4.6 miles on a cool evening, catching the last of the light. As part of my campaign to improve, I’ve resolved to extend my bog-standard 3½ mile round-the-block jog when I can. I’ve tacked on a detour which, I’m appalled to announce, includes a hill, or at least something that I would call a hill, but which, I suspect, some of the RC regulars would scoff at.… READ MORE.... …
Blog Posts
The Shinfield 10K was a sort of accidental race. A minute or so into this event, I suddenly thought: “Crikey, I’m running a race”. It was as if I’d suddenly woken up and found myself sleepwalking. In the real world, I’d opened my eyes at around 8 o’clock, got up and mooched around for a bit. Over a cup of coffee, I absent-mindedly checked out local 10K races for the coming months, and saw that there was one happening today, in just over an hour’s time.… READ MORE.... …
i have always known that at last i would take this road, but yesterday i did not know that it would be today. Akira No Narihara Now then, friends… Sweder’s heroic battle with the Two Ocean’s Marathon (and if you’ve not read it, read it now) added a bit more fuel to a fire that’s been glowing for a few weeks now.… READ MORE.... …
The early part of the morning was spent trying to finish a longer entry that I started to write some time ago — but it can wait another day or two. If I continue to suspend normal life on here, I’ll miss out recording the other good things that are happening. Like a really bouncey run this morning, around a six mile loop of the local fields.… READ MORE.... …
Sunday, 19:30 Buon giorno. Just occasionally, it’s hard to imagine yourself happier. Or is that too controversial an idea for this world? As a voracious consumer of news, I feel under constant pressure to feel miserable. It pisses me off. Let’s follow our instincts, and laugh at the absurdity of it all. The madness is universal and omnipresent — though its intrinsic qualities are revealed only gradually, it seems.… READ MORE.... …
It’s all going too well now: I find myself scouring the horizon, wondering where exactly the shipwreck will happen. The coast of Sicily looks a decent bet. The telescope moves from smoky bars showing the Champions League semi-finals, to quaint ristoranti overflowing with hearty regional specialities. How long could I stay on my feet in a place like that, surviving the temptation to tackle a plate of cassata, washed down with a very large glass of one of the island’s famous dessert wines?… READ MORE.... …
According to “experts at Leeds University”, the formula for the perfect bacon sandwich is: N = C + {fb (cm) . fb (tc)} + fb (Ts) + fc . ta where N = force in Newtons required to break the cooked bacon, fb = function of the bacon type, fc = function of the condiment/filling effect, Ts = serving temperature, tc = cooking time, ta = time or duration of application of condiment/filling, cm = cooking method, C=Newtons required to break uncooked bacon.… READ MORE.... …
It’s been a good Friday alright: weather warm and sunny — just right for a few hours in the garden, tackling the grass for the first time this year. We grumble about winter, but at least you don’t have to devote half your free time wrestling with horticultural insurgents, gatecrashing your life to suffocate your idyll. Bugger off you bullying bastards — who invited you?… READ MORE.... …
Three partial workouts to report. The last of the three — today’s gym induction — was never going to register as an over-rigorous ordeal. You usually expend more effort trying to sound convincing when asked about weekly alcohol intake, than you do on any particular piece of apparatus. A gym induction comes close to being almost faintly exciting. For the first bit you sit there and say all the things that you want to hear yourself saying.… READ MORE.... …
You know how sometimes you pop into Marks and Spencer to top up your Y-front collection, and come out with a suit and half a dozen shirts (and no Y-fronts…)? Same happened today on the running front. Went out for three miles and came back with seven. Encouraging. I’m serious this time. Yes OK, I was serious last time, and the time before that.… READ MORE.... …