The Way of the Dragon XXX

A period on non-blogging, non-running, some writing, defined by family commitments, heatwaves, sport crisis, existential crisis, photography classes. I have been watching quite a lot of TV at night, but after the attacks in Paris last week, there isn't much to watch, apart from the hourly reminder that we're all gonna die because ISIS is going to kill us all. So, watching TV is not really that relaxing.

Don't dispose of the disposable!

I have just received my new contact lenses in the mail. I find it funny they're called "Lacrima", which in Italian means "teardrop". It makes the whole process of putting on contacts quite emotional. I buy the monthly disposable ones - you use them for a month, then chuck it away and get a new pair on.

Waking up early: Mission Impossible

I am an academic, which is a great job to escape the horrible constraints of the 9 to 5 life, such as having to dress up to go to work every morning, driving to work at peak time, seeing the same annoying people every day... But there are lots of downsides with being an academic, among which there's the fact that work might follow you everywhere. The 9to5 person has an office, and work stays in the office: but for the academic, especially one who, like me, works always from home, there's the risk of work creeping into every aspect (and room) of your life.

Spring cleaning

I have gone through another existential crisis, and so has the blog. I eventually realised that I was becoming the kind of person I fear I might become, i.e. a weirdo in his late 30s who is giving all of his remaining physical and mental energies to running. There is some value in running to seek refuge from all the crap that goes on in life - but there is also something vicious in centring one's own life on running. I did it for a couple of weeks, and never felt good.

A few changes in the background have influenced this shift in perspective. My parents have gone back to Italy, after two wonderful months spent with us here in Fremantle. So, a sudden and violent increase in childcare-housekeeping-catering duties. On top of that, my parental leave has finished, so I have had to get back into the academic character, i.e. writing, researching, and answering stupid emails. I haven't really wanted to run for the past month, and the arch of my foot still hurts - maybe I've ended up with plantar fascitis, since it hurts exactly as per below figure:

 

Anyway, for the past 3weeks I have changed approach to my daily routine. First, I have put sport on the 3rd place in my priority list, after writing and family. (To be honest, family is not something you can move around on the priority list, for it claims priority regardless. It's not like "Oh, the baby is crying, but first I must finish writing this section!", or "I have to pick the other one from kindergarten, but I cannot miss my deadline", or "Woman wants me to go to grocery, but I need to check the bibliography first", etc.). As I work from home, I have been trying to maximise the early morning hours for writing (more on this in later posts). So, when the little one wakes up after her morning nap, somewhere between 10.30 and 11.30 am, I feed her, and then use her digestion time (during which she is usually extremely easy and happy) to do a 30mins workout.

This involves:

• 5mins jumping rope 
• 3x(10 crunch + 30sec dynamic plank) (no recovery)
• 3x15 push ups with Perfect PushUp. I should add the PPU is excellent, and I highly recommend it (and I do not get any cut from their sales)!
• 1xChange of nappy (little one shits herself half-way during her digestion process: and who can blame her for that?) Having to face poo in the middle of the workout makes you stronger
• 3x20 kettlebell swings
• 3x2x10 single leg squat. This is my nemesis, but I'll get to a full one, one of these days...
• some other random plyometrics stuff

Today I went for a morning run, my usual 7.5k course by the ocean. It felt good, and body was in agreement, but the foot hurts. Looks like it's time to fork out another 100bucks for the chiropractor.

Conflicting feelings

The week ends with mixed feelings.

The body weight experiment has yielded some results. I've got back to the 60kg marks. However, it hasn't bore the expected results: yesterday I went for the usual 5km ParkRun, and scrapped a very modest 17'52''. Again I mismanaged the whole business - didn't hook up with the fast kids in front of me from the start, ended up chasing them for a couple of km, seeing them getting smaller and smaller far ahead of me.. I should have sprinted to catch up with them, and then perhaps collapse without regrets.  Why do I keep getting up early and all the fuss, to then run these anonymous runs?

Most of all, I struggle with motivation. I am not hungry for results, and understandably so. Running is a nice thing, but I cannot turn it into this life-making practice. I have been reading many excellent blogs of people whose life hinges on their running. But my life is too sketchy, I don't even know where I'll be in a couple of years, what job I will have.. I retreat into running in order to hold onto something, to have the illusion that I have a plan, a goal, a challenge to meet. But the challenges are others, I should finally publish my academic articles, get some recognitions, career advancements, feeling of accomplishment.. Even if I ended up running a sub-70mins half marathon, or a sub-32 mins 10k, what change would that make in my life? None whatsoever. I did all that 20 years ago, it's silly to struggle so much just to try to repeat it. At that time, there was a reason to train like crazy every day - and I did not have other responsibilities.

I must strive to be a well-rounded person, learning new skills and improving as a person overall. There are so many things of myself I need to change, and running like a maniac is not going to make any difference on that. This obsession with running is unhealthy, and has got me stuck. I must find an equilibrium between what, at this stage in my life, is nice to do, and what really matters.

Lots of stories, and then 18km

I got on the scale yesterday morning, shortly after sunrise. I like the stillness of the world around me, the gentle light that comes through the window, the singing magpies and the sound of ocean waves from afar, when I step on a weight-measuring device.
It said 65. Bitch. I wondered for a while what the hell was going on in my body. But then the kids got up so I stopped wondering. I went for a good run at lunch time, in Applecross, south of Perth, surrounded by shamelessly massive houses of billionaires who piled up $$$ during the mining boom.

11km in total, following the Swan River. Priceless, like the billionaire houses. At night, I went for a deep tissue massage at a guy who works next door to my house. My calves had been giving me hell since last Sunday's depressing 10k, and are a general daily hassle in my late 30s existence. The masseur, young but competent, said my calves were pretty good, but my feet were tight. In fact, the left arch has been hurting for a while, I think my new Asics Hyperspeed look cool, but are a bit too minimalistic. Most of all, they don't run near as fast as I expected them to! So, 55 bucks later I went back home, with relaxed calves but still a cranky foot.





To deal with that crankiness, I got onto the spikey ball, which my partner bought me one day she was probably angry at me for some reason. Ouch. No, really - how do you guys do that? I can just place my foot on it, and then it's regression to infanthood - I moan and cry as if in need of breastmilk.




This morning I got on the scale again, and read 62.5 Weird stuff. How do you shave off 2.5 kg in one day? I hadn't been eating differently, and my toilet practice has been regular. The scale is an old-fashion one, but pretty reliable. Can an 11 km run produce such change?? I know body weight can vary substantially from day to day, but 4 kg less since 3 days ago seems crazy. This also got me excited though, for as I read here, had I been this weight on last Sunday I would have run the 10k in 35 minutes, which is what I was aiming for. So perhaps is not the Asics' fault.

Then I went for another run, to East Fremantle, galvanised by the glorious weather and by the kids at childcare. I sort of willingly miscalculated how far I was going, and ended up clocking a - for me epic- 18km run. I think I haven't run that much since 1998. Seriously. The last 20 minutes I dragged myself miserably: everything was hurting, legs, shoulders, neck.. the left foot, of course..  But hey, that's 18km. Take this, bodyscale.

Weight: the evil is on the scale

 

I am puzzled by what the scale told me today.

I am a small-framed guy, 1,70m - with the body structure of a university lecturer (but I'm still fit!). Normally I am around 62kg, which hasn't changed for the past 20 years. Since I have been running more regularly for the past few weeks, the scale has started to tilt a little towards the 60 kg mark.

This morning I got up for the Fremantle 10km, as planned. I thought I was in decent shape, and could have done something in the 35mins region.. The course was flat, the weather good. Usual ridiculously early start (can Australians ever conceive of organising a run that starts at 10am, at least in the winter?), so I was up even more ridiculously at 6.30am. before putting on my gears, I jumped on the bathroom scale, old but reliable. Verdict: 66kg!! WTF!! I hadn't run that much in the previous days (in fact, I had rested on 3 out the last 4 days), but I certainly had behaved. Plus, I was on an empty stomach...

After that adrenaline un-booster, I went for my 10km, with my mysterious 4 kg extra carriage. I stopped thinking about it during warm-up, the legs were feeling OK after a couple days of rest. But the performance wasn't great: I took off too fast, ended up dragging myself between 5 and 8 km, run mostly on my own... I should have done at last 90secs less on the overall time.

A few days ago I found an interesting link, which shows how you would have performed on the same distance had your weight been different. I don't know how they do it, nor if it's true, but it feels good to look at it. Like, if I had been my normal weight today, I would have run in 35 minutes.

So, for the next 4 weeks, I will run the following scale-experiment on myself. I will not try to get particularly creative with training plans/strategies etc. I will simply aim at shaving some excess weight off. Running early in the morning, before breakfast (hoping my kids will let me sleep at night); avoiding sugary tricky stuff (btw, I will have to write a specific post on that. The list of 'stuff you should avoid' is almost infinite!); swapping from cappuccino/lattes to coffee only, and avoiding wine (the "light beer" option will probably stay, or I'll get depressed). I will keep me posted.