Juneathon 2011 Day 30: Half Way

2011 Streak Day 181/365: Run - 8.49 miles, Time - 1hr, 23min, Weather - pleasant, cloudy blue sky

Bikes dredged from the canal

So this is the end of Juneathon! The final day and the longest run since I started again last month. Not only that I didn't feel bone weary from the first footstep to the last (so I must have recovered from the virus).

Lots of reasons to be cheerful.

But this, of course is not the end. It is merely the beginning of the end. I have now completed six months out of twelve of exercising everyday. In other words I am at the mid-way hump.

This is reflected in my mileage and time figures. June has been my lowest month. In January I covered 315.8 miles in 48.5 hrs, whilst in June I only covered 171.2 miles in 33.5 hrs.

In fact my mileage has declined month on month throughout the year, gradually adjusting to what needs to be done to keep the streak going.

So congratulations to all those who had a strong Juneathon and were competing at the top of the various mileage tables or reaching their personal targets. I am more than happy with my mid-pack effort if for no other reason than I now feel confident that I am running again.

My running mileage was 60.8 miles 9.6 hrs, whilst last month it was 41.4 in 6.6 hrs. Steady progress is all I wanted.

Juneathon 2011 Day 29: Another Rural Ride

2011 Streak Day 180/365: Cycle - 20.61 miles, Time - 1hr 33min, Weather - Constable sky, a nice day

I almost stopped to take a picture of some corn fields to follow up my quotations from William Cobbett because he remarked upon the quality of the crops. 

The wheat is good all the way. The oats and barley good enough till I came to Hempstead.  But the land along here is very fine: red tenacious, flinty loam upon a bed of chalk, a yard or two beneath, which in my opinion, is the very best corn land that we have in England

Of course I could also have stopped at a commercial wood and shown some examples of “villainous things of the fir tribe”. Instead I took a picture of this field of flax, a crop not mentioned in Rural Rides - a bit surprising as it has a long history in this country.

Thinking about Cobbett gives me another perspective. Setting out on my bike I know that most of it will be a rural ride and I can look at the landscape and try to imagine the changes in 190 years. It is not easy - in fact I have very little clue. When you have uninterrupted views of fields and woods it is easy to imagine a changeless landscape - but you know that's not the case. Agriculture has changed, both in methods and crops. Field size, hedgerows, the mix of livestock to arable is different. But the biggest change will be the number of people needed to work the land. You can ride along the lanes and not see anybody in the fields (today I saw 1 tractor; that was all, and that was on the road). The villages now are no longer comprised of rough, workmen’s dwellings, instead the cottage drives are full of SUVs and the average level of wealth is very high. 

Hemel is in the area but not of it.

Mostly though I do not think about socio-economics. I take pleasure in the activity, enjoy the views and think about how fortunate I am to have such landscape so easily available.

Juneathon 2011 Day 28: Small Change

2011 Streak Day 179: Run - 3miles, Time - 27min 10sec, Weather - wet and coldish

Strange day with heavy clouds threatening heavy rainstorms and a distant sound of rolling thunder. When to go out? I put it off until lunchtime but got it wrong and came home a little drenched. Never mind It was never intended to be a long run, so a little bit of rain couldn’t do any harm.

What I didn’t want to do though was hang about taking photos, so I waited until later and took this of some blueberries ripening. It is all part of the tracking of the seasons. Before this year I had never taken such a close interest in the way plants develop from day to day.  I would walk along with a generalised, rather fuzzy appreciation, of the progress of the seasons (noticing the difference between trees in full leaf and winter bareness but little of the fine detail). But now am looking at the small changes.

So if the 2011 Streak were to have a subtitle it would be: ‘a matter of small changes’ 

Which gives me an excuse to post this video of the great Tom Waits from the early jazz boho days

Juneathon 2011 Day 27: Strength of will

2011 Streak Day 178/365 Walk 5.3 miles, Time 1hr 44min, Weather - overcast but hot and clammy

Not a day for anything too strenuous. 

If I was sensible I would be sitting in the pub drinking the beer and looking at the water below me, like the two people in the photo. But that is not an option - I have to be out doing something; it is the rule. I tell myself this as I walk along the canal, through the heavy air, with my damp shirt sticking to me. "Beer is not an option".

As the pub recedes I begin to feel better as I have resisted temptation and that brings its own satisfaction. Hurrah a moral victory! But then I have to start talking to myself again. "No use getting smug - you know your moral victories are only fleeting."

I walk on further and pass another pub. The Three Horseshoes at Winkwell is particularly attractive with tables beside the water. Another victory. I do not stop. I carry-on and actually have an enjoyable time.

My only worry is that I have recently been reading articles which suggest that we only have a limited amount of self control and that if you use it in one area you are more vulnerable in another.

I will have to watch myself closely

Juneathon 2011 Day 26:Heat dictates exercise

2011 Streak Day 177/365: Run - 2.31 miles. Time - 40min 40sec, Weather - very hot

How did that happen? The month of June has been remarkably dull, with cloudy skies, days of rain, and lowish temperatures. Suddenly, as if by magic, the temperature dial has been turned right up and it is about 29º. 

Apparently it is the result of the 'Spanish Plume', the rather poetic name for a southerly airflow from those parts. Be that as it may, the change in the weather has been dramatic and it this causes big problems for runners. All the marathons which have had large numbers of heat casualties have been in normally cool cities whose race has been on isolated hot days. London is a good example, a hot April day gives runners no time to acclimatise, especially as most of the training has been in the dark days of winter. 

Although we can all adjust to different conditions, to a certain extent, it takes time. As a Northern European I don't want to take too many chances, so running has to be done early morning or in the evening. 

Somehow I missed the early morning. 

As a result I waited but the air felt like a blanket and although I chose a tree lined route I didn't want to go far. I only ran just over two miles but it felt plenty.

Today's photo is of a lavender bush. I have posted it because it reminds me of something that happened yesterday, As I ran down a street I brushed into such a bush and had a whiff of the perfume. On what was a moderately rubbish run it gave me a brief "oh that's nice' moment.

Juneathon 2011 Day 25: Hard work

2011 Streak Day 176/365: Run - 4.42 miles, Time - 42min 48sec, Weather -  clouds and sun

After 5 days of low level activity I thought it was time to try a run but I think I ought to have been a bit more cautious. Two or three miles would have been fine. But no - I decided I wanted to run by the canal and so set out on a loop that if completed would have been about 5.5 miles. At the time the canal seemed a good idea - by the water, a chance to watch the swans but as you can see from the stats I didn’t finish. I stopped about a mile from home and walked.

All along my legs had felt weak. I could keep them circling but there was no power and any uphill left me struggling. I kept going for a fair time (it helps that canals are mostly flat) but after four and a half miles I ran out of heart (or energy, if you are being kind) and decided I had had enough.

At the moment I don’t feel quite right but I am sure it will pass. 

In the evening we went to a fundraiser for our local emergency night shelter and it made me realise that any complaints about being a little sub-par are totally, totally trivial. The thing that surprised me was that the organisation wants to start a food bank because it is seeing an increasing number of people who have housing but are struggling to feed themselves. Apparently there are people in Hemel who are starving and the problem is growing.

I hardly know what to say or think. I am just shocked.

Juneathon 2011 Day 24: A night at the opera

2011 Streak Day 175: Walk - 4.5 miles, Time - 1hr 40min, Weather - overcast, turning to rain

You would never guess from the picture of a cows that my exercise was walking the streets of London. But there is nothing in the rules that says my photo should  be a representation of the day. All I have to do is find something that catches my eye - and I passed this on the way to the station.

As for the walk - well it was hardly serious exercise, it is wandering around London, not using public transport. But I like this way of getting about in cities. You really do not know what you are missing if you travel by tube; buses are OK but you don't get the intimate feeling of being a part of the place. One of the great joys is to look up above the standardised shop facias and see the variety of buildings and get a sense of their history.

The only time I get antsy is in the tourist areas where there are milling crowds blocking your path, making it impossible to walk straight or at anything faster than a stuttering amble. For that reason I never go to Oxford Street, if I can help it, as I feel so frustrated and so closed-in. Leicester Square is as bad but at least there, there is a small, hidden haven: The Cork and Bottle. A wine bar in a smallish basement that has been there since 1971 and hardly upgraded since. It is  untouched by succeeding style revolutions. Part of its charm perhaps but rather incidental to the main attraction of being a place where you can calmly drink a decent glass of wine.

Wine bars are strange things. I suppose their heyday was the 80s, when they became fashionable, but now they have mostly died away. I don’t really know why because as a nation we have been drinking more wine, but perhaps that is the reason. Wine bars were a bridgehead, to cater for the nascent a wine habit neglected by pubs .Now pubs offer a range of wines and with bars have had a design makeover; the niche for wine bars has been squeezed. In the same way the wine merchants struggle against the dominance of the supermarkets.

Anyway enough of talk of wine bars - they have no place in a running bog!

But in that case neither does opera and that would mean that I shouldn’t talk about the reason for being in London, which was to see Peter Grimes at the Royal Opera House. That would be a shame because it was rather magnificent.

Some reviewers might have highlighted some vocal insecurities of Ben Heppner in the lead role but all praised the chorus; and this was right. The chorus, as the Borough, are at the heart of the story. It is their reject and demand for conformity which drives the action and in this production, the way they moved and were massed gave them great force.

When I was watching this the opera seemed incredibly relevant to the present day. Although few of us now live in small, tight knit communities, we all see the power of the press to hound and rage. Once someone is in their sights, any weakness is magnified and exploited.

Peter Grimes could well be an opera about Sharon Shoesmith

Juneathon 2011 Day 23: In praise of slow

2011 Streak Day 174/365: Walk - 1.1 mile, Time - 19min, Weather - showery

As I am still feeling a little bit feeble I did the very minimum today. Between the showers I walked around the park looking at the flowers and plants still holding drops of water on their leaves. 

It was all I felt like doing.

When I got home I sat down with a cup of tea and thought about having no zip and feeling slow. At first I was annoyed with myself but relaxed when I realised that listening to the body sometimes means hearing messages you don't like. Nevertheless you have to accept them. You might want to push things a bit harder but you will have to ease back. The trick is in recognising when that message is genuine (as opposed to being a moment of general lassitude), and remembering that running is a long game.

Whilst thinking this, by chance, I was listening to High by The Blue Nile, wondering if they had done anything since 2005. Unlikely as don't think there is any other band who can match their lack of productivity. Their first album was released in 1983 and since that date there have only been 3 others. An average of one album every 7 years is very, very slow.

I then read this from Robert Penn:

For many, cycling is all about riding fast – across the city to work, around a sportive course against the clock, or over Alpine cols in the tyre tracks of the professionals. But it was not always thus. Sixty years ago the British countryside thronged with cyclists. The postwar era was a golden age of cycle touring, and every weekend hordes poured out of the cities on two wheels bearing flasks of dandelion and burdock, bound for youth hostels in the hills. Bike rides then were all about slow cycling: they were about lying in hedgerows, reading maps, savouring the physical and emotional fellowship of friends and being profligate with time; bike rides were about having a good appetite, quiet market towns, pints, picnics by the river and the rhythm of two spinning wheels.

and thought 'there is a theme here'. Slow is not necessarily bad. All you have to do is relax into it.

Juneathon 2011 Day 22: There was some dampness

2011 Streak Day 173/365: Walk - 4.4 miles, Time - 1hr, 25min, Weather - rather wet at times

Another Cambridge day with the opportunity to get my exercise by walking to the park & ride at Trumpington. I didn't do it both ways because it was ever so slightly wet (as can be seen from the photo).

Although I have admitted that I enjoy some types of rain (e.g. a gentle misty rain), heavy downpours are not included. I dislike them and if by mischance I am out when they start, I look for shelter.

However one of the things I have learnt from my 2011 project is that there are very few days when the weather is bad enough to be truly unpleasant. I have so far been out consecutively for 173 days, and although the weather is often a factor in setting the mood and can sometimes cause a change of plan it has never been bad enough to make the exercise a test of endurance. Almost all my difficulties have been due to my mentality rather than external factors.

Even today was not bad. This was a shower. It came and it went, afterwards there were white clouds. The walk back was really quite pleasant.

Juneathon 2011 Day 21: Quoting Cobbett

2011 Streak Day 172/365:  Walk - 3.1 miles, Time - 1hr, Weather - same as last couple of weeks, changeable

Not wishing to be out Cobbetted by Tom I thought I ought to set down what was said in Rural Rides about my area

Of Hemel Hempstead itself he says:

"Hempstead is a very pretty town, with beautiful environs, and there is a canal that comes near to it, and that goes onto London. It lies at the foot of a hill. It is clean, substantially built, and a very pretty place altogether."

Nobody would use those words now to describe the New Town. With over 82,000 people it is not as small as all that (it is the second largest town in Hertfordshire) and the quality of the building of the New Town is neither substantial nor pretty. However the Old High Street remains intact and as you can see from the photo it is quite picturesque. Pevsner even described it as one of the most attractive in Herts.

However the paragraphs of Rural Rides that described the land between Redbourne and Hemel are also interesting. Cobbett was much taken with its attractiveness, especially the trees.  "Very fine oaks, ashes, and beeches … make the fields look most beautiful. No villainous things of the fir-tribe offend the eye here."

He also described a local system of agriculture that left a border of grass around a ploughed field to bear grass for hay making so that "every field has a closely mown grass walk about ten feet wide all around it, between corn and the hedge. This is most beautiful!. " 

"And thus you go from field to field (on foot or on horseback), the sort of corn, the sort of underwood or timber, the shape and size of the fields, the height of the hedge-rows, the height of the trees, all continually varying. Talk of pleasure-grounds indeed! What, that man ever invented,under the name of pleasure-grounds, can equal these fields in Hertfordshire?"

Now that particular system of field management might be long gone but we still have the trees, irregular fields and the hedge rows. It is still pretty and it is the pleasure ground I explore.

Juneathon 2011 Day 20: Taking it easy

2011 Streak Day 171/365: Walk - 2.3 miles, Time - 50min, Weather - blue skies, white cloud that turned grey in the afternoon

The reason for yesterday's run feeling harder had nothing to do with the shoes. I was sickening for something and the run was the canary in the mineshaft.

Today I woke up with a sore throat, headache, and aching limbs - all the normal symptoms of a mildly inconvenient virus. The only sensible response is cut back on activity, curl into oneself until it washes itself away - over time.

But I want to keep the streak going and so for a few days I will be doing only a minimal amount of exercise. Today I even took my car to the canal so that the walk only included the good stuff.

Whilst there I saw water overflowing one of the lock gates  - gushing with an energy my body did not posses. I like these contrasts. There I was feeling like a long drink of water,  yet here was the canal showing that water could be a force

Juneathon 2011 Day 19: New shoes

2011 Streak Day 170/365: Run - 2.8 miles, Time - 26min 26sec, Weather - changeable

In yesterday's post I mentioned one of the great things about running in that you can always try things out, measure the results, and either carry on or abandon. You can make experiments, without too much danger, to freshen-up what you are doing, or with the hope of a breakthrough.

The phrase from George Sheehan that 'you are an experiment of one', is something to be constantly born in mind.

In that spirit I thought I would try running in minimalist shoes.

Barefoot running may be a fashionable topic but the idea of running totally barefoot on the asphalt and pavements of Hemel is something I would fear rather than welcome. So the answer is a pair of minimal shoes with a flat and flexible sole to protect the foot  - in effect a move towards barefoot running. 

These are my new shoes - Saucony's Hattari, their first attempt at zero drop, and today was my first run.

It is too early to say how it will work out. I will need more sessions before I can come to any conclusion about their virtues or whether I will move away from more cushioned trainers. My instinct is that I won't - but we will see.

The thing I can say though is that there was no feeling of revelation, no feeling of release, no feeling that this is the way we were meant to run. I did not feel freer and more natural. This could be because I did not have to change my running style very much - I have always landed on my midfoot/forefoot.

The slight adjustment that had to be made was the movement of the heel, which instead of being supported at a slight angle, fell-back flat to the ground. I actually noticed this lack of support and the run felt harder as a result. The calves also felt as if they had done more work.

But we will see. I will use them for a run a week, to get used to them and then make a judgement

Juneathon 2011 Day 18: Research findings in the press

2011 Streak Day 169/365: Walk - 3.1 miles, Time- 55min, Weather - showers (some fierce)

Obedience Training

One of the pleasures of Saturdays is to spend time in a coffee shop, reading the paper.  I positively enjoy the sensory experience of opening and turning the pages of a traditional paper and the way it feels luxuriant to be at your ease and give each story its proper attention.

So today’s exercise was a 1.5 mile walk out , a long gap and then 1.5 miles back. (On my way I saw a man in the park training his dog and took a photo)

One of the ‘must reads’ in Saturday’s Guardian is Ben Goldacre’s Bad Science column. Today his subject was his research into the quality of health advice in newspapers. Although it is unsurprising that he found it to be shaky (of the 111 claims made in a week the majority were supported by evidence that was categorised as ‘insufficient’) there are serious consequences. People make decisions based on what they read in the papers because it is the most important gateway to advice.

The problem is the jackdaw approach to research papers: those with quirky, amusing, counterintuitive, or controversial findings tend to be picked-up regardless of how well founded they are. They are then given the intro of “science has found...” as if the voice of authority has spoken. This can be very confusing.

Specialist publications should be better but I don’t think they are. If you look at Runners World or Men’s Health, or the like, there are often suggestion that a particular food has specific properties based on some research, or findings about the effects of different ways of exercising. Frequently they are short paragraphs and completely avoid anything as pesky as an evaluation of the evidence base.

My assumption that specialist publications should be better informed because as they have a narrower focus is probably unfair. They are written by journalists with space to fill and research findings can be an easy way to produce copy. If a subject becomes a hot issue it will then be looked at in more detail with a more balanced approach but otherwise there are a lot of throw-away paragraphs.

This approach might be OK for running (just), whilst still being dangerous for general health. Health consequences are long-term and diffuse. It is difficult to know the full effects of any change of behaviour and there are just too many confounding factors. Running in contrast is very specific - you want to go longer or faster (or ideally both) and you can directly measure your progress. It is thus possible to try something for a couple of weeks and then either abandon or continue according to results.

Research can therefore offered in the spirit of “this might be worth a go” and I am happy with that. We should never forget that we are an experiment of one.

However when advice becomes definitive, or strays from training into nutrition and general health, we really owe to ourselves to check the evidence base to see that it is solid.

Juneathon 2011 Day 17: Swans and Geese

2011 Streak Day 168/365:  Run - 6.52 miles, Time 1hr 8seconds, Weather - mostly wet (though it was dry when I ran), always overcast, blowy, and distinctly cool

Today I separated picture-taking and running. I wanted another photo of water on flowers and leaves to show that, yet again, the day was wet. I didn't go far - just into my garden for this delicately damp, pea flower. So on my run I took no camera, and could not record my encounter with swans and signets. 

I had planned to run up an alleyway, off the canal, as part of my loop, but two swans were eating grass on the side furthest from the canal, with their goslings in a line, stretching behind them, blocking the path. As I got near one of the swans stood very tall, opened her beak and rasped a warning. 

I thought it best to adapt my route.

I can remember being told as a child that a swan could break your arm with a blow from its wings and that all swans were owned by the Queen.  This plus my liking for the story of the ugly duckling,  cemented the idea that swans were near mythical birds, even though they were common. Ever since they have never failed to  give me pleasure. I love watching them swim serenely on - but I never cross them.

I know comedians have built routines around the story of swans breaking arms and the failure to find even one recorded example. But as a kid I believed it - these things stay with you. I was happy to give the swans a wide birth.

Later on, I was running back by the Water Gardens - the home of many Canada Geese. I was reaching a road leading to the car park a car was turning in. I did the familiar, sub-conscious, calculation of speed and the time it would take to clear my path and knew I would not have to break step. Except it stopped dead, right in front of me. Damn it was close! Without a very ugly, juddering side-step I would have run into it.

The reason was that three geese were very slowly and sedately crossing the road. Something that quite often happens.

So if you asked me to describe my run I would say it was characterised by swans and geese

Juneathon 2011 Day 16: A Wet Skate Park

2011 Streak Day 167/365: Walk - 4.42 miles, Time - 1hr 25min, Weather - wet

Reflected Graffiti

No sooner do we announce a drought in Eastern England and devote newsprint to climatic problems than it starts to rain. Today was another day of solid steady rain, not hard, just soft and steady - the best kind.

I rather like walking in this type of rain. There is a gentleness to the landscape, a blurring of the edges and a vividness to the greens. I like it as long as I am away form the edge of the pavement when cars drive through puddles, soaking one side of my trousers.

Apart from that the walk was good. I looked at the way water formed droplets of different size and shapes of different leaves and took photos. But recently my photos have been mostly green so today I wanted a different colour palette. As a result it is  graffiti mirrored in the pool, which formed at the bottom of the half pipe in the skateboard park.

Unsurprisingly there were no skaters or BMXers to be seen.

Graffiti here does not upset me as it almost seems appropriate, almost part of the culture. However in other places I get quite annoyed. So much of it is witless and unskilled. So much of it despoils the appearance of a neighbourhood. Mostly it is feckless.

Recently I have noticed an increase in this sort of graffiti and I am really quite puzzled as to why. I thought is was something of the 80/90s, which had faded. So why would it come back? Why has this way of making a mark been rediscovered?

But things do go in cycles and this skate park is a good place to see that. BMX bikes were big in the 90s but then faded but now they are back and it seems more kids are riding them than skateboards. Yet a few years ago skaters were the cool group.

This of course is nothing to do with me. Youth fashion is what youth fashion does and that is all there is to it. All I can do is observe what I see around me and hope that whatever the fashion is, it is not destructive.

Juneathon 2011 Day 15:Running in the Park

2011 Streak Day 166/365: Run - 4.72 miles, Time - 43min 43sec, Weather - Overcast

At the moment most of my 3-4 mile runs are loops of a park. The repetition is not oppressive and I do not get bored. In a park there are always different things to see and hear and people enjoying themselves in different ways.

I always notice the birds, although I am rubbish at identifying birdsong. Blackbirds are fine, their song is distinctive but most other cheeps and calls I cannot place. When you are running you cannot look closely enough to see the birds to help identification; all you can do is enjoy the sound as a tapestry. 

But you can look around and watch the different stages of the flowers - coming into bloom and then fading according to their own timetable.  Some of the flowerbeds are fragrant and as you pass you catch a faint smell which comes as a small surprise.

Giving shape to the views are a number of mature trees,which at this time of year look magnificent in full leaf. Because of them you know that this is well established parkland. 

People, of course, are milling around, amusing themselves. Today there was a big organised picnic with many mothers and their young children. You run past them and wonder what the connection is between them all. Did they meet at the school gate? Meet at ante-natal classes? Or are they a spontaneous group (friends and friends of friends) linked by having children at roughly the same time?

Over the other side of the park the bowls club was getting ready for a match and of course the age profile was towards the other end of the lifecycle. Every one of the women had steel grey hair. Nearby I noticed a cat stalking a bird and wondered if a match had ever been interrupted by a cat streaking across the green in search of prey.

These things float in and out of focus as you run. Today I did not have one coherent thought all I had was a succession of tiny impressions - but that was fine. After it was over I felt quite refreshed.

On my walk  back ( I always walk the last bit as a way of warming down) I took this picture because I liked the texture. It is a headstone that has been cleared to the side of the churchyard. 

Juneathon 2011 Day 14:The perception of time

2011 Streak Day 165/365: Cycle - 15.05 miles, Time - 1hr 3min, Weather - Blue sky, white clouds, warm

The focus of this view is not obvious as it is only a tiny detail in the distance - the tower of St Albans Cathedral. The reason I like it is that all you can see is field and trees: no habitation, no buildings, or signs of modern life. It is a view that could have been the same centuries ago. It is very easy to transport yourself back to when the Abbey was the dominant building and institution of the area with a number of footpaths radiating, linking the various parishes, with monks walking to and fro.

Yesterday I posted a Victorian view - the railway track (without trains) would have looked the same as it ever did. Today I go further back.

Time was on my mind today, not only historical time but the way its perception changes within us as we get older. It is a truism to say that it passes quicker as we get older, if for no other reason than any particular unit is a smaller percentage of the time we have lived. For example one year would represent 20% of the life of a five year old - a huge slice, whereas for me …

I was sitting having a coffee, outside, today when a mother and child passed. "We haven't done it for absolutely ages" said the young girl "It was only last week" replied the mother. Later they returned, with the girl eating something from the bakery. I guess that is what they had been talking about.  However in terms of their perception of time they were probably both right.

But now comes the bit that is going to depress everybody:

I read about some research carried out in the University of Cincinnati in the 1970s that found if you are 20 you are already half way through your life in terms of subjective experience, even if you live to 80. If you are 40 your life is 71 percent over.

Wow! I will leave that thought hanging whilst I go off to gather up the few remain percentage points of subjective experience I have available to me.

Juneathon 2011 Day 13:Cake shop and back

2011 Streak Day 164/365: Walk - 2.5 miles, Time - 50min, Weather - blue sky, white clouds

Here is where the excuses begin: In my heart of hearts I can't really classify today's effort as proper exercise, even if it did have a serious purpose.  

As every finely tuned athlete knows carbohydrate form an important part of the diet - one just has to give those muscles the right kind of fuel. Also as any fule kno cakes are at the very top of the carbohydrate tree. Therefore a trip to buy cakes is a genuine training activity.

Today we were in Winchester so the cakes were not any old cakes. Oh no! They were Raymond Blanc cakes. Winchester has a Maison Blanc, i.e. a proper French pâtisserie full of cakey delights. The eclairs, chocolate brownies, and lemon tarts all got a double thumbs-up.

Today's photo has, of course, nothing to do with cakes, instead it speaks of my romantic attachment to railways, cutting through the English countryside. It is the view south from Winchester Station. Compared to the nearby six lane motorway it seems almost domestic in scale but its construction without the aid of all of today's mechanical diggers was far more heroic.

Juneathon 2011 Day 12: Wet

2011 Streak Day 163/365: Walk - 7.21 miles, Time - 2hr 29min, Weather - steady rain

I had planned to go cycling today, in that dippy, let's not bother checking the weather forecast, way I plan. I even got dressed in my cycling gear, as if to show that I meant what I said. However as I ate my breakfast and watched the rain streak the windows, saw that the whole of the sky was heavy grey and that there was no sign of it letting-up, I had a rethink.

Of the three activities (running, walking, cycling) for me cycling is the one most affected by rain. I don't really like it. I will do it if I have to (and for years when I commuted I took pride in paying no heed to the conditions) but I don't have to I don't. My present rides are for amusement and fitness.

I didn't think I would be too amused today. So I switched the plan and walked by the canal.

There were very few people about: 1 runner 4 walkers  and 3 bedraggled cyclists. Not many for 2 hours.

There were however fishermen, in a line along one stretch,  huddled under their big umbrellas, watching the pattern of rain on the water. There were no signs that any of them had caught a fish, nor was there any sign of a nibble. I respect their dedication. All the fair weather canal walkers had been put-off, but they stuck to their task. I suppose if their main task is watching water, it doesn't matter if some of it comes from the sky, especially as their umbrellas were large enough to keep them quite dry.

The canal boats were all snuggled down, with their tiller decks enclosed in the equivalent of a macintosh. Smoke was coming from a some of the chimneys and there is something very comforting about the smell of a coal fire. One or two boats passed by, steered by people wrapped in waterproofs, wearing Tilley hats but they seemed content enough.

In a way there was something cosy about the whole scene. The weather wasn't extreme or fierce - it was just wet

I might not enjoyed being sprayed  by passing cars on wet slippery roads, whilst riding my bike but walking (or running) in the rain is different. I enjoyed today's activity.

Juneathon 2011 Day 11: Localism vs Cosmopolitism

2011 Streak 162/365: Walk - 4.47 miles, Time 1hr 35min, Weather - blue sky, white clouds, coolish breeze

Drain - Piccotts End

I have no idea whether Hemel Hemsptead drains Nos 1-3 still exist or how many there were above 4, but I am delighted this has survived. It reminds of of the time when Hemel had its own iron foundry and the independence of local communities. Intimations of past ages often come through these small details rather than the big houses and monuments which are preserved as heritage statements. In my own obtuse way I will sometimes find an old weathered brick wall more interesting than a room in a stately home, all carefully dressed and furnished with appropriate decorations.

But back to the drain. I like the 8 bar design to accommodate the 8 letters in Hempstead - excellent. 

Finding pleasure in these local details makes me think I lead a restricted life. I vacillate between the view that you can see the universe in a grain of sand and the whole web interconnectedness  is accessible from any  and every spot, to thinking that there is a big interesting world out there, with so much to be seen.

This internal debate came into sharper focus today as I read of the death  of Patrick Leigh Fermor. I cannot fully express my admiration for someone who could, at the age of 18, set out to walk from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople as the courage and assurance needed to do such a thing is quite beyond me. The two books he produced about his journey (A time of gifts and Between the woods and the water) are well worth reading (I especially like the disjunction of a youthful adventure being recollected and written about when he was in his sixties).

I look at Hemel Hempstead drain covers and he traverses the whole of Europe - not a lot of difference really!