could be heroes

I found out on Thursday that there would be an attempt to set the world record for the number of people dressed as superheroes. What’s more my kids had signed up, along with all of their playgroup. Which meant I too would have to tag along.

Joy. Bliss.

So, yesterday, we trooped down to the station and into the city with about 15 kids under the age of 5, all of the dressed as Superman or Supergirl (why not Superwoman?) except for one lone, free-thinking toddler who came as Batman.

We made it into the city unscathed, and made it through Flinders Street without losing any of the kids – not an easy task when they’re all dressed exactly the same – and across to Fed Square, where we joined about a thousand other freaks people dressed as various DC Comics characters.

I say a thousand, but I suspected there weren’t that many people there. In a transparent effort to boost numbers, the organisers had about 400 Superman costumes they were handing out to all and sundry. Even I had to dress up, which made for a couple of amusing photos on Facebook.

Most of the show consisted in some chick dressed in a Catwoman suit doing extended plugs for something called “Kids WB”, which was a bit of a drag. There were plenty of cameras there, but we didn’t end up on the news, which was also a drag. But apparently the record was broken, so everyone was happy. We journeyed home, content in the knowledge that we had played our part in one of the greatest events in the history of humanity.

Or something.

At least we got to keep the free Super costumes. I’m sure they’ll come in handy.

Running
I spent Friday night running just under 19kms. Sad really. I remember, back in my misspent youth, when Friday nights had a bacchanalian-orgy feel to them, and if I ended up really sweaty, it was for quite interesting reasons.

No longer. Now I’m all boring and grown up.

Anyway, the run itself was fine.

This morning I had scheduled the weekly long run, but I didn’t relish the thought. It was windy and cold and there were black clouds shooting hither and thither. Also, I really felt like sleeping in. I did get out by about 10:30, and I’m glad I did. I ran about 30km in 2 hours 20. Slightly slower than last week, but over a much hillier course and on a windier day.

So, no complaints.

91km for the week and 378km for May, so far.

getting faster

I have a little circuit that starts and finishes at my place that I run so regularly, I’ve pretty much worn a track in the footpaths. I started doing it a few years ago when I was following a marathon training program that seemed to have me running 12km 3 or 4 times a week.

It’s a tough little run. There are some downhill bits and some nice flat bits, but these are interspersed with a whole series of hills, some of which really knock the wind out of my sails.

So, the challenge for me is to get around the course at a decent pace, and I take the total time I take as a measure of my overall fitness.

A couple of years ago, immediately after a good marathon, I had a few times in the 52 minute range, and one I have recorded at 50 minutes that I think is a bit of a typo. Over that course, that is smoking fast.

Late last year I had a whole series of health problems (documented on this blog if you were paying attention) which ended up pushing my average time out over an hour. Even in February/March this year I was still finding 58 minutes pretty hard.

Last night I had a go, to see how fast I could do it. And the answer is: 54 minutes. So, a fair bit faster than 2 months ago, but still a couple of minutes off peak marathon fitness.

That’s as I suspected, but still a bit depressing. I must have been f**king fit back 18 months ago. Who knows if I’ll ever get back there?

Running
12.5km last night and 6 short kms today.

why cousins shouldn’t marry

This is why cousins shouldn’t marry. You end up with sad people like Sarah Ferguson. From the Australian today:

…the main impression is sheer sadness at the progress through life of an exuberant, impetuous, dim, kind-hearted girl who in her 51st year should be safely stashed under some woodwormy beams in the shires, with an amiable lunkhead husband and a houseful of labradors, saddles and hilarious novelty ornaments, blamelessly raising money for the local hospice and cooking hearty lasagnes. Sarah Ferguson was just not born to be looked at and judged by millions of strangers, or to racket around the world like Becky Sharp: to put it kindly, she’s not very sharp at all.

Ouch.

Running
16km this morning in 68 minutes. All good.

Blog
I’m trying a few different templates for the blog. I think this one’s better than the previous option. Lighter.

bike paths are getting wider

A year or two ago, they opened a great new toll-way out near my place – Eastlink – and along with the toll-way came a “new”, “improved” bike trail.

I say “new” because most of it already existed in the form of a perfectly adequate path – the Dandenong Creek Trail – and “improved” because they actually made things worse. Well, I think it’s worse, but you might not.

The thing is, it used to be a pretty ad-hoc trail. Sometimes it was bitumen, sometimes concrete, sometimes gravel. Basically whatever the trail-maker felt like on the given day. It varied from about 4 feet wide to something a bit wider.

And it was okay. Walkers walked on it, runners ran and cyclists cycled and a good time was had by all with no huge pileups and few, if any, deaths. It was also pretty easy on the knees and ankles if you happened to be running long distances on the thing.

Now, however, it’s about 10 feet wide, made of concrete, with cambering, and a great big lane marking in the middle. It’s gone from being suitable for people on foot or mountain bike to being a great spot to go if you have a semi-trailer.

This is “improvement”.

Well yes, it is if your day job is designing toll-ways, not if you’re a humble runner.

I thought this was a one-off thing, and the fault of the people who built Easlink. But it’s not! I was running along the Capital City trail last week, in a section that’s actually part of hte Merri Creek Trail and I found the same thing. You cross a slippery little wooden bridge and all of a sudden you’re on the Westgate Freeway’s little cousin.

Why? What is all this in aid of? Do they really expect a peleton of cyclists to shoot through at 50kph? Why? Why? Why?

Running
Legs a little stiff this morning, so I just did an easy lap of the tan, and the direct route from work there and back. Just on 8km.

cooking and running

I was whipping up a batch of chocolate brownies yesterday morning (I’m not kidding, I really was) and turning my mind to things philosophical, when I came up with a bit of an idea about cooking.

It strikes me, it’s a lot like running. How so? I hear you ask.

Well, it’s like this. Everyone needs to feed themselves. It’s a basic requirement if we want to live longer than a few weeks, and most of us do. So we need to make sure we take in a basic level of calories.

The thing is, in 21st century western societies, we can manage to feed ourselves perfectly adequately but only need to cook very rarely. We can rely on restaurants, cafes, bakeries, fast food, microwave ready food and junk food; none of these things requires us to cook to any degree.

People who cook do it because they take this basic need – to feed themselves – just a little bit more seriously. They realise by taking care to cook, they will feel healthier, more fulfilled, sometimes more challenged. The more you cook, and practice and learn, the more you get out of it.

Some people are good enough at cooking to make a living out of it, but most people just do it for the experience, the love, the pleasure.

And then there’s running. Walking is almost as basic a part of our life as eating. It’s how we get around. And if we need to get somewhere a bit more quickly, then we need to break into a run. It’s what we’re evolved to do; it’s so basic that, unless we’re injured in some way, we never really think about it.

But in 21st century western society, we don’t actually need to walk much or run at all. I walk 10 minutes from home to the station, but I know a lot of people who would drive that distance. Then there’s a few hundred metres from the station to the office and a little bit of walking to the staff kitchen and meeting rooms. But that’s about it.

A lot of people go for a long time without running at all.

If you do run, it’s hard at first, but if you keep at it you’ll start to feel fitter. Then you’ll note the general well-being, and the satisfaction of achieving something difficult. The more you run, the more you get out of it. You even begin to appreciate the pure pleasure in doing something natural, really well.

That’s what they have in common: cooking and running are about doing something natural as well as we are able.

Running
30.7km in the freezing cold morning today. There was frost all over the place down at the Dandenong Creek Trail. The run was done in a relatively brisk 2 hours 18 minutes, which is as it should be, given the really easy course. Still, it was good to finish the run strongly, with plenty of energy for chasing after kids for the rest of the day.

every rose has a hole in my heart

There are a whole series of good, if not particularly charitable, jokes to be made about Brett Michaels having a heart condition.

(Michaels, if you’re not a fan of 80’s hair metal, was the lead singer of Poison and has rediscovered fame recently, in a small way, via reality TV.)

My first response was to think of jokes centring on “Hole in my heart”. Sadly, upon further research, it turns out Poison sang “Every rose has it’s thorn”. “Hole hearted” was actually sung by Extreme, who were a completely different band from roughly the same era.

Still, Michaels was responsible for a song called “I hate every bone in your body but mine”, so he probably deserves everything he’s getting.

Running
An oddly forgettable 18km this morning. I say odd as it was done almost completely without thought. I put on the headphones, zoned out and, before I knew it, I’d ran from my office in the CBD, down to St Kilda via Beaconsfield parade, and back via St Kilda Road. I usually spend the time thinking of how far I’ve gone, how far left to go, how fast I’m going, blah blah blah.

JRuns, Super Dad

I read, in that august journal – the Herald Sun, that there exists a new breed of “super Dads” taking over the place. You might not have noticed this, but apparently us Dads are not only spending more time with the kids, but we’re also working longer hours to pay for mortgages and Bob the Builder DVD’s.

Apparently:

They are stepping back from sport, recreation, personal care and even sleep to burn the candle at both ends, in the way of the much-maligned 1990s “super-mum”.

I was reading this, thinking “Hmmm yeah, that’s me!”. I too have managed to combine time usually spent for sleep with sport – running 15km before anyone else has even raised their tussled little heads and demanded corn-flakes.

Recreation: I remember that, I have dim memories of going to the movies and other esoteric behaviours. “Personal care” I gave up on long ago.

I’m a bloody superhero, I tell you.

BTW – if my wife is reading this, I’ll get around to cleaning the bathroom eventually. Perhaps next month. I’m rather busy being a superhero, don’t you know.

Running
An unexpected window of opportunity opened this morning, and I hopped out for a brief run. It was one of those crappy runs where you feel a bit stiff and sore at the start and tired towards the end. It was surprisingly fast though; 8.7km done in 33 minutes.

Dad jokes
One of the many super things we Dads do is tell Dad jokes, and I’ve heard a few doozies in the last few days:

Q. What did the Spanish fireman call his twin sons?
A. Hose-A and Hose-B.

Q. What do you get if you feed a stick of dynamite to a steer?
A. Abominable (read it slowly)

Sorry about that.

cold, but well shod

I’ve been up with the sparrows these last couple of days, trying to fit a decent run in before the endless rounds of meetings, emails and the other boredom that makes up a working day.

That would be all well and good if it weren’t for the recent drop into winter temperatures here in Melbourne. The days have been nice and warm, but the nights and early mornings are what my Dad used to call “spanner weather”.

This morning it was something like 5 degrees. Almost cold enough to make me reconsider running in light t-shirt and shorts. Almost….

It doesn’t help that my house’s central heating chose last weekend to pack it in. Here’s a tip: now is not the best time of year to get someone to fix a central heating unit. Everyone’s doing it, which means big delays and tradespeople who don’t really need your business.

So, we’ve been heading to bed at about 8pm, huddling under multiple doonas.

Thankfully, someone came today and fixed the thing, so we’re feeling relatively tropical tonight.

Shoes
A few days ago I posted a screed bemoaning the state of running shoes in general and the prices you have to pay in Australia in particular. Well, just that day I ordered 2 pairs of Brooks Adrenaline from a site in the US for not much more than you’d have to pay for 1 pair here in Oz, and they’ve arrived already. Order placed on the 14th, shipped on the 15th and arrived on the 18th.

Pretty impressive stuff. I’ve waited longer than that just to be served in Myer.

Running
16km yesterday and 14km this morning. Both cold, but good. The conditioning phase is going well.