20 January 2019 21,536 steps 1 hour 30 minutes running weight 79.0kg
A pleasant day, being merely warm rather than hot, and with minimal humidity which is a delightful reprieve after two weeks of extreme weather. Another 90 minutes of running was completed today; perhaps not ideal so soon after my previous ‘long’ run, but a six-day working week ahead rather dictated terms. It was the best compromise, and in the end all went rather well, albeit with nothing much to say about it, other than it was comfortably done, which is satisfying. I am conscious of not ramping the running up too fast, too soon. It’s critical that this build-up of mileage be done as carefully as possible, as any setback is going to require a lot more recovery time than has been necessary before. After such a long lay-off in the second half of last year, I need to be careful about this return to race fitness, and so far, it’s going well enough. I aim to keep it that way.
In other news related to the onward march of time, at the Australian Open tennis there’s been a loud, clear announcement by the younger generation of players that the times are changing, with several upsets in the fourth round over established players. Perhaps the greatest player ever, Roger Federer, was ousted in four sets by young Greek tyro Stefanos Tsitsipas, while equally young American Frances Tiafoe was too good for Grigor Dmitrov. In the women’s’ draw young Aussie Ashleigh Barty came back from a set down to essentially end Maria Sharapova’s long tennis career. The net play of Tsitsipas and Barty is especially wonderful and very welcome, hopefully adding a fresh dimension to the baseline play that seems to have become the norm over recent years. Tsitsipas’s one-handed backhand is also a joy to watch, and it looks to be a very interesting few years ahead for tennis, with an end, perhaps, to the dominance of Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray not so far off now.
At least it’s all a welcome diversion from politics, which is sinking to new depths of absurdity. But more on that later.
January 2019 ... here we go again!
