Thursday, March 30, 2006

West end story

Good day faithful readers. One of the many things that London is famous for is it's west end, theatre district, where hit shows like Phantom of the Opera have been playing for the last 20years! The heart of the west end is Leicester Square, which is basically devoted to the theatre.

In Melbourne the only time that going to the theatre really enters people's minds is when something like the Comedy Festival is on. In London however it is basically like that year round. Leicester Square is constantly packed with people deciding what show they might like to go and see during their stay in the city and tickets stall owners trying to convince them that theirs are the cheapest in town. As long as you get there early and you don't want 50 seats together you can usually get tickets to even the most popular shows for only 20pounds.

Until today I hadn't been to a show, but I thought that it was about time. I saw a poster somewhere yesterday for The Rat Pack - Live From Las Vegas, starring Sammy Davis Jr, Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra. It was an excellent choice on my part, it was a great performance. The show was performed as if it were one of their live performances at the Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas during the 60's. The guy playing Frank Sinatra actually looked quite a lot like Frank. The guy playing Dean looked nothing like him, but he had the same great voice. The type of voice where it sounds as natural as if he's just talking in time to the music. Anyway, great show, see it if you get the chance.

The only problem with this show is that it was just too good. It's whetted my appetite to see some more shows. On my list at present is One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and The Producers. Also We Well Rock You, which I just found out is not actually a story about Queen like I thought.

The new shoe on the block

Good day faithful readers. Last week the time finally came to replace my beloved running shoes... well the time probably came a while ago actually. You're supposed to replace running shoes after about 500-600km, which is when the cushioning starts to wear out. My Nike Elites however lasted me for just over 1,000km! I probably would have given them the honour of completing their second marathon, but my shins had hurt a little after the last couple of runs that I had done. The last thing that I wanted to do was develop shin splints again, so I decided that it was time for a new for a new pair.

The shoes that I finally settled on were the Nike Vomeros. These are a slightly heavier shoes than the Elites, but for this extra weight you get a little bit of extra cushioning, which I thought was a good thing for someone with legs as fragile as mine. This turned out to be good decision, as after my first run in them, an easy 32km in the rain, my shins didn't hurt in the slightest and there was absolutely no hint of blisters, which can always be an issue with new shoes.

I also happened to have Wednesday off this week, this being the night the Serpentine Running Club goes running around Hyde Park. I decided therefore to try my new shoes out on a faster paced run. Despite the fact that I was still recovering from a cold, I still managed to run the 11.6km course nearly 30seconds faster than I'd ever done before. I imagine that my training program or possible Elke, a particularly attractive runner in my group, probably had more to do with it than my shoes, but nevertheless.

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

If this is spring i want my money back!

Good day faithful readers. The equinox, the "official" start of spring is now behind us here in London, so you be expecting nice mild days, clear blue skies, baby lambs jumping about, right? Well apparently that's not how it works over here. It seems that you're still in for another good month of crappy weather before you can even contemplate bringing anything resembling summer gear out of storage.

Having said that I can't grumble too much because it has actually warmed up a bit. The temperature actually hit double figures the other day... and they weren't even negative! This was quite a change from the first part of the month when the average temperature was 2.4C!

The flowers too seem to be optimistic about the weather to come. The first day we had a bit of nice weather these daffodils out the front of my house decided that it was definitely time to come out of hibernation. I was somewhat surprised, not just by the fact that they had decided to come out at the slightest hint of warmth, but that there were actually flowers in my garden to begin with!

I realise that England doesn't have quite the same sort summer as Australia, and I've come to terms with that. But by jingo, by crikey I can't wait until we start seeing the weather girl tell us about temperature in at least the 20's.

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

The five stages of grief

Good day faithful readers. In a book by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross called "On Death and Dying" she identifies five stages in the grief process (I mean apparently she does, I can't say that I've ever read it). These are as follows:

Denial - this isn't happening to me
Anger - why is this happening to me?
Bargaining - I promise that I'll be better if...
Depression - I don't care any more
Acceptance - I'm ready whatever comes

The reason that I bring this up is that recently parliament passed an act which means that as of next summer (winter 2007 for all my Australian readers) a new law comes into effect which will prevent people from smoking in pubs. Of couse this been the talk of the town in the world famous Blue Anchor Pub ever since. Now I'm no pschiatrist, but I really feel that the clientele here are moving very slowly through the stages. I'd suggest that very few have even moved past the denial stage yet. All the talk that I hear goes something along the lines of:

"It'll never happen, do you know how much business pubs will lose? Everyone in here smokes, so as soon as the law comes in people will just stop coming in. It just can't work!"

As much as I try to tell people that exactly the same fears were raised when the law was introduced in Australia, and pubs still do a roaring trade, they refuse to listen. I guess when it comes down to it, for some people it's just going to be a contest, one addiction versus another! Meanwhile, if history repeats itself the pubs will continue to operate as per normal and people like myself can look forward to serving a far less stinky crowd

Saturday, March 04, 2006

Only 5 weeks to go

Good day faithful reader. The train tickets are booked, the accommodation is arranged... yep, it's all go for Le Marathon de Paris, 09April2006! In five short weeks I shall be lined up with 34,999 others under the Arc de Triomphe all primed and ready to put myself through +3hours of pain. Oh yeah, is gonna be fun!

Of course there is the little issue of getting myself physically prepared, but that is coming along too. Last week didn't help of course, since it was absolutely freezing and it was raining a large part of the time. "What, are you made of sugar" I hear you say. Well, no, but personally I think that having a week off training is better than dying of hypothermia! I needed a rest week anyway!

Based on my first couple of runs this week I'm not totally sure if total abstinence was the way to go because I felt aweful, but I seemed to improve again over my most recent runs. The real test will be when I do my next long run. The longest run that I've done thus far (prior to my enforced rest week) is 34km, which I did with relative ease. I hope to increase that to 36-38km prior to the marathon and then taper down to the marathon itself, switching to more speed work. All going according to plan I'll be on top form for the day and able to meet my target of 3:30:00.

Once I've completed the marathon I need to have my bike sent over from Australia, because it will only be 3 months until I have to tackle the mountains of the Tour de France!