It’s January 1st really, but I’ve been meaning to write something here for so long that it seems better to pretend that it’s still 2006, so that I can say cheerio to it properly. How was it for you? By my usual steady-as-she-goes standards, it was almost tumultuous. That 5 hour marathon demon got its come-uppance at last, yet I managed to rouse a few dormant ones I’d long forgotten about. Six months of illness, idleness and burgeoning blubber presented me with a stop-start final quarter. December was shaping up to be a steady but unspectacular tickover month but I’ve managed to pick up a couple of modest, but unignorable injuries. The lanes round here are narrow and undulating, meaning … …
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Someone mailed me today and mentioned Monday’s “gloomy” entry. Gloomy? I reread it, and I see what they mean. But it wasn’t supposed to sound like that. The intention was to be faintly whimsical, not pessimistic. Perhaps I should be pessimistic, but I’m not feeling too down about my running at present. It’s true that the last two weekends have contained long hangovers in the slots normally reserved for long runs, but hey, it’s Christmas. I’ve still managed to get out the door for 3 or 4 restorative miles almost every other day…. ish, and the last few, including this evening’s, have actually felt quite brisk. Even… lusty. I was careful to say “felt” brisk; it’s a strange thing … …
There it is again: that muffled clacking from the other side of the window…. Ah wait, it’s just the limping Ghost of Christmas Past. Five years ago today, I did the first 3 mile leg of my first marathon. You can read it here. I read it myself now and then, trying to gauge the great improvement I must have experienced. But it only ever reminds me that plus ça change…… …
Confessional. Forgive me further, for I have sinned. Again. Time of year is an easy excuse, so let’s grab it while it’s still available. A long-planned festive pub get-together last Thursday, corporate Christmas bash on Saturday evening, lunch with some mates today. Several days of wine and dozes on one side of the scales, with just a semi-run for an hour on Saturday morning, and a mundane 4 miles in the middle of last week, on the other. Did I mention scales? The weight dive seems to have come to a temporary halt as I struggle to metabolise 6 days of gluttony. I can see the headline now. MY GRUB HELL. Except… except it was all rather pleasant really. … …
Any mind mappers out there? I’ve recently been reminded how much it helps to see things in pictures. Charting has long been an interest; probably since those distant lectures on systems analysis on my MSc course. The enthusiasm continued during a brief and largely miserable career as an intelligence analyst with the police, when I spent my days drawing sprawling, complex charts showing links between criminals and organised crime, and mapping out the hierarchy of their gangs. Mind mapping is similar, but rather more useful, showing ideas or other entities in a tree-like structure, emanating from a central point. I came across some interesting and sophisticated mind mapping software last week which I’ve been playing with. If you want, try … …
Something rather odd happened today. I was out at 7 this morning for my pre-work energiser. The standard short route — 3.5 miles. Felt good all day, and even worked late. Arrived home, looking forward to my Marks & Spencer’s Chicken & Bacon layer salad and an evening in front of the Champions League, but blow me, when I heard the product of the Wednesday evening bellringers’ practice reverberating across the village, I found myself changing into my running kit and getting back out there for a testing 5.2 miles around the pitch-black, drizzley lanes. I can’t explain it. I’m not sure if it’s happened before. But anyway, it’s made me feel extremely holy, and that’s nothing to do with … …
Brighton has a kink. I’ll come to it. Time break a minor tradition by actually writing about today’s Brighton 10K. For reasons now lost in the Sussex mists, I’ve written up all thirty-odd races I’ve done apart from the two previous runnings of the Brighton 10K. Having ignored it the first time, it seemed almost customary to do so again. But it’s so long since I did a race of any kind that I can’t let the opportunity pass to prattle on about it for a bit. I enjoyed the day, though the race itself was tough. M and I arrived in Brighton at around 10, and after a mild ‘domestic’ about where to park, headed for the multi-storey behind … …
Two or three early morning runs and an Everest of fresh, raw fruit and vegetables, has left me vibrating with good health all week. I’d forgotten how invigorating this is. Work has been a pleasure. Yes, it’s that serious. Another 5 miles due tomorrow, then a 48 hour rest before the Brighton 10K on Sunday, my first race since Zurich in April. It will be slow and flappy, but I will at least get round. My weekly mileage and distances are creeping upwards but I’m still too fat to run quickly, even though I weighed in this morning at 12 pounds less than I did about 2.5 weeks ago. … …
When I was at school, I noticed that had TS Eliot been called ST Eliot, his name spelt backwards would have been… well, work it out for yourself. Thought about that this evening, as I re-read the start of The Waste Land. I hadn’t looked at it for… gulp, nearly thirty years. Tonight, I finally realised what my English teacher was going on about all those years ago. When I was 16, I thought it was an OK poem, if a bit obtuse. It’s actually a quite brilliant piece of writing, but I guess you have to be as old as I am now to realise that finally. Why was I reading it? Because I’d started this entry with … …
Some people like to run with their dogs. An interesting way of staying motivated. I’m thinking about buying a tortoise to tag along with. Help coax me out of my comfort zone. Progress is slow, but there is progress. I was out again at 7 this morning, turning in around 4 miles. Again, no walking. I seem to have emerged from that phase. It’s horribly slow; still well over 11 minutes a mile. More like 11:30, in fact. But it’s 4 miles without a break, and that’s a good sign that I’m slowly starting to build up some endurance again. At the moment I’m sticking to the party line — I’m doing the Two Oceans 35 miler,, and plan get … …