2011 Streak Day 295 (Tuesday October 25th): Going backward to go forward

2011 Streak Day 295 (Tuesday October 25^th): Run 2.75 miles, Time 26.08 Weather mild but the sky is a mixture of different types of cloud

The sky behind the tree is not blue- it is slate grey however it is lit up by bright sunlight. It is a day that does not know its own mind. Is it a pleasant, sunny day where you can relax and feel happy about how mild the weather is this late in the year, or is it overcast and threatening serious rain. In the end it did a bit of both (though the rain was not serious).

It went out when the sky was light grey. Good running weather but that did not make any difference, I am still running through treacle. I don’t know what to make of this. Should I be worried or should I just carry on in the belief that persistence will bring its reward and I will get fitter. One of my underlying principles, and one I have constantly repeated on this blog, is that consistency is everything and you have to keep on keeping on. But, and this is quite a big but, another underlying principle is that you should listen to your body and at the moment my body is telling me something is not right.

I will think on this but my feeling is that I will have to swallow some pride. I will have to admit to myself that things are not as I would like them and for the moment I am only able to run very, very slowly. If I want to maintain consistency I will have to use my heart rate as a guide and ensure most of my miles are easy.

2011 Streak Day 294 (Monday October 24th): Walking with a purpose

2011 Streak Day 294 (Monday October 24^th): Walk 9.26 miles Time 2:56 Weather overcast but pleasant enough

This was another example of us trying to not use the car whenever possible. it would have been very easy to have hopped in and driven the 4.6 miles, looked at floorings and then driven back. But no! We decided we were made of sterner stuff and a walk by the canal would be much more enjoyable; and so it proved.

There is nothing to beat the warm inner glow (or smugness, if you prefer) that comes from feeling you have done something virtuous. 

However the downside, and there is always a downside,  is that it takes a chunk of time and when you get back you feel a little weary and less inclined to get going on other things. After sitting around for a short while thinking about what should be done, the virtuous glow soon fades.

The picture is of something that amused me on the walk: two ducks, side by side, preening themselves. When I started to watch they were in synch with their movements, lifting one foot then putting it down pretty much at the same time, but when I reached for my camera their choreography had become ragged. Nevertheless it shows how different types of duck are relaxed in each others company, something I never cease to marvel at when I see them on the canal.

2011 Streak Day 293 (Sunday Oct 23rd): On memory and truth

2011 Streak Day 293 (Sunday Oct 23^rd): Cycle 19.8 miles, Time 1hr 25min, Weather lightly overcast to start but it lifted to become a really nice autumn day

There were alpacas. I haven’t passed the alpacas for a long time so there needs to be a picture of them grazing (though because they are quite a way away they look more like odd shaped sheep). nevertheless you can see how at home they look in the English countryside.

It was a pleasant ride with the built in concept of a leisurely sunday morning. I took a book with me and ended up drinking coffee and reading  memories of Samuel Beckett. There was one section that brought home how unreliable any one witness is to an event. (Being there doesn’t necessarily mean you know what happened).  For a short time the young Beckett was a lecturer at Trinity College Dublin, and many years after the event his students were asked their recollections of his teaching. He did not enjoy his time there and thought of himself as a failure so it is unsurprising that many of the students didn’t rate him highly but the pictures painted differed wildly. Some people described not only his lectures but him as being boring whilst others were inspired by the quality and originality of his thinking, recognising the brilliance of his mind,  even if his presentation style was reserved and inhibited.

My guess is that he did not make any compromises, or try to reach out. Those who were not very interested in the subject would not have been offered much and would have been bored. Others, for whom the subject was alive, would have found insights enough to trigger their imagination.

But I would not have recognised it was the same man from all the accounts. As I said you cannot take any witness statement at face value. We all do our best to report the truth but we all have our prejudices, a mental framework that forms what we see. 

In these blog posts I do my best to be truthful about what I see and think but I know I am no more reliable than anybody else. However all I ask you to believe from today’s ride is that there were alpacas and it was a nice day. Both of those statements are verifiable, other observations you can take or leave according to your taste.

2011 Streak Day 292 (Saturday Oct 22nd): Changes

2011 Streak Day 292 (Saturday Oct 22^nd): Walk 2 miles, time 40min, Weather - sunny and remarkably mild for the time of year.

Busy all day until I realised I had time to either go for a walk and take photographs or run and not take photographs. As the sunset light was bright and beautiful I went out looking for pictures.

Gantries and power cables of the West Coast Main Line railway might be an unlikely subject for a picture but they glinted yellow in the setting sun.

It is here that the mainline canal and railway run side by side. Now they occupy different worlds. The canal is mainly for leisure with its attraction being its relaxed pace. The train is rushing people to Birmingham, Manchester or Scotland. 150 years ago the contrast would have been more poignant with the old method of transporting goods being superseded by the new. The longboatmen would be able to see the trains pass by and with them their trade.

2011 Streak Day 291 (Friday Oct 21st): Traces

2011 Streak Day 291 (Friday Oct 21^st): Walk 2 miles, Time 40min Weather  - slightly more overcast

Another minimal day because I was mostly occupied with decorating. But I did get out and on my walk I saw this wall where a creeper has been removed yet left a trace that is probably impossible to remove.

This got me to thinking about how everything we do leaves some sort of trace. Where would detective fiction be without that idea? It is the entire conceit behind the character of Sherlock Holmes. 

You can see this with sport - someone who was once proficient in a game, even tough they are older and out of condition can sometimes be surprisingly good. i have seen games of squash where a wily old player has seemed to move very little whilst his fitter, younger opponent has run himself into the ground. It is to do with skill - which seems to have a long half life.

Unfortunately the strength and weakness of running is that there is a low skill level. The benefit of this is that anybody can do it without a long frustrating period of incompetence. The downside is that training effect does not linger like an acquired skill. You start to lose muscle tone after only a few days.

This is why if I have a gap and allow myself to lose condition it feels like starting again. However I still have a knowledge of what worked before and a memory of how things might be. As I said - everything leaves a trace, even if it is very faint. 

I remember a conversation from long ago when a work colleague was talking about how people’s faces looked more interesting when their character had been imprinted. He used as an example a young girl in the office, who had a very pretty face. “But”, he said “it is not yet old enough to show her character, that will only come after experience and only then will we know if she is beautiful or not.” 

I don't think she was too flattered.

2011 Streak Day 290 (Thursday Oct 20th): On minimalist shoes

2011 Streak Day 290 (Thursday Oct 20^th): Walk 3 miles  time 1 hr, Weather autumn is proving to be surprisingly nice

The reason for the picture is to show the way the shadows lengthen as the sun gets lower in the sky. It makes for some lovely patterns.

Otherwise the main event was the arrival of new running shoes (which I wrote about). The shoes in themselves are standard running shoes with a built-up heel and lots of cushioning. The type of shoe I mostly run in (not the particular model, it is only my second pair of Vomeros).

It used to be so simple. There were basically three types of shoe, neutral, support, and motion control and you looked for the ones that fitted you feet the best in the appropriate category. Now however there is growing interest in barefoot running and the shoe manufacturers have responded  with a range of minimalist and lightweight shoes, which adds a complication.

My problem is that I do not face the radical divide of heel strike and traditional trainers, or  minimalist trainers and a forefoot strike. I have always landed on my forefoot/midfoot but done so in normal trainers.  In fact I like having a degree of heel because after the initial strike my heel drops and I find it more comfortable if it is then supported by the shoe. 

Because of all fuss about barefoot running I felt obliged to try some minimalist shoes with zero heel drop but did not find them particularly comfortable and certainly there was no moment of revelation where I thought I had discovered the proper biomechanical way to run. So I gave up. However I do still have a problem in finding shoes with the right amount drop between heel and forefoot, i.e. something between nothing and normal.

There are possibilities: Newtons, which look interesting but have a price that puts me off, Nike Frees, which are shoes I should have probably tried before now, and Saucony and Brooks who are introducing shoes with less drop. There is scope for experimentation but it is an example of why we need running shops with a good range as I need to try them on before buying. Unfortunately my local running shop does not stock these sort of shoes so I probably need to travel further afield.

However it is not a big problem. Although I would like to find the perfect pair of shoes, I am happy to run in just about anything. My main problems have nothing to do with my trainers and everything to do with lack of condition, sticking to a proper training regime, and carrying too much weight. Fix those and everything falls into place.

This means I am remarkably feeble when people debate forefoot vs heelstrike. I really do not have a position. I tend to believe that everybody should run in the way that feels most natural and that most injuries come from training mistakes rather than failures of style. However if anybody does experiment by switching to minimal shoes and finds it enhances their pleasure and performance then I am happy for them. If however someone heelstrikes and feels pressure to change because of all the talk and books such as Born to Run I would advise caution, if there are no other reasons. In other words there is no reason to fix what isn’t broken.

This New York Times article on the fashion for minimalist shoes has some interesting comments.