Time to waste? Check these out…

I’m really struggling with hayfever at the moment, which isn’t making my life easy. I’ve been going to bed at a reasonable time, but am struggling to breathe. When the wheezing gets too bad, I end up getting up as I can breathe more easily when I’m in an upright position. This means that I usually end up downstairs on my laptop with a steaming hot drink (and my inhaler) in the early hours of the morning. Lack of sleep is not helping my recovery and training, but it has given me some time just to browse online.

Sporting Witness

If you’ve got some time to waste, you might want to check out these podcasts from BBC World Service Sporting Witness:

• Born to Run – Mexico’s Tarahumara Indians – featuring ultrarunner Scott Jurek.
• Kathrine Switzer Women’s Marathon Pioneer – the first woman to run the Boston Marathon. (4:12)
• Haile Gebreselassie – on defending his 10, 000m title. (9:00)
• Derek Redmond – Never Give Up – his heroic 400m race in the 1992 Olympics. (9:00)
• Flo-Jo -Flo-Jo’s husband, Al, recalls her 1988 Olympic triumphs. (9:00)
• Four-minute mile – Roger Bannister tells his story (9:00)
• Eric Liddell – from Chariots of Fire to World War II – Liddell’s life story. (10:00)
• Lasse Viren – 10 000m world record breaker at the 1972 Olympics. (8:58)
• Jim Thorpe – American Indian legend – This tells of his success in the 1912 Olympics and what happened afterwards. (10:00)
• Frankie Fredericks – Africa’s greatest ever sprinter (10:00)
• Duncan Goodhew and the Moscow Olympic boycott – (10:00)
• Lady swimmers of the 1920s – British female swimmers in the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics (9:00)
• Ron Clarke at the Mexico Olympics – the story of Clarke’s collapse at the finishing line of the 10, 000m race.
• Michael Johnson – his 200m record at the 1996 Olympics. (10:00)
• Cliff Young – potato farmer and ultra runner – the story of the 61-year-old’s triumph. (10:00)
• Kip Keino – talking about his 1500m win at the Mexican Olympics.
• Hassiba Boulmerka – on overcoming death-threats to win 1500m at 1992 Olympics. (10:00)

Thanks to Steve Johnson for pointing me in the direction of this series 🙂

Further reading

These articles are also worth reading.

• Cyclists why do they ride in the middle of the road. This is an interesting article that is currently doing the rounds on social media.
• A point of view: how running has changed since the four-minute mile

What have you been reading recently?