Ne’er Cast a Clout

This must be one of my daughters great shots of a Kite. Jacqueline Rackham Photography.

Ne’er Cast a Clout

My old dad used to say that to me as a child and he was referring to the wearing of my liberty bodice.  Ne’er cast a clout till May be out. However, he was talking about the May flower or Hawthorn tree blossom, that comes out a bit earlier in May. There seems to be some general confusion and I can see that, with the changeability of our fine English weather. I think it makes more sense that my dad was correct, because it has been full blown summer for a couple of weeks now and I am only wearing one level of clothing when we go out for our run, even though we start running at a little after 5 am.

Today is the last day of the merry month of May and it is fair to say that it has been far from merry in a lot of ways. Fingers, eyes and legs crossed, that June will not be busting out all over with much more of the dreaded Corona Virus. That depends I think, on us all staying on the sensible side and not rushing back to what ever our normal lives were. We are still not clear of Covid 19, there is each day an alarmingly high daily death list and that should not be ignored.

Steve and I are staying firmly on the side of caution and still going for our run at the first light of alternate days. On the other hand during the summer months, that is the best time of day to be out running your legs off to keep fit enough for the sport we look forward to competing in as soon as possible. We had a really lovely 8 mile run again this morning and it was sheer joy to be up and around at a time when the rest of the world is not around to spoil it. Mind you the ground in the woodlands is rock hard now because of the lovely weather. There will be a hose pipe ban before you can say ‘Knife’.

Our run today was about two minutes slower that our best run that was recorded two days ago, but that was undoubtedly due to that fact that I had to stop to make an adjustment to my sports bra straps because I was having ‘bounce’ problems due to a change in underwear. Sorry for sharing that with the world but it does matter when you are recording all your times and beside that; this is my diary folks! Read at you peril.

Once indoors again we had a five minute sit down with a cup of coffee before getting into an hour of Qigong. We are both enjoying these sessions that we started to drift into from the Tai Chi we had been doing. I am not trying to sell it to anybody else at all but it seems to suit us well
.

We both like the Balance, Mind and Body combination and the breathing exercises and the general peace of the practice. I see that it is not something that some of my friends would be interested in but I feel that something peaceful like this can and has been helpful to a maniac fidget like me. I am always thinking about a million things and have far too many interests by the standards of some. This gathers me in to a time of restoration that is most useful. 

After all the attention to training and calming this morning I had a note in my diary to go out and tidy up the front garden because it had got out of hand with the burst of warm days and so it badly needed a good weeding and general bringing back to order. This was not a massive job since all there is of my front garden is a three foot deep, by ten wide, slither of earth in front of the bay window on the street side of the house. The two large plant tubs and small rose bed the other side of the door complete the front set, taking not much more that half an hour to bring back to order. Steve does not do gardening.

I made a big mistake last evening after dinner. My sewing project had my full attention and when Steve asked if there was anything I had in mind to watch on TV for the two hours remaining before bedtime loomed, I muttered “You chose darling”. That was a big mistake and broke my usual rule that, ‘Steve should not ever pick the movie’. When we did sit down I knew immediately that I had made the wrong call. He chose a quite new film. ‘Extraction’. It starred Chris Hemsworth as some over armed brute of an ex SASR operative, turned black ops mercenary, charged with a new job; to rescue the kidnapped son of an imprisoned crime lord. I won’t bother with any comment other than; What a load of tosh that was!  Full on bloke stuff, helicopter crashes, assorted vehicle chases, explosions every two seconds and everybody dies in a horrible way.  It made John Wicks seem like a cuddly pussy cat. 

The only thing I did like was the name of one of the Bollywood repertory players in the cast.

Randeep Hooda, what a great name that is.

My maiden name was Peace by the way.

My mothers maiden name was Chance.

First Sea Swim of the Season

 

First Sea Swim of the Season

I knew that Steve had been keeping an eye on the tide time tables after I had mentioned that even though the Littlehampton Wave Swimming Centre was still as closed as closed be; that it would soon be warm enough to swim in the sea. Steve is always concerned about me and had insisted that the water temperature was still too cold for me. He made and extra point of saying that he did not want me to get cold just for the hell of it and that we would wait a while.

I have lived by the seaside almost all my life, apart from the war years and as a new born babe my mum took me and my brother to Yorkshire to live with my dad’s family while he was away in the army.

As child my cousin and I played on the beach all summer long through school holidays while my parents were at work all day. We were unsupervised and nobody seemed to be that bothered about it in those days. Any sunny day and we would walk to the beach and play there all day long. At low tide, on the sand and the little rock pools and at high tide we were in the water. My cousin John could swim properly long before m, but I still went out in the deep water with him, kicking my legs and paddling my arms encircled by an old truck inner tube. On those nice days my mum, would walk home along the seafront when she finished work as a chamber maid at one of the hotels and find us where she knew we liked to base ourselves, and we would walk home together, it just a ten minute walk.

Back to the plot here, I had given up asking when we were going for a sea swim since Steve is a control freak and likes to arrange everything for us both, so unless I stick my oar in and object, which does not happen that often, he makes the plans. You see, having been left to look after myself whilst still a junior school child, I find it quite charming and amusing that Steve likes to look after me. So I go along with having a manager/husband/coach/chef.

This morning the alarm went off at stupid o’clock as per freaking’ usual. We were going to get our first sea swim in, having prepared all our kit last night. We put our wetsuits on at home and drove to the beach and back, its only five minutes away. It was a most perfect morning, almost still and the big ball of fire was just up in the sky, flashing down on the beach. It was a very low high tide, I couldn’t believe that it was in fact as high as it was going get, but we were bang on high tide time.

I was expecting it to be cold but apart from the moment when that first trickle of water squeezed in the neck of my wet suit. It was not cold at all; in fact I thought it was quite warm.

We only had a short swim, about half of the distance we would normally be doing at this time of year. But Steve pointed out the obvious; we had not been swimming at all since the beginning of March when the rot set in at the time when the first person in the UK died of this deadly virus on March 5^th I believe; that’s what it says in my diary anyway. 

This is Steve with Maarten van der Weijden of the NL. Taken at a Human Race open water swim at Dorney lake where this incredibly tall swimmer won the 10km event he must be 6'9 or 6'10".

We swam together as we normally would, swimming eastwards against our wicked current parallel to the shore, beyond the ends of the spiteful barnacle covered breakwaters. Then when we reached whatever point is on the days plan, we would turn and swim back current assisted, getting back in half the time. It was glorious, absolutely heavenly.

We were not alone on that stretch on water either, because further out in the sea, there were a handful of paddle boarders taking advantage of the fairly flat water. There were even a couple of people already sitting on the beach a couple of breakwaters away and on the promenade the early runners and dog walkers. All at 5.10 a.m.

What joy to get away from the TV reports of the Cummings and Goings saga that has so annoyed us all and set the cat among the pigeons. People have got seriously confused, with no idea what that can or should not be doing. There was a full scale pool party at the house just over the road yesterday, where there was no social distancing whatsoever. A group of young girls all in party attire arrived arms all round each other and then needing some support on the way out later. It is impossible for us not to see, since our home stands up on a bank overlooking that garden as we ate our meal. I despair.

Let’s not even get into the horrible cause of the riots in the USA that all seems to have set them back into the dark ages for a while. Dreadful state of affairs with the fires and looting when all sense of right is lost. 

Birdy rules OK

 This photo and the ones of the puppy were taken by:

Jacqueline Rackham Photography

Birdy rules OK

Birdy sits on some books on my desk, right?

but not set out for her right from the start,

it turns out that she is a smart little mite

having worked her way right into my heart.

When she came to my garden as a stray

I shoo-ed her away with noise and a frown.

She brought me a mouse as a gift one day

determination from her tail to crown.

She glared in my eyes and said “Feed me bitch”!

an understanding between us soon grew,

daily food was her tapestry’s last stitch

now we know quite exactly who is who.

Follows me everywhere, quite devoted

making it most clear, what is her need,

communication vocally noted

“I will start purring, when you get my feed”.

Birdy has lived with us now for well over a year and come Lockdown time, we included her. She complained bitterly about not being allowed out in the garden, up on the wall and away over the garage. She has got used to being a house cat now and on odd occasions when she does escape, she stays close enough to get her back with a shake of the treats packet.

When she first appeared before she moved in her coat was unkempt and she was twitchy and ready with the claws. Now she has a silky shine to her coat, the fleas all gone, and she is a purr machine. There are window seats for her in almost every room. I have bought a cat harness from Amazon and have done nothing so far except put it on her for five minutes a day when I do nothing but stroke her and give her some treats. So she can see that no harm comes of it. She pretends that she can’t walk in it, and flops on the carpet and plays dead, but she can get up and walk, if there is a treat involved. My hope is that eventually she can come into the back garden while I de-head the roses and geraniums etc. I don’t want to lose her.

Lockdown has changed us both, Birdy and me. Things will not be the same for either of us; she will not be a wild thing left to fend for herself, to kill or be killed. 

As for me, I will know for sure that I do not need a lot of the things that I thought I would miss at first stages of it all.

I don’t need to go shopping.

I don’t need to go to the cinema.

I don’t need to go out to dinner

I don’t need new clothes; the ones I have will see me out.

That is set in stone inside my head.

I don’t need rude, bad mannered and bad tempered people.

I don’t need to hug everybody! I am working on a new ward off stance.

The hug may take some time to be re-introduced, if it ever is again. Yet the telling thing about me is that I will still want to test myself with races but everything is a bit out of focus and way off on the horizon right now. It will also be very nice when I can baby sit Jeffrey, my daughters the still quite young puppy, who I have not been able to have much to do with at all during this time. I have always been the emergency dog sitter in the past with previous four legged family members.

 

It has not been a hardship staying in the house but then, my husband and I actually LIKE each other, we are best friends. Neither of us has been unhappy. Worried of course, that there has been no income and business might not ever get back to normal, who knows? We have not got on each others nerves, at all; the extra time together has been enjoyed.

We have partner shared our every other day running, in the first light of dawn. This morning we ran eight miles through the woods and the Garmin Forerunner, (that we are now slaves to), told us at the end that it was the best 8 mile run of the year. But it can actually only the best of the lockdown of which there were six 8 milers in all. With all the running being alternate days that means 4 runs in a week one week and three the next week, although the GF does the last seven days if that is what you ask. Previously we were only doing one 10 km, a five and couple of short ones before that, so our weekly mileage has grown quite a bit and the quality massively improved. Something positive from and uncertain time.  

Slowy does it

Ultra-Fit Then and Now

Ultra-Fit Then and Now

It is hard to go ferreting through cupboards or drawers in our house without there being something to do with triathlon behind every door. Between us, we have photos galore and mountains of race result sheets tucked away in folders, then magazines and newspaper cuttings that have stories about our many years in this sport without ever once getting fed up with it. 

This morning, what I was actually looking for was a seam stripper to use in my latest sewing project, when I found the Red cover of a Running Magazine storage folder and ended up getting it out on the table and flicking through the pages neatly held inside. 

In the middle I found a copy of Ultra-Fit Magazine. There was a sticky note of the front sending the viewer to Page 63. I don’t know the exact date because the cover is smartly marked as Vol. 5 No.1 but it is about my first Hawaii Ironman and that means that it must be 1994 and after the Hawaii Ironman World Championship event in October of that year.

 

 It is a wonderful souvenir for me as a memory alone, but it is one of the best articles that I have ever been featured in. It ran through two page colour spread and finishes over leaf with another half page.

The photos are a story by themselves, all my big heroes at the time are therein shots with the star struck me beside them; Paula Newby Frazer, Dave Scott, Scott Tinley, Mark Allen and Julie Moss, Ironman inventor John Collins and of course as always and ever my dear husband Stephen. Thank you Ultra-fit for that super article from all those years ago. At getting on for 81 years old, I am still just a big kid in a lot of ways, and reading that again spread a great big smile from one old ear to the other.

Having qualified for the race, the article states that at that time, I was the only British woman over fifty to have completed the Hawaii Ironman. 

I was on such a jolly during that whole race holiday that I didn’t know which way was up with the excitement of it all. For a start I was sponsored by Matol KM for the whole stay, air fare, hotel and meals including a Luau. 

In addition to that Ian Douglas Sweet was making a video film for Eurosport; it was called Hawaii 5-Five. The prospect of that meant that I was sponsored to a lot more triathlon products, so much new kit that we had to buy and extra bag to pack it all in for the return to home.

My finish time for my first Hawaii experience was 16.29.29 the cut off was 17 hours.

It was the most marvellous experience of all the years in the sport, from the moment Ian Douglas-Sweet greeted me by hanging a beautiful Lei over my head when he met us at the airport in Kona.  What better way to start your Hawaiian vacation than with a fragrant, fresh flower lei? In Hawaiian tradition, lei is a symbol of hospitality, love, respect, and aloha. Worn by both men and women, the Lei, is gently draped over the shoulders, hanging down in front and back. I will never forget my first Hawaii Ironman.

If you go down to the woods today….

 

 If you go down to the woods today….

You may well see one of these these beautiful birds. Photo by Jacqueline Rackham Photography

We were both a bit on the tired side this morning and it’s not that surprising since we have only had one complete day of rest from training in the three months of LD. So we dropped down to a five km jog-walk through the woods today, taking more of the narrow pathways, since we were taking a few photos and enjoying the quite stillness. We did not need to be watching our footing on every stride as we usually do when running off road. It is still possible to find trails that we have never trodden before, and that was what occurred today. The early light through the trees takes your breath clean away sometimes. 

I was reminded this morning that not all of the pretty woodland plants are safe if you are out for the day walking with children. The warm weather has brought on some of the plants that we should all know about, before letting kids run a play in the woods. One of the most dangerous of these plants is the Giant Hogweed. Indeed it is a giant version of Cow Parsley that is was also so called Hogweed that, and is not a danger and grows everywhere in the countryside. The Giant Hogweed plant grows to three or four times the size of Cow parsley and the flower heads are the size of parasols; Still pretty though.

Children seem to like the break the stems and use them as flutes or wands. They seem drawn to the huge plants to play under them and that is the danger. They are most striking plants but I think you will find that they are most dangerous in sunlight, it’s a chemical reaction. Touching the plants can result in dreadful blister burn injuries. I know this because my own daughter suffered a blister on her leg as a child many years ago. They may even leave a stain on the skin after the burn has healed. 

The Foxgloves are out now just a little early we noticed this morning and although the plants are used in medicine, please read my Google search for this morning here.  Country people seem to know which plants to watch out for and which are a danger, but townsfolk are less likely to know.

Foxglove

Chemicals taken from foxglove are used to make a prescription drug called digoxin. Digitalis lanata is the major source of digoxin in the US. Foxglove is most commonly used for congestive heart failure (CHF) and relieving associated fluid retention irregular heartbeat.

Foxglove is a plant. Although the parts of the plant that grow above the ground can be used for medicine, foxglove is unsafe for self medication. All parts of the plant are poisonous.

Giant Hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum) was introduced as an ornamental species. It was first recorded in the wild in the mid 19^th century and is now widespread with a preference for river banks. As well as outcompeting native plant life, Giant Hogweed poses a risk to human health. The sap of the plant can cause the skin to burn and become sensitive to sunlight.

Come blackberry time Deadly Nightshade is such a pretty plant and grows in the same kind places as other berries but it is deadly.

Weekend Warriors

 Brighton and Hove Triathlon on Hove Lawns where many women have done their first race

Weekend Warriors

All those years ago when Stephen and I stepped into the world of triathlon we had no idea where it would lead us.  Actually Steve started first, but he was following a young friend of ours James Clarke. James was the one who brought a 220 magazine into our kitchen one Saturday afternoon and read an article to us about the Hawaii Ironman. Steve and I just chuckled and remarked that there was no way you could do a 3800 mtr sea swim, then go straight out on a bike and ride 112 miles and then run a marathon. NO WAY.

Steve took the magazine away from James and flipped through the pages. There was a section at the back that had triathlon and duathlon events listed and after talking about it was a while, Steve pointed out to James that he was a very good swimmer and had done well at running at his boarding school, and he did have a bike that he used for transport locally. Why not give it a shot? James was still in his teens. Steve was in his early forty’s and had been a good swimmer when he was a teenager. I wasn’t even listening by that time.

So before you could say ‘trainers’, Steve had entered James into a small local event in a country park near Horsham. Steve and I watched him swim in the lake, casually change into dry clothes and go out on the bike course and then watched him run around the park after that. He did well, even without the smart triathlon kit that all the rest of the competitors had. I took photos and shouted in an unladylike fashion.

A month and some run training later Steve was on the start line with James at the next event they found close to home. I took photos and shouted at them both. They did another race later in the summer. Steve and I had been going to a gym since earlier that year trying to get some fitness back and lose some weight. We had all been swimming regularly at Littlehampton though as a breast stroker and I had to learn front crawl. I had Steve’s old bike, he had bought a better one.

Above is Famous race organiser John Lunt, taken at Windsor a few years ago the photo below is of course triathlon star Tom Don who is also in the photo above that laughing at John and I. 

At my first event, the Damp Dash duathlon early in the next year. I met John Lunt the race organiser. His event company was called Human Race and he had been most encouraging to me on the phone, when I was not at all sure that I was up to doing the race. I had learned to swim freestyle and had managed to get to a mile in the pool non stop. I was running local road running events and had done one ten mile event. I had entered John’s Damp Dash in the short event; 400 mtr swim/5km run, but he talked me into the full distance of 800mtr/10km since the entry for the short event was poor. I was terrified that the young athletes would laugh at me because I was fifty years old. John told me that he would like to have me in the race to encourage other older women into the multi discipline sport, it would be good for the sport he said because women were a very small percentage of triathlon fields at the time.

This is me with two more enthusiastic triathletes all GB team members at World Championships

Sally-Webb Potts and Jane King we have had great fun together at many races.

That event was such fun and everybody was so supportive, even the young guys shouted ‘Well done’ as the later swim waves flew past me out on the run. That was it; Hooked. John Lunt and his wife Nicola have been friends of ours for thirty years and I hope to see them again at their big race in Sussex. Brighton and Hove Triathlon in mid September again this year. I pray to Heaven and all the Angels that the world will be a bit more normal again by then.

Again with John Lunt who pops in for coffee and a good chat at our home now and again. 

John has always called people like us in the sport, ‘Weekend Warriors’, and that is exactly what we were in those days because we got so quickly and so fully into the sport that we did an event every weekend from spring, all through that next summer season. There are thousands of us, that all fit nicely into that category. They are people who have to work all week and the many who have families, who are their first priority. They don’t have the luxury or training whenever they like because other things come first. So it is difficult to make it into the elite crowd that we all see on TV, without the time to put your heart and soul into the training and without the money to buy the best bike on the market, and all the expensive kit that the top people get to wear, because the family still want a holiday and the kids want their own bikes.

The view from the swim in the Thames at the Human Race June event, Windsor Triathlon 

About the only good thing I have seen during the current LD is that a lot of us have had more time on our hands and we have been able to train for as long as we wanted because we have not been able to work. There is no work right now. That is certainly the case for us, our business suffered badly and the overseas clients that we usually do our collections and packing for, are in a similar situation to ourselves and are not allowed to travel, so they cannot go out buying antiques and certainly don’t need containers full of them and may not for some long time yet.

Our training is way up on our usual levels and we are both going well right now; if only there were any events not cancelled or postponed and if only we could travel to them if there were.

We are packing in the hours and our running is hugely improved. Even without the swimming, as yet we have been getting in about 28 hours a week. Running every other day at dawn, then turbo training even more hours. To make up for the lack of swimming we have done all kinds of other classes on TV and are feeling nice a supple because of that additional area. 

 This is a post awards shot of me with my age group winning trophy at Sater, Sweden

I am with Mary Ann Wallace and Peggy McDowell-Cramer from Team USA.Great friends.

Steve has always held the theory that whatever mileage you run per week, you could put together if you needed to do a long run. How many hours you bike a week, you can put together at any time. It’s all there in the bank. Of course that does not work for the elite because of the speed they have to work at. For us Weekend Warriors though, it works a treat. Steve and I both know from many years of experience that you do not have to run your legs into the ground, hammering out road miles every week. We do not do twenty plus mile runs. When you are older, that just leads to injury and more with the running than anything else. With the amount of turbo training we do all winter, and now all summer, we know that we have a long bike ride in our legs any time we ask for it.

Brighton and Hove Triathlon, race briefing before of a women's wave.

 

One piece of advice we have both given to newer triathletes is, never to chase lost training sessions. If you miss a session for whatever reason, work or unexpected problems or family chores, do not try to fit it in somewhere else in your carefully planned life schedule. Don’t worry about it either. That bus has gone, wait for the next one and don’t fret. Steve’s business takes him away quite often, he will be driving from end to end of France or Germany or Holland and he will be lucky if he can get a short run in on his travels before he gets in the cab on his truck for a days driving.

Stay calm and do what you can, when you can. The love of our sport will still get you to the finish line of whatever event you are aiming for. We Weekend Warriors may take longer to get there but the satisfaction of crossing the line in a half or full Ironman is worth more than gold and that feeling will last forever. 

Below: Just for those who think that I only ever wear sports kit. 

As a matter of fact, I have a long summer dress on right now.

Bikers Galore, Not a Helmet I Saw

 Take Me to the River

Bikers Galore, Not a Helmet I Saw

There is a huge increase in the amount of people cycling and that would be a good thing were it not for the fact that none of these new casual bikers are wearing cycle helmets. We are seeing them go past our home in ones and twos and families with not a helmet in sight. Here comes one of those ‘If I were Prime Minister‘, moments; It was be compulsory to buy a helmet at the same time as a bicycle was purchased. Then there are so many cameras mounted on the roads that it would also be an automatic fine for riding without a helmet. The fine would come through the post in the same way that a parking ticket does now, if you are driving in London and stop somewhere to ask a question in a shop or café. The ticket is a sent with the photo of your car standing at the curb. I find it hard to believe that parents are that careless. Don’t get me started on people riding bikes in flip flops and carrying a shopping bag in one hand.

If you are wondering, why yes; I did get picked up from my dancing class by my big brother sometimes in the winter, when it was dark, and I did ride home sitting on the cross bar. In the school holidays my dad would sometimes take me with him when he went out to some of his plumbing jobs. I would sit on top of his tool bag on the front of his trade bike.

In those days, I didn’t know anybody who owned a car, and the traffic was not as packed tightly bumper to bumper as it is now. We know better now. Taking chances with the lives of your children is stupid if not criminal. Rant over.

Last night I had selected a movie that I thought might be good and would suit the tastes of both Steve and I. Steve never questions me at moments like that and so he set about trying to find it which was no problem. It was a 2015 film ‘Take Me to the River. Steve didn’t even ask what it was about and I would have been stuck if he had. I had seen a couple of photos and a poster and it just got the ‘Different’ vote.

Take Me to the River has a quite young man in the lead. Logan Miller is playing Ryder, who is seventeen and his parents are making a trip from California to meet the Mother’s very large family in Nebraska. A big picnic gathering has been called. The teenager is wearing very short snug red shorts and a skimpy tee shirt. It starts to get quietly worrying when one of the many children, a pretty little girl of nine, takes a shine to Ryder because he can draw pictures to amuse them. It quickly gets very awkward and just about all the huge family take a dislike to the teenage boy. It is not a murder plot or a horror scenario but it gets you feeling seriously uncomfortable and things get more and more edgy.

There, I gave nothing away and it takes most of the film to get to the family secret. We both thought it was excellent and both the young man and the little girl will be a big stars very soon I would think. So if you don’t want another movie with helicopter crashes and car chases you might give it a try. The child is Ursula Parker.

It was as well that we had found something to hold our attention last night since our big race of the year should have been yesterday. Ironman 70.3 Graz, Austria. So we were feeling a little deflated.

This morning we did our old standard 10km run out in the woods of Angmering Park. It was the most beautiful bright sunny morning and we didn’t see a soul anywhere, unless you count sheep and deer. No wind at all and so the woods were filled with birdsong; just a glorious happy to be alive day, and we had finished our run well before 7am.

 

At home after wards it was Qigong and the ballet workout class once again before Steve took himself out in the garden for a spot of sun worshiping, while I attended to the washing. Then just to show just how boring I can be if a really try; I potted up three clay pots with grass that I had dug out of the front garden. These will be rotated for Birdy the cat who it turns out to  have a love for lawn mowing pots of grass. Some critters are easily pleased.

It is twelve weeks today that I stopped going out to my usual places with my usual friends. For Steve it is eleven weeks. Neither Steve or I, are convinced that it is time to start mixing socially again. Not for a good while yet I think.