Training Break #8

For me it's more intriguing, it's more interesting, because I'm climbing the mountain for what it is rather than just trying to get to the top.

- Ed Viesturs, when asked by Stephen Colbert why he prefers to summit Everest without the use of bottled oxygen.

Dust on the rust on the lead in my legs

Borneo was all we had hoped for and more. Deanna and I will be posting our chronicles at OOFALWO over the next few weeks, so that's the place to read of our [mis]adventures. As for running, well, let's just say that I was in an extended period of active recovery. That sounds much better than admitting that I was in holiday mode, when bad spy fiction and naps on the beach took precedence over logging some miles. The Warrior Board for June shows 99.10 minutes on three runs, and a whole pile of untimed walking - on mountain trails, in Malaysian national parks, around (and around, and around) tiny idyllic islands, and through pleasant cities.

The Incheon Bridge marathon we had hoped to do in September as a tune-up for the 100km run in October has been postponed, to the same day we will be doing the 100km run. So that's out, but I will try to find an alternative in late August or early September. The ultra is now fourteen and a half weeks away, which hopefully is enough time for my legs and me to get back on amicable terms. 

Borneo

May ended like it started, with me resting and nursing sore parts, but did include three runs for 966.15 and 600 minutes of walking. I'll need to get my hip sorted out quickly, as the marathon in September and then the YeongDong 100km Ultra on October 10th loom large.

According to the latest edition of the British Journal of Medicine, the best remedy for a dodgy hip is to begin an immediate eight week summer vacation, with the first three weeks spent beach-laying, tandoori-eating, giant turtle-watching, and hanging out with the likes of this Iban headhunter in the wild climes of Sarawak. I'll work today, since I'm already in the building, but then this sounds like the kind of medical advice I can get behind, starting 474 minutes from now.

The Hip

Had I taken closer heed of this sign posted on the Yangjaecheon running path, perhaps I would not be taking the weekend off with an inflamed sciatic nerve in my right hip [diagnosed from the comfort of my own couch with assistance from the good Dr. Wikipedia].

But speaking of real doctors, a deeply reverent doff o' the hat to Monica [Prairie Chapter] on demolishing her Royal College exams and officially becoming the Sea Bass Running Club's in-house anaesthesiologist.

Training Break #7

You have to forget your last marathon before you try another. Your mind can't know what's coming.
- Frank Shorter

Next

We are now seventeen weeks away from our next marathon, held to commemorate the opening of the Incheon Bridge in September. It is not often one has the opportunity to run across one of the world's longest bridges, and if this artist rendering is even remotely close to being accurate, my usual absence of hill training should not be of great consequence. Having done nothing but a few long walks since the ultra, I am itching to get out in the morning for a gentle 40 minutes. The plan is to ease back into a routine over the next five weeks (two here, three on holiday in Borneo), then start getting serious about preparing properly. Not so distantly beyond this marathon looms another stab at 100km to wrap up the year.

Training Break #6

The weeks creep past,

form clouds, lose themselves,

conceal themselves in the sky,

come to rest there

like light faded.

- Pablo Neruda