Spring on the track

On Easter Monday it was lovely weather! Our main task that day was sorting out the big mattress swap, but we made sure that in between unceremoniously plonking the new one in the house and finishing the job we went for a nice walk. I basically showed Neil my weekend trail loop. And we had dinner in the garden.

The day after it was still nice weather. I made sure to wear a sleeveless vest for track training, but because pretty much all my runs this year had been cold (except the one in Birkenhead) I put a T-shirt over that vest, and a jacket over the T-shirt. But I didn't end up wearing either T-shirt or jacket for even a meter of running! It was so warm.

Some of my fellow runners were complaining that it was so hot. I said that was quite the contrast, as recently we had been complaining about that it was so cold."Yes, literally last week" was the response. It was true!

During these recent Baltic track trainings I had been quite aware that it is technically spring, and that the moment we would be quite hot doing our sessions wouldn't be far off. And then it suddenly came! And it gave me more of an overpowering spring feeling than the day before had done.

The day after, the weather turned. It didn't stay that warm long! But it wouldn't surprise me if from now on, complaining about the heat on the track is going to be more common than complaining about the cold, for months to come. And at some point it will be difficult to deal with, but for now I'm actually quite glad I'm not freezing my arse off when I appear at the start line!

Easter garden work

Around all the adventures I also found some time to dedicate to the garden. It was high time! So much needed doing I was getting overwhelmed.

I cut the grass, and weeded, and added more plants to the bed I had emptied the year before. I took some of the oregano running wild out and planted some other herbs in that bed. 

I bought some shade-resistant plants and put them in pots by the front door. Some old plants had died there. 

There is still an awful lot to do! But a start has been made. And it already looks considerably better. 

One of my new plants at the front of the house 

Some tomato plants and suchlike in the garden. The first to grow big gets the big pot (now full of weed) in the back 

Some new herbs keeping my ornamental cabbage company 

Bed improvements

I have no strong opinions on beds. If it’s meant to sleep in you can sleep in it. So when I bought my current double bed, I wasn’t fussy. Nor, as it so happens, when I bought my single bed. They serve me fine. 

Neil is fussy. He wants a firm mattress. He doesn't sleep well on a soft one. And by coincidence, mine is rather soft. You can see the problem.

I was quite happy to go and buy a firm one for him, until he said he wasn't sure if it was actually the mattress that caused him to not sleep very well when he is at mine. Maybe it is the room! Maybe it is the cat! It could be all sorts of things.

We decided to go for an easy solution. He has a spare bed he doesn't sleep in it. It's for guests. Guests might have all sort of preferences. In order to verify if it was just the mattress, we decided to just take that mattress to my house. If he would sleep well from then on, it wasn't the mattress. Problem solved!

When we were juggling with mattresses anyway, he addressed a different issue: my bed is a bit squeaky. And he figured he knew what to do about it. The cause must be different parts of the bed rubbing against each other. If you put some rubber in between them, it should stop. So he identified where the squeaking happens, and put strips of old bicycle tube between the various parts. That didn't take very long.

Then we put the mattress on, made the bed, and were ready to try it out. And the result is: no squeaking! And a happy and well-rested Neil in the morning! It has only been one night, but I have faith this was actually the problem, and he will sleep well in my place from now on. Fab.

For some reason, he wasn't keen to take my mattress home with him. Maybe he objects to soft mattresses in his entire house. This is a situation that we should resolved later. For now I will just see if someone in the community wants it. And if not, it will have to go to the recycling centre. There's nothing wrong with it! But few people can keep something as big as a double mattress in store without issues. But sleep is very important. If that thing can’t offer that to Neil, it is not fit for purpose, no matter how good it is for anyone else!

Old mattress for now hiding behind my single bed 

Ps someone in the community did want it! It now lives in Trefriw. 

Book: Tadwlad

It took me several months! In January, we started reading a book for Welsh class: Tadwlad (Fatherland). I often struggle to find time to read books, and this one turned out to be written in South Welsh, which is sufficiently different from North Welsh to make this book decidedly less easy to read for someone like me. It was a bit like running through treacle. 

Warning: spoiler alert.

At the very beginning of the book, in the first sentence even, the main person finds out that his father, whose funeral he is just attending, was adopted. He never had any idea.

The main character, Dylan, is working with refugees. It is specified that he used to have a much more lucrative career, but something happened, and he ended up losing his job in his wife (with whom he has a son). But he now has that other job, and a new girlfriend. I expected the thing that made him lose his initial job would be elucidated later on in the book.

Of all the refugees he works with, two are specified. One is Nabil, a Syrian medic. He is the second narrator. He comes across as alone and rudderless. And he is wary of Hadi, an Iraqi barber. The latter tends to have a small group of acolytes around him. Nabil finds them intimidating.

The book mainly trundles on with the daily life of both main characters. Not much happens. Somewhere halfway down the book, Dylan finds out that his father was born in Lübeck, after the end of the second world war. And that his grandfather was there.

It then trundles a bit more, until a big thing (in the context of this book) happens: Hadi plants suspicion in Dylan's mind about that Nabil has a wife, but never mentions her. Does he have something to hide? Dylan asks, and Nabil retreats. This was a moment of suspended disbelief for me; would anyone working with refugees really be so blunt? People flee for a reason. They might not necessarily want to talk about all the losses they have suffered before they reached the UK. 

Then more trundling follows, until towards the end of the book, everything suddenly accelerates. We find out that Nabil’s wife drowned during the Channel crossing. Nabil has always felt inferior as the son of a day labourer, found out he has a knack for being charismatic and entertaining, and also, for hairdressing, and manages to establish himself with a business in Mosul. Until the religious authorities disapprove of the modern hairstyles he cuts. He strikes to deal with them, and is then seen as a traitor. He flees. And is wary of privileged people, such as middle-class folk with a good education.

Then, Hadi is attacked by racists, but manages to stagger back to the refugee centre. There, Nabil applies tourniquets and saves him. Slightly too convenient for my taste, but hey ho. 

In the last chapter you suddenly hear the voice of Dylan's father. He travels to Germany, talks to someone who has gone through the archives in order to find out about his mother, and is told that there is no mention anywhere of his father. The archive lady suspects strongly that his mother was raped by a soldier of the Red Army, and was never keen to talk about that with anyone. The father then decides he is also not keen to talk about that with anyone. And then the book ends.

I suppose this is all about the secrets we keep, and that we might have particular reasons to keep them. It doesn't have to be anything malicious. I found it quite elegant that we never find out what happened to Dylan. 

I suppose another theme is refugees. If you live in Western Europe in this day, having to flee might well look like something that happens to distant people. But it might be closer than you think.

As dénouements go, I found the rape story a bit obvious. I suspected that as soon as I read about the war and Lübeck, but I had the impression it is supposed to come as a surprise. Maybe I'm wrong!

So what did I think about it altogether? I must say, I am glad I read it. I would really have preferred it to have been written in North Welsh, but you can't always get what you want. I quite like that there wasn't much going on. I thought book would have been stronger without the blunt tool of one person saving another person's life after a violent attack. But if the book really would have been as pedestrian as I like them, I suspect it wouldn't have been chosen for a project such as this. This book had been recommended to Welsh classes all over the country, and in the end there was an online event in which you could ask the author questions. I wasn't even halfway by the time that happened, so I didn't participate in that. But this was bigger than our Welsh class. Maybe a bit of blood helps inclusion! 

Now this book can go back to the library. And what is next for me? I am well over halfway in Jacko’s book about breathing and running. That may be the next review! And I am flying through a small book about historic Llandudno. But on my list is also the latest book by Peredur the linguist. At least that will have been written in North Welsh! 

Nantlle Ridge on Easter Sunday

On Saturday the weather had been rather changeable, turning into solidly atrocious in the late afternoon. But the day after was looking a lot better. And after a whole day of doing useful but not really enjoyable things, we wanted to do something a bit more fun. And I proposed Nantlle Ridge. Neil was up for it!

We would do a two vehicle hike. We independently drove to Rhyd Ddu, and then we left one car behind. In the other one, we drove to Nebo. And there the adventure could start!

How it started

It was a bit windy, but it was dry, and partly sunny. We walked past Llyn Cwm Dulyn to Mynydd Graig Goch. There was no one else there. And the hill is not very high, but the views are lovely. And it had got sunnier along the way.

Mynydd Graig Goch

On Garnedd Goch we stopped for coffee and a snack. There was still nobody around! And then we approached the narrower part of the ridge. We decided to have lunch by the obelisk. That meant doing a steep saddle in the ridge first. We came across one walker before we got there! 

Neil on Garnedd Goch

While we were having lunch there, a couple and a dog showed up. We had a nice chat. The dog was wondering if there was any food to steal, or whether Neil was up for any physical intimacy. He was really funny!

When we moved on we were clearly on the busier part of the route, and we came across an entire group of people. No problem! And after not much time, after the last scrambly bits,  we reached the start of the final descent. I don’t like that descent at all! It’s steep and has a choice between slippery grass or loose slate chippings. But I got down without problem. We were surprised to see it's already 4 pm! We had started quite early because we figured you need to do do that in order to be able to get a parking space in Rhyd Ddu in a bank holiday weekend with nice weather.

Neil’s car was parked close to where we ended up, and the reverse two vehicle manoeuvre went fine as well. It had been a long time since I had done such a large part of the Ridge! I had done a small part with Claire and Katie last year. But it had been years since I had done anything resembling the full trip. I was glad I had done it again. Is it such a beautiful walk!

Ecosystem saves the day

My 19-year-old little car (aka the Ecosystem) is not very glamorous, and admittedly not very well maintained. I sometimes am a bit negligent with maintenance, and sometimes that causes trouble (like here and here, although the latter was in a way because of maintenance, not a lack thereof). And I don't clean it very often on the inside, and never on the outside. One would think that all cars around it outperform it. Not necessarily so. 

When, after our cleaning spree, Neil  wanted to go home, his car was having none of that. It treated him like a burglar. It wouldn't let him in, and the alarm went off. And, quite eerily, there was strange thumping sound by the boot. 

He first wondered if the battery of his key fob might have been empty. But that wasn't it. A bit of googling got him in. More googling suggested maybe it was the car battery. If that was the problem, he should be able to jumpstart it. So I drove my little car as close as possible to his. He has jump leads.

It worked! My geriatric little car had enough power in the battery to jumpstart his engine. If the weather wouldn't have been so atrocious, maybe I would have taken a picture of the situation. Neil could drive home, where, just to be on the safe side, he charged the battery further using a plug-in charger. And the next day, everything was fine again.

We still have no idea at the time of writing what the scary thumping sound was. What on earth was that, and why would an empty battery cause it? I'm sure someone knows. Not me though. But I was proud that my little old car could revive his much, much newer, well-maintained and gleaming Ford! 

My charger, not Neil’s

Blitzing the house

I have mentioned before that Neil is a lot cleaner than I am. He really likes his environment clean. And my house isn't! I mean it's not disastrous, but there is quite a lot of dust, and there are many cobwebs. And we decided to do a bit of a reset. Admittedly, he did most of the work. But I will try to maintain the level! It's a bit like when I have a catsitter. Then I spend quite some time cleaning the house, and thinking I should really keep that level of hygiene up. So far it hasn't worked. But maybe a regularly visiting Neil is better motivation than just me, after the catsitter has gone.

Time will tell how this will pan out. But the intentions are good!

I dusted a shelf with lots of stuff on it - we were that thorough. More impressive maybe that Neil moved all the furniture for hoovering! 

TNH goes off the road again

The Thursday Night Hill runs had been on asphalt since the clocks changed last autumn. And that’s fine. I enjoy it! But the views are a heck of a lot better when we are in the hills again. And now the clocks have moved again. We had long enough evenings to come off the Llanberis streets. So we did.

I had been tempted to run in shorts as it had been such a gorgeous day. But it got a bit gloomier so I chose tights after all. And, of course, the new shoes. I was glad, as when I got to the parking lot, it was freezing cold. I was glad to get going. 

We headed for Glyn Rhonwy. That is beautiful whatever the weather! Running up there got me a bit less cold. And i missed my hat as it was raining. The shoes were fine. 

At some point I lost track of where we were. We ended up pretty much in Waunfawr! But then we turned back. I was glad for it. I like these runs, but I didn't really have my day, and I still was a bit cold. 

On the downhill I realised at some point I was bringing up the rear. Some jokes about me needing a lot more of these downhill sessions, and about the Dutch being generally rubbish at descent, ensued. It is all true!

When we got back to the cars I didn't waste any time and just headed home. The quicker I could get out of my wet gear, into the shower, into dry clothes, and then to the fire the better it would be! I know it is now officially spring, but I think I have learned I should nonetheless not underestimate the weather…

Taming the hedge

When the neighbour and I had the top of the hedge chopped off, you suddenly got a rather good view on it from above. I noticed just how asymmetrical it was! My neighbour keeps it rather trim, but I had let it grow out way more. And that is not itself surprising; my neighbour is a lot more meticulous at matters like that than I am. But now it became glaringly obvious!

It irked me, so on the Thursday of the Easter holiday I decided to do something about it. I was aware it was spring, and the beeches would grow leaves soon, and I would be cutting off a lot of buds, but I am sure there will be sufficient left. I have faith it will manage to grow a fine set of leaves. 

In the future I might even cut it back a little bit more. But for now I’m satisfied. And it also means I have gained more access to the raised bed next to it. I am thinking of moving a big shrub out of it. If I do, that would be a lot easier now with the smaller hedge! 

Not sure it is obvious in this pic how far I cut it back

Lots of branches

Downhill training

I am scared of speed! You should see me skiing. And I'm scared of spraining a knee or an ankle on uneven terrain. So if you combine both, running speedily downhill on uneven terrain, you have several of my fears combined. It is not surprising I am absolutely rubbish at it. 

One night on the track I heard that the club training on the Monday night would organise a session on downhill running, led by our youth trainer Neal. That sounded amazing! I don't normally go to the Monday evening training, for a session like that I would make an exception.

When I saw the announcement I immediately registered. There is no good way of avoiding downhill running! You can, of course, do only flat races, but I like going up. And unless you are doing the Snowdon Twilight, or an uphill-only leg of the Welsh Castles Relay, what goes up must come down. And it does annoy me that I am so slow downhill. But I also have such a strong history of spraining knees and ankles it is only natural. 

The announcement came quicker than I expected, and I was glad I had bought my new shoes on time! They would come in handy. 

There was a good crew of us. And when Neal figured we were all there, we ran up to a field that is part of my standard off-road run, and also contains my hill rep incline which is also the finish of Ras Moel Wnion. And we did some general exercises that we could also do ourselves. Things like standing on one leg and then doing balance challenges like touching your knee with your nose. And at the same time, Neal talked us through a bit of theory. And then it was time to start properly. We were asked to pair up, and I did so with a lady called Tina I didn’t know before. 

Group pic by Nia

Neal orating; pic by Nia

Balance exercise 

We started with running some loops. One half of a pair first, while the other observed, and then we swapped. First just without instruction. Then when making a concerted effort to lean forward. Then with long strides. And short strides. And variations on that. 

It was quite useful to have an observer. We saw things the other person was not aware of. She mainly saw my fear! And that was exactly why I was there. But she said I was going faster with the passing of time. Maybe I was gaining some confidence! And then we moved to a deeper bit of terrain. Then we did some more running down. But it was scarily steep and I stayed within my comfort zone. I didn't want to sprain anything!

We then did some exercises with what looks like a rope ladder. This is for forcing you to take very short steps. And then Neal started to add little cones to restrict where we could put our feet. There was a lot of skipping going on! That was fun. The one thing that scared me was if I was behind someone with big feet, and they struggle to keep their feet between the rungs of the ladder, and kicked it. I don't want to be pulled over by a moving ladder!

It was getting late and we moved to do the final exercise of the night. We went to the incline. We all trundled up, and then we ran down. I normally walk down it! I did run, but with my familiar very short steps, and low speed. That thing is steep!

The only thing we needed to do was run back to the cars. An evening well spent! I think my spotter was right; I did build a tiny little bit of confidence. If I do this sort of thing a bit more often, I might increase it a bit further still. Who knows! I don't think I'll ever be really confident; I can't really forget decades of spraining my knees. But I think I can reasonably gain a bit of confidence without endangering myself! 

Llandudno 10 miler

The first day of the Easter break I could just relax. And the second day I would have the biggest race in my diary! The one where I had been asked to race for North Wales. I took that seriously.

It was not going to be an easy race. The distance and the route were fine, but the weather forecast was atrocious. A lot of rain and wind! But so be it. And it probably wouldn't help that the night before, the clocks would go forward, and it had a morning start. 

I woke up in Llandudno. The clock change hadn't affected me. And it wasn't raining! That was good news. But there was a lot of wind. I had my breakfast, and Neil and I walked down to the start. That was some 30 minutes. I first went to the loo, and then I went looking for Paul, the NWRAC official, who would have my race number. The rest of the team also flocked to him, so I got to meet them. There had only been two that I already knew; one from the club and one from the track, and now I heard there had been an addition to the team: very fast Menai Track and Field runner Steffan. But we had lost a lady; she had fallen ill the night before.

I did a little warming up with two others from the team, and then I got ready. When we were lining up by the start I found myself, again, starting next to, and expecting to be left in the dust by, Olivia. And now it started raining.

The team before the race (minus Jane who was on the loo)

Because of the heavy wind we would run an alternative route. This race was supposed to incorporate the Llandudno pier, but that had been changed. I'm not sure what the safety considerations are that made them take that landmark off the route, but off the route it was.

A view we didn’t get. Neil and I recce’d the Pier the (sunny) day before

We would first run over the promenade in the direction of the pier, turn around, do most of the Pier to Pier route, turn around again, run back to the the start and beyond, turn around one last time, and then run approximately a kilometre back and then finish. 

Right at the start, a lot of people run away from me, including the entire rest of the team, and Olivia. I didn't want to start too fast. After the first turn we had the wind approximately in the back. That was nice! And I happily trundled towards the little Orme, and down on the other side. I could still see Jane, another lady in the team. She was the other 50+ runner.

Someone else I could see was Gruff, a young Harrier. He must not have had his day. Normally, he is faster than me! I could remember the days when he was so young that that wasn't the case, but these days are definitely over. Nevertheless, I overtook him close to the turning around point, but he was not having that, and just accelerated enough to stay in front of me.

I had a feeling he was getting in my way, so I overtook again. This time he let me. And that brought me close to Jane. Then there was a little repeat. She wasn't having me overtaking her! But she sped up sufficiently to get ahead of me, and start increasing the distance.

With not much distance between us we ran over the Orme again. And we bumped into Tony, the decorated Harrier. He was not in the race; he was just doing a normal Sunday run in the other direction. I got a high-five!

When we had run down the Little Orme, we lost all shelter from the wind. It was quite a battle fight against it! Jane was doing better than me and increased the distance. And I was really looking forward to the turning around point. It seemed so far away! 

When I finally reached it, things got easier. I now had the wind in the back and could accelerate. And I did! I really wanted to run a personal best, and also, I could now throw everything out that I had. Exhausting yourself is fine in the last kilometre!

Almost there

There was still disruptive wind. It was largely behind me, but sometimes it came from the side. At some point I was blown several litres off course by some serious gusting. But I could tell that personal best was within reach. This could be the first 50+ PB of which I hoped I could achieve a whole list. It wasn't a tight PB at all; there are few 10 mile races around, and it had been set last year when I was mainly trying out my knees. But on a flatter course in better weather. My time then had been 1:16:13. I now came over the finish line at 1:13:42. Success! And 18 seconds after Jane.

Neil immediately found me, and together we quickly went inside. I wanted to get out of that wind and rain. Venue Cymru was race HQ and it was warm in there. Together we waited for the presentation.

In a way, it was a highly unsuccessful race. Since moving to the 50+ category, I had won a category win in every regular race so far. Now I was only third! And Jane, obviously, second. But I was still chuffed. And as this was a North Wales championship, and the fastest woman over 50 wasn't based in Wales, I did nab a silver NWRAC medal.

What about North Wales team? Well! The men came second after Staffordshire and before Cheshire. We as women came third and last. It turned out we had lost a very fast runner to an injury. So there were only four finishers; the first two had done really really well, coming 2nd and 5th, and the other two were Jane and me, bringing up the rear of the entire team. Not that we weren’t doing well! As 14th and 15th woman (out of 150), and 10 years older than the others, I think we did fine. Staffordshire had 5 runners in the top 10, including on the top spot. With a 55+ coming 3rd! That’s impressive. Not sure about Cheshire as their fastest woman came 6th as far as I could see, but I’m sure it all makes sense. 

It turned out I had been 46th person overall, out of 258. I was quite pleased with that!

I now only had one race in the diary for the next month: the Trawsfynydd race. I hoped there would be some last-minute additions. And if not, maybe I would have to do Parkrun again to get my fix!

 

Reaching Easter

It had been a couple of very full-on weeks. There is a sizeable amount of background work to do, and if you have to squeeze it in between practicals, student presentations, field trips, and even a PhD viva, it's hard work. There is, of course, the work that you know you need to do, like providing students feedback, doing journal reviews, and organising the dissertation presentation conference, but sometimes you get such a load of emails while you are away from your desk for several hours, all demanding more work, that you start lagging more and more behind.

All the last Friday before the Easter break, when we don't teach the students, I was walking from lunch back to the office with a colleague, and he asked me if I had some running injury. I asked if he thought I was limping. He just said he thought I was very slow. That was just how tired I was! And I'm sure he was worse, but at least I could not detect it in how he moved from building to building.

That afternoon I came home and I was very relieved that now I would get three weeks in which I could catch up on the backlog. And organise my time the way I see fit. There is very little timetabled now. 

I suppose one of the most important things I need to get out of the way now is organising the student presentation conference. I hadn't got very far with that yet. But I can start with doing something about that straight away on Monday morning. I'm sure I'll be making good progress with that.

Reaching Easter is always an important milestone of the year. And I've done it!

New trail/fell shoes

I started running more than 15 years ago, but I'm still only on my second pair of trail/fell shoes. I suppose there are two reasons for that. One is that you just don't wear them out so quickly; mud and grass are hardly as abrasive as asphalt. The other one is that I am predominantly a road runner. I have worn out so many road shoes over the years!

I bought my first pair of off-road shoes in a shop. I just bought the ones with the biggest lugs they had. But later I developed a habit of buying my shoes secondhand, and my second pair (bought just before a trail 10k) was a bit less luggy. But I really like grip. So when these shoes were showing signs of old age, I decided my next pair should be more grippy.

I am in the position to try several of them out. On a fairly regular basis, there is a demo event where we can borrow a particular (new) model of trail shoes and try it out on the hill. I had really liked the Inov8 mud claws. I hadn't bought a pair at the end of the event, as I wanted to try both the regular model and the wide one. Maybe they could have provided me with that, but among the shoes I could see these options are not available. I probably should have been a bit more proactive! 

With spring well on its way, I figured we would soon go back off the road on the Thursday nights. I should be ready for that, with new shoes. I intended to they just get to Llanberis early enough one Thursday to get there before the shop close, and sort out my mud claws. But then there suddenly was a demo event of Altra. The shoes were fine, but not quite what I wanted to buy. But after the run but before the prize draw, I had a mooch in the rest of the shop. And I noticed that there was a sale going on with running shoes. And there were some seriously grippy models! And they had my size. I suppose everybody in the world has bigger feet than me.

I tried the two grippiest shoes. The pretty one didn't have a good fit. The ugly one did! And prettiness doesn't matter. And the people in the shop were totally fine with selling me a pair of shoes that were not Altras. So now I am sorted! Sorry Inov8. Maybe next time. And wish me luck in the new off-road season!

To the physio for unusual reasons

I've been going to the physio for almost two years now. It normally is something to do with some part of my legs. My ankle, my knee, my hip… but now something was different. 

For some reason, I had been feeling a niggle in my elbow. No idea where it came from! But then again, I had no idea where my hip issue had come from either. Maybe I'm just getting old. And it wasn't a big problem, but I had a caving weekend coming up. That could involve a fair amount of rope work, and for that you need your arms. I thought I had better get me some exercises before that would happen. Luckily, Adam could fit me in.

He seemed to find it funny that I turned out to have a golf elbow. It certainly has nothing to do with golf! But he must've seen this many times before, and he knew what exercises to give me. Most of them involve a rubbery cylinder I had borrowed from Neil, because he has been struggling with the same injury in the past. So now I can try to get myself back to normal before the caving weekend hits. Or at least part of the way! 

One of the exercises: the metronome