Training Update and Favorite Sounds

I am up to nearly 1400 pounds sterling!  Thank you to all my generous friends, family members, and colleagues.

As for the mileage, Layla and I did a frosty but well-paced 17 miler the day before she moved back to Houston.  I'm on my own for the 18, 20, and 22 milers--or whatever they work out to be.  Hoping to get some help from the lovely Cliona at the end of those runs.  As the mileage gets higher, that means the big event is approaching--just under 10 weeks now.  The training is going well, only a small setback 2 weeks ago when a sneezing fit threw my back into spasms.  The super-amazing osteopath, Holly, at the Yoga Spot worked some magic on me and I seemed to be as good as new in 2 days, so back to the full-on training plan.

The past couple of weeks have been an emotional rollercoaster of ups and downs, so I thought I would keep this post simple and list the things that I am thankful that I can hear.  Don't take your hearing for granted--have a think for yourself--what sounds do you enjoy?  These sounds make me happy:

(In no particular order)

• The crunch of gravel on the drive when Andy comes home. (Used to be his brakes screeching at the other house!)
• When Callie the kitten purrs.
• The thunder of 8 kitty feet through the house.
• Ave Maria sung in a church.
• The laughter and shouts of the Milltimber Primary School kids at recess behind our house.
• The sound of water--the ocean, river riffles, bubbling brooks, waterfalls, rain on the roof, fountains...
• Waves rolling the rocks around on a shingle beach.
• Any song sung by John Rzeznick!
• The whoosh of air filling a hot air balloon.
• The crack of a beer can opening.
• OM at the Yoga spot before class.
• Birds.
• The horses across the street neighing at me when I wait for the bus in the morning.
• Slide steel guitar.
• My nephew Matt singing the songs he makes up.
• When the London Underground calls out the stop for Bermondsey.
• Farm animals. Especially roosters cock-a-doodling.
• Tree leaves rustling in the breeze.

Don't Lose the Music!

My friend, Tom, who has run several marathons and trained for other endurance events commented the other day, “How did people ever train for this stuff before MP3 players?”   That inspired me to choose this week’s topic—hearing loss from loud music/headphone use.  I’ll be completely honest: I love my iPod shuffle and the Sennheiser earphones that Andy got my for Christmas a year ago, and I use them every time I run alone or on the treadmill.  I try to keep the volume reasonably low but do turn up the volume a bit if it is the Goo Doo Dolls playing or if I’m at the end of an interval workout or long run.  How much does this affect my hearing I wonder?

Every day, we experience sound in our environment, and when we hear these sounds at safe levels, our hearing is unaffected. However, when we are exposed sounds that are too loud (over 85 decibels) or loud sounds that last a long time—sensitive structures in our inner ear can be damaged, causing noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). These sensitive structures, called hair cells, are small sensory cells that convert sound energy into electrical signals that travel to the brain. Once damaged, our hair cells cannot grow back.  NIHL can be caused by a one-time exposure to an intense “impulse” sound, such as an explosion, or by continuous exposure to loud sounds over an extended period of time, such as industrial noise or excessive use of MP3 players.
NIHL is 100 percent preventable. All individuals should understand the hazards of noise and how to practice good hearing health in everyday life. To protect your hearing:

Ø  Know which noises can cause damage (those at or above 85 decibels).
Ø  Wear earplugs or other hearing protective devices when involved in a loud activity
Ø  Be alert to hazardous noise in the environment.
Ø  Protect the ears of children who are too young to protect their own.
Ø  Make family, friends, and colleagues aware of the hazards of noise.

RNID sponsors the Don't Lose the Music Campaign (http://www.dontlosethemusic.com) and has been warning personal stereo users for some time that they could be risking long term damage to their hearing by turning up the volume to levels that could cause permanent hearing loss. They were one of the groups that lobbied Apple to introduce the software update to allow iPod users to set an upper volume limit.

Figures show that 51.4% of 16-24 year olds listen to their stereos at least an hour a day with 19.7% listening for more than 21 hours a week. New research conducted for the Don't Lose the Music campaign reveals that a shocking 58% of 16-30 year olds are completely unaware of any risk to their hearing from using MP3 players and other audio products that attach directly to the ears. RNID is so concerned that the MP3 generation could be at risk from premature hearing damage, that it's calling on manufacturers of MP3 players to protect consumers by providing clearer warnings on packaging about the dangers of listening too loudly to their products.

So, what can you do if you have an iPod addiction?

v    Turn it down a notch! Even a small decrease in volume could massively lessen the damage to your ears.


v    If you can hear sound from your headphones from two or three feet away, they are probably too loud. 


v    Avoid using the volume to drown out background noise, for example the sound of the train or traffic

v    Take a five minute rest period for every hour of listening to allow ears to recover.

Sources: www.ehealthmd.com, www.dontlosethemusic.com, www.hearinglossweb.com, RNID

Happy New Year!

Over the holidays whilst visiting London, I was reflecting on languages, so wanted the first blog of 2011 to be about sign language.  Along with sign language and lip reading, many deaf people communicate with the manual alphabet, which uses finger positions that correspond to the letters of the alphabet to spell out words.  Believe it or not, I was a member of the sign language club in 8th grade, short-lived though it was, and learned the fingerspelling alphabet for American Sign Language (ASL) and a few basic words, and remarkably, I have not forgotten it!


Sign language for the deaf was first systematized in France during the eighteenth century by Abbot Charles-Michel l'Epee and French Sign Language (FSL) was brought to the United States in 1816 by Thomas Gallaudet, founder of the American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut. He developed American Sign Language (ASL), a language of gestures and hand symbols that express words and concepts. It is the fourth most used language in the United States today.  British Sign Language (BSL) is utilized by over 70,000 people in the UK and in 2003 was given status as a recognized minority language leading to increased funding for the needs of people who are Deaf, and has increased  awareness of the language, which has a similar status to that of other minority languages in the UK such as Gaelic and Welsh.  The Deaf community can thank RNID for their lobbying efforts!

On the whole, deaf sign languages are independent of oral languages and follow their own paths of development. In doing this research, what I found remarkable is that British Sign Language and American Sign Language are quite different and mutually unintelligible, even though the hearing people of Britain and America share the same oral language (well sort of!). The grammar of sign languages does not necessarily resemble that of spoken languages used in the same geographical area.  BSL manual alphabet tends to be a 2-hand method whereas ASL uses a single hand.  

I think I shall explore this topic more in a future blog, but for a bit of fun, I have pasted the ASL alphabet below--have a go!

Sources: www.british-sign.co.uk, www.squidoo.com/american-sign-language-alphabet, RNID