Janathon 2013 Day 18 - Noise

Running (on treadmill - 8.2km time - 42m, Weights & stretches - 40m. The weather outside was snowy.

Gyms are noisy places. Not only is there the thump of feet on the treadmills (some people are very heavy runners) there is the sound of the motors, then there is the background sound of some sort of music. If the body builders are in there are grunts, and if someone is using the punchbag there is a slapping sound. I cut out much of this by listening to my own music and concentrate on what I have to do. As I look around I see that about half of us do the same.

Gyms were ever noisy:

“I cannot for the life of me see that quiet is as necessary to a person who has shut himself away to do some studying as it is usually thought to be. Picture me with a babel of noise going on all about me, staying right over a public bath-house. Now imagine to yourself all manner of sounds that can get you hating your ears. When the strenuous types are doing their exercises, swinging weight laden hands about, I hear grunting as they toil away - or go through the motions of toiling away - at them, and the hissings and strident gasps every time they expel their pent up breath. When my attention turns to a less active fellow who is contenting himself with an ordinary, inexpensive massage, I hear the smack of the hand pummelling his shoulders, the sound varying according as it comes down flat or cupped. But if on top of this  some ball player comes along shouting the score, one is done for! ...But by now I have so steeled myself against all these things that I can put up with even the coxswains strident tones as he gives the oarsmen the rhythm. For I force my mind to become self absorbed and not let outside things distract it. There can be absolute bedlam without so long as there is no commotion within, so long as fear and desire are not at loggerheads, so long as meanness and extravagance are not at odds and harassing each other. For what is the good of having silence throughout the neighbourhood if one’s emotions are in turmoil.” (Seneca, Letters, LVI)

Seneca had his self discipline. I have an IPod. TA less virtuous method but times change. 

Janathon 2013 Day 17 - If on a winter's day

Walk - 6 miles, Time - 1h 45m, Weather - nippy

Today I went for a longish walk. 

he cloud was heavy, although there were patches of light picking out the heavy frost on all the bare branches. Everywhere the tones were subdued, predominantly white and grey but with traces of green and brown on the ground and in the sky areas of light with slight hints of orange. The ground was hard and frozen, and the landscape empty. It was quiet and if said hushhhh, I could watch my breath hang in the air. 

Winter days like these are pleasing, if you are dressed up warmly and you can stride out unhindered. For some reason, when there is a frost so heavy it’s indistinguishable from snow, it is slightly magical. It’s as if the trees and hedges are sketched with soft pencil on white paper. I stop to look and then start walking again. Everything seems so clear - and then I think about my sense of wonder and am pleased I am not so jaded it has been lost. My body might be worn and showing it’s age but inside there is still a child looking out. That is as it should be

Today’s Stoic quote is about that feeling:

To shrug it all off and wipe it clean - every annoyance and distraction - and reach utter stillness 

    Child’s play 

(Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book V, 2)

Janathon 2013 Day 16 - Many people are faster

Run - 3km in 15m (treadmill), Weights - 40m

As I walked up a woman (probably in her twenties) was leaving the next treadmill, to have a break and fill her water bottle. Her face was red, she was breathing slightly heavily and between her shoulder blades there was a growing patch of sweat on her t-shirt. ‘That must have been a heavy session’ I thought, ‘mostly you don’t see people put so much into their running.’ I was already impressed before I took a peak at her stats, which were still displayed. ‘Bloody Hell!’ she had run for 33 minutes below 4 minutes per km pace. This was by some degree a different order of running to my own, or anybody else in the room. Ho hum. Never mind just carry on with your own programme, what others can do makes no difference. ‘Running beside her will be interesting though’I thought.

She came back and started again at 16.4 km per hour. I was impressed not only at the speed but that her feet did not make big thumping noises and the treadmill didn’t rock.  Other people sometime run at speed but you can usually hear them across the gym. I carried on with my run around the 12 km per hour mark and thought that over a third faster is quite some difference but was quite happy with what I was doing. If anything my enjoyment was increased because it was pleasing to see someone putting in a good shift, rather than pootling along (which is far more common).

In the circumstances today’s Stoic quote must be this from Epictetus:

Consider the price at which you sell your integrity, but please, for God’s sake, don’t sell it cheap. The rand gesture, the ultimate sacrifice - that, perhaps, might belong to others, to people of Socrates class. ‘But if we are endowed by nature with the potential for greatness why do only some of us achieve it?’ Well do all horses become stallions? are all dogs greyhounds? Even if I lack the talent I will not abandon the effort on that account. Epictetus will not be better than Socrates. But I am no worse, I’m satisfied. I mean I will never be Milo either but I don’t neglect my body. Nor will I be another Croesus - and still I don’t neglect my property. In short we do not abandon any discipline for despair of ever being the best in it. (Epictetus, Discourses, Book 1, 33-37)

Janathon 2013 Day 15 - New shoes

Running (on treadmill) - 5K, 25 minutes, Weights - 30 minutes

I am always suspicious of theories based on speculation about our early ancestors or movements where the proponents are evangelically convinced of the rightness of their cause. For that reason I have shied away from the barefoot running debate. I am unconvinced of the reasoning that says we were adapted to running before before shoes and so this is the optimal style, therefore shoes are not only unnecessary they are a problem. In the same way that I am unconvinced by the suggestion that we should eat a stone age diet. And anyway why is running so different to walking? There is nowhere need the same head of steam behind any idea that we should ditch our walking shoes.

That is not really the point though - all that really matters is if it works or not. The key claim is that barefoot running (or running in minimalist shoes) reduces injury and this should be open to testing.  Over the next few years (now there are enough people to provide decent sized samples) we should be getting some answers. In particular I will be interested in the results of this research which plans to track people in this years London Marathon.

But in the meantime should I wait or should I try for myself, especially as a number of people I know have made the switch and are enthusiastic about the results? As I also like the principle of 'being an experiment of one' and am liable to tinker with things, I have been edging towards giving minimalist running a go. After all there is nothing much to lose. If I switch and my running improves then everything is worthwhile, however if I don't get on with it, I have lost nothing but a little time playing about. On the other hand inertia is a powerful force so why change?

However my mind was made up when New Balance offered me the chance to try-out one of their minimalist shoes. The scales of the argument lurched violently to one side and I am now quite excited with the idea of trying something new.

I have now collected them from the Post Office and have tried them on around the house and must admit to being pleased. They look good, feel comfortable and I am anxious to try them out. At the moment that is all I can say. If they were normal trainers I would take them out and know very quickly how they compared, but with these I will be running slightly differently and so will not know straight away. i will break them in gently and although they are trail shoes they will spend the first part of their life on a treadmill, starting with only 15 minutes tomorrow. It will actually be a little time before I know what I think of them.

So what of my Stoic quote of the day? Unsurprisingly they say absolutely nothing about running styles. However there is something quoted by Seneca in Letter IX, which is pertinent to the way I thought of making the change and how it actually happened:

If you pray a thing may
And it does come your way
'Tis a long way from being your own

Janathon 2013 Day 14 - Pain

Walk - 3.5 miles, Time - 55m, Weather - snow

“For times when you endure pain: See that it doesn’t disgrace you, or degrade your intelligence - doesn’t keep it from acting rationally or unselfishly. And in most cases what Epicurus said should help: that pain is neither unbearable nor unending, as long as you keep in mind its limits and don’t magnify them in your imagination. And keep in mind too that pain often comes in disguise - as drowsiness, fever, loss of appetite.... When you’re bothered by things like that, remind yourself: “I’m giving in to pain.” Marcus Aurelius, Meditations Book VII)”

Today’s Stoic quote couldn’t be more pertinent because there is nothing runners think and talk about more than injury.

The Phrase “listen to your body”  is useful in reminding us that we must always be alert to how we are feeling and how well the various parts of our body are working.  Are we fresh or jaded, strong or weak, ill or well?  We should regularly scan these things and act on the feedback. It is about more than pain, for example tiredness and sleeplessness could be a warning sign of overtraining, but pain is the most dramatic indicator.

The trouble is that it can be elusive Sometimes something can suddenly hurt but then just as suddenly disappear, at other times something that doesn’t seem much of a problem on a run can seize-up the day after and be a long term problem. Between the extremes of feeling tickety-boo and lying on the floor screaming in agony, there are all sorts of grey areas and an internal debate as to whether it is a twinge, an ache, or a serious pain. This only highlights the difference between listening to your body and understanding what you hear. It can all be very confusing and we must try to stop both magnifying things in our imagination or ignoring them out of stubbornness .

The important thing to do, as the quote, suggests is to make sure you continue to treat pain rationally. Above all you must try to work out what it means and whether you want to give in just because you feel a bit meh. If you are strong and well motivated you must then look at the circumstances. If it happens during training you must think long term and concentrate on injury prevention and healing, as a small rest in the early stages is much better than a long lay-off later. If it happens in a race your main thought is about completion and getting through (unless it is something serious that would cause long term damage)

Runners are lucky in that we are unlikely to suffer a catastrophic, impact injury (though there is a remote possibility of tripping up and falling into something), our injuries are more often the result of attrition. In other words we keep on going beyond the point of recovery and so a twinge becomes an ache before becoming damage. Mostly we hurt ourselves through training errors, forcing the body too hard before it is ready and mostly we do this out of pride and unrealistic expectations. The art of acting rationally is recognising this and acting accordingly.

P.S. This post was brought on not because I have any injury at the moment (today was just a planned easy day) but because I thought the quote appropriate

Janathon 2013 Day 13 - cunningly constructed clay

Run 7km (on a treadmill), Time - 35m, Weather - outside it was getting colder

Well what does Zeus say? 'Epictetus, if it were possible, I would have made your little body and possessions both free and unrestricted. As it is though, make no mistake, this body does not belong to you, it is only cunningly constructed clay. And since I could not make the body yours, I have given you a portion of myself instead, the power of positive and negative impulse, of desire and aversion - the power, in other words, of making good use of impressions. if you take care of it and identify with it, you will never be locked or frustrated: you won't have to complain, and never will need to blame or flatter anyone. Is that enough to satisfy you?'.

This is from the beginning of Epictetus’ Discourses where he lays the foundation of his argument that the only tool we have to guide our judgement, and the way we behave, is our reason. It it is the only faculty with the ability to examine itself and this reflexive quality makes it supreme as well as unique. It is the only quality that is truly ours.

I don’t want to argue whether this is true or false. I merely want to acknowledge the premise and the consequent idea that a human being, if he uses this gift, is perfectible. In other words the application of reason can enable us to be virtuous. It is an underlying faith that makes Stoicism an optimistic philosophy and also something (believe it or not) that has some bearing on running. Every time we start a training schedule, or undertake a challenge we are in effect saying to ourselves that we can get better. We have faith in the possibility of improvement and that the consistent  application of good principles we will be rewarded. At my age the objectives might have changed to slowing the decline rather than striving for new PBs, but the principle is the same.

In the beginning, when it was founded in Greece, Stoicism had three branches: logic, physics, and ethics. Ethics concerned how you led your life and was the ultimate aim but the other two subjects gave you the tools to understand the basis of your decisions. One of the metaphors used was that Stoicism is like a fertile field enclosed within a fence of logic, with physics as the soil and ethics as the crop. (Diogenes Laertius, Zeno, VII.40). I like to think that is what we do with running: We apply logic to the evidence of how our abilities match the demands we place upon ourselves and the way we respond. The soil is basic physiology: what we know about how the body works an responds, and the crop is our performance. 

Having noted that similarity though, it must be pointed out that we are working on the body, and as can be seen in the quote at the head of this post, that is of little concern to Epictetus. It is merely clay. But it is here that I must admit to a difference in outlook. Instead of seeing the mind and body as different realms, I see nothing but their interconnectedness. Exercise not only improves the tone of my muscles it helps my mood, concentration and ultimately the quality of my thinking. If I want to continue the metaphor: it is the rain needed by the soil for my crop to grow.

Janathon 2013 Day 12 - Weights, freedom and wine

Gym - run 3.2 km + weights, Time - 1h 5m, Weather - definitely getting colder

The weather is cold and raw but that is not the reason I am back in the gym. I am there because I want to continue my programme of strengthening exercises and use the weight machines. Now I know that the consensus is that machines are not as good as free weights but I find them easier to use - because I don't have to think too much about what I am supposed to be doing. In their small way they offer a parable about freedom and choice. Free weights offer unlimited opportunities to exercise specific muscle groups and choose the exact weight you need, whilst machines limit your range of motion and exercise specific muscle groups only. However to best exercise your freedom you need to know what you are doing and have a routine worked out, in other words a certain amount of expertise, whereas I don't want to think about it too much. I just want to work-out the bigger muscle groups without worrying. All I want is something I can do quickly and efficiently. Choice is a good thing but it is not always the ultimate good. The guys in the corner, sculpting their bodies, need their free weights. I do not.

To finnish this little piece I had thought of finding a Stoic quote about the limiting ones freedom and how less can sometimes be more, but I came upon something a little unexpected: a passage that shows that Stoicism is not about self abnegation and continual control. The aim is to be able to live a good life, not being an ascetic. Although it mentions that freedom is best in moderation it is mainly about sometimes letting go, or more specifically enjoying wine.

"We must humour our minds and grant them rest from time to time, which acts upon them like food, and restores their strength … at times we ought to drink even to intoxication, not so as to drown, but merely to dip ourselves in wine: for wine washes away troubles and dislodges them from the depths of the mind, and acts as a remedy to sorrow as it does to some diseases. The inventor of wine is called Liber, not from the licence which he gives to our tongues but because he liberates our minds from the bondage of cares … Yet moderation is wholesome both in freedom and in wine." (Seneca, On Peace of Mind, ch xvii)

It is Saturday and I think that gives me a good steer as to what I should do tonight,

Janathon 2013 Day 11 - Carrying on as if nothing happened

Run - 6.2km, Time - 33m, Weather - cold but bright

“Shall I show you the sinews of a philosopher? "What sinews are those?" — A will undisappointed; evils avoided; powers daily exercised, careful resolutions; unerring decisions.” (Epictetus, Discourses, Book II, ch. 8).

As if to show how far I am from being a philosopher Janathon is now a bust. Yesterday I did nothing and consequently wrote nothing. I could not, with all honesty, represent a bit of walking around as an exercise session and so didn’t try. This means of course I cannot complete Janathon and have to mark it down as a failure (after all the challenge is binary: either you complete all 31 days or you don’t. There is no scope for a fudge). There are excuses (I left the house very early and didn’t return till late, and when I did return I felt more in need of food than exercise) but they are only that - excuses. If I had really wanted to I could have done something (20 minutes with weights would have worked) but I didn't and preferred my comforts obviously.

Stoics are not terribly impressed by this sort of weakness of mind, as the whole point is to train it to act rationally and overcome those instinctive, emotional responses that cloud our judgement and cause us to abandon plans. You can see this from the Epictetus quote. But this is the ideal and  learning philosophy was never seen as a simple judgement, an exam which you either passed or failed. It was a process. The only failure would be to give up trying. In such a spirit I will accept that I failed to honour my resolution completely, but that was yesterday and today is different, I will carry on and it will  be possible to complete 30 days.

“A guide, on finding a man who has lost his way, brings him back to the right path—he does not mock and jeer at him and then take himself off. You also must show the unlearned man the truth, and you will see that he will follow. But so long as you do not show it him, you should not mock, but rather feel your own incapacity.” (The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, 63)

I must now try to stay on the right path.

Janathon 2013 Day 9 - Peace of Mind

Run - 6.5km, Time - 36 minutes

“What we are seeking, then, is how the mind may always pursue a steady, unruffled course, may be pleased with itself, and look with pleasure upon its surroundings, and experience no interruption of this joy, but abide in a peaceful condition without being either elated or depress: this will be ‘peace of mind’ (Seneca, On Peace of Mind)”

This is not my default state of mind but I can sometimes feel like that and it can be induced by a run. I know nothing that beats the feeling of earned rest, when the body feels slightly tingly and the mind is alert but empty. After your stretches, you can drink your tea and eat your banana (or whatever else you do) and sit, or lie, in a state of quiet contentment. Sometimes I like to put on some music (usually something ECM ish) and it often seems clearer and more coherent than normal because it is all there is. I am thinking of nothing else. 

It is possible to run your worries away - at least for a short time andI think this little interlude is as good a reason for running as any.

Janathon Day 8 - Just enough is enough

Treadmill - 4km in 20 minutes + 20 minutes stretching

“If you seek tranquility do less. Or (more accurately) do what is essential. If you can eliminate it, you will have more time and more tranquility. Ask yourself at every moment ‘is this necessary?’ But we need to eliminate unnecessary assumptions as well. To eliminate the unnecessary actions that follow.” (Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 4)

Further to yesterday’s post on the desirability of rest days I am posting some training advice from Marcus Aurelius. On first sight it might not seem the sort of thing any leather skinned, granite jawed, hard as nails,  coach would spit out but it is exactly the same as Tim Noakes’ 6^th law of training: achieve as much as possible on the minimum of training.

It is easy to be seduced by the idea that if something is working and making you a good runner then a little bit more will make you even better, then a bit more and a bit more until ... well until things fall apart. You will either get injured, ill, or your legs will become heavy and lifeless. The point of training is not to try to prove how hard you are by showing you can cope with monster mileage. The point  is to do enough to fulfil your ambitions, whatever they may be. Training to finish the course has a very different load from training to win the race and the two programmes might look very different but they both share this aim.

It might take some experimentation but the ultimate aim for all of us is to find our optimal level. As I run mainly for my own satisfaction and sense of well-being, my optimal mileage is probably quite low. I have to find the amount and type of running essential to keeping my interest and enthusiasm high. That is all.

Janathon 2013 Day 7 - Could do better

Walk - 3 miles, Time - 50m, Weather - damp cold, and grey

Last night my plan was to go for a run before breakfast but sometimes good intentions are only that: intentions. I woke up feeling headachy, low, not quite the ticket,  and far from the picture of an athlete at the peak of his prowess (disclaimer I have never looked like that). I really didn’t want to do anything much in the way of exercise but I had a get out. I am a firm believer in rest days and taking things easy on at least two days a week. So going for a walk was just fine.  I would like to report that as soon as I got out and felt the air on my cheeks my spirits lifted and a spring returned to my step - but that would not be quite true. It wasn’t bad but neither was it good. it was merely mechanical.

However I carried on with my reading of the Stoics and today’s quote emphasises something common to any activity, any skill that needs mastering, and certainly to Janathon: the need for consistency. It is as true of running as it is the study of philosophy.

Yet this conviction, clear as it is needs to be strengthened and given deeper roots through daily reflection; making noble resolutions is not as important as keeping the resolutions you have made already. You have to persevere and fortify your pertinacity until the will to good becomes a disposition to good...although I have great hopes for you, I do not yet feel quite confident about you. And I should like you to adopt the same attitude: you’ve no grounds for forming a ready, hasty belief in yourself. Carry out a searching analysis and close scrutiny of yourself in all sorts of different lights. (Seneca, Letters XVI)

No grounds for complacency there and it is something we should all heed as well as Lucius. I have said many times: running is about honesty. The time you take and how far you can go shows you exactly your level. There are no excuses and your level is exactly as high as it deserves to be. In other words you must always look at what you achieve with a clear eye.

For myself, today, I need to look closely at my change of plan and be honest with myself whether it was acceptable or whether it was backsliding. I will only really know tomorrow.

Janathon 2013 Day 6 - Negative Pre-visualisation

Gym - various weight exercises, Time - 50m

In some ways Day 4’s post about staying in the present was a bit of a tease because one of the key techniques of the Stoics was pre-visualisation: they anticipated the future in order to prepare for it. This is the same as rudimentary sports psychology, the thing most players do before they set foot on the pitch, but there is a slight twist. The sportsman imagines themselves succeeding: the striker pictures themselves scoring a goal and the  the runner sees themselves crossing the finishing line strong and triumphant. However the Stoic technique turns this on its head and imagines the worst. It has another name: the premeditation of evil and it is done by imagining the things you hold most dear being taken away from you. 

There are three reasons for it. The first is basic honesty. All things are temporary, everything comes and goes and it is an undeniable truth that at some time you and I will both die. It is foolish to close ones eyes and try to forget it will happen as sooner or later you will have to face up to these things. This leads on to  second reason: by mentally preparing for loss you are better able to cope when it happens. The third reason though is not about the future it is about the present and is perhaps the most important reason of all: if you think something might be gone you are likely to appreciate it more keenly. If you were given a good bottle of wine told “After this you will be giving up alcohol for good.” The chances are that you would savour the drink, stretch it out, try to taste every drop and remember it. In other words you would closer attention than if it was just another bottle with just another meal.

“As you kiss your son good night, says Epictetus, whisper to yourself, “He may be dead in the morning.’ 

 Don’t tempt fate, you say.    

By talking about a natural event? Is fate tempted when we speak of grain being reaped?” 

(Marcus Aurelius, Meditations XI 34)

This might sound a bit extreme but the important thing is that it should not mawkish. It is an exercise in appreciating what you have, not an excuse for sentimentality and it should not be a cause of worry and anxiety, i.e. an unreasonable fear of imminent disaster. We not want to end up like Private Frazer of Dad’s Army.

But what is the relevance of this to going to the gym?

It is that, along with a number of other things, I take it for granted. I do it because it suits my purpose and think of it in functional terms. I give no thought to the fact that I am able to run on the treadmill and lift the weights. In this respect I am careless and instead of thinking I should be faster or stronger, I should appreciate what I can do. Being healthy is a colossal blessing and something that should never be underestimated. I once read of a survey  which asked two linked questions: what would make you happy and what would make you unhappy.  The answers for the first was the usual mix: more money, better car, house, holidays,love, job etc however what almost everybody thought would make them the unhappiest was illness. Nowhere on the list of things that make you happy was health mentioned, yet it was the thing you would miss the most. It is not a mistake a stoic would make as they would have already pre-visualised its loss and what it would mean.

In the gym I have reminders to help me. For example a man, partially paralysed down one side, who is constantly working building on the strength he has. Another man who can hardly walk and is helped onto each machine by his wife, will still smile and there is a lady who can barely shuffle but keeps plugging away on the treadmill. I am in awe of all them, as I am of anyone who keeps going in the face of great difficulty. In an instant, by a stroke of fate I could be struck down and face the same battles. Would I be as strong? 

I don’t know. It is something I would have to face if it happened. In the meantime it behoves me to appreciate what I have. 

Janathon2013 Day 5 - Not too much exercise

Walk - 3 miles, Time - 50m, Weather - grey and overcast.

Sometime in the past 3 months I might have moaned about the miserable weather, complained about the dreariness of the light and suggested that we have had enough rain already. How boring - complaining about the weather is one of the more useless types of conversation you can have and it is not anything a fully paid-up Stoic would do. Nevertheless it has happened and in my defence I post this picture to show how dull, waterlogged, and grey everything is. It might prove a point but it also shows you how far I am from a practicing Stoic - but there again I make no claims to be one.

As if to prove the point I will give you a quote from Seneca (Letter XV) contra to my current endeavours:


"For it is silly, my dear Lucilius, and no way for an educated man to behave, to spend one's time exercising the biceps, broadening the neck and shoulders and developing the lungs. Even when the extra feeding has produced gratifying results and you've put on a lot of muscle, you'll never match the strength or the weight of a prize ox. The greater load, moreover, on the body is crushing to the spirit and renders it less active. So keep the body within bounds as much as you can and make room for the spirit."

So there we have it. Seneca believes that you should do the minimum amount necessary to keep the body healthy and devote your time to the pursuit of wisdom and seemed to think there was a degree of conflict between body and mind. But you should never believe anything just because it was said by someone with a reputation for wisdom. In some cases it is possible, just possible, that a Japanese sports goods company  has a better idea.  A sound mind in a sound body - yes indeed!

Janathon 2013 Day 4: In the moment

Cycling - 15.5 miles, Time - 1h 11m, Weather - cloudy

The weather today would have been unremarkable if it hadn’t been for all the other days but at the moment no rain or heavy grey skies should be celebrated. So I took to my bike along the country lanes, up and down a few hills, and enjoyed the views and the feeling of hard work going up before the release of going down. It was fun;  not highly charged as if suddenly everything felt alive and full of zest but more restrained in an english  “you know this is really quite nice” sort of way.

When going down hill along twisty lanes with hedges that obscure the view I go much slower than is possible. All the time I am thinking ahead, wondering if there is a car behind the next bend, keeping to my side of the road and preparing to take avoiding action. It kills the freedom of sweeping descents where you can use the apex of the corners and go for the best line but it seems like the best thing to do.

It got me thinking about whether I was actually living in the present or the future because I was thinking about nothing else other than the descent and handling my bike but at the same time I was thinking ahead, even if the time frame was short. It is rather academic because all that matters is that I was concentrating and fully absorbed however it does lead me to the Stoic quote of the day about the living in the moment.  It is from a letter of Seneca where he talks about fear and hope being bound together because we project our thoughts forward instead of adapting to the presents. In other words  although forethought is one of our greatest gifts it can also be a curse:

“Wild animals run from the dangers they actually see and once they have escaped them worry no more. We however are tormented alike by what is past and what is to come. A number of our blessings do us harm, for memory brings back the agony of fear while foresight brings it on prematurely. No one confines his unhappiness to the present.”

On my ride I was really like that animal (though not at all wild I hasten to add), I reacted to potential dangers but once past I forgot them. When home all I was left with was a tingly feeling on the skin  from exertion in coldish air, and the memory of the muscular pleasure of turning the pedals.

Janathon 2013 Day 3 - The medium on which you practice

Gym - various weights + 17.5m running, 3.5km, Time - 1 hour, Weather - irrelevant

Last year I toyed with the idea of base training and limited my speed to stay below a specified heart rate. It was slow and frustrating as I kept on having to slow down or even walk but the idea was that the training effect gradually increase the speed I could run at that heart rate, as I gradually became more efficient. It never happened. The only result was I got used to running slowly and anything else felt like an effort. In other words it was boring and it messed up my head. From this I will not say base training does not work, as many other people have used it successfully and it could just be I didn't run enough miles or gave up too soon. However I will not be trying it again.

Looking back at the year when I ran at my easiest my approach was completely different. During the winter months I combined strength work with running short distances (2-3 miles) at varying speeds, on a treadmill. I then moved outdoors for the endurance training, with a weekly long slow run and other runs at mixed pace. I have no clear idea why I abandoned this approach. Perhaps I fell prey to a false idea that real runners had to keep up a higher weekly mileage, or perhaps I just wanted to try a different approach. In the end  I forgot what had worked.Now though I am now back with the old way and we will see if it still works.

There are a couple of lessons in this. The first is the famous quote of George Sheehan that "you are an experiment of one". In other words try things out to find what works for you, which might well be different to what works for your neighbour. But do not do this haphazardly, give each method a fair go and learn from the experience. The other lesson is related (or perhaps a different way of formulating the same idea) and is my Stoic quote of the day (again from Zeno):

"The goal of life is living in agreement with nature."

I will amend that slightly for the purposes of this blog and make it 'living in agreement with your own nature. You should not try to fight yourself, force yourself to cut against the grain, instead you should be trying to reveal yourself.  Or in the words of another Stoic quote, this time from Epictetus:

"Just as wood is the medium of the carpenter and bronze is the medium of the sculptor, your life is the medium on which you practice the art of living."

Janathon 2013 Day 2 - Little and Often

Cycling - 11 miles, Time - 50m, Weather - mizzle

I thought it was just going to be grey and overcast today and so a rare chance to go for a ride without getting soaked. But what do I know? After I had been out for a short while dampness descended like a blanket and the cold, steady, drizzly rain never let up. It didn’t stop me enjoying the ride but I did shorten the route. I had planned about 15 miles but cut a corner so as to come home not quite drenched.

In the end though I thought the distance perfect: long enough to work both muscles and lungs but short enough to leave me feeling fresh at the end. I must remember this as a lesson: there is no great virtue in going further than you need. Obviously if you are training for a marathon your need is to prepare  for that distance and you need to go long but otherwise little and often, including a bursts or two at higher intensity, is a good way to build fitness. 

This brings me to my Stoic quote of the day, from Zeno of Citium, who founded the school:

Well being is attained by little and little, and nevertheless is no little thing itself.

Perfect. I told you Stoicism was a neat fit with running.

Jan(quote-a-day)athon 2013

Run - 4.7km, Time - 26m 30s, Weather - there was an unfamiliar yellow object in the sky and the sky was blue! 

So another Janathon has arrived and this time I am not sure how I will manage. It is not the daily pressure to exercise that worries me so much as what to write - because frankly a lot of what I plan to do will be rather dull. My main running goal for 2013 is not until  October so I am using the winter to build up my strength with the hope that this will allow me to run injury free for the rest of the year. A lot of this will happen in the gym and try as I might I have little to say about lifting weights. I need an additional theme.

As my running is rubbish at the moment and 2012 was a year when everything fell to pieces. I feel that I must learn to be content with where I am and rebuild from there. In other words I must be stoical in outlook - not in the generally accepted “mustn’t grumble” meaning of the word but in the more precise way of following the advice of the Stoic philosophers of Greece and Rome. Perhaps I could write about that. Each day I could find a quote and make some tenuous connection to running and my current situation as half-arsed addendum to Stoic Week (recently organised from this blog)

I might be wrong (and I probably am if the reaction of my sister is anything to go by) but I think there is growing interest in ancient  schools of philosophy, especially the stoics. Instead of authors like Epictetus or Seneca being seen as a bit esoteric, the preserve of the minority with a classical education and therefore brushed away with the put-down of elitism, it is now recognised that they can still speak clearly of the human condition. Our way of life may have changed drastically over the past two and a half thousand years but the underlying psychology, drives and desires are the same; so their advice is still fresh. Modern academic philosophy may be arcane and highly technical but many of the ancient schools were concerned with how to live a good life and thus have much in common with modern self-help guides. This quote from Epicurus (who founded a competing philosophical school to the Stoics) shows, philosophy of that time was not for the select few but something that could be widely grasped and applied:

"Vain is the word of a philosopher that does not heal any suffering of man. For just as there is no profit in medicine if it does not expel the diseases of the body, so there is no profit in philosophy either, if it does not expel the suffering of the mind."

Strangely it reminds me of running because I believe that, for us non-competitive  runners, there is no profit in running if it does not expel the suffering of the mind. This overlap gives me hope that some sort of Jan(quote-a-day)athon might not be impossible. On the other hand it might end up being a bit silly and I abandon the idea. 

We shall see.

Keeping Active Pt. 1 - The Olympic Legacy

The leaves are gone, it is dark early in the evening, and cold has now given way to rain, and in other parts of the country, flooding. It is winter and the glory of the summer Olympics already seems an age ago. When you are hunkering down against the weather it is hard to remember the feelings of warmth an openness which characterised that time. The reviews of the year remind us what happened and show many glorious moments but the hoopla has now over and it is time to look what at what was promised as a legacy. No not whether West Ham take over the Olympic Stadium (an issue on which I have vanishingly small interest and absolutely no opinion) but whether the population will become more active and participate more in sports. The slogan was: "inspire a generation" and the hope was that a festival showing the limits of human physical performance would seize our imaginations and encourage us to do more ourselves.

I have always been sceptical as to whether watching elite sport spurs many people on. Supporting a team is as much about identity as anything else and ou only have to see the number of beer bellies wearing team shirts to know that not all spectators are as active as they might be. A problems is that top sportsmen are so much more capable than the average person they might be a different, but closely related, species (how can someone sustain 5min miles for 26 miles?). What they do is outside normal in all honesty we cannot say to ourselves “I can do that”, instead our response is “Wow!”. It is possible that instead of inspiring imitation all the exceptional performances reinforce the idea that sport is for other people. 

Running is the sport with the lowest barrier to entry: anybody can buy a pair of trainers and get going but I would guess the London Marathon is a far bigger inspiration for participation than Usain Bolt. Seeing people of all shapes, sizes, ages and abilities, who each in their own way achieve something personally significant does make you think: ”I could do that!”  We are all more likely to accept a challenge if we think it is achievable and when there are people we can realistically measure ourselves against. After that it is a ladder: if we find we have some talent then we compete against better people, and so on, and so on. What this requires is an infrastructure of grassroot clubs with the coaching to encourage us all to give of our best. This infrastructure is ultimately far more important than a huge festival (no matter how great it  might be)

Don’t get me wrong I thought the Olympics were brilliant and also important in an unexpected way: like nothing else in my lifetime it showed us we were a cosmopolitan nation with a sense of identity more vibrant than is usually allowed.  The efficiency of the building, planning, and running of the games combined with the high spirits of the helpers and good nature of spectators showed we are not a broken society. After so many generations of politicians and news commentators telling us that we are failing in every conceivable way and all is rubbish, it gave everyone heart to see this big thing being done well. Self esteem is not only important for individuals it is also important for nations and for this reason the Olympics were a wonderful thing but that was not their intended legacy.  There is a big difference between the short term emotional release and the day-to-day work of getting more people permanently active.

 Evidence from previous Olympics is not encouraging. Perhaps this time will be different but as I have already said mass participation in sport requires infrastructure: playing fields with changing facilities, running tracks, cycleways, all-weather tennis courts, outdoor gyms, gyms, parks, all of which have to be maintained as well as built.  Clubs and leagues have to be staffed, volunteers have to give of their time, knowledge and enthusiasm and dreams have to be kept alive. In the summer, in a beautiful Olympic Park, surrounded by happy people, dreams are easy. In winter on a badly drained, muddy field with no working showers in the changing rooms it is more difficult. 

Perhaps it is now time to put aside 2012 as a marvellous year of elite sport and look at how well the rest of us, the sub-prime physical specimens, are doing at keeping active.

Transforming the Ordinary

Picasso - The Old Guitarist, 1903
Source: www.pablopicasso.org

As is my habit I was reading the saturday paper at a cafe, with coffee and a bun. Sometimes I was drawn to an article and absorbed, other times I watched the crowds and listened to fragments of disconnected conversation. It was a day when everybody had a business face as they sorted out presents and got ready for christmas. Brows were furrowed, lips were pursed, discussion carried an edge. I sat and thought, as I often do, about how little people look around. This room, in this town centre, was full of people not interacting, all were within their own world, physically sharing a common space but looking inward. 

How do we all sense the world? All of use with our own concerns and experiences, doing the same sort of thing but are we seeing them in the same way? How many of each person’s thoughts are commonplace, hardly worth remarking upon, and how many exceptional? In this room what were the unusual insights I was missing?

These are questions I often ask myself, especially as I continue this blog about a common activity where there is little new to say. So many people run in a similar hobbyist way and so many experiences are similar, I sometimes wonder whether they are worth talking about. But (and this is my excuse) they are felt differently, not only from person to person but in the same person from time to time. One day the ordinary is just that - ordinary, but on others it is transformed. Super good days may be rare but when they happen they offer up moments of clarity and contentment that are almost magical.

I thought of this when I read the article by Giles Fraser, which quoted a poem by Wallace Stevens. As is his wont he took a theological message, whereas I take it as an affirmation of the way the ordinary can also be something else. Never mind music and the arts, we can also run to find those moments.

P.S. The poem is said to be a reaction to the Picasso painting, which may be true but for me a key word is “shearsman” which is used to describe a tailor, a craftsman. To me is is not a poem just about art, it is about any craft - the practice of any skill. In this respect running, if done seriously enough, is also a craft.

The Man With the Blue Guitar 

One
The man bent over his guitar,
A shearsman of sorts. The day was green.
They said, “You have a blue guitar,
You do not play things as they are.”
The man replied, “Things as they are
Are changed upon the blue guitar.”

And they said to him, “But play, you must,
A tune beyond us, yet ourselves,
A tune upon the blue guitar,
Of things exactly as they are.” 

Two
I cannot bring a world quite round,
Although I patch it as I can.
I sing a hero’s head, large eye
And bearded bronze, but not a man,
Although I patch him as I can
And reach through him almost to man.
If a serenade almost to man
Is to miss, by that, things as they are,
Say that it is the serenade
Of a man that plays a blue guitar. 

Three
A tune beyond us as we are,
Yet nothing changed by the blue guitar;
Ourselves in tune as if in space,
Yet nothing changed, except the place
Of things as they are and only the place
As you play them on the blue guitar,
Placed, so, beyond the compass of change,
Perceived in a final atmosphere;
For a moment final, in the way
The thinking of art seems final when
The thinking of god is smoky dew.
The tune is space. The blue guitar
Becomes the place of things as they are,
A composing of senses of the guitar. 

Four
Tom-tom c'est moi. The blue guitar
And I are one. The orchestra
Fills the high hall with shuffling men
High as the hall. The whirling noise
Of a multitude dwindles, all said,
To his breath that lies awake at night.
I know that timid breathing. Where
Do I begin and end? And where,
As I strum the thing, do I pick up
That which momentarily declares
Itself not to be I and yet
Must be. It could be nothing else.

Is Running Bad For Your Heart?

Now here’s a funny thing: I was about to write a few linked posts about the importance of exercise for health and the difficulties of changing habits and persuading  adults to make even a minimal effort, when I came across an article warning that exercise might have dangers. (Not that there's anything in it to change my plans as only good things can happen if someone moves from inert to 150 minutes a week). No the dangers are for those who are are worried about their health but for those who become intoxicated by the challenges, the idea of pushing back physical limits, and addicted to the feeling of being both physically empty and extremely satisfied.  Doing too much, or more specifically taking part in endurance events like marathons, triathlons, or ultramarathons might not actually be too healthy. There may be some unwanted adaptations to the heart and it is possible there is a dose effect so that just as too little exercise is bad for a body running too much might not be so good!

The origin of the concern was a paper has been published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings entitled ‘Potential adverse cardiovascular effects from excessive endurance exercise’ and many of you might not want to read any further than the title. Feel free to close your eyes, put your fingers in your ears, say “I am not listening!’ or ‘this cannot possibly be right because I don’t want to believe it’. If you write for a newspaper you can do this at slightly greater length. That’s OK as long as you are clear in your mind why you run and know that if you run for more than about 30 minutes a day you do so for reasons other than health.  However although we might want to continue doing what we do we should not treat unwelcome sounding research like and leave it unopened like an unwanted bank statement. We must face it dispassionately to see what the researchers actually say and be prepared to put aside our preconceptions. Before doing so though we can be strengthened by the thought that what is actually proved in any scientific papers is usually very specific within precisely defined limits which often do not bear the weight of the more generalised (and lurid) headlines.

So what to make of the Mayo paper?  Well from my lofty position of a non-expert it looks like a good survey of what is known about the effect of extreme exertion on the heart. It shows evidence that the hearts of highly trained athletes can enlarge and thicken in a way that would be seen as worrying for a normal person and there can also be scarring and other damage. However we don’t know enough about what that means for overall health and longevity, as the authors recognise in the abstract: 

However, this concept is still hypothetical and there is some inconsistency in the reported findings. Furthermore, lifelong vigorous exercisers generally have low mortality rates and excellent functional capacity.

Nevertheless there is enough in this paper to get one thinking. But it must be emphasised that the authors are not warning about exercise of itself, instead they are raising the question as to whether there can be too much of a good thing. They explicitly offer no excuse for the couch potato to remain inert as their opening sentences make clear:

Regular exercise is one of the cornerstones of therapeutic lifestyle changes for producing optimal cardiovascular (CV) and overall health. Physical exercise, though not a drug, possesses many traits of a powerful pharmacological agent. A routine of daily physical activity (PA) stimulates a number of beneficial physiologic changes in the body and can be highly effective for prevention and treatment of many of our most prevalent and pernicious chronic diseases, including coronary heart disease (CHD), hypertension, heart failure, obesity, depression, and diabetes mellitus.¹ People who exercise regularly have markedly lower rates of disability and a mean life expectancy that is 7 years longer than that of their physically inactive contemporaries.

The point needs to be emphasised because there is no way you want a simplified message that running is bad for your health to seep into the public consciousness. It shouldn’t from this paper, which is a restrained academic review that does not editorialise. However that is done by the authors in the BMJ journal Heart, where they are clearer in describing the effect of exercise as a U curve where too much high intensity work loses some of the gains of a more moderate regime. (It can be found here but unless you have a subscription or access from a library it is not worth the £24 they want to charge. Instead watch the TED talk that covers the same ground). 

The article has caused more controversy because it inspired the article in the Wall Street Journal I previously mentioned. As is common for newspapers the headline and opening paragraphs were overly alarming, even if there was more balance further down the piece (as is also common in newspapers). This has been a push back with some people to contest the conclusions (e.g. here and here) and a little flurry of concern.

My take (for what it’s worth - and that is very little because it is just the intuitive response of someone who runs about a bit) is that I am very ready to believe that there is a sweet spot for exercise to offer maximum health benefits, which might not accord with the amount of work needed to fulfil other ambitions. It is very likely that more might not mean better especially for those of us over 50. But I am not sure if I have to worry too much. I may be old but the amount of running I do faster than 8 min miles is vanishingly small. I, like most people, am probably well within the boundaries of exercise being a good thing. However the problem is we cannot precisely define where those boundaries are. Take for example easy exercise: apparently we can walk as much as we like without hitting  a point of diminishing returns but does that also apply to slow, low intensity running?  If so the majority people who run marathons have no worries because, from the middle to the back of the pack, the long slow running dominates training (and the race). For most people the debate about a U shaped exercise curve is irrelevant because we don’t run hard or fast enough to reach the bottom of the U. The people at risk are the seriously competitive and they are the very people whose motivation has nothing to do with wellbeing or health. But the amount of that risk, if at all, is not yet known. 

It is all neatly summed up in an article in Outside about the original Mayo review: “high-intensity, high-volume exercise is really, at this point, a black box in terms it what it does for you over the long haul.”