Here it is….eventually. I’m getting too old for this. Its taken me a couple of weeks to work out how to load the mp3 file into the correct bit of the website so that it can be downloaded. Anyway, it seems to work now. I’ll fiddle away until I can get it uploaded to iTunes.
Basically, this is an introduction to me and where I run plus an interview with an ultrarunning colleague at work. She is in the ballot for a place at the the Western States 100. She has only a 1 in 5 chance of getting in but she is such a good athlete that it would be great to see a Scot getting in to such a prestigious race.
Anyway, here it is, warts and all. I hope the next one doeasn’t take so long to get on line.
The music is by Carlos Saura and his album is available for download free under a Creative Commons license at: http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/4372
Usually, I run alone. Occasionally, my wife comes with me but I like to run up hills and she doesn’t so we usually end up heading in different directions. My hills are fairly steep and they encourage you into a gentle rhythm. I could run uphill all day by staying in my comfort zone. I don’t get breathless and I have a set of songs on the mp3 which keep me relaxed and floating. For relaxed and floating, I suppose you could read slow. I’ve run about 1000 miles on these hills in the past year and, its true what they say about training by running long slow distance. I run long distances slowly.
About a month ago, I ran a half marathon with a group of other runners. It was not a race and a group of about 20 of us ran along the Thames and into Oxford, keeping together the whole way. We ran our last mile in the footsteps of Roger Bannister on the Iffley Road track on which he ran the first 4 minute mile in 1951. I found running with these friends such fun. But I was slow. If I am going to continue to run with others, I’ll need to speed up. But how? In days gone by – and I mean 35 or 40 years ago, at school and University, it would have been easy. To get faster, I woiuld have gone out and just ran faster. My lungs and cardiovascular system would’t have noticed the extra effort. As you get older, your heart loses the ability to beat as fast as it did when you were young and, you simply can’t transport oxygen fast enough to your muscles to allow faster running. You have to provoke adaptation slowly otherwise there are risks.
Like sudden death….
Complete or partial blockage of the coronary arteries means the heart doesn’t respond well to sudden metabolic load and death of heart muscle or sudden (and potentially fatal) irregularity of nerve conduction in the heart can occur. So, how does an old guy get to enjoy his running more by going faster while minimising risk of anything unpleasant and inconvenient happening?
The evidence is pretty clear. In any population of runners, the risk of death from a range of conditions, over a defined time period, is less than in a population of non runners of broadly similar age and sex composition. Individual risk within the population will vary. Its hard to extrapolate from population risk to your own individual risk. Having said that, it is highly likely that every individual who exercises at a moderate intensity or harder will experience a reduction in risk over time.
I’ll look into the literature on this in my next post
I don’t find running easy. Where I live, its winter. We have cold, dark and, usually, wet nights and cold, grey and, usually, wet days. At this time of year, it’s hard to get the shoes on and go out running when all it means is cold and wetness. Once you’re out, you settle into the rhythm, the endorphins kick in and you’re glad of the peace. But….getting out….that’s the hard part for me.
Its not as if I’m a finely honed athlete, pushing my fitness to the limit to shave seconds off a 10k time which is already ludicrously quick. I’m no natural athlete. I’m just an ordinary bloke with a tendency to be overweight. But I have a family I love, a job I love and parents I love. I watch football (or, at least, what passes for football in these parts.) I enjoy good food and a glass of wine. I have friends whose company I enjoy. And……that’s the problem. I have so many good things in my life and so many reasons to stay healthy. That’s why I run.
The evidence that regular, moderately strenuous exercise helps keep you healthy is overwhelming. The evidence that many of the habits we have acquired as modern homo sapiens causes chronic ill health and shortens our lives is also overwhelming. I want to do what I reasonably can to enhance my health so that I can live longer and stay healthy and independent as I age. I want to continue to enjoy the many good things in my life (…..except the football…… enjoy is not a word you use about this football….)
I have 3 reasons for starting this blog. Firstly, other running blogs and podcasts have been highly motivating for me. On dark, windy nights, its surprisingly comforting to listen to another runner on your mp3 player discussing their training, their running aspirations and generally telling you what is going on in their lives. I’ve benefited so much from the efforts of fellow runners who take the trouble to share their running experiences with the world. I feel I owe that part of the running community something so this is my way of paying them back. Secondly, if blogs and podcasts have motivated me, there is just a chance that something I might say in this blog might motivate someone else to get active and improve their prospects for a healthy future.
My third reason for starting this blog is to try to work out, through research and interviews with experts, how I might improve my running from the routine plodding which I currently do into something more efficient, more enjoyable and more effective.
So, over the next few weeks, I would like to look critically at the reasons for running, how to get the best out of the time I spend on the road and how to get a little bit better at it.
I hope you feel inclined to join me for some of that journey
