wish me luck

This is probably my last post before the marathon on Sunday, so wish me luck.

As of Friday morning, I’m feeling pretty good about things. I’m pretty damn toey though, I’ve been pacing restlessly around the office, making everyone feel uncomfortable.

Tax
I don’t know what came into me, but I’ve already done my tax (and my wife’s) for 2008-09. I downloaded the etax software on Wednesday night then did the whole process from start to finish in about 30 minutes.

So my tax was completely finished on the night of July 1. Beat that!

Next I’ll get going on my Christmas presents.

Running
I had a pleasing 9km yesterday lunchtime; also an equally pleasing sleep last night. Both the run and the sleep indicate the worst of the bronchitis is out of the way. Yay. I’ll take the dog for an easy 5km tonight (easy for me, not for her, the lazy hound).

Race news
No news is good news, other than the weather forecast remaining positive. According to weatherzone, the forecast is for a low of 7 and a high of 19, which is peachy-keen.

gyms are evil

The sky is blue. The ocean is wet. Mount Everest is a long way up. Gyms are evil. All pretty self-evidently true statements. It’s hardly worth thinking about them really.

I only ever go near the places (gyms) when:

1. it’s either 40 degrees outside or raining cats and dogs and looking like staying that way
2. its been days since I last ran and
3. I simply CAN’T wait

In those conditions I’ll go into a gym, pay whatever it costs and run on the treadmill. I should add, this has only ever happened once, and it was not entirely successful.

However, last week being the week that it was, and running outside looking indistinguishable from suicide, I went into the gym next to my office in the city, thinking I’d have a quick session on the treadmill. If only it were so easy.

Me: How much does it cost for a one-off session in the gym?
Girl behind counter (GBC): If you’ll just wait one minute, I’ll arrange for one of our membership consultants to come and discuss plans with you.
Me: No, you misunderstand me. I don’t want a membership, I just want to use the gym once.
GBC: Oh, but I don’t handle membership queries. Just wait a minute and the consultant will be with you.
Me: But I don’t want a membership, and I don’t want a contract. Can’t you tell me how much it would cost?
GBC: I don’t handle that sort of information. The membership consultant will be with you shortly.
Me: Forget about it.

I’d seriously rather die of heatstroke somewhere between the city and the tan than have to sit through some sales pitch and get locked into some plan.

Running
I didn’t end up running during the week thanks to the extremely humble functionary at the gym-that-will-remain-nameless, but I did run this morning. In something of a repeat of last weekend’s stupidity, I had a long-ish run incorporating a bit of a mountain and long stretches of what can only be described as “goat-tracks”.

I started before the dawn, heading along the Dandenong Creek Trail right to the end at Liverpool road, then up (up being the operative word) the hill to Olinda. Then along a very deserted Mount Dandenong Tourist Road to Sassafrass, and then down towards the Basin. Then home.

It was 29.6km at a fairly gentle pace – due to all the goat tracks. Here it is on mapmyrun.com.

If you want some advice from a man of the world, here it is: if you happen to be running down from Sassafrass to the Basin early on Sunday morning, avoid the Old Coach Road like the plague. There’s a succession of very vocal, very angry and very un-leashed dogs right the way down the road. There’s one particular doberman that chased me for a while, giving me something of a fright. The dog gave me the very strong impression it was about to take a big bloody bite out of my throat.

I wasn’t so keen on the idea. I like my throat to remain intact: it’s one of my favourite bits.

ankle biters

God damn all snappy little dogs. Double damn yappy-type dogs who lurk behind trees at night time and spring out at you with no warning. Triple damn dogs with a taste for runners’ left ankles.

Last but not least: a pox on dog owners who can’t be bothered locking up their mutts at night.

There were harsh words spoken tonight, and they involved the canine species, as you might guess.

I have a feeling the thing was a whippet – skinny, small and white, but it was hard to say in the darkness. If so, right now it’s a whippet that should consider itself very fortunate it doesn’t have a Brooks-shaped bruise on its backside.

Running
16km around the streets near my place. It felt fast, but that’s because I’m super unfit at the moment. Still, it was good to get a decent run in for once. Here it is on mapmyrun.com.

running gods and bloody dogs

Sleep, or rather lack of sleep, has been a bit of an issue for me in recent weeks, for reasons I won’t go into in this particular forum.

I remember, way back in the dim, distant past, sleeping in until 1pm quite regularly. I remember at one stage complaining about having to start uni at 2:30 in the afternoon. It seemed pretty harsh at the time.

Ah, those were the days.

If you get to sleep in, congratulations, but I don’t want to hear it right now. I resent the thought that at this exact moment, thousands of slackers are wallowing in hoggish slumber, while I sweat away at the old computer like some sad-arse wage slave.

Anyway, this weekend passed saw a vary rare conjunction of events, where the weather, sleep, food and everything else provided by the running gods came together to form IDEAL running conditions.

Running
Saturday was pretty wet (hallelujah!) but luckily all that was required was 8k plus some downhill strides. 8k is almost exactly the distance to the mother-in-law’s joint, so off I toodled. I was wearing the old shoes, which are definitely starting to bother me, time to do something about that.

I had good fun at the end doing 6 downhill strides, winding up an increasingly aggro dog towards the end of each stride. Everytime I went passed he got more angry. Ha, ha, ha. More on dogs later…

Sunday wasn’t so wet, but a stunningly beautiful morning all round. I set out about 7 and did a modified version of the 31k route the ESRG did a few weeks ago. I forgot the vaseline, which is usually a recipe for disaster. However, as mentioned above, the running gods were clearly smiling on me. No blood, no tears, just a small ocean’s worth of sweat.

It was 36k all up, done in 2 hours 50 minutes. I was pretty happy with this, given I was alone and it was a touch hilly in spots. Also I managed to do the last 20 minutes at a faster pace, as per the program’s instructions.

If I had have continued at that pace, I would have done the marathon in 3 hrs 20, which I would be relatively happy with. Secretly, I’m hoping I can do it a bit faster, but we’ll see. Still 9 weeks of training to go.

Today I was up with the roosters and other wildlife for a 12k easy/recovery run. Luckily there wasn’t too much pain or stiffness.

So a pretty good running weekend all-round.

Bloody dogs
Dogs, they irk me. Actually it’s not so much the dogs as the owners. Specifically the kind of dog owners who allow great big vicious looking beasts to run off the lead in areas they shouldn’t. Also dog owners who have yappy-type dogs that jump out at you as you’re passing, forcing you to engage in evasive maneuvers and almost twisting your ankle to bejeezus. Bloody, bloody….