As a pasty-faced youth, I was handed down a chemistry set by a swotty cousin. It was never clear to me what I should do with this boxful of powders and vials, but that didn’t stop me occasionally mixing up a few chemicals in arbitrary fashion, along with some water and usually, for some unknown reason, a splash of malt vinegar and a fistful of sugar. I suppose that vinegar was the most volatile liquid available to me at that age, and so became a key ingredient in my quest for a ceiling-busting explosion. These concoctions also gave me an insight into the art of the German wine maker, but this incidental benefit was lost on me until some years later, when I found myself lounging in the wine business for a while.
I’d forgotten all about these juvenile explorations until this week, when I rolled up at the Cockliffe Country House Hotel, in Arnold, Nottingham, and found the room had a… bouquet sharply evocative of those sunday afternoons in the garage. And surprisingly, it wasn’t especially unpleasant. Maybe it was sweetened by the nostalgia.
I visit this city regularly but haven’t had much luck with hotels in my price range. Those in the city centre can be noisy, and inconvenient for drivers. I’m never happy handing over my car keys to some grinning kid on a work experience programme. So I’ve started exploring the outer fringes, where the hotels are usually attached to green patches. This week’s green patch was the 65 acre Burntstump Country Park. A good place to be at the start of a putative marathon campaign.
The dog-eared Hal Higdon Novice schedule was finally located last week beneath an alien spacecraft — or was it an unused fondue set? — at the back of the attic. Ah yes, here we are. Week 1 of 18. Three 3 milers, and a long weekend run of 6 miles. A long run of 6 miles…? Hmm. That’s what it says.
But wait. There’s been a major development in the world of Hal Higdon marathon plans. It seems he now has a Novice Schedule II, which has Week 1 as 3-5-3-8. This sounds more exciting, though this reaction is soon tempered by the reminder that I’m still chronically unfit. Best stick with the tried and tested for the moment.
So Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday saw me turn in my introductory 3 milers. None was elegant or easy but at least they can be added to my spreadsheet, and forgotten about. The first one saw me finally turn in three miles of continuous jogging, without a walk break. Runs 2 and 3 were in the Nottingham country park, and contained topographical features that I would call “hills”. Others may describe them differently. But they were challenging enough for me to have to pause briefly.
I discovered something on these runs that everyone reading this already knows. Something I should know too. It was this — that some music makes you run faster. Music while running is often discussed, or at least mentioned, in the forum, so of course I knew that listening to an MP3 player or radio is distracting and enjoyable. But what I listen to is just music for entertainment. After all, who could fail to be moved by Pete Seeger crooning “Casey Jones” to the accompaniment of a plaintive banjo? But at one point on the Wednesday run, just as I was about to take a rest after the third of the ‘hills’, the Kaiser Chiefs popped up with Everyday I love You Less And Less, and my physical shell sort of zoomed off a few yards ahead of where my cognitive being remained, taking a breather. I caught up with myself soon enough, and found that the song’s rhythmical aggression continued to drive me forward, at a faster and more regular rate.
Next evening, I turned the shuffle off on my iPod, and instead chose a couple more Kaiser Chief songs, followed by some other rockers — the Kinks, the Doors, Springsteen, that sort of thing. And had a broadly similar result. I say “broadly” because they seem to have to fit into a particular pattern that Everyday I love You Less And Less has. It doesn’t muck about. Just drives you along.
With this in mind I put together a running playlist for this morning’s ‘long run’ down the canal towpath. It started off well. Perhaps too well. The first three miles seemed easy and steady. Then? Well, rather embarrassing to admit, but it was something akin to ‘hitting the wall’ in a marathon. A sudden draining of energy, and I had to stop. Yes it was a warm and sunny day, and perhaps I really should have had something to eat earlier on to give me some energy reserves, but still — three miles?
So perhaps the music had done its job too well this time. Maybe I over-reached myself, at a time when I’m still building some basic fitness. I did continue with a fitful jog-walk, and my watch tells me that I covered 7.58 miles, the longest jaunt since the Almeria 13K in January. But I know that this was actually a very poor attempt at a long run: just three good miles and four stop-start. Still. It’s put a few miles of some sort into my legs, even if the quality wasn’t perfect. After doing no running at all for months, then just 6 miles in each of last week and the one before, doing 17 this week has to be regarded as a step in the right direction. Looks like I’ll have to think again about my approach to running music though.
Some better news. Weight. I’ve knocked off that first stone. 234 pounds when I restarted, just under a month ago, and now hovering around 220. And that period includes the extended lost weekend I wrote about recently, when I demolished most of my gains up to that point. I’d hit something that was starting to feel like a plateau until this past week, when the extra activity seems to have pushed me on again.
How have I managed it? Not by starvation: I seem to have been eating constantly for the past month. The main change has to be a lack of alcohol. Apart from that 4 day period over the bank holiday, I’ve kept away from the pub, and my wine rack has lain undisturbed. As frequently explained in these pages, this has a major effect on my weight, less for the intrinsic calories in booze (though these are real enough), but for all the junk food I find myself shovelling in at the same time. As a result, I’ve had no cheese and biscuits, no crisps/peanuts, and nothing sweet apart from tons of fruit. My current drink of choice is nothing more lethal than sugar-free orange squash.
I should try the little-and-often option with these entries. A stack of exciting news is awaiting expression, but I’ve run out of time. Here are some pictorial clues to what I intended discussing:
 
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Perhaps next time.
