Monthly Archives: Jun 2016

Running?

Couch to 5k day 13

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tired

Another run/walk/shuffle successfully completed. The run times are getting longer still and the recovery walks are shorter. Today’s cycle was a five-minute run followed by a three-minute walk, a six-minute run, followed by a three-minute walk and finishing up with another five-minute run.

I tried something different today running with a musical sound-track. It was fine but I think that I am probably going to have to sort out a running playlist rather than rely on random shuffle like I normally do. I have quite a lot of old traditional folk songs on my phone, however suddenly moving from Bruce Springsteen to Walter Pardon singing “A Ship to Old England Came” causes you to break your stride a bit. I’m not quite sure what the playlist should consist of, suggestions are welcome in the comments, but I think that Walter will probably have to miss out.
I only recorded the run part of the exercise today (I left off the warm up and cooldown walks) so it looks shorter than previous days, but it also looks as if I am faster. The evidence as always is on Strava. I also recorded two personal bests:

  • Best estimated 1/2 mile effort (5:32)
  • Best estimated 1 mile effort (11:49)

Ok, it’s probably too late to make Olympic qualification but I’m moderately chuffed with them.

Running?

Couch to 5k day 12

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tired

Another week completed and I am now as my Californian Motivational Lady (henceforth known as CML) tells me I am “Half way to 5k – Yeaaa”. I did another pre-breakfast run partly because I was awake and partly because heavy showers were forecast for later on in the day Today’s effort consisted of a three-minute run followed by a two-minute walk, then two five-minute  runs with two minute walks, and another three minute run to finish the session off. As you can see the recovery walks are getting shorter. It gets worse next week.

In other news I have bought myself a Garmin Forerunner 15 watch. forerunner 15My excuse being that my old Polar Heart Rate Monitor had packed up and the Garmin also works as a HRM.. I think the battery in the chest strap had gone, and it isn’t possible to change the battery yourself. It has to go back to the manufacturer and it costs a small fortune. Though I must admit probably less than the Garmin watch cost. The main reason I bought it was that I am a bloke and I like gadgets.

As well as acting as a HRM it also records your runs. You can then download the data to your computer which then syncs it with Strava. Todays run is here if you are interested.
It also records you total steps for the day and tells you how far you have walked.

I almost forgot I am Halfway to 5K and have a badge to prove it.

1_2WayTo5K

 

Domestic (UK), Politics, Songs I Love

Good Morning Britain; Aztec Camera

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Written in 1990 very appropriate today;

But remember

Love is international
And if you stand or if you fall
Just let them know you gave your all
Worry about it later

Full lyrics below :

“

Jock’s got a vote in parochial
Ten long years and he’s still got her
Paying tax and and doing stir
Worry about it later

And the wind blows hot and the wind blows cold
But it blows us good so we’ve been told
Music’s food ’til the art-biz folds
Let them all eat culture

The past is steeped in shame
But tomorrow’s fair game
For a life that’s fit for living
Good morning Britain

Twenty years and a loaded gun
Funerals, fear and the war ain’t won
Paddy’s just a figure of fun
It lightens up the danger

Corporal sneers at a Catholic boy
And he eyes his gun like a rich man’s toy
He’s killing more than Celtic joy
Death is not a stranger

And Taffy’s time’s gonna come one day
It’s a loud sweet voice and it won’t give way
A house is not a holiday
Your sons are leaving home, Neil

In the hills and the valleys and far away
You can hear the song of democracy
The echo of eternity
With a rak-a-rak-a feel

The past is steeped in shame
But tomorrow’s fair game
For a life that’s fit for living
Good morning Britain

From the Tyne to where to the Thames does flow
My English brothers and sisters know
It’s not a case of where you go
It’s race and creed and color

From the police cell to the deep dark grave
On the underground’s just a stop away
Don’t be too black, don’t be too gay
Just get a little duller

But in this green and pleasant land
Where I make my home, I make my stand
Make it cool just to be a man
A uniform’s a traitor

Love is international
And if you stand or if you fall
Just let them know you gave your all
Worry about it later

The past is steeped in shame
But tomorrow’s fair game
For a life that’s fit for living
Good morning Britain

The past is steeped in shame
But tomorrow’s fair game
For a life that’s fit for living
Good morning Britain

Read more: Aztec Camera – Good Morning Britain Lyrics | MetroLyrics

Coping with loss, Running?

Couch to 5k Day 11

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tiredThere is a little bit more to today’s Couch to 5K post than just a record of my run. Today has been a hard day. I miss Grace every day, but today I seemed to be missing her even more than usual.

I have mentioned previously how grief or aspects of it sneaks up on you. Today was like that. I didn’t sleep particularly well last night, but that in itself isn’t that unusual. I haven’t slept well since Grace died. Also I have been told by others who have lost partners that it is common either to have difficulty in getting to sleep or as is normally my case, waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to get back to sleep.

I lay in bed about four in the morning wide awake and all I wanted was a cuddle. Not a hug, I needed a cuddle. Don’t get me wrong, hugs are great and you can give me as many as you want. Hugs are what you get from friends and family, but only your lover can give you a cuddle. That was how my day started.

One of my jobs this morning was to inspect the boilers in a nursery school. Walking in there with a load of bouncing four-year olds asking me who I was and what I was doing took me back to the days when Grace was still teaching. The only person more enthusiastic than her kids was her. She would be reading stories, showing them how to play tunes on old pots and pans and always encouraging them to work together and share. It wasn’t the school she worked at, but she would have loved the place. It was a happy memory, but still one that I needed five minutes on my own in the car to get over, before I could move on to the next customer.

Eating my lunchtime sandwiches in the park helped lift me slightly. After visiting the final client for the day, I thought it might be good to go and visit Grace’s grave. When I arrived at the cemetery there was a rather large funeral taking place in the same section that Grace is buried in. It just didn’t seem appropriate to go and have a talk to her. So I came home not feeling too great.

What I want to talk about though is the uplifting effect of running and talking to people. Just as I was about to set off my next door neighbour, Jackie, spotted me going out ( it wasn’t difficult I was wearing a fluorescent orange running top). So we talked for about half an hour before I set off on the latest run/walk/shuffle.

The programme has stepped up another gear. It now consists of a three-minute run followed by a two-minute walk, then two five-minute runs with three minute walks, finishing off with another three minute run. I am managing it so I guess that it proves yet again that the gradual increase in intensity is about right.

As I was finishing the run I was going past an older gentleman (probably not much older than me to be honest) taking a pre-dinner walk when my Californian Motivational Lady said something like “Awesome!!! You’ve done it!!! Cooldown walk for five minutes then Strreeeettcch!!!!” . Which caused him to look across in my direction. I explained what was going on and he nodded. His walk was taking him in the same direction as me, so we had a pleasant chat until we arrived at our house.

I arrived back home in a much better frame of mind than I had left. Running and interacting with people it’s worth remembering.

Running?

Couch to 5k Day 10

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tired

Into double figures and also into the fourth week. Again I woke up early, so I decided to do a pre-breakfast run. There is something enjoyable about being up early on a sunny summer Sunday morning and being out doing something before most people are awake.

I wasn’t up quite as early on this particular Sunday morning as I would have been a few years ago when my friend Mike and I used to take part in the London to Brighton Cycle Ride. That involved getting up around four in the morning in order to be up at Clapham Common in time for a six o’clock start. I used to enjoy the ride up. Apart from others making their way to the start the streets were normally deserted apart from the occasional survivor of a heavy night clubbing trying to find their way home. The fifty-eight miles down the Brighton usually took between four and a half and five and a half hours, depending on how often we stopped for a cup of tea and how enthusiastic we were. We would then find somewhere for lunch. I would normally cycle back, Mike usually got the bus back. It was a good day out but we haven’t done it for a few years. Maybe next year.

That hasn’t actually got a lot to do with my Couch to 5k progress. It’s getting serious. The runs are now distinctly longer than the walks. A three-minute run with only a two-minute walk, followed by two, four-minute runs with a three minute walk then another three minute run to finish. I am managing it, and I think I am getting faster. I overtook a seventy something lady and her West Highland Terrier yesterday – going uphill.

Running?

Couch to 5k Day 9

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tired

I have now completed week three of the programme. Like the days at the moment( until the 21st) the runs are getting longer and the walks are getting shorter. I am now doing three of three minute runs with two minute recover walks, bookended by a two, two minute runs.

I started on this programme for many reasons;

  • My mate Lord Wallington has been trying to get me to do the Roundshaw Downs Parkrun for ages and I thought that it might be an idea to be able to actually complete it.
  • I am a bit over weight and as my G.P. tells me “losing 10kg won’t do you any harm Mr Manderson”. Yes Dr Malik, I wish it was that easy.
  • Regular exercise (and hopefully losing a kilogram or two) helps with my diabetic control.
  • It takes less time than going for a cycle ride. Not that I am planning on giving up cycling, it’s just that I can change into my running gear, do the run and be back home and showered in less than an hour.
  • It also gives me a focus and a target, which helps a bit in coping with losing Grace.

What I am finding though is that it is harder on a sixty year old body than cycling. I get little niggly pains here and there that I don’t get from cycling. Possibly I am not running properly, or need different equipment. I do know that if your bike isn’t properly set up that you can get all sorts of problems stemming from that. I also know that with a properly set up bike you can do a long ride that leaves you so knackered that you can hardly get up off the sofa, but have absolutely no pain at all.

I am now as you can see officially a Rising Star and have a badge to prove it.

RisingStar

Running?

COUCH TO 5K DAY 8

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tired

I‘m back home again after a wonderful long weekend up in the Scottish Borders with my brother and sister (and their families). So no run up and around the Dunglass Estate today. Beddington park isn’t too shabby a substitute, but it’s not quite the same. I had the same routine as last Friday. That is two and a half minute runs with two and a half minute recovery walks.

Today is what should have been Sunday’s run. I skipped it because on Saturday I went up to the Hawick Common Riding for the first time in at least thirty years. I used to live in Hawick and the Common Riding is the main event of the year. I always involves a reasonable consumption of alcohol and probably a little more so when you meet with friends that you haven’t seen  for thirty years. Consequently I was feeling slightly fragile on Sunday morning and decided to skip the run. Monday was spent travelling back down to Wallington. Today was the first chance I got  to go for a run.

Strava again failed to record my run so there is no evidence. It is probably my fault but I will blame the app and/or my phone. I’m sure you will take my word for it though..

Running?

Couch to 5k Day 7

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tired
A change of scenery today. I am staying with my sister and her husband for a couple of days. They live on the east coast of Scotland just south of the East Lothian border. Today’s run/walk/shuffle took in two countries. Berwickshire and East Lothian. Though admittedly not much of either.
Week three sees the length of the runs increase and the length of the recovery walks decrease. Today my “coach” has me doing  two and a half minute runs followed by two and a half minute recovery walks, repeated four times. Again it didn’t feel to bad, so I guess that they have actually thought about the programme.

It was a bit cooler in Scotland than it was on Sunday morning in South London but the views made up for it.

image

As the lady who describes me as an *awesome runner* says at the end of every workout; See you in a couple of days.

Strava result if you are interested.

Coping with loss

Coping with losing Grace

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GraceTrain
I know I have said that I don’t want to turn “A Scotsman in Suburbia” into a coping with grief blog. However coping with the loss of my partner Grace is unfortunately the biggest part of my life just now.

It is now five weeks since Grace left us.

I’m sure that you will believe me when I tell you that the last five weeks have been the hardest five weeks of my life. The first week after Grace died kind of passed in a blur. There were things that had to be done, like registering her death and organising the funeral. I suppose I went through them on automatic pilot. My sister flew down from Scotland the day after Grace died, that got me through the day. Various friends helped me through that week. In some ways the first week wasn’t too bad. I had things that needed to be done and to a degree Grace’s death hadn’t quite sunk in.

Five weeks on I am functioning, in that I get myself up in the morning, get myself out to work and I am eating reasonably well. In fact probably eating better than I have been for quite a while. This I think is due to the fact that, especially in the evenings, I have quite a lot of time to fill. I am quite a good cook and I enjoy cooking. I have found that planning, preparing and eating my evening meal is a pleasant distraction. I am eating fairly healthily and generally getting my “Five a Day”.

I have good days and bad days. Sometimes the difficult days are easy to spot in advance. Grace’s birthday was one. It doesn’t mean that it’s not going to hurt, but knowing that it will be a hard day to get through at least allows you to prepare yourself. Other days things sneak up on you.

Apparently “Denial” is one of the first stages of grief that you go through, and having to face up to it is hard. Normally I get back home about three in the afternoon. I usually still have about two or three hours work, writing reports, making phone calls and answering emails. It was not unusual for Grace to be out when I got home. Right up to the point when her body started to give up completely, she led an active social life. The expression “ladies who lunch” was coined especially for her.

Last week, I was up in the spare room that I use as an office, typing up reports. I had the feeling that I was waiting for something, but I wasn’t sure what. Suddenly it struck me, I was waiting for the front door opening. Some how I had decided, at least subconsciously, that Grace was just off somewhere, out to lunch with friends, or away at a conference and that she would be back. It was then that I realised that, no, she wouldn’t be back, not now, not ever. And that hit me hard, really hard. Even as I am typing this I am half expecting to hear her say,
” Johnnie, turn that blooming computer off and come to bed, it’s gone eleven o’clock.”
But the voice I hear is inside my head.

Actually I should listen to it because I really should be getting to bed.

Running?

Couch to 5k Day 6

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tired
Well that is the second week of the project completed. I am now doing  1.5 minute runs followed by a two minute walk, six times. That is a little bit more than last time but it didn’t feel any harder, so I guess that it proves that the programme is working. I am gradually increasing my running fitness to the point where a 5k run will be a doddle (or a run in the park.)

There was a while this afternoon that I thought that I might have to revise my plans and do a swim instead. About two this afternoon we had the most amazing thunderstorm and downpour. I am probably exaggerating when I say that a months rain fell in ten minutes, but not by much. I was sitting in my office, writing my reports, when I became aware that water was cascading down outside my window. I thought that there was something wrong with the guttering, but the realised that it was caused by the fact that there was more water falling on the roof than the guttering could deal with. I looked out the front of the house and our street had turned into a river. There was, at that moment, just too much rain for the drains to cope with. Ten minutes later the rain had eased off and after half an hour the sun was back out and you wouldn’t have known that anything had happened.

The scenes about 500 metres from my house.

The technology is back up and jogging again so here is the Strava report on today’s run.