Jumpin' Januaries, Batman!

[Sweder]

I think railway tracks are allowed, as should be established paths identifiable on the map.

Really? It's a $5000 fine here for walking (or running) along railway lines!

Shhhh....! I'm trying to protect you from disqualification, you fool....

... or even a $5000 fine. Can we put that in the Almeria kitty?
Should just about cover Antonio's Rioja tab for Monday night

[glaconman]

Usually in races I seem to fail to grab the attention of the official race photographer, but on this occasion I got snapped - for what it's worth here are the pics. Oh and the official result was that I finished 68th out of 240 finishers... probably my best race result yet!

That's got to be worth celebrating MLCM. Nice work.

Think that gives me the excuse I need to visit the pub tonight for a swift pint of Abbeydale. Shame they don't bottle it yet.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

That's got to be worth celebrating MLCM. Nice work.

Think that gives me the excuse I need to visit the pub tonight for a swift pint of Abbeydale. Shame they don't bottle it yet.

Thanks g'man ... trust the Abbeydale was brilliant.

This morning's run was supposed to be a short, easy. However MLCM Jr #3 (19 yo son) has been bitten by the running bug and insisted we re-visit Torture Hill. I somewhat reluctantly agreed, as the weather here has been very, very hot and it was still 29C when we left home at 6:30 a.m. (it reached 42 later in the day). I laboured up the hill, way behind junior, but once recovered felt pretty good and led him on an off-road jaunt through the hills which was beaut - it really is kind of special running with family. Even young turks who are faster, stronger and generally very much fitter than me. Anyhow, 8km completed in good time including a nasty hill and several kms of bush track.

LE JOG Have now headed north from Penzance on my way to St. Ives. After ducking into St.Ives I'm going to focus on reaching Snowdon ... in fact as I already had Snowdon and Ben Nevis on my list of climbs I must run, I may as well add Scafell Pike to the list and complete a virtual Three Peaks Challenge. Anyone else interested?

View my LE JOG progress here.

[El Gordo]

LE JOG Have now headed north from Penzance on my way to St. Ives. After ducking into St.Ives I'm going to focus on reaching Snowdon ... in fact as I already had Snowdon and Ben Nevis on my list of climbs I must run, I may as well add Scafell Pike to the list and complete a virtual Three Peaks Challenge. Anyone else interested?

Could be, though I may have some business to attend to in the Bristol/South Wales area that will delay me, so no guarantee to be there at the same time. Will see. I suspect all sorts of things will crop up along the way.

[Sweder]

Three Peaks sounds interesting, though I'd much rather taste the real thing. Like EG I expect to get way-laid in any number of distracted perambulations through rural havens and points of personal interest. Come to that I can't wait until I'm back on the beer; I'm missing any number of opportunities to sample some fabulous local ales. I'll make up for lost time a little later no doubt.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

The Hades furnace continues here... 30C again for my 6 a.m. constitutional. Set out for a slow, quiet 6km or so, but this was tough due to the heat and the constant state of dehydration you find yourself in during relentless heatwave. So I just took a quiet, uneventful jog around the local streets and finished with a total of 7.6km. This gave me a slightly higher total for the week than I had planned, which is a good given the conditions were appalling for running and it would have been easy and (probably) justifiable to chuck it in for a few days until the weather improves.

See today's run here.

LE JOG: Have pushed on through St.Ives ... nothing much to note except someone asked me if I "knew that Sweder bloke" ... given his slightly menacing manner I thought it best to ignore him. Northwards ho!

LE JOG progress map.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

The infernal heat has gone and it's even raining! There's much rejoicing in the MLCM household as we leave the windows and doors open and allow a cool, fresh breeze to rip through the house making us feel human again.

Didn't feel quite so human on this morning's run however, despite magnificent pre-dawn running conditions. The last few days of intense heat left us all mentally and physically exhausted, but I plodded on regardless and managed a respectable 7.7 km in a reasonable time.

LE JOG: Have now left St.Ives and am ... somewhere else. Travelling northwards, I know I plod on for a few weeks and then veer left toward Snowdonia and my first real target, Snowdon itself. Other than that, I am quite lost. Which is kind of fun.

Oh and the reason for the diversion to St.Ives was a simple one: one of my local pubs many moons ago used to be the St.Ives hotel, way over on the other side of the planet of course, in Hobart to be precise. A quaint little pub and latterly a micro-brewer, but I used to go there on Sunday afternoons for leisurely afternoons of live local jazz and beer. It was a great way to spend a lazy Sunday arvo, and I still fondly remember those days, hence the visit to the actual town of St.Ives.

Which, as Sweder indicated, was actually rather dispapointing. Maybe I just didn't visit the right pubs there.

Anyway, we're jogging on ever northwards now, with the enormity of the project beginning to sink in as the novelty wears off. But never fear, onwards we shall plod.

See you on the road somewhere.

LE JOG progress.

[Sweder]

Anyway, we're jogging on ever northwards now, with the enormity of the project beginning to sink in as the novelty wears off. But never fear, onwards we shall plod.

See you on the road somewhere.
LE JOG progress.

We need some 'road' songs to keep our spirits up; a soundtrack to LE JOG perhaps. There are several fairly obvious choices - Lee Marvin springs to mind, as does Willie Nelson - but I'd like to reach into the darker recesses of popular (and unpopular) music for some lyrical inspiration.

My first nomination (I'll post some lines in my next postcard from LEJOG) is 'Keep Us On The Road', Motorhead's early nod toward pharamceutical enhancers published on their fledgeling LP 34 years ago, imaginatively entitled 'Motorhead' and produced by, appropriately enough, one Speedy Keen.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

We need some 'road' songs to keep our spirits up; a soundtrack to LE JOG perhaps. There are several fairly obvious choices - Lee Marvin springs to mind, as does Willie Nelson - but I'd like to reach into the darker recesses of popular (and unpopular) music for some lyrical inspiration.

My first nomination (I'll post some lines in my next postcard from LEJOG) is 'Keep Us On The Road', Motorhead's early nod toward pharamceutical enhancers published on their fledgeling LP 34 years ago, imaginatively entitled 'Motorhead' and produced by, appropriately enough, one Speedy Keen.

I'll put some thought into it. The only one that springs immediately to mind and which seems doubly appropriate for Le Jog is Jamiroquai's Virtual Insanity.

Meanwhile, another 5km early morning dragging of the old bones around the streets was had. My enthusiasm is flagging just at the moment (despite a pretty good outing this morning), so some rousing, motivating and inspirational music might be the ticket. How about Slade's Mama We're All Crazee Now?

Le Jog progress.

[Bierzo Baggie]

Meanwhile, another 5km early morning dragging of the old bones around the streets was had. My enthusiasm is flagging just at the moment (despite a pretty good outing this morning), so some rousing, motivating and inspirational music might be the ticket. How about Slade's Mama We're All Crazee Now?

Le Jog progress.

MLCM ..If you are running through Helston in Cornwall you could visit my Uncle Robert who used to have piano lessons with Slade bassist Jimmy Lea. He still lives with his mum (Uncle Robert, not Jimmy Lea) and she says that Jimmy Lea was a bad influence but that Noddy Holder was a nice lad (or was it the other way around?). By the way, Jimmy Lea was born in a pub called the Melbourne Arms.

I'm full of useless information me ...so get yourself down to Helston!

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

MLCM ..If you are running through Helston in Cornwall you could visit my Uncle Robert who used to have piano lessons with Slade bassist Jimmy Lea. He still lives with his mum (Uncle Robert, not Jimmy Lea) and she says that Jimmy Lea was a bad influence but that Noddy Holder was a nice lad (or was it the other way around?). By the way, Jimmy Lea was born in a pub called the Melbourne Arms.

I'm full of useless information me ...so get yourself down to Helston!

Ah thanks BB - I'll have to look and see where Helston is. I'm already lost and I've only just left St.Ives...

BTW, have you seen Riazor Blue in recent times?

[Bierzo Baggie]

Helston is south-east of St Ives so you'd have to change direction. If you do pop in, my great Great Aunty Kath will undoubably serve you tea and cake and you can talk long into the night about the crazy days of piano lessons with the wild boys of British pop. You could also ask Uncle Robert if he's still got a pet tortoise.

Riazor Blue. Made my yearly visit to his shop last summer but he was on holiday. Last I heard he'd gone all ultra and had run a 24-hour race around an athletics track somewhere. He doesn't seem to be doing the shorter races any more... Lugo, marathon de Toral

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Cheers BB, maybe I'll call in and see them on the return trip

Another 7.7km this morning, horribly early again (pre-dawn), but dutifully done. And surprised to knock 90 seconds off my previous (and best) time, despite feeling pretty ordinary out there... I must be getting fitter

LE JOG: Still not sure where I am, but definitely heading north.

See my Le Jog progress here.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Cool, grey, drizzly pre-dawn conditions boded well for the 10-12km I had scheduled myself, but the legs were cold and rebellious and complained and whined like teenagers for the first few kms. After 4 or so clicks however they got used to the idea and it ended up as a brilliant run. I completed a shade over 13 kms and was travelling really well when I finished - one of those "I could run all day" feelings. So a good way to round out the week.

LE JOG: I've broken the law for the second time already on this run by trespassing on RAF Portreath to sprint along the runways there. It's something I've always wanted to do for some obscure reason, ie run the length of a runway or two. I hadn't planned it, but my running route took me through the town of Portreath where I discovered a RAF base close by. As luck would have it, my Swedish diplomat mate Sven happened to be on one of those spy trawlers off the Icelandic coast, so a quick call to him on the mobile and he was able to set up a nice little nuclear mishap diversion that enabled me to escape the attention of base security as I scaled the fence and ran the length of both runways. Ha ha! Fantastic fun, and I was able to put several more kilometres behind me before they realised what had happened.

I'm currently virtually in the town of St. Agnes, which is quite a coincidence because this mornings literal run took me past the local St. Agnes winery and distillery, famous mostly for its green label brandy.

What an interesting run this is turning out to be!

See my Le Jog progress here (including the illegal runway section!)

Cricket lovers will no doubt have seen the triumphant return to batting form of one Ricky Ponting, who yesterday posted his fifth test double century, with a fine 209 against Pakistan in Hobart. Astonishingly however, he was dropped by Mohammed Aamer in the deep on zero - an absolute doddle of a catch that he inexplicably put down. The poor guy then had to watch one of the world's best batsman pour on a largely flawless and certainly very fluent double ton. Agony!

Michael Clarke also batted extremely well, with his best test score of 166, and he and Ponting put on 352 for the fourth wicket - the highest partnership for any wicket by Australia against Pakistan and the second highest partnership ever in Australia. A great day's cricket!

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

A chilly 13 degrees C this morning but I was manfully into it along with sprog #3 and a friend of his who has also been coerced into the running game. Felt unusually strong this morning and was very pleased that I seem to have leapt to a new level in my running. I was even surprised to find this easy 6km training run was actually a PB for me without even trying (though not one to really write home about), so form is definitely on the improve.

LE JOG: A little further north and another runway illegally traversed. I'm going to have a heck of a record by the time I get to John O'...

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

I used the Forerunner Training Assistant function for the first time today, and it forced a brilliant run out of me: I set myself a target of 45 minutes for my current standard run of 7.7km and totally blitzed it, finishing in 42:00 - that's 5:27/km pace, and the best training run I've had for absolutely ages.

Not sure where this is heading, but I'm keen as mustard now.

Still need to squeeze some decent long runs in there, but a great start to the running year, that's for sure.

[stillwaddler]

You seem to be going great guns despite the heat MLG, I've never used the training assistant function, so might just give it a go.

Just watch out for the security guys on the runways, mind you in your current form you could probably out run them :-)

[Sweder]

Still need to squeeze some decent long runs in there, but a great start to the running year, that's for sure.

No doubt; excellent start indeed. Training Assistant worked for me when I used it in Almeria (though with the 'slight fluctuations' in distance at that event my training partner finished before we'd started our lap of the stadium). It was so cool to see how far behind I was; watching the gap shrink gave me a real lift. Hmm. Might try that again this year ...

[El Gordo]

Training Assistant? Is this the same as Virtual Partner on my 305 / 201?

Agree it can be useful.

Well done MLCM; sounds like you've made a great start to the year.

[Antonio247]

Congratulations, MLCM. You´re in a very good shape.

Saludos desde Almería