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Thread: Nettles

  1. #1
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    Nettles

    There is a comment in Richard Askwith's Running free about nettles stimulating the blood circulation. If this is true, I get my circulation stimulated at some point on most of my training runs between May and October. No, I'm not deliberately indulging in some kind of self-flagellation; it just happens that many of the otherwise excellent paths that I use for my runs have short stretches where they are encroached on by nettles. But does anyone on the forum have any definitive information about the effect of nettle stings on circulation?
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    Great writer, great book. Trouble is he wanted to Holmsie himself up a bit. The opening pages sounded worse than any run I've ever heard of....he is / was in awe of the legends and was highly aware he wasn't a Borrowdale shepherd, or dry-stone waller (like we mostly aren't). If you want to toughen yourself up on a run get a skinful down you, skip breakfast and wear a pair of shoes two sizes too small...
    Last edited by Derby Tup; 15-10-2017 at 08:23 PM.
    Poacher turned game-keeper

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Derby Tup View Post
    Great writer, great book. Trouble is he wanted to Holmsie himself up a bit. The opening pages sounded worse than any run I've ever heard of....he is / was in awe of the legends and was highly aware he wasn't a Borrowdale shepherd, or dry-stone waller (like we mostly aren't)....
    I won't listen to a word against Richard and I donated an obscure book from Bill Smith's collection that he was seeking but...he is a journalist first and a fell runner a long way second.

    His crime to fell writing is that FITC encouraged many who are fell runners to believe they are also journalists which has led to too many overwritten, hyperbolic, inflated descriptions of the mundane activity of just going out for a run.

    Bill Smith didn't use many adjectives: and when he did he used them sparingly.
    Last edited by Graham Breeze; 15-10-2017 at 08:56 PM.
    "...as dry as the Atacama desert".

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    So, Graham, I can't help feeling you've drifted "off-topic" here. FITC, Bill's bookshelf, journalism are all fine . . . but do stinging nettles have a place in the training program of a male, senior fell runner? Yeah, or neh?
    Poacher turned game-keeper

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    Master wheezing donkey's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Graham Breeze View Post

    His crime to fell writing is that FITC encouraged many who are fell runners to believe they are also journalists which has led to too many overwritten, hyperbolic, inflated descriptions of the mundane activity of just going out for a run.
    Surely "the crime" was that it encouraged many who are journalists (etc) into thinking that they could just rock-up and attempt a BG without the correct preparation?
    I was a bit of an oddball until I was abducted by aliens; but I'm perfectly OK now!

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by wheezing donkey View Post
    Surely "the crime" was that it encouraged many who are journalists (etc) into thinking that they could just rock-up and attempt a BG without the correct preparation?
    Well for a time fell running became a topic of fashion: every newspaper and magazine and comic (and some TV programmes) would have to print/show its own "me too" article on what adventurous activity some non-runner participated in last weekend to show it was up to date with the latest trend (I almost wrote zeitgeist) . Whoo hoo Pippa Middleton!

    "...as dry as the Atacama desert".

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    Quote Originally Posted by anthonykay View Post
    There is a comment in Richard Askwith's Running free about nettles stimulating the blood circulation. If this is true, I get my circulation stimulated at some point on most of my training runs between May and October. No, I'm not deliberately indulging in some kind of self-flagellation; it just happens that many of the otherwise excellent paths that I use for my runs have short stretches where they are encroached on by nettles. But does anyone on the forum have any definitive information about the effect of nettle stings on circulation?

    I have no idea about the effects on the circulation but I do like a good nettle sting, I reckon this time of year they're especially bad, as if in the throes of death they go nuclear, so if they are found to be good for circulation then nows the time of year to get nettled I reckon.
    As an aside although still slightly on topic, I'm nursing what I think is a piece of Spartina in my little toe (sand dune running) I've had a dig but to no avail, I'm sure it'll self eject at some point but I reckon that Spartina grass is sharper at this time of year as well, unless due to the onset of Winter, runners get softer

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    to get back on topic, according to this seemingly fairly credible website, stinging nettle tea can do all sorts of wonders, but of the sting itself
    "When they come into contact with a painful area of the body, however, they can actually decrease the original pain. Scientists think nettle does this by reducing levels of inflammatory chemicals in the body, and by interfering with the way the body transmits pain signals".
    ....it's all downhill from here.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Graham Breeze View Post
    Well for a time fell running became a topic of fashion: every newspaper and magazine and comic (and some TV programmes) would have to print/show its own "me too" article on what adventurous activity some non-runner participated in last weekend to show it was up to date with the latest trend (I almost wrote zeitgeist) . Whoo hoo Pippa Middleton!


    Which one is Pippa Middleton - is she married to Royalty?

    I ran an ultra in Andorra that had Kilian racing in - felt a bit like running with Catalan Royalty!

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by luxinterior View Post
    Which one is Pippa Middleton - is she married to Royalty?

    I ran an ultra in Andorra that had Kilian racing in - felt a bit like running with Catalan Royalty!
    Wow! What a privileged opportunity.

    So...what are Kilian's views on nettles?
    "...as dry as the Atacama desert".

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