The curtains are fading and the milks gone sour!
Good day faithful readers. Do you ever wake up and just have a feeling in your stomach that something is not quite right?
My alarm went off at 6am this-morning as per usual and as per usual I switched it off and went back to sleep. Just a for a few minutes though because I shortly rolled over, checked my watch and saw that it was 6:10. Oh, time for just a few minutes more I thought, so I closed my eyes.
Eventually I decided that I'd best get up and have a shower and start getting ready, so that's exactly what I did.
When I got out of the shower I looked at my watch again quickly and saw that it was half past. Oh, that was a quick shower I thought. Very good, I'll be able to have a nice leisurely breakfast.
While I was sitting in the kitchen chomping on my toast and sipping on my coffee, slowly letting the caffeine take effect I looked at the clock on the wall. Quarter too, still plenty off... hang on... that says quarter to eight! I look at my watch and confirm. What the hell happened? I'm missing an hour! How long did I close my eyes for exactly?
Risking third degree burns I down the remainder of my coffee in a single gulp and leave a trail of crumbs around the house that Hansel and Gretel would be proud of as I try to eat my toast, pack my bag and finish getting dressed at the same time. A mere 5 mins later I was out the door and rushing for the bus.
Arriving at the train station I look at the clock... five past, I can still make it to work in a reasonable time. Hang on... that says 7:05! I look at my watch again... 8:05... what is going on?! Shit, daylight savings finished this weekend didn't it?!
As if normal Monday mornings weren't bad enough! Try thinking that you're running early, then discover that you're running late, then once you've made up all that time find that you're running early again. It's very disconcerting not knowing when you are!
At least the security guards found my story funny when they had to open the doors for me because I was the first one there.
And now over to Keith for tomorrow's weather
Good day faithful readers. You know the stereotypical picture of London that everyone has in their head. The dull grey skies, people running around everywhere all rugged up with umbrella's in hand? Well I can tell you that the city is living up to that stereotype, because that is exactly what it has been like here for the last week!
As a result, since I ran the half marathon the other weekend I've only been able to go out and exercise 3 times (including tonight), and on two of those occasions I ended up being rained on because I foolishly headed out when the rain stopped, thinking that deluge had finally ceased!
To be honest I don't think that it is the rain that has been annoying me. A little bit of moisture doesn't dampen my spirits, and I wasn't going to do that much exercise this week anyway. What really annoys me is when I hear English people say something along the lines of "oh yeah, we really need this rain, what with the drought and all"!!!!! Bugger off! It's even less of drought that it was a bloody heatwave at 32C during summer.
I was expressing my disgust to one of my work colleagues about her very loose use of the word drought and she retaliated with "But did you see Hyde Park? It was starting to go brown." "Starting to go brown" I said "if it weren't for the gum trees there would hardly be a part of Australia at the moment that wasn't brown... and that's in the middle of Spring"!
While I'm in whinging mode (apparently it's a disease that is catching), I finally found a place that sold English muffins the other day... not that I had really been looking for them, but when I found them it was a nice surprise. So I bought them, and they were terrible! You go to France and you have baguettes, cheese, wine etc and you think to yourself "yep, they deserve their reputation", and so it should be English muffins in England... then again perhaps it more like going to France and expecting them to have good French Fries! Well, actually, they do have good
frites, but you get my point.
And I just signed up for two more years of this (my visa renewal just came through). What was I thinking!
Its a long road back
Good day faithful readers. This week, after talking about it for months, I finally got around to buying myself a bike (and some new cycling shoes - hence the picture). Nothing special, just something to ride to and from work on, and something that will allow me to do a little bit of preparation for when I buy myself a 'good' bike and start doing some serious kilometers in readiness for going to watch to Tour de France next year.
The last time that I'd ridden a bike prior to riding my new purchase home from the bike shop was when I rode approximately 250km while completing the Around the Bay in a Day, nearly 12months to the day. Even though I'd only trained for a month for that particular event, the contrast between then and now is quite stark. Then I was fit, strong, fast... now I'm fit (thanks to my running), but as for strong and fast, sadly I'm anything but.
By the end of the 5km ride from the bike shop to my house, the last km or so being up what should be a mere bump of a hill, my legs were feeling something like I remember them feeling at the end of 250km I had ridden the last time I was on a bike. It was a sad state of affairs.
Saturday I decided that I should go out for my first proper ride to truly assess what state I was in. Although I'd been given several +80km routes to check out, based on the previous night's performance, I thought that I would take the safe option and do a few laps around Richmond Park instead, not wanting to find myself 50km from home with thigh muscles in total melt down. I think that it was quite lucky I did this too. I rode for about an hour and a half, and by the time that I got home my legs had definitely had enough of hill climbing for the day.
The embarrassing this is, these 'hills' that I refer to I wouldn't normally even make reference to. They're hardly Alpe d'Huez. Those of you not coming from Adelaide won't understand this, but these hills wouldn't have even got you to the base of Norton Summit let alone onto the 7km climb proper!
Nevertheless, I made it around, and now I still have another nine months to prepare for when I really do get to climb Alpe d'Huez!
Records are tumbling here at the Millennium Stadium
Good day faithful readers. I've just returned from a weekend in Cardiff where I competed in the Cardiff Half-Marathon. And I'm happy to report that I was finally able to break my personal best time, which had stood since 2003, when I did my first half marathon. My new PB is now 1:34:40, taking a whopping 22 seconds off my previous best. Given that I had flogged myself for the last 5km, I thought I might take a bit more off than that, but my hopes were dashed when I entered the stadium and discovered that I had to do a whole lap... granted, only 400m, but when you're on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion (it's probably more mentally demoralising than anything actually) and you've only got seconds to play with, that's a damn long way!
I'd just like to thank that following people... the fabulous
Serpentine Running Club. In addition to all the training sessions and coaching they provide, this was the first time that I'd worn my club outfit during a race, and I'm not saying that it's totally responsible for me setting a new record, but it certainly can't have hurt. Rather than just being another face in the crowd, I was a member of a select group. I found myself being cheered on by people in the crowd who recognised the jersey, urged on by fellow club members also racing. Toward the end of a race, when your legs and lungs are starting to win the battle with your mind to make you slow down there's nothing like having someone on the sidelines to help drown out those voices and let you push on just a little bit longer.
To further illustrate my point, after I'd finished and gone back to the hotel to have a shower and had some lunch I returned to the stadium to watch the marathon runners finish their race. By this time all the good runner had well and truly finished, leaving only the ordinary people to win their battle of mind over body. Emerging from Cardiff Castle with about a mile to go there were a lot of sorry looking people, but when they emerged onto the streets lined with people cheering them on you could literally see them lift, like they were being willed along. In most cases it was merely going from walking to shuffling, but I've been those people and I know how much effort that requires...
Congratulations to everyone to who finished. Top effort!
