Recording lectures in Welsh

My history of teaching in Welsh has been a bit up and down. When I started out, I was basically just another pair of hands in a practical session. This session was led by my colleague Paula. And we were very overstaffed, so it was more to get me used to it, than that it was to have me make a considerable contribution to the teaching. But then things changed! 

Paula retired, and the next year, Dei was module organiser, but he was so busy doing other things that suddenly when that same session came up, I heard through the grapevine that I was expected to lead it. I would have liked to have been informed of that a bit earlier! I think it was the week before. But I just took Paula’s material and ran with it.

This year, our official welsh language lecturer is module organiser. This is currently Claire, while Mollie is on parental leave. Claire is a lot more organised. So we sat together well in advance, looked at what needed to be done, and how we would do it.

The thing is that we are teaching on a module that is just the Welsh language version of an English language module. But there hadn't been much communication between the modules, and they had started to diverge. We didn't think that was a good idea. And we decided that as good as Paula’s material was, what we would teach from was the material from the English language module, but then translated by the university’s official translation service. I had already translated the first lecture myself with the help of a tutor, but I didn't mind that; I would not be using that translation now, but at least all students would be taught the same thing. And it had been great practice!

I still had the Welsh language script for the one lecture I had already narrated. This year I will do three. So I made sure my script was adjusted to the new version of the slides that I had, and I narrated it again.

For the other two lectures my strategy was: copy over the automatic captioning of the original English version lectures, clean them up (automatic captioning can go quite wrong), then write a Welsh version of these myself, and then narrate those. My Welsh isn't good enough to improvise this. There are too many terms in there I don't normally use. The lectures are about data analysis, and that just comes with vocabulary I don't use very often.

All in all it is quite a lot of work, but then they are done! The principles of data analysis don't change very much over time, so for the foreseeable future, the students would be able to use this resource. And then I can use the practical to just teach them how to bring the material into practice in Excel. I think that practical will be a lot shorter than last year!

Creating an English script

https://mmmmargot.blogspot.com/2023/10/teaching-in-welsh-into-higher-gear.html

Thursday Night Hills: asphalt edition

It seems that in winter, the Thursday night hill training stays on the road. And I was going to experience that for the first time. The group had done one of those sessions this season already, but that had been in the week where I was giving my IT bands a break. 

The weather forecast was rubbish. But I went anyway. I made sure I had warmer clothes than normal, and I also carried a big head torch. The week before I had gone with a small one, but I had regretted that. And there was a surprisingly big group convening.

It seems that there is a fixed route for this sort of thing. Many runners clearly already knew. We first headed towards the zigzags, I suppose as a means of warming up, is that it is entirely flat. But then we headed up the road that leads to the Llanberis Path. That is very steep in places! But the landscape is beautiful. And it still was quite light.

Great views after all

Then we went up the next road up the hills. That's the one that goes past the waterfall; we take that one quite often, but normally we then go through a gate and into the fields. Not this time.

We also did the road to the youth hostel. And basically all other roads. Altogether we ran for some hour and a half, and covered some 12 km with 450 m of ascent. It Not bad! And on the second hill I put my head torch on. It was getting a bit dark. And by the time we finished it was completely dark.

This was nicer than I imagined. In the beginning you really still do get to see the beautiful landscapes. And after that, at least you're running with nice people. And it sometimes seems to be very beautiful if it is a clear night. So I'm okay with going on like that. Next week again!

New academic year, new tutees

With the fieldwork out of the way, it was going to be welcome week. There is no teaching during welcome week, but there are activities we are expected to engage in. And the most important one is to meet our new tutees.

The procedure is that all the new students are gathered in the main hall of the university, then they first get the series of brief presentations about things such as employability, Welsh language provision, placement years, and what a senior tutor does, and then the pictures of all the tutors are shown on screen, one by one, with the list of their tutees. What you do then is stand up and wave, and whisk your students off to a convenient place to get to know each other a bit better.

One of the brief talks

I had a group of nine students, and eight of them were present. That is not a bad score! And I took them to the University café. Quite a lot of them hadn't been there before, so I already introduced them to a useful location. And then we had a chat. And I thought it went well! The atmosphere was good, and it felt like a group spirit was being forged. Quite soon they were showing each other their favourite marine animal videos.

The first meeting was successful. I hope that is an indication of how this group will be going the entire year!

Return to Stokesay Castle

With Jitske I had walked past a stunning medieval castle: Stokesay Castle. We would have loved to have a closer look, but it was closed at the time. And when I peeled off from her hike, I was picked up by a bloke I had been on two dates with, who happened to live around there. So when we were thinking of another date after the one featuring the Gladstone 9, I suggested we do the next one in Shropshire, and go back to the castle. And he liked the idea! 

We convened at his house. So I’ve seen that too now. And I even met his youngest son, who happened to be home. He was very welcoming. 

When we got to the castle it was a rather damp day. But we were already impressed before we even got close. And we were even more impressed when we walked in. We started in the main hall. What a place! And from there we explored all nooks and crannies accessible to the public. We had a blast. We both have a big weak spot for history. And we finished off with a moat walk. There were apples trees in it! 

Castle with South Tower

Main Hall

The gatehouse seen from the caste

An interior shot

Then it was lunchtime and we retreated to Clun (the village) for something to eat. Initially we had intended to also fit in a swim in the river Clun but we ran out of time. I still had a 2 hour drive back home to do! 

The castle had been amazing. And the date with Nick had been pretty good too. So there’ll be another one. Stay tuned…

Marshalling Pedol Peris

Shortly after I joined the Eryri Harriers, an email came in asking us club members to help with a race. If we were not running it, could we marshal? And officially I would be on the last day of the field trip, but I got dispensation from Martin. So I was in! And that would be my first time marshalling. 

The race is a gruelling trail and fell race. It starts in Llanberis, goes up the hill to the east of town, follow the Glyderau range until it drops down to Pen y Pass, then goes over yr Wyddfa (Snowdon), and then down via Moel Cynghorion. It’s some 18 miles, but the sting is in the mountains. Originally, I would be stationed on Moel Cynghorion, but a few days before the race I got a phone call from the organiser, and he had changed his mind. I would be lower down on the hill, pretty close to the finish. And then he decided I could also do a stint on the other sides of the race, close to the start. 

On the day of the race I packed a bag with food, drinks, first aid kit, an emergency blanket, and warm clothes. I decided to park where the race had its official parking, and then bike to headquarters. There I found the organiser, and he explained to me exactly where he wanted me to be in the morning. Initially I had figured I would do the morning without my bag, and only bring it to the afternoon marshalling. But then I changed my mind.

I biked to the start of the zigzags, where I had been in summer with Frank. There I parked the bike, and walked up. It was hot! When I got to the gate where I had to show the runners the way I first retreated to change into my shorts. And then I thought I would have some time with coffee, cake and the newspaper, but the runners arrived earlier than I thought. And because we were only a mile or so from the start, they were all still very close together, and after a few minutes the last one had come past, and I could go back to HQ.

View on the way up

‘My’ gate

There weren't many people there, so I just sat down to have some lunch. After a while a bloke I know from our Thursday runs appeared. He turned out to be marshalling somewhere near me. The organiser pointed out exactly where when he appeared, so we decided to walk up together. We were still a bit early so we had another snack where our paths would separate. Then we went to our respective gates.

At the other gate

I thought the race organiser might have underestimated the speed of the fastest people. I expected someone any minute now! His estimate had been first runner at 2 pm. And actually, the first two appeared at 14:08. So he had been quite accurate! And these first runners were incredibly fast.

Initially there were big gaps between the runners, but these became smaller, until they became bigger again. And the faces were starting to look more haggard. People were also very muddy, and some even bloody. There must have been some wipe-outs along the way. 

More than three hours after the first runners, the last two appeared. They said only the sweep was behind them, and that was indeed the case. So I packed up and closed the gate. The sweep went on to the finish while I took the most direct route to HQ. When I got there, the prize ceremony had already started, I managed to put my marshal vest on the pile, collect what I’d left behind there, and leave, without disturbing anything. It had been a long enough day! I had arrived 9:30, it was now almost 18:00, and I thought that was enough. No need to linger. Although I did get a big hug from the last two runners on the way out. I had enthusiastically shouted encouragements to every single runner, including them, and given that they had seen me at the start of the race they knew how long I had been hanging around. They said I was very patient. That was very sweet of them! But now my patience had run out. And, through the very well-timed rain that had held off while I was on post, I made my way back to the car. I would definitely do this again. But I sort of hope that next time it will either be shorter race, or maybe I won’t have to marshal at both the beginning and end of the race! 

Last field day: surveying

These days in the field are quite tiring, especially if you have to combine them with a session in the lab. After the surface sampling was done, I got one day in which I didn't have to go into the field. That meant I could do some admin associated with the field trip, and also with the dissertation module. But the day after I was back. After my morning lab session I brought the students to our headquarters, but only to mill around for hours. We had to wait for a batch of students who were doing the only activity we do at high water. The activity I was needed for was surveying, and you want to do that at low water. There's not much beach to survey at high tide!

The idea is that the students every year survey a set of survey lines that were designed by Natural Resources Wales. They do it the old-fashioned way, with a dumpy level and a staff. Nowadays one would do this with an expensive GPS, but we think it is important to teach them how to do it by hand.

Martin had assigned me the transact the furthest away from the car park. That is okay. I had an additional task; the idea is that that Natural Resources Wales has put some stakes in the ground to indicate the start of the transects. But the problem is; this is an eroding coast. They would put the stakes in the dunes, but the dunes are retreating like the clappers. Martin had been out to find them and he said there wasn't a trace of any of them. Luckily we have their coordinates, so at least we could go back to these locations. But if we started a transect we would have to survey in the start anew. And he gave me that as the additional task. I got the expensive GPS, and was expected to bring everyone to the start of their transect.

We drove to the main car park and I set up the GPS. I first brought Katrien to where her benchmark should have been. And she stayed behind with a few students. The student groups for this activity were just made right there and then. And the process repeated itself for the other two groups. Last year these benchmarks had still been there! Now all these positions were on the beach.

I then went on with the last three students. They were really nice, and clearly got along with each other. Our starting position was also on the beach. And we set up the tripod, and we started. We were on a very narrow part of the beach, but it was still before low water, so that beach would get bigger as time would pass.

I would have to say we had a lovely afternoon! Because the beach wasn't big we could survey in small steps, which meant we were never too far spread out. And that's sociable. And the mood was good. And the weather was as well. I also thought it went well; we had a 15 cm closing error and I think that not bad at all. But I was a bit tired so I was glad when we got it all finished.

The beach

Also the beach

Surveying

It was quite a long walk back to the parking lot, and it was quite late when we got there. So from there we didn't waste much time; we went to headquarters, unloaded the vehicles, let everybody do their things such as change their shoes or go to the loo, and then we set off again to bring the students back to Bangor. That was my part of the field trip done! The next day there would be a few more students doing the high water measurements, and there was an opportunity for the students to work on their field notebooks, but I had Martin’s OK to not be there for that. So I could go home and get ready for what the weekend was throwing at me. The week had flown by! 

 

Thursday Night Hills: Moel Eilio

I had skipped one Thursday Night Hill training for reasons of my IT bands. The week after I wanted to join again. I wasn't quite sure if that was going to be okay, but if it wasn't, I could just turn back. A message had gone out we would be going up Moel Eilio. That sounded fab! And the message said headtorches were recommended.

We set off. Light was already a bit low. But we plodded on in the gorgeous landscape, and we reached the top under amazing orange skies. People were quite happily admiring the view and taking pictures. And there even was a lady who had brought cake, which she was dishing out. Perfect! 

Great skies (not yet at the top)

Summit selfie

I thought that from there we would just run back down. But no! We went on. It turned out we would run a loop; also over Foel Gron and Foel Goch, down into Maesgwm. That worried me a little bit! It was getting really dark, and there is a lot of downhill in there. Even in bright daylight I am rubbish downhill. If you do it in the dark, the risk of spraining something is a lot bigger still! So by the time we reached the pass between the first two hills I was at the back. Luckily we had two more hills to climb, and during the ascents I could overtake some people again. For the descent into Maesgwm I set off ahead of the others as I didn’t want to keep anyone. I also wished I had brought a brighter head torch; I hadn't expected to run more than half of the route in the dark.

The torches coming out

Advantage of being the laggard: good view on the others

Moon rising from behind the mountains

Once in Maesgwm the path was very even, and we could speed up. I ran the first bit next to a colleague I knew from Welsh, and who happened to have with him a charming dog and a bright head torch. Three wins! 

In spite of my not-too-bright torch I got back into the village, where there are streetlights, without incident. Once there I didn't linger. I waited for a lady who had ran in from Deiniolen but figured she had done enough running for the day, and who wanted a ride back home, and then I left. It has been absolutely beautiful! But I had also been quite happy when it was over!

Field trip: surface samples

My day started a bit earlier than most people’s. For my part of the field trip, I needed to go and get surface samples, and that works best during low water. That would be in the afternoon. I had to pick up the students from Bangor at 11, but I went to the lab before that; I had core samples to sieve out. And I managed to do that before I had to set off. Success! 

Then I picked up the students, and we went to HQ. There we devised a sampling strategy with concomitant logistics. And set off. 

Our logistic plan collapsed soon. In the woods we hit a blockage; there was forestry going on ahead and we couldn’t pass. We decided to walk from there. At least we were allowed to pass the actual logging on foot. And upon arriving by the marsh, we first sat down to have lunch. And then we got down to science. 

We first walked all the way down to pretty close to the other side of the estuary, inventorising potential sampling locations along the way. And on the way back we collected all the samples, and surveyed them in. It went well! And then we could go back. 

Walking back from sampling. One student really likes the tidal channel

The next day we did something similar, with some differences: I not only had to deal with the samples of the previous day, but had a cohort of students coming in to sieve the surface samples they had taken the day before. Also, the students voted to have lunch at HQ rather than in the field. And we spent a lot more time faffing with the GPS because it didn't want to play ball this time. And then, the bulk of my part of the field trip was done! I had to do two more mornings of sieving samples, and I was still needed for one more afternoon in the field, but there I was just an auxiliary in someone else's project. It had flown by! 

On the sandflat

There is, of course, still the practical in which the students create an actual data set. That is quite a lot of work as well. But that is something to worry about later…

Field trip: coring

We had our core sites staked out, and the weather forecast was fab. A good start to our coring day. It would start (and end), as all field days, with some annoying logistics: we made our way to Menai Bridge, jumped into one of the hire vehicles parked there, drove back to Bangor, picked up the students, drove them to Newborough, and went from there. That’s 3 bridge crossings. And we’d do 3 more at the end of the day. 

Jaco and I (and Martin as we had more students than fit in Jaco’s and my vehicle) took half the students to somewhere we could park near the core sites. And then we went to the first site. Jaco must have been a bit worse for wear; he’d just touched down the day before, flying in from Chicago. It didn’t show. And the weather was as good as the forecast said it would be! 

Me explaining how a log sheet works

I explained about how to document all the necessary information in a core log. And then we started coring. I knew we would core up a dark horizon. And we did. I tried to core through it, to get an idea of what was underneath it, but the sand got so sloppy that failed. Oh well! Two units is fine. And we needed to be quite snappy; we had an agreed time for meeting up for lunch with the geophysics crew working further south. We joined them on the beach.

Getting up close and personal with the sediment 

After lunch we took a fresh batch of students to the second core site. It took a bit longer to find the stake; this one was surrounded by, and therefore a bit hidden by, vegetation. There we took another core. And we again cored a unit of which I wanted to know what was underneath it. We went for a spliced core; just take a new core a short distance away (16 cm in this case) and go deeper. But the stratigraphy turned out to be different, so we had to call it another core. These marshes can be so laterally variable! 

When we had logged and sampled all that we went back to the vehicles, back to HQ, and then back to Bangor and Menai Bridge. First day of actual science done! 

Field trip: intro

Start the way you intend to go on, they say! We totally didn’t. And I’m glad. The weather forecast for our first field day of the annual 3rd year estuary field trip was horrid. On that first day, we just introduce them to the environment and what we intend to do there. No samples or measurements are taken that day. 

We transported the students to our headquarters; we did that late morning, in order to avoid the Sandman triathlon that was going on in the area. Once in Newborough, Martin (who leads this) did a bit of a general introduction. By the time he was done, it was11:45 and he suggested lunch. In the building. Outside it was the kind of weather that was chasing Rick out of the hills! So the students accepted that proposal. 

Looking out of the door of our HQ at the bad weather

After lunch we braved it. We had agreed to skip a few of the locations we tend to visit on intro day. Soaking wet students are not the most likely to absorb information! So we started at the head of the estuary, and then headed to the salt marsh. And from there we went to a beach. There the weather cleared. So at the last stop, overlooking a more southern beach, the weather had actually turned nice. 

Looking over the estuary 

I think we did manage to give the students an idea of what’s going on in the estuary and why it matters. And that’s the point of the exercise. And the good news was: the weather forecast for the rest of the trip was very pleasant. So once we would get our hands dirty, we would be doing so in glorious sunshine. Quite an improvement! 

Visit by Rick

This has been the year of the visitors. And I thought it had come to an end now, but it hadn't. I got an email from my old friend Rick, who I know from my Plymouth mime exploration days. He said he wanted to come up to Wales to hike part of the Slate Trail. Could he spend the night at my place before he would set off? Of course he could!

I think the last time I saw him was 2018. That is so long ago! But he doesn't change. And I don't think I do. 

Initially he would get here around 6 pm. But then he texted that the traffic was awful, so it would be later. And then he kept sending updates that all said it would be later still. I just made sure I had food that could spend quite a while in the oven. I would just get it out when he would get here! And I lit a fire.

When he finally rolled into the street I immediately noticed one of his tires was a bit soft. And that had been what had kept him. He had noticed it was slowly deflating, so he basically had to choose between periodically re-inflating it, or changing the wheel. He had chosen the former. But that is quite a delay. He had made it, though! But he was quite fed up by now.

The culprit, the day after

I plonked him on the sofa by the fire, and served food and tea. And that revived him. And then we had the rest of the evening to catch up. He has been up to all sorts! And he spoke of it so alluringly I think I should pull my finger out and visit the southwest again. I haven't done that in ages. But there are bits of mine ready to be visited now, that weren't there when I left.

The next morning we had breakfast together, and then he got ready to start his hike. The plan had been that he would come back to fix and retrieve his car when I'm at work. So I just I hoped he’d have an amazing hike, and didn't expect to see him again. It didn't quite work out like that.

The Saturday was windy but sunny. Fine hiking weather! Unfortunately, this Sunday was miserable and wet. And around lunchtime I got another message. Was it okay if he came back and spent another night my place? And of course it was. And by dinner time that day he was standing in front of the door again. He thought it would be better if he would take his boots off right there, and he was wringing out his socks. I could see why he had decided to knock the hike on the head. I again did my routine of blanking him on a comfortable seat and providing warm food and tea. And he filled the conservatory with damp gear.

He had had a great Saturday! But the Sunday was just too much of a washout to be enjoyable. He was glad he had come over, though. 

The next morning I had to leave for work quite early. After the tiring day he had had the day before, he hadn't stirred yet when I closed the door behind me. But I'm sure he could find what he needed to have a comfortable morning.

Later I got another text from him. He had suffered an additional puncture on the way home! This was just not a very good weekend for his tyres. But in the end he got there. With a bunch of good memories…

Roofing a wood storage shed

I hadn't seen Charlotte for a while! It was about time that changed. And suddenly an occasion presented itself. She contacted me, asking if I would be willing to help her put a roof on her firewood storage shed. Of course I was!

When I got there she showed me the project. She had built the frame already, and she had three slabs of marine plywood coated in roofing paint, ready to be fixed to the top. But that is a right faff if you are on your own. Together we would surely manage!

Before

We set to work. And four hands make for light work. Although it still took a bit of time to fix all three boards to all four roof beams. And then tape off the seams. And all that in quite a stiff breeze! With that level of wind it would have been a nightmare on her own.

After

We were quite satisfied with the result! And celebrated with a cup of tea. That was quite a well-spent afternoon. And any time I would go visit her, and there is a fire on, I know I have contributed to that!

Extending my wardrobe

I don’t like buying clothes. And during term time, I wear a lot of shirts. It’s an easy way to look a tiny bit formal when you’re teaching. But it’s outside term time now, and a T-shirt will do. But I realised I was rotating an increasingly small subset. A very old, but well-preserved, New Model Army shirt I had bought at an Amsterdam concert (before the blog!). An already threadbare RV James Cook shirt I bought during one of our research cruises. A Pompel og Pilt shirt I bought when I lived in Norway. And a new favourite: a shirt I had won when I came in third at a race. I was starting to get embarrassed about it! So when I had hours in the train I went online and bought two new ones. 

It took a while before they came. And then I spotted I had accidentally ordered the male version of one of them. That's way too big! I will have to give that one away. But at least I now have a new T-shirt! I think it has been years since I bought one. I hope it will last as long as the New Model Army one! 

Going carefully back to running

After my second half marathon troubled by IT band issues, I struggled with stairs. When I was in the kitchen at 7 pm, I decided to give the cat her supper already. That would save me having to get down these pesky stairs again. But the day after I was already doing a lot better. I think I managed to negotiate the stairs at work without anybody noticing something was wrong. And the day after, I could do stairs as normal again.

That week I skipped the Thursday run. I wanted to try for the first time again on Saturday. I had been symptom-free for days. Surely a short run would be okay? So I tried it out. I didn't go very far. I don't want to make this worse! But I also don't want to abstain from running any longer than necessary.

I only ran 2.8 km. And not very fast. It was okay! I couldn't feel my IT bands. And from there I wanted to build it back up again. The previous time I started building it back up a lot later, but then I was back to 10k in days. I hope I manage get back to my normal 10k form within a month, because I have another race coming up. Wish me luck!

Picture taken during my short run

Autumn

I have been wearing gloves on my commute to work, and I have lit the fire! I think it is officially autumn. I suppose whether it technically is depends on whether you go by the start of September or the autumn equinox. I'm not quite sure if one of these is more correct than the other. But in my world, we don't need to wait until the 21st anymore. It had been smelling a bit like autumn for a few days, and you can see the starts of leaves turning. But I think the fire and the gloves make it official. 

In a way, the coming of autumn is sad. Summer is the most relaxed time of the year. And this year, I have done all sorts of things with it, but not my usual going out with my tent. It only came out for Jitske! But I went to see my sister, and I had a record number of visitors this year. And I had a great time running. So it was a good summer after all.

Now we'll get to the new academic year. But also: snug evenings by the fire. And a commute that might be cold and wet and windy, but also will have amazing autumn colours. I'll try to make the most of it!

Coring recce in the field

I had been thinking about where to core during our upcoming field trip. I had decided on two locations where the School had cored before; either during earlier episodes of the same fieldwork, or with a master’s student. So I had coordinates ready. Then what I would need was a GPS to navigate to these locations. But Martin told me that the parallel activity on the same day also needed the GPS. And he suggested we might just mark my intended core locations with simple wooden stakes before the field trip. That sounded like a good idea!

He was going to try to combine it with getting the keys to the gate of the woodland we have to get through to get to the estuary, and the keys to our headquarters. He picked me up in the morning in his Landrover, and we first drove to the main gate, without an appointment. But it was manned, and the lady was happy to give him these keys. Success! We then drove, again without appointment, to our headquarters for the week. There it turned out the lady who had a key for him would be there in some 10 minutes. Which suited me fine; I had coffee in my bag, and cake for 2. So we just had a snack break.

With all keys sorted we drove to the gate. This was actually open, but guarded by a man who did not want to say what his business was. Martin knew anyway; there was filming going on. But we were there with permission so we could proceed. And Martin managed to drive his Landie all the way to where I hoped he would be able to park up. It's only a path, but his car can do it! 

The GPS made fairly light work of finding the first location. I had also brought a gauge and an auger to check whether there was indeed anything going on in the subsurface. And there was! So Martin hammered in the stake, and that was one location done. I made sure to take pictures so I would be able to navigate back to it without technological help.

Martin surveying in our stake

The second location was even easier. This was going well! And soon we could carry the GPS, gauge and auger back to the car. We were back at the office before lunchtime. Not bad!

Martin deciding to hammer the stake in with a gauge rather than the mallet

We have quite streamlined the coring day by taking the navigation out of it. That will be good, because we will have a lot of students in the field, and that might mean things take more time than usual. But this way I think we will be fine on the day!

Back in Welsh class

Normally, I am in Welsh class during term time. Last year was an exception. I had registered, but when classes actually started, it became clear that this was not suitable to me. There are some classes where you just follow a certain curriculum, and then you know what to expect. I tend to go to the category of classes that are about "polishing" your Welsh. It is quite up to the tutor how that is given shape. And generally, that works out, but this time, it just didn't. I left.

In spring I realised I should be registering for a class in the new academic year. And then I forgot again! You know how that goes. You think about it, but never quite when you are in the position of acting upon it. So we reached summer and I wasn't registered. And then I did something about it. But by then, quite a lot of classes were fully booked, and I had to make a choice from a more limited offering. And what that meant for me was that all the online classes in the north were full. And if they are online, it doesn't matter where you physically are, but an online class in the south would be performed in south Welsh. Oops!

It started before the academic year did. I got ready on a Tuesday night. I had not had a Zoom meeting for so long, the software first needed to do a big update. I entered the meeting just on time! 

The first thing I noticed was the exemplary enunciation of the tutor. Great! And the group wasn’t too big. The tutor, Gwen, first told us a bit about the course and the course materials, and then she sent us off into breakout groups to get to know each other. we did that twice, with different groups, and then she went down to business. We had grammatical work to do. This first session we focussed on short verb forms. In Welsh, you normally leave your verbs in the infinitive, and let ‘to do’ do all the work. Not ‘I biked to work’ but ‘I did bike to work’. But if you write an official text, you will want to conjugate all your verbs, not just ‘to do’. And you might hide pronouns in prepositions. So ‘ysgrifennwn atynt’ means ‘I wrote to them’ as much as ‘rô’n i’n ysgrifennu atyn nhw’ does, but it’s a lot more concise, and it makes you sound like a 50s newsreader. I could use the practice! 

It was a good first class, and I look forward to the rest. And the fact it’s all in Southern isn’t a big deal. They say ‘moyn’ and ‘mas’ a lot, where I say ‘isio’ and ‘allan’, but that’s trivial. I’m sure to learn things here, and I don’t think my north Welsh identity will get in the way! 

Caernarfon half marathon; my last?

After the Snowdonia half marathon when my knees gave up around the 10 mile mark, I had been studiously doing my physiotherapy exercises, and managed fast runs of up to 10k, and slower runs of up to 20k. But would I manage to have prepared my iliotibial bands for 21k, a fast as possible? I was hoping to finally break my personal best on the half marathon, as it had stood since 2022, at 1:42:20. Could I drop below 1:40?

I got myself to the start in all my new kit (shirt, shoes, vest), and made sure the vest contained two knee stabilisers. For in case my preparation hadn’t been enough. I didn't have any experience in mitigating IT band issues with those, but some googling had suggested it might work, and it was well worth the try. I do know they can really take the strain off your knees, and it felt plausible that they can even do that when the problem isn't actually the knees.

The start

I started close to the front, and in the beginning all went well. The beginning normally does go well. I did struggle a bit to round the city wall on the seafront; my running shoes didn't have a grip on the material there! Luckily, this is only a short stretch. Soon we were on the bicycle path along the river.

On the bicycle path; all still good

In the Snowdonia half, I had felt a clanging runner’s high come up after a few kilometres. That didn't happen now. But I was quite happily plodding along. And I kept an eye on my times by every mile sign. So far so good.

After a few miles what I feared would happen, happened: I started to feel my IT band in each knee. This was only going to get worse. I spent a few miles wondering when I would put my knees stabilisers on. It wasn't a question of ‘if’. I didn't know whether it was best to do it as soon as possible so the problem wouldn't get worse very fast, or postpone it, as once you put the stabilisers on, you lose a lot of mobility in your knees, and that's not in general a good thing during running.

When I started running again this post stabilisers all I noticed it wasn't very comfortable. And my stride got shorter and stiffer. But I could feel that neoprene giving some relief to my IT bands. And that was the important bit.

I put them on at 7 miles; at around 10.5 miles I tightened them, as the problem has still been getting worse, albeit slower. Almost there! I wasn't trying to beat anyone anymore, or any particular time; I was just hoping to be able to keep running.

Still smiling in spite of the knees

The answer was: yes! I did manage to run all the way to the finish. It was more of a hobble by then, but technically still running. And when I turned around after the finish I saw that the clock was showing something like 1:40:23. So still a personal record! And not under 1:40, would you expect his knee problems. Having to stop twice to faff with my stabilisers wouldn't have helped either.

Looking a bit grim by then, but still running! 

And the finish

After the race

I didn’t hope I would end up kitted out like this

I decided not to wait for the ceremony. So many women had run past me when I was faffing with my knees! And I wanted to get home. And later this afternoon I saw I wasn't far off, I had run 1:40:20, and it still being the fastest woman in my age category. Oh well. If they would have published their timings there and then, which is totally doable as other organisations do it, I would have waited around!

I was glad I at least had improved my PB. But I also thought I might never improve it from this. Clearly, doing physiotherapy exercises every day was not enough to let my IT bands cope with this level of distance and speed. I could imagine I could bring them back into shape if I would really train meticulously, but who has the time for that? I might have to accept I am now short distance runner. And see if I can still improve on my 10k personal best. That is quite fast already! But who knows what I can still do. And maybe I should make sure I run a 5k somewhere. I haven't done one since 2016, so surely I can improve on that. Unfortunately, the next 5k race I had my eyes on clashes with cave rescue business. But I can always do a Parkrun.

My very first race was a half marathon! But it might be time to bail out. Until, perhaps, I retire, because then I can train until I am blue in the face…

Annual (?) hedge trim (+ extra)

 I always intend to trim the hedge annually. It doesn’t always happen. This year I was going to have a go at it, and went to fetch my working platform from the garage. The hedge is some 3 m tall so there is no way I can do it standing on the ground. And even with the extra height of the working platform I struggle.

There was an extra complication; fetching the platform involved coming through the garden gate, and I noticed it was broken. So I needed to fix that first. It must be quite old; there were several screws in there that were so rusty they had to lost all ability to hold the various pieces of wood together. These have been replaced now! But there might be more in there that are about to give.

Gate repair

When I got into the garden, there was another unexpected circumstance, but that was a good one. My neighbour offered me his stepladder instead of my working platform. That gives you a lot more height! So I accepted that. And that made the work quite light.

Starting the work (noticed the unused platform on the right)

Even with the very tall step ladder (this is not your average ladder) I couldn't do the top of the hedge. I estimate it is about a meter and a half in width, and getting 3 m up and then three quarters of a meter sideways is a bit of an ask. So it has a slightly comic look, with everything being quite tidy from the sides, but all sorts of crazy branches sticking out at the top. Oh well! We've done our best.

Finished! 

I'm glad I've got this done before term started! And the bonus repair of the gate. It probably wouldn't have happened at all this year if I wouldn't have managed to do it now…

Finally cutting some firewood

The pile of potential firewood had been accumulating in my garage for months! Most of that was from Neuadd Ogwen. And I needed to process it first. The wood I had got from them recently had been a platform, and it involves a lot of bits of wood nailed together. I would first have to pry these apart and get the nails out. Not as much work as taking pallets apart! But still a considerable amount of work.

Uncut firewood left and right

One weekend after the other passed when I didn't get around to doing anything with this wood. Then there was a weekend in which I managed it remove pretty much all the nails. That was good! As the next step is the cutting, and since my mitre saw, that is very quick.

This weekend I decided it was time. I brought electricity to my saw and set to work. I am always a bit hesitant; when I have big pieces of wood I always wonder if I should leave them intact. What if I need big pieces of wood for some project or other? For instance; the wooden stairs into the garden are disintegrating. I should have it replaced in the not too distant future, but maybe I should just replace the worst step myself to keep it functional before the big upgrade? I always think things like that. And I rarely need big pieces of wood for projects.

That same weekend I was also doing lots of other things, so it's not as if all the uncut firewood is now gone. Especially not given that it obviously is not only a time constraint. But a start it has been made! And my woodpile is considerably bigger now. And fitting in a little firewood session to continue this work shouldn't be too much of an ask. It has been set in motion! And soon it will be fire season again, and then I certainly will have a lot more external motivation…

Less wood on the right, more on the left in the rack! 

Annual apple harvest

This year wasn't a very good year for fruit from my own garden! I made some rather nice blackcurrant compote, but didn't get around to doing anything at all with the gooseberries, and the harvest from my plum tree was about five plums. But now the apple tree is ready to produce. And it's not a huge harvest but it's nice! Apples from your own garden are always the best. And I quite like the variety my tree produces. 

What is still come is the potato harvest. I think that might be quite near actually. I didn't manage to grow very much in my garden this year, but I have faith I will have some decent spuds. And with the apples that should pretty much be it this year…

Lovely side effect of milk change

On the day I did my first oat milk breakfast I was quite hungry in the run-up to lunch. That is not unusual! But no it happened every day. And that’s not strange when you think about it. The cow milk I use is full fat, and oat milk can’t match that level of caloric content. I looked it up, and the milk I used has about 1 1/2 times as much energy in it. And given that on a full fat milk day I often already struggle to make it to lunch, cutting my breakfast calories down makes it even harder to get there without losing composure.

I decided I just needed to bring more food to work. And more food means more sandwiches. And more sandwiches means that I would eat a loaf of bread quicker. And the advantage of that is that I can bake a fresh loaf quicker! If you bake your own bread it is absolutely delicious on the first day, delicious on the second day, and less good than supermarket bread on the third day. So if I can just have my environmentally-friendly breakfast, and then eat an additional sandwich before lunch, I am killing two birds with one stone! I am already practising this. And I like it.

A more frequently seen view these days

Thursday night hill training with night drawing in

The Thursday night trainings as I know them must be coming to an end. The previous week the head torches had to come out, as it was pretty close to dark by the time we were finished. This week we made sure to stop a bit earlier. And already it was quite dark. We had only done 11 km, which was the shortest Thursday night run I have done since the Hoka event. It seems to turn into road running in autumn, and I'll find out what roads and how soon enough.

But for now we were still in the hills. I was a tiny bit nervous about this training! It was the last Thursday before my attempt at running a new personal best in a half marathon. And I am always a bit nervous about spraining something, especially since my last run in the Netherlands.

We gathered at the usual location in Llanberis. I asked around about the lady who had injured her knee last week, and I was glad to hear she was walking as normal, and would probably be running again the week after. Excellent! It could've been a lot worse.

I thought we would head south into the hills, but we went north instead. Soon we were in the sort of territory where the Trail 10k goes as well. And then we headed a bit further north into Deiniolen, and pottered around a bit in that area. Some of the paths were tricky and slippery, and/or overgrown, so there was a fair amount of walking involved. And this was exactly the sort of terrain I was a bit scared of! But all went well.

Gathering by an old drumhouse 

Carefully descending into Deiniolen

By the time we were back in the woods above Llyn Padarn a lot of head torches came out. I left mine in my vest; I prefer to run by night sight, but that only works if not everyone around you is using a head torch. Quite a lot of people were wearing one, and if they're running behind you, they bugger up your night vision while not actually lighting up your way, so that is unpleasant. But that as well went OK.

It’s getting dark in the woods

Scenic skies over Llyn Padarn

By 20:30 we were back at the cars. I decided not to go for a swim. I did have a towel with me, and dry pants, but I just wanted to get home and sort myself out. 

I hope next week we can still do one of these trainings. But I don't think we can keep it going much longer!