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Happy Burns Night

The prolific Scottish bard, Robert Burns, died on the 21st July In 1796, but is celebrated each year on the date of his birth, 25th January 1759.  250 years ago today.

I hope that the purists among you will forgive me for joining in with the following toast:

Happy Burns Night, mi gud Scottish lassies and laddies

‘joy ya’ haggis wi’ bashit neeps an’ champit tatties

Gud health ta all ya typsy lowland an’ highland lairds

An’ may the morning break easy on ya whiskey heads!

Ta the Immortal Memory of Robert Burns! 

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Water run

The forecast was for wet weather today and I can’t say that I was particularly excited about going out into it this morning.  But I have faith in my gear and particularly in the ability of my Gore jacket to keep me warm in inclement conditions.

This is all very well, but before it had started to do this (it’s always cold when you first put it on) I had to run up the road into the wind with the rain biting at my face.  Fortunately I have a range of directions that I can go that are more sheltered, although coming across a tree that had come down across the path at least gave me pause for thought.

It was already clear that there was a lot of standing water, but just a little further on this point was reiterated… the small pond to the right of the path in the picture is normally a narrow channel.

For those sensitive souls who treasure their running shoes and keep them speck and span, this was not a day to be out and about.  In fact wellingtons or even waders would have been a more appropriate choice of footwear… it’s a good job that I care not about getting my runners wet and muddy.  

At one point I started to think about the ancient Britons and why they used to wash with mud.  Maybe it was not so much that they wanted to, but more that they were constantly covered in the stuff and just had to wash it off.  I suddenly realised that because the surface was more water than mud, my trainers were actually cleaner than they had been for an age (since new?)… strangely, the mud seemed to have migrated upwards and onto my calves!

There were several occasions when the mud tried to suck my shoes off (I’m not a great one for tightly lacing my feet in) and the mud eventually succeeded as I squelched across a field that seems to be wet even when the weather is dry.

In short, I ran out to the Royal Oak, across to Wivesfield and up through the woods to the top of Spatham Lane, then southeast and across to Wellhouse Lane, past the water tower and across the railway line, then north to the station and home again.  6.5 miles in 1 hour 10 is pretty poor going, but I did stop a few times to take photos and once to re-apply my shoe and tighten my laces.

I think I need to run more than once a week to really get back into the zone, but I’ve changed my work schedule so this is not so easy at the moment.  Maybe when the evenings get lighter… once the boys have come back from Prague and have finally worked out that I wasn’t there… maybe then I can safely increase my frequency!

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And yet more toe chasing

Another visit to the public baths tonight, this time for about 55 minutes.  It would have been longer but they don’t start selling tickets until a nanosecond before the session starts.

I discovered that the others don’t swim as fast as they make out, only terrorising me when I’m cruising with my unusual breast stroke.  If I summon up enough energy to crawl along the pool, I end up peddling backward half way down for fear of chewing their toes.

There was an amusing moment when a large guy did a seated belly flop into the pool, swamping a girl nearing the end of the lane.  Her head completely disappeared under the bow wave… she must have swallowed the whole lot!  And the water didn’t taste too great either… I inadvertently tried some before I finished the session.

You don’t get this malarkey when you’re running!  Not sure whether that’s a good thing or not!

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Exercise

Nigel & Kristin, as our lovely house guests over the Christmas break, may well report me as being a lazy git.  And they would be right.  The only time I went into the great ‘cold & wet outside’ during the three weeks they were here, was to paddle up the River Cuckmere with Debbie, Kim and them on New Years Day… a really still, flat grey day.  This was the first time my little Kendo had seen the water for ahem… years, but start the year as you mean to go on… that’s what I say!

Since they returned to Seattle on the 6th, I’ve been hard at work catching up.  The first thing I did was to go wimmin (that’s swimming for those of you unaccustomed to my obtuseness) for half an hour… although Kim swore that I was only in there for 20 minutes before I dragged myself out like a jelly.  Since then I went a further two times, for 30 minutes and 40 minutes, with my muscles starting to remember the strokes that I worked on before my collar-bone was so rudely broken whist skiing three (?) years ago.  By the way, does anyone else think that the lane-swimming at the Triangle is slightly over-priced, with the evening sub-one-hour sessions being priced at £3.80?

And since this is a running blog, I thought it would be remiss of me not to do some of that too.  Last Sunday I ran out into the remnants of the cold weather and returned an hour and ten minutes later in the start of the warm spell.  I did the 7.1 mile loop out past Ote Hall, the pyjamas, Wivelsfield village, Hundred Acre Lane & woods, Ditchling Common industrial estate, the Magical Path and back across the Common.  It was delightful running weather and I even had to wear my shades.

Yesterday morning was so beautiful, it was almost spring-like here and we made the most of it by doing all our outside chores… although by the time I had washed the cars I was pretty much done in and the weather had turned cold.

It chucked it down with rain last night and I was not looking forward to running in a storm, but this morning dawned bright and clear again and it was a pleasure to don my running gear on and get out into it.  Despite the ongoing twice-daily chi-kung exercises and the swimming, I wasn’t sure that I felt any fitter than last weekend, so I ran the same route to see whether there was any time difference.  Alas not… the same 1 hour ten as before… 6mph.  Although, to be fair, the ground was a little more, er, liquid than last week.

The sun was streaming into the house when I got back and I just had to sit and soak up the rays.  Inside, of course!

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At the closing of the year

More than two weeks have passed sans run, yet I am unrepentant… I have all my excuses neatly lined up.

I thought that I would add a little more to these pages before the closing of the year, but now I’m actually here, I can only report that Christmas went in a blur.  

Along with 2008.

May 2009 bring good fortune, health and happiness to you all… along with great running conditions!

And for those of you having parties during the year, especially if you also will be 45, remember to invite us!

Tootle pip!

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Fweezin!

Based on the temperature forecast for this morning, I had decided last night that I wouldn’t run.  But when it came to it, the lure of a perfectly clear, if pre-dawn, sky was too much for me to pass up.

There certainly was a heavy frost, but I’m guessing the humidity was low as the cold really wasn’t pervasive… and not all the mud & puddles were frozen.  Once I got off the slippery pavements, it was a GLORIOUS morning for a run!

Half way round I stopped for three of four minutes to chat with the Best brothers of Middleton Farm Shop without even starting to feel cold.

The route was the same 5.2 miles as last Friday and I managed it in 48 minutes.  Bearing in mind that I had stopped to chat within this time-frame, I was actually on top form!

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Women!

What a gorgeous day it was!  Mighty cold mind, but beautiful!

It was a real shame that I was favouring my ankle, as it would have been a great day to have run up on to the Downs.  Still, not one for shirking the fitness regime (which basically involves trying to staying fit), I tagged along with Kim to the pool.

I think that I am right in saying that the last time I went swimming was in a rather exclusive pool in Thailand back in the spring.  2007.  And even then I was more interested in keeping cool, occasionally swimming to the in-pool bar for another G&T.

So I was slightly worried that I would swallow loads of water, get cramp, feel exhausted etc.  Actually it came back easily and I had little trouble breathing the air and though Nick or Cliff might smirk at my style, I had a really positive half hour.  

Even then I wasn’t tired, but I’m now old enough to know that my body is able to do a whole lot of amazing stuff, if I ask it to, but it can be really painful after the event.  Such insight!

I quickly lost count of the laps, so I can’t even give you an approximate distance, but having swum and then also cleaned the insides of all the windows in the house, I do at least feel exercised.

And both Kim and I agree that, even after only one week of doing the chi-kung exercises each day, we really do feel great.  I doubly recommend it!

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Friday for a change

I had sat through a talk by John Dodds of BERR (the Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform) on Thursday night and realised how little common sense the politicians & civil servants, who churn out the policy that affects us and our businesses, appear to have. Quite honestly, it profoundly depressed me and I awoke in the morning with a real desire to curl into a ball and shun the day.

However, Meester Broom, who also didn’t really feel like running, pitched up to save me from my reverie. Despite being woken up by his kids a number of times at strategic points through the night.

We begrudgingly trudged (is that betrudged?) off into a chilly morning (apparently zero degrees by the gauge in Nick’s car) and I was soon warming (in a number of ways) to the theme of government policy incompetence.

Of course, we understand only too well that one of the key reasons that it is just SO frustrating, is that we have no control whatsoever over it. We can elect a political party into or out of office, but the bureaucrats remain in their twenty-two (or so) well-defended silo’s, their names never appearing against the latest piece of legislation to darken our doors.

For example, in the last 11 years, BERR has created 678 new offences – it is my contention that entrepreneurs and people running SME’s either spend a fortune complying with this endless diarrhoea of legislation, with the cost of lost opportunity as an incalculable additional amount, or stick their heads in the sand and ignore it. The latter might not be such a silly strategy after all, as it’ll be changed again tomorrow (admittedly, if you’re incredibly lucky) after the legislators have seen the misery of the side-effects.

I remember Jeremy Clarkson talking about the car maker TVR, of old, which appeared to design, build and sell a new car before getting their customers to do the product testing. Having had an almost new TVR Cerbera (which was off the road for a total of 6 months out of the 16 months I had it), I know exactly what he meant. The 22 Departments seem to have adopted the very same approach and it sucks!

I would be quick to admit that not all civil servants should be tarred with the same brush, but anyone that uses ‘no legislation’ as a frankly cringe-worthy excuse for ‘over regulation’, will find it hard to convince me that they are really part of the solution.

My internal hot air kept the temperature outside at bay very effectively and I hardly even noticed the run itself. We went out to the Royal Oak, up through the woods and back via the magical path. 5.2 miles took us 47 minutes (6.6mph) and was only really notable for the fact that it was a collaborative affair, even down to the final charge to the finish that we ran shoulder to shoulder.

Though I’m guessing that the run, which felt to me like it was over in a flash, probably seemed an eternity to Nick’s ever-patient ears!