March Or Die

[Sweder]

So, a month has come and gone without so much as a squeak from me.
I'm two race reports down and haven't run a step in over three weeks. The reasons are many and all rather dull; work is oppressive, the arrival of two shiny new lurcher pups has delivered an unexpectedly stressful challenge to all at Chez Sweder, not least as I've been on two long-haul trips. The unexpected, unwelcome yet perhaps inevitable (given my lack of running and recent work schedule) arrival of another, altogether darker hound, has dampened my ardour.

The irony is that when stress is high and spirits low running IS the answer. I know this and yet ... and yet I've contrived to throw up any number of spurious obstacles to stop me getting out there. All work and no play makes Ash a dull boy. No running also means no writing. Almeria and Steyning remain scribbled in a notebook I can't bare to open.

As MLCMan pointed out recently in his typically direct antipodean style my own sorry state of affairs is no reason to ignore the valiant efforts of others. I'm afraid I gave him short shrift, burbling something about having done my share over the years, blah blah blah. Truth is I'm in a trough and I need to climb out of it PD-bloody-Q or risk sinking into the hilly mud of RC history.

Marathondan and Stillwaddler are bravely flying the RC flag. You have my full support including physically on the day when I shall take up station with my fellow JDRF supporters to cheer you all on past Brighton's West Pier. Run well and please, bring us vicarious endorphin-infused pleasures via these pages. My own tardiness is no excuse

Farewell March, you ugly, desolate month.
Here's to shiny new April in all her springtime finery.

[marathondan]

Well it's certainly quiet around here without your raucous support for other members, or your own tales of derring-do. But we all understand that priorities change from time to time.

I think your thread title hits the nail on the head: you have an appointment down under in 8 months time, in which I expect you will want to do yourself justice.

As the simple message on Andy's old site put it: "Time to run!"

Looks like you've bagged a good spot for Sunday week - miles 14 and 25. Look forward to seeing you!

[ladyrunner]

It will be good to see you out running again very soon Sweder. New month - new start.

I'm only over the hill and as of Sunday will be starting a taper for the Rotterdam Marathon. Walking 20k on Saturday, but if you fancy a steady run walk on Sunday I'm game. We can hit the hills of the South Downs and have some fun.

Coffee and bacon rolls after too if you fancy ??

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

As MLCMan pointed out recently in his typically direct antipodean style...

Not as pointed or direct as your bloody Yorkshiremen. That Geoffrey fookin' Boycott...gad, how has he not been murdered yet?

[El Gordo]

Good message @sweder - much appreciated.

That slightly fractious exchange on Twitter the other night was a timely extension to some recent soul-searching on my part. I'll go into that in a new blog post, and hope that it doesn't join the 15 or so posts I've written in recent weeks that haven't made it to t'Internet.

RC started out nearly 10 years ago as some sort of writing project, but in recent times (as @sweder so robustly reminded us the other night) most of the contributions have come from him, as well as from MLCM and Dan and SW, who remind us that some people at least have remained true to the supposed purpose of the site.

(Hmm, but hang on -- what is the purpose of the site? That old chestnut has been rattling around my cranial cavity in recent days. Ironically,my recent life has been interesting and thought-provoking - to put it mildly - yet almost none of it is being recorded here.)

Many reasons for my relative coyness, but a particularly red-faced culprit is Twitter. It may have been taken by some as an April Fool, but my last Twitter message may be exactly that. I've realised it's taking up too much time and exhausting too much other stuff that could be better employed elsewhere.

On the running front, an update: a few days after the last post on the main site, I went for a plod and had (yawn) another attack of calf-itis, but this time in my right leg, instead of the left, as has been the case over the past 15 months. It was a major blow to my morale, and took a couple of weeks to work things through.

Long story short is that I need to get that corner turned some other way. This is all part of my musings.

In the meantime, let's cut @sweder some slack. His contribution here is unmatched, and let's tip our collective hat. If he needs to take some time out, or even to decamp completely, then so be it. It won't erode the man's amazing, stream-of-consciousness musings over the past several years. He was, is, and I'm sure will be (somewhere) a delight to read -- for many years to come.

More stuff from me soon. But before getting too bogged down in more navel-gazing from the bench, let's acknowledge and encourage Dan and SW in their climbs up the final crazy stages of the marathon mountain.

Andy

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

...and LadyRunner too, who has been an appreciated and increasingly frequent visitor recently. You can have your own training diary too, LR, should you wish.

Main thing though is to keep running, everyone.

[Sweder]

...and LadyRunner too, who has been an appreciated and increasingly frequent visitor recently. You can have your own training diary too, LR, should you wish.

Main thing though is to keep running, everyone.

Good shout MLCMan; LR is having more adventures than most these days - races, long walk/ runs, a 20k walk race in Spain last month, a marathon in Rotterdam very soon ... I like her style on the road and on these pages. It would be great to read her take on our collective adventures.

Perhaps for LR as for many of us time is the auld enemy. Amongst El Cuckoo's incoherent ramblings above (blushes) he makes a salient point about that social media wunderkind, Twitter. I'm addicted to it. I tweet, therefore I am, and there's the rub. Regular (sometimes hourly, sometimes more frequently) posts of the 140-characters-or-less variety can slake a man's creative thirst. Most of it of course is utter nonsense; banal trivia exchanged with kindred spirits; live commentary on cookery shows or terrace-like barracking during sporting events. There are useful links, occasional insights but for the most part it's bollocks.

The truth is Twitter is insidious, invasive and downright distracting. For those of us with Tweetdeck - the Cape Canaveral of social media desktop applications - the intrusions are manifold. Exchanging witty (or otherwise) banter with 'Tweeple' is, frankly, considerably more fun than, ooh, I don't know, working? As some here may have surmised I have a somewhat addictive nature. I've been likened - by friends - to Toad of Toad Hall, jumping on the Next Big Thing, hurling bundles of wild enthusiasm at the latest fad. Well, like El Cuckoo I've reached that point where Badger and Moley have found me bouncing along the road on my arse clutching a steering wheel and burbling 'poop poop'.

Time to take stock. Time to get a grip.
In a classic case of mid-life crisis I've started an affair with a younger, more attractive mistress. She makes me feel vital and vibrant, energised and engaged. She looks good; she's modern, popular and turns heads wherever she goes. She dotes on me, sends me messages at all hours of the day and night, feeds my ego, strokes my ... well, let's bail out of this metaphor before we all regret reading this shall we? I too shall uninstall the dreaded Tweetdeck from my laptop. I shall eschew the humerous musings of my Ethernet pals (some of whom are genuinely funny and who have become, in a thoroughly modern way, friends) and return to Planet Earth. Sweder In Real Life.

Breaking up with Twitter will not solve my running woes, but it will remove a seductive, insistant distraction. I believe that, for me, running is the answer, or at least an answer. To run free in the hills around my home is to speak with God, or nature, or whatever ethereal deity floats your boat. It frees my mind, let's the creative (yes, and the nonsensical) juices flow. Without running in my life I am simply a fat(ter), rather dull sofa-dweller. It's time to Ditch the Bitch and return to loving arms of my One True Love.

[El Gordo]

Hurrah!

[The Beast of Bevendean]

Can see the sense in this. I'm trying to write a book chapter today; switched everything off first thing, got 1600 words done, even with puppy distractions, no, not Sweder's, son's girlfriend's cocker spaniel, rejoices in the name of Sibyl. Then stopped for a spot of lunch, (hummus, cheese omelette, fried potatoes, a banana and a hot cross bun: carbo-loading for Brighton), turn e-mail on, then Twitter,....and the bloody afternoon's gone before I know it.
I'll stay on Twitter: I find it useful professionally. I just have to learn to discipline myself not to look at it all day and night. So I'm going to manage my addiction, rather than go cold turkey.

[ladyrunner]

Hurray Sweder!!

You had me worried there about the metaphor bit ... I had to read that paragraph a few times.

That photo I put of you on FB yesterday 'TWEET TWEET' at the start of the Almeria Half Marathon made me chuckle to myself .... it will be good to have the real life Sweder back.

No more sessions with Sweder checking his Tweets mid-point LOL

As far as setting me up my own training diary .. yes as you say I probably am having more adventures than most at the moment and yes time can be tight, but I guess I should have a go at my own individual training diary. I am abit worried as I do struggle to write with a flow and imagination like most of you guys on here. Writing is not one of my strong points - my brain in better geared out for technical challenges and number crunching. You could find it all very dull but I will give it a go and see how it goes

Anyway I'm looking forward to hitting the hill with my old mate Sweder .... very soon I hope

Julie

[stillwaddler]

as I have just read your musings on April The Very First Sweder, I will take the notion that you would even consider giving up running as a very funny April Fool...You Are Therefore You Run. Not much you can do about it really.
Giving up tweeting...I did it some time ago, haven't missed it much either.
El C get those calves sorted...run in high heels if you have to, we need yours and Sweder's prose to keep the legs well oiled.
Do tell us more about the new lurcher puppies, now my retirement is imminent I will be able to get a hound soon and am considering a lurcher/retired greyhound or a spaniel, but not while I still have my aged (9) house rabbit, the temptation to pounce would be too much for any dog I'm sure!

[El Gordo]

I'll stay on Twitter: I find it useful professionally. I just have to learn to discipline myself not to look at it all day and night. So I'm going to manage my addiction, rather than go cold turkey.

Good policy if you really can "manage [your] addiction". I can't, and am out.

But forget all that. Tell us about the book you're writing.

[El Gordo]

As far as setting me up my own training diary .. yes as you say I probably am having more adventures than most at the moment and yes time can be tight, but I guess I should have a go at my own individual training diary. I am abit worried as I do struggle to write with a flow and imagination like most of you guys on here. Writing is not one of my strong points - my brain in better geared out for technical challenges and number crunching. You could find it all very dull but I will give it a go and see how it goes

Hurrah for LR! Will drop you a line over the weekend and get you sorted.

[Sweder]

Tom, management is admirable and I wish you well. Re:my own addiction, as the scorpion said to the frog 'it's in my nature' - I have plenty of will power, it's won't power I lack.

I used to post here regularly to feed my need to communicate. Twitter usurped RC dramatically; too easy, too quick, too many stimuli coming at me from all directions. A baroque kalaidescope of thoughts, views, news and ideas. A torrent of consciousness as seductive as any Siren's song. I bathed, nay wallowed, yet I was not waving but drowning.

MLCMan and El Cuckoo dragged me up onto the rocks. Gasping for air I saw my folly, the likely end-game; a dishevilled Sweder, bearded, unwashed, a jabbering dupe prodding at a block of wood crudely honed into the shape of a smartphone. Thanks boys.

[El Gordo]

Am off to Zurich for a walking tour with a visiting American colleague.

You see? I can't immediately lose the need to tell people what I'm doing.

But why?

Better to talk about it after it's done.

[Sweder]

Ah yes Stillwaddler, those Lurcher pups. Another darned good reason for me to unearth those running boots and take to the hills; I've got me two new running mates.

Ripley & Murphy are doing extremely well. They are very different souls, he being a chilled-out Dude, inquisitive yet able to 'chillax' after a mad half-hour. She is a livewire, a real jack-in-the-box and downright naughty. It remains to be seen if she is, as Mrs S would have you believe, 'evil'. My good lady turned to me one week after I bropught them home and said
'It's Tess - she's come back to haunt us!'

Time will tell. For now it's terrific fun watching them get to grips with the outside world. I feel like Thumper in Bambi, naming all the strange new things we find on our twice-daily rambles. 'Bird; horse; flower; dog; large dog; come back!' and so forth. They've started to develop that classic long-dog running style; belly flat to the ground, neck extended, ears back, jaws set in a determined grin. To see them running full tilt is to see the joy of life before you; your heart soars, spirits lift as you silently witness pure running motion in action. I could watch them all day. Alas, with their young bones still soft and forming I have to restrict their outdoor adventures to two fifteen-minute walks. They feed rapaciously, play tirelessly and chew up any kind of footwear in the comfort of their lair, Willow's old cell, or crate as they are now known in the modern world of dogs.


Murphy (blue collar) and Ripley (red) at the gate from Landsport Bottom

[marathondan]

Blimey, it's all gone very active all of a sudden!

Sweder and Andy, I never thought I'd see the day when you stopped tweeting. But I didn't realise you were finding it so intrusive. Bravo for taking the bold move. But then again, anyone who's resolved to run a marathon (or worse) is no stranger to such decisions.

I second the motion that Sweder (and Andy for that matter) should feel any obligation to generate content here. You both have a fine body of work behind you (enough to form the basis of a good running book, as discussed many times) and you should feel no pressure to keep that up. But I know that deep down you both want to, and take it further as well.

BTW Andy, you may not be aware that, although your posts don't make it onto t'internet, some of them do appear in your RSS feed.... (maybe if you post them and then immediately delete them? There was one about you entering into a relationship with a man the other day I think.)

Regarding the purpose of the forum... for me, RC is a running club and the forum is the clubhouse. You can pop in for a two minute chat to hear how training has been going for the last couple of days, you might get to hear a half decent joke or an interesting take on the news, or now and again we all might settle down with our favourite drinks (there's a well-stocked bar of course) while one of our number tells a long and absorbing yarn about their latest adventure. Plans are hatched, souls are bared, anxieties aired and therapy (running-related or otherwise) is dispensed. All we lack is the physical space, and we're the better for that because it means we can hold the conversations at our own personal convenience (not to mention spanning 12,000 miles).

Julie - yes it would be great to hear more details of your training and your race days. My personal philosophy is that if I have content I don't need to worry about style. I don't think I can make a story particularly entertaining, so I just try to make sure that it's a story worth telling (which frankly isn't really the case with my marathon training these days).

There are some folks round here who are natural ranconteurs, the types around whom we naturally gather in the virtual clubhouse to hear their epic, anecdote-laden stories. We don't all have that talent, but the world of the distance runner is always a life less ordinary, and so I think even the workaday logs are a tale worth telling. Besides, you are becoming a technical expert in the run / walk field, which is something we could probably all benefit from learning about.

And when the going's got tough through the winter, I have found it helpful to flick through my previous diaries to see that I've been there before and come out the other side. It's a good habit to get into, I think.

Finally, I would like to extend thanks to all those who are not, shall we say, "active runners" at present, but who have dropped by occasionally to offer support during my winter training. I feel that my diary has been mostly for my own benefit, but it's good to know others are reading sometimes and the comments are much appreciated. Hopefully I will have a good tale to tell come next Sunday.

Finally finally (as you've posted while I was drafting this) - Sweder I salute your new footer - which I will now reproduce for posterity, as in a few months time it will disappear and this post will make no sense: "Let's see how we get on, shall we?" The motto of a man who, despite in the past having shown tremendous reserves of willpower and strength, knows that running is a wily and mischievous spirit, which may lead who knows where.

[The Beast of Bevendean]

The book? Ah well, my collected tweets, what else? The great epigrammatists of the past, like Martial, I'm sure, would have embraced the medium whole-heartedly.
Or I could claim that it is a sensitive study of a middle-aged runner-librarian, misunderstood by the world, yet preternaturally attractive to lissom young female runners.
The truth is that it is a chapter in a volume entitled Collection Development in the Digital Age which may sell a few copies to fellow members of my profession, but is hardly likely to make my fortune, or that of any of the other contributors.

[Sweder]

... I have a run to report!
Yes, yes, mock shock-horror, cue exaggerated eye-rolling and sharp intakes of breath.
Thanks to the wonderful LadyRunner I have been shamed from my unseasonal hibernation; I have, to mix metaphors in an ugly 70's bedroom wallpaper style, climbed back on the horse.

My only grumble is the breed of the nag I threw my well-rested leg over this morning. I'd hoped for a retired 'Seaside Dobbin' affair, a steady clippety-clop around Stanmer Park trailing in the wake of a fatigued, post-20k saturday session LadyRunner. But no ... We set off from the car park just down from Stanmer House in strong spring sunshine, a cool breeze dancing around our ankles, chugging easily up the road towards the hamlet at the top of the park. I ended up clinging to the greasy mane of a sweat-flecked three-day-eventer.

'Where'd you like to go then' beamed Jules, no doubt pleased with herself for getting Sweder off his steadily expanding backside. I umm'd and aarr'd, unsure of the right response. I opted for 'polite'.
'Oh I don't mind. Something nice and easy. I'll probably have that back-to-running 'honeymoon' energy. It's up to you Jules; you're the one with tired legs. Lead on.'

My dear old Nan used to say 'manners maketh man, not the clothes he wears.' I took this on board in my youth, the occasional solid ear-clip reminding me to show due deference to my elders and betters. Politeness and gentlemanly behaviour can get you a long way in life and so it proved today. All the way in fact to Ditchling bloody Beacon, the highest point in Sussex. Half an hour after leaving the serenity of the park I leaned against the five bar gate at the summit, sucking wind and sweating like a LibDem MP at a consituency meeting.

An hour and six minutes in all, half of that spent climbing steep, muddy trails, chatting between rasping breaths with LR about her impending adventure in Rotterdam. She expoused her walk/ run strategy, calculating intervals, gel stops, miles versus kilometres. I did my best to join in but suspect most of the noises issued from my spit-speckled lips were incoherent. I meant well and was I feel generally supportive.

I've no idea of the mileage. LR reckons around six and a half miles. It felt like twenty. I left my Garmin at home; that can wait until I've done some ground work. All in all I'm pleased with myself and have vowed to continue this return to running by following MLCMan's example of little and often. A series of gentle pony treks if you will.

[ladyrunner]

Wow Sweder I am impressed with the speed that you can write a report now that you are not spending your time tweeting. It's good to have you back here. A nice report and one that filled me with smiles and laughter.

It was great to have you back running again too - and it was lucky for you that i left my phone in the carpark because I was tempted to make a sound recording of the grunts, groans & heavy breathing, and take a photo of your personal challenge to overtake and stay ahead of the moutain bikers on the long ascent up to Ditchling Beacon.

A brilliant effort today - the fitness is still there, you are just a bit rusty but with a few weeks of short bursts with the pups you will be back.

We must do it again when I get back from Rotterdam when I will probably be struggling to keep up with you.

Julie