Can I Call It Twenty-ten?
Astute readers of this blog may notice that I haven't missed any days yet. I certainly would have had there not been the need to keep track of my training. Today was as close as I come to an off-day though. I just wanted to rest and relax and get ready for an awesome night on the Mount. That's Mt. Mangonui beach.
Training consisted of just a light upper-body strength routine. Light because I had no weights and was therefore quite limited in my options. I did a bit of stretching as well.
Look at all the peeps. It goes on like that for miles.
C ary and I got dropped off at the beach at noon and wandered around, soaking up rays, and watching parents throw their baby girls into beauty pageants. Oh actually, side note here: there were something like 18 contestants in the "adult" pageant, 16 of them were slamming. However, 17 of them were dum as roks. I'm talking girls who answer questions like, "Who do you admire?" (you know, standard question you might have thought about before going up on stage in front of all your friends, possibly family, and a beachload of people) with a loooong silence. Long enough so that people are awkwardly looking around for clues and the MC is fumbling with mic and notes and mic again. Finally, "Brittney Spears!!!!". MC doesn't even bother to follow up with "why" and simply exhales a "Thanks Carly..." before moving on.
Williams gets a bad wrap for girls caring more about life than looks, but give me a girl that can creatively BS a question on the spot over a blond bombshell any day (Cary came up with a solid 4 hilarious answers before "Brittney" was fly). I lost interest as the show moved to "talents" and 5 of the first 7 pop-lock and dropped it (poorly) to "Party in the USA". One other failed at the hoola hoop (her freakin' talent of choice) repeatedly before being clapped off by the MC. The last was the good egg who sang some Beyonce song comparatively well. She's the winner in my mind though I don't know who took the Miss Mangonui crown.
We regrouped back home for some dinner and a shower before heading out for our night of mayhem. And mayhem it was. Details are many and mature in content so I'll just abbreviate to saying we had a great time with a bunch of Tauranga Ramblers runners at one of their flats before heading to the beach for 3 different concerts, over 20,000 people, and a fireworks show at the stroke of midnight. The whole scene was quite overwhelming for a shy rural farmboy like myself. Eventually we made it back to the runner's flat (owned by a generous fellow named Clive) where we chatted the rest of the night away. I believe Cary finished up around 3:30 while I stayed up to walk through the general party aftermath to Burger King and back with Ian McDonald (different from host Ian Lawrence Carter). BK was an amusing disaster as you had to wade through doggie bags and burger wrappers to get through the door. Ah, young jubilant life. To bed at 4:30.
Call Me Chaffeeng
Training was going to be interesting today, no doubt about it. After yesterday's jellyfish scandal I was a little suspicious of the ocean and I thought I'd try out a different scene.
Ian recommended I try the local hot-pools (use thermal heat from hot rocks in the ground to maintain bathwater temperature). The depth turned out to only be about 5ft which was about 6 inches too short for me to aquajog comfortably. However, the bottom of the pool was pretty slick so it turned out I could do a bit of a pawing action and glide my feet along the bottom. This worked for about 10 minutes (pseudo-aquajog) until the balls of my feet started complaining (I have no idea why). So I transitioned to drills in the pool and lasted another 10 minutes before I realized I wasn't going to be able to survive (mentally) long enough to make the workout an effective aerobic stimulus. Plus, it was a beautiful sunny day, and my achilles felt great so I just put on shoes and got to it. 30min, 5.5 miles at 5:50 pace (cruising) ending at the pier.
Destination was the pier because I was curious as to whether I might see jellies at this (my normal) time. I hadn't the three previous sessions at noon. Hmm, yup, no jellies. So I jumped in and immediately started to get into a quick aquajog rhythm... in my running shorts.
Now many of you might know that I haven't always been a big fan of running shorts, much preferring soccer shorts and briefs (alright, even boxers sometimes). Recently though, I aquired my first two pairs of shorts and I've gotten pretty used to them at this point. I wouldn't say I prefer them, but I do feel more legit in them. However, Never. Ever. Wear ANYTHING with a liner in the ocean. Salt water instantly converts your comfy cradling liner into a coarse sandpaper edge strapped and clinging to your inner thigh. It took less 2 minutes for that chafing machine to work itself up to an uncomfortable level. So yeah, 2 minutes aquajog in the ocean. At that point, I realized "bad idea", and popped out, defeated for the day. It didn't stop there though. Oh no, you're stuck in those clingy skin-saws for the next half mile walk back home. Lets see, that's about 800 raw steps. Only solace: I didn't quite bleed. TMI, I know, ok moving on.
I did get in a good balancing/flexibility/core session that afternoon. Achilles thankfully no worse for wear (unlike other bits).
My Apologies
First, I want to apologize to my mother and anyone else that may have been shocked by the content of "I'm On A Boat". I did promise myself I'd keep this G and that video was far from. Sorry Mom. I'll be good in 2010.
I woke up early but quickly went back to bed today. You see, it was overcast, and I'm on break. The whole rest of the day took the same tone.
I went down to the pier to aquajog at 10:30 but the tide was low and I lost my motivation. Did a bunch of strengthening/balancing stuff and some good stretching. Achilles at about 90%, quads sore.
PM: I went back down to aquajog at high tide at 6PM. I was in the water for 10minutes before I saw 3 jellies. After calculating the odds one might brush by me and evaluating the chances to be greater than Perlis writing 'AA' sometime today, I jumped out of the water and settled for settling today. 10 minutes aquajog. 1 mile run
Extra-athletic activity today was getting a tour of the Western side of Tauranga. It's houses are quite new. It's residents, quite old. We all thought of Florida.
Looks like tomorrow will be sunny again.
Stubborn As A Wallace
Boring Training Dialog
I am not the strongest willed individual I know. There are so many times I have an inkling of what I should be doing but just shrug it off, instead losing an opportunity for self-improvement. However, there are times I do set my jaw, furrow my eyebrows, and refuse to accept any result other than the one I'm looking for (note: not recommended for relationships). I was determined to make today's training was one of the rarer latter instances.
Cary and I drove to the Tauranga Track at about 10AM. I had known for the past couple days that I was going to do a tempo today (barring input from Mitch) and I had decided I was going to stick out a long one. I've spent the last 3 days in the ocean and I had to get running again. For the time being, I'm going to revert to a slightly souped up version of my senior XC season, where I was doing pool 5 days a week, Tuesday workout, and Saturday race. The difference is I'm going to do 3 running sessions a week until my Achilles feel 100% for 3 full sessions. The real downsides to this plan are I don't get to train with others and I don't really get to explore local tracks (trails) but I had my fun with that on the south island and no it's time to get serious. Anyways, there was this 6-mile tempo I did with Clay at the end of the summer that I consider to be one of the hallmark workouts coming into the peak of my strength in XC this past fall. So today I looked to bring that another 400m into a full 10k. The goal: 10k@5:30 pace altering the end as needed. But I was going to finish the full thing, that was the real target of the session. Reason being, I just felt so disheartened last weekend when I started getting weak with over a mile to go in that 5k. I lost it a bit mentally not knowing if I could hold on. I need to get used to that deadness in the legs and know I have more.
Closing 400
Anyways, it was a sunny, warmer morning, but I hydrated pretty well and completed a solid 14min warm up without any Achilles indicators (so far so good and I stretched/massaged a bunch). I did my leg swings, a few more stretches, took a deep breath, and whispered "begin".
The effort to keep myself relaxed was excruciating but I managed to run the first mile in 5:25.
Then I decided to try and let my mind drift and not look at the watch until mile 2. 5:23. Nuts.
Mile 3. OK, starting to feel the burn now and I find it impossible to keep my mind off the indicators of weary legs. 5:29
Pulled a Uy at the 5k mark and started back around the track in the other direction, breathing hard but happy to be halfway done. "Uh, hold on there chief. I'm only halfway done? Umm, maybe just a 5-mile tempo..." This is how it's happened before, I just settle for something in the 25 minute range. "But no, I'm finishing." With that, I let off the gas and just tried to relax, closing my eyes for much of the next few laps. 5:39.
"Ugh, slow time. I'm just gonna have to finish. This is gonna suck."
"Oh, what the... Why'd that girl have to show up now?" (Long jumper warming up. What else are you going look at other than the poor, dying distance runner, eyes drooping, dragging his heels lap after lap.) 5:42
Turns out my legs take much more kindly to 5:40s as I began to get a bit of a second wind. Didn't help my speed, but I began to feel that metronome rhythm I've sometimes fallen into on 8k courses, the primary benefit being that it strangely subdued the fatigue. I think it was also partly the fact that by this point I knew I would finish and that was lifting me up a bit too. 5:52
Ouch. OK just finish it up. 10k time: 34:49 the hard way.
4 laps around the infield barefoot with Cary to cool down and a bit more stretching, especially on the Achilles. As I write this, my legs actually do feel pretty good again, but what a drag that workout is while you're running it. I'll have to do it again soon. Compared to my 32:50 (I think) for my 6 miler with Clay, it's not even too far off. Glad I stuck it out. Thanks Brendan for leading by example. I think I'm going to try that 3x2miler workout I remember marveling at last spring before your 30:14.
Cary was able to get the snapshot of me because he was just doing a few miles easy this morning. We got word some local boys would be running a 3k this afternoon and he was keen to jump on.
Cheeky Tiki
Downtown Tauranga
After my session, we headed into town and just checked out the sights. It was actually a really enjoyable experience and we got a bit done too. Cary ogled a world-famous palm tree. I invested another hour into my blackberry investigation with no real fruit except that I think I actually understand what's going on with the phone now. I actually do feel much better having some light shed on it. Gonna work a bit more with it tomorrow. At this point it's just become a personal project and I'll try and do a nice little writeup for future NZ travelers if I get this figured out.
Cary's 3k
Eventually we found our way back to the track at 4PM. The Tauranga boys we met are a fun group and a bit on the crazy side (as you would expect any interesting runners to be). 3 of them and Cary toed the line pretty nonchalantly after a mediocre warmup, and someone said "bang".
The race was under overcast skies and it started to drizzle lightly for laps 5 and 6. Pretty much perfect conditions and they used it well. Cary seemingly breezed through an 8:44 saving his kick for this coming friday. Smart move, and great result. I'm pumped for him and I think he's a bit relieved too. Also a strong result considering he'd been on his feet much of the day. Good things to come this weekend, weather permitting.
Dinner with Ian
When we got back home, Ian once again dazzled us with his cooking prowess, serving up some delicious sirloins and this amazing potato that he may have fried in some butter? I'll have to ask him about it in the morning. It was some of the best potato I've ever had. We also watched Prince Caspian in anticipation for visiting the beaches in the opening scenes of the return to Narnia. I can't wait!
Beach Day. Spring Break?
Mt. Mangonui Beach party (taken in the waning evening hours)
Today was a full, luxurious day on the Mt. Mangonui beach. And what a day to pick. Coca-Cola happened to be hosting an all-invited, good old-fashion beach party, complete with live bands, inflatable twister, volleyball net, and spirit team (you know, attractive employees they hire to make sure the atmosphere is fun and energetic). It was like the classic spring break scene I always hear about, but never quite experienced. Side note: I would in no way ever give up the more intimate training experiences I've had with the Williams team, but it was nice to get a taste of a more typical beach event. Also, not that I'm complaining, but why are there so many young people here (primary reason it feels so much like spring break)? Is it like this all summer? I suppose I could see Kiwis focusing all their energy (and funds) on summer break more than the spring one. True story? Along the same lines though, do you suppose Kiwis have the same reckless abandon for spring break "experiences" we do in the states? Where's Sherlock Palmer when I need him...
Whatever, I just enjoyed the sensation of summer sun and a rocking crowd.
Earlier in the day, however, I did get in the daily aquajog. I simulated a 400 workout (not very well) by doing 1 minute on, 30 sec off with 30 sec frog-kick rest in between each and 20 total.
More concisely:
10min warmup
20x400@1500 pace. 30s rest. Obviously it was a bit easier in the water... but I was quite exhausted by the end, and I finished none too soon! I was 2 minutes into my cooldown when people on the pier got quite excited and started point at the water near me and mumbling to each other. Fortunately for me, some kind soul took the moment out of his day to mention, "Mate, you might want to be careful. I think there's a sting ray in the water somewhere round there." Well I sure booked it out of there! So 2min, 3sec cooldown.
I should mention that every day I've been doing a pretty extensive balancing, core, and flexibility routine. I honestly don't know why I haven't mentioned it before. Mitch, let me know if you want exactly what I'm doing. I think I'll skip the intricate details for now. Save my fingertips.
Check out these dressed up pieces of meat.
The other big highlight of the day was Ian cooking us some ridiculously gourmet burgers. These beasts also broke new barriers in quantity of juices that don't make it to your mouth. Haha, thanks for the delicious meal!
Month 2: It’s Been A Month!
Take that all you doubters. I've survived. It took a little more time in the purple bubble than most, but I think I'm getting the hang of this real world thing.
I find myself, for the second day, in the ocean, next to a pier, trying to trick my mind into thinking about topics interesting enough to override the incredible monotony that is aqua-jogging.
Moderately successful, I completed a full 30min tempo simulation with 10 minutes easy leading in and 10 leading out. There were a bunch of people around to aid in distracting me. One dad was especially funny, entertaining his 3 girls (poor guy) with big splashes and various aqua-batic feats. He chatted with me a little bit, at least recognizing my sanity, opening with, "Good spot for an interval workout, huh?" Anyways, really good guy. A good character role model at least, but now the kicker: he doesn't look the part, balding with various Maori tattoos and a bot belly. I was just talking to Ian about the book Blink (Williams psych dept recommended novel on accuracy of instantaneous judgments*) but a snap judgement would have failed me with this guy.
50min aquajog. 1 mile run
Now for today's main attraction. AVATAR!
Mt. Monganui Shoreline
To follow that up, Ian took us to downtown Tauranga where we sipped Irish beers and marveled over the movie. Nothing compares.
Finally we got back in the car and in the waning light explored the Mt. Mangonui (mong-guh-NU-ee) coastline. It was glorious and Cary and I knew we'd be back for some sun tomorrow.
We also got another dose of awe-inspiring entertainment watching Ian's DVD of Circue du Soliel. Some pretty incredible people in that show.
*why does spellchecker say "judgement" is a word but not "judgements". Instead it says "judgments"...
Fact: Wikipedia says either is fine. Whatever.
Avatar Review
Now aside from the fact that this movie was filmed for 3D, an art I studied in winter study 2008. And aside from the fact that there were fantastically creative but realistic stretches of science fiction, appealing to my technological bent. And disregarding the incredibly advanced cg animation techniques that induced marvel in even the most ignorant viewers. This. Film. Dazzles! (Leave me alone, I just sat here for 10 minutes trying to come up with an appropriately epic verb).
The plot (and I won't get into it as I am not a critique or even a very good lit student) was probably the weakest part of the movie but allow me to defend it briefly (skip if you're not interested). Yes, the plot was simple, predictable, and cheesy but three points
- A critique might see it this way partially because we have recently seen a lot of the same rebukes of Western advancement vs. Native culture metaphors. District 9 comes to mind as the leader in that political allegory field. The thing I find most interesting about both these movies is the purely evil role both that military and corporations play in these films. The plot for Avatar was probably a bit more original when it was conceived 6 years ago. The movie just took so long in production, it was preempted by other movies capturing the same public idea.
- I think the plot achieves its goal (albeit by way of heavy dialog and exaggerated characterizations) as a reminder that "we the people" need to hold our government, military, and maybe on a more indirect level, our global corporations (American food industry comes to mind) accountable for their actions. You might say, "More unobtainium. Woohoo!" or "Cheaper cheeseburger. Yippee!" but it's important to question why this seems too good to be true.
- I believe the fact that the plot is so flagrant is somewhat intentional because the general public doesn't grasp elaborate plot metaphors and messages. Hence simple, obvious, and predictable.
End of my silliness; on to textures, nurbs, and lighting (translation: the good stuff).
The CGI in this movie... words cannot describe. But I want to try. I was entranced, and in 3D I can truly say I got past the point of judging the movie (as any amateur animator might) to just watching it. There was an incredible duality to the effects. Some scenes literally ended with me realizing my lips had parted and my face was slowly elongating to reveal a lolling tongue, while the achievement others was that I was left not even thinking about the animation or questioning the reality of the world and rather following the story. That is the achievement I think everybody refers to when they say this is a revolutionary film. I think I witnessed the first movie that actually got animation unobtrusive enough to pass for reality. It struck me later, that I even found myself quite attracted to Neytiri, the Na'vi warrior-princess. Now, before I go further, let me emphatically state that, while some people claim to be attracted to animated characters (I've even heard Lion King's Nala as a fantasy), I am definitely not one of them. Well, actually, I've said about all I can think to say.
Great pure-pleasure Disney-esque feel-good movie. I'd love to see it again in IMAX 3D this time (instead of just 3D).
Merry Christmas, 2009
Woke up today having slept for 8 hours straight (not even a stir). Then I lounged around for another 2, finally rising at 11:15.
Ah, Christmas and 25 °C
Ian had Christmas dinner samples and some excellent fruit bowls waiting for us, and that was only his backup plan. He was going to produce some blueberry pancakes of his own design but, through no fault of his own, failed to predict the extent of our ability to sleep in. Christmas dinner was planned for 4 with guests arriving at starting at 1:30, so Cary and I decided to get in our training immediately.
Ran down to the Bay of Plenty, about a half mile away, stripped down and struck out into the warm ocean water. I waded, and waded, and waded. After about a quarter mile I looked back to be sure I was going somewhere. The water still hadn't come up past my thighs, and I was almost halfway across the bay. What finally stopped my journey was when I froze at the site of a jellyfish 2 meters to my right. Now I just finished listening to Bill Bryson talk about 18 different jellyfish in Australia that will drop you dead in times ranging from 7 hours to 12 minutes. Now New Zealand is generally far safer but I wasn't about to go against my gut instinct, so I pulled a 180 and headed back to shore with the utmost caution.
I asked a sunbather about the depth situation and they said, "Yeah, you can walk all the way across the bay... But, you can go to the dock by the ferry. That's the only place that's deep enough."
They were right. After about a half hour, I finally found the perfect place by the ferry. There was a nice current that allowed me to just jog right in place. Plus I was thoroughly amused by the flow of life around me. I'm not sure anyone knew what I was doing just treading water by the pier but I got tons of curious glances. I fell into a pattern taught to me by Brian Cole, of winking at anyone that maintained eye contact for more than a second, sometimes signalling them to move on, but usually initiating a brief dialog,
"You training to be Coast Guard or somethin?"
"Yup."
After a little while, a bunch of kids came around and started jumping off the dock in all sorts of manners (this being the only place deep enough). They were fun and funny, and the time flew by much faster.
After 60 minutes I got out, performed a mediocre can-opener (does anyone other than Chaffees use this term to refer to the jump where you clutch one leg to your chest, lean back slightly, and pray your thunderous splash sprays up vertically?), and basked in the applause from the little Maori boys.
Jogged a half mile home. 1 mile total today.
Chocolate log for those wondering
Christmas itself was thoroughly amazing. The dishes we used were gorgeous, the dinner delicious, and the wine bountiful. I especially enjoyed our dessert, a chocolate log Ian filled with some home-made whipped cream. Sensational (even if I do have an incredibly easy to please sweet tooth)!
We chilled out the rest of the night, just enjoying the holiday and each other's company (though I took a brief reprieve to gather myself from the wine). Ian even thoughtfully bought Cary and myself thermoses as a Christmas gift (a coincidently insightful purchase as Cary had forgotten his water bottle). Myself, I will now be able to go through life without borrowing Deady's when I want to bring some hot tea on mountain adventures.
(My apologies on picture quality. They're from Cary's iPhone cause I was too lazy. To be honest I needed a bit of a break from the old shutter-bug lifestyle after the past 3 weeks. I promise to return to old form soon)
Nightmare on Taupo Street
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...10AM. That's right, I decided to stay up all night and finish everything (haha, success!) before heading off and sleeping for our 8 hour bus ride at noon today.
The one time I left was to print a couple postcards (get excited) and have dinner with Jane and Cary. Jane lived up to and surpassed her last dinner, with a delicious pasta dish, chocolate covered strawberries and dark & white chocolate drizzled Oreo balls (far more smoothly shaped that the ones Ryan and I are used to). She also spoiled us with a "cass" of wine.
One of the cool sights along the way was Mt. Tongariro
The day really got interesting when we jumped on the bus. Let's see, itinerary: Ah, nice! We're supposed to arrive in Tauranga at 8PM. Sounds great...
2 hours in: "Why are we turning around?"
2 hours 10min in: "Why are we turning around again?"
2 hours 12min in: "Why are we stopped?... Oh, the other bus broke down. Oh gosh, make way for the new load." Our bus went from being half-full to no vacant seats as we absorbed a bunch of people that would have been trapped on the bus that broke down. Oh well, no I'm really uncomfortable and hot but at least I'm enjoying V for Vendetta with a couple of Mouri boys around me. They loved the netbook and proceeded to pour through my music video collection after we finished the movie. I find this hilarious: their favorite artist: Lonely Island. Ya, the SNL rap group. They pumped (OK, I use the term pump very loosely as our sound system is my netbook speakers), they pumped I'm on a Boat [warning: explicit] at least twice.
5 hours in: "Why are we stopped?"
"Shhh, we just got pulled over." Yeah, I drove for a dozen hours a reckless speeds on the South Island, only to get passed by Kiwis with cars that could actually accelerate uphill, and the silly police on the North Island pull over a bus driver (making 70 ppl late) for going less that 10 over. Another point for the South Island...
7 hours in: We finally arrived in Taupo and things would have been alright if that was our end destination. Unfortunately, we had to wait for about an hour for the broken bus driver to get himself and his few remaining passengers up to Taupo.
The next leg of the trip really killed me. I was getting really antsy and miserable. Here we are, Christmas Eve, and we're stuck on a bus... Sanity was only preserved through commiseration with our neighbors.
We ended up getting picked up by Ian 30km short of Tauranga at 11:15...
We got in 10minutes shy of Christmas and welcomed in the holiday chatting away with Ian, happy to have made it.
Anyways, no running today. I did do about 40minutes of balancing and drills though in the morning.
WORKing Holiday
Yippy Skippy!
Day off. Only run was to Jane's (beating Cary's bus from the same location). 2 miles.
Today I woke feeling good, grabbed some breakfast, and sat on the patio for a couple minutes. Then I got straight to work starting around 11AM...
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The Author
I'm a runner who's managed to escape the NE winter for a NZ summer. This is a chronicle of my travels.
Cheers!
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