Running, Poo and Strava

Running, Poo and Strava Richard Shaw

“I used to timetrial with Epsom

Cycling Club.” I tell everybody that

when the subject of cycling comes up. It

sounds like I gave up last month or

maybe last year but in actual fact it’s

been over 7 years now. I know because I

wasn’t a veteran when I cycled and I’m

46 now. I’ve cycled intermittently in the

meantime but nothing serious.

The reason I gave it up was twofold,

firstly I had just progressed to road

racing and somebody knocked me off in

my first event twisting my knee, and

secondly it was a relief. By definition

timetrialling is all about beating your last

time, which for somebody as

competitive as me heaps on the pressure.

I used to get so stressed before an event

that it would give me diarrhoea. For the

first mile or so of each timetrial I would

feel like shit (sorry couldn’t resist that

pun) and be full of negative thoughts

about why I was putting myself through

this, and then I’d settle down, get into a

rhythm and rather enjoy myself, fuelling

a repeat performance the following

week.

I felt extremely guilty about giving it

up but I had a dodgy knee to blame it on.

The knee must have gotten better

because now I can’t even tell you which

one it was. So why am I writing this now

you might ask, well, last November I

noticed that I had put weight on. I didn’t

wake up one morning and think ‘where

did that come from’ it was a gradual

thing that I was aware of but ignoring. It

was time to get the bike back out, maybe

I could join winter training and consider

timetrailling again next spring. Not a bad

plan if I could have managed to cycle 50

miles on a Sunday morning with the

guys who hadn’t had 7 plus years off. I

needed to start cycling during the week

to get fit enough to start training if that

makes sense.

But it was November. Dark and

damp before and after work, not the

ideal conditions for getting back on the

bike, so I went jogging instead. I haven’t

run since I was at school when I used to

challenge for the lead at cross country

despite being terrible at sports. I picked a

route round the block which was just

over 3 miles and ran it 2 or 3 times a

week. It took me nearly an hour each

time but that didn’t matter, this wasn’t a

challenge, it was just a means of getting

fit and losing some weight.

I really enjoyed it and didn’t

experience any stress or doubts as to

what I was doing and more importantly I

didn’t suffer from diarrhoea before every

run. However, after the first mile or so I

do often have a terrible sense of needing

to go for a poo. Fortunately the sensation

passes eventually and I don’t have to do

a Paula Radcliff.

After a while it was getting easier to

run around the block and to add a bit of

nostalgia for the cross country running at

school I lengthened my route to include

a bridlepath up on to Epsom downs. I

could have done without the gradient but

it was the only off-road path near home

that didn’t involve getting the car out. I

was surprised at how enjoyable I found

it and the soft earth underfoot has the

added bonus of being kinder on my

knees.

All was going hunky-dory until I

started to wonder how fast I was going

and installed Strava on my phone in

April. If you haven’t used Strava, it

records your progress using GPS as you

run or cycle and uploads it onto the

Internet when you’ve finished. It then

looks for timed segments that you have

run and adds you to a leaderboard for

that segment. It also has a leaderboard

for the most miles run or cycled in a

calendar month.

There was one segment on my route,

a ½ mile section on the bridlepath up on

to the downs. A 4% climb rising 99ft

which rather appropriately for the title of

my article is called ‘Rifle Butts’. It said

it took me 5 minutes 44 seconds and I

was 18th out of 19 people who had run it

in the past.

From that day onwards I haven’t

been running without my phone and

have even been out to buy new running

gear with zip pockets to accommodate it

– I don’t like the idea of sticking it on

my upper arm as I run alone in the dark,

it feels like having a sticker on my back

that says “Hello mugger, I have an

expensive phone with me if you’d like

it.”

My time for the Rifle Butts has

steadily reduced over the past few

months without me even trying and then

on Friday I went for a run and was

surprised to see that I had gone faster

again without noticeably putting in any

extra effort. So on Sunday I decided to

have a go at doing a really fast time, if

for no other reason than to get it out of

my system so that I could go back to

leisurely running. It felt good and I was

sure I’d bettered my time by a long way.

When I got home and uploaded my

run to Strava I was shocked to see that I

was only 1 second faster up Rifle Butts

than I had been on Friday. How was that

possible? I was sure it was better. Now

what? Do I get all stressed out on my

next run or just forget about it and

concentrate on enjoying myself?

June 2014