New Beginning

Run - 3.96 miles, Time - 44min, Weather - milder but still grey and bleak

Now there are no excuses - snow and ice have cleared and the temperature has risen a few degrees. For the first time in 8 days conditions are good and it is time to resume training.

Obviously the benefits of some of January's work has now dissipated - but no matter. Always the motto is onwards and upwards. So back to the base training with a gradually build up, every other day. Sometime I will eventually reach a reasonable weekly mileage.

The trouble with base training is that there is no much to report. You chug along, concentrating on your pace to maintain easy breathing, and that is all there is.  You can look around and try to notice something about my surroundings but on many days there is nothing particular. Today was one of those days. I passed a few pedestrians, sometimes I went into the road, sometimes there was space on the pavement. This is hardly the stuff of a gripping narrative!

I beginning to wonder whether I should change my habits and run with music. As my tastes veer to the miserablist most of the songs on my iPod are probably suitable. At the moment I am listening to Gillian Welch. I don't think any of her tracks would make it onto a compilation of best music running music but in the world of base training she might just do a job. We will see.

I didn't take any photos today so I am posting the picture of the moorhen on the slushy ice as a memory of what it has been like this past week.

Disassociation: Music and Memorials

Because of the weather I have been using the gym and running on the treadmill. In some ways it is good training because it forces me to trundle along at a set pace without slacking, and with no chance of being diverted by cows, swans or boats. The downside is that there are no diversions like cows, swans or boats and the treadmill is dull. I can only survive for any time by listening to my ipod.

I still have no favourite running tracks and no idea whether one type of music or rhythm is better than any other. The only thing that matters is that it offers some sort of amusement as its job is disassociation i.e. to keep your mind occupied away from the effort of running. For example by all objective criteria Nico's 'Frozen Warnings' must be one of the most useless running tracks, just about one rung down from John Cage's 4'33": it is slow, dirge like, no strong rhythm, with little tonal variation in her voice. It is, as the title suggests bleak, but haunting and somehow appropriate for the weather and so I think about the weather. Also one of the strange things about Nico's life is that this glamorous figure, ex-model, German exile, part of the Andy Warhol entourage, singer on the first Velvet Underground album, spent her last years sharing a house in Manchester (or Salford to be more precise). I then think of Manchester, which is good because I like Manchester. My daughter is at university there and I think of her. So everything is good and the song did its job - it kept me occupied. Next time it might just sound like a dirge and be totally useless.

The gym is OK but it is important to get outdoors. I still don't want to run because although some of the paths are now clear others are still icy or slushy, so I have been out walking. Although it does not give me the same sense of satisfaction it allows more time for looking and even more disassociation.

I have run past the object in the photo countless times, known it was there, thought of it as just some ornate street lamp, but paid it no real attention. Yesterday I stopped to look. The first surprise was that it was built as a drinking fountain. The second was that it had an inscription saying that it erected in 1835 to commemorate 300 years since the printing of the first English Bible. How wonderful is that? How many memorials are there to the Coverdale Bible in this country? I don't know but I now know we in Hemel Hempstead have one of them

Sad Songs

My daughter wanted to listen to some music on her run and asked to borrow my Ipod. Scanning through the contents she soon came to the conclusion that I had nothing suitable for running. She pointed out, quite accurately, almost all my music is miserable, I listen to very little that is bouncy and virtually nothing that has the driving beat found on most tracks recommended for running

I thought about this when reading I run because I like food's list of favourite running songs and realised I do not have a single song I would recommend as good for running. At the same time, when running, I enjoy almost everything on my Ipod.

It is a real pleasure to put it on shuffle so that you never know what will be next. Songs can sometimes seem fresher when heard against something unrelated. Seeing how long it takes to recognise a new track can be diverting, as is the game of trying to make associations between each piece of music. It does not matter if the music is fast or slow as it's function is to take attention away from the state of your legs and this is how I use it. I take an Ipod on long runs to make them just a little bit easier.

The effectiveness of music in increasing endurance and lessening the perception of pain has recently been tested (an account can be found ,here). It involved 80 people plunging their hand into icy water for as long as they could up to a limit of five minutes (for some reasons ethics committees seem to baulk at the risk of inflicting real physical damage). They did this first looking at a blank wall, then a piece of art, and then some music of their choice. The visual stimulation of art did not affect the length of time people kept their hand in the water (although they said it helped them distract themselves from the pain). However music had a significant effect and pain could be endured longer and felt less.

This is directly applicable to running. Music can help, all you have to do is choose things you like, whatever that may be - even miserable stuff.