On Sunday I had a complete failure in the legs department. As I set out on an 11 mile training run with Catherine I felt ok. Normally it takes me awhile to get going, to find my rhythm, but yesterday I never got there. Aside from struggling with my breathing I felt as though my lower body had gone Kim Kardashian overnight. After 3.5 miles doing the Ironman shuffle I told Catherine to carry on without me. I then walked three miles home. This last remark is the most unusual as I despise walking unless there is a purpose, such as walking to the beach or a pub.
Yesterday I decided to erase the memory of the bad run by doing... another run. The trouble with Coogee is that whichever way you head there's a hill to climb, you can't avoid it. Nor did I yesterday as I took myself off south along the coastal path towards Maroubra. It was a great run. Maybe it was the sea breeze on my face, the spectacular view, or that I didn't feel like shit.
Despite it being a great run it wasn't necessarily "fun". The idea of running being fun is alien to me, unless it's on a trail in the country. Admittedly I felt good yesterday and enjoyed it, but mainly when I had finished. Most of my runs are similar to beating myself with a bat, just a little more breathless.
This run and the terrible one I'd like to forget on Sunday got me to thinking, "When have I enjoyed a run and thought it was fun?"
Well it has happened over the last 11 years of running. All be it only a few times. The first was when I ran a cross country 10km race near Salisbury, then when I ran an ultra marathon of 50km at midnight in the middle of nowhere and more recently a 20k trail run and a half marathon PB. There have been times when I've run with friends but they were probably more enjoyable once completed.
So why do it? Why do some of us use our free time to do something we don't find fun?
The easiest way I can explain why I run stupidly long distances is this; I enjoy completing a challenge. That is where the enjoyment comes from. But I don't think it's fun. Mountain biking in Switzerland? That's fun. Playing frisbee? That's fun. Sitting on my arse at the beach, drinking beer and watching the sea? Definitely fun.
I get a level of satisfaction bar none from running for hours and finishing an event alive. It's caveman. It purely satisfies a piece of brain that used to operate frequently under the stress of being chased by large animals, big, hungry animals.
Sadly we don't get chased by anything anymore, so those feelings come from something else. For those that need it we have activities such as running, weight lifting, climbing, cycling, surfing and mountaineering among others to take us to the edge. Yes people find them fun, but a lot of people do them because they need to. It's a drug they need.
Running for me is a way to push myself to physical and mental limits, to go beyond them, to accomplish something extraordinary. I enjoy it when it's finished, then I can relax knowing I completed what I set out to do. The fun is enjoying that knowledge whilst sipping a cold beer!
Tomorrow is a running day, til next time...
Tom :)
- Posted from the modern day type writer
Tuesday, 24 February 2015
Thursday, 19 February 2015
Just do it
Getting back into running and writing are similarly difficult. Having had a break from running for a few months and writing for a few weeks it is a struggle to get back into both.
On the upside I am extremely motivated and enthusiastic about running again after a good rest from it. Catherine and I are going to run at the Barossa marathon at the end of May and hopefully enjoy some wine afterwards! On the downside it feels as though I have started all over again with running. It's hard to breathe, I feel heavier (I am) and my body is not sharing the enthusiasm that I so readily possess.
Writing is very much the same after a considerable break all be it without the breathlessness. Sitting down to write creatively is like drawing blood from a stone, I have been sat staring at the page hoping for my imagination to kick in and conjure something decent for me to scribble down.
When I get to this stage in any activity I try to remind myself what certain close friends would say. My uber wise friend Mike "Turnip" Cavendish would often say "just do it!" This would probably be followed with "you fat, lazy tart." Even without the latter the simple message is the best. Just doing it is where you begin. You don't start a marathon program by talking about it. Nor do you write a book by telling people about the story. You just start. It may be a pain in the arse (literally with running) and you may only do a small amount, but getting out and doing it consistently is the only way you will achieve what you have been gabbing on about for so long.
As I write these words I have done what I encourage you to do above. I ran my training run this morning and then sat down to write this. Tomorrow I will do the same and the day after that too. It won't be easy, but now is the time to "just do it".
Happy running and writing!
Tom :)
- Posted from the modern day type writer
On the upside I am extremely motivated and enthusiastic about running again after a good rest from it. Catherine and I are going to run at the Barossa marathon at the end of May and hopefully enjoy some wine afterwards! On the downside it feels as though I have started all over again with running. It's hard to breathe, I feel heavier (I am) and my body is not sharing the enthusiasm that I so readily possess.
Writing is very much the same after a considerable break all be it without the breathlessness. Sitting down to write creatively is like drawing blood from a stone, I have been sat staring at the page hoping for my imagination to kick in and conjure something decent for me to scribble down.
When I get to this stage in any activity I try to remind myself what certain close friends would say. My uber wise friend Mike "Turnip" Cavendish would often say "just do it!" This would probably be followed with "you fat, lazy tart." Even without the latter the simple message is the best. Just doing it is where you begin. You don't start a marathon program by talking about it. Nor do you write a book by telling people about the story. You just start. It may be a pain in the arse (literally with running) and you may only do a small amount, but getting out and doing it consistently is the only way you will achieve what you have been gabbing on about for so long.
As I write these words I have done what I encourage you to do above. I ran my training run this morning and then sat down to write this. Tomorrow I will do the same and the day after that too. It won't be easy, but now is the time to "just do it".
Happy running and writing!
Tom :)
- Posted from the modern day type writer
Tuesday, 10 February 2015
Back to normal :(
I am sat in my new local coffee shop in order to tap out this blog post, a month after the last one! Time has flown by and I can't believe that Catherine and I have married and moved home in that time. As the dust settles I'm sure we will start to enjoy married life in our new home (we are already, we just can't believe it's all happened).
We both had an amazing time seeing all of you that made it out here and missed all of those who couldn't. Hopefully we will all be able to relive the wedding day (minus the alcohol and great food) when we receive the wedding video footage. I think it will be epic as Mike A. had a setup similar to David Attenborough's wildlife team- with cameras in the trees and from a variety of angles- but don't be concerned, I'm sure he'll edit the drunken parts ;) Soon we'll have the wedding photos back too, but in the meantime I have setup this DropBox in order to share all our photos from a million different angles. It is empty at the moment because I have no photos! If you don't mind sharing then please feel free to use it:
So we moved! How about that for doing lots of stressful (and amazing) things all at once! Long story short our landlord told us she wanted to sell the flat the Monday after the wedding, we took a day to look at flats the following Saturday, found an amazing one, were told we were successful on the Monday and moved in on the Thursday. Tomorrow we will have been in for a week and thanks to Fran, Tony, Mike and Doug we are mostly unpacked. We now have a spare room, with a bed to follow, so there's a place for you to stay. Applications to Tom at..... ;)
I am going to leave this post at that for now and update you on other things when I have another chance. I'll leave you with a new view from our new area:
We both had an amazing time seeing all of you that made it out here and missed all of those who couldn't. Hopefully we will all be able to relive the wedding day (minus the alcohol and great food) when we receive the wedding video footage. I think it will be epic as Mike A. had a setup similar to David Attenborough's wildlife team- with cameras in the trees and from a variety of angles- but don't be concerned, I'm sure he'll edit the drunken parts ;) Soon we'll have the wedding photos back too, but in the meantime I have setup this DropBox in order to share all our photos from a million different angles. It is empty at the moment because I have no photos! If you don't mind sharing then please feel free to use it:
So we moved! How about that for doing lots of stressful (and amazing) things all at once! Long story short our landlord told us she wanted to sell the flat the Monday after the wedding, we took a day to look at flats the following Saturday, found an amazing one, were told we were successful on the Monday and moved in on the Thursday. Tomorrow we will have been in for a week and thanks to Fran, Tony, Mike and Doug we are mostly unpacked. We now have a spare room, with a bed to follow, so there's a place for you to stay. Applications to Tom at..... ;)
I am going to leave this post at that for now and update you on other things when I have another chance. I'll leave you with a new view from our new area:
See you when we have Internet,
Tom :)
Thursday, 8 January 2015
Reading and stuff
I have been reading a great book called The way of the superior man by David Deidas. Some of you chaps may have heard or read it. I think I first heard of it from my friend Cj a few years back and have since been reintroduced to it by my mate Andrew. I wouldn't do it justice trying to explain what it is all about, it's easier to read his introduction for yourselves. I have found it has helped me to cajole some sense out of my brain matter recently and is a great guide to living a superior life as a modern man. It is not fluff, so don't be put off fellas.
My training has been progressing at a steady rate. I'm enjoying lifting at the moment, but I can hear the soft calls of the harlot marathon. She gives up her many miles of pleasurable pain and just when you think you are reaching the pinnacle and have conquered her, she nails your feet to the road with concrete blocks and pours fire into your muscles. If I can find two marathons to run this year then I may do that and factor in an ultra for good luck. But for now it's that time of year when we live by the ancient motto - "sun's out, guns out".
I best put a short end to this brief post. I'm frazzling in the sun and don't want to look like a lobster when I go to work. Before I sign off I can say I'm "tres" excited about our family and friends turning up over the coming days. It doesn't feel that long since I saw some of them because we have used FaceTime and Skype to stay in touch. Others I can't wait to see because I haven't been in touch with them for months and some I haven't seen in over a year. They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder. I believe that it makes you realise how lucky you are to live a life like this and have close ones that will travel to be with you for your wedding. Whenever I feel gloomy I just remind myself of this and know that our first world problems will be alright ;)
Tom :)
Tuesday, 6 January 2015
New Year's end
I can't believe where the last two weeks have gone since I last wrote a post. Let's just say I had a Christmas break from writing.
Despite my goal to write everyday it hasn't been as frequent as that, so I'm now creating a new routine. After catching up with my friend Andrew last night I am following his lead and discarding the TV in favour of early nights to bed. This is mainly because I am struggling to get into a 6am wakeup routine in order to write at the start of the day and then hit the gym before work. I have been watching some terrible television, so instead of pickling my brain with the nonsense stories of "RBT" and "Outback Truckers" I will be doing something radical, talking. Well actually talking and reading. Though not at the same time, as I am a man and can't ever concentrate on reading when Catherine (or anyone else) is trying to talk to me. This is not a new thing, I lived without TV for two years at my flat in London and managed to read a lot, talk a fair bit and cook some great meals.
I was going to write something for my book this morning, but I thought I should update my blog as it hasn't had much love in the last two weeks. Writing is after all writing, so it doesn't matter to me whether I am rambling on about things on here or developing the characters of my book. The second new habit I am creating is one of consistency with my scribbling. To get up and write every morning for an hour isn't easy, but it is necessary to develop this skill. There will be times when my blog writing reads badly or is just plain crap. But as I am not writing this for anyone's improvement but my own I don't care! The key to developing in any chosen area, whether it be running, writing or work, is to practice frequently. Obviously it is preferable to practice well, but with writing it is more important to scribble as much as possible down and sort the wheat from the chaff later.
Another piece of writing I have to do is my wedding speech. Although I love to talk I don't necessarily enjoy standing up in front of a large group and speaking. Fortunately I just need to thank people and talk about the beautiful bride, so I should be alright. I think I am supposed to be nervous about the Best Man's speech, but as I know the embarrassments I have gone through I don't think I have anything to worry about. There is certainly nothing as good as my brother's escapades!
Preparations are still in full swing and I have a bit of carpentry to do. Fortunately it is nothing that people are sitting on, so I don't need to employ the german engineering to it. It is merely some signs and a couple of small things, so everybody should be safe on the day!
More than anything I am looking forward to taking (paid) holiday for the first time in years and enjoying spending time with my friends and family from England and from our home here in Sydney. I best get my routine in place before they all arrive!
Tom :)
Despite my goal to write everyday it hasn't been as frequent as that, so I'm now creating a new routine. After catching up with my friend Andrew last night I am following his lead and discarding the TV in favour of early nights to bed. This is mainly because I am struggling to get into a 6am wakeup routine in order to write at the start of the day and then hit the gym before work. I have been watching some terrible television, so instead of pickling my brain with the nonsense stories of "RBT" and "Outback Truckers" I will be doing something radical, talking. Well actually talking and reading. Though not at the same time, as I am a man and can't ever concentrate on reading when Catherine (or anyone else) is trying to talk to me. This is not a new thing, I lived without TV for two years at my flat in London and managed to read a lot, talk a fair bit and cook some great meals.
I was going to write something for my book this morning, but I thought I should update my blog as it hasn't had much love in the last two weeks. Writing is after all writing, so it doesn't matter to me whether I am rambling on about things on here or developing the characters of my book. The second new habit I am creating is one of consistency with my scribbling. To get up and write every morning for an hour isn't easy, but it is necessary to develop this skill. There will be times when my blog writing reads badly or is just plain crap. But as I am not writing this for anyone's improvement but my own I don't care! The key to developing in any chosen area, whether it be running, writing or work, is to practice frequently. Obviously it is preferable to practice well, but with writing it is more important to scribble as much as possible down and sort the wheat from the chaff later.
Another piece of writing I have to do is my wedding speech. Although I love to talk I don't necessarily enjoy standing up in front of a large group and speaking. Fortunately I just need to thank people and talk about the beautiful bride, so I should be alright. I think I am supposed to be nervous about the Best Man's speech, but as I know the embarrassments I have gone through I don't think I have anything to worry about. There is certainly nothing as good as my brother's escapades!
Preparations are still in full swing and I have a bit of carpentry to do. Fortunately it is nothing that people are sitting on, so I don't need to employ the german engineering to it. It is merely some signs and a couple of small things, so everybody should be safe on the day!
More than anything I am looking forward to taking (paid) holiday for the first time in years and enjoying spending time with my friends and family from England and from our home here in Sydney. I best get my routine in place before they all arrive!
Tom :)
Sunday, 21 December 2014
Content
This morning it was a quick trip to the beach for a swim and a coffee to kick the day off. I had planned on heading to the gym, but I was still feeling the effects of a session three days ago, so I called it and went for a dip instead. I remember reading years ago when Arnie (Schwarzenegger) was training back in the day with another famous bodybuilder (possibly Lou Ferrigno), that if they didn't feel up to that morning's session then they would sack it off and go for a huge breakfast instead. I doubt it happened that often and they were probably training twice a day, but it always reminds me to listen to my body and take a break. That way I stay motivated to train and don't overdo it. We should all probably use this in every aspect of our lives, not just training. (Sadly no huge breakfast was consumed post swim)
The beach was pretty sweet this morning, I could've stayed all day if I didn't have to earn some money ;) I've aways loved sitting by the sea and listening to the surf, it has a cathartic effect and makes me forget everything, it is my kind of meditation. Perhaps I should be worried though because this sort of love of the sea could mean I was a seagull in a former life. Seagull or not, the simple things in life give us the most contentment.
When I was chatting to one of my mates at a leaving drinks the other night he told me that he'd read my blog. He preceded his opinion of it by saying that what he was about to say wasn't criticism. I told him that I welcome criticism, even though I really only write the blog to appease my crazy mind, not to win plaudits. His view was that sometimes he feels I'm writing about my view of the world outside, in a philosophical way. At other times its very much within my world, perhaps within myself. This was excellent news to me as it is exactly how it is. Some days I have something to say, some opinion of the world, which may sound vaguely philosophical. Other days like today I am writing about what I've been doing, how I'm feeling. Those days are the most boring, I feel I don't have much to talk about other than my feelings (how sad). But these days when I write without anything to mention are the good days, the light days, the stable moments. These boring days help me to keep tapping away at the keys and possibly to improve my writing, even if only by a very small amount. The mere fact that I'm sharing is because I'm all good, I keep the dark stuff for my notebook, so as not to scare peeps.
Nobody really wants to read about how shit people are feeling do they? Nor on the other hand do they want to read how positive and amazing people are either. Yes we want people to be happy or content, but we don't want to be reminded about it on Facebook or in someone's blog every other day (I will try to be moderately miserable and happy in equal portions). There are times when I read Facebook, my own writing or listen to people talk and think "oh fuck off!"
Like many things in life I believe there is a balance to everything. The body keeps homeostasis without us knowing. We should do the same with our minds, with our pursuits, with our work, ultimately with every thing we do, say or think. In doing this we will be content with whatever comes our way in life. My goal in life is not to be happy, that will come and go, rather it is to be content with whatever situation, good or bad, that I face. Being present is a big part of this contentment, we can only effect what is in our control and ultimately that comes down to our minds, our attitude and our reaction to everything outside of ourselves at this very moment.
Here I was thinking this wasn't a philosophical piece of writing. Ah well.
Tom :)
Thursday, 18 December 2014
Presently occupied, with staying present
Even before this week and the tragic events that have occurred here in Sydney and in Pakistan, I have been working on staying present. A lot of the time I will think too much and worry too much about the future. I generally don't live in the past (thank god), so at least that is not a problem area.
As always I have been reading a great deal but until now haven't read "The Power of Now". I don't generally think it is rocket science, but it helps to motivate me further to focus on the present moment, enjoy the time I have now and not worry about things out of my control. The key thing is to focus completely on what I am doing in that moment, whether that experience be good or bad. I certainly am feeling better for it and am positive about what I am doing right now.
Using my focus on being present has helped with my training of late, as I've been having some great strength training sessions in the gym. Even more surprising is that I've been consistent with training and enjoyed it. One of the things helping with that is the Gym Here Pro app, which helps me track my progress and see how I am improving. It is worth a look if you train regularly with weights.
Christmas is fast approaching now and I have been as organised as most years, I've done nothing. Tomorrow I have the day off, so I hope to get some Christmas decorations up and do all my Chrimbo shopping in the space of a couple of hours. This will all be achieved after I have done my strength session of course. What a way to start the day off! After I've done that I will be meeting Catherine (post ocean swim training) at our local cafe Sorelle in order to enjoy one more brekkie drink before they close the cafe for holidays. Then we will be off to my mate Jamie's for Christmas carols (and beers). I think I said this was my day off? Then it'll be four days of work before I have Christmas day off. It's certainly not what I'd be doing back in England!
I don't think there is much else to report right now, but I will update you all soon. If you don't check in before Christmas I wish you a very merry Christmas wherever you are in the world. I'll be raising a cold beer and a sausage sarnie to you on Christmas day!
Tom :)
As always I have been reading a great deal but until now haven't read "The Power of Now". I don't generally think it is rocket science, but it helps to motivate me further to focus on the present moment, enjoy the time I have now and not worry about things out of my control. The key thing is to focus completely on what I am doing in that moment, whether that experience be good or bad. I certainly am feeling better for it and am positive about what I am doing right now.
Using my focus on being present has helped with my training of late, as I've been having some great strength training sessions in the gym. Even more surprising is that I've been consistent with training and enjoyed it. One of the things helping with that is the Gym Here Pro app, which helps me track my progress and see how I am improving. It is worth a look if you train regularly with weights.
Christmas is fast approaching now and I have been as organised as most years, I've done nothing. Tomorrow I have the day off, so I hope to get some Christmas decorations up and do all my Chrimbo shopping in the space of a couple of hours. This will all be achieved after I have done my strength session of course. What a way to start the day off! After I've done that I will be meeting Catherine (post ocean swim training) at our local cafe Sorelle in order to enjoy one more brekkie drink before they close the cafe for holidays. Then we will be off to my mate Jamie's for Christmas carols (and beers). I think I said this was my day off? Then it'll be four days of work before I have Christmas day off. It's certainly not what I'd be doing back in England!
I don't think there is much else to report right now, but I will update you all soon. If you don't check in before Christmas I wish you a very merry Christmas wherever you are in the world. I'll be raising a cold beer and a sausage sarnie to you on Christmas day!
Tom :)
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