February 2019 – Doing A Bit Of Running

3 podcasts

There are 3 podcasts that come along with me on my Sunday long run.

I am a very slow runner so it takes me around 2 and a half hours to do a 21 kilometre run. This mean that I need a fairly substantial chunk of podcasting to see me through.

My first choice was Bad Boy Running. This varies in length quite a bit and is often around 1 and 3 quarters of an hour long. This is fine for the shorter runs but the Sunday long run leaves me plodding around for much longer than that.

My second choice was, Running Commentary, suggested by fellow Cambridge runner Elidh Nicol. She was full of enthusiasm for this podcast and told me that it was the best thing ever. I downloaded it and absolutely hated it. This created a difficult situation. I faced this situation squarely, as any Englishman would, and just never ever mentioned it again.

I’m not quite sure what changed but only 2 episodes later I had warmed to Running Commentary and became a regular listener. I think it may have something to do with getting to know the two comedian/runners Rob Deering and Paul Tonkinson, through the podcast, and slowly growing to like them. They talk about their careers as comedians on the edge of fame and fortune and as runners trying to slot in their running into a ridiculously busy schedule. There is a delightful sincerity to this that I find quite beguiling. Sincerity is an incredibly rare commodity in all forms of entertainment.

I have grown to love Running Commentary and all the callback features such as saying hello to any single magpies and the joy and pain of being the parent of a teenager. I really do love this podcast and thank Elidh for introducing me to it.

The final one in the trilogy is ‘Free, weekly and timed’. This one causes the most inner turnoil in that it is about Parkrun and I love Parkrun but there are times when this one is just too nicey nicey and I start feeling physically ill at the preponderance of icing without enough cake to support it. I am all in favour of optimism but so often in running there are times when it’s all pain, shit, blood and breakdown. We don’t smile all the time and it can feel a little false to imply that we do. Admittedly there are episodes in this podcast that accept that running can be painful and horrible so it is not so 1 dimensional as it first appeared. I wasn’t sure about this one at first but I shall stick with it for now.

So, back to the first one which was my first running podcast and is still my favourite. It is a very odd thing. It has been described as 2 posh boys laughing at each other’s jokes. This sounds hugely derogotary and of course it is. However, it does give the potential listener a fine preview of what they are going to hear.

The hosts of Bad Boy Running are Jody Rainsford and David Hellard. One is a speed merchant and the other is an ultra runner. They antagonise each other as they run through recent events in running and also bring on some amazing guests such as Dean Karnazes (has run and won many ultra marathons and wrote ‘Ultra Marathon Man) and Lazarus Lake (creator of the Barkley Marathon and all round ultra running genius).

Being also a fan of 1980’s reggae I am particularly pleased with the coup Bad Boy Running achieved of getting Pato Banton to agree for them to use his song ‘Baby Come Back’ as their theme song. Just shows what you can achieve if you have the cheek to ask for it.

It is a weird paradox that Bad Boy Running make such a big deal of their being just a fun and silly podcast and yet they are by far the most serious of these three. They have serious guests on the show that have done serious things. There is blood and pain and very sincere reactions to the suffering that their guests have gone through. This is a seriously good running podcast. I find it hard to visualise how any others could better this one.

Spring has sprung – Is it a trap?

It is one year on from the ‘Beast from the East’ which held us in its’ icy grip for 2 weeks, this time last year. I remember battling through what seemed like blizzard conditions as we were setting up gazebos for the Cambridge Half Marathon. There were a number of races called off that weekend but fortunately the snow backed off a little and the race was able to go ahead as planned. This year, conditions are a little different. We are now one week away from the Cambridge Half Marathon and the sun is shining. Snowdrops and crocuses are poking out of the soil for a little look around. It all seems a little early and I have to wonder whether we are suddenly going to be hit with fearful frost, hail and snow.

I was a little unsure about going out for my long run today as I suppose that I should be tapering. I have decided not to do the tapering thing and instead I will treat the half marathon as just another training run. The prime focus for this year is ‘Race to the Stones’ and even the delightful Cambridge Half must take a back seat to that one.

The weather was glorious. There was still a bit of a chill in the air when I went out but it warmed up to about 10 degrees Celsius before the run was done.

As usual I didn’t really know where I would run but my feet have developed a habit of making for the lovely wooded area on the Mere Way to do a little circuit under the trees.

I trotted around there and found myself feeling irritated at the tightness in my chest. I have been somewhat snotty now for about a fortnight and this week have been battered around by some extremely vicious sinus headaches. I’ve had just about enough of this carry on and I’d rather like it to stop now please.

Leaving the woodland circuit behind I carried on down the Mere Way toward Landbeach, I could actually feel a little warmth from the sun on the right side of my face and despite my shortness of breath was feeling quite good about myself and life in general. I’ve lost a decent amount of weight recently by virtue of cutting out my mid morning snack of a Ginsters sausage roll. The snack van brings them to my workplace, all piping hot and delicious. They are a joyous thing of flaky pastry and sausage meat. A mixture of wonderful textures and astounding flavour, Truly the sausage roll is a thing of wonder. The downside is that it is around 600 calories and if it’s a day where I’m not going for a run then I am unlikely to burn those extra calories. It is quite a sacrifice but now paying dividends in terms of weight loss.

I glanced to the left and saw my shadow silhouette travelling beside me. For all the weight I have lost my shadow still resembles a condom into which someone has tried to stuff a whole pot of yoghurt *. This was immensely depressing but I must just continue with weight loss regime until some more of this yoghurt has been squeezed out again.

I continued through Landbeach, pausing for a moment to take a picture of some poo in a field.

If you look closely you will see the steam rising from it. Then on to Waterbeach, Bottisham Lock and through an open section by the side of a winding little stream.

A couple of swans drifted down the stream looking for their photo op. Of course I obliged.

I usually do a circular route but this time decided to go out for 11km and then turn around to come back. I wanted to ensure that I didn’t go too far over 21km. This out and back was much more enjoyable than I expected. The act of turning back gave my brain the encouragement it needed. I felt that I was going home and therefore it all started to feel downhill. Sometimes it seems we can make this tricksy brain thing work for us.

This was a beautiful day – This was a fine run.

Next week is Cambridge Half Marathon. The weather forecast shows it being a bit wet with a breeze but soooo much better than last year.

Should be fun.

* This phrase is partially stolen from Stephen Fry who was describing his own body in an interview. I can’t remember exactly what he said but I am pretty sure that yoghurt was involved.

The Walk Of Chafe

We’ve all seen the walk of chafe. It’s a sort of bow legged slow motion waddle where the runner is attempting to move without the suffering parts of the body (often the groin) coming into contact with anything else. It’s delightfully comical to anyone witnessing this phenomenon but perhaps a little less so to the poor person experiencing it.

As you might have guessed I have recently been having problems with this and the primal howl of pain as I lower myself into the bath has been a cause of considerable consternation to my poor long suffering partner.

As I run, the sweat trickles down my body and tends to collect between my legs and at the tops of my thighs. When in shorts it can be slightly less of a problem as I don’t wear underpants, so less sweat is soaked up by cotton pants and can’t hang around quite so long to cause too much damage. When wearing running tights I feel less inclined to run without underpants as the tights cling perhaps a bit too tightly and I am all too likely to be arrested on some kind of obscenity charge. This is when it can get really painful and I need to find a solution.

Determined to do something about it I embarked upon a little Internet research. First: what is chafing?

The website ‘healthline.com’ has this to say about chafing:

“Chafing is a common skin problem caused by any combination of friction, moisture, and irritating fabric. Prolonged rubbing on the skin makes your skin sting or burn, and you develop a mild, red rash. In severe cases, chafing will include swelling, bleeding, or crusting. “

Ouch! Yes, that about sums it up. So, what to do about it?

Webmd.com says that you mustn’t stay in wet clothes. This is good advice but if you are on a long run then you will be in your wet clothes for some considerable time. My running tights are made of wicking material which would help to take that moisture away from the skin. However, the obscenity problem remains so are there any other solutions?

It seems that there is a newcomer to this field that is becoming very popular among runners and this is the specially designed underwear, ‘Runderwear’ (I love that name). These underpants are made of wicking material and don’t have any seams to rub against the skin and add to the irritation. They are astoundingly expensive at 20 pounds a pair but look as if they will do the job.

I bought some Runderwear pants and took them on a run. They cut down the chafing considerably but didn’t completely remove the problem. I looked online to see what other runners were using and encountered something called bodyglide. This too was quite expensive at nearly 23 pounds for 42 grammes but I ordered it and went out again wearing Runderwear pants and a coating of Bodyglide. This time there were no problems at all and I sank into my bath without even a whimper.

Could I have found my anti-chafe solution?

It is quite possible, but I am all too aware that my 100km Race To The Stones will be in July and the conditions will be far warmer than those I am experiencing now. Will the Runderwear and Bodyglide pairing be able to cope with the ridiculous amounts of sweat that I produce during that particular trial or will I yet again have to do the Walk Of Chafe?

I Love My Home Parkrun

I often forget just how fortunate I am to live where I do and to be only a few minutes walk away from possibly the most delightful venue for a Parkrun that I have experienced.

Today the wind got a bit uppity and so my local parkrun (Cambridge Parkrun in Milton Country Park) was cancelled. The park itself was closed for fear that we would get large chunks of trees descending upon us and leading to mangled limbs and broken bones. Never mind, thinks I, there is the Coldhams Common Parkrun only 3 miles away. I checked the website for that and it was also cancelled. Hmm, oh well, nothing for it. I shall have to get the car out and drive to Wimpole Estate. I checked the website and, yes you guessed it – cancelled.

Now you might think I would have given up here and just pulled on my running socks to do some general running about in the village. However, there is another factor in play. I am getting very close to my 250th Parkrun and I really fancy one of their milestone tee-shirts. The one for 250 parkruns is particularly pleasing. I searched for the next nearest Parkrun and found that Littleport had an event and I had just about enough time to get there. Moments later I was in my little Renault and bowling along through the Fens.

Littleport Parkrun

I arrived there to be greeted by a howling wind and a few beleaguered looking volunteers sheltering in the bike sheds. The event takes place at Littleport Leisure Centre and the bike sheds are very capacious indeed. I joined the volunteers in there and was exceedingly grateful for the shelter it gave. I balked a little when I realised that to attend the first timers briefing I would need to leave this shelter but I hauled myself out there as I needed to hear what the course had in store for me.

This is a course similar to many Parkruns in that they’ve found a couple of largeish fields and just send us around and around until we’ve done 5k. These are disappointing from a scenery and variation point of view but quite necessary in many places as it is really difficult to find a 5k chunk of land that can be used for a Parkrun. The Littleport run goes around one field and then along a muddy track to another. They then run around that field and up the cycle path at the side of the leisure centre and are back where they started. Then, it’s time to do that again. The runners start to do that again but cut across one field, head toward the next but miss out that field and come back along the cycle path, to finish outside Littleport Leisure centre. A bit uninspiring but it does have the advantage that there are no trees so much less chance of the high winds causing carnage among the runners.

I started the run and found another advantage. There are nowhere near as many runners as I am accustomed to at Parkruns and so we all got through the start almost instantaneously. At my home Parkrun it can take almost a minute just to reach the start.

We ran around the first field and then hit a massively slippery section leading to the next field. I am running as if I am trying to hold on to invisible handrails on either side of me.

In the next field the wind seems to have found a new gear and as we turn back to run toward the cycle path we are all brought almost to a standstill and look like we are trying to do a running mime while staying on the spot. Most peculiar. We battled our way out of that one and run down the cycle path toward the leisure centre. Second time around the loop I am beginning to wonder at what point the leaders will catch me. At Milton Parkrun they usually pass me somewhere around 2.5K as they storm their way to the finish line. Here I know I’ve passed 2.5k and I still can’t see anyone in sight who looks like they might be one of the faster runners. At the finish I find out just why that was, as my finish time is 26.38. This is a lot faster than I’ve run 5k for almost 2 years. I was in 43rd place and came 4th in my age category. At my home Parkrun I would expect to be around 250th.
I am very happy indeed.

I really enjoyed my trip to Littleport. The course is a long way from being beautiful but the volunteers were great and it all felt quite cosy and friendly. It is also flat and I should imagine that on a dry day with lower winds, it would be an ideal PB course.

My Home Parkrun

So, back to the title of the piece. Cambridge Parkrun in Milton Country Park is less than a kilometre from my door. It is all trail but reasonably flat and wanders around through the trees giving tantalising glimpses of the lakes in the middle of the park. Cambridge Parkrun has variety and beauty in abundance and I must remember not to take that for granted. I shall appreciate it all the more next time I run.

The next time I do a Parkrun will be my 250th. This is the last of the Parkrun milestones and I am really thrilled to have (almost) reached it. I have promised myself that once I have done this one I will try and pay back by doing a goodly sized chunk of volunteering.