PB and a half

I'm looking forward to reading all your blogs on how things in Canberra went so post as soon as you can. I couldn't wait to post this one. I had a half marathon today and PBed by a whopping 4 mins! Only two months ago I was running 1:35 for the half and today I did 1:23 and some change. Really doubted this at first but it was a chip time and this course is the same one I ran a couple of times before.

To say I'm happy would be to understate it. I have a full marathon next weekend and if all things work out there I should be PBing again :)

I'm going to have a bath and spend the night with my family and my nephew who is in Japan now and visiting with us, see photos. My nephew said to me, after the race today, "You're bloody fast." That's enough to make an old uncle very proud ;)

Anyway hurry up with those Canberra reports.

My official time 1:23:41 43rd place, that's out of 2010 people entered.

Spring

Things are fine, although I haven't posted in a while it's only because I've been busy preparing to go back to work after a nice break. I start in earnest on April 7th and will be pretty much full time until the next holiday which starts at the end of July.

For those that have been following this blog you'd know that I was asking you for suggestions about where I should run when coming to Australia. Thanks for your suggestions by the way. Well after much thought I have decided to come and do two runs in Australia. In late July my family and I will fly into Cairns, stay with my sister there, see my father, and also do some camping in the general region. As for running I plan to go down to Townsville with my family to run a full marathon there on August the 3rd.

The other race I want to do is the Noosa half, I was thinking to leave the kids with my sister for a few days and fly down to Noosa with the missus and do the race. I've been able to swing this with my wife saying it will be a romantic long weekend, just the two of us ;) We runners will sink to almost any depths to do a race ;)

This is as certain as can be so I hope I will see as many of you as I can while I'm there. Has anyone of you done the Townsville marathon? It looks good, relatively small event, but fast and not too hot about 10 degrees at the start and 25 at the finish. I should be able to handle the humidity as I will have been training for it in the early summer here Japan time. How about a few of you come up to Townsville for this race?

Just one more thing for now. I did a good session on the treadmill the other day 8 x 800m each just under 3mins. I was happy with that but wondering if doing that on the tready is the same, effort/difficultly as on the track. I suppose I will try next week as see for myself but I have a feeling its easier to run this inside.

I'll upload a photo of me and the boys taken yesterday among the cherry trees.

Family or running?

I had a chance to think about the above question the other day. Last Thursday, a public holiday here, I set off to my Bulgarian mate's house for a spring BBQ. My wife went somewhere else so I took the kids as "Tiho" has kids too and I thought with the kids playing we would be able to get down to some serious talking, eating and drinking. A win win situation :)

About 20 minutes into the BBQ my youngest "Tyler" and Tiho's youngest "George" 4 and 5 respectively said they were going to the park next door and we waved them off in that direction busy with putting the first slabs of meat on the barbie.

After a beer, a chat and a nibble I left the BBQ zone to just check in on the kids.
I briefly looked through the hedges and a nonchalantly commented to Tiho, "Kids aren't in the park." "I'll go and get them and we'll put the sausages on for them eh" "Right then" said Tiho. It was from this moment that one of the worst days of my life played out.

Forward 7 hours later, it was dark, I was searching the reed beds that fringed a large nearby pond and elsewhere, neighbours, friends, family and dozens of local police were also searching for our two little boys. About 9:30pm I got a call on my mobile phone. It was Tiho saying "They found the boys!" I promptly sat down in the long grass and cried tears of pure joy and relief.

Apparently they were found about 8 kms away trying to get a bus home,with no money and to where they had no idea. A person getting off the bus at the same time took them to the police station.

As I was searching all those hours, in vain, for the boys I thought a lot about my values and my family and I can tell you I didn't think about "running" at all. But to be fair when I'm running I don't think about my "family" either ;) Still there is no question what my first priority is. Without the presence, love and support of my family I couldn't enjoy anything life has to offer.

So I'd better start with some actions to prove my supposition. The first being to not complain about my wife's cooking. See comic below ;)

Half Marathon PB

Had a nice run today and feel I made up for the last half I ran. It was perfect weather the course was mostly flat, very scenic, with only 3 long hills to slow us down, still made up for it on the downsides.

Happy today because apart from finally getting some good weather I felt in control. Usually when I PB I feel at the limit of my potential but today, at least after the race, I felt I could have gone faster.

My time was 1:27:26 (chip) a PB for me and bit of redemption. Also I feel like I'm on the right track with my training and my hamstring problem wasn't a problem today. So onwards and upwards. Thanks for your continued support :)

I'll upload a few photos from the day. Me my kids and I.
The whole family stayed at a hotspring resort the night before so the weekend in total was very enjoyable and relaxing.

Miyama marathon (half)

Hello, thanks to everyone for their understanding in regards to Canberra, sure it's disappointing but put in perspective not so bad. I will have the chance to meet you all at some stage, I'm sure. Got to be happy just to run in any capacity.

Well things on the running front aren't too bad, I've been doing a lot of weights and eating well and have dropped a couple of kilos in three weeks. I have been doing some core exercises and generally feel much stronger than I did when I ran my last half marathon almost 4 weeks ago.

I have another half this Sunday, "The Miyama Marathon", so I will be able to see how the drop in weight and extra strength will translate to in time. I want to at least break 1:30:00 but I'll see how it goes on the day.

I've heard that it takes at least 12 weeks of good training, be it weights or running, for it to really show up with improved performance so I'll keep up the training regime until it bears fruit.

The photo above was taken at Miyama by my, "Kawachinagano Running Club" buddy Mr. Kato. Thanks for that :)

Canberra a go go? Canberra a no go!

This song's related to what I wanted to do, "cry" and dedicated to my dear mother a Canberra native and a great fan of Elvis.



I've been very much planning and looking forward to running in Canberra. Particularly to meeting my friends that will go there and up until a week ago I was still in countdown mode but circumstances have conspired to bugger up my plans as I'll explain.

Firstly I'd like to let you know that I agonized over this decision but in the end it was the way I think I had to go.

My bum leg, hamstring strain, has stubbornly stuck with me and although it hasn't stopped me from running it's meant that I've been running shorter mileage so as not to aggravate it further. I thought that was going to be OK as I was doing a lot of extra cross training that was keeping up the fitness and bringing down my weight so it was all going to even out. I was happy thinking I could run a half decent race even though it wouldn't be a PB.

I really think just running would have been OK in this case as I would be among friends, so to speak, and frankly I wanted to see this race and see what Canberra is like now. It's been such a long time since I've been there. I have a strong connection to Canberra as my Mother was born there, I've been there heaps and I have many cousins still living there.

Anyway a week ago I was offered a job at a decent University here and basically couldn't turn it down. With this new job comes a lot of benefits but I will have to start on April 7th and they don't want me taking my second week at work off. I will get almost 20 weeks holidays but none during the Canberra Marathon. I guess I could have pushed it, lied and said I have to go back for a funeral but I can't do it being the honest guy I am ;)

I think that once I'm in I will be able to swing a few unscheduled holidays to coincide with the Canberra and Gold Coast Marathons but not this year :(

My wife seeing that I was so upset about missing Canberra promised we could go to Oz on a family vacation for the whole of August and half of September I could stay there by myself to do anything, well almost anything, I wanted. Got to be happy with that consolation prize ;)

I'm really sorry mainly cause I'm not going to have the chance to met you all next month and besides I really hate to go back on my word in any situation. But I will continue to work toward the goal of running PBs and running a few of them on Aussie soil. And you know, us Australians, we rarely if ever give up ;)

Pre

Thought those with a fast internet connection and a few spare minutes might enjoy this clip as I did. Steve Prefontaine and this song are my favorites :)

Yes, sorry I lost that first clip on youtube, it was a series of shots of Prefontaine running with the Church song "Under the milkyway." Well I'm going to
upload another one in its place. Nothing related but we are thinking about getting a pet for the kids and after watching this I don't think it will be a cat! Don't want either of my boys to end up like this. Any suggestions for a boys first pet?

Happiness defined

Continuing on from my last post on the topic of happiness I thought I’d relate it to this post about my half marathon last Sunday.

I've heard happiness defined as "the experience of meaning and pleasure." That is, what you enjoy and what is important to you. When both factors come together you can be pretty sure that, that is "happiness."

As you might know already I think running is "important." The whys are numerous but you all know them at different levels in different patterns. After all if we didn't think running was important we wouldn’t keep these blogs would we?

Enjoyment is the other factor and although most of us, except for the insane and Tesso, rarely smile while training or racing we all love what we do and get pleasure out of it.

So did the experience of meaning and pleasure come together last Sunday to make me happy? Decidedly not!

I had high expectations in this race, always a mistake when looking for happiness. High expectations in life and running can often lead to disappointments. So in this case when I ran “badly” it undermined my sense of “meaning” that comes from my ability to keep improving in some way despite the obstacles whatever they are. Add to this bitterly cold winds that left me shaking for an hour after the race and an aggravated hamstring injury that had me stopping 3 times to walk a little and you can see that the enjoyment factor was sorely lacking.

Some might say that enjoyment doesn’t mean simply that everything is perfect, and I’d agree, I like pain but only if it doesn’t hurt ;) no I like pain if it is the sort that comes from entering a new level of fitness, but last Sundays pain mostly came from the hills, 4 long high ones, and the realization that I was totally unprepared to make a decent job of this race.

Although the finishing time of 1:35:20 seconds doesn’t seem too “bad” the only time I’ve ran slower for the half was 4 years ago on my very first half marathon race. I’m too young to be contemplating PW (personal worst’s.) And, as I sit here 7 weeks from my first Canberra marathon (is that math right, Aussie Eddie?) nursing a sore hamstring, 8 kilos above my “perfect running weight” and way under the fitness level I need, I’m a tad depressed.

No need to hide the razor blades yet. If there is one thing above all else that I love about this sport is that it offers one a chance of redemption. And this I will take.

Besides I vowed to cream Eddie my American running mate here, who handed me my head by running last Sunday, his very first half marathon, in 1:28:00! I wonder if I should have said that now. Still nothing like a friendly rivalry is there? ;)

If it makes you happy then why the hell are you so sad?

I have a half marathon this Sunday and I was going to have a whinge, that is, complain about the weather, the course or about being under done, slightly injured etc etc.

But this song reminded me not to!

Wish me luck ;)

And have a nice marathon in Tokyo this Sunday too Steve, we'll be thinking of you.

Slow start

Things are OK, just starting to get rolling after a few set backs. Like I mentioned last post a bit of sickness and more recently an injury. I had a mystery pain at the back of the knee on my right leg that hurt a bit especially going up hills but after a a few sessions with the doctor and a couple more days of rest it is definitely on the mend.

I was ready to get back an do a run this morning but woke to snow again. See above photo that is our house taken from the 2nd floor of our little home school. I couldn't face going back on the treadmill again so I'll take today off as well and start seriously tomorrow.

Not a good start for my Canberra preparation but not a total loss as still have 8 weeks and I reckon I only really train well under tight deadline pressure ;)

"Hey boys! Why don't you let us put a nipple on that for you"

Down with a flu at the moment. Not too bad though just a pretty bad sore throat but not any other symptoms. Should be back into it tomorrow. Took 3 days off running, just to be safe. I don't want to make it worse by running my energy down even more.

That's how I think I got this in the first place. After a week of more than usual work, at work, combined with my regular running schedule and a party Sunday I was rundown enough for this bastard virus to take hold.

Anyway Sundays' party does give me the opportunity to upload a clip related to drinking that I think you will like. Apologies to any Germans ;)

Rant

"Nothing like a good rant" and this is nothing like a good rant but I'm going to write it anyway.

This afternoon I got the news that my uncle had died and my first thought was "Jesus! Why are all my relatives dropping like flies" And the second thought was "Why is it always my favorite ones?" The answer on reflection is simple. Firstly, they are all getting older and I suppose plenty of worse relatives have died before my "favorites" but frankly they weren't such good people so I guess I hardly recognised their passing ;)

If this isn't making much sense then it must be at least a half decent "rant". Well, I'm going to miss this Uncle as he was really everything I reckon a "man" should be, that is, he made you feel like you were important and always made people in his company feel safe and happy. This wasn't easy as he was physically kind of imposing. A big guy with tattoos and a head that at first glance had the neck hairs rising and you looking for the nearest exit.

I will never watch another "Aussie Rules" game or drink another beer without thinking about him as he was the person that made these things cool enough to want to make them a part of me.

As I'm feeling the distance between here and there a bit more tonight and I'm thinking about the value of people I'd like to say, even if it goes without saying, that virtual or not you bloggers mean a lot to me.

Any talk about giving up blogging should be given some more thought.While I wouldn't pressure anyone to write if they "can't" at times, I understand we all have other lives, still I feel that we got into this for the right reasons and those reasons haven't changed.

My supposition is that blogging is part of the third wave of the revolution of human relations.(Classic rant uses the word "supposition" and goes on to sermonize.) Nobody should underestimate the power of people of like minds coming together over great distances. Virtual or not these relationships are every bit as real as the face to face ones we have in say our workplace and deserve similar courtesies.

Our "Spark Driver" understood. While I of course wanted him to keep on writing, he did have the good manners to say he was, "pulling the plug" so long and goodbye. Well he didn't leave us hanging wondering what happen to him.

This rant has ended like all rants do with the writer coming off as slightly crazed and more than slightly needy. But I really just want you to know that I appreciate you all and the opportunity we have here.

Don't worry I'm back to making lame jokes and writing about running tomorrow. Don't let me scare you off ;)

1:30:18

Another day another T-shirt. Had a good half marathon today. A slow start as there was a fair crowd doing this marathon I reckon I lost 5 minutes in the first 10 kms because of the crowd and getting warmed up, it was 4 degrees and blowing some, but me second half was a pissa. Sure I ran close to under 40 mins for the second 10kms.

I got Freddy in my head 3 kms from home and ran my best finish for a half marathon I've ever done. I didn't hardly see any of the K markers nor was I taking splits just running how I felt and I felt good and better with every km after the 10K mark.

I need to lose some weight again and start with some upper body exercises but I can see no reason I can't chip away at my times this year. This and bit more consistency so as the song says "Don't stop me now!"

Cruel

My song of the week is dedicated to "Bay" the blogger who has just returned from Laos. The songs title "cruel" refers to the fact that I didn't have a holiday over Xmas New Year and think it's "cruel" that I didn't ;) especially to that part of the world, as it's my favorite.

As for the song I've just been getting into "Calexico"'s music. This song will get into your head give it 3 or 4 listens, great stuff.

Running is not going too well this week missed a couple of sessions due to not waking up early enough and being too tired after work. Anyway I have a half marathon this weekend, Sunday, and I don't want to be tired for that ;)Well this race should give me a good indication of where I'm at and I'll go from there.

Have a good rest of the week.

So far so good

Hope everyone is doing well. My first post of '08 and so far so good. I will start training in earnest from Sunday as it marks 12 weeks until the Canberra marathon. If all goes well I be there and I'm very much looking forward to meeting "all and sundry". Sundry, for those that don't know, is a blogger mate of mine from Kiama ;)

Anyway I'll be posting regularly about my build up for this and hope to get your feedback.

For now I'm going to upload a clip of "an educator." This guy is terrific and everything that I'd like to be as a teacher. I don't usually talk about teaching/learning on this blog but he is so on it with his analysis and funny to boot so I thought you'd like to see it.