Forward March

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Today's long slow run was a little tough, I must admit. Despite a good night's sleep I awoke to this run feeling jaded and heavy. It may have been the combination of beer, wine, more wine and heavy comestibles the previous evening, I suppose. Maybe I should cut down a bit. The other indicator that perhaps I ought to curtail my imbibing a little is that despite five solid weeks of training, my weight hasn't shifted downwards at all.

One thing that has shifted downwards most encouragingly, however, is my resting heart rate, now residing down in the low 50s, which is most, erm, heartening, if you'll forgive the pun.

But, back to that troublesome run. It was the same 16km I ran last week, but rather harder this time around. It was disappointing, I guess, not to cover the same distance more easily or a little quicker, but just grinding it out under the duress of too much booze and too many calories coursing through my veins, and given that I toughed it out without a single stop, I suppose in hindsight it was pretty well done.

One thing that certainly helped is the addition of some new tracks to my running playlist. I'm not sure what inspired me to add this one; it's a track I love, being perhaps the only Yoko Ono song I've ever actually liked, but I'd never considered it as suitable running music, and not just because it's another song about walking. In fact, this is fabulous to jog along to. I hope you like it, but it is certainly very different. Deep Purple, it is not. 

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Batting for the other side.

Australians generally play their sport hard, but fair. At least that's what we all thought until the third cricket test in South Africa. Steve Smith, second only to Donald Bradman as Australia's greatest cricketing legend, and perhaps of all time anywhere, has now been outed as a cheat. The response here in Australia has been a very nearly unanimous and unequivocal outburst of rage and disgust at his tactics, and rightly so.

Australians also have a bit of a reputation for having the 'tall poppy syndrome', i.e. savagely cutting down successful people when they err. In part, this is because of people such as Steve Smith. For the past several years he has imbued the nation with a sense of pride and awe, as his astonishing prowess with the cricket bat, as a captain and as a seemingly decent, likeable bloke, has all now been cut asunder as he reveals his true, treacherous nature.

The bloke is quite simply a bastard. Don Bradman was also known for being a bit of bastard, but he didn't hide it, and he certainly didn't cheat. Smith has been found out, and he seems far from repentant, claiming he's still worthy of retaining the captaincy. Well, bugger me with a garden fork, for that's a disgrace.

This nation is in shock, and cricket will never be the same again. He is another Lance Armstrong, and I hope he gets the same punishment: banishment from the sport and the abolition of all his sporting records. It's a harsh punishment, certainly, but bloody fair.

But back to the less contentious business of running. I was only good for a short, easy today, but being already well over my intended target of 100km  for the month, it's quite OK. My legs are weary and I am weary at the end of a long week, so simply to have covered another 7km is something of a bonus, and I'm happy with it.

My quest to find new songs to run to has included a couple by Martin Solveig ... here is today's track du jour. It's kind of quirky, but certainly gets the legs and heart pumping, and it's a world away from the distress and disgust of the f*cking cricket.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

At the double...

Good runs come reasonably frequently, but brilliant runs, the result of good planning, listening to one's body and being a little bit sensible about it all, are a little rarer and significantly more fun. Such was today's tempo run: it looked bloody hard on paper, but was completed with more than a little aplomb, and the resultant smugness made me insufferable for the rest of the day. Even once at work, where a small, apparently malicious army of twenty or so people (allegedly on a training program) invaded my work space and managed to destroy much of what I'm paid to keep alive and in good order; yes, even they failed to dampen my enthusiasm and positive outlook.

Some people, who shall remain nameless, have refused to believe this burst of positive vigour is actually happening. I agree it is out of character, but buoyant of mood I am, and it's all down to the running.

Now I just need to ensure this enthusiasm doesn't translate into over-training. Wow, how things have changed in just a few weeks... [insert Cheshire cat grin here].

[Seafront Plodder]

At the double...

. [insert Cheshire cat grin here].

ok.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Ta.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Insufferable smugness.

My last run of the month was an easy 8km, which brought my total for March to 129km, well above my target of 100km. I'm very pleased with that and keen now to see what April has to offer.

I was also keen to write here a little more about the ball-tampering scandal by the Australian cricketers in South Africa, but I'm so disgusted by it that I'll keep it brief, lest I rant beyond what is acceptable, which in itself says something about my feelings. The three players caught or confessing to cheating are all back home and have been given lengthy bans from the game by Cricket Australia and severe punitive measures thorugh loss of sposorship and contracts. The coach, Darren Lehmann, has also fallen on his sword and resigned, though I suspect he is not alone among the players in avoiding prosecution without good reason. It's frankly unbelievable to me that the coach and senior bowlers wouldn't have known and therefore, at the very least, colluded with the cheating players.

In these dark times, I'm all the more determined to seek real purpose through my running, which remains extremely positive. I've also been supplementing the running with a large amount of walking. My fitness tracker reveals that I've accumulated well over half a million steps this month (running and walking), and I think this has helped enormously in generally avoiding injury and has perhaps also been a signfiicant factor in the lowering of my resting heart rate, which has sat at a pleasing average of 56 bpm throughout the month. 
 
Meanwhile, my weight is slowly but surely beginning a downward trend. If past charts of my progress through various running campaigns count for anything, this should begin to accelerate soon until it reaches a new, lower plateau where it will stabilise for a while, and where I have to consider replacing parts of my wardrobe, not a wholly unpleasant result.

Also not wholly unpleasant, in my quest for new running music I've unearthed this, another upbeat beauty:

[Charliecat5]

Insufferable smugness.

My last run of the month was an easy 8km, which brought my total for March to 129km, well above my target of 100km. I'm very pleased with that and keen now to see what April has to offer.

How many of those km were outside, not on the treadmill?

We went running outside this morning (OATR*, Paula and I).  11 miles over very, VERY, soggy Downs.  When pounding up Heartbreak Ridge with the wind and rain rasping against my face, calf muscles popping due to the steepness and cold, I did for a very fleeting second dream about a treadmill.  But then came to my senses, hunkered down and ran it home.   On a positive note, I did run off that endless stream of Abyss I accidentally consumed last night.  

Great track by the way (The Muffs).

*he's promised to write it up - so look out for that later on.