entrepreneurs I mix with from around the globe, this is genuine praise. His earnest approach quickly drew the students together, despite their different skills and levels of experience.
He had chosen some simple, memorable aspects of Chi-Kung to teach us in this introductory session, aiming to send us away more interested in the art and with the ability to replicate the patterns and derive genuine benefit from only a short intervention.
He showed us how to achieve Standing Zen and Swaying Willows Floating Clouds and the forms of Lifting the Sky, Pushing Mountains and Holding the Moon. He also mixed in Punching with Wide Eyes and some other elements to add some fun and interest.
Held in the calm of the studio at the Acupuncture Clinic in Hove, the session was refreshing and energising, both for body and mind. I don’t want to gush about it, but if you’re looking for a great way to spend a grey Saturday afternoon, it doesn’t get much better. Or more restorative.
This morning’s run was the equivalent of not quite engaging first gear on a race car… it felt as clunky as a bag of old spanners. And despite the dawn initially looking quite clear, by the time I went out it was indeed cold and forlorn.
Added to this, in addition to skinning my ankle on Sunday, I seem to have sprained it too. Not badly, but enough to make me jump with the dull pain (like the shock of a weak electric fence) every now & then through the run and on through the day.
Still, at least I ran.
In fact I took the same short route that I ran with Nick last week, the only difference being that, at 48 minutes, it took me three minutes longer to cover the 5.2 miles (6.5 mph)… to be honest, the way I was feeling I would not have been surprised if it had been 23 minutes longer!
Two other things. First, I lost my hat again today, whipped off my head by a passing bramble. Second, Lew’s hatch has now been battened down, so to speak… looking good man!
Hey Dai, Nigel, Russell, d’ya got your guitars?
I fully intended to run this morning, but there was ice on the car outside and I wimped out. Which was a real shame, as the ice had melted by the time the dawn broke and it really wasn’t that bad when I walked to work. The upside was that It did get me thinking of some blues lyrics!
The Winter Runners Blues
Woke up this morning, planning to run, all there was outside, was a heavy frost and no sun
I’ve got the winter runners blues. it’s all those dingy winter hues, I am no winter runner fool, I’m hibernating ’til the spring.
The alarm lit up this morning, way before the dawn, looked outside to see it, cold and forlorn
I’ve got the winter runners blues, I’m on the winter runners booze, I’ve lost my winter runners balls, I’m meditating ’til the spring.
Walked to work this morning, wishing I had run, the muddy paths and puddles, really are such great fun
I’ve got the winter runners blues, but I have the winter runners shoes, and I have those gorgeous winter views, and I’m in training for the spring.
I had a little difficulty getting out of bed this morning, on account of a Vanilla Sky type (weird) dream. I gave up on trying to figure out what was going on in the end and got up, but most of the morning had escaped by then. Hence the reason that it was just after ten to midday by the time I left the house for my run.
When Kim had come down a couple of hours before me, there had been a large sheet of ice slowly descending her windscreen outside, but I left into a warmer but murky rainstorm feeling slightly overdressed in the same gear I ran in on Thursday (yes, unwashed!) plus an additional long-sleeved top.
Five minutes later as I ran through the first wooded section, there was a rush of wind of such ferocity that it sounded exactly like surf crashing onto Brighton beach. I thought that this heralded a wet and windy run and I prepared my mind to run only for about an hour, but twenty minutes later I was stripping off my jacket and gloves with the heat of the sunshine!
This change of weather caused me to elongate my run and a while later I found myself running down the road through Plumpton Green, passing as I did the start of the Plumpton Races. Plumpton Lane is not such a nice lane to run down on account of it being twisty, narrow and relatively busy. But it does head straight for the Downs and I had decided that if I was going to be out for longer than an hour (which passed as I passed six-mile mark at the entrance to the racecourse), I might as well go up top and soak up the view.
The bostal running up from The Half Moon is concrete and about a 1 in 4 gradient and it felt like it took me an age to make the top. I duly put my jacket and gloves back on to ward of the now cold wind, sacrificed a couple of jelly babies to regain some energy and ran on towards the Beacon.
One of the problems with a tendency towards madness is the tendency to do mad things, so it won’t surprise you that I took a small detour en route to the top. I hung a right down the path I descended last week and a left onto the steep track that I then ascended. And then on to the Beacon at about the one hour 47 mark… a couple of minutes behind myself last week.
Then I turned northward, dropping down the path under the road and into Ditchling, up onto Lodge Hill and back via Oldlands Mill.
I wasn’t going as quickly as last week on the return leg, as though it took me a minute less, the more direct route made it less than five miles. Still, overall I had run 15.1 miles in 2 hours 35 minutes and at 5.8mph it was a tad faster than last week. At this rate of improvement I’ll be ready for a marathon in May.
Two thousand and twelve.
I’ve forgotten to mention over the last couple of weeks that I keep kicking my left heel with the castellated inside sole edge of my right shoe and it has slowly been getting worse. Today I kicked it a few more (excruciating) times and have now finally resorted to Compeed!
After weeks of trying to match diaries, the Bok duly turned up this morning at the allotted time for a quick run. The weather seemed relatively mild to me, but he must have been under the weather as he was adament it was freezin’, so much so that he had his gloves on. He was sufficiently adamant to persuade me to wear my gloves too,
We set out, with him getting his excuses in early… pain in the back, pain in the knee, pain in the ar… oh no, that was the fact that the mini-Boks had woken him up five times the night before! Bearing in mind all the pain and tiredness he was exuding, I was surprised that he still wanted to rush off like a racehorse on oats… although I reined him in and we settled into a more leisurely pace!
We ran an old favourite route, out past the Royal Oak to Wivelsfield, through the woods to Ditchling Industrial Estate, down the magical path & back across the common. I quickly removed my gloves as it was much warmer than I had been lead to believe… which correlates (strangely) to the fact that later, over breakfast, he confessed that he had sweated buckets, putting it down to how fast we had run!
What nonsense! He was still sweating when I saw him last night and it was plainly that he was overdressed for the weather, trussed up as he was in a three peice suite. I’m kidding, of course… no-one can wear more than a chair in these troubled times.
We we half way through the wood when I heard the first Beep beep beep BEEP, the telltale sign that his heart rate was elevated… and this on a flat section. I duly increased my speed and was rewarded with a muffled expletive and a further two renditions from his heart rate monitor. To be fair though, despite the beeps and the fact I was running straight through all the mud and he way tiptoeing around the edges (well okay, strategic mud-hopping), he kept up pretty well!
Along the magical path, which is also more or less flat, I once again heard the telltail Beep beep beep BEEP and I once again increased the pace. You may think I am being very unkind, but there are some unwritten laws (well, actually they are not even unwritten now, are they?) and this is one of them. Snigger snigger!
Over breakfast, which was achieved after running 5.2 miles in 45 minutes (6.9mph), he probabaly consumed more than the 658 calories he reckons to have burned off.