Make Some Noise.

The running continues to go well. Ups (new very comfortable shoes) and downs (being heckled in a pervy way by a very creepy man) of course, but I’m enjoying it. Even on the days when dragging myself into my shorts and leaving the house feels like the most effort anyone will ever have to put into anything, I enjoy it once I’ve started.

I did my second 8 miles last weekend and managed to do it 6 minutes faster than the first one. So I’m pleased with that. My ability to up the pace over long distances seems to be developing nicely, as my last two miles of any run are always my fastest (sometimes intentionally, sometimes not).

I’m currently sat in bed with a cup of tea, listening to the rain outside and mustering up the willpower to go out and battle the elements for 5 or 6 miles. So to help motivate me, I thought I’d write about some of the music that keeps me going.

Music helps me hugely when I’m running. If I have nothing filling my ears, my mind wanders and I start to talk to myself. Often out loud. Silence is distracting to me and I find it very difficult to concentrate without noise. I listen to lots of different stuff whilst running. Some electro, some punky noise, some hip hop…Some people like something with a regular, very uptempo beat to run to whereas it’s more about the feel of the music for me. Noise is good. Upbeat is good but it doesn’t have to be a regular time signature (Cursive, The Dismemberment Plan and Foals are often on the running playlist). Basically anything I would enjoy listening to on a night out in some sort of indie type establishment, armed with rum. Imagining I’m somewhere having a drink and a dance seems to help rather a lot.

So here are my current five favourite running tunes:

1: Bombay Bicycle Club – Shuffle

This is one of my songs of this summer. Their album ‘Flaws’ was one of my favourites of last year and I’ve been excited to see where they would go next. Thankfully, I haven’t had to wait that long as the new album is due out on Monday. This track has got me very excited about it – there’s a different feel to their previous releases though it’s still identifiable as BBC. I love the repetetive plonky piano, the backing ‘dah dah dah’ vocals and the general ‘well this is bloody lovely isn’t it?’ air about it.

2: CSS – Alala
This song is ever so slightly filthy and I love it. Bought it ages ago on 7” when it first came out and is a favourite to “getting ready to go out” song. Scuzzy synthy goodness. Works amazingly well to run to, though the urge to just stop and have a dance can be a struggle to combat.

3: U2 – iamamiwhoami
Anyone remember these crazy swedes from last year? Viral marketing thing, posting weird coded videos on youtube and releasing songs with titles that eventually spelt out the word bounty? That whole campaign got a wee bit tiring after a while, but the music is rather wonderful. This is far and away the most lively, the other songs are much more ethereal and beautiful in a whispery way. This however, is a ‘hands in the air, let us throw all of the shapes’ spectacular. I definitely don’t ‘big fish little fish’ whilst running along to it. Definitely don’t do that.

(The video is a guy in his pants dancing around some cardboard boxes and being all creepy with a puppet. It’s okay to minimise the screen and just listen. I won’t judge you.)

4: Sometimes A Pony Gets Depressed – Silver Jews
On my longer runs, around the 7 mile mark, I sort of want to sit down and die a little bit somewhere with a cup of tea. Then this will come on and help me to put things into perspective. It asks important questions like “Where does an animal sleep when the ground is wet?” No one ever thinks of where the animals have to sleep. Or the depressed ponies. And thus, I man the hell up, relieved I don’t live in a field and carry on running.

5: LCD Soundsystem – One Touch
The whole ‘This Is Happening’ album has been a dear friend on my running adventures so far. Mainly because on my shorter runs, ‘Home’ is usually the song that comes on my last push towards home. Thank you James Murphy and your thoughtful track listings. One Touch is my favourite individual track though. It feels like there is a ‘journey’ in it (and I mean that in the least wanky way possible) that really pushes me along. Also, I definitely don’t yell ‘ONE TOUCH’ out loud along with Nancy Whang when I’m speeding along. Definitely don’t do that.

There we go. Tell me yours!

Also, if you’re feeling generous, it would be really lovely if you could pop on over to http://www.justgiving.com/sallyannevs and chuck some pennies in my direction. It’s all for an excellent cause – the fantastic Stroke Association ( http://www.stroke.org.uk )

Ta, Sal x

The running continues to go well. Ups (new very comfortable shoes) and downs (being heckled in a pervy way by a very creepy man) of course, but I’m enjoying it. Even on the days when dragging myself into my shorts and leaving the house feels like the most effort anyone will ever have to put into anything, I enjoy it once I’ve started.

I did my second 8 miles last weekend and managed to do it 6 minutes faster than the first one. So I’m pleased with that. My ability to up the pace over long distances seems to be developing nicely, as my last two miles of any run are always my fastest (sometimes intentionally, sometimes not).

Music helps me hugely when I’m running. If I have nothing filling my ears, my mind wanders and I start to talk to myself. Often out loud. Silence is distracting to me and I find it very difficult to concentrate without noise. I listen to a whole mix of different stuff whilst running. Some electro stuff, some punky noise, some hip hop…Some people like something with a regular, very uptempo beat to run to whereas it’s more about the feel of the music for me. Noise is good. Upbeat is good but it doesn’t have to be a 4/4 time signature. Basically anything I would enjoy listening to on a night out in one of London’s fine indie type establishments, armed with rum. Imagining I’m somewhere having a drink and a dance seems to help rather a lot.

So here are my current five favourite running tunes:

1: Bombay Bicycle Club – Shuffle

This is one of my songs of this summer. Their album ‘Jewel’ was one of my favourites of last year and I’ve been excited to see where they would go next. Thankfully, I haven’t had to wait that long as the new album is due out on Monday. This track has got me very excited about it – there’s a different feel to their previous releases though it’s still identifiable as BBC. I love the repetetive plonky piano, the backing ‘dah dah dah’ vocals and the general ‘well this is bloody lovely isn’t it?’ air about it.

2: CSS – Alala
This song is ever so slightly filthy and I love it. Bought it ages ago on 7” when it first came out and is a favourite to “getting ready to go out” song. Scuzzy synthy goodness. Works amazingly well to run to, though the urge to just stop and have a dance can be a struggle to combat.

3: U2 – iamamiwhomai
Anyone remember these crazy swedes from last year? Viral marketing thing, posting weird coded videos on youtube and realeasing songs with titles that eventually spelt out the word bounty? That whole campaign got a wee bit tiring after a while, but the music is rather wonderful. This is far and away the most lively, the other songs are much more ethereal and beautiful in a whispery way. This however, is a ‘hands in the air, let us throw all of the shapes’ spectacular. I definitely don’t ‘big fish little fish’ whilst running along to it. Definitely don’t do that.

(The video is a guy in his pants dancing around some cardboard boxes and being all creepy with a puppet. It’s okay to minimise the screen and just listen. I won’t judge you.)

4: Sometimes A Pony Gets Depressed – Silver Jews
On my longer runs, around the 7 mile mark, I sort of want to sit down and die a little bit somewhere with a cup of tea. Then this will come on and help me to put things into perspective. It asks important questions like “Where does an animal sleep when the ground is wet?” No one ever thinks of where the animals have to sleep. Or the depressed ponies. And thus, I man the hell up, relieved I don’t live in a field and carry on running.

5: LCD Soundsystem – One Touch
The whole ‘This Is Happening’ album has been a dear friend on my running adventures so far. Mainly because on my shorter runs, ‘Home’ is usually the song that comes on my last push towards home. Thank you James Murphy and your thoughtful track listings. One Touch is my favourite individual track though. It feels like there is a ‘journey’ in it (and I mean that in the least wanky way possible) that really pushes me along. Also, I definitely don’t yell ‘ONE TOUCH’ out loud along with Nancy Whang when I’m speeding along. Definitely don’t do that.

There we go. Tell me yours!

Also, if you’re feeling generous, it would be really lovely if you could pop on over to http://www.justgiving.com/sallyannevs and chuck some pennies in my direction. It’s all for a excellent cause – the fantastic Stroke Association.

Ta, Sal x

(NB: Links aren’t working for me when I try to insert them which is annoying. Am working on fixing that, in the meantime, it’s a copy and paste job I’m afraid.)

8 Mile (Nothing to do with Eminem)

Yesterday I ran 8 miles, without stopping, in just over an hour and a half. It’s the furthest I’ve ever run in one go, in my life. And I felt okay afterwards! Admittedly, once I’d slowed down and was doing my ‘cooling down pacing up and down with intermittent stretching’, I was definitely doing my best “weird animated guy from those Softmint adverts” impression. I think my knees clocked off for twenty minutes. There wasn’t much support there.

But my lungs weren’t screaming, my heart wasn’t trying to beat its way out of my chest…it didn’t feel too hard. Not easy. But not impossible.

My aim for this run wasn’t to do with speed, though I did maintain a speed of 11.30-11.45 mins per mile throughout when I expected it to be at least 12 mins. It was just about seeing if I could physically keep running for that sort of distance. As it is, I did it faster than I had expected, which is always nice, though I still have a fair way to go to get to the speed I want for the actual run on October 9th.

I’m lucky that we have an excellent large and leafy park nearbywhere I live in London, which was lovely to run around on a mostly sunny morning. The one downside? It being a British park in the midst of the eternally optimistic British Summer time, it had several ice cream vans parked in the nearby vicinity. The temptation to just stop, get an Orange Calippo and have a nice sit down was very nearly overwhelming. I didn’t give in though. Mainly because I didn’t have any money on me.

The distance of 13 miles now seems achievable. I’ve got a better idea of what I need to draw on mentally and physically to push through certain barriers (the ‘ohgodjustgivemeanorangeicelollyandasitdownplease’ barrier being one of the toughest). The aim for this week is to do three 5 to 6 mile runs at a faster pace and then another 8 miles next Sunday, hopefully a little faster than a yesterday.

A fundraising update: some of my very generous friends have thus far, in one week, contributed £275 for The Stroke Association. Which is brilliant and I am hugely grateful to everyone who has donated so far. If you want to contribute, please visit http://www.justgiving.com/sallyannevs . To read about the work The Stroke Association does, visit http://www.stroke.org.uk/

Sal x

What Was It Baz Luhrman said? (Or; The Day I Was A Victim Of A Sustained UV Attack)

So this week I’ve been on two runs so far. Both of 4 mile lengths. The first, on Monday, took me 12 minutes per mile and the one today took 11.30 minutes per mile. As a friend of mine pointed out earlier, “If you carry on at that level of improvement, by October you’ll be running faster than the speed of light”. I’ll finish the race before I even start it. I may have already done it, I just haven’t caught up with myself yet.

I’m warming up and cooling down properly. I’m drinking lots of water. I’m eating mainly fruit, veg and good carbs. I’m not drinking anywhere near as much as I normally would during a show production week/first week of shows. So far, so good.

Except for one small error. I completely forgot to put suncream on my face before I went out today. It was cloudy, overcast. Breezy. The cooking power of the sun didn’t cross my mind. Two minutes of me running down the road and suddenly deepest Berkshire turns into the Sahara, the sun beating down through the without mercy on my poor – normally-requires-at-least-factor-30 skin, unprotected. The run became more of a challenge as I skipped from one side of the road to the other, hunting out precious pockets of shade.

The fact it was much hotter than my run on Monday and I did it faster anyway, is helping me to feel less of an idiot for forgetting the sunscreen. Still, I am pinker of cheek and rosier of nose than serveral hours ago. Shan’t be making that mistake again. Pass me the aftersun and palest foundation available.

The squinting made it harder too. A genuine question to experienced runners – do sunglasses get in the way? Do you need special wrap around things? Running with my eyes half closed is only going to end in disaster eventually.

In other news, first sponsors have started making their contribution to my £1000 target. Already hugely grateful at the generosity shown by my friends. My total currently stands at £135 in online funds, plus an offline pledge of £15. So I’ve got 15% of my aim after just 2 and a half days, which is just marvellous. Thank you.

If you haven’t sponsored me yet and my poor, idiotic sunburnt face is enough of a motivator for you (!) then please head on over to http://www.justgiving.com/sallyannevs

Sal x

High Hopes.

I originally signed up to run this half marathon in April, as a way of showing support to both my Grandad, who had suffered a number of strokes over several years and was in very poor health as a result and my Nan who was his sole carer, working incredibly hard to support and look after her husband.

Sadly, my Grandad passed away a few weeks ago. At the beginning of June he suffered from another massive stroke which left one side of his body paralysed as well as leaving him no longer able to speak. He spent the following weeks in hospital, being cared for brilliantly by the staff Glan Clwyd hospital. When they discovered that the medication for his kidneys wasn’t working, he was moved to Holywell Community Hospital, who again looked after him with great care and sensitivity. He fought hard for those weeks, despite him being in huge amounts of pain but one Saturday he slipped into a coma and died in his sleep the following morning.

Whilst I am relieved he isn’t suffering anymore, I’m also completely heartbroken. Grandad had such an influence on me whilst I was growing up and was always wonderfully supportive and encouraging to me whilst I’ve been pursuing my theatre career. It hasn’t sunk in yet that I’ll never get another chat with him or hear another daft joke but I’m trying to keep positive, as he would want me to.

Infact, something that is providing motivation at the moment is this song – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIDLC8M4R28

Grandad used to play the Frank Sinatra recording of it and sing along to it with me when I was little. It’s one of my strongest childhood memories, skipping around the front room and doing pretend ‘falling over’ moves when the ‘Whoops there goes…’ line happened. I feel a bit like the little old ant trying to move the rubber tree plant at the moment. But I will move it. For about 13 miles infact.

It would be lovely if you could sponsor me in my effort to raise £1000 into research and support for both Stroke victims and their families.

My JustGiving page can be found here – http://www.justgiving.com/sallyannevs

Anything you can spare is amazing. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Thank you,
Sal x

My Incredibly Boring Internal Monologue

Hello all.

It’s been a week or so since the last post. Work has been more ‘intense’ than usual and the time to commit these ramblings to text never really materialised.

I’ve been running though. At the end of last week I reached 2 miles, averaging 12 minutes per mile. This week I’ve been sticking to that distance, not trying to go faster or further just yet. Until mid July I’m on my ‘pre training, training plan’. The quick increase of distance (and descent in times I hope) will start then. For now, I’m just concentrating on getting my body used to running. The distances will increase, just not so rapidly as they eventually will.

I’ve noticed improvements already though. My breathing recovery has already reduced from ‘Ten minutes lying on the bed, gulping in air like I’ve just come out of a vacuum pack, swearing under heavy borderline asthma attack breaths’ eventually stumbling to the shower with legs like Bambi on ice to ‘Ooof, that was alright. Bit warm. Drink will help’ before skipping off to the rest of my day without a care. And the 2 miles I ran this morning didn’t feel half as much of an effort to the first 2 miles last week. I might even go as far to say, I actually enjoyed it.

The main problem I have is the illness that has struck my iPod. The headphone socket has decided that it will only play to the right earphone every so often and just before it decides to play it emits a delightful ear mangling crackling. This problem can be rectified by sitting very still and holding the jack at a particular angle. Fine for tube journeys. Not so fine whilst running.

So, it’s been just me and the internal monologue (the I.M) for the past week. Now this would be fine if I could come up with anything interesting. If I could run along having JD from Scrubs style I.M’s, veering wildly from surreal flights of fancy to all kinds of deep and meaningful revelations on life and death packaged up in a whimsical indie rock soundtrack, that would be fine.

No such luck. My I.M generally consists of –

‘Paving stone a bit wobbly ahead remember. Someone should look at that. * NOTHING * I’m sure one of my knees is lower than the other. I need better trainers. Trainers? Or running shoes? Hmm. * NOTHING * SUN IN MY EYES SUN IN MY EYES SUN IN MY EYES SUN IN MY-Shade. Phew. * NOTHING * Bitey type dog ahead. Dog not on a leash. Don’t want to die in a dog attack.’

And so on. My I.M is generally a list of Health and Safety concerns. Which is terribly dull. Though I would wager it will eventually develop into similar levels of insanity as this –

Which is a day I look forward too. Apart from the chaffing.

First Morning.

First morning – April 18th

7.05am start
7.20am finish – travelled 1.40miles

The alarm goes off at 6.45. I can hear the bin men outside, clanging away. It’s already light. “Ugh” my brain goes, before sending my hand out to beat my phone into silence. Snooze. That’s better.

No…hang on….remember yesterday? Remember committing yourself to being able to run 13 miles without dying horribly infront of the world and its Mum in October?

Oh yeah.

Get up. Get up NOW.

So, I’m up, stumbling around looking for sports bra, sports socks, where are my shorts…these joggers will do, find my way to the kitchen, drink a resevoir of water, find my trainers and I’m off.

My road lies across the bottom end of a hill and my planned route involves climbing to near the top of the hill, crossing to the other side of it, coming back down, along one of the main roads through Tooting and then back up a bit of the hill so I can collapse in the peace of my own doorway. 1.40 miles in all, just over 2.2k. These are baby steps, I haven’t run regularly on pavement since the first summer I was working in Newbury – 2007. I got swayed by the cosy confines of the gym a long while ago. Even in there, I will always go for the bike or cross trainer instead of the treadmill.

I’m doing ok till the counter passes the mile mark. Then the breathing gets a little harder. My throat does that thing where it feels all strained and dry. I start talking out loud to myself. ‘Come on. Massive cup of tea waiting. Come on’. Luckily Tooting isn’t that full of pedestrians at this time of the morning and it’s full of people prone to talking to themselves 24/7 so my chatter isn’t going to be too noticeable.

When I get home, I again drink a resevoir of water and come and check what a good time to run this distance would be. I need to shave about 5 minutes off this time, eventually. I’ve got a long, long way to go. Still, it’s a start. Which is something.

Can I go back to bed now?

No, work of course.

Oh yeah.

Tea first though. Lots of tea.