I like what Andy says, about half way down the page here.

Feeling good today, physically speaking. We went to the gym early this morning, J was struggling to get up and go but she did. I went to the first half of pump, but it was too loud and hot in there, so I left and went for a run instead. Running in the morning is all good, but just before 7am, it starts getting quite busy on the roads, and I hate breathing in all the exhaust fumes.

Think I need to start easing off a bit on the running - 15 min tomorrow at the most, and nothing on Friday. Will need to hydrate on Friday too ...

The weekend was fantastic. We went down to Queenstown to celebrate our 1 year wedding anniversary. I can't believe a whole year has gone by so fast. The weather was great, we probably didn't take enough photos (as usual), and it was really enjoyable. The only downside was J wasn't feeling too good, she had a bit of a cold and sore throat.
Fortunately, I didn't catch it (unless it has a 3-4 day incubation period), so it hasn't hindered my build up to the run. On Saturday, I ran about 1.5 hours, along the lakeside trail, and then along the road to Glenorchy. And then on Monday, I ran 6km loop along Hillsborough Rd, and this morning a quick 5km to my parents and back.

Nothing really earth shattering has happened lately. I ran 5km last night, and 5km this morning, and I'm feeling a bit tired now. Definitely not running tomorrow.
The one cool thing about the internet is that whatever you're interested in, there will be a decent forum somewhere on that topic. I've read good stuff on: weight training, Subaru's, mountain bikes, running, snowboarding, and car audio. (Nb: I'm lazy and the links only go to the main pages, but you intelligent readers will figure out how to get to the forums.)

Once again, I've proven to myself I cannot handle late school nights. I was up til 11:30 or so, because I had dinner at around 10:30pm, because I spent 2 hours having coffee with Steve after my run. Now this morning, I'm feeling a bit dead.
Had a fairly good run yesterday, ran 10km Mission Bay-Quay St in 0:47:20. But I'm struggling to work out how to improve my speed. I guess the adrenaline on race day will shave off a couple of minutes, so maybe a 45 is realistic. But I'd really like to get down around 40 minutes. I will have to run some intervals tonight or tomorrow.

Today has been interesting so far. I found Cristin's blog, now this is kind of interesting, from what I gather, she's about 16 years old and going through a boyfriend crisis of sorts. Sort of like "Neighbours" but in real life ... it's a bit strange reading other people's personal lives, but hey, if they choose to publish it on the web, then that's what they get.
I think there's a lot of value in holding your tongue ... trust is often earned by knowing when not to speak.

The weekend was good. Ran 16km on Saturday, in 1:21, from Quay St Mobil to St Heliers and back. This is the longest I've ever run in my life, and it was good to get it over with. It works out about 5 min/km pace, and it was pretty comfortable most of the way. However, the last km or so, was a bit tough.
Then today, I ran 3 x 5min intervals at 4 min/km pace. That's fairly quick, if I'm going to run the 10km in 40 min, then I have to run at that pace the whole race.

What's even more extreme is that competitive athletes run the same distance in under 30 minutes (ie going faster than 20km/hr - my "fast pace" training today was at 15km/hr). And the fastest marathoners can do that for over 2 hours!!!

Strangely enough, I felt a lot better this morning - strange because we only had 6 or so hours sleep. (The result of eating dinner at 10pm).
So we went to pump at the gym, S* was taking the class, looking enthusiastic and energetic as she does. Seedy Guy #2 was in the front as usual - call me overly suspicious but I am positive he is there just to check out S*. The worst part is bicep curls, when S* gets too enthusiastic and starts dancing to the music - Christina Aguilera's Dirrty. Well, not quite dancing, but you know, some hip shaking is going on. It's all good, the guys appreciate it ... however, Seedy Guy #2 decides he will dance along as well, and it's just a bad, bad look ... I had to look out the window to keep my eyes off the awful sight.
I think I can do a little less in Pump than when I stopped about a month ago, but I think that if I get back into doing it all the time, then I'll reach a level higher than I was at before. My benchpress feels slightly weaker, but my back is stronger.
So all in all RHC month 1 has made a positive difference, in terms of Pump strength. Will need to progress onto RHC month 2, but I might just wait til May for that.

After all, the plan is to focus on the run in 3 weeks. I need to put in a big run tomorrow, and next Saturday. Thinking 90 min and 120 min respectively. Now this will be a challenge ...

The human body is so fragile. Normally, I feel fine, and I like to think that I'm reasonably fit and healthy. At least above average.
Yet I get this little sore throat and it's enough to stop me from running or exercising for a couple of days. I'm thinking at least I didn't get it in two weeks time when I'm due to race.

But it's still scary that no matter what you do, no matter how good you feel right now, you can still, for no apparent reason, get sick at the drop of a hat. Like tomorrow.

I read somewhere (again I think it was in Lance Armstrong's book) that if we all realised how frail life was, then everyone would pretty much drop everything and go live in the Bahamas on the beach, thankful for every day we're given.
But somehow humans seem to think that life goes on forever, and somehow that death will never happen to them for a long long time. This, says Lance, is the mechanism by which everyone manages to keep living in a normal orderly fashion (rather than mass migrating to the beach).

i was thinking about the highlights so far in my life.
What experiences have been really worthwhile. Some of the most enjoyable have been my two big trips overseas. By big, I mean they were for a couple of months. Both times I went to the USA, and spent most of my time snowboarding.

The coolest thing was just meeting up with new people, from all walks of life, just doing the same thing as me ... in fact the highlight of the last trip 3 years ago was probably meeting up with Sarah and Elizabeth from Minnesota, and going riding with them for 2 days. I mean, I honestly still consider them friends after 2 days of knowing them. I'm not sure if they still remember who I am, but hey, lets be generous here, and assume I'm not self deluded. Perhaps though, as Elizabeth said, God lets some people just step into our lives to give us a moment of joy ... not a continual drenching, but just a summer sun-shower.

That reminds me of Lance Armstrong's book where he talks about happiness - he says happiness is a silken cord sliding through our hands. It's there for the moment, but tomorrow we'll be back to work, looking after the children, back to the daily routine. I guess he's saying it's not to be held onto, but rather remembered just for what it was, and then to aim again for the next goal.

Also high on the list was the summer of 1998/99 when Steve, Mike and I surfed a whole lot, then Steve & I went on the legendary surf trip. We went for about 2 weeks over summer, and started off at the Coromandel then worked our way down the east coast. Went through the mount, down to Ohope, then Gisbourne then to Mahia. Then we worked our way back up. Met lots of people, had a lot of laughs, some classic moments with stick-on Spice Girls tattoos. I still keep in touch with Haidee, who we met on that trip.

Lately, the biggest buzz has been getting married. It's a much deeper joy, it's part of growing up I think. And it's a lasting permanent thing, not just a seasonal buzz. I'm really looking foward to living life with J, she makes the whole picture more complete.

bleugh ... i feel crook. Well, not that bad, certainly not bad enough to complain about, but as J will tell you, I'm soft, and whine about any little aches and pains. Today I woke up with a sore throat, so I didn't go to the gym. Got up and had a honeysuckle tea (which my dad firmly believes heals sore throats). Felt better to the point of going to work.

Also, I have to think of a good birthday pressie for my sister ... mmmm ....

Easter was good. Long weekends are always good. Even if this morning, J was tired and suffering from a little post-trip depression.
I didn't get a whole lot done ... went for a surf in the morning with SC (that was a bit different). Also went for a couple of 10km runs and just did a 5km this morning.

On a side note, I hate doing PC support. :-( ... Freakin' users ...

I made it to the gym last night - I was pretty annoyed at the time, cause I thought I'd lost my fleece vest. Found it a few hours later ... anyway, so I drove to the gym and did the circuit as prescribed.
It was a real energy sapper - squat jumps take a lot out of you. Also, I couldn't quite manage 3 x 10 wide grip pull ups. I did the first 2 sets ok, but couldn't get past 8 reps on the 3rd set. I felt a bit better about the whole lost vest thing (thinking to myself it's only $100 to replace at another Kathmandu sale), I think exercise makes you a bit more positive. And then I found it at home, so that was good. Watched the last 20 minutes of Fast and the Furious on video.

Today, we woke up to another fine cold morning. J is off to see her folks in Hastings, so I'm home alone for a few days. She's always going off places ... compared to me. Still I'll be off to Rotorua come 1 May ...

well, i'm depressed now. I read a fairly recent "Investigate" magazine, which featured a story on the possibility of an upcoming oil crisis. Apparently, oil reserves could run out within the next 20 years. And we have a society that's addicted to oil - plastics, fertilisers, all sorts of things are manufactured using oil. This has the possibility to become a huge nightmare in the future.
At first I thought fine, so I'll catch the bus to work - don't need to drive a car around. Afterall, I like running and cycling. But this is more than a car problem, it's a whole way of life problem.
Ouch.

Late nights really muck up your day ... It was 11:30pm by the time I'd finished lazing around and finally made it to bed. Consequently, no gym this morning ... maybe I'll go tonight.
It's getting really cold in the night lately. I got up this morning, and drove to work for 30 minutes with the heater on, and I've only just warmed up.
I'm thinking about writing something here with a bit more meaning ... more later.

Last week was a bit of a mess at work, with stock takes etc going on. I came home Friday night, (J was out at a girly event) and played some GT3. I'm about 65% finished, have done Beginner, Amateur and Rally series. Actually, I have about 3 races to go to finish Amateur, after which I'm not sure if I'll do the Professional series.
Anyway, the weekend was good. Went for a 10km run in the morning, decided to enter the Rotorua Marathon 10km race. (They run separate 5km and 10km races from the main event.) So I'm back in training for running.
Then, in the afternoon, went round to see my brother - I hadn't seen him since he got back from his honeymoon. Ended up staying there most of the afternoon, assembling various outdoor furniture. Finally, went home and mowed the lawns. In the evening, we watched the Matrix Revolutions and ate pizza.
I enjoyed it, as usual J understood more of it than me, and so she explained some stuff afterwards.

Then on Sunday, we had the second presentation of the youth group outreach in the evening. This was honestly the best presentation I have ever seen our youth group do, it was perhaps the most youth oriented one yet. In the past, they have been unintentionally aimed at middle-aged Christians ... judging by the choice of music - very CCM ... it's still CCM but getting younger ... sometimes I think "now if I find this too old, how do the teenagers feel?"
There was a dance item, using Sara Grove's "Maybe There's a Loving God." It had the most impact of the whole evening ...
The song is about a girl who's struggling with the purpose of life. She wonders if there's a God out there somewhere who created this world and everything in it.

Then came Monday. Gym - this week is very cardio. Did a weights circuit program. Incidentally this is the last week of RHC Month 1. I think after this I'll have to take a few weeks off the RHC, to train for the race. We'll see how it goes.

feeling a little antsy ... need a fix ... need ... something ...