The Ebb and Flow of Energy Cycles

Juneathon day 8: run 5.41km time 31min

Today’s Guardian carried a rather alarmist story about the dangers of ultra marathon running. One of the quotes which interested me was from personal trainer Rob Blakeman:

"We're very specific organisms, with very specific requirements and very specific limitations. More training is not necessarily better training. If you do a really tough workout, the next day you often feel as though you have the flu. It's a systemic stress. If you don't allow that systemic stress to subside before you go back to the gym, you break the cycle of improvement."

This ties in with something, again in the Guardian, from the column by Oliver Burkeman, which evaluates self-help advice and life tips:

The truth, according to an important new book, The Way We're Working Isn't Working (out now in the US, next month in the UK), is that we're thinking about this wrongly. High performance isn't about maximising time worked – or time asleep– because it's not about maximisation at all: it's about synchronising with the rhythms that govern our lives. "It would be reasonable to say," one researcher tells the author, Tony Schwartz, "that everything that happens in our bodies is rhythmic until proven otherwise." Marshalling research from across industry, sports, even professional chess, Schwartz demonstrates that what's key isn't managing time, but managing the cycles of energy and focus, rest and renewal.

This is all very well and good but it is not compatible with ethos Juneathon, which elevates as a virtue the daily grind of more miles. So instead of exercising according to the ebb and flow of my energy cycles I went out today for another steady run. it felt harder work than it should have done but the reward is another day being chalked off and the satisfaction of knowing that I haven’t fallen off the wagon yet.

(the other satisfaction was a casual piece of trolley spotting, complete with precise locational information - or road sign, if you prefer).

Juneathon statistics
run 6/8
distance 42.03km

time 4hr 07min

Cycle 1/8
distance 21 miles

time 1hr 32min

Gym 1/8
time 45min

Not The Perfect Doughnut - But Good Enough

Juneathon day 7: run 7.16km time 42min

Geoff Dyer is one of those authors I like and admire without feeling passionate about. He manages to be very artful, write well and make a number of acute observations (that you wished you could have made yourself), whilst giving the impression he is merely knocking off some thinly disguised diary pages.

Today he has an article in the Guardian about living for a short time in New York, finding the perfect cup of coffee and doughnut, and how important they were to his daily routine.

“Nietzsche so hated what he called "enduring habits" that he was grateful even to the bouts of sickness or misfortune that caused him to break free of their chains. Unlike Nietzsche I succumb all too easily to enduring habits. I like to go back to the same few places all the time – then, as soon as I break free of the prison of routine, I am left wondering why I kept going to a place I had stopped enjoying years earlier.”

I can relate in many ways, except many of my habits tend to be self limiting as once I realise I am doing things out of routine rather than real desire, I will stop - for example I had a period of really liking the almond croissants from Cafe Nero but I have not now had one for a couple of years. However in matters of running routine is important.

I have a small number routes I like and I tend to run them again and again. Occasionally I will make a point of trying-out different places, and I enjoy doing that, but most of my runs are meat and potatoes - standard fare. In fact it is all a lot like food. Most of the meals we cook at home come from a fairly standard and often repeated repertoire but every so often we make a conscious effort to try something new. Most of the time we don’t want to think too much about cooking, we want to eat. It is the same with running most of the time I don’t want to worry about it I just want to get out.

So today was along the Nicky Line.

“Delectica had been my base, it was the point from which my sense of familiar and localised happiness had spread. It was the epicentre of my wellbeing – what Marx, in a non-pastry-related context, termed the heart of a heartless world. I've always been dependent on places like this wherever I've lived.”

For me the heart is more the canal than the Nicky Line but the principle is the same.

Juneathon statistics
run 5/7
distance 36.62km

time 3hr 36min

Cycle 1/7

distance 21 miles

time 1hr 32min

Gym 1/7

time 45min

Conservation

Juneathon 6: Gym

Time for some variety: so off to the gym. The idea is to have some balance as running and cycling do everything for the legs and cv and very little for anything else. So today I was concentrating on my arms and upper body.

Other than that there is little to say. it was in the gym for about 45 minutes: 20 minutes rowing, 15 weights, 10 minute stretching. Not an overly tough session.

Walking home I passed the big block of apartments they are building in, what was, the Kodak building. I will not say anything about the looks of the development until it is finished but the sign in the photo is new. Apparently they have designated a small triangle of scrubby land between the road and the flats a conservation area! How very strange. Perhaps conservation is just another word for leaving the grass uncut. Certainly there is no ecological reason for anything here as the site is just over the road from Boxmoor, which is a lovely area of common land, used for grazing and recreation. In the best sense that is a conservation area, this is just silly.

Juneathon stats: 6/6
run 4/6
distance 29.46km
time 2hr 54min
Cycle 1/6
distance 21 miles
time 1hr 32min
Gym 1/6
time 45min

Seeing But Not Seeing

Juneathon Day 5: run 10.96km time 1hr 8min

It is amazing what you don’t see. I was back by the canal today, on a route I have run more frequently than any other. I feel I know it well, and always assumed the were new things to look at because so much is changeable like the boats, the wildlife, and plant growth. I didn’t realise that there are always new things to see because I don’t pay enough attention and miss what is before me.

This decayed iron railing is a case in point. I really cannot count how many times I have run past it but until today I was completely unaware of it. Strangely it is the sort of thing I find of passing interesting. I like seeing signs of previous buildings or activities that have now gone. My guess is that this was once a lock keepers cottage (only based on the fact that it is near a lock), but there is no sign of a house, everything is overgrown with no signs of the outline of the foundations. Standing there alone, the fence now looks odd and out of place.

It got me thinking about how much of the world around me I actually notice. Not enough is the answer. In the same way that Juneathon is forcing me to tackle an exercise deficit, I must find a conscious way of attacking an attention deficit. Just repeating the word 3 time is not good enough.

Juneathon stats 5/5
run 4/5
distance 29.46km
time 2hr 54min
Cycle 1/5
distance 21 miles
time 1hr 32min

Juneathon and Shopping

Juneathon day 4: Cycle 21 miles, time 1hr 32min

No I am not trying to claim shopping as a Juneathon activity, that would be plain wrong. Instead I am claiming the effort in getting to the shops.

It is very simple: I needed a camera bag and the best camera shop in the area is in Watford and so instead of driving there I cycled and thus managed to combine Juneathon with making a teeny tiny reduction to my carbon emissions. Double win.

The ride itself was extremely pleasant - a sunny day with enough breeze to stop overheating. In fact it was one of those days when you toddle along with a song on your lips. I have to add that songs don’t go much further than my lips because I am a hopeless singer. However I will often have a song in my head and sort of hum along.

Today it was ‘Vincent Black Lightening 1952, by Richard Thompson. I love his songs as they always have jagged phrases that can embed themselves in your mind: “red hair and black leather my favourite colour scheme”, “I see angels on Ariels in leather and chrome swooping down from heaven to carry me home”, and something that often pops up when I am running “he was running out of road and he was running out of breath”

So with that and the perfect conditions the journey just whizzed by. It hardly felt like I had Juneathoned.

Today’s photo is of a house I passed in one of Watford’s quiet residential streets. Most of the houses nearby were the traditional tudorbethan or arts and craft homes from a 30s estate, but this stood out because of it was so much more of the era, with its passing nod to both modernism and art deco (i.e the squareness of shape and the wrap around windows from modernism combined with a sunbeam stained glass window and a rounded doorway). The white render was immaculate and on a sunny day, like today, it dazzled.

So in a way this ride was about design from two eras - home building from the 30s and engineering from the 50s. But remember “BSAs, and Triumphs and Nortons won’t do. they don’t have the soul of a Vincent 52”




Juneathon statistics 4/4
run 3/4
distance 18.5k
time 1hr 46min
Cycle 1/4
distance 21 miles
time 1hr 32min

Adaption to Mood

Juneathon Day 3: run 3.08k time 17min

I remember some advice from Joe Henderson about being flexible in your training and adapting it to how you feel on the day. He suggested you run for a mile (to make sure you had shaken all the inertia from your body) and then made a judgement. If you felt tired , then cut it short but if you felt good then why not go further or harder. In other words, within the overall framework of your programme, there should be latitude and you should try to work with rather against your body.

That makes good sense - I am constantly puzzled by how much my mood and vitality can vary from day to day. Today is a case in point, although the sun is shining and everything is well with the world, I feel weary and dull. There is no good reason - it is just how I woke up. So my run was short.

As I had a suspicion it would be a tough day I decided to run round the park, which is a circuit of about 500 metres. I ran for 3 laps to confirm that I did indeed feel very stodgy and so set a target of 3k, which is what I did. Enough to count as a run yet small enough to give me the feeling that I had listened to my body ... to some extent (If I had fully listened to my body I think I would have slept longer).

Today’s photo is of a park seat. It is fairly new and they must have decided that plastic is a cheaper alternative to the traditional wooden seat but something has happened. It looks as if some chemical has been spilt and some of the plastic has dissolved and flowed onto the ground. Most mysterious.

Juneathon Stats: 3/3

run 3/3
distance 18.5k
time 1hr 46min

Day 2: Water Droplets and Dogs

Juneathon day 2: run 8.17km time 47min

Out of the door by 7am - so another early run but not quite as impressive as yesterday. It was the right time to run though. The air was still slightly chilled, the sun was obscured by mist but there was a sense that it would soon clear away and the day would be hot. Everywhere was still damp after yesterday’s rain and the grass was full of water droplets. Today’s picture is just a close-up, trying to show how some of the droplets looked like jewels.

This time of day is obviously one of the peak times for dog walkers and most of them were friendly i.e. we smiled and said hello to each other. All of the dogs were well behaved and showed no interest in running at me. I wonder if there is any correlation between the time people take their dogs for a walk and their conscientiousness as owners and hence the behaviour of their dogs?

Usually dogs and runners do not mix well (unless you are running with your own dog). Small dogs must always be treated with suspicion as they have a tendency to snap at your ankles, run between your feet and cause you to stutter, hop and zig zag. As for retractable leads! Well all I can say is that many a time a dog has been one side of the path and the owner the other and only at the last moment have I seen the trip wire that is a fully extended lead.

But today the dogs are fine.

Juneathon stats:
days 2/2
runs 2
distance: 15.42k
time: 1hr 29min

Juneathon Day 1

Juneathon Day 1: run 7.25k, time 42 min

So it is Juneathon again and oh my do I need its discipline! I have struggled all year to try to maintain a consistent programme but failed, as one thing after another has popped up to derail my efforts. The result is that I feel heavy and sluggish and everything feels a much bigger effort than it should.

This will not do.

Juneathon is thus boot camp - a way of telling myself that I should try harder. But the plan is not to be stupid and push things too hard too fast (that would be the recipe for another collapse of some part of my body). Instead I will try to do something everyday but be fairly easy and relaxed - run gently and mix things up with other activities.

So how did day 1 go?

All I can say is that it went. Not brilliant but it has been done and I managed to get out of the door by 6am. The air was fairly chill and the sky was grey. It did not feel like June. I was expecting a lonely run but was surprised at the number of people around at that time: people walking their dogs, others walking to work, with ID cards swinging from their belts, one man was walking along in a quiet, contemplative way, smoking a cigarette and one other runner. All of us in our own ways preparing for the day.There was even a teenager cycling along on his BMX - that shattered another one of my preconceptions (surely one of the rules of the universe is that, during half-term holidays, all teenagers sleep till late).

I will try to take a photo on all of my Juneathon runs. Today’s is of a wheelbarrow abandoned on the trail. I have no idea why it was there or where it came from. Rarer than a shopping trolley it is just another wheeled object abandoned on a foot path.

More Cake Than Running

It has been a long time since my last post and I feel the need for some sort of placeholder just to show that I am still here. It is not that I have given up running or lost my enthusiasm for writing about it, more a case of other things in life getting in the way.

May is an exciting month: It started with the twenty first birthday of my youngest (who was born on the same day of the year as Karl Marx) , which was followed by the arrival from Canada of my sister and her family, in preparation for the wedding of my elder daughter, next week.

I have been out for a few runs but the aim has been to maintain some level of fitness rather than build. It was a pleasure was to manage a couple of runs with my sister and brother in law, and show them my regular routes. But there is not much to say about steady runs where nothing unusual happens. So I won’t.

A matter of far greater concern and mental tension has been the cake. We made it a couple of months ago and have been feeding it with brandy ever since. Last weekend we added the marzipan and today, whilst all sensible people were out racing 10ks, or such like, we were struggling with the icing. I was more nervous than at the start of a marathon! All the time a voice in my head was saying “this cannot be lumpy and amateurish. This must be smooth and precise.” and all the time my eye was trying to make calculations about tolerance levels and what was acceptable. Sports science tell you that this is not the way to approach any task . If you started a race thinking you had to perfect, you would inevitably trip over your laces and land on your face. But I could not think any other way and certainly could not imagine my way into some sort of icing zone (as I think that requires some sort of expertise). Nevertheless, at the moment, it looks OK. I only hope that in future it will stack-up.*

So there will be another gap of a week or so before my next post and then it will be back to normal and soon it will be time for this year’s Juneathon.

(* what a pleasure it is to use a cliche of business-speak but tell the literal truth)

Lost at Sea

I love stories like this. A man buys a boat and decides to sail from Gillingham to Southampton.He is a total novice and has no navigation aids but sees no problem because it is simple - right? All you have to do is keep within sight of the coast and keep it on your right hand side and eventually you will arrive. Unfortunately he forgot he would be passing the Isle of Sheppy, on the right hand side, and so keeping the coast always on his right meant he went round and round in circles until he ran out of fuel.

Although I am amused by the dumb failure, I secretly admire the spirit of someone who sees no barrier to just giving something a go. Also I can never be too critical of someone, going round and round in circles as metaphorical I have spent large sections of my life doing the same thing. Even my running can feel like that at times.

Just like the sailor I set out on my running journey with one simple rule - if I get out enough and run regularly my fitness will improve and I will run better. The most important thing is consistency and that is all I need to know (and in fact despite an amount of reading and a certain amount of experimentation that is all I really know). But although the rule is true there are very many Isles of Sheppy that can send you off course:

• Go out too hard, fail to build gradually, get injured - break the consistency.
• Over estimate your capabilities, get discouraged - break the consistency
• Get distracted by other things (or just life in general)- break the consistency
• Fail to establish the unthinking habit of getting out the door at a regular time, so you leave it too late in the day - break the consistency.
• Repeat the same runs too often so you loose freshness and enthusiasm - break the consistency.
• Get ill - break the consistency.

There are all sorts of reasons for a stop/start programme, some within your control, some outside. The key is to recognise what is happening and re-plan. The advantage of running is that at any point we can pause, reorient ourselves and make changes. There is no reason to get stuck.

I Do Not Understand Quantum Theory

In which the author’s already tenuous grasp of reality is put under further strain.

My attitude to running technology is conflicted: ideologically I like the idea of running with as few encumbrances as possible - just getting out there and not worrying; but I also like toys.

The only tool I have consistently used is a heart rate monitor, which I principally use to manage my effort on slow runs. Adding speed and distance has been great for keeping records and has cut the time spent on Google maps working out distances, but I have never used the extra information on the run (as everything is about effort level). My engagement with speed and distance has therefore been at the lowest level, I bought a Garmin 50 very cheaply on Amazon, but it has been just fine. Importantly I have never worried about its accuracy. I measured it at the beginning, was happy and have trusted it ever since. This means it has never occupied much of my brain: all I have to do is put on the hrm and watch, which is second nature, and I am out the door.

As I said I like to run with as few complications as possible

That has now changed as the Adidas micoach has introduced a degree of confusion. When I first got it I ran with both it and the Garmin to compare the distance measurement and as I reported the micoach registered a shorter distance. No problem I thought, it is just a matter of adjustment and all I need is a calibration run at the track.

Yesterday I managed to organise myself and run the test (Hemel has a nice track but its opening hours are quite limited). Garmin on one foot, micoach on the other, over three runs (1600m, and 2x800m).

The Garmin was pretty good, 1.67, 0.825, 0.829km (especially as because of some cones I mostly ran in lane 2). The micoach was however way out: 1.88, 0.94, 0.99km. A longer distance!

Today I went for another normal run with both sensors for a further test and again the micoach showed a shorted distance. This is too confusing.

The only explanations I can think of are that either my running style was slightly different on the track and the micoach was more sensitive to the change, or on my normal runs, over longer distances, the micoach suffered some signal interference.

But I am puzzled as I now have something that records distance as both longer and shorter. Truly it must be a quantum device.

Canal Boat Interlude

Last Friday was my birthday and to celebrate I decided to see the canal from a different viewpoint.

I have lost count of the number of times I have run alongside the Grand Union Canal. I never tire of it as everyday brings a fresh view: a new boat, changes in the vegetation, new ducks, or even a fisherman actually catching something. Over time I have developed a great attachment to the place a sense of belonging that I feel I have earned - because I run. But I have never seen it from the water, never used it for its original purpose of navigation by barge.

For my birthday I thought it would be a good idea to hire a boat and see if it is as peaceful on board as it looks from the towpath. From the outside the boats seem to chug along at a gentle walking pace, with the person at the tiller standing almost still, looking relaxed. Nothing can be done faster and there is nowhere else to go. Perfect.

Now after having tried it I can report that it is not quite so simple. For a start it is quit hard work: the locks need a lot of effort to winch up the sluice gates and push the paddles back and forth. On the boat there were only three of us (one for each paddle and one to steer) and although one person could push a lock paddle it required strength. It would not be an issue if the locks are well separated but we had to seven very close together and eighteen in all - the ultimate result was delayed onset muscle soreness, which only goes to show that fitness comes in different forms and exercise can be found in unexpected ways.

I didn't get stiff because I avoided the grunt work: not because of some sort of birthday pass but because I was the least troubled by the idea of piloting the boat into the lock without really knowing what I was doing. But piloting the boat also had its own challenges. Physically there was no problem apart from standing for a long time (not something I normally do as I am either moving or sitting ) but my inexperience forced constant concentration as I tried to keep in control of the steering: trying to remember which way to push the tiller, how far it needed to be moved, and calculating how long it took for the direction to be changed.

So not quite the easy-going slow-paced day I imagined but it was rather wonderful.

It was surprising how quickly time disappeared. One of my fears had been that, after the initial novelty, the experience might become a little bit boring. But no - the day was full. It was a great way to see the surroundings and, perhaps because of the slow pace, there were more interactions with people as we passed, those on other boats, fishermen, the one runner we passed, and at the locks people would often watch and sometimes help with the pushing. It was also good to be able to stop anywhere and have the extremely elaborate picnic prepared by my wife and daughter: moments of pure contentment.

The boat was a great interlude but now it is back to the serious relationship between me and the canal - running. Yesterday I was back along the familiar tow path but there was a change: I made a conscious effort to look about more.



P.S. The photo of ducklings was taken last year but one of the pleasure of the outing was passing similar groups of fluffy little mallards. It felt as if spring had suddenly arrived.

Adidas micoach

The highlight of my running week was being invited to test the latest piece of running technology from Adidas.

It happened at the Battersea park running track and in itself that was part of the pleasure. I have rarely run on a track and never under flood lights, doing so this time made me feel as if I was engaged in a proper athletic activity (which is not always the case). A slight illusion of course because the session involved running a few laps to get used to the equipment, but nevertheless it felt good. I now know I should use my local track to add variety to my running - a useful lesson

It was also a pleasure to meet a couple of bloggers who appear on the sidebar (Warriorwoman and Big Runner). In addition I had an interesting conversation with Michael Nicol from the The Running School about technique and the changes that can be made. Also we wereall introduced to Andy Vernon, an elite athlete who was just off to the world cross country championships, where he achieved his target of finishing 44th. So congratulations to him.

So irrespective of the kit it was an interesting evening. But I really should be talking about the Adidas micoach.

The Concept
Most existing devices are based on a watch, which has constantly available visual information on your progress, whether that be pace, heart rate, distance, or time. You can choose what you want to look at and it feels quite natural (because most of us are used to wearing watches). In essence they are monitoring devices that can be either acted upon or ignored; but either way it is comforting to know the information is there for a quick check at any time.

They are a tool that can be used intensively or lightly, as part of a highly structured training regime or to make an informal programme more interesting. The runner decides what to do (through reading, a club, or from a coach) and the watch is a useful aid but to get the most out of it you need a certain amount of knowledge.

Adidas have taken a different approach. They reason that most runners are not members of clubs (in England membership is 5%) and will not have easy access to advice and encouragement . For sure there are books, schedules, Runners World and forums but it is still difficult to keep on track and know you are doing the right thing. There is therefore a need for something that supports a training regime and gives real time information on what you should be doing.

Their approach is based on well established principles of heart rate training, where a schedule comprises sessions targeted at different levels of activity, to systematically build both endurance and the CV system. They have a number of pre-set schedules on their website which prescribe these sessions based on your goals (whether you want to prepare for a race or just keep fit) and these are synched into a little micoach pacer, which can then be clipped onto your shorts or an armband. When you are running there is a audio feed which will tell you what you should be doing. If for example you are scheduled for intervals it will give the message "move to the yellow zone for 1 minute" followed by "green zone for 2 minutes", etc. (The heart rate zones are colour coded: blue = v. easy; green = steady; yellow = threshold; red= v. hard).

Other than that you just keep running until you get a new instruction. You can get an update of your progress by pressing a button but as this is a bit more cumbersome than looking at a watch I tend to forget it. At first I found this disconcerting because I am used to quickly glancing at my watch to keep track but on reflection I think Adidas might be onto something:
○ When you are out you don't want to become obsessed with checking
○ You can concentrate on running but know you are doing what you are supposed to
○ An audio instruction for intervals is so much better than a watch that beeps
○ It is better to analyse data after the run; during the run you need only concentrate on how it feels

So although I had previously thought visual information on a watch highly desirable, now I am not so sure. Over the next couple of months I will report back on how I think it works in practice.

The Kit
The footpod and heart rate monitor look as if they are made by Garmin. The footpod is tiny enough to fit into a cavity in both Adidas and Nike+ shoes but also a plastic cradle that can be clipped onto the laces . It amazing how the size of these things have shrunk; it is less than half the size of my Garmin 50 pod.

The pacer unit is the distinctive to Adidas. At first I found the controls fiddly and non intuitive, e.g. the start/pause button is not obvious (I wanted to press the central button, which gives you an information update) but you get used to it and now I think it works fine.

There is however related piece of equipment I would thoroughly recommend. Sennheiser have made some Adidas branded sports headphones that will shortly be available from John Lewis. The best running earphones I have ever used.

The Software
This is the area that has the potential to mark out the micoach as a rich running resource. They already have a good selection of their own training schedules that can be loaded onto a calendar and into your pacer but I think they have a chance to extend this by collecting a library of training programmes from other established coaches. For example I think the micoach is ideally suited to a Jeff Galloway run/walk programme. It would be good to have a range of options from those that emphasis slow distance to those that concentrate more on quality.

As a record of your runs it is seems perfectly competent. I haven't explored it fully but the datalog, graphs and calendar look good.

Accuracy
We were told in the introduction that the footpod is 98% out of the box and would not need calibrating. This is not necessarily true. I have just run a route using both my Garmin and micoach footpods. The Garmin measured it at 10.57km, the Adidas at 9.59. The distance according to Google Maps was 10.13km, which, as that splits the difference, I will take to be the most accurate. A 6% error is not so clever. It will have to be recalibrated (as will the Garmin)

Conclusion
I think this has potential. It has already made me think about the information I need when I am actually running, and whether the habit of regularly looking at my watch is helpful. An audio feed is a good way to give training instructions and is perfect for intervals based on time.

I will start to use it from a couple of months and report back on how I have got on.

The Long View

In her response to my last post IrunbecauseILoveFood said she needed a dose of my patience and pragmatism. My immediate reaction was: "so do I".

What I think and how I feel are not necessarily the same. Many times I can be clear in my understanding and come-up with good plans but fail to follow through because of conflicts between my emotional and rational selves. One part of the brain can be calm about accepting frustrations and know that all action should be based on recognising where you are any one time and starting from there. However another part wails and laments. It is ashamed and embarrassed at being slower, weaker, more sluggish, and heavier than it thinks is proper. It resents not being what it wants to be.

"How has it got to this?" is a question I keep asking as I compare myself to how I was when I was doing things better; or "how can they be so much better?" as I compare myself to others . I know these are questions from despair and I know they have to be put aside but in the dark moments, when you aren't doing as much as you want or feel you ought to do, they cling very tight.

It is particularly difficult with running because it is all about the process; all about keeping going. When a run has finished all that matters is that you get out the next day (whenever that next day is on your schedule). If you don't all the achievements and good work of your previous runs are quickly wasted as you cannot preserve conditioning. If you stop you degrade. So time of injury or prolonged periods of 'can't be arsed' are damaging.

However the wonder of running is that it is about renewal. You can always start again, build-up fitness and rediscover all of the pleasure. Those dark days will then be forgotten. It is like weather and climate. A few days of unseasonable cold and wet do not signify much; all that matters is the overall pattern

So the underlying philosophy of this blog is that if you are running long, take the long view.

Sports Bike/City Bike

At the moment I feel very sluggish. For every step forward there are two back; for every fresh start a new stop.

Having my jaw excavated did not really affect my exercise programme, as it was only one day off and my target is five sessions a week. However this week has been far worse, far, far worse: only one measly session. Pathetic!

The cause was my own carelessness. I was bending over in an awkward position, trying to undo a nut, when I twisted to stop something falling. There was a twinge and my back went. Although the pull itself was not serious the result was an inevitable seizing-up of all back and shoulder muscles to compensate and protect. I could walk stiffly but running was impossible and I did not fancy the crouched riding position on my bike. All that was left was a bit of gentle moving about. Sometimes it is hard not to feel that I am falling to pieces.

I know one of the preoccupations of runners (every runner?) is injury but it can become tiresome to dwell too much on the problems. I hate the thought of becoming someone who is constantly checking their state of health, as it is only a short step from that to becoming the sort of person who answers the question 'How do you feel?' in detail rather than with a simple 'Good!' Being one of the worried-well would be more than my self image could take.

So I tell myself, yet again, that sometimes you just have to ride with things and accept that "is is is and ain't is ain't". What ain't at the moment is me as a finely tuned athlete; what is, is the need to build back slowly and rediscover the fun. That is all.

This video is from an
Australian blog which promotes Dutch style city bikes as a way of encouraging urban cycling> It tells me something about my current situation. I should not worry about trying to be sporty (or pretend I am faster than I am). I should just get out there and tootle around. As the video says riding a sit up and beg is still riding a bike.

Reasons for Not Running No. 559

Teeth; or to be more precise a tooth; or to be even more precise an ex-tooth


It started a couple of Saturdays ago when, with all the morning available for a run, I getting ready in a leisurely way. After cleaning my teeth I started to floss when clunk - I pulled a crown clean out of my mouth. No longer did I have a morning for running, the time had to be spent waiting to see the dentist and the day was a dud.

I had hoped the crown could be stuck back on but some of the tooth had also come away. I was told that it although it might be possible to reattach the crown it was a bit iffy and there were no guarantees that it would last. The alternative was to have it taken out.

Yesterday was the day it happened and after my jaw was suitably numbed what remained of my tooth was cut up and removed root by root. After it was over my jaw felt tired and achy and I needed to buy some more ibuprofen so I went to Boots, picked out a pack and took it to the till, where it scanned at a higher price than was indicated on the shelf. Normally I would have pointed this out and either paid the lower price or not bought the item. This time I had a dilemma: there was a lump of gauze where a tooth had been and I was holding my jaw clamped shut. I really, really did not want to move it in any way and certainly did not want to speak . In my head I ran an economic calculation: were the tablets, at that particular time in those particular circumstances worth the extra 80p. Yes I decided - not speaking was far more important for me.

I left the shop with mixed emotions: on the one hand I was a bit irritated at paying more than I thought the tablets were worth but on the other I was quite amused by playing out a piece of economic theory and thought about how circumstances can change the way we value things.

After the anaesthetic wore of the value of the ibuprofen again increased.

It was definitely another non running day.

Nice Run - Not Much Happened

The house opposite has just been repointed and today the workman was finishing-off by putting back the fixings, including the name and number. It is No 99 and unfortunately he put it upside down. For some reason I got just a little bit more pleasure than I should from being helpful and telling him of the mistake - his sigh was a thing of beauty.

Other than that there is not much to say about my run. It was 11.5km at the slow, easy base-run pace. Every run at the moment is similar in intensity (i.e. low) but there is a certain amount of variation in route. Not a great deal as I tend to have some well trod paths but I always leave myself the freedom to put in extra loops or take out sections, depending on how I feel on the day.

As a runner I am not an explorer; I am remarkably content to go to the same places again and again. Perhaps I have the memory of a goldfish but I don't get tired of repeatedly seeing the same things. If boredom and weariness come it is not because of familiar surroundings but because I am tired within myself. Often the weather sets my mood (which is why I struggle so much in January and February) but today was clear and crisp - perfect for keeping moving. Everything felt fresh.

The stats for last week were: 4 runs, 1 cycle ride. Distance run 36km, cycled 29 miles. (Odd how I mix up the units but over the past couple of years I have started to use kilometres for running). Not huge totals but the aim is to gradually build up.

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.