27 Sep - 10 Oct

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Yes it's been one of those periods where, if life hasn't exactly conspired against me, it has certainly elected itself Platoon Captain and has been bossing me about, i.e. I don't feel as if I've been much in control of late, even though this general state of mayhem has been largely of my own doing.

What I'm trying to say is that I've not much running to report. Not that it has been far from my mind - quite the opposite in fact, but in terms of actually running as such, well I've failed miserably.

That I need to take charge of this sad state of affairs is being rammed home regularly by everyone from my 16 y.o. son (more on him later) to the leader of the opposition, "Fatty" Latham, about whom I shall also tell more shortly.

I am not by nature a workaholic (just ask my wife!), but lately have been putting in 12 - 16 hour days, which has left me in something of a state of, um, let's call it culture shock I normally run in the evenings or even late at night, which I love, but that's gone out the window of late, and I've been left to contemplate this sad state of affairs, typically in the form of very late night navel-gazing over a restorative bottle of red or two. My thinking invariably goes something like this...

Why am I running? Er, dunno really. Fitness??
5km two or three times a week would be enough for that, wouldn't it? Er, yes. True.
So what's with this marathon nonsense? Oh well, that's (a) a special sense of achievement, and (b) a worthy goal to spur me on.
Well, if that was true, motivation wouldn't be a problem, would it? Oh yeah, I guess that's true too.
So what's really behind this desire to run further than you actually need? Er, pass. As in, "pass me the bottle". No, dunno mate, too hard.

Yes, I really, really enjoy running, and really enjoy having a major goal like a marathon to work toward, but in the end have to concede that it obviously can't be my major, or core reason for running, else it wouldn't be a constant struggle to stay motivated and disciplined.

Anyway, I've had my nose rubbed in it heaps lately. As you may be aware (we certainly are) there is a general election over here in a few days time. Our Prime Minister is well known for his early morning constitutional brisk walk, and so the leader of the opposition, "Fatty" Latham, rather cleverly decided to make a pre-election pledge to lose weight and thus gain extra campaign coverage as the cameras followed his efforts to run off several kilos and lose his famously self-professed man-boobs.

Rather inevitably this lead to series of media reports on the fitness habits of many leading politicians. Now I worked for many years in broadcasting, and got to meet most of the leading pollies of the day, and formed my "inverse law of political personality" which states that the true off-camera personality of a politician is inversely proportional to their political standing in my eyes. That is, I quickly discovered that the politicians I most despised politically, were nearly always annoyingly nice people, while the pollies that I actually voted for tended to be out and out bastards. I tell you that because in reading an article on the fitness habits of our elected reps, I found one of those very close to the top of my most despised list actually has a very impressive attitude towards running. He regularly works 14 hour days plus (all pollies at the senior level are by necessity workaholics), and so has to get up at 4 a.m. each day to go for a run. He says he absolutely hates getting up early but added that "running through deserted city streets at that time of the morning is nearly always worthwhile".

I was thinking about this whilst in Melbourne last weekend attending a conference. I stayed in a hotel very close to the Botanical Gardens, which I figured was excellent, because it meant I might be able to squeeze in a run on Melbourne's famous "Tan Track" which is a 3.8 kilometre loop of the Gardens, made famous by being the training ground of many of our top athletes, including world 400m champ Cathy Freeman. In the end I didn't get to squeeze in a run, but I did manage to walk through the gardens on my way to the conference, and was quite taken by the sight of hundreds (literally) of athletes, joggers and wanna-bes running around the Gardens (all clockwise too) while only a handful of people actually strolled through some of the most beautiful gardens in the country. It spoke to me, anyhow. I didn't spot any famous athletes, but I was impressed by the number of personal fitness trainers with expensive late-model motor vehicles watching fat, wheezing designer-clad middle-aged middle to upper-middle class victims threatening self-inflicted heart attacks on the lawns.

It got me to wondering about the whole personal trainer thing. In what other society would you find wealthy gorillas battering down your front door at 6 a.m. to drag you out for public humiliation and torture whilst simultaneously emptying your wallet? And it's not even a crime? Got me beat.

Anyway, it's no worse than what we do to ourselves I guess. Which brings me to no.2 ankle-biter, who is now 16 and a bit of a gorilla himself. Way bigger than me at least. He's a sports nut, but hasn't been keen on running despite my cajoling. Well finally my running the City to Bay run sparked some interest, and he's declared his intent to run the local "Black Hill Challenge" on October 31st. This is a 14km bush track run up Black Hill alluded to in recent posts of mine. It has a stiff ascent and will be a tough, tough run. Naturally, he expects me to enter as well which brings us full circle back to having goals along the way to stay motivated and reach that darned marathon distance. I guess I'm going to do it. Being one who constantly harps on about liking hills, I guess I'll have to put my feet where my mouth is and go for it.

Teenagers, hmmph :mad:

Meanwhile, the weather here is perfect perfect perfect and why the hell am I sitting here in front of the PC (Personal Coronary-device) when I could be out running??!?

Slightly fatter and none-the-wiser MLC Man

[El Gordo]

Interesting update, MLCM, and glad to see that you're still with us.

The looped question about motivation is an interesting one. I don't know if this is the same for everyone, but as I've mentioned many times, I find that motivation is self-propelling, but in both directions. When you're running well, you've no need for pep-talks to get you out there. When you're in a down period, it's easy to sink further. For me, there's only one answer, and that's to force yourself to break the cycle (and no, nothing to do with taking a sledge hammer to your bike). It may be tough, but force yourself to get out for just one run, and suddenly you're thinking wow, I've remembered what a great feeling this is. The cycle can easily be broken in the other direction, unfortunately. Sometimes (in fact ALWAYS), when things are going well, something springs out of nowhere to bugger things up. A chocolate ambush, or an assailant in the shape of a bottle of decent wine. Or a social occasion that reminds me how good fried food and desserts can taste. The naughty genie's out of the bottle again, and that's it for a while.

Running can be hard, and finding the appetite for it during those off periods, is hard too. The one thing, the one single thing that sustains me, and gets me back out there, is the sure knowledge that plodding for a few miles, then a shower and a change of clothes, makes me feel reborn.

If you're working very long hours, it may seem hard, but remember that running can be thinking time. Instead of regarding it as separate 'leisure time', perhaps think of it as part of your working day; a period away from the desk to try to work a few things out in your mind. (This presumes you do something that involves a desk. The technique may not work if you're a hairdresser or a deep sea diver.)

So don't worry about the "constant struggle to stay motivated and disciplined". If I didn't suffer the same problem, I wouldn't appreciate just how good it can be. Only starey-eyed obsessives don't have a motivation problem. You know, those people who could go to a fancy dress party as a visitor from the Planet Zog without having to change anything about their appearance or behaviour. You wannabe one of them? Professional athletes, and those guys who spent all their time at university training or competing, and no time getting drunk or stoned or trying to get their leg over. Sanctimonious whippets. You wanna be one of them?

Or do you want to be one of the regular guys who manages to be normal, enjoy (yahaa!) many of those deliciously bad things in life and STILL have room for the pleasure of running, and the ability to see new things in the world around you. Do you think that those zombie, always-motivated nuts could write about your hills the way you can? Do you think they can engage with life's absurdities in the same way? Because that's what you'd have to swap to get their attitude. That's what you'd have to sacrifice.

Enjoy your bottle or two of red. Tonight, and even tomorrow. But decide now that the day after that, you're going to get out there and enjoy the luxury of your own company, and for all the right reasons. Do it once, and the rest will follow.

And any politician who says that "running through deserted city streets at that time of the morning [4 a.m.] is nearly always worthwhile" is a man who knows too much. Either make him Prime Minister, or assassinate him.