Run, run, stone-walling (dry or not), run (not dry), minimalist running?

Very much ‘work in progress’

After a hectic week and a long Sunday seeing our older son up in London, Monday was taken fairly easily but Tuesday saw the start of a new project – building a series of stone walls in the garden.

The aim is to tackle two issues at once – we have a pathway between a hedge and a row of trees which needs more ‘definition’, and we have loads of excess stone lying around that needs to be used. There are several separate sections needing walls, separated by the trees.

Helped by our younger son, I set to it, not knowing what I was doing (nothing new there, then). After a day I knew only one thing for sure – if I ever need to become a dry stone waller for a living, I will starve.

The work was very hard both technically and physically so the run I’d planned didn’t happen. I think I read that a good stone-waller handles each piece of stone just once, instinctively knowing where it will fit. I do not aspire to getting anywhere near that.

Sensibly, we ran early on Wednesday before starting day two of the task, but still aching from the effort on Tuesday. Just over 5.5km (3.4miles) but the Garmin lost the satellite connection at one point and we were credited with a 400m which was 20 seconds faster than the current world record (of course, in truth, we were just a handful of seconds outside the record).

It was a good run but afterwards I made a grave mistake by agreeing to run on Thursday evening with a young chap who sometimes rides with the cycle club. He is a proper runner – I checked on Strava and he recently did nearly 8km at better than 4:30 per km. He has promised not to kill me.

More walling on Thursday – taken fairly steadily to conserve energy, then the run at 6.30. I’m sure that when I was a boy, hot days were hottest just after midday and then cooled as the afternoon went on. It feels like hot days now just carry on getting hotter into the late afternoon. That’s how it was on Thursday – possibly the hottest day of the year and still roasting for the run.

I must admit to having been a bit nervous at the thought I might spoil his run – but we did a very enjoyable 7km (4.3miles) on the shadiest route we could find. True, he was jogging as I worked hard to keep up, but despite a few hills and quite a bit of off-road he pulled me through it as fast as I’ve run for some months.

Bournemouth off limits for now

I’d planned to go down to Bournemouth on Friday for some garden maintenance but it’s been in the news headlines for a couple of days as the good weather has brought thousands to the english beaches (especially Bournemouth which has been overwhelmed with people and traffic). It’s been madness with gridlocked roads, rubbish everywhere, and full beaches that meant social distancing was next to impossible. What is it about the sun that makes people act so recklessly?

I’ll wait for the weather to cool before I try to get down there. Sadly, that meant more walling on Friday – making progress but if I want them to stand up for more than a few days I’m going to have to abandon the ‘dry’ bit and add some mortar to glue the stones together.

All three of us ran on Saturday morning – and I then added a bit, in the rain, to take it beyond 11.5km (just over 7 miles).

A social life (but not as we knew it)

Saturday evening we hosted our usual social group of six for an excellent al fresco supper – we dodged the rain but were wearing coats by 9pm. Even as the lockdown eases, we will not be able to have an indoor supper party involving three households for a while yet.

Going barefoot/minimalist

As an aside, my wife needed new running shoes. When I ordered them I also ordered for myself (encouraged by others, thank you Adam) a pair of ‘minimalist/barefoot’ shoes (Merrell Vapor Glove 4 Trail Running Shoes to be precise).

Incredible service – ordered online Friday morning and arrived Saturday morning. They are very light – most of my running shoes weigh about 300g each (10.58oz) – these are 342g (12oz) for the pair! I was thinking of trying them on Sunday but I ached a bit so am looking forward to playing with them by way of experiment next week – and I’ve got to get back on the bike.

Interesting stuff this week

1. African proverb: If the owner of a calabash calls it a worthless calabash, others will join him to use it to pack rubbish.

Yes. I had to look it up – it’s a hollowed-out gourd

2. Palm Beach County commissioners proposed mandatory wearing of masks in public. They were harangued by residents who accused them of obeying the devil, imposing a communist dictatorship and dishonouring the American flag.

One resident was quoted as saying ‘they want to throw God’s wonderful breathing system out of the door’.

I must have misunderstood – I thought masks supplemented the lungs rather than replaced them.

I hope the lady doesn’t take any medicine as, by her reasoning, medicines throw out God’s wonderful bodily health system …

3. Brothels reopen in Austria on 1 July. The Greeks were a little ahead of them – rules brought in by the Greek government include card-only payments, a time limit of 15 minutes per customer, compulsory face masks and workers taking a list of clients’ contact details in case they need to be traced.

Presumably, no social distancing rule?

4. Headline: United Nations chief ‘shocked and disturbed’ by video of car sex act in Israel

There is footage of an apparent sex act on the back seat of an official and marked UN car in Israel. Presumably the UN is going to adopt the slogan ‘Make love, not war’

Confirmed cases of Coronavirus for Oxfordshire: population c. 690,000

14/3 – 22

21/3 – 44 (x2 from previous week)

28/3 – 113 (x2.5)

4/4 – 356 (x3.2)

11/4 – 653 (x1.8)

18/4 – 1070 (x1.6)

25/4 – 1336 (x1.25)

2/5 – 1540 (x1.15)

9/5 – 1688 (x1.09)

16/05 – 1902 (x1.13)

23/05 – 2020 (x1.06)

30/05 – 2065 (x1.02)

6/06 – 2093 (x1.01)

13/06 – 2109 (x1.01)

20/06 – 2123 (x1.01)

27/06 – 2128 (x1.00)

Run, run, run, something in the woodshed

Sunday’s run wasn’t as good as Saturday’s – but I could feel both in my legs on Monday, especially the calf muscles. Why don’t I remember to stretch before I have the problems?

I suppose the good thing is that it was the muscles and not the Achilles tendons – throughout the training for the Rotterdam Marathon in April last year, they never needed any excuse to protest loudly.

I’m wondering if I’ve been running a bit flat footed for a while in order to protect the Achilles’. Subconsciously, I must have got a bit more confident in them and am striking a bit closer to the ball of the foot (thus putting more strain on the Achilles/calf chain – oh dear).

I did a short leg loosener Monday (5.5km, about 3.4miles) in some pretty muggy heat around midday. In the afternoon I started on another bit of garden – more nettles and brambles but thistles replacing ivy, for a change. It was more ripping stuff out than digging stuff up – by the evening my hands were like claws, incapable of gripping more than a cup of coffee.

I ran with my wife on Tuesday (6.7km, 4.2m) but, after 4 consecutive days of running (for only about 30km – over 18 miles) my back ached on Wednesday so I took it as a rest day from exercise.

I bought a chainsaw to start cutting up the wood taken out of the beech trees last year. I still have a full complement of limbs and digits so it went well – but it’s going to be a three session job to get it all cut and stored for the wood burner this winter.

Session 2 log cutting on Thursday (in the rain, so no running) and the same again on Friday (in yet more rain) which finished the job and leaves us with a fully stacked woodshed (plus overflow into another shed).

As the lockdown eases, we are allowed to create a ‘support bubble’ so our younger son, furloughed from his job and having been alone in his flat in London since the start of the virus lockdown, is now at home with us. It’s great to have him here in any event – but I ran the Rotterdam Marathon with him last year so I now have another running partner and another pair of hands with the labours around the house and garden … and he plays a mean game of croquet too.

He and I had a very good run on Saturday – a bit over 10km (6.35miles) in an hour. On Sunday the three of us drove up to London for a socially distanced picnic with our other son and his girlfriend – we’ve not seen them since skiing in late January. It was great.

Rook update – the hawk cut-out appears to be having some effect (for now, at least). I’ve not seen any in the chicken run and the chicken food seems to be lasting longer – so it looks like fewer rooks (unless the chickens have put themselves on a diet).

Interesting stuff this week

1. African proverb of the week: ‘Better to meet me with a warm heart than offer me dinner.’

2. BBC News website: ‘Coronavirus and how to beat it on the sausage frontline’

When the battle lines are drawn, it tends to all come down to the sausages

3. BBC News website: ‘Australia shark encounter: Teenage siblings film ‘really scary’ escape’

As opposed to a ‘really enjoyable’ escape from a shark

4. Foolish joke of the week: I had a ticket for a gig by an emo band but it was called off. I was really sad – which is, I suppose, what they would have wanted.

Confirmed cases of Coronavirus for Oxfordshire: population c. 690,000

14/3 – 22

21/3 – 44 (x2 from previous week)

28/3 – 113 (x2.5)

4/4 – 356 (x3.2)

11/4 – 653 (x1.8)

18/4 – 1070 (x1.6)

25/4 – 1336 (x1.25)

2/5 – 1540 (x1.15)

9/5 – 1688 (x1.09)

16/05 – 1902 (x1.13)

23/05 – 2020 (x1.06)

30/05 – 2065 (x1.02)

6/06 – 2093 (x1.01)

13/06 – 2109 (x1.01)

20/06 – 2126 (x1.01)

Run, stream, bonfires, run, run, rook-scarer-in-chief (failed)

Back to pounding the local roads

On Tuesday I ran with my wife and did an extra bit to make it 11.6km (7.2miles). The mental trick of setting out to run further, rather than ‘I might do an extra bit after she finishes’ does work.

I was thinking that I should increase the length of my longest run each week but Thursday marked the ’13 months until the postponed ultra marathon’ day. What would be the purpose of doing longer runs now, unless I was likely to do a long race later in the year? Of course, there might not be any – and I don’t see myself doing one, even if there are.

Wednesday and Thursday were spent clearing the stream at the end of the garden – what a surprise, more brambles, nettles and ivy.

We live at the end of the village but the prevailing wind would share our bonfire smoke with everyone else. On Friday, the stars aligned (or, more accurately, the wind direction changed) so I lit the two huge bonfires that bore testament to all the recent days spent ripping ivy off walls and removing nettles and brambles.

It was hard physical work keeping both tended, while adding some scorch marks to the bramble damage to my forearms. I decided that gave me an exemption from the run I had intended.

My wife’s parents used to live next door to us and my father-in-law was a great one for bonfires. I could pretty much guarantee that, within 10 minutes of me lighting one, he’d be coming out to join me – cigarette in one hand and garden fork in the other.

He’s been dead for 10 years now but I still expect to see him walking over as the smoke starts to rise.

Saturday was our 33rd Wedding Anniversary – where in earth did all those years go?

I had an anniversary run to celebrate – a little over 10km (6.35miles) in just under the hour. It felt really good, despite the return of the heat, and I could (for once) have gone faster. I fear that this might find out if the Achilles are really ‘cured’ or if their tendency to get injured is waiting to make a comeback.

On Sunday I could feel the run in my legs (to say nothing of feeling the previous evening’s ‘Ottolenghi’ slow cooked lamb shoulder in my stomach) but such is the duty of the unpaid personal trainer that I ran with my wife – just over 7km, a little over 4.5 miles.

With lockdown, my hair is now into my eyes so I run in my ‘Galibier’ headband. I’ve had it for years but at least I feel entitled to wear it now after doing the Telegraph/Galibier climb last year.

For a while now I’ve been convinced that I’m feeding most of the rooks in the area. They have found our chickens’ run and are eating the pellets at a rate the chickens could only dream of. Sadly, the chickens are either cowards or rook lovers as they show no sign of making any effort to repel the raiders.

I decided to act so I rigged up some strings with silver foil tied to them so that the movement of the shiny bits would scare them away. As far as I could tell the rooks were not at all impressed and took no notice.

Next I set up a rudimentary scarecrow (scare-rook). Another failure – in fact, I suspect that the rooks put the word out that all the birds for a 10 mile radius should come over to laugh at the old bloke’s pitiful attempts at bird scaring.

My third attempt has been to cut out the silhouette of a hawk (as viewed from above) from a sheet of plywood and put that on a pole so that approaching rooks would see the potential predator and make themselves scarce. The jury is out on this attempt.

With only two remaining, elderly, chickens I’m not inclined to go much further but I think I do have some netting which I might be able to rig up as a roof to the run – if I reduced the size of the run. I’ll give it some thought.

Interesting stuff this week

1. BBC News website: The days of queuing for fish and chips are gone

The fabric of UK society collapses

2. My African proverb of the week: If you cry for rain don’t complain about the mud.

3. BBC News website: Coronavirus: Three firms still positive despite the virus crisis

Three … a whole three!

Confirmed cases of Coronavirus for Oxfordshire: population c. 690,000

14/3 – 22

21/3 – 44 (x2 from previous week)

28/3 – 113 (x2.5)

4/4 – 356 (x3.2)

11/4 – 653 (x1.8)

18/4 – 1070 (x1.6)

25/4 – 1336 (x1.25)

2/5 – 1540 (x1.15)

9/5 – 1688 (x1.09)

16/05 – 1902 (x1.13)

23/05 – 2020 (x1.06)

30/05 – 2065 (x1.02)

6/06 – 2093 (x1.01)

13/06 – 2109 (x1.007)

Run, run, run, RIDE (plus toad venom and a rare trip out)

Shame it just has me to push the pedals round

After Sunday’s gardening, Monday started with a sore back, and forearms lacerated by brambles and still tingling from the nettles. The pains went well with the knee I skinned tripping over a tree root on Sunday’s run.

Yes, I could (should) have worn long sleeves for the nettles and brambles but it was very hot and I was very careful (… to begin with).

I did more rough gardening on Monday wearing shorts, successfully adding ripped legs to the forearms. I won’t claim that as a personal best for stupidity – but it’s right up there. I look like I went three rounds with a roll of barbed wire, and lost badly.

Oh the joys of a fit and active life.

Bournemouth on Tuesday. With the lockdown we haven’t been there for a couple of months and, although some neighbours have been kind enough to keep an eye on the house, they haven’t, of course, done any gardening. The grass was knee high with specimen thistles at waist height in the lawns. After a few hard hours in yet more gloriously hot weather, they looked rather more like meadows rather than lawns – but at least reasonably tended meadows.

The weather broke a bit on Wednesday, cooler and a few showers but I had a short leg-loosener run (5.5km – 3.5miles). Much the same again on Thursday, but a bit further – 10.2km (6.3 miles). Two really enjoyable runs, not fast but steady, consistent and they felt fairly easy.

The (slightly) relaxed lockdown in England now allows for up to 6 people to meet, socially-distanced and outdoors. On Friday evening we had our first social event for about 10 weeks as we and another couple from the village walked in to Faringdon for an al fresco supper in the garden of some mutual friends. It was a great evening – but a slightly sad reminder of what we’ve been missing.

I’d driven a car over earlier so we all had our own crockery and cutlery and warm clothing and I ran a roundabout way there to pick it up on Saturday morning – 6.5km (4miles).

When I started this blog it was mostly about the pleasures of cycling – including my ‘everest’ in 2017 and the solo ride out to the alps in 2018.

The Rotterdam Marathon in 2019 rather got in the way of the cycling – and it re-kindled my liking for running that has continued since. While my body permits, I’ll keep running (the ultra marathon has only been postponed to 2021) … but it feels about time to get back to my roots and pick up the road cycling again – especially as the pandemic has messed up my annual trip to the alps this summer.

The new carbon fibre wheels have arrived (50mm deep and only weighing 1400 grams) and the necessary carbon-rim-specific brake blocks are now in place. Out of interest, before I set off for a ride on Sunday, I weighed the bike – as in the photo with pedals and bottle and Garmin mounts it came out at 7.2kg. It deserves more than just me riding it.

I did a 36km spin over a route I’d done about three weeks ago. Then I averaged 26.9kph (16.7mph) – this time I averaged 30.4kph (18.9mph).

The bike felt so much faster, even without the tri-bars (I’ll put them on once I’ve got used to the wheels’ characteristics). Not exactly a laboratory-controlled experiment, but encouraging.

I’m not sure if the difference is due to aerodynamics or witchcraft but I don’t think I care too much.

Interesting things this week

1. African proverb of the week: The offspring of a hawk is bound to steal chicken.

2. Porn star Nacho Vidal held in Spain after man dies in toad-venom ritual.

I’m reluctant to include this (from BBC News website) on the basis that, subsequently, everything else will look pretty ordinary.

3. Foolish joke of the week: A farmer asked me to help him round up 19 sheep. I said of course, that’s 20 sheep.

4. ‘Prince William reveals he is secret helpline volunteer’

Thus demonstrating that he’s not quite grasped the concept of ‘secret’.

Confirmed cases of Coronavirus for Oxfordshire: population c. 690,000

14/3 – 22

21/3 – 44 (x2 from previous week)

28/3 – 113 (x2.5)

4/4 – 356 (x3.2)

11/4 – 653 (x1.8)

18/4 – 1070 (x1.6)

25/4 – 1336 (x1.25)

2/5 – 1540 (x1.15)

9/5 – 1688 (x1.09)

16/05 – 1902 (x1.13)

23/05 – 2020 (x1.06)

30/05 – 2065 (x1.02)

6/06 – 2093 (x1.01)