What a wonderful world

What A Wonderful World

Written 16^th May, Lord Howe Island

The rain stopped overnight so at sunrise I headed out from my cabin to run the scenic and flat 5km road along Lord Howe Island’s main beaches. I figured I’d go up and back for a 10k run then maybe find some hills for a bit of higher intensity training.

The plan changed when I got to the start of the road- about 1 km from the cabin- and I saw the mountains above me in the dawn light. Hmmm, I thought, I haven’t been up there yet. Why not see what the view is like at the top.

208 metres up a mountain track later I found out. To use an over-used word, it was awesome! Stunning. Definitely picture postcard perfect.  

In case you didn’t know, Lord Howe Island is a small island in the Pacific. It has a population of 450 and a maximum visitor number of 420 at any one time. There are few cars, few people, no large mammals or marsupials,  and lots of birds, flowers. Inhabitants of the island are mainly 6^th and 7^th generation descendants of American whalers, and the architecture is British Australian. Annual rainfall is high and the place is a cacophony of green and blue. Small cattle farms and cottages dot the island giving the panorama the look of an English village framed by the iconic and majestic Mt. Gower, a shallow lagoon and the deep blue ocean. The view is most definitely worth the climb. As I said - its picture postcard perfect.

 

The climb itself was reasonably hard when done at pace, and very much uphill but I handled it well, the view was spectacular, the early morning stunning, and the feeling of achievement was amazing. One of those moments when you say to yourself ‘What a wonderful world’

“I see trees of green........ red roses too
I see em bloom..... for me and for you
And I think to myself.... what a wonderful world.

I see skies of blue..... clouds of white
Bright blessed days....dark sacred nights
And I think to myself .....what a wonderful world.

Oh, yeeeaahhhhh.”

So here’s today’s lesson –

It’s a wonderful world. Let’s take the time to look around and really see it. Stop and look, and see the beauty of our lives.

And let’s also remember: we might just have to climb a hill, or do something hard, in order to get the best view of our lives.

Lastly, let’s be prepared to change ‘the planned road run’ (our usual routine) for a last-minute ‘climb up the mountain’ (do something different). Cape Diem! It will almost certainly be worth it.

Till next time, 'keep living, laughing, lovin' and runnin'

WJ (Wandering James, the Slow Runner)

A new world...of pain

A whole new world of useful pain

Written 11^th May 2013, Brisbane Queensland

According to most experts, the fastest way for an aerobically-trained athlete to rapidly improve is via ‘High Intensity Interval Training’. ‘HIIT’ shocks the body into a greater level of stamina and fitness by subjecting it to increasingly higher levels of intensity for short periods followed by short recovery periods. There are various ways to do this including interval training (set period of intensity followed by rest), VO² (maintaining a high, but not impossible level for a period longer than previous) and of course, the good old hill runs and other forms of interval running (e.g. Percy Ceritty’s famous sand hill runs). Whatever is chosen, the point is to increase the heart rate via an intense physical activity, and maintain it for longer and longer period.

When six times world champion female ironman competitor Chrissie Wellington was asked her secret to training for improvement she said ‘Never ever let your heart rate drop’. She said ‘train with high heart rate in order to race at a sustained lower rate’. It seems the mantra for improvement is - when it’s time to train hard, make sure you train hard.

But not all training can be hard or at high intensity. As far back at the 1970s Arthur Lydiard, a successful NZ running coach was saying that high intensity training sessions MUST be followed by at least one easy recovery day to allow the body to recover and adjust. He also cautioned that HIIT was not a way to improve running speed - it was the way to improve anaerobic fitness, overall fitness and the ability to finish strongly in races. Speed improvements come from specific speed training such as sprints drills. Most of all, Lydiard and others strongly cautioned to only start HIIT training after a solid aerobic base fitness had been established over time.

Why am I telling you all this? Well, for the last three years I have worked as hard as I dared at building an aerobic base without letting my heart rate get too high. I have almost no experience at holding my heart rate at a high level – every time it has started to rise I have backed off the effort level, to bring the heart rate down. Amongst other things I thought I had to do this because of my low oxygenation : I thought it was important to ‘not push things too hard’. But lately I have been getting frustrated that my running times are not improving despite lots of hard exercise and many many long runs. And I know I am still getting tired in the middle parts of long runs. I started doing a few interval runs, regular boxing/ aerobic endurance sessions and several hill runs to see if I could improve my fitness but overall, I still backed off when I started to feel my HR increase.

Hmmm, what to do? How will I improve my times? These small attempts at interval training are not delivering what I need.

So, after several long discussions with my Personal Trainer i.e. ‘The Smiling Dragon’ and other respected sources of advice, I decided to introduce HIIT into my training schedule. It was agreed I have a reasonable aerobic base and I have a schedule that would allow sufficient recovery. It was agreed my most immediate need was to learn to handle High Intensity before starting on sprinting and speed work.

So yesterday I tried my first hard, non-stop VO2 max session – On the treadmill, start off fast then increase the hill incline at set times; with the goal of lasting for as long as possible.

Man-o-man, how ugly is that!!!! I only lasted 2 minutes and I still feel sick today (24 hours later). My body and mind is just not used to that intensity.  The feeling of oxygen-debt was terrible….I felt like I was drowning… and I was nauseous, coughing and spluttering, incredibly tired and sleepy. Overall, I just felt awful. And it lasted all day. Yuck!

But now, on reflection, I think I gave up too early and I reckon I can do better. I am actually looking forward to doing more of these, and to seeing my times increase. I am almost excited at seeing how far I can push myself, even if it’s just small increments of improvements. I am looking forward to making myself sick once again. And I’m thinking- If I am going to feel that bad after just a short time, I may as well hang in there a bit longer. I couldn’t feel any worse and the improvement would probably be faster. Might as well hang in there, and go longer. The main thing is to not panic when I feel like I am drowning, and to mentally tough it out.

I am not saying I am going to like it. The opposite probably, but what I am saying is -

No pain, no gain.

Actually, I think I just found out what that saying really means.

Till next time, 'keep living, laughing, lovin' and runnin'

Wandering James, the Slow Runner

I'm a runner....of sorts

Becoming a long distance runner

Written 5 May 2013, Brisbane

Last October I completed my first full marathon - The Melbourne Marathon. My time was a glacial 5hrs 40 and I decided as I ran across the finish line that my second attempt would be better. A lot better. I had expected to finish in under 5 hours and I made the commitment - there and then - to achieve better than 4:40 at my next attempt. A full 1 hour better than last time.

So, the decision was made, along with the acceptance of the challenge being difficult, scary and demanding on my time and my mental and physical capacity. For many people 4hours 40mins may not be overly challenging but for me- the most unlikely endurance athlete you can imagine- its a huge ask.

There will be a lot I need to do. I am not a 'natural' runner (I was the slow guy at school), I am ungainly and unbalanced, I am not overly competitive in the generally accepted sense, I suffer constantly from breathing and sinus issues and I have a naturally low heamaglobin blood count meaning my body is specifically unsuited to aerobic exercise, especially distance events. Two seperate medical specialists have told me my low oxygenation means I will never compete any endurance event and both were suprised when told I had already completed several (albiet slowly).

The main issue in Melbourne was a lack of specific preperation. Although I had completed 5 half marathons in the lead-up, I was wrong to assume the challenge was 'just to complete 2 Halfs in one day - I turned out to be much more than that! As well, I was overweight by a few kilos, I was not strong enough overall to handle the distance and time requirements, I did not pace myself correctly for the distance and I suffered from leg cramps as a result of poor running form, lack of correct fuel and lack of training in the correct distance.

On the good side I hung in there and completed the event 'no matter what'. And the course was beautiful and I loved it and I couldn't wait to do it again.

Now, 6 months later there is still a lot to do to get ready. I have spent the time strengthing my body by completing lots of weights sessions, doing regular hills runs and short warm up races, and by completing mid-week interval style boxing sessions, as often as my travel schedule would allow. I am stronger, and feeling better than ever.

But I am no where near ready.

Its time to start building distance, getting used to running longer and longer, and to increasing my aerobic and lactic threshold by doing longer and harder interval sessions.

Its time to get serious, and 'specific'. It's also time to start completing some warm up races
So let's get going. Time to go for a run.  

Until next time……. 'keep living, laughing, lovin' and runnin'

‘Wandering James’, the Slow Runner

Welcome to my new Blog

Welcome to my new blog

Written 3rd May 2013, Brisbane.

A permanent feature on my bedside table is the biography of one of Australia's greatest athletic coaches Percy Ceritty, the 'trainer of champions' including olympians Herb Elliot and John Landy. The book is called 'Why Die?' and it chronicles Percy’s metamorphous from troubled and 'old' 40 year-old to a super-fit, vibrant and focused 50-something. Percy changed his life and his lifestyle and found personal success and satisfaction during his mature years. He lived a full and active life into his late 70s. At a time when most people were slowing down he set himself impossible challenges, worked out how to achieve them then set about achieving them. What an inspiration.

This blog is the journal of my personal challenge to become who I want to be, and what I want to achieve.  I am 55 years young, healthy, reasonably intelligent and somewhat determined. And, with the exception of ready cash and a healthy asset base, I have a lifestyle and a life structure that enables me to follow my dream. I am a lucky man.

So what do I want to do? Six things - Become a better person; live a very healthy lifestyle; be super-fit (and not just for my age); travel to nice places and 'go run'; run marathons around the world, and be deeply happy and satisfied.

I have some minor physical limitations that mean I cannot run fast but that is not going to stop me from having a go at achieving my goals. The running goals will just have to be slower than I would prefer.

My greatest immediate challenge is to learn to run a marathon in under 4hrs 40mins. To achieve it, this year I will run a number of half marathons, 15k and 10k fun runs and various other events. I will also train myself to be stronger physically and mentally (by weight training, interval training and regular long runs) and I will finally get my weight down to below 90kgs and < 14% Body Fat (Currently 96kgs and 19% BF).

Along the way I will complete training runs and fun runs in as many different places as I can find, I will try to learn every day and from every experience and training sessions, and I will look for the fun and the laughter in life.

Most importantly, whilst I will run often I will also stop often to 'smell the roses', and to be inspired by this wonder-full world. I agree with Percy’s idea of 'Why die?' but more than that, I want to say ‘Why not live?’ I want to experience life, I want to love it, live it, laugh with it, and be amazed by it. I want my life to be a great journey of personal discovery and improvement, and of challenges set, met and conquered.

So this is the journal of that journey. A journal of learning, of slowly improving as a runner and as a human being, of looking for the fun, the wacky and the straight-out weird in the day-to-day challenge of attempting to achieve my goal. It’s a journal of the people I meet, and the things that happen, along the way.

It will be a personal and hopefully honest account of my attempts to become the endurance athlete, and the person I want to be. I hope you will find it interesting and you will come with me.

So, until next time……. 'keep living, laughing, lovin' and runnin'

‘Wandering James’, the Slow Runner