roller coaster

The emotional roller coaster that is the week before the marathon continues apace.

If you’re one of those people who have high “emotional quotient”, you might have detected between the lines, a touch of grumpiness over the last week. In fact, it was a lot more than just a “touch”; I was about as low, emotionally, as I go.

Today, however, I’m happy and bouncy and generally chipper. The antibiotics I started taking last night would seem to be extremely fast acting. Last night I had something close to a good night’s sleep – only the one early morning coughing fit. Today I’m feeling even better.

News from the Gold Coast is helping the state of mind no end. The weather forecast is for a low of 9 degrees and a high of 19, sunny and no mention of significant wind. Touch wood, that’s good news.

In amusing news, according to the Pat Carroll website, Lee Troop will be pacing a 2 hour 20 minute group. Phew! What a relief! I bet there’ll be hundreds of people lining up for that.

The 3 hour pacer, who I’ll hopefully be hanging with, is Steve Monaghetti. Assuming it’s the same guy, that’ll make things pretty cool. Though, in a way, it’s a bit intimidating, as I still have vivid memories of running a 10km PB at a fun run a few years back and feeling pretty chuffed with myself, only to learn SM finished 10 whole minutes faster than I did. And I’m running with this guy??? I might have to beg him to go easy on me.

Running
An easy 9km today over lunch-time. Easy, but odd. I headed north, and it was like running into a hurricane. Then I turned back and almost achieved unassisted human flight heading down Royal Parade into town.

Celebrity crap
Apparently we’re all so obsessed with Michael Jackson that we have to endure almost a week of breathless commentary over his life and death. At one end of the spectrum are people who seriously consider him to be “up there with Mozart and Beethoven”. By the way, if you do meet someone like that, please be so good as to call your friendly local mental hospital: there are plenty of nice white padded rooms just crying out for these sorts of people.

At the other end, you have people, mostly those who actually knew him, who have been rude enough to mention some of the nasty stuff about him. You know, his peculiar sex life, physical deformities, drug addictions, questionable approach to fathering children and immense debt. How can you possibly be 500 million dollars in debt and not be considered bankrupt?

An interesting life, I guess.

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes have apparently arrived in Melbourne, to make a fillum. I’m a bit disappointed about this. How is it that relatively innocent drug couriers and terrorists are given a hard time coming through customs, yet Tom Cruise, responsible for such horrors as Valkyrie and Mission Impossible 2, is let in without a question?

blasted bronchitis

A trip to the local GP this morning confirmed what I already suspected: the little cold from a fortnight ago has developed into bronchitis.

Leaving aside the sleepless nights spent hacking up my lungs, I also have the Gold Coast Marathon to run this Sunday and I had my eyes fixed on a fast-ish time.

Sigh.

I’ll give you a tip: if it turns out this bloody bronchitis means the months of training were wasted, give me a wide berth for a few days. I will not be a happy boy.

Anyway, I told the doc to hit me with his most potent drugs, and I must have looked fairly frazzled. He obliged and I’m now full up to pussy’s bow with various types of antibiotic. Cross your fingers, that will hopefully do the trick.

The question is: is the coughing going to stop enough by Sunday to let me finish the marathon? Am I going to be able to run sub 3 hours? Am I going to be able to do that without having a heart attack?

Question, questions.

Running
On doctor’s orders (no kidding) I took a nice easy 9km run this lunchtime. It didn’t feel too bad at the time, but I was a bit short of breath afterwards.

a new dog

I made a bit of a tactical mistake yesterday – driving past the RSPCA in Burwood with the wife and kids in tow. It was always going to be hard to say no. After I made a second mistake and drove into the carpark, it was going to be next to impossible to make it through the day without acquiring a dog of some description.

I managed to hold out for a bit, but it was hard when confronted with three simultaneous sets of puppy-dog eyes (plus all the actual dogs) as well as reasoning like this:

But I want a dog!
But she’s cute!!!
She loves you!!!!
She’s great with kids.
She’ll be a guard dog.
We won’t have to train her.
It’s up to you (with enormous, sulky puppy-dog eyes and pouty lower lip)
I promise I’ll look after her!!!!

That last one, from my wife, had already started to look a bit shaky this morning, when we discovered a largish poo in the backyard.

Anyway, her name is Buffy (not such a terrific name, but there you go). She’s not a puppy, but that’s good as we have enough trouble training little creatures as it is at the moment. She’s 3 years old, a part Beagle, part something else, toilet trained and incredibly good with our kids.

Here’s a picture:

She’s settled in well so far, but we’re going to have to do something about the sleeping arrangements. Last night I was woken 5 times by a dog’s slobbery tongue licking my face. I gather that’s her charming way of telling me she wants to go outside and piddle.

Running
I’m still feeling sick, with a bloody awful cough. It’s really getting me down and generally sapping my confidence. That being said, perhaps due to the lovely winter sun, I’m considering a brief run this afternoon. To test the waters.

not a post about Michael Jackson

It’s sad when anyone dies, particularly before their time. Michael Jackson’s death was sad, as was much of his life, as I see it, but it kinda leaves me cold.

I could see he was something of a dancer, and a very talented musician, very young, but when it comes down to it I just don’t like his music. I never have, never will. Even “Billie Jean” which everyone seems to love, just strikes me as a bit tinny.

Anyway, it’s also sad about Farrah Fawcett, Victoria’s third swine-flu victim and all the thousands of people who die every day in the third world.

Grumpy
I’m slightly grumpy today, as you may have guessed. The damn cold I had ages ago is still going, and has now ensconced itself in my lungs. I don’t want to make it worse, so I haven’t run since Monday. Given the marathon is Sunday week, I’m getting concerned.

I know I’m supposed to taper, but this is ridiculous.

I know I shouldn’t make too much of this, but I’m secretly seething. Outside I am my normal debonair self, but inside I’m raving like a foul-mouthed Tasmanian devil.

no stairway to heaven – triple j hottest 100 of all time

Yesterday’s post over at Em’s blog got me thinking, it’s time to enter triple j’s hottest 100 of all time.

Now, I could spend a month scouring the internet, my CD collection, my MP3 player and drawing up labyrinthine spreadsheets; in a way that might be fun. However, I don’t have the time and the entries close this week, so I’ve done a half-arsed, 5 minute job instead.

Here’s what I ended up with…..

1. Tim Buckley – Song to the Siren
2. Buffy Sainte-Marie – Little wheel spin and spin
3. The Las – There she goes
4. Bob Dylan – I shall be released
5. Leonard Cohen – Famous blue raincoat
6. The Dirty Three – Some summers they drop like flies
7. You am I – Berlin Chair
8. Antony and the Johnsons – Daylight and the sun
9. Nick Drake – Place to be
10. Nick Cave – The mercy seat

Most of them are in there because I’ve listened to them for years and haven’t got sick of them yet: a good sign. Some are there because I had to have at least one song by the artist. Some songs have been left out because they seem too popular, according to the jjj website. Some are there because I’m in a grumpy mood. A few – 1, 3, 4, 7 – are there to lighten up what’s a fairly gloomy list.

Before you say anything, my list is clearly superior to yours. So there.

Running
None today, yet. My cold from last week is still there, making me feel a bit blocked up and foggy. It could actually be a new one caught from the kids. They always seem to have some new infection on the go. Anyway, I’m considering postponing today’s planned 10km. Blast it.

we was robbed, really

I’m a touch grumpy tonight, and with reason. Some – how to put this nicely? – “people” broke into my house this afternoon and burglarised us.

It really shouldn’t be too much of a problem. No-one was hurt, and we have insurance. I also understand there might be plenty of people out there who really need some cash in a hurry.

That being said, no-one likes having strange people rifling through your chest of drawers. And I’m not happy our video camera went walkies. It was a hard-disk recorder, chock full of family videos taken in the last 2 years.

The police came over and were very professional and understanding, but, if you’re waiting for the burglar to be caught, my advice is to not hold your breath.

Ah well, s**t happens.

Running
None today. It’s taper-time. 10km planned tomorrow.

it’s a circus

It’s been a long day today, what with one thing or another. I was up considerably before the dawn, woken by a couple of youngsters demanding Weetbix and Rice Bubbles. After inhaling a bowl of rice bubbles myself and palming off the kids to their Mum, I headed out for a “long run”.

I say long run with the quote marks, as it wasn’t terribly long. It was 26km in exactly 2 hours, so it was neither long nor fast. I guess the best you can say is that it was restful, as restful as a long run can be. And there’s no point wearing myself out with hard running at present.

When I got home we seem to have acquired another kid – our neighbour’s 5 year old, come to spend the day with us. Fun.

We stuffed around a bit, then headed up to Lilydale to see the circus.

Once they got over their sheer terror at:

1. the dark
2. the noise
3. the smoke machine and
4. the scary man with the top hat

the kids had a lot of fun. So did I.

I’m tired now, but strangely the kids aren’t at all. They’re running around in circles like a miniature tornado.

I seem to say this every Sunday, but I’ll sleep well tonight.

in the wars

I’ve been a bit in the wars lately, which is why there’s been precious little blogging this week. It really did stop my blogging. No, really.

I have a feeling it’s my body’s perverse way of rebelling against 2 weeks of around 120km worth of running.

The first problem was a really nasty case of chaffing. It affected my nipples, though curiously only the right one. That was only a side affect, compared to the main area of chaffing, which was actually red raw and bleeding. I’ll spare you the details, aside from saying I had a pronouced bow-legged walk for a few days there.

Incidentally, do you remember this really stupid, and offensive, old joke? Q: Why do Gypsy’s have bowed legs? A: Because they have crystal balls.

Silly eh?

Anyway, the second problem that on Monday I managed to pick up a dose of something that wasn’t quite the swine flu.

Then I had a problem with my finger-nail, which got ripped off, and then infected. That wasn’t quite painful enough, so I did it again on another finger.

Then, I managed to burn my thumb on an oven tray while cooking cupcakes. (That’s a first – a cupcake-related injury).

And on Thursday I slammed my index finger in the car door. That finger is a nice shade of blue.

At that point I had 3 fingers and a thumb out of action, two of which were prime typing fingers. So, no blogging.

I think that’s it.

Some of this, I grant you, could be put down to stupidity on my part, but I do think it had something to do with my body being quite literally run down.

Running
No running from Monday to Wednesday, due mainly to the cold/flu but not helped by the chaffing. Last night I ventured out for a speculative 12.5km around the streets near my place. Today I had a more interesting 17.5km starting and finishing at my office. It didn’t feel terribly good at the time, but turned out to be done at a reasonable pace.