Brooks PureCadence - A new beginning

Some of you might remember that back in November I injured my back whilst stretching (believe it or not) and that I was barely able to walk let alone run. One of the reasons for this, I believe, is that I've been running in broadly the same type of shoes since getting into triathlon - usually motion control - as I was originally identified to be an overpronator. While fine at the time I don't think that these suit me any more. So over the past year I've been tinkering with a bit of barefoot running and this has proved a minor revelation; the only problem being that I kept losing the skin on my toes!

So last week, after proving to myself and my osteopath that I was functionally able to run again, I decided to treat myself to some new running shoes. This time though I was looking for something very unsupportive, something very minimal and close to being barefoot; so the other end of the scale essentially. At first the salesman in Runners Need looked a tad wary while I explained what I was looking for but all credit to him - he emerged with a couple of nice looking shoes and had me try them out on the treadmill. What fun! They both felt very light and the camera showed that I was midfoot-striking very cleanly and demonstrating no over-pronation whatsoever.

As a result I walked out of the shop with a pair of these little beauties:

Now they don't come cheap, it's true, but none of my running shoes have ever been what you might call cheap! So this lunchtime I took them out for a short spin up to Green Park; just a quick 20-30 minutes really to see how they felt when used in anger but not for so long that my osteopath might get angry! I have to say that they feel great on my feet (light and responsive) but there's no doubt that I'm working my calf muscles much harder with these shoes. It just goes to show how much heel-striking I've been doing in the past without ever meaning to. Suffice to say though that my old shoes have been consigned to the bin!

Distance: 3.9 miles
Time: 35m 00s

Just like Elvis: Another comeback!

This year has a real feel of deja vu about it doesn't it? Too many injuries and too many comebacks. Elvis would be proud. So, anyway, since inflaming a disc in my back, or something similar, I've been seeing a local osteopath (Robin Kiashek) on a regular basis. Up till now he's been dead against me doing any running since he believes that this is the underlying cause of my injury; so I've been on a diet of cycling and swimming. That's been alright but now he wants me to try to run again (10 to 20 minutes only) just to see if I can.

Once a week this has been my house of pain!

So today I decided to take the bull by the horns and see whether I was fixed or not. With Joshua at cub camp and Christina enjoying herself at a friend's birthday party the way was clear for some me-time. The only problem was that Robin was only giving me permission to run for a very short period and this meant that none of my usual routes were suitable (not even a quick trot around Highgate Woods). In the end I decided to make life simple and stick to a circuit of the local streets.

The weird thing was that when I set off I expected to feel stiff and unfit, which I did, but neither of these were my major problem. Instead with ever step I could feel my heel hitting the ground first and the shock from this impact resonating upwards to my spine! Now this wasn't painful but it was worrying and quite uncomfortable. So I made a determined effort to lift up my feet and strike with my mid-foot; which I managed to achieve but at the expense of realising how hard my shoes were making it to run properly!

It seems to me then that my old shoes (Brooks Addiction's I think) have been deforming my running style purely by being so highly cushioned. Looking at their sole it's obvious that the heel is very built up and that you're running on a wedge shape - so it's no wonder that my heel is being forced to hit the ground first unless I really try to counteract this effect. This also seems to answer a question that I've long pondered: why is it that children always seem to land on their mid-foot? Because they're always wearing flat shoes and so aren't forced to heel strike.

Overall then I'm very glad that I'm able to run again and without any pain; that's a huge improvement. The only problem is that I can't run in my current trainers - I will have to find something more suitable before putting on my running shorts again. I guess it's lucky for me that Christmas is around the corner....

Distance: 2.0 miles
Time: 16m 39s

Wimpole Estate in Winter

With a free Sunday on our hands, and a desire to get out and about, we did the job properly and headed up the M11 to the Wimpole Estate. A National Trust property we were principally attracted by the chance to run around and visit the fully-working Home Farm - but it helped that the estate was also running a Christmas Fayre! However when we turned up it was to find out that the entrance fee was an arm and a leg which seems a bit rich just to go into a glorified shop. So we performed an about-face and headed off through the extensive gardens to the animal farm.

Always a popular option with Joshua and Christina the pair of them were soon up to their arms in cuddly chicks and little piggies. I don't know whether it's the illusion of control or a simple human reaction to cuteness but they weren't the only kids bouncing from one animal stall to another. This, however, was but a precursor to the scrum that developed when they brought the donkeys out for their daily cleaning! Fortunately Joshua and Christina were in the front-line and quickly set about their allotted portion of the unfortunate beast:

Don't be a horse's ass!

After this excitement we toured around the sheep and goat pens, swung a little in the adventure playground and then ended up in the cafe. How did this happen I wonder? Fortunately the farm owners are very sensible as they provide a well-stocked play-area right outside and so Mum & Dad get to relax over a piece of cake while the little ones swarm over the toy tractors. Then when the attraction of this pales (which takes a long time I have to say) there a numerous 200-year old barns full of man-traps and mysterious farm equipment to explore:

Right at home

Sadly by now it was getting dark, the farm was about to close and they were bringing the animals in from the fields. Luckily by being a bit slack and hanging around we got to see the magnificent shire-horses come clomping through the yard (and their feet really do clomp); then we got chatting to a guy called Mark Field (appropriately enough) and he told us all about the horned and horny cattle he looks after. Put it this way the bull named Juggernaut is "all bull" and make no mistake! What was also great was that Mark was keen to show off his new £70,000 tractor and we were happy to let him!

I want to be a farmer!

The farm had long since closed but Mark was up for a chat and didn't mind the kids (or me) clambering all over his mighty vehicle. Just as well really because there wasn't much that could have stopped us:

Mine. All mine.

Eventually, of course, we had to say our farewells to Mark but what a great day! On the way out we did try to talk our way into the Fayre (given that it too would close in 30 minutes) but to no avail. Oh well - you can't win them all. Either way we enjoyed a fine day out on the Wimpole Estate and I think that we'll be returning next March for the lambing season. Who doesn't enjoy bottle-feeding a little woolly lamb even if it is being bred to become a good companion to mint sauce?

Christina's Fifth Birthday Party

The eagle-eyed among you may have spotted that Christina's birthday was actually a month ago and so we're a bit tardy with her birthday party! Well that's very true but in our defence Christina had barely started school a month ago and so we thought that it'd be nice to let her settle in and find out who here friends were - not that that particularly influenced who we put on the birthday list. As we used to do with Joshua we just invited the whole class to join us in Clown Town and let the guest-list be somewhat organic and self-selecting. It's a policy that has worked well in the past and it didn't fail us today either!

Just under twenty of her class-mates turned-up accompanied by parents (many of whom then disappeared to go shopping in Tesco) and laden with both presents and expectation. This suited us just fine as the kids all got to rush off and disappear within the extensive play-frame while we chatted and sorted out lunch for what were sure to be hungry children. They didn't disappoint us when the time came to file into the party booth and pretend like they were still at school:

And how well-behaved they all were - even the two hulking eight-year old's at the end who got to act a little like bouncers! Only the sunglasses were absent. What wasn't absent, of course, was the delightful cake - a Hello Kitty creation courtesy of our good friend Emma. Christina's face absolutely lit up when she clapped eyes on it and this wasn't just the effect of the candles:

I am this old - right?

All in all then a great two hours or so was had by all - long enough to have lots of birthday fun but not so long that anyone got over-tired and emotional (and that's just the parents). Even better we didn't have to do any washing up. What a bargain!

Osterley Park

Now that we've renewed our membership of the National Trust it's a whole lot of fun to go out to one of their parks and let the kids run wild. Somewhere that we've visited a couple of times before is Osterley Park and the reason behind this is very simple; it's not too far away and there are 357 acres of parkland to explore! So we nipped over after lunch with the idea of playing in the autumnal leaves a bit and perhaps having a bite to eat in the cafe (always a priority for the Cannon family). On the first point then I can report total success:

Anyone else for leaf angels?

Of course this innocent fun quickly generated into a spate of leaf-throwing and general running about but what can you do? It was all good, clean (mostly) fun and it seemed that there was always another tree to climb or dog to pet for Joshua and Christina. Hence we slowly made our way round the park and enjoyed the crisp winter weather; lovely in the sun but just a little chilly in the shade. We were far from alone though and along the way the children convinced another daddy to give them some stale bread for feeding the ducks, then they commandeered a ball-thrower so that they could play at making the dog swim in the lake and finally they ended up getting a bit scared by a couple of very large hounds messing about in the woods. Exciting stuff.

Happy to be out and about

I have to admit though that I had half a mind turned towards the cafe and shop in the stables; having spotted some unusual blackcurrant curd I didn't want to miss the opportunity to obtain a jar or two. Who can say when I'll see its like again? Fortunately we were in luck and we didn't even have to hurry; there was plenty of time to soak up the atmosphere and feel genuinely relaxed. The only thing that we didn't do was take a tour of the house and to be honest that's a mixed pleasure when you have little ones in tow; too much risk of breaking something irreplaceable!

Sunday and still sore

After yesterday's efforts I wasn't convinced that I wanted to repeat the experience but having mentioned to Mike that I'd be attending I felt a certain obligation; besides the rest of the family were going to be out at Joshua's church parade with the Cubs and that left me at a loose end. So I rocked up intending to pull my weight only to find myself standing on the pavement with Daniel and Darren - and no Mike! After a few minutes of hanging about we decided that we'd better sort ourselves out with a nice easy run; 10 or 11K perhaps. With no clear plan then we cut across the Heath and by chance ended up at the bottom of Swains Lane. Who'd have thought it? Still by the top we all felt properly warmed up!

Daniel's favourite landmark - the top of the climb!

From hereon it was a case of not straying too far from Highgate as we none of us wanted to turn this into some epic run but on the other hand we didn't want to come up short either. The curious side-effect of this dilly-dallying was that we ended up scaling all sorts of hills and really having quite a fun time of it; well I enjoyed myself anyway despite the mechanical limitations of my aching back. So we inched back up to the top of Highgate and then we wiggled our way across the Heath; where I failed to make a convincing case for taking East Heath Road. In the end then we retraced our steps back to the start and what do you know - we had to go uphill!

Distance: 7.3 miles
Time: 1h 04m 51s

Friday night, Saturday morning

This has just got to the year of the injury or something very similar. This time though I wasn't even doing anything energetic or somehow out of the ordinary. Oh no. All I had was a bit of a sore back that needed stretching out and what could be more simple? So there I was lying on the floor in a nice stretching pose when, without warning, a bolt of pain blossomed from my lower back and all that I could think was: how the hell can I stop this pain? It was so bad that I could barely get off of the floor and even that took a lot of rolling over and some leveraging from a nearby bed. Not pretty.

Come on in - the water's lovely!

So this morning I wasn't over keen on going out running but on the other hand I felt rather compelled as, yet again, I haven't managed a single run in the week. This is beginning to get ridiculous. Anyway I thought that I'd better make the effort, given the blue sky outside, and so I took myself down to the Heath and managed to arrive in time for the off.

Bring on the mustache!

Happily we stuck to familiar North London streets by heading down to Hampstead Garden Suburb and around the back streets of North Finchley. Nothing too strenuous and with plenty of opportunity for conversation and general catching up; very much a classic Saturday route that caters for the broader group and ensures that no one gets left behind (except by choice). In terms of fitness I felt okay but it was pretty obvious that my style was compromised by my sore back; so I hung back and tried not to get caught up in the end-of-run sprint to the finish. No point taking chances!

Distance: 7.1 miles

Time: 1h 04m 21s