Review: Polaroid Venture sunglasses (finally…)

5 Comments

This morning’s run was delayed for a bit as I peered out of the window and tried to decide whether I should trust the blue patches of the sky or be suspicious of the much larger areas of dark grey cloud. I erred on the side of caution and put my jacket on, only to spend some of my run squinting and wishing that I’d worn sunglasses (if only to protect my eyes from flying debris and flailing branches – it was incredibly windy out there). The run was largely uneventful; I did my good deed for the day by moving a branch out of the road, I saw some cows, said hello to two cyclists and spotted the very sad sight of a dead sheep in a field (if it was just resting, it definitely needs to find a more relaxed way of lying down). The last mile was done with gritted teeth and distraction techniques as the wind wore me down and I just wanted to get home.

One of the distractions was realising with horror that I’d still not posted a review of the sunglasses that I received ages ago (I’m sorry lovely Laura!), so here we go.

Monkey - as cool as...

There had been a bit of a mix up with the style of glasses and I had been sent these (modelled beautifully above by Monkey), which are lovely if you like that kind of thing, but a bit rubbish for running. After the swap had been arranged, I collected them from the nice men at Royal Mail and opened them up… My initial thought was, “Oooh, these are Ladies’ Glasses” because they were small and pink. I’ve since looked on the Polaroid website and discovered that they are actually red and feature on both the women’s and men’s sections (I assume that if they were actually pink, they would be called a manly word for pink. Like ‘steak’.)

The official photo

The first wear of them was actually driving home from the post office in the low afternoon sun (giving you some idea of how long I’ve had them) and the Polaroid lenses were excellent at reducing the glare and I felt a lot more comfortable with hurtling the car round some winding country lanes. Full marks for driving, but what about running?

The first time that I wore them to run in was on the Parbold to Burscough leg of my canal running (giving you a precise idea of how long I’ve had them…) and I have to admit that initially I wasn’t entirely convinced them. Although they were a comfy fit (they felt a bit smaller than the pair that I reviewed last year), I was able to see the bottom half of the frame, which I found a bit disconcerting, and they weren’t as light as my other pair. When we reached the half way bridge, we had a bit of a sit down and Ginge had a play with them. Being the brains of the operation, he realised that the arms are actually adjustable so you can change the angle at which they sit on your nose. Bingo! Loads more comfortable.

Canal reflected in lenses - artistic eh?

These suited the size of my head (relatively small, since you ask) and I think that they don’t make me look too ridiculous (it’s all I ask for these days, especially when running). Overall, there was no glare, no fogging (despite me sweating even more than usual) and the adjustable arms mean that if you push one arm up and one arm down, you can run and do Eric Morecambe impressions at the same time, which is a vastly underrated feature of sunglasses.

What I did on my holidays part one: New York running

5 Comments

Basically, I am in love with New York. We’ve come back from a week’s holiday in the city and it was absolutely amazing in any number of ways – the touristy things, the energy, the wool, the creativity, the food, the running – rather than try to cram all of this into one epic post, I might witter across several. You lucky lucky people.

Seeing as this is supposed to be a running blog, I may as well start with the running. Before we set off, I had good intentions to use the hotel gym in an attempt to ward off the effects of the food mountain that inevitably would be consumed. I gave up on that plan before we even set off and just packed one lot of running kit and my trusty Garmin. In the event, I was either too busy or too asleep to even consider the treadmill. Although I spent 6 days not running, we spent 7 days doing a lot of walking. It’s a bit of a cliché that walking is the best way to see a city, but in this case it’s definitely true.

Things you see when you walk places

While we we ambled around, I mused on the runners that we saw and developed my usual city running jealousy. I’ve written before about this, but basically I see people running in cities and conjure up a fantasy life for myself where I too am a city runner. In this daydream I am a foot taller, two stone lighter, I bound like a gazelle and my glossy, swishy hair bounces with each not over-pronating step. I have an exciting career that gives me lunch break that isn’t half an hour of not dropping too much food into my keyboard (and I wouldn’t be the sort of woman who drops gravy down my front. Having said that, I probably wouldn’t be the sort of woman who eats gravy and that would be rubbish).

The High Line park - I would definitely run here if I lived in New York

Anyway, after a few days I was becoming a bit intimidated by all  the alpha runners, especially as the female running kit of choice seemed to be bra top and tiny shorts (I’m certain that some of the tops were smaller than my actual sports bra). I was also having difficulty walking as the combination of walking miles, wearing too flat shoes, having gammy feet at the best of times and then doing all of the above in soaking wet shoes and socks had left me with blisters on blisters. Would I actually get to do my run in Central Park? Of course I bloody would, I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

Walking the Brooklyn Bridge after new shoes, plasters and foot cushioning had been purchased.

We eventually got round to it on the penultimate day, which was pretty much perfect – a sunny Sunday morning in the park. We caught the subway in our running kit, mooched across to the park and decided to head for a lap around the running track at the reservoir. The map we had bought warned us that there were rules about how to run legally around the park (clockwise, or possibly anticlockwise, on the inside, or possibly the outside, of the path) and this had made me a bit anxious that we would do something wrong and someone would shout at us (I live in fear of being shouted at by authoritative people). This is how we found ourselves setting off and following a perky lady who looked like she knew where she was going, unfortunately it turned out that she was going home and we were stalking her out of the park…. Back on track, we realised that there were lots of runners who were all doing their own thing and we headed up to the reservoir.

Reservoir complete with running track

I was reassured that there were a lot more normal runners out at the weekend, in fact there were runners of all shapes, sizes, ages and speeds. My favourite was a girl running wearing barefoot running shoes who was running with jazz hands and the same gait as a small girl riding an imaginary pony. It was fantastic being part of all these people doing the same thing, but differently and, for half an hour at least, pretend that I was part of this amazing city.

NYPD buggies - after not running for a week and eating food bigger than my head, I was very tempted to ask if I could borrow one instead of running back

It was just ace...

843 acres of green loveliness in the middle of the city

And just to prove that I did actually run – here’s the Garmin proof – I’m not claiming it’s fast though…

Feeling hot, hot, hot

5 Comments

Now that the nausea and delirium have passed fully, I have been pondering on my two overheating runs and trying to work out what I can do to resolve or improve this situation. The run itself has provided some inspiration, as have the lovely people on twitter, and these are some of the solutions I’ve come up with.

The Fisherman’s Approach
This week we passed some more anglers, but this lot were a lot more casual – none of your thousand pound kit here. Umbrellas and cans of lager were the order of the day. This would solve the issue of hydration, but might be a bit gassy.

Waterfowl
Despite it being after midday (I know, this won’t help my situation) a lot of the ducks and swans had opted out of the sunshine and were settled and asleep with their heads under their wings. This idea appeals to me a lot, but defeats the purpose of going out for a run.

Babies
It was a day of family strolls and many of the little people were being pushed along with blankets draped over the front of their pushchairs. Again this appeals to me, but I can’t see Ginge warming to the idea of pushing me down the towpath and running with a blanket over my head is likely to end in tears. Or a bloody great splash.

Boys in boats
We ran past two amazing sights of boys in boats. I say boats, the first ones were in an actual boat. But it was a leaky boat. And they were paddling with a plank. The second ones had a proper oar, but had crafted their vessel out of a piece of chipboard and two milk crates. This doesn’t solve any of my running issues, but made me grin hugely and took my mind off feeling rubbish.

Dressing appropriately
I was wearing 3/4 length tights and a t-shirt. This is the minimum I can wear without either burning to a crisp or running the gauntlet of decency laws. As I was sweltering along, we were passed by two people who can only be described as weirdos. The first was a lady running along in a sequined Burnley FC t-shirt and full make up. When I say full make up, I mean full make up in a “Before” on Snog, Marry, Avoid (I saw a bit channel hopping once…) – thick foundation, big eyes, blusher, sparkly lippy and probably a million other products I’ve never heard of – it made my face feel heavy just looking at her. The second person who passed us was a young man in shorts and a hoody. I have no idea what was going through his head as he got dressed “Oh, it’s a lovely day, sun’s shining, what shall I wear? I know, fleece”. He was going a lot faster than us, so clearly it worked for him.  I don’t think make-up and layers will help me, but I have toyed with the idea of some shorts (Long shorts. Long, long shorts. Maybe down to my calf…) and bought a hat that makes me look even more ridiculous than normal (every time I think I can’t look more daft, I find something that can).

Carbs
I have been banned from eating jelly babies as I seem to flag more after I’ve eaten one. I’ve had a think about this, and I suspect that it’s salt that I need, rather than sugar. Yes, I’m getting tired but I think that’s part of my heat issues rather than simply running out of energy. This week I started to flag at seven miles and that distance isn’t usually a problem for me. Thanks to the magic of Twitter, @robjcameron (who ran this year’s London Marathon and knows about stuff)  responded to my pitiful response to @people_run’s request for sun running tips and gave me some hints involving pretzels and isotonic drinks. I have always thought that my mileage was too embarrassingly pitiful to warrant such things (the drinks, not pretzels, I love pretzels), but maybe the time has come for me to investigate them. (EDIT: PeopleRun – Hot Stuff! Top Tips for Running In Warm Weather)

So there we have it – hat, magic drinks and pretzels, as well not going out too late in the day if it can be avoided. If anyone has any more suggestions, they would be more than welcome.

Canal Adventure #8 – Burnley to Oswaldtwistle

3 Comments

If nothing else, the last two weeks’ canal runs have taught me one thing – I won’t be signing up for the Marathon de Sables any time soon. I love the sun, it makes me happier when it’s out and it does a cracking job, but it really doesn’t like me. I burn to a crisp in an instant (come summer, it would be easier if I could just be dipped in a big vat of factor 30 to save a lot of time) and I’m a bit susceptible to heat exhaustion. Especially when I run.

Big Brother is watching you

Anyhow, today was another train adventure. We started at Church & Oswaldtwistle station, where the (hopefully) automatic tannoy system warned us that violence and vandalism wouldn’t be tolerated. Twenty minutes later, we were welcomed to Burnley by two policemen at Central station (and there were two more lurking further up the canal), so we’re not sure if we were looking particularly suspicious today.

The starting point - Bridge 131

Off we went, stopping at 0.66 miles to take this photo and to have an emergency delete of some photos from my camera.

A tribute to local industry

Then we hit the Burnley Embankment, which is one of the Seven Wonders of the Waterways and carries the Leeds-Liverpool for nearly a mile 60 feet above the rooftops of Burnley.

Level with the floodlights of Turf Moor

The next bit of excitement was the Gannow Tunnel – 500 metres of tunnel that demonstrates the canal builders approach that if we can’t go over it, we’ll have to go through it. Unfortunately the tunnel runs under a massive intersection of roads and Junction 10 of the M65. The result of this was a certain amount of bewildered wandering as we tried to get back down to the canal.

Welcome to the Gannow Tunnel

The North-East entrance

Fear of falling in prevented me from having a peek...

....at this view

A hint that we weren't blundering around too blindly

T'other end

The canal builders were clever chaps, but they couldn’t tunnel through all of the obstacles in their way, resulting in the next stretch that is best described as soul destroying.

Wiggly. Bloody wiggly.

It’s a bit like queuing for a ride at Alton Towers, you can see the end but, even though it only looks a matter of a few yards, there’s a mile between you and your destination.

As the crow flies, because the crow has more sense than to follow the canal

Tiredness kicked in at mile 7. I had a brief second wind at mile 8 and by mile 9, I was feeling slightly nauseous and had gone deaf in my left ear (a bit like getting water in it). This is particularly annoying because (a) for me, it’s a precursor to fainting or throwing up and (b) because every breath that you wheeze begins to echo and is impossible to ignore. However, with hindsight and Google, the sad, sad tale of the Moorfield Colliery Disaster puts the discomfort of running in the warm into perspective.

We've come a long way in a century

A third wind took me through to mile 10 and this is where things grew increasingly sweary (and shivery). When I measured the route, it came out between 10 and 11 miles, and I focussed far more intently on the former to the point that I completely ignored the latter. Luckily, we had an excuse to stop and get excited by this:

The official halfway point between Leeds and Liverpool

Halfway is 63 and five-eighths miles since you ask. We’re not at the halfway mark ourselves, nearer to a third, but I’m not running back for another photo.

Sanctuary!

Finally, I can say honestly that I’ve never been so pleased to see a bridge as when Bridge 111D came into view. After the run, we drove home and Ginge bought me a Calippo which tasted of magic and happiness, but wasn’t quite enough to prevent me falling asleep for an hour.

Miles run = 11.3
Canal miles completed = 11.3
Total canal miles = 43.7/127*
Bridges = 131 to 111D