Category: Short run

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Slow thinking

I’ve written before about how my thinking seems to slow, running on the machine, as the speed rises above 7mph.  Today that didn’t seem to be the case, although it was this subject that I was thinking about so maybe it doesn’t count.

I was thinking that the reason why thinking slows is that the subconscious draws energy reserves away from non-vital organs to focus on those that really need it.  I remember from the Michael Mosley’s BBC series about High Intensity Training that that the energy-management programme errs on the side of caution, persuading us that our muscles are more tired than they really are, so maybe the same applies here… especially since the brain is such a power-hungry organ.

I remember from both the marathons I have run, Berlin in 2004 and Brighton in 2010, that I succumbed to what I can only assume is a version of ‘the wall’.  My experience was of an increasing internal dialogue, almost voices in my head, trying to persuade me to stop… which I eventually gave in to.  It’s hard to get going again afterwards as the conscious resolve has been weakened and the subconscious is more fully in control.

As I ran on I started to think how this related to hypothermia, where signs of early onset include disorientation… I wonder if this is the same mechanism at work.  A tragic example of this in extremis is mountaineers, such as those on Everest, who sit down for a rest and slowly freeze to death.  It often happens on the way down when their energy reserves are significantly depleted after 12 or 15 hours of extreme exertion at altitude, in sub-zero temperatures.

The intense fatigue prevents the climber from thinking clearly: it is this lack of judgement that allows the subconscious need to ‘maintain energy reserves’ to override the conscious need to keep going.  I have read and heard a number of chilling accounts of climbers finding someone technically alive though deliriously unable to move and one, though I can’t find the book in my bookcase, where the account is given in the first person by someone whose conscious fought back from the warm & comfortable seat in the snow.  In that case, though being given up for dead by others, he did actually manage to make it off the mountain… a herculean feat of both body and conscious mind.

3.77 miles in 30 minutes is an average speed of 7.5 mph was no such herculean feat.  Whilst my cognitive excursion might have it’s roots in all kinds of stimuli, it might also indicate that I’m at least adapting to the speed as a result of the recent fast but short Sunday runs.  Something more to ponder on!

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Low mojo

After a full and challenging week containing a mix of lecturing, executive coaching and stay-away consulting, along with a working day yesterday catching up with all the administration, my mojo was at a surprisingly low ebb this morning.  This was exacerbated by the realisation that the clocks had gone back overnight, meaning that I had got up somewhat earlier than I really needed to.

The only apparent upside was that by 8am I had already finished my quadspressos and guitar playing and was on the running machine starting to run.

I ran for 30 minutes as per the last couple of weeks, warming up at 7mph and ramping this up as the distance increased.  As I finished the allotted time, covered in sweat, I had completed 3.71 miles with the average of 7.4 mph falling neatly between the results from the last two weeks.

Little else to report other than that the glorious bright red leaves on our Japanese Maple have finally fallen off and the first major storm is fast approaching.  Despite this, the mild weather seems set to continue for a few weeks: no forecast yet on my mojo, but I’m sure it’ll be back to normal soon.

Have a great week!

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Stoned!

With a little more flex in my schedule last week and rain forecast for Saturday and Sunday, I chose to spend a few sunny hours here and there working in the garden as a trainee stonemason in exchange for a few rainy hours working over the weekend.

This meant that that the stone garden and path has progressed well, to the point where I can now focus on other things.

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Next on the schedule is a final version of the hastily thrown-together prototype panel that has been standing firm against the elements for a couple of weeks, and a hidden store to clear out the shed part of the tea-house.

The latter is to facilitate the latest idea, which is to create a frame in the tea-house to take a futon mattress… moving it closer to the original relaxation/contemplation purpose that I had in mind when I designed it five years ago.

I was up good and early this morning, making good use of the tea-house (and coffee) doing the readings that I had set for my students tomorrow.  Fascinating stuff and all about self development and happiness.

Around half-ten I jumped on the machine, positively reinforcing the habit that I’ve created over the last few weeks.

I warmed up for a mile at 7mph and then started to increase the speed as per last week.

It seemed easier, so I pushed a little harder towards the end and completed 3.74 miles in the 30 minutes… a shade under 7.5mph average compared to 7.3mph last week.

I still don’t think I’ll be completing the marathon distance pier to pier run next month, but at least I’m running enough to have overcome the feeling of slothfulness!  Although that could also be something to do with moving the pieces of a one-tonne stone jigsaw around!

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Project Man digs in

Last week was somehow more frenetic than any of the nine weeks that preceded it, despite generally not working the 11+ hour days that had typified the Cambridge project.  Thus, when Saturday morning emerged, I was ready for a rest.

Hmmm… well, they say that a change is as good as a rest and since I’m not really one for sitting around, I opted for the former.

Kim and I had been looking for stone with which to progress the garden project and with a little desk research we found it… right on our doorstep!

I had been wanting to visit the local reclamation company Dorton for years, but it doesn’t have a particularly consumer friendly exterior.  However, once inside there are friendly staff making sure that you can find what you’re looking for in this capacious Aladdin’s cave.

We found a metric tonne of rock… as you do.

With the rock ordered and the likelihood of dry days fading as autumn blows in, we seized the sunny day to prepare the ground.

Whilst I stripped the turf, Kim laid it back down in the new ‘working garden’ area behind the deck panel.  It was back-breaking work for both of us, but by evening we had completed our task.

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Fast forward to today and I was fully expecting to feel wrecked after all that hard work.  But with the rain tipping down outside, all I could feel was really pleased that we had grabbed the moment.

I’ve been preparing for my Monday workshops on and off across the weekend and I finally reached an interesting inflexion point at a confluence of thought between the following two ideas… in the context of creating high performance teams:

I could see that there was a really important link, but I couldn’t quite grasp what it was… it was clearly a good moment for a run!

I hopped on the machine and set myself a 30 minute challenge like last week, this time donning trainers to protect my feet from the heat.  I set the warm-up speed to 7mph and then increased it slowly after the first mile until I finally reached 8mph.

The run was harder work than last week, but the result was a little better too: 3.66 miles in 30 minutes, 7.3 mph average.

As I’ve noted before, I find it difficult to think clearly around 7 mph or faster, so it was actually a really great break from my cognitive challenge.  Better still, Kim (a qualified CBT practitioner) quickly pointed out the connection afterwards… rather obviously, I guess, it’s simply belief.

I believe that we’ve had a fantastic weekend and that I’m now ready for another frenetic week!  Have a great one!

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Lightly toasted feet

It was a sublimely glorious morning and I wandered outside into the sunlit garden with my quadspresso.  The chairs were wet with dew so I sat in the tea-house and let my mind relax, a sensible thing to do having completed an intense nine-week project in Cambridge.

As I sat and looked, so thoughts from my subconscious bubbled to the surface in the form of new ideas about the garden.  A second quadspresso helped!  Kim was looking out at me from her office and could tell that light-bulbs were flashing from the way I was standing and staring.

In my mind I designed a hidden shed to free up the tea-house to relaxation and a new partition to create a Japanese stone garden… both were seeds (or subtle challenges) that Kim had planted a few weeks ago.

Sated, I capitalised on the reversal from this deeply thoughtful mode by stripping off and jumping on the running machine.  I decided to run for 30 minutes and slowly ramped the speed up above 7mph.

The run was as perfect as the day outside and I swept along almost effortlessly, the only mild discomfort being the slowly rising temperature of my feet as they were toasted on the belt of the machine.  I’m not really sure whether this is the belt heating up or the friction of my feet on the grippy surface but either way it was a little like walking on hot coals… I imagine!

After 30 minutes I had covered 3.55 miles (7.1 mph average) and still felt great… apart from my lightly grilled feet!

I stretched outside, showered, had breakfast and then got into prototype mode to explain to Kim what I had in mind.

Looking outside, as I sit here typing, the prototype is complete, whilst Kim is researching deliveries of stone and the prospect of two new stages to the autumn garden project is very exciting!

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Token gesture

My students and clients will attest to the fact that I’m forever encouraging them to spend ten minutes a day pushing their understanding through reading, or doing something they love but otherwise can’t find time to do.

It’s how I’ve managed to improve my guitar playing over the last three and a half years, compared to the previously lacklustre 35 years.

Today, despite not feeling like a run, I pushed myself to do just ten minutes… it might be a token gesture, but better to find time to do something, rather than continue to do nothing.

The weekend had a slow start.  In fact is was a repeat of my nightmare journey back from Cambridge three weeks ago, except this time it was the M11 that was shut.

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When I finally got free of it, after about six hours, I found myself stationary again on the M25, in almost exactly the same place that I got stuck before.  Fortunately this time it was only for an hour or so!

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When I finally got home, even I was surprised that the journey had actually taken a nightmarish 9 hours, 45 minutes… longer even than three weeks ago!

Yesterday was spent cutting grass and soothing the furrowed brow of my poor car (or ‘heated onezy’, if you’re reading this Grant), whilst most of today was spent relaxing (aka sleeping) in the garden!

My token run was ten minutes, 1.1 miles and 6.6mph… at which rate it would have only taken 17 hours to get home Friday.  Worthy of consideration for the future!

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Birthday suit

I received an invitation this week to run between the piers in Brighton later in the year.  This should theoretically be a pretty short sprint, but the invitation came from Cliff and Andy, so I now need to think about increasing my training mileage again.

The last few weekends I have been satisfied with a short run on the machine, but since it was my birthday today and in light of the aforementioned invitation, I thought I would get out into the fresh air.  Especially as Mark had also sent me a text as he was starting a 30 mile run this morning.

I did my favourite short circuit, taking in the edge of Wivelsfield, West Wood and the Magical Path.

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It was a lovely day for running and I made good time in the first half hour… right up until I bumped into Lew in his huge Dodge truck.  It was so good to catch up that I stood chatting for about 40 minutes, before running the rest of the way home.

5.2 miles in about 50 minutes plus a 40 minute conversation.

Back at base, I had just jumped out of the shower when my lovely Aunt phoned to wish me Happy Birthday.  I sat in the garden chatting to her for quite a while, enjoying the conversation.  I didn’t like to confess that I was only wearing my birthday suit!

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Comedy of errors

We had such a fun evening yesterday that I felt compelled to run in order that I could write about it.

My run of 2.5 miles on the machine was completed in 20 minutes and 40 seconds, an average of 7.2 mph.  The only thing of note about it was that rather than my normal lollop, I tried to run with my body relaxed and my head as level as possible, which meant that my legs needed to work a little harder.

But last night…

Our friends (who might well wish to remain anonymous) and their two children were house-sitting in a rambling old pile in the country and the intention, having finished aperitifs, was to wander down to the cosy pool house and cook at the table on a French raclette hotplate.

The sitting room had lazy chairs and sofas perfect for aperitifs, but Kim, famous for her ability to dial up her younger self, sat on a thick rug on the floor and instantly connected with the other eight-year old children.

Three dogs and a cat ambled through this set from time to time, occasionally demanding attention or surreptitiously trying to relax into one of the chairs, as if they too were owed a G&T… only to be spotted, told off and sent out.

Having relaxed into the evening, we locked the house and set off like Sherpas through the drizzle or the pool house, where the table was set and the hotplate was ready to go.  Seats were taken, drinks poured and the hotplate brought up to temperature.

At which point the power inconveniently went off.

The pool house fuse board, when we eventually located it, was of the old variety and before we set about trying to figure out whether one had actually blown (or searching for a stash of fuse wire), we sensibly checked the board in the house.  This had circuit breakers and there was a cheer when the lights came on again, truncated abruptly when they went straight back off.

We tried several times, with and without an ageing extension-lead and in to different sockets, before we reluctantly acquiesced and turned to the barbecue sitting outside by the pool.

This was lit and almost up to temperature, in the damp, fading light, when it promptly ran out of gas.  Undaunted, a replacement bottle was located and, having eventually figured out that the thread is reversed, was ready to be connected.

Apart from a plastic security cap, which we were unable to remove.

Fortunately there was a second replacement bottle and the barbecue quickly sizzling with chicken goujons, steak strips and halloumi cheese.  About this time the sky faded to black amid the odd drop of rain and a runner was dispatched to turn on the garden & pool lights… at which point all the pool house lights went out again.

We then realised the halloumi, overlooked in the conversation and commotion, had become charred on one side.  Sacré bleu!

We reset the circuit breaker and resigned ourselves to lighting the barbecue proceedings with a torch, which worked pretty well until the torch suddenly faded from bright to dim and quickly expired to a collective groan.

My iPhone was not really up to the job, but it at least provided a glow by which we could locate the final strips and we beat a hasty retreat to the pool house.

For the duration of this episode, Kim was totally absorbed in a strange board game with one of the other eight year olds, the low murmur of dialogue between them occasionally punctuated with a defensive shout: a claim that one or other of them had cheated, generally followed by a vociferous denial!

The feast (served around ten from a six o’clock start) was magnificent, with baked potatoes covered in raclette cheese (heated on the stove in the pool house), the saltly charred halloumi, barbecued meats and a delicious salad… surrounded by the bubbling conversation of old friends.

The only slight tension amid the hilarity was when we realised that one of the dogs had uncharacteristically disappeared from the proceedings.  The children went off in search but came back empty-handed, although at least we knew that the front gates to the grounds were shut.

While fresh coffee was brewed and perfectly made meringues and tasty berries were wheeled out to be united with extra thick double cream, a search party finally located the dog.  He had sneaked into the sitting room, probably when the circuit breakers were being reset.

One imagines that he was relaxing comfortably into a deep chair, listening to Rachmaninov and supping on a heavy glass tumbler of single malt.

Thank you to our great friends for a truly memorable evening!

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Midweek run

I had a workshop to write this morning, which led to a late breakfast and no run.

However I did find time for a quick run last Tuesday evening, after a slightly frustrating day of desk research.  It was a lovely evening and I decided to run for 15 minutes and then turn round and run back.

The route was nothing special, consisting of one long street in a somewhat tired part of town.  I would have taken a different route back if I’d had the energy… or the time to get completely lost!

The turn point looked like this… any guesses where I was?

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The return journey was pretty hard work… you would have thought I had run ten miles by the energy I had left.

Alas though, the round trip was only 3.2 miles in 31 minutes.  Average 6.2 mph and all the more reason that I probably should have run today.  Ho hum!

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Hot foot

After a really fun 60+hour working week, it was lovely to relax over the weekend.

In consequence I wasn’t in a hurry to do a long run and opted instead for another short dash on the machine.

2.5 miles in a little over 20 minutes left my feet burning from the hot conveyor belt… on account of my not wearing shoes again.

Have a great week peops!