Can you spot a good runner?

I'm often intrigued by the biomechanics that define someone as a good runner. Things like leg strength, cadence and stride length are obvious determinants of speed. So if this is the case, we should be able to tell who are good runners and who are not, simply by looking at their running style.

There are, however, exceptions. I am often overtaken in fell races by someone who looks like they were designed based on a drawing done by a 5-year-old. Conversely, I very occasionally overtake someone who looks like a proper athlete.

So how good are you at spotting who is fast and who is not. Here is a collection of short videos showing club runners in the Kinder Downfall race. From my memory, these runners were not consecutively placed - so you have a fair spread of finishing times. I should also tell you that this is after about 8.5 miles, so the runners are probably quite tired now.

Can you place them in the correct order?

Runner A:

Runner B:

Runner C:



Runner D:



Runner E:



So how did you do? The answers are shown here. I'd be interested to hear how many you got right. Before anyone points it out, I realise it's hard to spot how much training someone has put in (ie, fitness).

What do tadpoles eat?

We're growing frogs in a washing up bowl. They've hatched from frogspawn and are developing nicely as tadpoles.

Wildlife pond!

We don't want to be bad parents, so we've been researching on the internet what they eat. Apparently you can buy tadpole food or fish food, but we're not that keen, so we were looking for another alternative. Some websites say they'll eat lettuce. We put a few small bits in with them and they completely ignored it.

Luckily, Mrs Noel found another website that says they like dog food (the dried stuff). And hey presto - they love it.

Yum yum. Thanks Noel.

Was I ever a runner?

I was hoping to be in the thick of training at this time of year, but I've been fighting off some 'general feeling a bit rubbish' cold-viral-thing for the last few weeks. I haven't even felt like jogging, let alone running.

I realised I had to attempt to get out of this lethargy yesterday when I got a funny sort of muscle cramp thing walking across a park in Buxton. Walking!! Slowly!! So yesterday afternoon I went out for the slowest 5 miles I've done in a few years. Today I followed this up with another 2.5 miles.

At times like this, it's like my body is trying to convince me it's never been a runner. It's like it's saying "no, you must have me confused with some other body - wouldn't you rather be sitting down?" Fortunately, I know that after 3 or 4 runs, my body will be saying "wheeee, this is so much fun - see if you can go any faster".

I think this is why a lot of people don't go running regularly, even though they might go to the gym or something similar. It takes 3 or 4 outings before you get anything back from running. And for many people, they don't reach that point before deciding it's not enjoyable.

I'm hoping my next blog entry will be something like "the joy of running" and not "lung infection finally takes hold". Watch this space.

Every young girl's dream?

I notice I'm writing a lot of blog entries reminiscing about childhood.

It seems one of my mum's childhood dreams was to drive a train. Here she is posing in the cab of one of the steam engines on the Worth Valley Railway, which runs from Keighley to Haworth. I always thought it was supposed to a boy's aspiration - I'm told she was a tomboy as a young lass.

Mum was also impressed by the firebox, and even took a picture of it. We've all spent a fair amount of time trying to work out what "file to retrieve" means. Smug points to anyone who can work it out.

The Rhine to James' Thorn

I was in Basel, Switzerland, for work on Friday and I managed to get a nice run along the banks of the Rhine before flying home. There was some lovely architecture to look at as I ran through the city before running alongside one of Europe's great rivers.

This is the bridge I ran across:

Then on Sunday morning, we drove out to Glossop to do James' Thorn. A great fell race, organised by the ever-friendly Des. Here is the view as we drove through Flash (Note the sleet, and mist).

Thankfully, it had stopped sleeting by the time we started the race. At about 4.5 miles and 1600 feet - it's steep and unrelenting. I was fourth Pennine finisher and 11th overall. Not quite up to my best I guess, but I haven't been back training long after my winter lay-off. So I was pleased with it.

And did I want to be back jogging along the banks of the Rhine at any point during the race? Not at all. The only place I would rather have been was about 5 places higher up the field.

Oh, to be a kid again

I remember being a kid and wishing I was older so that I could do cool stuff like staying out late, driving a car, and putting on my shoes without undoing the laces.

Well, now I'm a grown-up (in age at least), and I don't often wish I was a child again. I'm now quite happy that I can drive my Czech-made hatchback to work, come home late, and ruin the backs on my shoes. It truly is a wonderful life being an adult.

However, occasionally there are some things that make me envious of children today. Lego is one of those things. On Sunday, my youngest got a lego camper van from his great grandpa, and it's... in a word: fantastic! That thing on the left of the picture is a barbecue, with a lego fish cooking on it!!

Thinking about it, I realise it's a strange sort of envy, because I could buy myself one of these and play with it all night if I wanted. I think what I'm actually wanting is some sort of childlike appreciation of seeing something like this for the first time, but mixed with a grown-up sense of nostalgia about lego and the inherent sense of freedom associated with a camper van and a surfboard.

Do I sound old when I say that I hope my youngest plays with it as a camper van for a few days instead of turning it into an aeroplane?

Intervals - time machine

I've now got a few weeks worth of miles under my belt, so today I did some intervals. Me and another bloke where I work went out at lunchtime and did six lots of fast running for 2 minutes, separated by jogging for another 2 minutes.

Einstein's theory of relativity states that objects going close to the speed of light experience time differently to those that are not. I'm not an expert on relativity or travelling quickly, but time was certainly altered today.

Every time we started running the fast bits, the 2 minutes seemed to take ages. Whereas when we were running a lot more slowly, each 2 minutes was up before we'd even started to get our breath back.

On returning to work, I sent an email to the journal Science, so that others could benefit from my groundbreaking discovery. I'm hopeful that time travel can be developed based around the same concept.

For the rest of the afternoon, I had a lot to do, so stayed in my running kit and ran round the office, trying to slow my time so that I would have more time to complete the report I was working on. Unfortunately, I had to nip back to the computer every few minutes to type another word.

By home time, imagine my surprise when I realised I'd only done about 20 words. I was also very tired. I can only conclude that the time machine effect doesn't work inside buildings. I will let Science know about this first thing in the morning. Actually, it will have to be at 10am tomorrow, as I notice I've got a meeting with my boss and the head of HR first thing. Perhaps they're interested in getting more people to try my experiment, or maybe moving me to an outside office.



Albert Einstein relaxing after a hard set of 12x400m