I Was So Much Older Then

One of the things I like about getting out, whether that be running or cycling, is the questions that come from nowhere and float around aimlessly. Sometimes they are just reminders of how limited is my knowledge of natural history, e.g. what is that bird or plant? Sometimes they are more like a regression to childhood as they are the sort of thing a toddler would ask, viz today:

The weather forecast said there would be heavy showers but when I set out the sky was blue and I thought I might be lucky. In a sense I was because the really heavy rain, in the sense of a large volume of water, fell after I had finished but I did go through a small shower. Although there was not much water in total, the drops of water were very large and they splattered over me like over-ripe blueberries (without the staining - obviously).

“Does heavy rain refer to the size and weight of the raindrops?” was my first question, which was something I could work out for myself. The next questions though were my toddler’s questions: “what makes raindrops big”, “what is the range of droplet size”, and “what is the maximum size”? I did not know the answers but felt somehow I ought to.

Back home I looked up some references. Appropriately most of the sites were written for children but I found the answers e.g. here.

One of the selling points of running, or any other fitness regime, is that it keeps you fitter and therefore helps you to look and feel younger. I’m not sure it has had that effect on me (in fact i know it hasn’t) but obviously, mentally, it has given me the outlook of a three year old.

The Ridings

My effort to continue exercising daily did not last. Although Manchester provided excuses for breaking the thread, once those days were gone my motivation withered. As I knew I the target had already been missed I could not keep going a few days later when I felt very very tired; and once I had missed a day without good reason the game was up.

I have since had a week off and so it is now time to start again with a new regime and a new challenge.

Usually at this time I think about an autumn marathon but this year will be different: cycling to all the places I have lived - an act of kinetic memoir.

My birthday in April prompted massive introspection as I looked back at all the things I had done, and more prominently all the things I had not done. I started to think about who I was at the various addresses from infant to adult and realised I have not revisited many of the places and I have no idea how much they have changed. That is reason enough to find out. I have had 13 homes in England (always in England, I seem to have missed out on the gypsy gene). The furthest north (and west) was Cheshire (Farndon is a village on the Welsh border), the furthest south: Horsham, the furthest east: Colchester, with a number of places in and around London. London is always the centre and I still think of myself as coming from London.

The plan is for three trips and as there are three they will be called the Ridings.

The first one is planned for next week and will be the South Riding and will cover the places in London, Surrey and Sussex. It will start at Colliers Wood (where I lived my first 8 years) but apart from that nothing willbe chronological. The North and East Riding will be done after I come back from holiday, probably in September/ October.

You can see they would punch a hole in any marathon training programme but that does not matter as there is always another time. in fact I rather like Tom’s idea of celebrating the 2,500 anniversary of the original Marathon next year.

So this year the plan is for some gentle, credit card touring, staying in hotels or bed and breakfasts. The aim is not primarily fitness and endurance. Instead they will be journeys of personal psychogeography and take as long as they take.

Keeping Going

TDIJ day 9: run 7.12km, 44min
TDIJ day 10: run 6.15km 37min

Back home and back on track. In hot weather all that is needed is the chance to get up early and be out before the day warms up.

The procedure is very simple: out of bed, into running kit, drink of water, and out the door. Because I am running before food I know my levels of glycogen will be low and I have to hope the muscles will burn mostly fat. So I run steadily and not too far. Even so it feels harder than would normally be the case. Usually before a pre-breakfast run I like to eat a banana but for the last two days there have been none in the house. However the early run surely helps you appreciate breakfast!

Saturday completed what can be called graduation week. My niece has just completed her fine arts degree at Leeds and her graduation show, along with shows from other art schools was in an exhibition at the old Truman Brewery, Brick Lane. I really enjoyed the show because I like to see the way people think-through ideas and overcome certain self imposed problems and I also thought there was some good work (including my niece who had created structures by gluing together individual sugar crystals and then photographing and enlarging the results). However I wondered what would happen to everybody. Would many of them find again the challenges, freedom, and support they had just enjoyed? Would many of them be able to go on an flourish. My suspicion is that for most this was their flowering, after which there will be different career paths. I just hope they do not bury their imagination in the upcoming economic struggles of day to day living.

Thirty Days In July 8/10
run 7/10
distance: 48.84km
time: 4hr 51min
cycle 1/10
distance: 17 miles
time: 1hr 17min

Celebrating a Failure

TDIJ day 6: run 4km 24min
TDIJ day 7: clapping 1hr (approx)
TDIJ day 8: hiding from sun, all day

Ah well Thirty days in July did not last a full week. Already there has been two fails, even though there are extenuating circumstances, a fail is a fail.

Day 7 was the day of my daughter’s degree ceremony at Manchester and that, of course took precedence over everything. I had hoped to be able to fit in a little run between the ceremony and the celebration meal but we all decided that we should take the chance to visit the John Rylands library, which was reopened after a brilliant renovation, two years ago.

It was by a long, long way the right decision. There are plenty of chances to exercise but not many to go to Manchester to visit the John Rylands. If anyone is interested in either books, libraries, printing, or Victorian Gothic there are few more fascinating places.

When walking round a building built in imitation of an ancient cathedral (all beautifully faced sandstone, with decorative carvings in both stone and wood) I marvel at how much I enjoy the atmosphere. Earlier in my life this would have been unthinkable. My aesthetic outlook was pretty much old fashioned Modernism. I had bought the line that decoration was decadent and that we should aspire to functional formalism (with plenty of light).

I still enjoy good examples of that style and I am a fully paid-up admirer of Bexhill Pavilion but my outlook is now much more catholic. I appreciate the workmanship and desire for beauty that informs the best artists and designers of any age. I have learnt to try appreciate buildings according to values of the period it was built and not impose any retrospective ideology.

Now I look at these buildings and marvel at the quality. I also marvel at the impulse of the widow of John Rylands who wanted to assemble and bequeath such a library collection, purely for the good of the people of Manchester.

The permanent display has some wonderful examples from the collection. Not only books that are finely bound and printed but also examples from the beginning of printing (Guttenburg and Caxton) as well as incunabula, manuscripts, and as one of the highlights a tiny fragment of St John’s Gospel

The following day was also an exercise blank. We had to drive back early to prepare for visitors. There would have been time for a run in the afternoon but the weather crept up and wrapped me up in a big hot blanket so I was incapable of movement. As someone who does not cope well with the heat there was no way I was going out. All I could do was spend the time in the shade.

So two blank days and Thirty Days in July has crumbled. Never mind I will continue to see how well I can manage the other days.

Thirty Days In July 6/8
run 5/8
distance: 35.57km
time: 3hr 30min
cycle 1/10
distance: 17 miles
time: 1hr 17min

(Photos on this blog are my own. In this case however I had to steal a photo taken for the University of Manchester, which I found here.)

Tree Spirits

TDIJ day 4: run 7.18km, time 42 min
TIDJ day 5: cycle 17 miles, time 1hr 17min


I have been reading about how the Inca empire was linked together by a network of professional runners: chasquis. They lived in huts along the roads and as soon as they saw a messenger approaching they would run along beside them, listen to any instructions and they take over the knotted string that contained the message. They would then run to the next hut, which was only a few miles away. Because they ran only short distances, they ran fast. At the height of the empire it was 1,000 miles between Cuzco and the most distant parts, yet a message could be received within five days. This means they were probably averaging better than 7 minute miles over an extremely mountainous landscape. A Spanish mounted messenger took twelve to thirteen days to travel from Lima to Cuzco but the runners could do it in three days.

As I was cycling through some woods today I remembered a tiny side detail. Although the runners were often alone in desolate places they never felt alone because the Incas believed that even the smallest thing possessed a soul and everything was alive and worthy of respect. I thought of this when I saw the exposed roots and distorted shape of this tree. How easy it is to imagine that it is some frozen being, or contains a strange spirit. At twilight, running alone I might find such shapes rather more scary than comforting.

Thirty Days In July 5/5
run 4/5
distance: 31.57km
time: 3hr 06min
cycle 1/5
distance: 17 miles
time: 1hr 17min

Keeping Things Fresh

TDIJ day 2: run 7.14km, 42min
TDIJ day 3: run 10.33km, 1hr 2min

Today’s photo was taken looking down at one of the bollards used for mooring narrowboats. I have no idea why it is open at the top, perhaps it is a birdbath for wrens unless, or maybe it can serve as a vase to prettify the side of the canal - who knows.

One of the reasons I run is to get out and have the opportunity to notice details in the landscape. My hit rate is low - I don’t notice much on each run as a lot of attention is internally focussed (e.g. thinking about running form or rhythm, how heavily I am breathing or my heart rate), and my field of view often limited by watching where I will put my feet. But every so often I will catch something out of the corner of my eye, or pause and look around. It gives me a strange sense of satisfaction when I find some object or detail that repays attention, the more so if I have passed it many times before without really seeing it.

The route may be familiar but I do not take it for granted. I cannot take for granted for if I do there is a danger I will think of my trips as just another run, and there is the danger of ennui. There has to be a freshness in getting out of the door, a sense of satisfaction. Initially, for all runners there is the almost heady pleasure of getting measurably better. You have clear evidence that you can go faster and last for longer and it is exciting. After a time though things plateau and new inducements have to be found. Most people who take running seriously look to races for purpose and focus. For some reason I don’t. I seem to find enough satisfaction in getting out and looking at things. That and setting myself little challenges.

Thirty Days In July 3/3
run 3/3
distance: 24.39km
time: 2hr 24min

Thirty Days In July

Yesterday felt very strange. I had been looking forward to a break and not feeling that I had to exercise but when it came to it I felt something was missing. It was not as though I had nothing to do, the day was full and I came back in the evening feeling more tired than most of the June days. It was just that I had the vague feeling that I had forgotten to do something ( the same sort of unsettling feeling you get when you have left the house and you cannot remember whether you had turned the cooker off).

The purpose of Juneathon, for me, was give impetus to a base training regime and bring some consistency to my exercise programme. Well the first part was achievable in one month, and was a success. The second part is what happens next.

How do I build on the momentum?

Part of me just wants to do the same again: have another 30 day exercise streak and it is possible - there are 30 days left in July. I can give it a go.

I will relax the rules about blogging and taking photos daily - there are no rules. All I want to do is maintain a pattern of steady exercise (without hard days that require recovery) to see if I can build up a fitness base.

Thirty days in July. That is all. Let’ see how it goes.

TDIJ day 1: run 6.92km, 40 min.