Oh my goodness, this one certainly does make me laugh out loud. My (former) PM passed this one to me this morning. It’s a mix of Tommy Seebach’s video for Apache and Voodoo People by The Prodigy. This one is great just for the utter WTF-ness of it all. Seriously.
Monthly Archive: April 2009
Speed training tips
Earlier this evening, I just finished my last speed training session for this half-marathon clinic. That was 4 reps x 1.6 kilometres, or 1 mile, or four laps around a track. Speed work is certainly an interesting phase. I mean, even though I might not be covering the same distance as a long distance run, by the end of the session I feel like I’ve gotten such a good workout. I’m not claiming to be an expert or anything, nor am I claiming to be speedy (by any means), but I still want to share some tips for the track. There are lots of varying opinions on how to do it, but what I’m listing here are the things that have helped me out personally.
- After covering the distance for one rep, make sure to walk around the track to recover. The act of walking helps to encourage faster recovery times.
- If, by the end, you feel like you’re going to puke, you ran way too hard. Same thing if you’re having trouble maintaining a constant pace through the whole rep.
- The point isn’t to go all out–that’s a good way to get injured. The goal pace should be just a little bit faster than your tempo pace.
- When you’ve finished a rep and are done walking around the track for recovery, switch directions! Doing so makes sure that an even amount of stress is put on both legs.
- When heading into a corner, don’t speed up! You’ll put a lot of stress on your IT band. If you need to pick up speed, do it coming out of a turn or on the straight part.
- It might help to mentally break the track in half. Instead of four long laps, you have eight short sections to make it through.
- If you and everyone else is switching directions a lot, keep your head up and pay attention.
- If you are having trouble covering 1.6 kilometres, try 800 metres, or 400 metres. Just do more reps.
Something herbal
Yes, so earlier today the HR head was in our area telling a new employee about how quiet our team was. A colleague was keen to inform her that she had just missed a boxing match with big inflatable gloves. No lie there. The HR lady then started talking about having played boxing with the Wii. My PM stated that he misheard and thought she was talking about “weed.” The HR lady joked that someone would be in trouble if that person actually had some.
Now, I don’t know what possessed me to do so, but I brought out a small baggie of ti kuan yin tea that I had in my desk drawer. There it was: green and herbal looking. She took one look and kind of did a double take. She had to ask, “Are you serious?” She had a pleading look in her eyes. I just smiled, amused by the whole thing. She opened the bag and took a few sniffs. It took her a few more seconds before she realized: “this is tea!” I started laughing, at which point she pretended to strangle me.
Just another day in the office.
Trying to find inspiration
I think I’m going through a bit of a curious phase over the past few days. I’m finding myself in search of a source of inspiration of sorts. Why? I can’t say my energy levels are low because otherwise I would not have been able to make 20 kilometres this past Sunday with gusto. No, that’s not it. Rather, I think part of me is experiencing an ever so slight sense of disinterest in everyday life.
Hmm…perhaps that’s a little bit strong. I know that waning interest is kind of a sign of depression, but I certainly wouldn’t go as far as to say I’m depressed. See, lately at work I’ve been a little bit stagnant. I’m still churning out the work to meet deadlines, but often I’m left wondering if I’m meant to be doing something more. One might be tempted to say that I’m falling into delusions of grandeur, except that I’m under no such illusions–oh hell no. My stations in life, though not clearly defined, at least have a bit of direction, know what I mean? I believe my feet are planted firmly on the ground.
I’ve been finding escape with running and the occasional outing with friends. I think it’s a good point to mention this because it’s an indication that I’m still finding enjoyment in other parts of life. See! Not depression! I guess I just need to get my head out of the clouds; I think I’ve just lost a little bit of focus. I’m confident that I will be able to find my way again–maybe when the skies are more favourable. Just need to give it a little bit of time, right?
Wicked storm
This past Saturday I hung out with Sharon. I hadn’t seen her in a couple of months so it was a good time to catch up with her. After a good lunch we decided to have a walk around the neighbourhood we were in at the time. The Canadian geese seemed to be out in full force. The males seemed to fiercely protect their nesting females. The hissing is pretty scary and quite on-point. I don’t think I’d mind the geese too much if only they’d just not leave such messy shits on the sidewalks. With 27°C heat, I could feel myself turning darker. The two of us ended up taking a break in the shade to just reminisce about high school and how it’s all now pretty much insignificant in the grand scheme of things.
After an hour or two of lounging, her meteorologist tendencies came out and suggested that we head back to our cars because a storm was approaching. Indeed, we could see that the western skies had turned considerably dark, and the winds had picked up. It really was a good thing that we left. When I was on the road, the winds became really fierce. At some point, my car started rocking from the wind; rain was pelting the car heavily. A cloud of dust actually enveloped my car. As I used the wipers, the dust turned to light mud. Quite insane. I got to an area where there were extensive power outages. Many stoplights were out–each one became a four-way stop. I turned south and experienced heavy traffic as I crossed over the 407. The eastbound 407 was actually closed from the road I was on for construction. This was forcing all of the traffic on the highway onto the road. Also, the fierce winds blew pylons out into the right-hand lane forcing as all to merge and dodge. It was one big mess.
When I got home and turned on the news, I saw many stories of power lines snapped like toothpicks, toppled trees, debris flying everywhere, etc. There was one guy who was struck in the head by a flying sign. That’s insane! This morning, I was out for a 20 kilometre run, which I felt I ran pretty strongly. Along the route, up ahead I was looking at the sidewalk scanning for the road at the end. It wasn’t there, prompting me to wonder what the hell was going on. Was the configuration changed somehow? It wasn’t until I got closer that I got the big picture. A huge pine tree in front of a house was actually uprooted by the strong winds, toppling it into the roadways. That’s how strong the wind was.
There’s going to be a good amount of weather fluctuation in the next week or so. As long as I’ve got safe shelter, I’ll be content to just observe nature doing what it does best.
It’s all in the mind
Self-perception all comes from the mind, right? There’s no way to be sure then that the grievances we generate have any validity. Things that might have weight in the mind may not have any footprint at all in the minds of the others in question. If that’s true, then why cause ourselves such grief?
Just a thought.
Tickle submission
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLdQ3UhLoD4
There is something mildly unsettling about this video and I’m not entirely sure as to what it is. I think it might have something to do with the animal smiling in what looks like some blissful, almost drugged-looking state. The animal is a slow loris. I’m sure I’ve seen one before on TV, but it’s only now that I’ve been able to put a name to the animal. Please watch, and let me know if you’re also feeling weirded out by this whole thing.
Learn to run, again
OK, so last night I wrote about how I’m taking on a new responsibility of sorts. At the end of last Sunday’s run, the manager of my local Running Room asked me if I was interested in teaching the next Learn to Run (LTR) clinic. I kind of scoffed at the idea.
Me? Mr. Penguin? Waddle waddle waddle?
She told me that I would be a good fit. Apparently my various coaches had passed my name around as a suggestion due to my determined nature and consistency in training. I’m certainly glad that people have taken note of my dedication, but seriously, I didn’t think I had the confidence to take on teaching a group of newbies how to run well enough to tackle their first 5K event. I told her that I’d think about it. That whole day my mind was swimming with thoughts of what it would be like to teach the clinic. Would I be enthusiastic enough? Would I have enough to offer? I big part of me knew that this was something that I would be really good at, but at the same time I was feeling like I might come off as a poseur of sorts. So, come Tuesday, I was still unsure whether I was a right fit.
After Tuesday’s run, I ended up talking to the associate manager of the store. She was the one teaching the current LTR clinic. She did a good job convincing me that teaching the clinic would be a totally fun experience. I mean, at that point everyone is just excited and looking for any info they could get. I said that I truly would have a lot to offer the new runners. Oh GOD, I have my share of successes and failures. As well, she pointed out that since I’m training for half-marathons, going through the LTR program shouldn’t be an issue at all. I guess I’d agree–it starts out at one minute running plus two minutes of walking. After all of that, I told her that I was 95% ready to commit to teaching the clinic, but that I needed another night to mull it over. She agreed.
By the next day, I decided to just dive in. I told the manager that I would do it. She seemed very happy, and that made me feel great. So yeah, it’s a done deal, isn’t it? I’m now teaching the LTR clinic at Markham Running Room starting on May 11! Oh Lord: that’s one day after my half-marathon in Mississauga. I hope I can handle it.
Over the process of the clinic, I’ll be writing about some flashbacks to when I was starting out with my running. If you’re interested, you can go back right now by checking out my “running logs” category. To read about what I was experiencing when I was starting out, you’ll have to go back to May 2007 entries, which are at about page 12 of the category. Reading and re-experiencing what I went through back then, it really amazes me just how far I’ve come. It makes my heart swell with pride.
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