Android

Trying out the wordpress for android app. It seems okay, but I’d rather not have to type the whole thing out on my mobile.

A short post, methinks.

Running
10km vegie run this lunchtime. 285km for the month.

a bit torn about ironmen

In my more obviously insane moments, I do consider doing a triathlon, and an ironman event. Running I can do, more or less. I’ve cycled a fair bit in the past, and I have no doubt I could do that again. Even swimming isn’t quite as hard as I thought it was.

So, the thinking goes, it’s just a matter of putting it all together on the day.

Sadly, there’s no way I can ever do an ironman now that Tony Abbott has gone and done one first. On the one hand, everyone would assume I had been somehow inspired by the leader of the Liberal Party, which would have a fatal impact on my prestige. On the other hand, even if I ignored that, there would always be some part of me that would focus on beating his time.

I don’t want to spend months with Tony Abbott on my mind. I can imagine months of waking up in the middle of the night, sweating, from nightmares of being chased by red speedos.

It’s too painful for words.

Running
I keep a spreadsheet online at google docs that track all my runs, going back to 2007, so I know at any one time how I’m tracking against previous months. That’s all well and good, but it does mean at the end of the month I run more, simply so I can beat the previous month. Childish, I know. So I ran 26km on Sunday, 10km on Monday and 13.65km this morning. Another 10km tomorrow morning should push me up to the highest monthly total for the year (about 285km).

All is going to plan vis a vis my running plan for this year. The plan is to increase the training a little in April and then go into more formal marathon training in May onwards.

phew that’s better

Two weekends, two long runs as different from one another as chalk and cheese. Last week was the chalk, this morning was the cheese (assuming chalk is supposed to be bad and cheese good, which I suppose depends again on whether you want to write on a blackboard or have a toasted sandwich.)

Last week was hell before I started, hell while I was running and inexplicably worse after it was finished. In retrospect, it probably wasn’t wise to do a long run hungover, dehydrated, in the heat of the day, on a boring, dispiriting course.

Today I started in the cool of the early morning, relatively fresh and well rested and ran a course I quite like, with freedom to cut it short or extend as desired. What do you know? It went a lot better. It was only 26.15km, but it felt good and I could quite easily have run another 5 to 10km, no sweat.*

Here it is on mapmyrun.com.

*this bit is not entirely accurate. There would be lots of sweat.

Scienceworks
The kids got stuck having to spend all of Saturday with me yesterday, poor things, as their Mum had to work. We had a look at what’s on, for things to do, and were a bit overwhelmed. From what I can see, there is:

• Flower and Garden show
• Grand Prix
• Comedy Festival
• Food and Wine Festival
• Antipodes Greek Festival

all on this weekend. Plus the usual collection of parks, play centres, grandparents houses, rivers, beaches, museums, acquariums etc. In the end, we decided to do none of these, instead heading down to Spotswood to go to Scienceworks.

What with one thing or another (mainly because I live in Ringwood East) I’d never been. It was quite fun. The kids had a great time. They’re a little young for it, but were happy treating it as the world’s biggest, best play centre.

They spent 4 hours there, including playing on the swings outside, and watching a cartoon/movie thing at the planetarium. That’s a long time for little kids to spend in one place. The planetarium scared the bejeezus out of my 22 month-old daughter, but my 3 and half year old son (“a big boy”) was enthralled.

It was very good value entertainment, even if the science aspect flew over their heads.

3pm sugar fix

After a very long, very busy week in which I haven’t even had time to blog, I’m a touch low.

In fact, for the last hour, I’ve been sitting at work fighting off the urge to visit the honesty shop in the kitchen and hoe into some chocolate.

All was going well, until I read this article online about Nestle doing something appaling with Kit Kats and orangutans (or something, I didn’t quite get the gist).

At this point, I know Nestle are terrible for some new reason, but mainly that I desperately want a kit kat. I also know they have them in the kitchen.

Must be strong.

Running
Some running this week, but not as much as last week, due to being busy. 12 km on Tuesday morning, 13km on Wednesday and a quick-ish 9km this morning. That’s all. Hopefully I’ll do some more on the weekend.

a bit grim

My lovely wife has many wonderful qualities and many talents, but knowing the right thing to say about running is most definitely not one of them. I still remember her dropping me off at an AV half marathon a few years ago. She saw a bunch of fit looking people warming up, turned to me and in a concerned voice said, “These people look pretty good. Are you sure you should enter this?”

Thanks Darling.

This afternoon, she came up with another good one. I had just come through the front door, after a long run and her first words were “You look a bit grim”.

Well, how the hell should I look after running 28km? Fresh as a daisy?

In her defense, I have looked fresher, and felt healthier. It was not a good run by any means. It probably didn’t help that I watched the A-League grand final at the local pub last night. It was such a dire display of “the beautiful game” (especially when compared to Lionel Messi and Barcelona taking Stuttgart apart earlier in the week) that I had to drown my sorrows/boredom in beer.

So, I was a touch hungover this morning and it was one of those hangovers that stick around until the afternoon. It didn’t help on the run, let me tell you. After only 10km, I already had headaches, probably from dehydration. Luckily there was plenty of water along the route.

I really don’t want to talk more about the run any more. It was one of those runs where the best thing you can say about it is that I finished, and didn’t wimp out and call the loverly w. and ask to be picked up.

It didn’t kill me, so I guess I must be stronger.

By the way
If you’re looking for something in absolutely terrible taste, try this: Pope Forgives Molested Children. The Onion back in form.

mechanics

I know it’s not the most masculine thing to say, at least in this country, but I’m really not that into cars.

Start a conversation with me about V6 engines and you’ll see my eyes quickly glaze over. There are people out there who are passionately either Ford or Holden people, and who will willingly drive up to Bathurst to sit around for a weekend watching hotted-up sedans drive around in circles for 10 hours straight. But as far as I’m concerned they’re a whole different species to me. I find them interesting, but only to the extent I find neanderthals interesting. It’s good to know they exist, but I have no desire to spend time with them.

Cars are just a means of getting from A to B. Sure some are faster than others; some are bigger; some more red; some make Jeremy Clarkson excited: at the end of the day they’re just cars. They’re just going to spend 80% of their lives driving at 25kph in heavy traffic on Hoddle Street.

So, I wasn’t too excited about taking the car for a service today. Especially not as the (relatively) new car is serviced at the dealership. I won’t say which type of car it is: let’s just say it rhymes with “golden”.

Aside for the fact I have to drive a bit out of my way and then catch a train on a different line where people are subtly unfamiliar, I resent the attitudes of the “golden” service staff. They strut around in their branded polo shirts tucked in to their slacks, with short-back and sides haircuts, acting as if they’re incredibly important. They’re also quite condescending, which irritates me, coming as it does from people who are basically sales staff.

No matter when you go in there, your car always turns out to “need” half a dozen special treatments, all of which cost big bucks. If you say no to any of these treatments, they say “that’s fine” but with pursed lips, as if it’s anything but fine and, what’s more, they suspect you of cruelty to small children and animals.

Next time I go in there, I’m going to say “Listen. Here’s the key. Just make sure the thing starts and stops in reasonable time, and make sure it’s not going to explode. I’ll be back at 5pm. And don’t call me, I’ll call you.”

I’m pretty sure I can work in some 4 letter words in there, but I might want to keep it civil.

Running
After picking the car up, I zoomed down to Croydon Athletics track and did some track work in the gloaming. 4 x 1200 with a 400m float between each set. With warm up and cool-down laps it worked out around 8km. The reps were: 4:33 – 4:33 – 4:37 – 4:36.

The third one was the usual third rep slow-down. The last lap felt fluid and fast, but actually wasn’t. Still, it was a good workout, especially given I didn’t let the float laps get too slow.

run for the kids

I keep doing this run every year, for no other reason than I’ve done every it every year, so “might as well”. I’m not sure how this qualifies as a reason, or even as logic, but there you go. That’s how my mind works these days.

So, after a restful Saturday and a good night’s sleep, I set off on the train yet again. This is actually my favourite train ride of the year, by a long way. I like being in a carriage with a whole bunch of excited people dressed in running gear; even more so seeing the faces of night-clubbers staggering home from somewhere disreputable.

Jaykay and Corrie were on my carriage too, which was nice.

I ran into the usual bunch of running bloggers before the race (AJH, Cilla and Shells) and headed off to the start.

I made a big error in seeding myself towards the back of the blue area, and regretted it, big-time. I spent the whole run weaving left and right, going significantly faster than almost everyone around me, but much slower than I wanted to. When I wasn’t weaving in and out, I was coming almost to a complete stop behind big bunches of people running together.

I say it every year: this is only a fun-run. Don’t get too worked up about it. Still…

I saw some more of the bloggers at Transport briefly afterwards, before taking the kids, who were a bit antsy, to various parks and home.

We had a lovely afternoon in the backyard and a barbecue for dinner, then an early night.

By the way
The funniest comment heard at the starting line of a fun run goes to the young lady standing behind me:

I wish we’d start: I’m smelly already

Okay….

Running
My usual 12.5km route near my place starting at 5:30 this morning. The entire run was done in darkness (well, the horizon was lighting up towards the end). Bring on the end of daylight saving, I say!

news flash: Lara Bingle

In news just to hand – Lara Bingle is allegedly not the devil. Sources say she is merely a young, reasonably attractive woman who looks good in a bikini and has had a couple of relationships with high-profile sportsmen.

In related news: Michael Clarke took some time off a tour of New Zealand to sort out some family problems and the world did not come to an end. They even managed to have a cricket match without him.

It’s really not that interesting people, get over it. Still, I bet this will increase my traffic today.

Nails
On a completely different subject, I’ve discovered this incredibly useful use for those styrofoam “peanuts” that come with new products. You can use them to steady nails while hammering.

If only I had thought of that before I built my fence: I could have saved at least 2 fingernails.

Running
I’m one great collection of aches and pains today. After the fall on Wednesday, my right hip, elbow and shoulder are all sore. I can’t lift my right arm up much or open a heavy door without pain.

Last night I got up in the middle of the night and walked straight into a great wooden trunk that someone had left helpfully at the end of the bed.

So, add one sore knee to the list. At this stage I don’t think there’s a single joint on the right side of my body that doesn’t hurt.

But, I still ran this morning. It just goes to prove what I always say: there’s nothing that can’t be improved by a brisk 10km run. In this case it was a slow 8km dawdle, but the same principle applies.

Run for the kids this Sunday. I’m trying hard to be excited, without success.