Heart Rate And The Time Of Day

So my current plan is base training- a period of slow easy running that leaves me fairly fresh at the end of each session. For this I use my HRM as a guide to exercise intensity and to tell me when me to slow down. So I have been paying close attention to my heart rate than normal and to my surprise have found quite a variation between morning and afternoon.

The past four runs have been at roughly the same pace but the average heart rates have been: 146, 156, 150, and 145 bpm. The middle two runs were in the afternoon, the other two in the morning. The morning runs were at a lower rate yet the perceived exercise level was the same. There has to be a slight caveat as they were four different routes (and the 156 route was probably a bit more hilly than the others) but they were similar enough to make comparisons . I can think of no other confounding factors as the time between eating and running was about the same in all cases and certainly temperature was not an issue (as it might be in the summer where afternoon heat can raise the heart rate).

Now four runs are not enough to draw any conclusions but they do indicate that there might be something going on. It is probably not important, just a part of normal diurnal rhythms, but it is of passing interest - not because it makes any difference to training but because it is slightly counter intuitive. The evidence point to the afternoon as the time of peak athletic performance (just look at the time of day records are set) and one would therefore assume that when the body is working at maximum efficiency, for any given speed would require proportionately less effort and hence need a lower heart rate. Instead it looks as if everything revs up a bit during the course of the day, including the heart for the same level of output.

Rootling around on Google I found a newspaper article by someone who had observed exactly the same pattern (the accompanying photos raised the additional question of why her dress sense was also worse in the morning). But there are also straightforward articles that describe the factors that can affect heart rate and include the time of day. From the world of running there is this from Peter Pfitzinger, and from world of professional football referees (not a phrase I thought I would ever use in this blog) this.

But the body is never simple and this very small scale study on cyclists found that although the time of day affected performance it did not affect heart rate. Now a sample size of 8 is not much larger than my single anecdote, nevertheless it does indicate that the diurnal effect might not be quite so straightforward.

The key point though is does it matter?

In practical terms No - the heart rate is a minor detail in the circadian pattern that makes no difference to when or how you should train. Even the larger circadian changes should not effect the time you like to train (as was concluded in  this paper). 

However it does show that using the heart rate as a proxy for the level of effort should be treated with caution. As a rough indicator, where a few beat either way are neither here nor there, it is fine but if followed too rigidly it could be misleading and give a false sense of certainty about what the body is doing. Almost all the articles I have read about heart rate training have treated the numbers as stable and reliable (eg you have a definite maximum heart rate for each type of exercise) whereas they not only vary at different times they fluctuate daily.

This page from the 'Physiology of sport and exercise' has an interesting table of the ways heart rates can vary. Never mind the time of day the most startling factor is sleep. The difference between 8 hours and six hours could be 10 beats - now that might well be something I should pay attention to.

The New Year Begins Here

A new month!

Oh boy do I need this marker; this excuse to say: start again - have a new beginning. So far the year has been rubbish - not just cold but unrelentingly grey. For two months there has been nothing but heavy skies and bleakness to weigh down my spirits and tip me into some sort of Scandinavian gloom (a thought that came to me when I watched Kenneth Brannagh playing Wallander). I have gained no running consistency and have only been ticking-over, just a few km a week, feeling heavy and sluggish.

But that is now gone, swept away by a new start.

I have a new plan - well actually it is the same plan of completing a marathon training schedule but the time has been shifted so that I will race in the autumn. Before that I will put in two months of base training to get myself into good habits and build fitness.

Today I ran for an hour, much slower than I have run for ages and felt happy to have remembered, the lesson I always forget, that slow is good. (Without a conscious resetting my runs always return to the mean - that steady mid pace that does not achieve too much). The sun was out and the water sparkled as it flowed over the top of the lock gates. Everybody I passed seemed that much more relaxed and there were a few smiled acknowledgements, whereas on bleak days everybody seems to hunker into themselves. So it was actually a fairly easy day to make a new start and mark my diary with 'DAY 1' in heavy capitals.

That does not matter. The important thing is it has been done and the year has now begun (again).

Barefoot Running Has Been Getting Attention

When did running form become such a hot topic?

Over the past few months arcane debates within the running community about forefoot vs. heel strike, Pose, barefoot running, minimal shoes have seeped into the mainstream media:

On John Stewart's Daily Show there was an interview with Christopher McDougall author of 'Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen' As well as describing the incredible feats of endurance of the Tarahumara tribe of Mexico, it describes the effect on him of following their ways and abandoning his hitech trainers. Before he could manage only limited mileage before injury, whereas now he is injury free.

The book seems to have caught on and there have been a number of articles about it including this nice piece on the New York Times website The Roving Runner Goes Barefoot, which includes a video of the journalist going for a barefoot run with Christopher McDougall.

Of course, for all of us, and especially the press, products are a major focus of attention, so there have been many lifestyle/living features on
Vibram Fivefinger shoes and the fact that these shoes have been more successful than the manufacturer believed possible (they were originally designed for boating) shows a movement is developing.

Even so I was surprised when barefoot running was a topic on drivetime radio. But I don't know whether this means it is going mainstream or whether it is seen as one of those quirky stories put in to amuse (probably the latter). The trigger was research published in Nature on the different forces experienced when running barefoot as opposed to shod. They interviewed the lead author Daniel Lieberman and mostly it was fairly jokey dwelling on things like the practical problems of running barefoot, such as dog poo. However when the interviewer tried to summarise the research as showing that barefoot running lead to fewer injuries, Lieberman was very clear in stating that it showed no such thing as it merely showed the different forces at play. He did not want to stretch the evidence too far but as the press tend to rewrite press agency material and as
Reuters led the story with "Runners who eschew shoes may be less likely to do serious injury to their feet", that might be a difficult line to hold.

However what he said was interesting as this video shows:



However it is very easy to get carried away with such ideas.

As a corrective I would like to offer this excellent article on running form: an interview with Jay Dicharry, which plays down the importance of where the foot lands.

Taking The Treadmill Out Of The Gym

I always like to keep up-to-date with the stupid; but sometimes I am a little behind the trend, so I apologise if this is old news.

At first I thought it was just an elaborate piece of whimsy but it is more than that: it is an elaborate piece of whimsy with added engineering. They have taken something jokey and made it solid. With me it would have been a pub conversation, an amusing concept conjured after a few beers that would have been lost in the evening’s haze.

I have a sneaky admiration for people who not only remember these ideas but also add real work. They make the world a brighter place.

We need more playfulness.

Bike Forest website shows they have a number of such silly projects - or kinetic sculptures, as I think the are called.

A Year of Broken Things

This has started-off as the year of broken things: nothing too serious, nothing that can’t be repaired, but nevertheless frustrating.

Number 1 the internet – well perhaps not the whole internet, just my access to it. It started being intermittent over Christmas and stopped completely on 6th of Jan. Oh the problems of the bad weather – the engineers were all backed up and no one was available for a whole week! As it is one of the modern commandments that thou should be patient (that way you get less buggy software), I settled down to wait. The visit of the engineer coincided with more snow and it took more time getting his van away than fixing my problem. He just reset the modem said it was OK but didn’t do a lot. The internet only worked again for a few hours. Then nothing. Anther call, another wait for an engineer: but this time only for three days. The new engineer took one look at my modem, declared it knackered, replaced it and now everything is fine.

So I can continue blogging again.

Number 2 the car. This was all my own fault, and is if I haven’t demonstrated my own stupidity to myself often enough, this was a little reminder for the new year. A simple trip to Watford but unfortunately there was a big smash-up on the motorway. When I realised we would be stuck for some time I turned the engine off but forgot I had the headlights on (it was a gloomy grey day). The battery drained and I was unable to restart the engine, so I had to push the car to the hard shoulder and wait for assistance. Unfortunately the traffic was so badly backed-up they closed access to the motorway so the breakdown van could not get on for some time and after that could only crawl towards me. As a result it took 4 very cold hours to be rescued.

Number 3 me. I am sitting here with a sore throat, blocked-up nose, painful head, coughing as I type. Around my chair is a pool of self-pity (the true symptom of man-flu) as I realise that my running schedule is in danger of crumbling away, even though I know I will soon be mended

So 2010 has stated with a little moral reminder: things fall apart but eventually they can be fixed. I am going to take this to heart and make the mantra for the rest of year: “patience, patience, patience”.

Food Rules

I have written about Michael Pollan before and no doubt will do so again because food is a proper subject for a running blog and he is one of the best writers on the subject.

He is probably most famous for ‘In Defence of Food’ with its seven word piece of dietary advice: ‘eat food, mostly plants, not very much’. He also coined the phrase ‘edible foodlike substances’ for a lot of things that fill our supermarket shelves. So in 10 words he has said most of what you need to know about nutrition.

Of course there is more to it than that and sometimes you need a book to explain what those word mean but his rules for eating are basically very simple and self-explanatory:

· Don't eat anything your great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food. "When you pick up that box of portable yogurt tubes, or eat something with 15 ingredients you can't pronounce, ask yourself, "What are those things doing there?"
· Don't eat anything with more than five ingredients, or ingredients you can't pronounce.
· Don't eat anything that won't eventually rot.
· It is not just what you eat but how you eat. "Always leave the table a little hungry," . Many cultures have rules that you stop eating before you are full. In Japan, they say eat until you are four-fifths full. Islamic culture has a similar rule, and in German culture they say, 'Tie off the sack before it's full.'
· Families traditionally ate together, around a table and not a TV, at regular meal times. It's a good tradition. Enjoy meals with the people you love.

(The only amendment I would make would be to substitute ‘a great grandmother’ for my great grandmother, who I am sure would not have recognised all the exotic fruit and vegetables we now take for granted).

My excuse for bringing this up again is that he has just published another book with more pithy advice on eating. (Food Rules) uses maxims gathered from readers of the New York Times to guide us on our way and make us think about the way we live. The background to the project is explained here and some examples are here. None of them are as good as Pollan’s original seven words but many of them are successful in condensing a way of living into a simple rule of thumb, and that is always pleasing.

I am struck between the parallels of writing about food and writing about running. Essentially all you need to know can be distilled into very few words. Running and eating are both things the species has been doing very well since its inception (otherwise we wouldn’t be here), so we only need to be reminded of a few simple rules. But for both there are shelves full of literature (more for food, obviously, but the comparison still holds), ranging from science to anecdotes, encyclopaedias to top tips. In both cases the interested reader is happy to continue reading essentially the same information presented in different ways with new twists and find it fascinating and inspiring. In both cases there are lessons that can be directly applied,

In more than one way running and food are deeply entwined.

The New Year

A New Year; a new beginning but still very cold!

Much as I enjoyed my off-season I knew it could only be for a short time and that as soon as New Year began so would a new regime. Christmas had given me time for some re-evaluation but the break meant that I was keen to make the start
My main conclusion had been about the need for variety and to think of training as a series of waves (building up, falling back a little then building again). I have therefore started a 16 week schedule, which has a pattern of three weeks of increasing effort followed by a comparatively easy week. Within the programme is the standard mixture of long slow runs, steady runs, hills, speed, and threshold. But it is good to follow someone else’s ideas because left to myself I would do too many similarly paced runs of similar length.

Whether I actually race at the end is a moot point (I have a terrible record of ending up with coughs and wheezes and finding the actual race rather unpleasant). For me the object is to test my discipline in sticking to a programme and finding out if I can break my two hour psychological block (I seem to fall to pieces after that time).

Already there has been a result as I have rediscovered the pleasure of the short session - I had quite forgotten that a 20 minute run is just enough to make you feel you have put in some work whilst leaving you feeling fresh for the rest of the day. Over the years I have done too much steady plodding, thinking I had to run for at least 40 minutes every time. I had forgotten one of the golden rules of training is to do as little as is possible to achieve your objective and that short sessions can be good.

So I feel I have made a good start to my one running resolution of 2010, which is to look afresh at what I do, examine that which is merely habitual and try to recover the attitude I had when I first started, when everything was new.

Off Season

This is the last day of the year and I notice that just one more post will bring the annual total up to the nice round number of 90. Hmm so now I must think of something to say.

I could of course write about all the running I have been doing and exercise I have been taking but there would be no words – only a blank page. I have been doing nothing. Christmas has been a period of eating, drinking, people coming, more eating and drinking, more people coming, etc. Although there have been times when I could have gone out a combination of physical lethargy and bad weather meant I really did not feel like it.

Surprisingly I am not beating myself up about this because I have classified the time as ‘Off Season’ – and I am sure it is a good thing. The balance I am always trying to strike in running is between consistency of effort, the necessity of running regularly, and keeping fresh, maintaining enjoyment. I know I have a deep need to exercise: to feel alert and well but I do not want it to be merely functional and feel like a chore. I want it to be enjoyable.
The best way to achieve this is to be smart with my regime and plan for variety. There should not only be a mixture of activities to cover strength and flexibility as well as stamina, within the single discipline of running there should also be changes. There needs to be different challenges to keeping things fresh: new routes, hills, more speed, slower and longer, arbitrary targets. (My resolution for 2010 is to be better at this).

But I also think there has to be a pattern of peaks and troughs of intensity and sometimes there needs to be a break: hence the idea of an off-season and Christmas is a good time for this.

Some of my Christmas reading time has been spent flicking through my collection of running books: picking up the odd idea, reinforcing my belief that what I do is worthwhile, reaffirming myself as a runner, and most importantly letting my imagination roam. When reading these books I picture myself running freely and easily, and feel the sensation of possibilities. It whets my appetite makes me keen to start the New Year with a new programme and to look forward.

The break has reminded me that the imagination needs as much attention as physical mechanics. After all, in the words of Yogi Berra, 90% of what we do is half mental.

My Own Little Running World

Although I was surprised to see someone running on the snowy, icy roads I don’t think I should have been. There are many people far more dedicated than me, with an iron resolve to keep to a schedule and not let a little bit of bad weather get in the way. Some enjoy the clear crisp air and the challenge of running through snow and find the same joy we had as kids tobogganing down the slopes or throwing snowballs. Others, to whom a run is as fixed a part of the day as eating or drinking, just go out of the door because that is what they always do.

I am not in the first camp. Although I love snowy days, their beauty, the stillness and the way they bring people together, I am cautious when moving around: very aware of the dangers of falling. I prefer to be in my walking boots with their ridged and grippy soles.

As for the second group – I have never been on a streak. I think the highest number of consecutive days running is five. (A pathetic number perhaps but inevitable because of my belief in rest: even at my highest level of training I want two rest days a week.) So I am deeply impressed by those who run every day. I admire their discipline and sense of purpose, even their eccentricity.

A prime example is Ron Hill who has run at least a mile a day for the past 45 years, whatever the weather, whatever the injury or illness (famously he ran after a car crash with a cracked sternum or after a bunion operation using crutches). Now there might be a fine line between self-discipline and nuts but he is still a hero. I look upon such people as if they are a slightly different species: near enough for me to be able to recognise what they do but far enough away for me to know I could never do the same.

I know the area where I operate – keeping going, pushing myself a little but not to the extremes. Others go further and faster, others can endure more hardship, and others have better balance and can run on snow and ice. Good luck to them I like to celebrate their achievements but I have my own running world and with that I am content.


HAPPY CHRISTMAS.

Snow Day

Not a day for running. I thought this self evident and had not a flicker of interest in putting on trainers.

Putting on walking boots and taking snow pictures was a different matter and I loved being out. The air felt clear and crisp, roads had very few cars, and people were talking to each other. I don't know why it takes snow to make us all more neighbourly but it does. It seems natural to talk about the weather when you pass someone in the street ("not at all like June is it" said an old boy, as he carefully watched every step in case he slipped), it is fun to help to push cars that are stuck and there are also little stories ("we would not have come out if we didn't have a sick rabbit we need to take to the vet").

But then something strange: there in the distance was a man with a hat, tracksters, and sweat-top jogging slowly and deliberately along the pavement. Why would you do that? I could not work out the benefit: you cannot move very fast or easily because you have to be very careful not to slip and the underfoot ice is rutted and uneven, your feet get raw and icy, and the routes are limited because the side streets are too deep in snow. Also the training benefit must be extremely marginal.

But there is no escaping it - this has me marked down as a faintheart.

A Matter of Definition

This past year a common pattern for Saturday has been: breakfast, a bit of faffing, then out of the door for my standard 10km run along the canal. I then, red-faced and rather sweaty, buy a paper from the shop at the bottom of my road. When I hand over the money I will be asked if I have been jogging and I will smile say yes and add something like 'got to keep at it' and then leave.

I like this interaction and I am quite happy to describe myself as a jogger. It doesn't bother me at all, yet some people I know get a bit upset in an "I am a runner not a jogger" sort of way. They want to make a distinction of commitment. To them a jogger is someone who runs as part of a mix of keep-fit activities. Their aim is health rather than the run itself, whereas for the runner improved health is merely a by-product. You run because you are absorbed by the whole experience and it brings insights you would not otherwise find. Somehow 'jogger' doesn't convey this sense of purpose. It is not a serious label.

I can understand the sensitivity as we all liked to be defined in a way that matches our internal image. On the other hand a dispassionate observer, looking at me pass, would know nothing of my commitment or purpose; they would see someone moving at a fairly easy pace, someone for whom the word jogger would seem appropriate.

But words are important and their definitions can be contentious. I thought of this when reading the story of a jazz fan wanting a refund because he thought Larry Ochs played contemporary music and not jazz.. In all sorts of ways this is wonderfully bizarre (the idea of people wanting their money back if they didn’t like what they heard would be a hugely subversive change to the normal ticket contract). What sort of health warning could you put on your posters for someone who says:

The jazz purist claimed his doctor had warned it was "psychologically inadvisable" for him to listen to anything that could be mistaken for mere contemporary music.

And what sort of trauma could result from exposure to the wrong kind of performance? It makes no sense but I am amused by the agonizing: “Even if I could listen to Andy Shepherd when he plays with Carla Bley, could I still listen to him when he plays with Joanna McGreggor? Hmmm”. (Actually the answer is probably yes because he is always an inventive, lyrical saxophonist whereas the psychologically fragile man is probably scared of a rumbustious, disintegrating form of free jazz - and Larry Ochs does sound like this)

The funniest thing though is calling-in the police to adjudicate – not the obvious the place for music related problems or any adjudication on arts policy and I can’t believe contemporary music is part of their basic training. It would be like me calling a local park keeper to decide if I was running or jogging.

Sunshine and Mood

Oh what a pleasure it is to be out and feel the wind on your face and see everything illuminated by a clear bright light. After so many days of heavy grey skies and seemingly endless rain my spirits are quite lifted.

I don't know how much a feeling of well being is linked to the weather (it is certainly possible to run on miserable days and enjoy it) but I know I feel better if the sun is shining. Light has a big effect on my mood and I can feel low if there are too many overcast days. So it is important to grab those moments when it is bright and get out there.

I posted today's picture because I like views where the land opens out and you can see patches of light. At the bottom, on the path you can some standing water, of which there is plenty as it is still very wet underfoot. Further along one of the tracks usefully illustrated a geography lesson on how rivers form the landscapes. The fallen leaves initially formed a soaked mushy top layer but with the heavy rain the water flowed down the track in a stream and cut the mulch into channels. You could clearly see how, even on a fairly uniform surface water meanders. Soft geomorphology. If it had been a grey day perhaps I would have been irritated by the splashy, sloppy wetness of it all but in the sun I just saw water at play and my mind played as well, remembering my own lessons of getting water to run down a sheet of glass.

I often wonder what I think about when I am running or cycling. I am slightly jealous of those people who say they get their best ideas when running or the journalists who say they use the time to plan their next article. For me it doesn't work like that as mostly my mind is blank with interruptions of random observations. But I like the periods of nothingness - when the rhythm takes over and you get lost in the steady repetitive pattern.

There are of course all sorts of things that crop up and require immediate attention, like how to avoid the dog which seems determined to block your path or how to pick your way amongst the potholes and puddles but these come and go quickly. It is a continual process of tune-in, tune-out (or wax on, wax off). All my thoughts come and go when I am running and nothing stays in focus for very long. Even if I have something on my mind I do not think of it coherently, fragments float in and out in a distinctly non-linear fashion.

But this is why running is refreshing: the mind freewheels , loosens up and escapes its normal channels; which brings me back to the weather. When it is bright everything feels just that little bit freer

Running to Bookshops - No More

And so it has finally happened Borders UK has gone into administration and the options for those of us who like browsing in bookshops will be reduced. I am saddened even though it is odd to be writing this about Borders, who, when they first came to Britain, were seen as part of the problem: a big pile-them-high merchant who would squeeze the life out of the small independents. Now they in turn have been squeezed by a bigger pile-them-high merchant in Amazon … so goes life.

I started to like Borders from 2000 when I realised that Waterstone's had radically changed. This was symbolised by the sacking of Richard Topping, their Manchester manager, for refusing to reduce the number and range of titles he carried. Previously I enjoyed Watersone's and thought it had improved the standard of bookselling in the country (I am old enough to remember when the only place to buy books in some towns was W H Smith and if you ordered a book it took weeks to arrive) but I then started to think of their dark-wood shelves and subdued décor as an affectation: a self-conscious referencing of a gentleman's library, whilst the brasher blond wood fittings of the Border's shops, with books piled everywhere seemed more honest. Yes we sell in bulk, it seemed to say but there is a lot of stuff here and we have chairs and a coffee shop so you can take you time sifting through it.

My lingering affection for Waterstone's was then further frayed in 2005 when they sacked a senior bookseller for some fairly mild comments in his personal blog. So it happened that I preferred using Border's (there are no independents in my area). But over the past few years you could see things were not going well and stock started to reduce. No longer were there piles of stuff, shops were rearranged and shelves disappeared. This has been particularly marked in the last year where there has been more space devoted to the offers ( 3 for 2, buy one get one half price, 2 for £10) and non-book items whilst the stock behind has become thinner and thinner.

But why am I writing about bookshops on a running blog?

The answer is that, as unlikely as it might seem, Borders in Watford is a significant part of my running landscape. From my home, along the canal it is about 10 miles away, a nice distance for a longish run, along a route I never tire off. I have been doing it regularly for 5 years with the affection that can only come from familiarity, especially as it is associated with another institution: the family meeting. I meet my wife at the in-store Starbucks (she goes by car and brings me a change of clothes) and we discuss our joint projects and plans, and check off our progress. A lot of it is mundane such as jobs that need doing so the list could be something like downstairs blind - fixed; treating the garden fence - still outstanding; but sometimes we talk more speculatively about what we should be doing and where we should be going. On these topics we rarely reach conclusions but they need to be discussed because the real topic of these meetings is to try to work out how we can support each other better. And that is very important.

Borders brings three things together: browsing, running and relationship maintenance - a strong combination. However things always change and there are many other good locations (pubs for example). Borders might be soon be no more but the meetings will continue and I still like the idea of running to them.

Shiny, Shiny Things

My bike is nothing exotic as it is neither super fast, feather light nor made from carbon or titanium. The paint scheme is pleasantly retro and the material is old-school steel and as such I think it rather nice. It is designed for hacking about and it suits me fine. There are details that make it interesting, for example you can see that the designer came from mountain biking and the wishbone seat stays make it look like an overgrown mountain bike frame from about 1990. But that is not important - all that matters is that it rides quite well.

The only reason I mention this is that last week it sparked an interesting conversation. I was cycling through the industrial area, near the end of a ride when the driver of an Audi slowed down and indicated that he wanted to ask me something.

“I see you are riding a Plane X bike” he said “How do you find it? Only I am going up to their place at Doncaster today and was thinking of getting one of their bikes”

So I told him about the bike and what I knew of the company and then we started talking more generally. He had recently come back into cycling and wanted the excitement of some new equipment. His existing bike was custom made steel but he thought it a little large and it was old and he was tired of it. Sometimes I think when we go back to a passion after a break we need the stimulus of the new, the sense of a fresh start.

“You know that ever since I decided to get a new bike I am always looking at what people ride and noticing.” I could relate to that because the same thing happens to me: if I am buying a new toy one of the pleasures is the anticipation stage when you look and compare and gather enough information to allow your heart to make the decision.

We then moved moved from equipment to more general things like motivation and objectives. As he had just started back he was full of the enthusiasm that comes with rediscovery but what was keeping him focussed was a challenge. He wanted to cycle, with a friend, from their home near Newcastle to Edinburgh and back in a day; approximately 230 miles, with hills. A serious enterprise that made me realise how limited my own ambitions, or capabilities, are -if I did the trip one way, in a day, I would be extremely happy. But we all have to have our own horizons.

We then parted ways, him to Doncaster me to home but it had been a cheery conversation, all the more enjoyable because it had been unexpected and random. It left thinking that the big difference between running and cycling is the enjoyment of cycleporn, ie an obsessive interest in well designed objects, a hierarchy of desirability and a susceptibility to brand image. There is both good and bad to it. The bad is consumer ism, whilst the good is an aesthetic sensibility: the appreciation of the beauty of something that works both well and elegantly. No matter how hard running magazines and manufacturers try to push the latest developments it is not the same. The kit is still no more than: shoes, shorts, socks and a top. A bike can look stylish all by itself but a runner….Well actually I prefer not to look at my reflection if I happen to be passing a shop window.

No one has ever stopped me and said “I see you run in Asics, how do you find them?” and no one ever will. The manufactures might claim the all sorts of technological advances for their trainers but the main criterion is whether they fit. In other words it is all about the human body and how it moves, not how well the equipment works. In that there is a sort of purity and that is why I run.

But I like shiny things as well - so I also cycle.

A Feeling of Space

A postscript to my last post about the restorative powers of landscape: you do not need imposing natural grandeur for it to be refreshing, sometimes the domesticated views of the Home Counties can work their magic just as well. The view does not even have to be of natural features, small picturesque villages can also lift the spirits.

Today I went for an meandering cycle ride, with the only plan being to loop around some nearby villages. In every case I found something pleasing, whether it was a pond, a green, a cricket pitch on the green, or just a churchyard. The heart of each village had open space, old buildings, a human scale and felt restful.

The picture comes from the churchyard in Flamstead, a village listed in the Domesday Book. All was quiet and it was hard to believe that only a short distance away was the M1, heavy with traffic. A neat contrast as one space invites you to wander and contemplate and is thus refreshing, whilst the other demands concentration and has constant pressure from people in all the other vehicles.

This started me wondering whether one of the key issues for mental recuperation , as well as the beauty of natural landscapes, is the feeling of space and not being crowded or rushed. Sometimes in urban areas one can be hemmed by all the other people, wrapped-up in their own worlds, not interacting but intruding. One can be deprived of clear sight lines and subconsciously this feels pressurised. In such circumstances it is difficult to clear the mind

Today I had no problem with crowds as it was on small lanes and it always surprises me how it takes only a short step away from the beaten track for crowds to disappear. I find this when I run. Around Ashridge the parking spaces can be full and there can be quite a few people on nearby paths, strolling, walking their dogs or just messing about but a short distance further in people melt away and you feel you have the woods to yourself. Selfishly I'm actually quite pleased that many people do not want to move far from their cars.

Looking at nature

Most of the pictures on this blog are of canals and trees, in other words natural surroundings (even if canals are man made). It is the way I think of my runs - chugging along looking at trees and water, passing people who are outside to enjoy themselves. I think of my standard run as 1 hour along the canal but in reality less than half the time is spent on the towpath as I have to get there and it is 16 minutes away. But the streets on the way tend to pass in a blur and I think of them as a preamble (word chosen carefully to reflect my running speed) that has to be got through. It is a bit odd as it is all running and everything should be of equal value.

Now I find there might be a good reason for this: nature is better for your state of mind.

"Attention restoration theory" is the current rebranding of the idea that a walk in the woods can help refocus your thoughts. Think of the Romantics tramping the Lake District or Thoreau at Walden and know the idea has been around for a long time but to be contemporary it has to have a three letter acronym so it is now ART. ART hypothesises that nature engages our attention and our sense of beauty in a way that places no load on the prefrontal cortex. In other words the mind can freewheel and give our directed-attention faculties a chance to recuperate. In contrast a walk in an urban environment is full of stimuli that require immediate attention and is therefore not so restful.

Last year this was tested in an experiment at the University of Michigan. A group of people were given some backwards number tasks that required a deal of concentration. After the first session they took an hour walk either in an arboretum or along the streets of Ann Arbor, after which they took more tests. Whilst everyone's scores improved those of the nature walkers improved significantly more than those who had gone downtown. A second experiment cut the walking, instead the participants looked at pictures of either nature or urban scenes in their break. Again those who had looked at the nature scenes improved more.

So there you have it. If you want your run to have the maximum restorative effect you should search out routes containing natural beauty. Any run is obviously good but some places just make you feel that little bit better.

Scientifically proved!

I Used to Enjoy Reading Julie Welch

If you asked me a couple of days ago to name my favourite running books 'Long distance information' by Julie Welch would have been on the list. It starts with her, at the age of 48, discovering she is capable of completing a long distance cycle ride, without much preparation. After that adventure she embraces the idea of a physical challenge and takes up running culminating with a long distance run in France, retracing memories from her childhood. It is mostly a memoir, both amusing and touching, but framed by the run. As such it successfully illustrates the way that running by a mixture of rhythm and steady exertion can liberate the mind and help us see things more clearly and it speaks to me of things I value in running.

But my good will to the author is now shattered and I am totally baffled that someone who wrote so convincingly about the way running could transform the life of a middle aged woman could write so spitefully about middle aged men who jog. Admittedly it is part of the press campaign to ridicule Gordon Brown in every way possible(and she does spend an awful lot of words mocking the way he looks when out for a run) but the conclusion is that middle aged men should not run. They should stick to the traditional, more dignified pursuits of bridge, gardening or a bit of bowls and she describes jogging as a modern plague brought to us by the Americans before delivering this dire health warning.

But Gordon Brown is in his late 50s - not an age to hurl yourself into a fitness regime from scratch.

It isn't good for the ageing knees, it will inflame sciatica and it risks bringing forward the date of a hip replacement.

Most worryingly, the sudden strain on ancient heart valves can occasionally be fatal.

The implication is that after you have reached a certain age you should fade away to gentle irrelevance and not strain yourself too much because it might be dangerous. I can almost feel the metaphorical pat on the head and the "there, there dear. Now you mustn't overtax yourself" (plus of course concern that you wrap up warmly and wear a vest).

This is so wrong.

Every time I see someone out on the road, man or woman, young or old, struggling with their run but still trying, I want to offer support. Every time someone manages to break a personal barrier and for example manages to run for fifteen minutes without walking, they are right to be proud. Every time anybody makes the effort I think their achievement should be appreciated.

The most important thing is to continue to try. It doesn't matter what at, it just matters that you continue to strive. Running is good, people should be supported and Julie Welch in this one mean spirited article has undone much of the good of her other writings.

It is such a shame.

Sports News is Always About Football

I was going to start this post with: "I am in despair" before I realised I was 'in despair' only two posts ago. Damn, I really am turning into a grumpy old man. I must either try to control this and make a deliberate effort to see the sunny side or take my miserablist self outside for a walk and tell him he will only be allowed back if he is clear eyed and sharp, not at all if he is merely gloomy. As one of my core beliefs is that running lifts the spirits and helps you connect with the world in a more positive way, I cannot constantly be holding my head in my hands.

Anyway back to today's peeve and just like two posts ago it is not about running, or my own experiences; it is to do with the way sport and exercise is talked or written about. In this case the way football dominates the airways and sucks the oxygen away from other, more interesting, topics.

This morning the sports bulletin in the Today programme carried a piece about the UK Sport’s World Class Performance Conference, which brings together top coaches from all disciplines so they can exchange knowledge. Fair play to Today for picking up on this item but the interview with the representative was lamentable. He was allowed to state the purpose of the meeting but after that he was only asked about Rafa Benetiz and how it might help him with his bad string of results or what it would say about his decision to field a weakened team in one competition. It was very, very strange, as if the only purpose of the item was to make back-handed, and unrelated, digs at the Liverpool manager

All the time it was frustrating because I really wanted to hear what they would be talking about, what would be the focus of the presentations, and who would be talking. (It is now even more frustrating because the UK Sport website only provides the marketing blurb and no programme).

I am sure I am not unusual in being a back-pack runner who is interested in how the elite reach their high standards and the latest developments in coaching and sports science. There must be many of us who participate in all types of sport, who know how difficult they are to master and are in awe of the top performers. We are curious about how they became so good and want to know both about their methods and the capabilities of the human body. It is a far more fascinating subject than the endless speculation on the current status of a various football manager.

Official Advice on Exercise Pt 2

Official advice on the amount of exercise needed is quite simple:

■ Children and young people should achieve a total of at least 60 minutes of at least moderate intensity physical activity each day. At least twice a week this should include activities to improve bone health (activities that produce high physical stresses on the bones), muscle strength and flexibility.
■ For general health benefit, adults should achieve a total of at least 30 minutes a day of at least moderate intensity physical activity on 5 or more days of the week.
■ The recommended levels of activity can be achieved either by doing all the daily activity in one session, or through several shorter bouts of activity of 10 minutes or more. The activity can be lifestyle activity or structured exercise or sport, or a combination of these.
■ It is likely that for many people, 45-60 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity a day is necessary to prevent obesity. For bone health, activities that produce high physical stresses on the bones are necessary.
■ The recommendations for adults are also appropriate for older adults. Older people should take particular care to keep moving and retain their mobility through daily activity. Additionally, specific activities that promote improved strength, co-ordination and balance are particularly beneficial for older people.

That’s all there is.

When I first read them I thought they were very soft. There is no mention of vigorous, nothing about raising the pulse rate or breathing heavily and nothing about being able to gradually do more with practice. As for breaking it up into 10 minutes units I thought it was the slippery slope to counting any slight movement as exercise.

But I was probably being a bit snooty because I run and know the feeling of wellbeing that sweeps through you after a good session. I therefore know in my bones that exercise is good for you. So my viewpoint is distorted especially as I have little understanding of the general level of inactivity in the population as a whole or how hard it is to start from a low base.

Reading the 2004 report by the Chief Medical Officer changed my mind (it can be downloaded here) as it shows the evidence base for the recommendations, which can be summarised by this quote:

The World Health Organization has reported that physical inactivity is one of the 10 leading causes of death in developed countries, producing 1.9 million deaths worldwide per year.21 It estimates that physical inactivity is responsible for the following proportions of ‘disability-adjusted life years’ in developed countries:

■ 23% of cardiovascular disease for men and 22% for women
■ 16% of colon cancer for men and 17% for women
■ 15% of type 2 diabetes
■ 12% of stroke for men and 13% for women
■ 11% of breast cancer. Becoming more active can bring substantial benefit.

There is a clear dose-response relationship between physical activity and all-cause mortality, and between physical activity and diseases such as coronary heart disease and type 2 diabetes: greater benefits occur with greater activity participation (see Figure 1). From a public health perspective, helping people to move from an inactive level to low to moderately active levels will produce the greatest reduction in risk. A physical activity energy expenditure of 500-1,000kcals per week (about 6-12 miles of walking for an average-weight individual, compatible with the current physical activity recommendations for adults) reduces the risk of premature death by 20-30%. These considerable health benefits hold for both women and men and are evident even up to the age of 80 years.

This is clear. If more people adopted this regime of moderate exercise there would be dramatic change. However in the back of my mind is the quote from Jerry Morris saying that vigorous activity was necessary and his survey of civil servant showed gardening was not enough. I presume later surveys have different results but is vigorous exercise really unnecessary?

It seems that there is might be some debate. In 2007 the American Heart Association modified its advice by incorporating vigorous exercise and resistance training. The base recommendation was still 30 minutes of moderate activity 5 times a week, but 3 sessions of vigorous exercise could be substituted, if preferred, or moderate and vigorous sessions could be mixed. The Guardian report of this change was exaggerated and had the headline “The era of gentle exercise is over: it’s official you’ve got to work up a sweat”, which is a complete misrepresentation (the NHS Behind the Headlines response is here). Although the American report was merely an enhancement of the existing recommendations, it did acknowledge that there were still some people who believed that only vigorous exercise had a health effect and that recent evidence gives some indication that vigorous exercise is more beneficial for cardiac disease.

However in terms of a public health message the last thing you want is debate. It is important to stand firm with advice and only change it when counter evidence is very clear. Any sign of confusion is an excuse for people to do nothing. You need only look at diet, where there is a perception of scientists always changing their minds (even if this is not the case) to see how that works.

Additionally getting people to move from nothing to something is very difficult and you do not want to make the task seem daunting. (Again diet is the example ‘5 a day’ for fruit and vegetables was chosen as a target that would not be too off-putting; it is not necessarily the optimum).

So I can now see why the current advice is good. It has a the maximum chance of making an impact but it needs to seep into the general consciousness in the same way as '5 a day'. If we walk on average only half a mile a day and 38% of adults have less than 30 minutes of moderate activity a week. There is a long, long way to go.

Official Advice on Exercise Pt 1

The example of exercise advice given from the health perspective was randomly chosen: I searched Google, found the recommendations from an NHS website and the job was done. It was the only article I read and as it lived up (or down) to my expectation by advocating a gentle approach that almost suggests you can exercise without any great effort, I looked no further. But this is not good enough because: 1) it goes against the principle of always trying to disprove your own assumptions; 2) it is only fair to look further.

So here is a record of my search for official advice on exercise to see whether it is clearly presented and easy to find. I will do this in two posts. The first will look at the sources of information on the Web; the second will look at the content of the advice and its consistency.

Sources of Information

1) Directgov is designed to be the citizens portal for government information and advice and is the obvious place to start. The front page has a link to a index page on 'health and wellbeing', where there is a section for 'healthy living' but this doesn't have exercise as a subheading so the only option is a click to another index page: 'more about healthy living'. Here again there is nothing about exercise I can go to 'Change4life' but there is also a heading 'sports facilities and events', which seems at first to be unlikely. Strangely it is what is needed as it contains links to:
keeping fit (young peoples section);
staying physically active (pensions and retirement planning section);
fitness advice on NHS Choices.
At last some information!

There was of course no need to go through the linky links, there is a search box. The search term 'exercise' threw up the 'sports facilities and events' page as the first hit but I ignored it because, at the time, I thought the strap line 'Find a local gym or sports facility and look up local and national sporting events' made it seem irrelevant. However I did strike gold because the next hit was a newslink to the 2004 report by the Chief Medical Officer's on exercise, which I was able to download from the DoH site.

(Totally by the way their search engine is a bit weird. The results for 'exercise recommendations' or 'exercise guidelines' offered 'NHS to offer acupuncture for back pain' as the first result)

2) Change4life. Apparently the Government is spending £75m on this campaign to encourage us to eat more healthily and exercise more. So surely this must be the place for good advice. It is aimed at families so presumably it's written to advise parents on what's good for them and their kids, ie its supposed to be read by adults.

Oh the bright colours! Oh the perky language! It makes you feel like you are being talked at by the presenters of Playdays. Here is the introduction to 'Why Change4Life?'

Well done! Visiting this site is your first step in making a Change4Life, and you're not alone. Lots of people like you are already enjoying making a Change4Life! The way we live nowadays means a lot of us, especially our kids, have fallen into unhelpful habits. This means all of us need to make small changes to eat well, move more, and live longer.

There is so much I could say about this but I will restrict myself to one small question. Why 'unhelpful' when the obvious word is unhealthy? Sometimes a single word can show a rottenness of thought behind the writing. Here is how they explain why we should encourage our kids to be more active:

Activity raises kids’ heartbeats and helps pump blood around their bodies. It’s like a mini workout for their lungs and muscles! It also decreases their chances of getting life-threatening diseases.

I am comatose with despair!

3) NHS Choices LiveWell. This fitness section is a proper grown-up site and actually quite good. The information on the why and how of exercise is clearly laid out and there is a good range of side links to supporting information (eg a link to Sustrans to help people get cycling and a video wall of tips from Olympic athletes). This is the place to find the Government's advice but this is not the end of the story because there are always other places to look.

4) More from NHS Choices. Entering the term 'exercise' in the search box brings up many more pages of advice that are not linked-to from the fitness site. A lot of them are plain pages of text and are thus probably excluded for looking a bit dull but they contain good, solid information. This on what type of exercise? is a good example. ( on a side note this page is not only dated it shows when it will next be reviewed. I wish this practice was more common)

5) Department of Health. This has more background information to support the exercise campaigns. From here you can Chief Medical Officers report as well as the NICE guidelines for health professionals on increasing physical activity. There is also the action plan published february this year, which brings together both the advice and plans to increase activity. This has to be done because the shocking statistics found in these documents show that:

Around 65% of men and 76% of women are not physically active enough to meet national guidelines (to be at least moderately active for at least 30 minutes on 5 or more days a week). 30% of boys and 39% of girls aged 2–15 years do not achieve the recommended physical activity levels for their age (at least 60 minutes of at least moderate- intensity physical activity each day).

Between 1995–97 and 2005, the average distance walked had dropped from 200 to 197 miles per person, per year. The average distance cycled fell from 43 to 36 miles per person per year.

6) Behind the Headlines This is a brilliant NHS site that looks at the actual research findings behind health stories in the news and puts them into context and assess how significant they might be. Although this is not the place for the official government advice it is worth checking So far they have analysed 243 stories related to lifestyle and exercise. If searching for articles about exercise it is important to remember that the search engine covers the whole of the NHS Choices site and so the phrase 'behind the headlines' should be included in the search.

7) NICE. As well as the guidelines for health professionals I mentioned earlier, NICE have produced a report on creating physical environments that support increased levels of physical activity. It can be downloaded from this page, where you can also have access to their background information. This is one of the fundamental issues and shows how any attempt to change peoples pattern of behaviour has far reaching ramification that reach into many other areas of government.

8) NHS Evidence In my rather sad way I got quite excited when I found this search portal for health information that covers published, research, grey literature, guidelines and reports. The results page gives the option of refining by type of publication.

9) Other Bodies. There are all sorts of other bodies that have some sort of stake in physical activity from the well known such as Sports England or slightly more esoteric like the Outdoor Health Forum but I feel that I am wandering away from the core subject of official advice into a thicket of bureaucratic bodies and background information and I know that madness lies there. However I must pass-on my favourite line from the website of the Physical Activity Alliance "Currently, the Alliance has no formal status; there is no legal entity; there are no staff, no premises, no agreed strategy or delivery plan/programme."  Brilliant!