lighter, harder

Been taking it easy the last few weeks haven't run much at all only 5 times in two weeks and nothing over 7kms. I haven't done any speedwork or hills in this time to give the achillies a rest and I've been on a pretty restrictive diet so I haven't done any long runs.

Happy to say I've shed 4 kgs in the two weeks from 70 to 66kgs and I'm going back to my nornal, healthy diet, from Monday and going to start training in earnest, over the summer here, with my first race in October.

We'll see how the lighter me handles the new training schedule but I gotta believe that minus a few kgs and plus hard training equals PBs!

like a turtle

I've been pretty busy lately I will get to reading and commenting on some blogs over the weekend. Not much going on with me so I won't be Bombastic, I'll leave that to "Shaggy."

Places I run

I'm going to upload some snaps of the "places I run" now and in future posts. Here is "sayama pond" a 3K loop around , yes , a pond. It was the first place I started to run and has remained a favorite as it has clean well kept toilets, I like that in a run, and the sunrises over the back mountains are fantastic, although you can't see the mountains so well in these photos and its not morning, you are going to have to take my word for it.

Hope you're all well.

King of the road

I'm sad today as I got news that my Grandmother's health has taken a turn for the worse. My Aunt tells me that she no longer recognises anyone and basically her system is shutting down and she's on the way out.

I love this grandmother as she was the smartest of our family, most well read, and the most cheerful. She is in her nineties so I can accept her going but nevertheless I'm depressed that I can no longer communicate with her and that she is lingering without the quality of life that she's used to.

One of the things those of us that push ourselves physically can look forward to is that we will meet our end relatively quickly. Unfit people tend to die more slowly and painfully, you can't avoid suffering I reckon, either you suffer while getting fit or suffer with a more painful demise. I want to go out like a light and not linger with pain.

Anyway I'm going to post a song that always makes me feel good and hope we all continue to make the most of our lives as we don't have forever to live them that way.

Note to Ewen and 2P it's "King of the road" not "king of the trail."

If you want to run faster....

I uploaded an excellent article, see to the right, on the height to weight ratio. According to this I'm over the average weight for my height and over the summer, here, I'm going to get down to what I should be in order to give myself the best chance at running closer to 3 hours in December, planning a full marathon then.

If I lose that weight I'm going to have to run around in the shower to get wet, but I'm sure it will help me with my running goals.

So how do you measure up according to this scale? I wouldn't dare tell anyone what they should weight but it does make sense vis a vis our running life and it gives one food for thought, so to speak.

"Take comfort in your friends"

It seems there are a few of us nursing injuries so I'll post this song. And hope you don't "hurt" for long. Also I hope those that haven't posted here recently are doing so for reasons other than because they are injured. I'll accept pregnant and/or pissed off at me but nothing else ;)

Downloads

Can you see the box in the side column? I got the idea from David's blog and thought I'd use it here.

What I'll do is post articles, mainly on running, that I think that some of you will be interested in. You simply save them to somewhere on your computer, download and read them. After that you can delete or keep as you want. Let me know if you read any of them and if you think it's a good idea perhaps you can get a box for your blog and upload some articles you find for others to share.

For my part I'd like to start building a electronic library of sorts that, in the future, can be turned into a one stop, web page that people can go to for articles and stories about running.

Free running

Not too much going on with me but I did find a good clip of "free running" I'll post. Might give Ewen something else to do with his "walking frame". And I wonder could this be what Tesso has been up to on her "week off".

Actually I have been trying a few, small, jumps. Like, I was practicing jumping backwards onto a box about half a meter high. I fell over many times before finally being able to do it. I'm really not good at this type of thing at all but I'd like to be. If you want to see another good example of "free running" take a look at the opening scene of the lastest James Bond movie, it is fantastic!

Deadlines

Just some thoughts on why it's important to set goals and deadlines in ones life. Like I said before I need goals and deadlines to help me focus in relation to my running and in my life without some sort of plan I just lurch from one thing to another without really getting much done. In running the race date is a pefect analogy for a deadline.

The following quote puts it nicely:

"Deadlines bring focus, forcing us to make time for the achievements we would otherwise postpone, encouraging us to reach beyond our conservative estimates of what we think possible, helping us to wrench victory from the jaws of sleep. A deadline, is simply put, optimism in its most ass-kicking form. It's a potent force that, when wielded with respect, will level any obstacle in its path." - Chris Baty, No Plot No Problem