Janathon 2013 Day 30 - Getting near the end

I haven’t listed the day’s exercise as it’s hardly worth it. It has been a token effort: just a few stretches. That is all - but it will have to be enough. It’s getting to the end of the month and I’m running out of steam.  I am though amazed that it is the 30th already.  Time flies! We need a quote to match that idea - and I have one but it is as much about the proper role of education as it is about life disappearing behind us.

Stoicism was a school of practical philosophy whose central idea was to guide people on the path towards living of a virtuous life. It is not overly theoretical (or rather it is only as theoretical as it needs to be) and it believes that true understanding comes with practical application not just through reading (in fact Epictetus writes about the futility of just reading Chrysippus and thinking you are making progress). It is rather different to the western academic tradition as it has evolved and certainly at odds with philosophy as it is currently taught in our universities. However it is its practicality that makes the philosophy as vivid to us now as it was to the people of ancient Greece and Rome as we are basically still the same sort of people. Life is still finite and time rushes by:

“Things tend, in fact, to go wrong: part of the blame lies on the teachers of philosophy, who today teach us how to argue rather than how to live, part on their students, who come to their teachers in the first place with a view to developing not their character but their intellect. The result has been a transformation of philosophy, the study of wisdom, into philology, the study of words.

The object which we have in view, after all, makes a great deal of difference to the manner in which we approach any subject. If he intends to become a literary scholar a person examining his Virgil does not say to himself when he reads that magnificent phrase

Irrestorable, Time flies

‘We need to bestir ourselves; life will leave us behind unless we make haste; the days are fleeting by, carried away at a gallop, carrying us with them; we fail to recognise the pace at  which we are swept along; here we are making comprehensive plans for the future  and generally behaving as if we had all the leisure in the world when there are precipices all around us.’ No his purpose is to note that Virgil invariably uses the word ‘flies’ whenever he speaks of the swift passage of time.” (Seneca, Letters, CVIII, 24)

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.

The New year and Time for a Change

Now is the time to take stock and make plans for the coming year. I like sitting here on a grey winters afternoon, casting my mind forward, imagining the sun and longer days and things I want to achieve.

Following-on from my last post - time really is a gift.

I have been made redundant from work and I must admit that I am not at all unhappy. My lifestyle used to be stupidly wearying, as my typical day was to leave at 6.30 and come home at 7.30. It was grinding and dull and during the week there was time for little else. My whole being yearned for a break and now it has got one - so I will be taking a sabbatical for a few months. Who knows what will happen after that.

As for running, which is after all the purpose of this blog, it is all good and I can start to think long term and aim for a certain amount of consistency.

The last two months of 2007 were stressful and I managed to combine little exercise with eating too much, so my fitness level has taken a dive. No matter - even more it feels as if I am making a fresh start.

I am thus going back to base to build up my general strength and fitness. This is the reverse of base training, which involves lots and lots of easy miles. It is a matter of going to the gym - doing speed work on the treadmill and using the machines to build up my core muscles. A couple of months of this, plus a planned gradual weight loss, should put me in good shape to start building up the mileage for a marathon later in the year.

I have always had the attitude that there are no training runs, i.e. I run for the pleasure of each run, not as a means to an end. That remains, but there is nothing to stop me training for running and then following a schedule. I am quite excited by the idea of trying to improve.

To everyone who reads this I hope you are also excited by the prospect of the New Year and that your plans are fulfilled. May you all have good luck.

Time is a Gift

I found this a quite inspiring conversation:

The son of a long standing family friend was describing how he had moved from fine art to book conservation. In his graduation show he printed a dissertation about the influence of Japan on American artists as Japanese book, with traditional paper and binding. He also produced other books containing photographs, all bound in a similar way. These books were then displayed in an installation of a print works. For him the interest was in submerging himself in a traditional craft and learning how to make something carefully, accurately, and beautifully. He enjoyed the way that people instinctively reacted to and appreciated something well-made. He felt these objects communicated more than his abstract works.

I asked how this gelled with the attitude of his lecturers with their romantic idea of personal expression and individuality. By focussing on skill and producing an object in a traditional way, he was challenging this. He said that one of his lecturers had described him as reactionary but he never sought to challenge their beliefs and was always respectful and that the photographs in the books were within their tradition. Paradoxically, by being self effacing he became more of his own man. After the show a gallery approached and said that they like his work but he knew that he did not want the life of an artist and gave all of his books away. He was just grateful for being given the time and support to develop his skill.

I love the idea of craftsmanship, when something comes together well and with precision and have previously posted on trying to work out the craft in running. I don’t know if there is any, but there is a similarity of trying to do something as well as possible and continually working at it. You loose yourself in the task and in so doing express your personality more fully.

However in the conversation I was really struck by the idea of time being a gift and that for us soft-core runners there is all the time in the world. It need not be a constraint. There is no need to try an force a spring marathon if you do not feel ready. There is the time to progress as slowly as you want, try base training or any other approach, or work on your technique. You can go backwards to go forwards. You can afford to have a long term objective.

Yes time is a gift.

Finding Time

Although I know that consistency is the biggest virtue for a runner, I have always struggled with mid-week runs and have never been able to work out the ideal time.

Early morning is useless as I already get up early enough just to get to work.
I gave up running at lunch time because I did not like the changing and the drying, the bolting of food and water, and limitations in the type of runs that could be done.
The most time-efficient method is to run as part of a commute, but I do not like running with a rucksack as I feel unbalanced and find myself always adjusting the strapping.

The only answer is to run in the evening, which although quite good, requires iron discipline - something for which I am not renowned. When I get back home I feel a bit hungry and a bit drained. The tiredness is mostly mental but the temptation to merely rest and eat is huge. Every time I get out of the door part of me is saying it would just be so much more pleasant to do nothing. That siren voice is still singing as I walk the pre-run walk and through the first few steps of the easy jog. Then something strange seems to happen as the body starts to loosen up - I begin to feel easier in myself. When I have found a rhythm everything feels calmer and I can not only feel happy that I am out, I can feel slightly smug that I have shown resolve.

"One run at a time" I say to myself as if I was some recovering alcoholic. Instead of it being a day at a time, the unit is a week. Each sunday I decide on a quota of runs for the next seven days and during the week I shuffle them according to circumstances. That is all - it is not complicated. Having a few things that can be rearranged or reordered seems to make all the difference.

It is easier in the summer time of course. Wet, dark, cold evenings make overcoming the inertia almost impossible and winter consistency is something I have never mastered. But I should not worry about that now. The whole idea is only to think of one run at a time.