Friday, October 29, 2010

Lupin the 3rd

Rick asked, kindly, if I'd like to write something about my training. Gees you'd think this was a running blog or something! Well old son, there hasn't be much to write about on that front but happy to report I'm no longer injured and will start my training in earnest from this Monday. And I'll be sure to let you know how I'm going with it.

In the meantime a brief musical interlude. Really love this music, sure you will too!

Thursday, October 28, 2010

"Hoist a rainbow high together"

My imagination only (not an offical logo) ;)




Below is some translated information on Osaka marathon 2011 from the Osaka Prefectural Government.

"The theme of the Osaka Marathon is “Hoist a rainbow high together”. Seven specific charity themes are to be decided, and participants are recruited per each theme, and each color. Participating runners are to pick a color to cheer for their teams such as red or blue. It is planned that the supporters will color the streets along the course in seven colors. The logo mark has been announced, full of vigor, portraying a runner at full speed in a motif of a character “run”. It is also designed in the seven colors of the rainbow.

Isn’t there a great fascination and significance to have a marathon in the big city of Osaka amid the running boom nowadays? It is a huge attraction for participating runners to experience the charm of the town by running along roads and through places usually inaccessible except by car. Moreover, in addition to the 30,000 runners taking part, the whole of Osaka including supporters and volunteers will become spirited, and the economic impact generated by them will be on a substantial scale. In addition, this is the best opportunity to convey the “hospitality of a town, Osaka” to runners from all over Japan and the world getting together in Japan.

The huge expectation for “Osaka Marathon” includes energizing the local community and spreading the word about urban attractions. It will be one of the largest sporting events in Japan supported by the unified cooperation of participants and local residents, contributing to the energizing of the whole Kansai area.

The governor Mr. Hashimoto said “I want it to become a good event, rivaling the Tokyo Marathon. I want the whole of Osaka town to be energized through the marathon, and I want to show it both inside and outside of Japan.”

Through this marathon, we will send out the word about the charm of the people and the town, and Osaka full of Energy!"

"Osaka Lover!"

Sunday, October 24, 2010

"In for a penny in for a pound"

Back by popular demand! Well not really but I like them ;)



Sorry Ewen I "jumped off the merry-go-round!" Still, not too upset with my race today considering how I've been feeling the last few weeks. I'm taking this as a good sign that I'm getting back on track and and now I'll build on this.

Having said that, it was tough out there today! Always find this race tough as it is the start of my racing season and I'm not yet ready or able to run at any speed for anything over 3 or 5Ks. I'm not the kind of runner who can just turn up underdone and pull out a good race, not that talented I suppose. Anyway I wanted to stop a couple of times during this one and I forced myself to keep on going. Happy about that. One of the times I wanted to stop was when at about the 3K mark, Erick Wainaina (Kenyan) the silver medalist, in the Marathon at the Sydney 2000 Olympics, cruised past me, smiling, like I was standing still.

"Guest runners!" what a concept ;(

Now there is a guy who is "intimidating" you probably couldn't give him much advice or tell him anything that he didn't already know. As for me, you definitely can and I'm always happy to hear it ;)

Oh, time, 38:26 (chip)

Friday, October 22, 2010

"I'M A LOSER BABY"


Wakaura Bay 10K

Got my first 10K of the racing season this Sunday morning and while I go into it a little lame I'd like to think, like some of the Beck lyrics say... "I'm a driver, I'm a winner. Things are gonna change...." But the chorus of this song keeps ringing in my ears... "Soy un perdedor.. I'm a loser baby so why don't you kill me?"

Anyway I'll know were I'm at by the end of it, I'm sure. And It'll probably be somewhere in between the extremes ;)

Thursday, October 21, 2010

EMPATHY

I've always thought we humans have a large capacity for empathy that allows us to care for more than those we have direct, face to face, contact with. Although I'm not sure this is true in the "virtual world" where our interest can be rather stretched by the amount of people we are "in touch with" via the web. Case in point, my blog is frequented often enough but few feel the need or have the time to offer any encouragement, by way of comments. Luckily I am, and we are all basically doing these blogs for ourselves otherwise there wouldn't be much of this so called.. "Virtual Global Community."

I don't want to shame anyone into writing "comments," just making an observation. I and I suspect most of us keep up our blogs because they have a "purpose" (although this may not always be clear, to my readers) and they help us in our quest of "mastering" our sport with the added value being that they helps us master other aspects of our life as well.

I really consider myself lucky and I'm thankful that anyone at all would even bother to look in. So if you just want to "lurk" feel free ;)

Have a look at this video it's interesting and it explains, well, a little of what I'm talking about.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

The power of a good story!

loyal readers..

I know you've been waiting for a "good story" and I know there's been a bit of a drought on this blog. Still, I promise something is on its way, but in the meantime I hope this will suffice!

Friday, October 15, 2010

I wish I was special

From my Ipod Touch 8th generation (with the new "reach around" technology).


Waiting in the clinic for an echo scan. Since coming back from Oz just haven't been able to run without pain. Actually that's not all together true, I have had a couple of near pain free runs but the fact that these almost make me cry with happiness points to how rare they are.

Anyway, put it this way I've had more comments on my blog recently then good runs ;(

While I'm confident I will be OK sooner rather than later the healing is taking its good time.I should make a confession, lest someone else follows my lead and gets injured themselves. I'm pretty sure this all stems from my 5K and 10K races so close to my last full marathon. As much as I'd like to believe, in this respect, I'm not special and couldn't get away with going against all common sense.

Anyway, after my next full I'm going to give myself a good long break before building up to racing again. Might even still be PBing in my fifties if I act with a little more prudence. "Dear Prudence, won't you come out to play."

One more piece of unsolicited advice. Basically don't believe what people say, just watch how they spend their time. As for running if they are injured more than they aren't, then take care cause bullshit is being spread without a licence!



Run run run Runnnnnnnnnn

Thursday, October 14, 2010

COMMONWEALTH

"NEW DELHI: Tanzania's Samson Ramadhani, Kenya's Luke Kibet and Australia's Jeffrey Hunt could be the stars to watch in the Commonwealth Games marathon that will be held on the concluding day on Thursday.

The men's event is scheduled for a 6.30 a.m start and the women's will be flagged off 15 minutes later. Both will take a 10km loop, beginning in front of Free Church on Parliament Street and going through Red Cross Road, Dr. Rajendra Prasad Road, Rajpath, Janpath and back.

Talking of the leading runners in the field for Thursday's run, Ramadhani, the Games defending champion, has one of the best times, 2:09.46s clocked in Hannover in May, in the 24-runner men's field here while Kibet is a former World champion. The Kenyans dominate the marathon. They occupy 11 of the top 20 positions in the world list this season, however, many of this season's best runners are not here in Delhi.

Hunt, who impressed with a 2:11 time in his debut marathon in Beppu (Japan), is also expected to come up with a strong showing. Kenya's Irene Kosgei heads the field in the women's section with the year's fastest time (2:29.06s) among the runners here. Lyngkhoi Bining and Ram Singh Yadav are the two host runners in the men's section while Preethi Rao is the lone Indian woman in the fray." — Stan Rayan "The Hindu"

let's hope for some drama, slighty less than below though.


Post race comment.

Things don't often work out the way we envision and even with all the hard work that goes into preparation we can't lose sight of the fact that it's what you do on the day that really counts.

Congralutions to everyone who ran.

Today my thoughts have been with Kerryn McCann and her family. Almost the perfect person, she must be missed by many!




Saturday, October 09, 2010

Not a tall well

;)


Still battling the tight hamstrings and achillies problems but starting to string together some decent training. Have you ever had the pain that comes from directly behind your knee, in the cup where it bends? What's that about?

I'm not going to break any running records until I get over this but this post, or my blog in general, certainly would put me in the running for the record for "talking about nothing."

"The outdoor record for talking about nothing is held by Mrs. Vera Etherington (GB) and her neighbour Mrs. Dolly Booth (GB) of Ipswich, who between 11th November 1983 and 12th January 1984 chundered on over their fence in an unenlightening dialogue lasting 62 days until Mrs. Booth remembered she'd left the bath running."

Thanks to VIZ magazine for the above quote and cartoon. This is a very childish read that appeals to me. In one of their sections "Roger's Profanisaurus" they define the following term..

Dutch Marathon n. The hasty, yet seemingly never-ending walk home after purchasing a new selection of fleshmags from a specialist newsagent.

Sunday, October 03, 2010

Hello, Hello Mr. Monkey

I've been having a lot of trouble with my running of late. First, missing sessions because of an unusual tightness in my hamstrings and recently while I have been able to complete a few good speed sessions I haven't been able to recover enough to do even the slow recovery runs the following day!

All this was happening while time was running out for a decent build up to my December marathon and I just couldn't see how I was going to get it together in time to be able to give myself a chance of a PB. It was getting complicated and there were just too many questions.

Dr Seuss once said “Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.” and in this spirit I decided to pull out of the Kakogawa marathon and just concentrate on getting myself fit and fast and in January 2011 start my Marius Bakken schedule for a run in the Nagano Marathon in Early April.

You may think I should wait and see and I'd agree but for two things. Applications have to be finalise by next week and I really feel that if I run one more marathon hard, under trained and lame it will jeopardise my sub 2:30 attempt and my career long term. I reckon I have one or two chances at breaking this and I don't want to leave it on a cold windy road in December of 2010.

While I am really pretty disappointed I have a renewed faith in my ability and can see the speed sessions on the MB schedules being the key to getting me PBs right up to my 50s. I'll have to go fast but not lose sight of the fact that......

"Slowly, slowly catches monkey!" ;)

Friday, October 01, 2010

TWITTER

I know a few of you are on Twitter and more aren't. But I'm here to tell you that if you think that it's a waste of time you are, in my humble opinion, wrong.

Well, I thought it was just a way to share information that really has no real significance and that is right but what is life if not a series of insignificant moments that all add up to something worth paying attention to.

Besides where else can you see so many one liners in the same place?

Below is a quote taken from Twitter from the recently deceased American comic and roaster extraordinaire, Greg Giraldo.
;)

“Gary Busey’s here, kind of. Jesus, Gary, you horse-faced lunatic. You look like Nick Nolte f*cked a Clydesdale.”

I follow about 75 people at present, including Gary Busey, and find it on the most part informative and hilarious.

Still..."If you should ever leave me life would go on believe me..."
;)


And I've got to agree with "kimi" another person I follow..
:p

Kobayashi Kimiko.
"I'm exhausted but can't stop watching my timeline, you people are fascinating like dogs that can do math."