Audacious April.

[El Gordo]

I might have to sell one of my kids into slavery.

Oh well, that's the way it goes.

How are their gardening skills?

[Ana]

How are their gardening skills?

Barbarians!

Better try a last-minute e-ticket! (Srylanka Airlines or something like this, sardine-class, of course)

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

A brisk 5km this evening to test out the knee, which went well, although tomorrow will be the true test of it. But the run was good - quick (by my recent standards at least) and a super-low heart rate, so I'm happy with my cardio fitness levels at least. Aggressive treatment of the knee with ice plus rest and anti-inflammatories seem to have it under control for now. We'll see what tomorrow brings...

That's all for the moment. Tune in again tomorrow for more exciting mid life crisis adventures. Same crisis time, same crisis channel....

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Better try a last-minute e-ticket! (Srylanka Airlines or something like this, sardine-class, of course)

I dunno Ana, last time I flew on the cheap we spent the first three hours of the flight crop-dusting. :p

[Sweder]

Aggressive treatment of the knee with ice plus rest and anti-inflammatories seem to have it under control for now. We'll see what tomorrow brings...

Be extrememly careful with injuries. My nonchelance towards a poorly calf almost cost me dear - make sure you're fully recovered before going potty. Even a week of rest, or alternative therapy in the pool or on a bike, might be useful.

[SIZE="1"]Sorry for the lilly-livered mumblings. Normal Spartan service will be resumed after a couple of hillside lopes [/SIZE]

[Antonio247]

I´m glad you liked this area, MLCM.

It would be great if you and your wife could come next year. We all are looking forward to meeting you and doing Almería half together. I´m sure we´ll have a very good time together.

Regards

Antonio

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

In spite of my oodles of posted optimism lately, April has thus far been a month of deep, sometimes dark reflection for MLC Man. This has been principally because it has been one year since my father died, and on Easter Monday we fulfilled his wish to have his ashes scattered at sea. Unless you have a sea-going vessel within the family (we don't), you might appreciate that this is actually a tricky (and not inexpensive) request to fulfill. But we did the deed, and as a close friend suggested to me, this ceremony was actually significantly more meaningful than the funeral service, at least to us immediate family.

Well anyway, that's what started the deep introspection, and then Andy's post on bacon sandwiches had a further impact. Having done a little calculus at university, I worked on the given formula and did some experimentation this afternoon in my laboratory. That is to say, kitchen.

I should add that Sweder is also to blame here. His dire warnings on injury prevention forced me to have a heart-to-heart conversation with my knees this morning, shortly after breakfast. I had an 8km scheduled today, and I needed to know whether - given the lack of an immediate race goal - this was wise, in the face of continued, albeit moderate, dull aches in said knees.

It has to be said, with not a little regret, that my patellas are giving me the silent treatment, and so, like George Dubya, I was forced to make my own conclusions about the apparently aggressive intent of the patellas in question. Now it's a fine line between prudence and paranoia, and I concluded (unlike Dubya) that paranoia was not called for, but perhaps prudence would be...well, prudent. And so I called into effect a truce, put away my running shorts for the day... and went shopping.

And so you can perhaps understand why I had such RC matters as bacon sandwiches much in mind as I perused the deli section of the local supermarket. And there I spied a rather excellent looking selection of rindless shortcut bacon that would, and indeed did make an ideal lab subject.

Now I shan't bore you with insane gobs of mathematics. But I think in the greater interests of humanity (excepting Jews, Muslims, vegetarians etc.) I should add a few riders (well I'll restrict myself to three) to the formula proferred by Andy:

1) The selection and preparation of the bread is of considerably greater importance than first appears.

2) The choice of hydrating catalyst (beer, tea, wine, coffee etc.) is similarly very important, and will vary widely depending on time of day, day of week, social occasion etc.

3) The consideration of whether the sandwich is to be consumed prior to, after, or instead of a scheduled training run must be factored into the enjoyment quotient.

This last point caused further deep-seated and somewhat dark musings within the MLC Man mind. Having eschewed my scheduled run, I found myself instead shovelling a sizeable pork belly surrounded by a hill-sized slab of bread into my mouth. Was this a good idea I had to ask?

To find the answer, I returned to Andy's RC splash page. Sure enough, there was the answer! I rushed into my mp3 collection, played "Wonderful Land" and suddenly felt much better. I guess life is subjective and esoteric and simply won't allow itself to be reduced to a training schedule or a formula. That's cool. I'll do my run tomorrow and all will be fine.

And yes, the bacon sandwich was a bloody good idea. Tomorrow, I might undertake a quest for the perfect BLT*. After my run, though. Life's pretty bloody good, really.

And my knees feel better now too.




*[SIZE="1"]Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato sandwich for those of other cultures. [/SIZE]

[El Gordo]

1) The selection and preparation of the bread is of considerably greater importance than first appears.

2) The choice of hydrating catalyst (beer, tea, wine, coffee etc.) is similarly very important, and will vary widely depending on time of day, day of week, social occasion etc.

3) The consideration of whether the sandwich is to be consumed prior to, after, or instead of a scheduled training run must be factored into the enjoyment quotient.

Fair comment. The omission of the bread factor does seem surprising. I would add:

4) Ratio of bread to bacon by volume

Notable gourmands like us may normally favour hunks of high-quality bread, but too much of the stuff in a bacon sarnie can cause disappointment. In fact, it's one of those occasions when the much derided, mass-produced sliced white bread may be considered not just a worthy choice but the preferred choice. Same goes for toast -- but we'd better not get started on that one. 'Good bread' usually comes in slices too thick to allow the pleasures of the meat to shine through.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

An ugly, aborted run today. Took off feeling good for an 8km, but two clicks in started to feel woeful. By 4km I was inexplicably buggered, sweaty, light-headed and my heart racing unusually high. So I pulled out at the half way mark feeling dazed and confused.

But I figured "oh well, it happens, I can try again tomorrow", and then whammo, this evening I'm just sitting quietly watching a Bond movie (Octopussy ... Christ) when for no reason at all (or maybe in a desperate attempt to stop me watching crap movies) my right calf cramps badly, leaving it very tender and not a little sore. So then my left knee goes out in sympathy and I'm hobbling around like I'm at a hypochondriacs' convention.

So with only two days left I have only 9 of my allotted 32 kilometres for the week actually logged. Looks like I'm going to fall short.

Oh well. Cest la vie I guess. :o

[Moyleman]

You hang in there MLC Man, be tenacious in your goals.

Crikey, thats a lip-smacking recipe, got my taste buds going.

Meanwhile, wheres the brown sauce and that bloody bacons set off the smoke alarm again!

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

It's early Sunday here, and FLMers shoud be asleep ahead of the big race. There's no way I could run a marathon just yet, but I'll be heading off for my Sunday LSD soon. In honour of the RC FLMers I shall endeavour to put in a good one, at least by my humble standards.

Can't let this pass without also putting in a cheer for Benita Johnson, who is aiming to become the first Aussie to win London. Go, girl!



Postscript: It didn't happen for her. After getting to halfway in 1:10, she finished 7th in 2:29.47, about 3 minutes outside her best. Maybe next year!

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

The leftist forces of General Patella finally came to the negotiating table and we reached a truce late last night. This leaves me able to do long runs again, albeit at a slightly slower pace, but the main trade off is to cancel all thoughts of a marathon this year, and instead concentrate on more hill work and a more modest and slightly slower weekly mileage with a view to a good performance in the Point to Pinnacle hill climb in November.

This truce finally came about after several days of aggressive RICE action which subjugated the left knee and had me in a good position to argue for a decent long run today, and thus rescue my weekly schedule which had fallen well short.

And so this morning all felt good. Whatever the mysterious ailment was that left me so buggered the other day had vanished as mysteriously and as quickly as it had appeared, and with knees and things in good order, I was able to load the mp3-thing with suitable long run music and head off for what I hoped to be a good 2 hours+ run, with an opt-out clause at 16km, which was the minimum I wanted to cover today.

16km came and went with barely a blip, so I pushed on and finally covered a half marathon distance in pretty comfortable fashion, thus rescuing my weekly schedule from the depths of despair. Certainly not fast, but a good distance in a reasonable training time, comfortably done with negative splits and it puts me well back on track. It felt great then, and it still feels great nearly twelve hours later.

I still need to log a few weeks of this base mileage before beginning serious hill work, but it's looking good now. Finally I am beginning to feel like a runner!

Distance: 21.1 km
Time: 2h26m
Track du jour: Ike & Tina Turner's Nutbush City Limits - a great song with a beat smack bang on my LSD cadence.

[Moyleman]

Well done MLC man, sterling effort - keep it up.

Will follow your progress with interest.:o

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

After a rest day Monday and feeling only slightly sore and sorry after Sunday's long 'un, I was back into it today with a comfy 6km. Wholly unremarkable, which is just the way I like it at the moment. Km's in the log with no concerns or worries.

Track du jour: The Stranglers' Walk On By, a beautiful bit of irony for a running song, but a great track. Perhaps their greatest, though this will perhaps cause a storm of dissent from Sweder, who will now hopefully reply with a list of other great Stranglers running songs...?

[El Gordo]

Good to see you back on track, MLCM. There's no harm in a step-back week every 3rd or 4th, so think of your down-time as part of the training plan.

[Seafront Plodder]

Thanks Andy.

There was I feeling guilty and thinking that I really ought to start running again, when all I've had is a step-back.....2 years.

hurrah.

[Ana]

I pushed on and finally covered a half marathon distance in pretty comfortable fashion

What a chance that you can run so much, only as a training!

I cannot sleep, and I wanted to go to gym, but it is closed because here it is night. So no possibility of run, but I hope to do it anyway. Here, in Malasia is like living in a sauna, so I want to test the experience.

If you go on this way, you will early also run your own ultra

Great also that SP follows your example and has decided to stop his little restauration period of two years.

I would like to say you that first I was joking about the sardine class of Srilanka airlines, but after my travel, I must say that the flight was not only extremely cheap. Against any pronostic, plane, food, stewards... were great. Also, in this period the plane was almost empty and I could sleep as in business class.
So I have inform me and there is trips from Paris to Sydney and Melbourne via Colombo (Sri Lanka, budist Country, always smiling). Take a look and as it is not expensive perhaps you and Ms. MLCM can reach Andy's birthday


My track du jour: With or without you, live, by a Malayan group at Kuala Lumpur Planet Hollywood

[Sweder]

Track du jour: The Stranglers' Walk On By, a beautiful bit of irony for a running song, but a great track. Perhaps their greatest, though this will perhaps cause a storm of dissent from Sweder, who will now hopefully reply with a list of other great Stranglers running songs...?

Not quite a storm, though I commend Tank, Sweden and Toiler On The Sea from Black & White as sharing an excellent driving beat that gets my hamstrings strummin'. I also have Nuclear Device - from The Raven I think - on my i-plod. An interesting track about, of all things, our Antipodean cousins.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Another 8km banked this evening. All good.

Track du jour: Iggy Pop's Real Wild Child, a brilliant running song and here I should acknowledge Seafront Plodder for shaming me into renewing my acquaintance with some of Iggy's catalogue. Great stuff.

Currently exploring a little more Stranglers' material to boost my mp3 run-along collection. Sweder, I haven't yet found too many of the tracks you mentioned, but I did find (and add to the mp3 beast) Go Buddy Go. But I'm still trying to figure out what the hell Nuclear Device is all about*. A rather strange song, that one.

Rest day tomorrow. Yea.



*Actually I dug a little deeper into that song. I mean, it was obviously about Joh Bjelke-Petersen, the white-supremacist thug who ruled Queensland (thanks to a gerrymander) for many years, but I think the "nuclear device" in question was probably just wild-eyed speculation about the construction of a nuclear power plant. As far as I can see, B-P never stated a lust for nuclear weapons. Although he doubtless would have used them (mainly against the aboriginal population) had he had them available.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Another 8km, felt brilliant.

Track du jour: "Gonna Fly Now" (theme from Rocky) - Bill Conti. This came on in the last kilometre when I was feeling really good, and made me feel even better. Corny perhaps, but I love it.

What a fabulous month it has been. Still one run to go, too.