Monthly Archives: January 2010

Run 13, 2010 …do you suffer from Brain Monkeys?

Posted on Sunday, January 31, 2010 by Administrator

I thought of various other titles for this post. Titles like “It was brutal! It was really really brutal!” But Brain Monkeys won out. And today’s run was brutal. I hurt a lot. I’m just this crazy frozen lump of crazy frozen ting. I barely made it back alive. The wind was brutal. It felt like -20. Most of my run was through ankle deep drifting snow. I am exhausted. Trying to run on a thick unstable surface just kills me. Anyway, I did manage to finish. You may well ask: “But what’s this I hear about Brain Monkeys? How much are they and where can I get one?” Trust me, they come uninvited and you don’t really want one because they multiply and will try to browbeat you into submission. Yes friends, I suffer from the heartbreak of BRAIN MONKEYS. Last Friday I was scheduled for a 12 km … Continue reading →

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Run 7, 2010 …the myth of Sisyphus

Posted on Saturday, January 16, 2010 by Administrator

During my 12 km run yesterday, I was thinking how often I have had to “start all over again”. Long story short, the Greek myth of Sisyphus: Sisyphus was condemned to roll a large stone up to the top of a pointy hill, only to have the stone roll down again – for all eternity. Perhaps we runners won’t have to contend with our own problems for all eternity, but sometimes it seems like it. All too often we are on a roll (no pun intended), then suffer a setback. It seems like we are always taking one step forward and two back – always starting from scratch. We get injured, sidetracked, busy, or whatever. The point is, sometimes life seems like a Greek myth. So many runners suffer injuries and have to rest and recuperate, then start all over again from a lower level of fitness. The worst problems … Continue reading →

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Run 3, 2010 …all the world’s a track…

Posted on Wednesday, January 6, 2010 by Administrator

All the world’s a track, And all the men and women merely runners: They have their exits and their entrances; And one runner in his time plays many parts… And so today I ran at the indoor track. I ran 6 laps for a warm up, then began my 44 lap 10 km time trial. My pace was 6:40 per kilometer so I ran it in 1:06:36. In all I did 11.36 (50 laps) km today. Then I walked a few extra laps for a cool down. Did my stretches and some push ups after. Then I went to the pool where something new happened. After only a few minutes of just bobbing around a small area in my left calf muscle began contracting uncontrollably over an area about the size of a dollar coin, causing me a considerable amount of incapacitating pain. No sooner did that settle down a … Continue reading →

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Running indoors? Sure, why not?

Posted on Wednesday, January 6, 2010 by Administrator

I can hardly wait for tomorrow, I’m so excited! Why am I excited? Because tomorrow is the one day of the week when I get to run indoors, where I can wear shorts and a T-shirt instead of layers of winter running gear and slogging it through the icy and unforgiving cold, which I do twice a week anyway. In the winter I like to run indoors once a week but I don’t like treadmills. Our local indoor walking/running track requires 4.4 laps per kilometer, which means 10 km is 44 laps. I like to do 50 laps though which is approximately 11.36 km. I’ve been doing this every winter for a while now and I’ve discovered that there is no way I can keep count of that many laps. Oh sure, it’s all fun and games for the first few laps, and easy to keep count, but after the … Continue reading →

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Karate 140

Posted on Tuesday, January 5, 2010 by Administrator

Well the first class of 2010 was relatively easy. I don’t think any of us did any karate during the holidays and the Christmas break of almost a month didn’t help. Classes usually end during this time as the schools where we have our dojo are usually booked solid with Christmas activities for the students. Anyway, I enjoyed the class. We did kata and more basics, and we did a lot of kicks against the mats that were being held up by some of us. I like using mats because we can use full power without hurting anyone. But I like sparring too even though I’m not very good at it because sparring teaches control and awareness that you just can’t get from kata or from hitting a mat. Sparring gives you a real opponent who almost never reacts in a textbook manner. It’s the closest thing to real street … Continue reading →

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Run 2, 2010 …the marathon training begins today

Posted on Sunday, January 3, 2010 by Administrator

Today’s run was a good one. The weather was partly overcast and a lot warmer at -16 or so, so I was quite warm. I began the run a bit on the slow side, but achieved a negative split, averaging a 7:30 pace over 13 kilometers. I quite happy about this run to mark the beginning of my marathon training program. I just hope this time I can avoid injury. I’m also glad the holidays are over and that Karate is starting up again this Tuesday. I’m looking forward to that. Speaking of which, I should go now and go through a few kata.

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Run 1, 2010 …all systems go…

Posted on Friday, January 1, 2010 by Administrator

Fours layers of shirts…check…two layers of pants…check…hat…check…mittens…check…yaktrax…check…pepper spray…check…portable hot pack…check…socks…check…shoes…check…water…check…iPhone and Runkeeper program…check Will to live…check Feeling sorry for myself… check All systems go! See you all in about an hour and a quarter after my 11 km run which will be partly through knee deep snow since I’ve decided to take to the trails even if I have to walk/slog through them just because I’m an idiot. The trail portion is only 2.5 km anyway. OK so that was a mistake. Stay away from the trails. Far far away. That is, if you want to run them. I think I’ll be avoiding them until spring, for running purposes anyway. My Powerade became a frozen slushy mess in no time so I didn’t have much of it. The new interface on the Runkeeper program is OK but the audio feedback is…slower…than…snails… I used to be able to get a status … Continue reading →

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