The female nude and a lifetime of study
After yesterday’s post about what to give my step-son for his 18th birthday, a number of wags made comments such as ’38-24-36′ via Twitter and Facebook. This reminded me of my own fascination with the female form as an 18 year old. I was a great Norman Lindsay fan and had visions of living a bohemian lifestyle, painting nudes and living a carefree life in an attic somewhere! My first year out of school, I had completed around 30 paintings and was on the way to accumulating 50 works for a one man art show when, at the...
read moreWhat do you get an 18 year old for his birthday?
There has been a lot of discussion in our household over recent months about ‘becoming a man’ or more specifically, ‘becoming an adult’. The reason for this is my stepson’s 18th birthday. And what do you get an 18 year old for a present these days? A watch springs to mind – but how many teenagers wear a watch these days! I’ve been struggling to remember my own 18th and frankly can’t recall it at all. I guess I just had dinner with the family, perhaps we even went out? With that in mind, we went...
read moreCity2Surf 2009 – We are off
Well the 39th City2Surf 2009 is finally over. I hope you were able to stick to your training plan a little better than I was able to stick to mine this year! If you’ve been following along, you will know that I had an injury and was forced to alter my training program over the last five weeks to accommodate it. I’m pretty pleased with the end result though, because despite all this, I managed reach my goal, which was to knock a few minutes off my 2008 City2Surf time. The 39 City2Surf is over, so what’s next? If you have been...
read moreFocus and Endurance
Only two weeks to go, this is our last serious training week. Unfortunately, I’m still battling my injured foot so I’ll be taking it fairly easy again this week. But, at this stage of preparation, you should be feeling at your peak. The idea it to use this last serious training week to focus on your endurance and speed with some short runs with effort and then one final long run at the end of the week. Try lengthening your stride. By adding only a few centimetres per stride, you can take minutes from your 14km time. Good luck....
read moreSteady as She Goes
After last weeks two intensive runs we have a bit of a wind down week, yet still maintaining the pressure. If you are still sticking to this training schedule after seven or eight weeks, you can congratulate yourself now. You are one of the few success stories. Most people enter a 10 or 11 week training program like this with the best of intentions but drift into old habits after five or six weeks. It is very difficult to maintain your enthusiasm and focus for such a long period, but if you can stick to it, it will be life changing. Once you...
read moreCity2Surf places and times
Running the City2Surf is a bit like hitting your head against a wall… it is great when it is over! After you have run the City2Surf, you will feel tired, relieved and hopefully satisfied with yourself. For days after you have finished, friends and colleagues are likely to ask you how you went, and if they have never done it themselves, they’ll usually ask; ‘What place did you come?’ This can be a conversation killer because not only don’t you know what place you came, but also most City2Surf participants...
read moreHigh Effort Training Week
If you started your preparation at the beginning of this training program, you will have been building up your conditioning steadily and should be feeling fit enough to comfortably jog the 14km to Bondi. The next three weeks will be the most intense of this training plan, as we seek to build on our speed and endurance. Many people will leave their training plan to the last minute and only be thinking of running in the City2Surf a month before the event, so you are already weeks ahead of many of them in your preparation. I know about this last...
read moreCity2Surf training Plan stage 3
The next 3 weeks will focus on improving our stamina at speed by combining the three keys to performance; lifting the knees to lengthen the stride, focus on breathing and concentration and arm movement for power, momentum and pace. Over the next three weeks, the idea is to continue to lengthen the distance of the fartlek stages and increase the distances we are running to improve your endurance. This is the most intense stage of preparation. I recommend that if you plan on getting new running shoes, now is the time to do it. You need time to...
read moreUsing Your Arm Power – 5 weeks to go
I hope your Ciry2Surf preparation is going well. If you’ve been following along with my training plan, you should be feeling a lot fitter by now. The last two weeks we have been working on improving your speed by concentrating on lifting the knees when doing fartlek work and improving your breathing technique. The third key to improving performance is in the arms. When we think of running, most of us tend to think of our legs and feet, yet it is the arms that can be used to completely alter your rhythm and set your pace. When I was in...
read moreInjury slows me down
Yesterday I did a morning run as per schedule but not the run I’d planned. I should be into the heavy part of my City2Surf training by now, but due to my sore foot I’ve had to cut back so I don’t risk making it worse. Yesterday’s run should have been a 10km on a hilly route but I ended up doing a fairly slow 7k jog around the lake. My schedule calls for a 13km run on Sunday, which will be five weeks to go until the City2Surf. I hope a rest today tomorrow will help. How’s your training going?...
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