Issue 373 - Mon 3rd Jul 2006

Hi,
I hope Monday finds you well.

As for me, I find myself creaking into my 40s today.

I enjoyed the last day of my 30s.
It was blisteringly 'country about to grind to a halt' hot day yesterday, so I set off for my run nice and early.
My target was 13 miles in 2 hours 36, and I did it in 2 hours 37.
So that's a half marathon done already!
Because I've built up slowly to that level, the main problem I had was just my feet, as there is little you can do to get away from the fact that my poor little tootsies do take a pounding.
That explains the creaking today!

Then in the afternoon I was at a jam session.
I had a little play on the drums, a little bit of bass geetar, and a jolly good time all round.

You have plenty of time to think when you are doing a 2 and half hour run, and I was thinking about my last 10 years.

I can clearly remember my 30th, as it was in the middle of one of, if not *the* best time of my life.
It wasn't long though before it all went wrong, the worst time of my life, and I spent many years getting
myself back on an even keel.

I've lived at many different addresses, currently at my 9th in 10 years.

I've done plenty of different jobs, from entertaining to office work, to greasy factory work to my current self-employment from home.

I resurrected my drumming, took up the bass guitar.

I found out I'm no good at the pole vault, twanged a hamstring when I tried the long jump.

I've spent time on my own, and had a few (short) relationships!

Wrap all that lot together, throw in the frightening amount of chocolate I must have had over the decade, and there's a word for what you get.

Life.

When I was 30 I had no idea I had all that ahead of me (except for maybe the chocolate).
What will I have in the next 10 years before I'm 50, apart from more chocolate?
Who knows, but I'll try and view it all as an adventure, and if I think of anything I want to try, hopefully I will just get on with it.
I might be married with kids, I might still be single.

To be continued...

Something else I thought of when running, was when I was gasping for breath.
This only happened for about the first 20/30 mins.
After that I can feel a change in my body.

What happens, is that instead of the body scrabbling around for instant energy for the first few minutes, it settles into tapping into my stored reserves.
That's why it's important to build those reserves, so I can simply accept the first few minutes without worry.

I thought of it as a pinball machine, once the ball has slipped off the flipper, and while you are still cursing, the ball wobbles about the hole before finally falling in.
Does that work, applying that to my body and the energy stores?
Hmm, not sure...

Anyhoo, show me an athlete that doesnt warm up and do the wobbly bits first, and I'll show you a twanged muscle.
Show me a musician that doesn't do the wobbly bits first, I'll show you some bum notes.
In fact, with anything in life, you have to go through the wobbly bits.
Recognise what they are, put in the preparation for what comes after, or you may be heading for problems.

Ok, that's it for today.

I'm off to do what most new 40 yr-olds do, buy a Harley-Davidson or something like that.

Have a good week.
'Til Next Time,
Health and Happiness,
Gordon
Get involved with my Marathon Milllion at:
http://www.thegreatgordinomarathon.com