I've decided to start running properly again, as I've recently come back from two weeks in the Alps and am feeling a lot stronger and fitter. Running is a good way to get fit, but how to combine it with climbing?
I've set myself a target of a 10k at the end of August, a slightly hilly one in Sussex.
The problem is that every training programe assumes that running is your only sport, more schedules from raw beginner through 5k, 10k and on to marathon.
However I really enjoy climbing and I'm using running to get fitter, not as my sport, it is my second sport. So I wanted to know how to modify the programmes in a sensible way, so that I was still improving as a runner, but also able to climb. Fortunately, the people on the forums at Runners World are a helpful bunch. I asked about combining running and climbing and got a range of helpful and very useful responses. The advice is best summarized as use running as a second sport to boost fitness, do not expect to excel at it, but use running as recovery exercise for climbing. Balance intensity of running against climbing so that you do not ruin your climbing. Modify the 5k 10k training sessions so that they fit your existing climbing pattern, but do use the speed work tempo runs etc to build your running strength. Don't just go out and run your hardest each time. Do read the thread though, as there are some interesting programmes and ideas in it. I then posted it on ukclimbing and got some climber feedback too.
I'll post my eventual programme on here in a later article.
July 2004 Archives
Recently I have been listening to the various arguments about all day pub opening on the today programme and each commentator was saying that a change in culture was what is required to control the 11 o'clock kick out tension and violence in Britain's city centres.
This is true, I feel, a longer slower drinking pace will mean that people will not get drunk as quickly. However I feel that this emphasis solely on the opening hours misses the point a bit. Most of my French, Italian and Spanish friends are amazed at the post work pint phenomenon, office and shop workers drinking 3-4 pints with only crisps as accompaniment. The quality and cost of British pub snacks is often woeful. Too much frozen food into the fryer, everything seems to either be full of fat, like potato wedges or not fresh, like the pub nachos, straight from the packet and onto the plate, then into the microwave. Promoting the place of the kitchen in the British pub seems to be an important aspect of this cultural divide, the majority of places that the the rest of Europe drinks in are cafe-bars, where the place of food and decent coffee is already well established.
Something else that I feel makes us differ is the volume of beer we drink as a standard measure, a pint is quite a lot of beer to drink compared to a 330ml bottle. In France, often the standard measure for bottles or for draft is 250ml or 330ml. The pacing factor is often the time it takes for round buying, if this is pints at a time with no food as opposed to half or third of a litre with food, then it is no wonder the British are seen as drunks.
Moving to the smaller measure would not be as big a shock as it seems, many people already drink bottles of beer in preference to pints, or they drink gin and tonic. The half pint is seen in a poor light, so getting the publicans to serve ales and lagers in 330ml glasses would be of benefit to society. I cannot see the average drinking male in the UK going for it thought, the manliness of pint drinking is too well ingrained. Pity for the ale drinker, then as he or she is comdemned to insobriety or ridicule or lager.
Can we please have sensible sized amounts to drink with food in bars where you can hear yourself think, or is that too much to ask ? I mean we have got beyond wine being a choice of red or white and there are plenty of pubs with decent cask ales, some even have nice food. Still the standard British pub is a place devoted to drinking copious amounts of lager with the music too loud to have a conversation and not quite enough chairs, all designed to encourage you back to the bar, we as the customers need to take back control of the situation.
How to make a pinboard for a map of the world.
I wanted to make a simple fun present for my wife Lucy earlier this year and thought about making a map pin board for her. It is surprisingly difficult to find the right materials, so I thought I'd write this up for Google's benefit.
I had chosen a good map of the world for us to plot our travels on, National Geographic have a wide range of colours and styles. If you are in London, then Stanfords is the best place to go, but most large book stores should have a choice of maps, amazon cannot help you.
To make the actual pinboard, I had initially thought of using layers of cork floor tiles glued onto hardboard. This would probably work and the materials are fairly widely available, but the resulting board would have been very heavy.
So I went along to my local wood yard to ask what they suggested and they had a piece of sundeala, which is the same material that pinboards are made of in schools, it is soft compressed wood pulp I think, but perfect for the job. It is fragile though, so we made a frame from some decorative edging using a mitre block. We used wood glue to attach the frame to the sundeala, as nails might have come through the frame.
Fun project, which took less than an hour to complete and we can plot where we have been and where we want to go in the world. We are a bit euro-centric with outposts in north and south america, but we have plans to visit the rest of the world too.
Simple food is often the best, especially in the summer, but if it is rainy or overcast then something warming is what you want. Traditionally roast chicken in the UK comes with a load of vegetables and complexity. Here is a quick recipe for roast chicken that takes about 20 minutes preperation.
Take the following, one roast chicken, preferably free range, as they do taste better, about 1.4kg for two people. Other ingredients are some herbs to tuck under the skin, plus salt, pepper and some olive oil. Leaves and bread are the perfect thing to eat with chicken in the summer, watercress is a good choice, though mache (lambs lettuce) or rocket are also good. Then some bread, preferably french baguette or maybe ciabatta.
Take the chicken, poke some holes in the skin and tuck in some fresh herbs, rub some olive oil into the skin and put some salt and pepper over the skin too. Put in a preheated oven for 20 minutes per 500g, plus twenty minutes, so about 1hour and 15 minutes for the 1.4kg bird. Put the chicken into the oven breast side down initially, and roast for 20 or so minutes at about 200 degrees C, this keeps the breast meat more moist.
You now have basically an hour or so to get on with some other things, other than turning over the bird breast side up after twenty minutes. When then chicken is nearing done, check on it using a sharp knife, poke a neat incision deep into the bird over one of the legs, let the juices well up and flow over the blade of the knife, they should be clear and not pink. If you think they are pink, then put the bird back for another 5-10 minutes. If it is going brown on top and still pink, then put a bit of kitchen foil over the bird and put it in for another 10. When you check again do so on the other side.
Once you have a cooked chicken, put it on a plate or carving board to rest for 10 minutes, but as you do so tip the juices from inside into the roasting tin. There will be a few spoonfuls of juice. Put the tin on the hob and add a decent splash of wine and a pinch of flour, then turn the heat up and keep moving the liquid around. The aim is to loosen all the sticky bits on the bottom of the pan and gently cook the flour, if it looks a bit thick, add a splash more wine or some water. The important thing is to not burn it and ensure it is well mixed through with the flour cooked.
The gravy will have all the fat from the bird mixed in with it, you can tip the roasting tin over to one corner if there is a lot of it, but you do not need to be too fastidious with spooning off the fat, as it is quite tasty too.
Carve the chicken and serve on moderately warmed plates on which you have placed your salad leaves. Pour over some gravy and pass around the bread and wine. Enjoy.
A decent roasting tin really helps to stop things sticking and it helps with the washing up. I like the mermaid ones, they are tough and well made. If you liked this recipe, then you might like one of my favourite cookery writers, Simon Hopkinson, who has the aptly named Roast Chicken and other stories books. These are delightful stories and recipes focused around particular ingredients. These are all available from Amazon, see below.
