Sorry for
the lack of posts of late, but this is supposed to be a running blog, and I
have done nothing since my injury at Lasswade. And not “still something nothing” either. Literally nothing.
Well
nothing other than eat, drink, and catch up on box sets. Jo and I managed to finish both “House of
Cards” and “The 100 Code”. And I watched
first “Flaked” and then “Deutschland 83” on my own.
House of Cards
is the one with Kevin Spacey as the US President, and Robin Wright as his First
Lady. It is very loosely based on the UK
three part series from the early 90s (Tory MP/Whip Francis Urquhart becoming
Democratic Congressman/Whip Frank Underwood).
There is more than a little of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth going on. It is fascinating the way you can be
manipulated into rooting for a pair of very unpleasant, ruthless, amoral and
ultra-ambitious characters. Part of this
is due to the use of the device known as “breaking the fourth wall” – where a
character (in this case Frank) talks directly through the screen to the viewer,
explaining/justifying what he is about to do, and thereby making you complicit.
The 100
Code is a mixed English and Swedish language serial killer/cop thriller and
stars Dominic Monaghan and Michael Nyqist.
The initial premise was really interesting – an NYPD man following his suspect
(who has a horrifyingly inventive MO) to Stockholm and teaming up with the
local Polis. But it definitely has its
flaws. Monaghan is the Mancunian Hobbit
from Lost, and neither he nor his accent convince as the hard-boiled cop with a
bad attitude and a head full of demons.
He is more like a slightly tetchy gerbil, and no more threatening. The Swedish characters and scenery are
largely terrific though – Nyqist (from the original “Girl with the Dragon
Tattoo”) in particular. It was worth sticking with to the end of the season,
but I’m not sure I’ll bother with the second (if they make one).
Flaked is
a pretty short series by US standards – only six episodes, and just the one
series to date. It stars Will Arnett as
a recovering alcoholic who has killed a man in a drink-driving incident, now floats
along as a very part-time furniture maker and guru at the Venice Beach AA, and
revels in his minor local celebrity status.
It is often pretty melancholy, but has some really sharp comedic moments
– not unlike the better Wes Anderson films.
One of the producers is Mitchell Hurwitz, who created Arrested
Development (which was where I first saw Arnett). I absolutely love AD (apart from the much
later and pretty poor fourth season), so decided to give Flaked a go. Well worth a watch, and I’m already looking
forward to the second season.
But best
of the lot has been Deutschland 83. I
had been “saving it” until all of the episodes were available to watch back to
back, rather than having to endure the frustrating weeks between them. It is set at the height of the Cold War, and
follows a young East German soldier who is basically shanghaied to Bonn and
forced to spy on the West for the hyper-paranoid Communists. I was only 8 years old at the time, so didn’t
have a great understanding of what was going on. I do however remember getting the then latest
Raymond Briggs animated book “When the Wind Blows” – it was rather darker than
“The Snowman”, “Father Christmas”, and “Fungus the Bogeyman”! And “War Games” with Matthew Broderick had a
similar impact.
What is
shocking is how close the world has come to nuclear annihilation on more than
one occasion, and usually as the result of misunderstandings and
misinterpretation. D83 is set during the
preparations for NATO’s Able Archer military exercises. Against a backdrop of increasingly aggressive
rhetoric and posturing, and US plans to deploy medium range nuclear missiles
right on their doorstep in West Germany, the Communists became convinced that
the supposed war games were simply cover (or indeed the build-up) for a real
attack, and made extensive preparations towards getting their retaliation in
first.
But
earlier in 1983 (and not covered in the TV series) there was another equally
close call. On three separate occasions
in September the Soviet nuclear early warning radar system detected launches of
missiles from bases in the US.
Fortunately, a Soviet Air Defence Forces officer named Stanislav Petrov
concluded that these must be “false positives” on the basis that any US attack
would be massive, and not the single missiles supposedly observed.
Even
after the break-up of USSR, and the end of the Cold War, there have been near
misses. In 1995, a group of US and
Norwegian scientists launched a rocket in northern Norway for research
purposes. Despite informing 30
countries, including Russia, the information wasn’t communicated properly up
the chain, and the Russians mistook it for a submarine-launched Trident missile
headed for Moscow. The nuclear briefcase
was brought to Boris Yeltsin and turned on in anger for the first and only time
in history. Thankfully his finger wasn’t
too twitchy on the trigger, and it soon became apparent that the rocket was not
in fact moving towards Russian airspace.
I digress however.
Aside from the box sets, I said that I’ve been eating and drinking too
much. And given the lack of training,
have put on a bit of extra timber. I’m
not yet in danger of hitting the weight I was in this photo (from Christmas
2012):-
... but I’ve resolved to go back to the boxing circuit training that helped
me lose two stones in 6 months, and gave me the confidence to join Dunbar RC.
Another reason for wanting to return is down to my theory of what might
have been causing my injury issues.
After struggling to pinpoint the precise problem for much of the past 3
months (was it my left calf, my left hamstring, or my left achilles?!) it
dawned on me in the week before Lasswade that the best description was of it
being like an electrical fault – sparks jumping from place to place. Which led me to the conclusion that I was
suffering from sciatica. A quick
Googlevestigation suggested that sciatic nerve issues were likely short-term
and would resolve themselves – make yourself comfortable through pain relief
and press on as best you can. So,
reassured that I couldn’t really do myself any damage, I took a couple of
ibuprofen and went out hard in the race.
The first couple of miles went well, and the pace was good. But not long after climbing back out of
Roslin Glen (approaching 3 miles) the spasming in my left leg started to
return. While I could drive off of my
right leg, the left felt weak and liable to collapse. The pace gradually slowed as the tightness in
my left leg got progressively worse – so much so that I had to stop to stretch
it out at around the 6 mile mark. After
that, I decided that I’d carry on but coast to the finish as by that point the
race had long gone. It therefore came as
a bit of a shock when my left hamstring went pop at 9 and a half miles, and I
had to more or less hop the remainder.
But despite the apparent contradiction of the actual muscle damage,
there might yet be something in the sciatica self-diagnosis. The lady who gives me my massages (Jenny)
says that sciatic symptoms often have their (literal) root in the glutes. The nerve feeds either behind or through
(depending on who you are) the piriformis, and if the piriformis is not
functioning properly then it can put pressure on the nerve and cause it to
become inflamed. After asking me to
switch my glutes on in turn, it seems that the right piriformis is firing
properly, but the left is not. If it is
not firing then other muscles and tendons have to pick up the slack, but are
not designed to do so. Hence my blown
hamstring, and hence the succession of IT band problems I had last year. Although just a theory, it fits, and has
given me hope. If I can fix my glutes
then I might fix everything!
So that’s why I am back at boxing.
Strengthen the glutes and the core, and become a better runner. In hindsight, the boxing training gave me a
fantastic platform from which to add on running training, and saw me make real
progress in 2014 and the first half of 2015.
But having given boxing up in favour of running alone, my all-round
fitness declined, I became more injury-prone, and my running has suffered. Apologies if I am the only one for whom this
is a revelation, but I’m going to make sure that I bring more balance to my
training from now on!
I had my first tentative 3 miler last night, and am pleased to report
that it went ok.
