Indoor Workouts

Ideally, I shouldave gone for a recovery run today but the hustle of carrying my bag to work so that I can go and run in the evening was daunting. So I worked indoors, did half squats to strengthen my knees, did calf raises with weights, bicep curls and my abs. I am working on improving my core strength. I will be looking for a hill so that I can start hill runs and want to start covering longer distances regularly and doing interval runs. My understanding is that all these will improve my speed. The long runs will deplete my glycogen and stimulate fat burning. The intensity of the speed runs will expand my blood volume to a greater extent than slower running and the increased blood volume will ensure both better fuel and oxygen delivery to my muscles during the marathon and a superior supply of blood to the skin for cooling - and also reduces the risk of dehydration. I read somewhere that "intense running makes marathon pace feel much easier by comparison (while slow running makes marathon speed feel comparatively harder), a not inconsequential factor when one is faced with the daunting task of running more than 26 miles at a particular pace"
There is some good advice regarding Marathon Training Schedule on the net. Just what I need now with eight weeks to go.
Cheers

Did 20 Kms. Yipee!

Yeah, for the first time in my life, I ran through 20Kms. It took me an hour and 40 minutes. I was averaging 5Mins per Kilometer and adopted a fairly relaxed pace (instead of the pounding, rushing, struggling pace I tried with the 5Kms). At the 12th Km mark, I had consumed an hour but I got more comfortable at the 14th Km and must have speeded up or something. At any rate, I was very happy with my performance and I have no major pains. Left knee still has some dull pain (which I am not too worried about - it reared its ugly head at the 12th Km Mark) otherwise just the expected soreness. This is good. It actually means I can manage 21Kms in 1.5 hours if I try harder. Which I intend to do. I will be working on speed and will be running 21Kms every other saturday (fortnightly). Now, I need to read up on how to improve my speed. I celebrated by drinking 1/2 a litre of Yoghurt and Orange juice. Now, how about that for a celebratory drink? Huh?
I am off the track today and tomorrow.
Cheers

Did 13 Kms

I wanted to do 12Kms but was feeling quite strong so I decided to do 13Kms yesterday. It seems my splintered shins are no longer my major worry. Now I have a nagging pain on my left knee but it only pains when I squat or substantially bend my knee.
Otherwise I am feeling pretty cool and I am planning to attempt 18Kms tomorrow. WIsh me luck. Oh, by the way, my timing doesnt look good at all because It took me 1 Hr 9 minutes to do the 13Kms.
Cheers

Start with 5Km Run

I decided to venture back on the track and decided to see how fast I can cover 5Kms. I did it in 26 minutes but I am sure I have been faster. Recall that in the Osaka athletics meet yesterday, the leading pack did the first 5Kms in 16Minutes. No matter. I then did some fartleks and took a break. I may run again today but I am not particularly keen on it since I dont want to push myself too hard.
Cheers

We Won the Marathon in the Osaka International Athletics Championship

Yep, Luke Kibet did it in Osaka at 2hrs 15 Minutes! Great.
Today my legs feel 98% okay so I will go out there and have a run. I intend to take a 400m warm up jog, stretch aplenty and attempt to do 5Kms under 20 minutes. Wish me luck and no injury.
I also watched a video on the law of attraction. I am a skeptic but will give it a chance even though it is new-agey and shit. Plus, its sorta uplifting and I think the idea behind placebo and prayers, though not sound, comfort and help people go through difficult times. Sometimes with positive results. So I am gonna feel good and attract what I want - like finnishing 21 Kms in under 1.5 hours.
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Still On Break

I travelled upcountry and even had a half a litre of soda (what a cheap cheat!) and a little chocolate - maybe ten grams of it - that I had bought my nieces.
Anyways, my right leg is now fine but the left one seems to have some issues. Perhaps not very serious issues but some issues nonetheless. I will be watching it for the next twelve hours. If Its fine tomorrow, I want to start light and work my way up. Maybe start with 5Kms tomorrow, Ten on Saturday, Fifteen on Sunday. Two day Break. Eighteen on Wednesday... Lets see how it goes.
Meanwhile today I was at war. Worked on my calves, abs (300 crunches) arms (preacher curls) triceps and hamstrings (hundreds of kicks).
Oh, by the way, I watched Shooter (Mark Wahlberg), Waist Deep (tyrese Gibson) and I am struggling through 24.
Shooter was the best I have watched in the last four days. Danny Glover played real cold and evil and when he and the senator are finally executed by the protagonist, the "good-riddance" feeling was quite good.


In Waist Deep, Meagan Good does a very good job and the last scene where they reunite actually drew tears to my eyes (but dont tell anyone)


Cheers
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On a Break from the Track - Leg Issues

My legs still have some pain just below the calf and my splintered shins too. I have put them under a regimen of massage and stretching and no running. I will give them another four days. If that does not do it, I will have to see a Physiotherapist.
In the meantime, I am doing other excercises, which as you know, are countless.
Cheers

5Kms then Rain

I did 5Kms yesterday then it started pouring and I had to quit - ending the session with some speed-runs. I was actually glad it started pouring because my legs were crying for break. I have decided to massage them and give myself a two-day break. I got rained on and with the sweat and cold wind, I feared I was going down with a cold and went to bed in a rather feverish state but thankfully, I feel fine today.
I will be teaching VB.Net today. Its a new class and it should be fun. Tomorrow I will stretch and relax. If I am okay, I will be attempting 18Kms on Monday.
Cheers

16Kms on the grass

Yeah, I managed 42 laps (16Kms) yesterday. It took me 1hr and 30 Minutes. Now, that is not very good because my goal is to do 21Kms in 1hr 35minutes. So I have a long way to go. At any rate, I am glad my body managed it. At the 15th Km, even my usually comfortable shoes turned against me and started brusing my big toe. And my knees started generating some pain...I changed strides and started kicking the air to stretch them fully before stepping forward - that somewhat abated the pain. I drank water at the 12th Km Mark. I am thinking of doing 45 laps on Saturday...Will my body be able to take it? I dont know. What I know is that I have to keep pushing and approaching the next level. Always fighting...
Today I took it easy and did squats, crunches, worked my triceps and calves.
My body still feels banged up from yesterday's run.
If you dont have, it is because you dont act.

Worked indoors

I just took it easy today. Did squatups, calf raises, crunches and curls. After all I am on leave!
I feel great so I am thinking instead of doing 8Kms on the tarmac tomorrow, I do 16Kms on the grass tomorrow and try improving my time! Lets see how it goes.
Today I got three books and I am excited as hell: E.P Sanders Jesus and Judaism, Daniel Harrington's Interpreting the New Testament (am already on chapter three!) and Edgar V. McKnight and Elizabeth Struthers Malbon's The New Literary Criticism and the New Testament!
Add 24 from Season 1-6 and other movies and I am loaded!
This is life!
Cheers

14Kms on the grass

I realized that the problem(injury) I had last Friday is known as Iliotibial Band Syndrome. The Ober's test confirmed it so I embarked on taking care it tout de suite because I had sceduled to run on Sunday. So I stretched severally throughout Friday and Saturday.
Come Sunday, it had all but gone. I did 14Kms on the grass in 1hr 10 minutes without ant problem from it. I was feeling quite strong and could have managed 40laps (and not the 37 that I did) but for the darkness. The pitch did not have floodlights.
My shins didnt feel as uncomfortable as last week and I am thinking I am well on my way to recovery. I am however still massaging and compressing them.
Next Sunday, I will try doing 16Kms and I am aiming at doing it in under 1hr 15 minutes. This week I plan to do 8Kms on Wednesday and Friday. I also want to increase strength excercises in my routine. I will be going on a 12 day leave. I intend to watch 24 - from Season 1 to 6 and see exactly who this Jack Bauer character is and what drives him. I will however try to keep thus blog updated.
Cheers.

7Kms Plus Weird Pain

So its 5.30 am. It is dark and I am relying on streetlights (which are thankfully working today!) to see where I am stepping. I have since met only one other runner and I am at the third Km Mark and I start feeling pain around the back of my knee...I am thinking WTF is that? I haven't stepped in a hole, I stretched, I...
More pain!Ouch! WTF is this?...I slow down to a limp.
Ouch!
I start limping thinking WTF!?Its not a calf injury. My knees are okay, my shins are okay...Ouch!So I slow down and start doing frantic frog jumps. Trying to shake off the pain. Nothing doing. I try pumping my knees towards my stomach. Nothing. The pain is here right now. Damn. I limp forward. I am thinking WTF!? Today?
Ouch! the pain is too much!I sober up and say, okay, okay, okay...I am fucked. Let's go back home Jack.
You know you should stop when you are injured, otherwise, you will make it worse. So I turn back and start limping and I am regretting for not having carried any money to get a cab or a matatu so I have to limp back 3Kms back home?...I will be late for work! After limping for 100 Metres, I decice I didn't get up at 5 to limp back home like a pussy. I turn back and say I will do my 7 Mks and the injury can kiss my ass. I have the rest of my life to deal with the injury but I have only 20 minutes to do what I got up early to do. So I hobble forward, gritting my teeth and saying fuck, fuck, fuck...I manage another kilometre of grinding pain then I turn back. The pain is not abating. What is all this? All the while I am thinking: what if its a ligament and I am damaging it further? What if its a nerve and I am tearing it? I hobble on. Determined to accomplish my mission.After two kilometres, the pain reduces and I manage a 100 metres dash at the 7th Kilometre mark.Six hours later, after showering and stuff, it doesnt feel like I have an injury but tomorrow I will be on a break. The Marathon date has been announced - it is 28th October. Here we come.

Indoor Workout

I did squats, crunches and threw kicks (this works the hamstrings). My legs actually felt good yesterday and as I was massaging them, there wasn't any soreness so I am considering doing a 8Km tomorrow. I have them under pressure today and will examine em at night.
I have this feeling that the splintered shin problem has decided to leave me alone...

Did 5Kms Today

My legs werent feeling that great so I did an easy 5Kms today and some crunches. I will let them rest for two days and run again on Sunday. I have been eating quite a lot these last two days so I need to watch that. The celebration over my weight loss is over and I should get back to serious work. I will also consider seeing a Physiotherapist over my shins.
I wasted the whole damn day in a meeting!
Cheers

I Want to Learn

Today I was up at 4.40 am. My shins are still on a break so I did press-ups, lateral squats and leg raises. I wanted it to be a no-sugar day so I started breakfast with Weetabix, roasted groundnuts and hot milk. But I was unprepared. By 9am the office was teeming with tea and snacks and I was yearning for some. So I gave up and had tea and a chapati. I need to read up on maintaining/controlling my blood sugar level and how it impacts on weight loss/gain.

I have a couple of Christians at the office who are re-examining their beliefs and gaining new perspectives. Today, I lent one of them my copy of Michael Shermer's Why People Believe in Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time. I hope he learns something new. Yesterday, he asked a question on Acts and I was informing him that it was written by more than two hands because it has different accounts of Paul's conversion among other things. He had a question regarding the shift from third person to first person plural and I presented him with Vernon Robbin's By Land and By Sea: The We-Passages and Ancient Sea Voyages and invited him to read it alongside my old post Is the Sea Voyage Genre Theory Shipwrecked?. Last week, we discussed Theodore M Drange's Incompatible-Properties Arguments: A Survey and I could see cognitive dissonance written all over his face. Lets hope his journey is not painful or barren. Letting go of the guardrails we have always leaned on our entire lives and learning to stand on our own, without the warm, assuring belief that we are loved and cared for by a supernatural being can be very difficult.
I just stuck I Want To Learn near my monitor. Recall that Fox Mulder had I Want to Believe at his desk in X-Files. I am currently learning Kikuyu and reading Richard Dawkins' - The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design he does a great job of explaining how complex organs evolve from simple ones through cumulative changes and natural selection.

12 Kms on the Grass

I did 12Kms on a field yesterday. I still have pain in my shins though but I was able to time myself better. I did it (30laps X 400m) in 1 Hour sharp. I was hoping for 50 Minutes but I guess am still slow. I need to work on my speed.
At this rate (the pain), I may have to push my next run to wednesday, then Friday. Tomorrow, I will have to content myself with other excercises as I give my shins a break.

Oh, by the way, I watched DieHard4 and Transformers. The former was great. The latter sucked and was contradictory. How could the megatrons, who were an older species, who were more advanced that humans, have one of them wishing to remain on Earth and be a pet to a human? And the idea of a robot that is a nigger was not exactly appealing.

I loved the scene in DieHard4 where Willis (John McClane) meets this computer geek (the Warlock) in some room surrounded by computers. The Warlock is sitting with a keyboard on his lap, drowned by PCs. He turns round and sees his friend matt Farrell and Willis walking in. He looks at Matt and laments over the infernal desecration.

The Warlock: How could you bring him into my Command Center?!!!!
John McLane (laughs sarcastically): Its a Basement!
The Warlock (angrily): It's a Command Center! Who is this man?

That gave me a laugh.
Cheers.

Twisted Ankle is Okay

I did a slow 6Kms today. The streetlights were okay. My ankle was okay but my splintered shins gave me hell. So I will give them a two day rest and on Sunday I will run on grass to give them a break from the hard tarmac.
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