Biked 21 miles with the Bride. She's training for a couple tri-athlons ,so it was uptempo compared to a year ago.
Spotted a couple sandhill cranes. Bridge is under repair on our usual route so traffic was non existent.Got to take advantage of that for the next month.
Finally some effective rain fell in the area. Last nights 1.7"'s should get things growing again.
Good going mopak and tpcb.
How do i know i sorta winged it on race day?
My feet called it this early evening in Villa Pamphili, 20 mins wu and then my fave slalom in the pinewood, fast downhill, recovery uphill, makes sense after 12k uphill on asphalt...
lost count on moarg but soon will math it back
nice to be here
Friday - (once the medical situation was stabilized) Wanted 40-minutes, but legs felt like crap (age and stress I figured) so I created an on-the-spot-Gonzo-salvage-a-workout workout: 1/2 mile slog...then 5x1-minutes hard with 30-second rest, then 3x2-minutes hard with 1-minute rest, then saunter back to my humble abode.
At least I was soaked and felt as though I'd accomplished something. Then I realized, my shoes are Six Months old.
Maybe that helps account for the leaden legs? Duh.
Anyone else have a run that started rotten, get mad at the Universe, then crunch a psychotic workout in near
90-degree heat and 70% humidity. We are, of course, nuts.
Saturday - 30:00 run, 50 situps and pushups.
Sunday - 3 mile run. (...where IS that watch?) 50 pushups and situps.
Sudden loss in the family (my aunt)
Was coming but nobody thought quite so quickly.
Funerals done.
Seeimg my osteopath today.
Rgds.
TPCB,
My humble respect and sympathy at this time of your aunt's passing.
Hopefully your visit to the osteopath is only routine in nature.
AM: 8.1 mi. in 65 min. full sun,calm winds, and the fragrance of all things growing accompanied me. This springs Turkey hatch seems to have gone well. Several hens with very large clutchs scattered before me as I crested a hill.
-578 days to the MOARG, in Gimmelwald, Switzerland, in the year 2011.
today: bike commute
yesterday: long walk with buddy Fausto a concert pianist who is trying to lose weight. "Musicians are athletes. For them, the fear of failure will cause tension and diminish the ability to play when they need the most freedom and range to execute. " I agreed with him. Especially since i found out some time back that they can incur in some major problems with tendonopathies of various sorts on various joints...
driske,
Death is a simple mystery. What actualy happens at what exact moment? This is not the place. As the complexity of a relationship is far more difficult to unravel than the instant of presence between light and darkness.
Briefly: this aunt, 70, was my mother's sister. And some pages or some gigas of memory would not be enough for me to explain the significance of this complexity. Ranging from the "Therapy of Pain" that cancer patients like are administered, to the concept of what constitutes a family, if values, if bloodlines...
My aging father keeps on saying "Life is for the Living." At 87 he is getting a good run out of it.
TPCB: just said a Prayer for yourself your Aunt and Family. Hope you don't mind.
I told one cousin of mine, that, should I pass prematurely, yes she can play Buffett tunes at my wake, or memorial celebration, and ,yes, they could put the Margarita blender on my chest in the casket...as long as they don't SPILL any on me.
After 7 former coworkers, friends and relatives have departed since Spring of '08 I've forced myself to look at funerals akin to a PBS British Comedy routine: remember Monty Python re-grouped and did a skit in which Graham Chapman's ashes were scattered about onstage then vacuumed up?
I've requested NO TEARS at mine. No mourning clothes: guys wear the LOUDEST tropical shirts they can find, and the gals where something similar. Funny stories...there have been plenty...and just wish me well as I depart.
Bad taste? Maybe, and I certainly don't wish to make light of your loss...but, as HARD as it is, one has to deal with its' inevitability.
Again, my Prayers for your loss and may your mind and heart be filled with good memories of your Aunt.
Running: 3 miles in the steamy summer up here each of the past 2 days.
Gonzo,
Man it is good to have you back on a regular basis. You bring passion and take perspective to new levels. Great words. Obviously, you've found one of Jimmy's lost shakers of salt.
TPCB, Death and it's mystery linger, despite mankinds tech advances and many a nihilstic discourse. This website is ample evidence the nature of our Universe is still under discussion.
I know this is not the place, but I must say 2 books written by Lynne McTaggart, "The Field" and "The Intention Experiment" have been the source of much optimism for me personally.
May your family ties be strengthened as you gather to pay respects to your Aunt.
YesterdayPM: 3.4 under a bright moon. Post run stargazing left me in awe, at the glory the heavens declare.
Gonzo,
your thoughts are very welcome and actually they made me chuckle quite a bit. And thanks for reminding me of Monty Python's aptitude for Deadpan, should one say? Thanks for your prayer, at the very least to be appreciated as a very visceral reaching out. I would not do the same, but i would try with means within my reach to make sure if the moment did indeed come, the tears be sucked back, the guys be wearing the loud floreal designs, that the stories be funny and that the well-wishing overflowed. Tell me if i am wrong, but i imagine a toast with cold one might not be out of place.
THIS is more about how i, as well as others i imagine, can be conditioned by identities and roles which leave voids and distances, which are then obliterated by death itself. Lots of thinking beyond the grief, which actually i am quite accustomed to effectively metabolize.
I consider myself quite open-mindedly optimistic. It is interesting how you, and driske and mopak have caught on to gently remind me to keep going. Thank-you for the reading suggestions i shall investigate.
Driske, one more thing: i forgot to answer to your inquiry about the osteopath. In the last three years i have started to treat my organism borrowing from the idea of getting the teeth cleaned every six months. Similiarly twice a year, even if nothing is giving particular problems i go to my osteopath who just sort of "adjusts" things. It feels good. And just two days ago he actually said that my posture has improved. A good development for me. It's easier for them to figure out what is happening if you are not inflamed to the gills or in agonizing, limping pain.
Thank-you guys. But enough of this:
Today on a whim: helping my buddy CristianoD who is going to Berlin marathon in sept, 15mins slow wu, then 4x4000m in Villa Glori (all up and down!) 4 mins rest in between. Started at 4:20mins/km pace, finished at 3:59. All in the cool shade but unfortunately on asphalt so i used my vibrams. Then 10x100m on grass, joints and muscles totally functional. Head firmly on my shoulders.
A farewell toast...or 3? Surely TPCB.
I should have mentioned I'd like prayers for myself, too: BIG oversite. At any rate...
Today: 5K run which was strangely tiring today (probably because my Terrier was growling at something outside the house at around 3:40AM and I never really got back to sleep, plus 60 situps done in secret in the back storage room while on AM coffee break.
Okay, I just started running again the first week of May after a 2 year layoff. During this time I did no running whatsoever and gained about 15 pounds. I have only been running about 15 miles a week, mainly because I don't want to rush things and get some sort of stupid injury. Today I managed 58 minutes of trail running. I'm 38 years old and coming back is so tough. I plan on working up to about 50 miles a week. Hopefully I'll start pushing the mileage this fall.
soirry, but what's Gimmelwald 2011?
tanks
I haven't had an opportunity to post since your Aunt's death TPCB. Sorry for your loss.
Having not long been through a similar experience I can relate to the many processes your mind goes through. I think it brings a little more clarity and reminds us not to be too caught up in the white noise of life.
Of funerals, my father in law's ended with a reviving slide show, a moving rendition of "The Man From Snowy River" and finally a song from the irreverent Chad Morgan. Tears mixed with chuckles.
Strangely I know far more about him now than I did before he died. A lesson I will take on board.
My running. Tuesday, a 6.5km loop around the Wildflower circuit in Bendigo. It's a loop we often have raced on. Nice hilly trail on the edge of the city of Bendigo. 31.18 nice and relaxed. In the evening did a very solid hour on the windtrainer. That's about my mind's limit for indoor training. 35mins of it done in the top 3 gears, also some weights.
Wednesday, 75min run.Around the block then up the single track to Viewing Rock and then continued on rough trail to Pannells Hill at the top of the ridge. That's a 2.5km climb gaining 160m. From there down into the gully and then climbed back up Pannells Hill from the south side, 140m in 2kms.Then headed home via Dead Horse Gully. Rolled down the mostly smoother Range Track, 1.7kms in 6.10. Cruised home. All the usual wildlife suspects up on the McIvor Range. We seem to have an increased number of Pied Currawongs around at themoment. They are a very large crow like bird.
Yesterday,56min mtn bike ride with 3 climbs up the aforementioned Range Track.
I did the hill repeats so I could keep an eye on an injured "joey" (youg roo). I'd called the Nat.Park service to come and look at him. They didn't turn up after the 3d trip up and down the hill but I passed them on my way back home. I had marked the area with a discarded red bucket so he would be easy to locate.
There was a dead female on the nearby road whicjh I'm guessing was his mum. He had no obvious damage but was mostly laying down. He stood and tentatively hopped a few metres when I approached. Hopefully they rescued him rather than euthansed him.
I stopped at Wildflower on the way to work and did the 6.5km circuit again. Coincidently I stopped the watch at 31.18 just as I did on tuesday. I did some chins, dips, pushups and planks in the clubrooms before my shower.
Worked in the acute Psych ward, always interesting but often disturbing. Last night was very disturbing. What worries me is that someday soon a particular patient will probably be back in society. Hopefully the police find what they are looking for before that happens.
DaveNB, greetings. Bests for your endeavours here on a "today" basis.
ratings: a little research would reveal Gimmelwald is in Switzerland and in theory, a possible meeting place in the summer of 2011 for dwellers of this thread and beyond. The countdown refers to the number of days left to a time-space window when this convergence of sorts might take place for what has become to be known as the MOARG, Mother Of All Running Gatherings.
mopak, the visualizer: fauna and the psych ward. Natural Geographic meets Psychology Today. Fascinating and very contemporary? Human Zoo was written in 1969...
today: my fave unwind (so hot useless to warm up) sequence, 18x100m in the Villa, barefoot, and then chin up bar. Pine needles were sticking out and copious enough for a tingly tickle. Ground and grass really dry but pleasurable. Unwound.
576 days to the MOARG, in Gimmelwald, Switzerland, in the year 2011.
TPCB,
Natural Geographic meets Psychology Today!! lol
No stone left unturned in your deft handling of the English language. I believe it was Ken Kesey that rephrased that as "no left turn unstoned". Whatever.
I would like to float a trial balloon at this point as to the Gimmelwald MOARG time frame. The Bride(teacher) has the window open during the last 2 weeks of July and the 1st 2 weeks of August 2o11. Curious how this works for other interested parties,esp.mopak,tpcb, and gonzo. Comments please.
AM:3.25 miles in 28 min. One Bald Eagle cruising by was all the wild life noted. Cool feeling 59F with cloud cover and breezes. Gut wrenching dregs from the farmers manure pits wafting about. Tradeoffs,always tradeoffs.
LOLlin away! a NLTU, driske!
..And then, in the immediate daftly-handled hilar-blast, i caught a threadly-glimpse of my chin up bar ...and this gif of stool-sitting patrons, one after the other, jus keepin on pouring mixed drinks in their faces at the "chin up" bar...like i was there... Gin&Tonic, shot-of-Jack, Long-Island-Ice-Teas, scorpion bowls, you-name-it, with origami umbrellas, slice-o-lime, salts and icecubes, it's all in your face at the Chin Up Bar. Now, see what you've done?!?
Off floating the balloon with my bride. Could be a weekend affair.
Hey guys. Been very busy with work during the week but here sis my progress nonetheless.
Basically working my way towards 1000 meter repeats and tempo running of 60 minutes in length. Mileage in mid 70s for this week and will cap it off with a brisk 16 miler on Sunday.
Wednesday AM-PM: 6 miles warm up, 6 miles tempo @ sub 6 minute pace (goal was to just maintain sub 6)
Thursday AM: 6 miles @ 6:45 pace; felt relaxed but a little sore.
Friday AM: 12 miles @ sub 7 pace
I'll update when I get the chance.
Great workouts but everyone here. See ya!
Edit: here is*, workouts by everyone*
TPCB, That type of chin-up bar was the downfall of my collegiate running career. Guess I had to see what the fascination of "the good life " truly offered. Well, a thousand screaming hangovers made a convincing case for leaving that lifestyle to those with the fortitude to handle it.No mas, no mas!
Rib Lake Velociraptor 5 mile went off in cool misty Hi 50'sF. Basically perfect running weather.
I knocked 3 minutes off last years effort. 5/69 OA. 1st50-59. Time 32:27.
PS. My turn to ask. NLTU??
Friday: 2 hours mowing lawn with push mower.
This AM: 2 miles, quick tempo. Pressed for time today.