G is for glorious sunshine, global warming, and green manure

The weather today is fantastic again, and I got out at lunchtime for a three-miler up to Cabot Tower, and then back down next to Bristol Harbour. I love the sunshine, and despite it not being Easter yet, it seems like summer is already here. However, in the spirit of things seeming too good to be true, my thoughts found themselves turning to that creeping feeling that actually it shouldn't be quite so nice this early in the year, and that my run was actually proof that we're all going to hell in a handcart.

Fortunately it was too nice a day to worry for too long, so I tried to focus myself on the positive. It's pretty clear that, in order to jump out of that handcart I just mentioned, we need to change how we do things. Depending on which figures you read, food and farming accounts for somewhere between a fifth and a third of our global carbon emissions, so is as a good a place to start making changes as anywhere. And this means changing what we eat - with less meat and more cereal/vegetables, and changing how we grow - relying less on fossil fuel based synthetic fertilisers and pesticides.

So, for G, let me introduce to Green manures - crops such as crimson, vetch and rye that are grown for the benefit of the soil over the winter, or between other crops. It's such an elegant idea - you grow a plant, it takes carbon and nitrogen from the atmosphere, provides a habitat for bugs and wildlife and crowds out weeds, and then you dig it into your soil and it rots down, supplying nutrients and goodness for the next plants you grow, and locking away carbon as it goes. It's surely better than spreading ammonia fertiliser all over the ground, and then following up with roundup to knock back all the weeds that spring up. Combine this idea with grass-fed cows in a clover meadow and you've got a growing system that not only produces great food, but might help prevent the sun shining so hot so early in future years.

Running log
Distance: 3 miles
Pace: Not sure, not too fast - it was hot!
Location: Central Bristol

View this running route at FriendFit.com

F is for football

I sometimes consider myself to be a fairly rounded individual. I've got a lovely family, an interesting creative job at an NGO, I've travelled the world, I've studied at three different Universities and got a couple of degrees, I'm even trying to learn the guitar.

So I sometimes wonder just why I've spent quite so much of my life (both childhood and adult) concerned with watching/talking about/thinking about football? Clearly it's the opium of the masses, clearly worrying about the 'performances' of eleven millionaire child-men is a fool's game, and clearly I willingly allow myself to be infantalised by continuing to buy in to the never-ending merry-go-round that is the modern sport (see video below).

And still. At it's best the game can produce moments of balletic grace and beauty*, and the enduring appeal I guess is in trying to reproduce such moments. I'm playing my regular game tonight with a bunch of middle-aged friends, and for an hour I'll hopefully be in the state of concentrated 'flow' that comes rarely in everyday life. And my addiction will be fed once again.


*I was sitting about five rows from the sideline, level with Kanoute for this third one.

E is for Etiquette

Or more specifically the etiquette of blogging, commenting and following. (And no, I refuse to use the term netiquette because we happen to be talking about something on the internet. (Although could I be first to coin, and then reject because it just sounds so horrible, the term bletiquette?))

Up until last month I was exclusively a blog reader, and a big fan of RSS feeds; my browser (Chrome) both detects feeds and notifies me of new items, and it takes one click to subscribe and one click to check my reader in the morning. Simple, effective, no need to think.

But now I've started blogging, and I sense the rules have changed. Suddenly other bloggers have been saying nice things in the comments below (thanks guys, they're all appreciated!) and I think I now have four followers - again, thanks for this it's truly flattering and encouraging.

However. Now I've got over the initial shock that anyone might be interested and kind enough to leave a comment/follow my blog I've filled with self-doubt. It's surely the polite thing to do to acknowledge comments below the line, but I've also started trying to visit commenters blogs - but is it rude if I don't visit everyone's? Or I visit and don't leave a comment back?

And as for followers, to be honest, other than the little square photo that appears on the blog, I'm not entirely sure what it means to follow someone's blog, let alone whether I'm being terribly rude by not immediately entering into a reciprocal following arrangement with people who follow mine. I really don't want to inadvertently offend anyone, but equally I'm quite content following blogs I like through my RSS reader and commenting irregularly.

The good news is that most people in the world I've met are essentially good, and I'm pretty sure no one is losing sleep over whether I've returned their comments (if you are let me know, and I'll fix it!). But it does raise a question for me as to what my purpose is in blogging? My career is in editorial on magazines, so it's not like I'm not used to writing for an audience. And while I'd love it if thousands of people started reading my ramblings and telling me they loved what I was doing (who wouldn't?) there's also a certain purity in writing exclusively as an outlet for yourself - I guess why diaries have been with us since people invented written language.

Running log
This is another runless blog (as will tomorrow's be)

D is for doubts and (3) degrees

So, having rashly decided to join this blogging alphabetti-spaghetti thing while running on Friday night, I'm only now beginning to really understand the depth of the challenge. It's not just that posting six posts a week is a bit stiff if you've got a day job (it is, but I know that's kind of the point), it's the need to force your blog into an arbitrary letter on any given day - I could have easily written something today about E (my thought is etiquette, but that might change) or F (possibly food, again no decisions made) but D has proper stumped me, to the degree that I'm now doubting this was a good idea in the first place.

Still, I know when it comes to writing the best thing to do when you're doubting is just to push on and get something down on paper - it will usually come good in the end.

And, as proof of this, and so as to leave on an up beat, in writing this blog I was reminded of one of my favourite seventies soul tunes. So for your delectation let's say that D is for the Three Degrees

C is for cycling

I was worried the other day that taking part in the A-Z challenge would necessitate blogging without running. But having been for a run today I've discovered a more fundamental problem: today I was running without thinking. Well, that's not entirely true. But, rather than letting my thoughts wander where they might, I spent most of the run racking my brains for an interesting C. In the end, given this is nominally a blog about running, I decided that I'd talk about cycling.

I love cycling. As the youngest of three, in an attempt to keep up I learnt to ride a bike pretty early - I must have been about four, but certainly I don't remember not being able to ride. And throughout my childhood I spent a lot of time on my bike (a Raleigh Striker (that's not me on it though) and then a BMX). I had a pause from cycling in my twenties, but got back into it, first in London, then in Bristol as a cheap and reliable way of getting to school work on time.

Aside from commuting, we've recently discovered how much fun cycling can be as family activity; I've got two boys (they're five and two respectively) and the eldest is already whizzing around, while the younger one has a seat on the back of my bike. And for the last few weekends we've managed to all get out around Bristol together, exploring some lovely nooks and crannies. It sure beats pushing a buggy to the park, or driving twenty minutes to go somewhere 'natural'.

I think it's the freedom that a pedal bike brings that is so great. You can go where you want, you don't have to worry about traffic or parking, and you get to enjoy your surroundings as well. What's not to love?

Running log
Distance: 3 miles
Pace: 24 minutes, 8 and a half minute miles
Location: St Webergs, Bristol

View this running route at FriendFit.com

B is for Band (Goldie's)

Having taken the decision last night to both a) join the A-Z blogging challenge, and b) not limit to myself to blogging just about running, I was left in something of a hole tonight. What to blog about on a B? Luckily, I just caught some of the most inspirational TV I have ever watched.

Oh.

My.

God.

For those who haven't watched it, Goldie a UK drum'n'bass producer/national treasure has put together a band of 12 young people with various levels of adversity in their backgrounds to play a gig at Buckingham Palace. You may well think that, so far, so reality TV, but the series is absolutely spot on - the kids are not only talented musicians with upsetting life stories, but they are properly real people, making properly real music. Personally I love the X-factor, but the comparison between something like that and this is like The Cheeky Girls to Nina Simone.

Now, I've always loved music (including Goldie's, Timeless is the proverbial bomb), but never had much understanding of where it comes from – I kind of guess I always thought that songs just emerged from a band pretty much as finished articles. The show catches the alchemy of music being made, and watching it is magical. And has left me feeling pretty emotional.

If you have access to BBC/Iplayer watch it. If you don't then here's what you're missing:



Running log
Distance: Kitchen-Sofa - around 5 metres
Pace: Half a bottle of red wine and a Maker's Mark.
Location: My house - you don't need a map.

A is for the A-Z blogging challenge

OK. So tonight, after getting my five year old to bed and washing up I went for a quick jaunt around the harbour. Other than the nagging suspicion that going out for a run rather than alcohol at 9pm on a Friday night means middle age is not just an idea on the horizon but a creeping reality, the main thing I thought about was whether to take part in the A-Z blogging challenge I'd read about earlier in the day.

It sounds fun, but I was worried that as there's no way I'm going to try and run six days a week, signing up would mean some (lots?) of the blogs will be written on a false prospectus (thingsimightthinkaboutifihappenedtogorunningagaintoday.blogspot?). But half way around I had a bit of an epiphany: who cares, no one's reading this anyway! So, it's not like I'm going to mortally offend someone by adding blogs not based on runs. (I believe I went through a process more commonly known as 'getting over one'sself'.) I felt my mind free up, and I've signed up - number 1100 on the list!

And, ermm, that's it for tonight, hopefully I'll make it past C. (Actually, let's get B out of the way first. . .)

Running log
Distance: 3 and a bit miles
Pace: 28:37 - eight and a half minute miles.
Location: Bristol harbourside

View this running route at FriendFit.com