Lost in Space

Well, this is supposed to be a diary so I'll talk like it is.

Life, eh?

Life at the moment consists of the following: cooking, cleaning, eating, sleeping (although not very much), training and worrying. There may also be the the odd spell of drinking and some kissing involved.

It's the training that's worrying me. I always used to just 'go out on my bike'. Now I 'train'. I don't consciously push myself harder when I ride/run/paddle, but I notice myself sometimes attacking that hill just a bit harder, sprinting faster for that ball, etc etc ad nauseaum..

Why? I have no personal motivation, however, I do have a big fear of letting the team down. Always have. that's why I pushed myself at rugby, at kayak polo, and why I love adventure racing: I get to do all the sports I love for recreation, and I get to push myself for other people's sakes.

Heb Challenge is going to be the longest race, both in duration and distance, that I have competed in. I'll be biking, running and kayaking. Running is the weakest of my disciplines, so I'm training a bit harder for that. However, I'm also putting in some hard bike loops every week - not having a car forces me to train. I like this.

We also have the Pen-y-Ghent race coming up - 5 mile fell race, so we'll see exactly what stage of training I'm up to before the Heb.
The kayaking worries me a bit. I'm fine in a kayak, but I'm used to whitewater, not big expanses of open sea. You can avoid rocks, you can't avoid waves...

Anyway. That's all forn the philosophy of the over-tired. I'll be back sometime.

Song lyric for today:
"You can't stop me, I'm close enough to kiss the sky"
Guano Apes - You Can't Stop Me

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hundred Acre Janathon - Part Two.

Having made their rissolution to find a Janathoner, with an internet and some clogs, Tigger and Pooh decided to split up to collect the things they needed. Tigger bounced off to Rabbit's house to see if he could borrow the clogs Rabbit had been making, while Pooh wandered over towards Eeyore's house toward the pond to find the internet, or at least a fishing net. Pooh had found the net, and was carrying it back when he decided to stop by and see Eeyore. Eeyore was sitting in his house, chewing on a thistle and looking glum. "Oh, hello. I see you have a net. You've not come to catch me, I suppose?" Pooh smiled at Eeyore. "No, Eeyore. This is my internet. Tigger and I are going to catch a Janathoner, they like internets and clogs, and they run a lot." "Oh." said Eeyore. "I couldn't be a Janathoner then, so there's no point catching me. Running too much makes your legs fall off, I suppose. I'd rather just stay here" Pooh ...
Read more

Le Grand Raid des Pyrenees - the personal side

Image
So there's technical and logistical write-ups of the race going to other sites elsewhere, they're the ones that tell blow-by-blow story of the area, the trails, the race organisation etc. But this here is my blog, and this here is the personal side of things, so this here is the personal account of the Grand Raid des Pyrenees. In the beginning... A year ago, I would never have thought about running an Ultramarathon. A year ago, I rarely ran anything over 5km, except in races. Longer runs tended to butcher my feet with blisters which stopped me wanting to run. Road racing holds no appeal, and I'm not a skinny racing whippet so I'm never going to win anything doing it anyway. I run only for myself, for enjoyment and catharsis, to clear my head and shake out my legs. Because of that, the whole build-up to the GRP has been very strange for me - not unpleasantly strange, but strange nonetheless. Running, as I have often said, is a weak discipline for me, so entering t...
Read more

Hundred Acre Janathon - Part One.

It was winter in the Hundred Acre Wood, and most of the inhabitants were spending their time huddled up in their houses, keeping warm. Sometimes they would pop out, to collect some wood, or for another jar of honey, or some thistles, or maybe even to say hello to a neighbour. But generally they all stayed at home... ...All except Tigger. Tigger was, as usual, a bouncing ball of energy. Someone had told him, just before the New Year, about a creature that he might see if he was out of his house in January, called a Janathoner. Tigger was intrigued, he'd never heard of these Janathoners. Heffalumps and Woozles, yes: They were often heard of in the Hundred Acre Wood. But Janathoners? Never. And what a funny name! Tigger had bounced around the woods many times this January, trying to find one of the elusive Janathoners. He hadn't seen a single thing! He'd been told that Janathoners were only visible for the first month of the year, and he knew it was getting close to the ...
Read more