2011 Streak 116/365: Giving Blood

2011 Streak 116/365: Cycle - 14.27 miles, Time - 1hr 1min, Weather A little overcast and a bit cooler

I rather like the blood donor lorries parked beside the cross - a symbol of sacrifice and a directly stated secular message.

As you can see from the picture the church is very plain - a product of the early 50s and post-war austerity. It is in Adeyfield the first area of the New Town to be developed, just off Queen's Square (so named because it was opened by the Queen). In the week of a royal wedding that fact will be my sole nod to the monarchy.

Inside the nave was filled with couches arranged at right angles to each other, all full with a steady flow of people coming in to wait their turn. It was busy, which is good to see. Every time I give blood there is some small change of procedure. Today it was a suggestion that I should clench my buttocks to increase the flow of blood. So not only was I doing good I did some toning exercise as well.

After giving blood there is no chance of exercise (well you can try but you would not get far  and end up feeling very weak and feeble) so I had to make time first thing in the morning.

The 14 mile loop on my bike was very pleasant. There is very little more to be said apart from the fact that it felt quite easy, which is always has to be appreciated as it does not happen all the time.

2011 Streak 115/365: A gentle wander around St Albans

2011 Streak 115/365: Walk - 3.17 miles, Time - 1hr 5min, Weather - a lovely sunny bank holiday

Easter Monday was a lovely sunny bank holiday. According to my plan it was an easy day so we went to St Albans for a wander around the cathedral and the nearby park.

I am very fond of St Albans Cathedral and the way it clearly shows how it was built and developed over time. It is not a patchwork - it is honest. I also like the way you can see that it used materials at hand, whether that be left over roman bricks or flint stones.

Later on I will post some pictures and talk about it in more detail but for now I want to show the summery nature of the day. Many people were out and about, enjoying the sun, relaxing on a holiday.

I took this picture of a mother and daughter making daisy chains. It is one of those timeless activities. Generations upon generations have done this, probably on this spot. Somehow that thought gave me pleasure.

2011 Streak 114/365: The difference between graffiti and spray art

2011 Streak 114/365: Walk - 7.98 miles, Time - 2hrs 15min Weather - warm but a little overcast 

My walk today was from Woodthorpe to the centre of Nottingham and back again and all along the way I saw things to photograph. However I held back because I was conscious of wanting to keep up a good walking pace as my current plan is to alternate hard and easy days (hard being an elastic term). As a large part of yesterday was spent reading in the garden today had to be more vigorous.

I intended not to stop until I reached Slab Square and take some photos there but I saw this mural and I knew I had to stop. It is just so arresting.

I like the skill of the execution, the idea of a spaceship train and the reminder of the cover of Bitches Brew. it is more fun than most examples of official public art, which have a tendency to be formal and vacuous (sweeping generalisation alert).

It is the great pleasure of walking that I can see something down a side street, wander over to look more closely  and then move on. This cannot be repeated enough as every time I do it my spirit lifts as I feel that I am using my eyes and properly looking at my surroundings.

After taking this photograph I walked to the city centre only to find that there was a huge Cross of St George covering the columns of Council House. I know they might be marking St Georges day but even so did no one notice it looks horrible and totally out of proportion. 

I definitely preferred the spray painted mural

2011 Streak 113/365: Easy Day

2011 Streak 113/365: Walk - 2 miles, Time - 50 min, Weather - as sunny as a summer's day

Today we have a guest photographer - my niece. 

Those words probably conjure up an image of me indulging a child by giving her my camera and letting her play but that is only half true. I did give her my camera but she is not a child. She is in fact far more qualified to take photos than me as she has a degree in fine art and her final exhibition involved large photographs of tiny structures made of sugar crystal glued together with superglue.

The day is hot and we are in the garden of my sister-in-law and family in Nottingham. I am mostly reading the paper but I am also looking at my niece taking her photos. I have two main thoughts. The first is technical: noticing how she likes to use the manual setting and adjust both aperture and shutter speed - I rarely do that my tendency is to control one or the other and let the camera take care of the exposure. The second is a mixture of envy and regret. She moves about so easily - crouching, bending, and stretching with all the flexibility of youth. How I wish I could be so thoughtless about my body, knowing it would follow my intentions without any conscious effort.

My regret is at the process of ageing and how the body has to be managed - how you have to move more carefully and think about what you are doing. You can no longer take it for granted.

I know, for example, I really have to work at my flexibility. The trouble is there is a difference between knowing and doing. I have never, ever established a long lasting regime. Probably because it really does feel like work. It makes me feel uncomfortable and all the time I am confronted by my own inabilities.

It is just one of those things - if you have a bent for something you tend to enjoy it and keep going. If it is a struggle you are either very strong minded and exert your will, or you backslide. I am a backslider. There will be bursts when I tell myself I ought to do what is good for me but after a time my natural disinclination reasserts itself and the resolution dissolves.

Never mind the physical exercises its character building exercises I need.

2011 Streak 112/365: Mountain biking

2011 Streak 112/365: Walk - 22.5 miles, time - 2hrs 15min, Weather - sunny and hot

For about 12 years, before he went to New Zealand, my friend and I used meet-up every fortnight to go mountain biking. Mostly we went on the trails around Ashridge, tweaking and extending our routes until we knew we had found something close to perfection, which we then kept doing, many, many times. Instead of getting tired, the repetition seemed to increase the pleasure. The more we got to know it the better it felt and the more we went out, the more we saw. The seasons and weather always changed and so there was always something different, some new challenge.

For every section we developed our own names. These could be merely descriptive like 'the unfeasibly bumpy bit' or enigmatic like 'the 95 percenter' but they all evolved from things said on the rides, over time. For example we once remarked that a particular section was always harder than we remembered and so it became 'the hidden hill'. In this way we developed our own private cartography - a pleasure that can only come over time. 

Today was therefore a big day: for the first time in five years we were going to retrace our paths and try to recapture the enjoyment of something once deeply embedded in our pattern of life.

All I can say is that it was brilliant. We did all the things we used to do, stopped at places we used to stop, look at things we used to look at. Even the skylark was there (there is a particular downland section where we always seemed to hear a skylark).

Can it really have been five years ago? Time must have passed but it felt just the same.

Except (and there is always and except) … I have lost fitness. Coming up the scarp slope my legs went watery and I needed recovery time at the top. Not good. Not impressive. These gentle strolls I have been having this year are all very fine but they don't achieve much. Action needs to be taken. I need to press harder.

2011 Streak 111/365: Evening by the canal

2011 Streak 111/365: Walk - 3.7 miles, time - 1hr 15min, Weather - pleasantly sunny and warm

Oh no! This is becoming a habit: evening walk to the pub. 

However the circumstances today are completely different as a friend ,who now lives in New Zealand, is visiting us for a couple of days - so obviously there is no alternative.

Actually as a plan it developed fairly organically. He arrived late morning , we had lunch and talked, catching up on the last 5 years. After a time we realised our backsides were getting seat shaped and we needed to use our legs. A walk by the canal seemed perfect for a spring day which felt like summer. Just by chance we headed in the direction of the Three Horseshoes at Winkwell.

Somehow or other our path deviated and we ended up sitting on a bench beside the water with a beer in our hands. How did that happen?

After a short time we realised that this was the most pleasant way to spend our time and we were joined by my wife (who had been out during the day). And that was that; the walk was over.

When out we only saw one runner; and I took this picture of him in the distance. It reminds me of how much I enjoy running by canals and how they are the very best of places, especially when the sun is out.

2011 Streak 110/365: Evening stroll

2011 Streak 110/365: Walk - 2.7 miles, time - 55 min, Weather - the day had been nice but evening was a little overcast

I have written before about the best time to exercise and how research shows that people tend to be at their athletic best in the afternoon, whilst morning favours cerebral activity.

That is all very well and might be true but it takes no account of people (and here I am talking about myself) who wally around and put things off to the point of loosing interest. In other words, on some days, it can be difficult to get out of the door and if it goes on for too long the easy option is to put things off until the following day. 

I therefore run in the morning as a form of discipline.

To be quite honest it doesn't really matter if the hands of my body clock have not ticked round to athletic peak. I am so far from the cutting edge of performance that a few degrees up or down means very little. Doing something is more important than anything else and so I have to find a routine which makes it possible

However the wallying about is really a problem for running or cycling, where I anticipate working hard and feeling a little uncomfortable at some point. It does not apply to walking - or to be more precise - strolling. 

There is something incredibly satisfying about going for a walk at the end of a warm day and finishing with a beer in a country pub. 

Which is what happened today - easy, relaxed, and nothing like exercise.

The photo is of a redundant gate at Ashridge, where we went to look at the bluebells. As the light was a bit dull I will hold back posting a picture of them for a couple of days but they are spectacular.

Walk, woods, bluebells, country pub, beer - I must admit to feeling incredibly English

2011 Streak 109/365: Bike maintenance

2011 Streak 109/365: Walk - 2 miles, time - 40 min, Weather - sunny with blue skies

Just like the day before yesterday this was a day with the minimum amount of exercise with the rest of my time was spent on bike maintenance.

And for the second time in three days I will say that there is something quite therapeutic about stripping, cleaning, and adjusting the parts of a bike so that they then run smoothly. However it can be time consuming, especially if they are old bikes that have not been touched in a long long time.

I have not been mountain biking for ages. For many years trails through woodlands and down hills was my main cycling pleasure but for reasons that are still not quite clear I changed and I now mostly ride a road bike. So in my garage there are two neglected mountain bikes - a hard tail that dates from the early 1993 and a full suspension from 2003/4;  that need to be bought back to life.

I was actually quite pleased with how well they both scrubbed up. To my great surprise a pair of 1995 Rock Shox Judy front suspension forks worked just fine.  The major problem was however the pedals. Unfortunately instead of buying Shimano spds, I chose a competing design by a now defunct firm. Of course I no longer have the shoes with the appropriate cleats and so the pedals are now useless.

Part of the fun of mountain biking in the early years was the number of small firms who would produce innovative components. An early flowering of creativity before it all settled down into an established pattern of a few market leaders.  Sometimes there was a pleasure in using something by one of the small guys but there was always the risk they would fade away and the product would become obsolete. Just one of those things.

I suppose I ought to have taken a picture of one of the bikes on the cycle stand to show work in progress but I didn't. Instead the photo is of a bluebell by a silver birch. It is a reminder of bluebell season and the need for me to go to Ashridge, where they are at their most magnificent. This photo is thus a taster for others.

2011 Streak 108/365: Baking

2011 Streak 108/365: Walk - 4.85 miles, time - 1hr 40 min, Weather - blue skies 

Last week I talked about how the closing of Fitzbillies could only really be marked by the baking of chelsea buns. So after a few days prevaricating I finally got my hands in the flour and made a batch. 

If I were going to broaden the remit of this blog and include recipes for runners then then these buns would deserve a place as recovery food (or a pre-run boost) as they are full of carbohydrate goodness.

I don't think there is a single recipe for these buns as I looked at a few and they all differed. The one I used was pretty basic (i.e. it looked the most straightforward and used the breadmaker) but it had a nice finishing touch whereby orange essence was added to the sugar glaze.. Nevertheless it rated two thumbs-up.

The walk preceding the bun making was along the edges of the town, between the fields of the green belt and estates of housing, through some small patches of woodland with isolated clumps of bluebells. And very pleasant it was on sunny spring day.

The pleasure was increased by it being school holidays with many kids out and about enjoying themselves. I am one of those sentimentalists who likes to see children running about, having fun, whether that be in a playground or in the fields taking a dog for a walk. 

I also like seeing them learning new skills and on this walk I also passed a soccer camp for tots. It was tremendously amusing to watch their exercises with balls almost as high as their knees, besides goalposts which were proportionately enormously tall. But the main pleasure was in seeing the obvious concentration as the youngsters tried to master physical skills.

So with the football and the baking I would characterise it  as a day of learning.

2011 Streak 107/365: Bike maintenance and the London Marathon

2011 Streak 107/365: Walk - 1 mile, time - 20 min, Weather - blue skies 

Absolute minimum distance today because of all sorts of other things.

It began with the London Marathon. I have to watch this - it is one of the rules, even if I know it wastes a heap of time. I always start by saying I will just watch a little bit to get a flavour of the spectacle  and reconnect with the mass of enthusiasm, endeavour and virtue displayed by so many road runners. Then I start to be drawn into the races, watching for those who look easy and those about to crack, marvelling at how they can keep going at a speed that I would feel was sprinting. Time then passes.

This year the both men's and women's race were brilliant, with outstanding winners who both dramatically raced away from the other leaders with a sustained increase in pace. Suddenly they were on their own and you know their victory was inevitable. That is the fascination of long distance races: they are fluid and full of possibilities for a group of runners until suddenly someone makes a move and you know that the outcome is set.

One of the other pleasures is to watch the styles of the top runners. Both the winners looked easy and economical but the same could not be said for everybody else. I was particularly fascinated by our second woman, Louise Damen, who I would have worried for if I had seen her running round our park.Her elbows were out to the side, she crouched as if she were resting on an invisible stool and her feet seemed to slap the ground; and was she thin, painfully stick insect thin. But she is a top runner. It only goes to show that you do not have to have a copybook style and there is not one form that works. In fact everybody moved slightly differently.

The London Marathon is a great place to observe running form.

After that the afternoon was taken up with bicycle maintenance. Something I had been promising to do for too long. T here is a certain contentment to be had from taking things apart then putting the back together both cleaner and in better working order.

If there are two things I would recommend to anybody who has a bike they are a works stand and foot pump. They make maintenance an awful lot easier.

Today's photo is another in the series of this year's fruit blossom. It is a blueberry.

2011 Streak 106/365: XC Extreme

2011 Streak 106/365: Walk - 6.35 miles, time - 2hrs 5min, Weather - early blue skies followed by cloud

This looks like it could be quite an exciting building - all bent steel and tin. It might look as if there is still some way to go before it is finished it is due to open in July. I guess the fitting-out will be speedy.

When finished it will be an extreme sports and youth facility (either a natural mix or a dangerous combination, depending on your viewpoint). But whichever way you look at it, it promises to be an interesting.

It will have a 60 x 15 metre climbing wall, indoor caving, and a high ropes course for the adventurous sportsman. There will also be a skate board course which might also be extreme but will probably be used more by youths. More specifically for youths there will be a music recording studio, a band rehearsal room and an internet cafe as well as a teen focused health centre with counselling rooms. 

Sometimes I wish I was young, flexible, agile, strong and well balanced. But as none of those apply my approval can only be totally disinterested. I think it sounds like great fun and something that could be good for the town. It is located as it is by the running track and behind the Snow Centre and thus part of an interesting group of venues (if you forget about Leisure World), though their audiences probably don't overlap too much.

Nevertheless it will be good and It also promises to be visually quite striking.

But who knows how it will turn out. But I must admit to feeling happy to see a new building that is not either a block of apartments or a warehouse.

2011 Streak 105/365: Root cause

2011 Streak 105/365: Walking - 3 miles, Time - 1hr, weather- cloudy

If anyone has paid any attention to the exercise levels over the passed week they would have dismissed them with one simple epitaph: pitiful.

As with every lapse there are reasons. In this case it is that my leg has been intensively and systematically pummelled, whilst my pelvis has been pushed and shoved back into place. During such treatment it is wise not to exercise too much.

The reason for the treatment is that at last I have found the root cause of my problems with my left leg: my hip was displaced. This caused my hamstring to spasm and pain to randomly in other places and accounted for the fact that often I could not ascribe exact cause and effect to many of my injuries.

It only goes to show how complicated the body is. You might hurt in one place but it might be displaced pain or it might be a series of related events so that something being wrong causes other muscle groups to compensate and then have their own problems.

Anyway apart from bruising where my the scar tissues in my muscles has been attacked, things are beginning to feel better and next week I will begin a very gentle process of building back my fitness. 

For the first time in a few months I am feeling optimistic. So to accord with my mood I am posting a pretty picture of apple blossom.

2011 Streak 104/365: "Built like a gun, goes like a bullet"

2011 Streak 104/365: Walking - 4 miles, time - 1hr 20 min, Weather - overcast

I am probably quite soft in the head but I love the look of old bikes, so it is a pleasure to come cross this parked in the High Street.

I also like the story of how Royal Enfield has managed to become the oldest manufacturer  to have continuously produced motorbikes inspite of its collapse along with the rest of the British motor cycle industry. In 1956 Enfield of India was set-up to produce the bikes which had been selected by the Indian Government as suitable for its police and army. It has continued producing the bikes in essentially the same form ever since. They were tweaked  for import back into the UK in 1989. Now they are sold world wide. There is an obvious retro appeal as the frame is basically the same as it ever was. The engine however has been updated, as it would need to be, to comply with modern emission standards.

So when you look at this bike you can see our own industrial heritage and that of India all in one machine

As I have said before - everyday I go out with my camera doubtful that I will find anything to photograph and everyday I am surprised that something turns up. I have no idea where this blog will take me but at the moment it seems a long way from running!

P.S. The blog title is the old company motto

2011 Streak 103/365: Comings and goings in Cambridge

2011 Streak 103/365: Walking - 4.85 miles, time - 2hrs, Weather - Cloudy and cool

Another day in Cambridge another use of the park and ride, with walking instead of riding but instead of walking both ways, I just walked back.  Usually I do the obvious thing and follow all the way down the Trumpington Road  but this time I took a slight diversion in search of the Guided Busway.

For those of you who know nothing about guided busways (including myself) the picture shows the track. In its way this is a groundbreaking piece of infrastructure because it will be by far the longest such busway in the world, linking Huntingdon, St Ives and Cambridge. But it has not had an easy history, my picture might show wonderfully straight lines but that is no metaphor for a project that has been mired in difficulty from the very beginning. 

I am sure that every new piece of infrastructure faces objections but in this case 2,735 were lodged with the public inquiry. Nevertheless it was given the go ahead and work began in 2007, with completion expected in 2009.

As you might guess from the photo things have not quite gone to plan and it is still not open.  It might look completed but the contractor has not yet handed over the project and the latest excuse is that it doesn't have, or has mislaid, the required electrical safety certificates (very strange ). Of course costs have gone up, from an original £116 to £181, and of course there are stories of waste (such as people being employed since 2009 even though there was no service). There is a media archive here of the whole history that details the story.

Almost all infrastructure projects run into to problems, cost more than expected and are delayed (you only have to think of the Channel Tunnel). If they are good projects, after a time the initial difficulties are forgotten and people appreciate facility, which becomes part of their lives. If however the project is not well thought-out and unsuccessful it will always be derided as idiotic by people saying they always knew better.

At the moment you cannot tell what will happen as the concept is still waiting to be proved. All that I know is that at the moment an empty yet complete roadway feels odd and slightly eerie.

If the guided busway was the coming for Cambridge, the going is Fitzbillies.

I Know I am late with this news as it closed in February but it is still worth noting. It is one of those shops that somehow define a city, as Cambridge is a place that ought to have a good traditional cake shop. Something about that idea feels right. Fitzbillies was that shop… but no no more.

It was really famous for was its extremely sticky chelsea buns and so I can think of no finer tribute than this entry from the blog Afternoon Tease, which is a recipe for chelsea buns. 

I think I will give it a go.

2011 Streak 102/365:Messing with buildings

2011 Streak 102/365:Walking - 3 miles, time - 1hr , Weather - Sunny but with cool wind

I will make no great claims for the Civic Centre as a building. It is no masterpiece but at the same time it is not a disaster. I it is quite well proportioned and I rather like the sparing use of blue. The only real problem with the facade is griminess caused by weathering. it may not be lovely but it is OK.

It was designed in the mid 60s by Clifford Culpin  & Partners along with the heath centre and Pavillion and the judgement of Pevsner was:

The buildings as a group are disappointing; too far away from the shops, too isolated by wind-swept open space in front, while behind car parks separate them from the river.

Since that has been written the Pavillion (which was a multi-purpose arts venue) has been demolished and its site is now a grassy patch. The Civic Centre is even more isolated. 

All the more reason to treat it with some sensitivity so that it looks as good as is possible. But that is not to be. Firstly they made a mess of the front door and disabled access; and now they have decided that their need for corporate branding trumps everything else.

The Dacorum green and white is rubbish against the blue in the building and a big tin sign is completely at odds with the rest of the building. Before the name was picked out with plain blue letters fixed directly onto the wall, which was in keeping with the look of the building and much more suitable.

The reason I worry about things like this is that we rely on the council's planning department to oversea the development of the town and impose some sort of standard. But if they are not to good with their own building what hope is there for the rest?

2011 Streak 101/365:Watching the seasons

2011 Streak 101/365:Walking - 2.25 miles, time - 405 min, Weather - In the afternoon clouds gathered and a chillier wind blew

One tremendous benefit of my 2011 project is that I am looking far more closely at seasonal changes. I am making a point of watching what is happening each day and finding it fascinating to notice the speed at which buds form on trees and then bursting into blossom, and the sequencing of different plants.

This is all pretty obvious stuff and for the experienced gardeners and naturalists amongst you, I apologise for my wide-eyed attitude. You are all very familiar with how things grow and it is hardly worth remarking upon. Last year I would have agreed. "Of course cherry trees blossom in March. Of course it is pretty" I would have said  "So what's new?" 

There is nothing new. 

It is just that for the first time I am looking closely, day by day.

One of the principles of the project was that I was meant to get out and take pictures from my journeying but that is now not the case. Looking more closely at my surrounding has meant looking more closely at what is close at hand - in my garden. These tulips are a case in point. I love their bright red colour and the blowsiness of their shape so why shouldn't they be the subject of a photo?

2011 Streak 100/365:Sunday by the canal

2011 Streak 100/365:Walk -3.25 miles, Time - 1hr 10min, Weather - It almost feels like summer

It was the day of the Brighton Marathon and it felt like a hot summer's day. Not the best weather for running 26 miles, so I congratulate all who took part and completed the event (especially of course Adele and Tom).

I felt like a complete slacker as I followed on from yesterday's stroll with another leisurely walk. As I was back home the obvious place to go was the canal, which has both light and shade, trees and water. What more could you want?

It is the perfect place for weekend recreation and today was rich in activity. There were people out for a gentle stroll, power walkers dressed in athletic garb, traditional ramblers, and someone on on a long distance walk, complete with map and Camelback. There was also a runner in Vibram Five Fingers, which quite impressed me because the towpath is stoney with lumps, bumps and many sharp edges, which can tenderise the soles of the feet. Cyclists ranged from  wobbly inexperienced riders to confident young men (who were probably going too fast bearing in mind the number of people on the footpath). Beside the water were fishermen sitting and enjoying the sun.

On the canal there was a most interesting training session. You can see in the photo some kayaks in formation, but strangely the boats have outriggers.  At first I was really puzzled because canoeing is not like cycling where a kid will learn on a bike with stabilisers, you get in the boat straight away and then wobble about until you get comfortable. Anyway these people were far from beginners they were fit and proficient. it all seemed odd until I saw a trainer riding along the towpath on a bike. He had a polo shirt with a logo reading Batchworth Dragons. Ah ha it was dragon boat training excellent!

I love finding new past times and sports. Mine of running, cycling and walking are very mundane so I salute those who find more unusual obsession. The more variety the better.

If we want to encourage more people to be more active (which we do) there are worse ways than just taking them to the canal and showing them all the ways people find to enjoy themselves.

2011 Streak 99/365: Winchester

2011 Streak 99/365: Walk -4 miles, Time - 1hr 45min, Weather - sunny, and warm

I spent the Saturday at Winchester but all I can offer is a picture of  a metal duck!

It makes no sense because Winchester is extremely picturesque, with a huge scope for photography. In the light of a beautiful spring day it was delightful: people were out relaxing, sitting on the grass by the cathedral, wandering in the water meadows, taking their ease, and drinking in beer gardens. The city could not be seen at any better advantage. But I have no photo to give an impression.

That is a pretty bad show with no acceptable excuse, even if the reason is straightforward - I didn't take my camera.

Nevertheless the day was very pleasant, involving lunch and then a very gentle stroll. I would be hard put to make a case for it as exercise but in terms of the 2011 streak, it will have to do. 

Sometimes we just have to relax a bit; afterall I am now officially another year older.

The picture of the duck is therefore not random - it has an honourable role in the day as it was a birthday present from my daughter. It will make a very fine addition to our garden and a companion to the blue pig that is already there. 

2011 Streak 98/365: Simplicity of design

2011 Streak 98/365:Walk - 3.1 miles, Time - 1hr, Weather - sunny, hot with a very blue sky

A notice board might seem an odd subject for a photograph, even if it is a rather splendid, old fashioned, notice board that probably dates from somewhere around the middle of the last century. But it is not the reason for the photo - it is there to indicate that the building we can partially see, behind it, is the Quaker Meeting House

I chose to show this fragment because the building does not have much of a frontage. There are a few steps down to a gateway, behind which is a small courtyard leading to the main meeting room. The label will have to stand for the whole.

It is a hot day but when you approach the building seems somehow calm and cool. This is an amazing quality common to a number of religious buildings but Quaker building tend to have the extra qualities of simplicity and modesty.  They are not immediately dated by the flourishes of decoration but by simpler things such as the shape and types of window. This building dates from 1718.

When I look at it I also think of the design philosophy of the New Town, which was recently highlighted for me by a few incidental sentence in an excellent article about the architect James Stirling

(in the immediate post war years) The public sector, now a spent force in architecture, was dominant. Like almost everyone who had talent, even Stirling spent a short spell working for the London County Council. Architecture was meant to be about social service, producing the best housing and schools affordable in an age of austerity. It was a noble vision, democratic and modernist, but it was the vision of puritans.

The architects of the New Town took the ethos of simplicity and plainness of form (along with the reductionism of modernism) and extended it over 6,000 acres. The result was rather dull.

The Quaker Meeting House is not

2011 Streak 97/365: Encouraging people to exercise

2011 Streak 97/365: Walk - 4miles, Time - 1hr 15min, Weather - sunny and warm, later some cloud cover

Today's photo is the latest in season monitoring series (I wonder if Spring Watch would be a good name?). It shows an apple bud almost on the point of blossoming.

My last post talked about the difficulty of getting people to change their ways and walk and cycle more. If it could be done it  could be an effective way of increasing the general level of activity in the population and in so doing improve the general health. Exercise with a purpose is more likely to be done than when it is end in itself, needing special dress and equipment.

Getting more people to be more active is the responsibility of the Department of Health but of course walkability and cyclability is Transport and government departments are traditionally very protective of their own patch.  I therefore wonder if this area of policy has enough clout.

However general activity only one aspect, more formal exercise whether it be team sport, gym or endurance events, is also important and is the responsibility Sport England. Getting people fitter by encouraging more people to participate in sport more regularly is a worthy policy aim. Like all behaviour change it is difficult and probably needs an empirical approach i.e try something, gather evidence, amend or try something different, monitor, try again, etc,etc.

What it doesn't need is a complete change of direction every so often. This interview with Jeremy Hunt is therefore worrying because he says he is going to scrap the target of trying to encourage a million more people to engage in sport and abandon trying to get the middle aged engaged.Instead the focus will be on younger people in the hope that they will develop lifelong habits.

Hmm the problem with that is that  early sporting habits can easily be disrupted by moving, work, and babies. Getting back afterwards is often a major hurdle.

The reason given for the change is that progress in increasing sports participation is too slow, as the results of Sport England's Active People Survey show. But this is where it gets interesting as this letter to the Guardian shows:

There is something very odd about the statistics on sports participation. You quote the Active People survey but do not mention the Taking Part survey, also funded by Sport England and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Even more strange is that Sport England does not have any information on the Taking Part survey on its website. Could this be because Taking Part shows a very different picture? This survey shows an increase in 3x30min participation per week of 1.5 million since 2007-08 (compared with next to no increase shown by the Active People survey). A remarkable increase if true and, who knows, maybe due in part to the money invested by the previous government.

So which survey is correct? Taking Part uses a proper randomised, stratified sample of households visited by trained interviewers. Active People uses random digit dialling of landlines with phone interview. Random dialling of landlines does not sample much of the population who now use mobile phones. Also this profile is rapidly changing. I believe the Taking Part data is accurate, which brings us back to an interesting question. Why is Sport England so embarrassed by its success? Cuddling up to the new coalition government, perhaps?

Bruce Lynn

Emeritus professor of physiology, University College London

The Taking Part report is here and I will be looking at it more closely later but such confusion makes it difficult to understand what is happening with our public exercise policy.

2001 Streak 96/365: Cycling as transport

2011 Streak 96/365: Cycle - 11.8 miles, Time - 47 min, Weather - sunny and warm

Today felt almost like summer it was so warm and sunny. The first bike ride of the year in short sleeves with the the delight of seeing everybody out in the open, looking just that little bit more relaxed and happy. I cycled passed fields with animals grazing and thought how nice it all looked. So today's picture is a sheep. 

My ride today was cycling as transport. None of this wafting around looking at the countryside and persuading myself I am doing good by getting exercise. This time I had purpose and not only did this give me a warm glow of inner satisfaction, it was easier than using the car.

Berkhamsted is about 6 miles away and for that distance I think the bike is quicker, once you have factored in the car overhead of finding somewhere to park. 

The interesting thing about transport choices is that we like our convenience front loaded. A number of surveys have shown (those are weasel words for me having been told this and not having any references to back it up) that when we go on journeys the car is seen as much more convenient because we can get in it straight away and be off, without any need to consult a timetable. However on arrival it is often difficult, sometimes fraught,and  mostly costly to park but because it is a deferred pain it is discounted. So many car journeys happen just because it is easy to open the door and get in.

I don't know what we can do about this. It is a deep seated instinct to take the initially easy option and once done frequently enough it becomes a reflex. Encouraging more people to walk or cycle is very difficult because it means breaking ingrained habits. (Diets face exactly the same problem as well all tend to fall back into established patterns).

When you have a population with increasing health problems because of weight and inactivity and when you have problems with oil and the need to limit consumption because of climate change. Increasing walking or cycling is an obvious policy. But just how do you do it?

I fully understand why people who have not been on a bike since childhood are reluctant to start riding again. It is both scary and difficult. Somehow we have to make it as easy and painless as possible, which involves investing in infrastructure, and this is where it becomes interesting. In political terms because it is very easy to make statements about the desirability of everybody doing more exercise and cutting down on car use right up until the point when you need to spend money. Then good intentions are usually seen to be just that - good intentions.

Irrespective of infrastructure another component is to try to create a climate where walking and cycling are both seen as being natural and common - not freakish. This is a matter of momentum, where if more people do it others are encouraged to try, and talking so that it becomes a topic on peoples' mind

We might not be like Holland or Denmark but we can take inspiration from them. I recommend The Copenhagenize blog. 

P.S I like the cycling version of the Hitler bunker scene I found on Copenhagenize. Because it is about Vancouver, a city I have been to a few times, and know the streets they are mentioning and could picture what they were talking about. It was a nice reminder.