Racing Hard at the LRB Bookshop

It was one of those little coincidences that make you believe the world can be a neater place than it really is. Yesterday I was in London and, as usual, visited the LRB Bookshop, where I saw there was going to be an event that evening. William Fotheringham would be in conversation with Richard Moore about his new book ‘Racing Hard’, which was the very book I had in my bag and was half way through. How could I not go?

For those who don’t know, William Fotheringham has been the cycling correspondent of the Guardian for the past 20 years and the book is a collection of his articles, with additional commentaries to put them into context. The shift of perspective of knowing what we know now and seeing how it was reported at the time is always interesting and for cycling probably more so than any other sport.

Initially I had been reluctant to buy the book as I knew I would have read most of the pieces when they were first published. Even if I could not longer remember the details, I argued, I knew the bones and the general take. But I should not have worried because as I began reading the book proved to me yet again that I can never underestimate my capacity to forget. I lost count of the times I was grateful to be reminded of things I thought had been quite well embedded. Aside from that, reading pieces side by side gave them a continuity that helped certain themes emerge more clearly. For example the development of the British Cycling programme, the application of science to performance, building professional and supportive structures and the development of talent, is the subject of a number of the best essays. They often seem to have been written with more enthusiasm and enjoyment, whilst some of the pieces on the Tour de France (where to be fair there is more of a pressure to get something out) were a little more guarded.

Nevertheless the big story of cycling as sport is always the Tour de France and it is a large part of the book and a large part of the evening was spent talking about it. Nothing wrong with that and I would have been disappointed if it was not the case. I never tire of listening to stories about the race, learning a little more about some of the characters, and hearing about the direct experience of being there. Aside from the theatre of a great sporting event one of the more interesting questions though was about something completely different: the shift of cycling from a working class to a middle class activity/sport.

Once you start thinking about this topic there are so many threads to unpick. At the activity level there is the development of cycle chic, to the number of people in the City using Boris bikes,  the expense and stylishness of equipment so that bikes become objects of desire, and the fact that, proportionately more middle class people take up exercise for health reasons. It would be interesting to back this up with knowledge of how the social make-up of grass-roots clubs has changed and how that relates to the use of bikes for transport. Perhaps i will have to see what I can find out. But there is other evidence of our changing attitudes, not the least being the fact that there was a literary event hosted by the LRB Bookshop.

At the sport level the background of new riders will be interesting to watch. It will be influenced, like other sports, by general social trends. The lessening in the amount of unstructured outdoors play and keeping kids in a physically undemanding school environment until they are older has to be compensated for by formal coaching and training. Organisations are moving towards being top down rather than relying on a talent bubbling up from local clubs. It is hard to find so many people physically hardened through manual labour as well as sport and the days of whistling down the pits to find the next Yorkshire fast bowler are long gone. Work and childhood have changed. Now it is middle class children who have  access to best facilities combined with an incentive as a career in sport is now seen as desirable across all classes. That is not saying sport has gone totally middle class just that the distribution has shifted.

Different sports have different profiles and traditionally cycling has been more working class than most but I think the success of British Cycling and Team Sky represents something outside of that, outside of class. It is the triumph of managerialism (or professionalism if you think that sounds better). It is about structure and goals, made possible by state funding and totally distinct from the pre-existing culture. Traditional assumptions have been questioned and many thrown out, coaches have been recruited from outside sports and athletes with the right physical and mental attributes, whether or not that had previously done much cycling, have been actively scouted. It is rather like a greenfield development compared to the brownfield site of traditional continental teams. 

All in all it was a stimulating evening and I was very glad I went to that bookshop on that day to find everything perfectly aligned.

End of Juneathon

I have no excuses. I came home from my break and felt tired after a long drive and so didn't go out. After I had missed one day I found it easy to miss another and so the whole thing was broken.

Bit of a failure really as I never got up to speed.

Juneathon 2013 Day 3 - A Gentle Stroll

Juneathon 2013 Day 3 - Walk  3 miles, Time 55m

In all these years of ‘athoning I have never tried to run everyday. Exercise - yes; but I am a great believer in the need for rest, recovery and variety. Two days on, one day off is a good pattern for me, so today I limited myself to an amble in the countryside. Just like yesterday, though, the core of the day’s activities had nothing to do with exercise.

There was a visit to the Bladnoch . It is one of the smallest distillers and one of the few remaining independents. It only has an output of about 200,000 litres a year, raised from a previous limit of 100,000,  which can be produced in just two weeks of the year. It is a traditional and friendly place and as you walk around you have few reminders that you are in the 21st Century. In an industry dominated by huge conglomerates, this is artisanal - and all the better for it.

A couple of miles away is Wigtown, Scotland’s cut down version of Hay-on-Wye.  It is a small, sleepy place but full of second hand book shops. I spent a chunk of the afternoon browsing and my favourite find was an edition of Francis Bacon essays, which had been annotated in beautiful copperplate by a student of Trinity College (in 1905 - he was very full with his notes!). All I can say is that hand writing has certainly deteriorated over the years.

So there you have it - a day of whisky and books. Who knew Juneathoning could be such fun

Juneathon 2013 Day 2 - Forget the exercise

Juneathon 2013 Day 2 - Run - 5.2km, Time - 30m

Blackwell - Main Hall

The reason I had to run so early yesterday was that it had to be fitted in before driving to the Lake District. I am away for a couple of days diversion and a change of scenery.  Today I woke up in Kendal and the morning’s run was  alongside the river Kent. It was perfect: the morning sun was out, the air was fresh but not cold and beside me the water flowed fast and clear. Yes everything was perfect except  me. Once again I struggled and it  was much harder than it should have been.  But I refuse to dwell too much on that and have no intention of turning this blog into some sort of misery memoir.

Instead I will talk about the pleasure I had during the day: of walking round Blackwell, the Arts and Craft house designed by Mackay Hugh Baillie Scott, and then visiting the house of the great theorists who prepared the way for that movement: John Ruskin. Brantwood (Ruskin’s house) is one of my favourite places. It is not in anyway an example of good architecture (the exterior is a jumble) but the location overlooking Conniston Water is beautiful, the garden is bountiful, and the interior is a monument to all that Ruskin achieved (I just don’t know how he managed to write and do so much). It is a good place to sit and think ... and then eat (as there is a really good café ).

Blacwell - overlooking Windemere

Juneathon 2013 Day 1 - A good slapping

Juneathon 2013 Day 1 - Run - 3.5km Time - 19m

Don't just stand there - spread your wings

As everyone knows June is the month where you exercise everyday, supposedly as a form of fun. I should thus be leaping out of bed with a spring in my step and a song on my lips, looking forward to seeing the rosy fingers of morn’s early morning light, hearing the chirruping of birds, and sensing the fresh air passing over my skin... But somehow it is not quite like that - something is a little bit wrong.

For the past month or so I have lost my mojo and have not felt like doing anything much at all. It started (as it usually does for me) with a chest infection that hung around and left me feeling lethargic. lIt’s as if my world has been smothered in a soft grey blanket. “Don’t go out.” a voice would tell me “There is no point. You will only be disappointed in both your lack of speed and stamina.” 

Oh that siren song! It promises to protect your comfort and shield your esteem but it actually does the reverse. It closes down your world and leaves you with less.

I recently saw the film ‘A Late Quartet’, which is about the crises faced by a well established string quartet when their cellist discovers he is in the early stages of Parkinson’s and will shortly have to retire. In one scene he participates in an exercise class with other suffers. The instructor explains that the disease constrict movements making you take shorter and shorter steps and limiting your gestures, physically turning you in on yourself. To fight against this she forces them to stretch and move, to fight to expand their range of movement. 

Never mind the music, or the emotional angst and tangled relationships that drove the story - it was this small tangental scene that rang some bells in my head. I might not have Parkinson’s but the mind can play similar games and box you in. You need to shake yourself out of the stupor. It is my hope that Juneathon will do just that. I am looking upon it as a slap round the chops combined with a firm injunction to “Stop being pathetic!”. 

 In fact I took the idea so seriously I was up at 4:45 and out running by 5:00. (Who said I couldn’t be hard core?). OK it was not very far and I felt a bit rubbish at the end but that’s beside the point. It is the intention that matters.