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domingo, 31 de agosto de 2008

Jantar 12/09

olá pessoal, espero que todos estejam nos trinques.
numa destas semanas ainda passei no estádio pelas 20h, vi o luís a recuperar da tareia que lhe deram e o resto da malta já se tinha pirado.
agora fazem treinos de séries em meia hora, são os ritmos infernais :-).

proposta de jantar: dia 12/09.
há quem tenha a meia das lampas no dia seguinte (infelizmente não tenho km nas pernas para ir levar esse tareão) e aproveita-se para ingerir o que deve ser ingerido - sangue del toro né?

local: a nossa sede oficial gastronómica.

na agenda:
- a aceitação de uma nova membra - não sei se nomes iniciados com K podem ser aceites. tentaremos ter a drª edite estrela e um membro do registo civil presentes
- pagamento das cotas em atraso
- teste da verdade ou mentira com métodos da cia, pois o buda é o maior tangas da história da corrida
- breve nota do excel em bruto, versão vista, por elvis
- metodologia do treino - campo de verão no complexo guincho-jamor
- ana por onde andas?
- época 2008/2009

abraço
ab

sexta-feira, 29 de agosto de 2008

4 weeks to go!

“Berlin’s CF and PT training camp” is now officially over and it’s time to report on it!
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It ended last Sunday with a great 32km run in the usual site – our beautiful Guincho running path. This time we started near the Guincho beach and then went to Cascais twice and back ! The plan was to end by the beach so we could get our legs in the cold ocean water afterwards. Besides a bit of wind, it all went very well. Katarina joined Luís, Carlos and me for the first 16km and took some pictures and provided water and incentive the second half. Thanks, girl! Luís finished just a bit earlier (he’s still getting over the Phillipines "training jet lag"... but he's getting there), while Carlos – the man! – finished in great style just a few minutes behind me. Despite all the fears and warnings, this man looks fit as a 30-year old athlete and, all going as planned, will be the sensation of Berlin. Well, he just needs to break 3h30 to be a sensation! Boston crowd, watch out… he’s coming! Here are some photos of our next to last “longão” (a week from Sunday we’ll finish the series of long ones with the 35km/3h00).








The summer training camp was indeed a success! Below you can see the “mileage” we completed in the last month or so. Carlos did even a little more in some weeks… the man is a real “papa-léguas”. Resting well and active recovering makes all the difference and both Carlos and I have noticed that training is indeed much more productive this way. It’s also somewhat more tiring as in almost every training session you feel you haven’t entirely recovered (we ran more than usual, of course)…



Don’t know if we will ever do something like this again, but it was very worthwhile (and fun, for the most part!) to focus more than usual on training and recovery for a few weeks. Pushing the limits of the body a little bit here and there (it’s one of the principles of training!), but our bodies has an almost endless way of adapting and responding "to the call".
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As to myself, everything is looking good and, like Carlos, I’m also on schedule for my goal, injuries-allowing (no sign of any, so far!). Every training session I feel tired but relatively strong at the same time, which is probably how it should be. I can usually complete the planned training, and times/paces are good… but sometimes it’s a struggle. This week, for instance, after the 85km last week, we already did a 12x800m on the track, then a 12km run (yesterday) which was more a recovery run, and today I just finished an interval training of 5x2000m (or 5x8 minutes), with 3 minute recovery in between... Uff.
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Just a word about today… Usually, every training period before a marathon, there is a session (usually about 1-2 months away) which kind of marks a transition from “I’m not sure this is going to work” to “OK, I think I will be ready”. These sessions have come in different ways. Sometimes you are surprised at some point while running much faster or longer, with ease, than expected. Last time, for London, it was a morning workout with Elvis, where I should be very tired but felt faster than ever. I still remember thinking “mmm… nice surprise… maybe I’m ready after all). This time, for Berlin, it was today's interval session. It was different than usual… more of a motivational threshold I had to overcome, while hoping that the body would respond. With all the km on my legs from last month (and from last week… and already this week – the 12x800m on Tuesday were a killer for all of us!), today I had 5x2000m intervals on the program… and found myself alone to complete them! Everybody is out of town or busy, and honestly I thought I was just "going to the track”, jog a little, stretch some more, but not run much... Plus, last night Luis and I ran 1h at 4:48 pace and we were simply “burned” at the end. Luis is taking the rest of the week off (no running), until Sunday! In sum, it was not looking good… So I went to track at 12h30. The weather was not too hot, which was a good sign. I warmed up well along the “pista de canoagem”, put the Ipod on “training mode” and quite loud (today it was The Cult – I needed some hard rock to push me along!) and, to my surprise, I completed the 5x2000m at about 3:55 pace each interval! So a bit below 10k pace, which was what I was aiming for. Can’t say that it was easy... Not even close. The last few laps of the last interval I truly felt like I was finishing a marathon! But I felt I needed this training today to cross that "line" (from “probably” to “for sure”…). Let’s see what the weeks ahead will bring...
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Agora em Portuga, só para consumo interno...
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Já tenho saudades de treinos com mais malta! A ver se em breve se combina uma jantarada e o lançamento oficial da época 2008-09. Será que o Cabeça já faz 100km? Será que o Buda começou mesmo a treinar?! Será que o Elvis afinal vai fazer a primeira maratona nos EUA?! Há muita escrita para por em dia. E também temos um novo membro que deseja ser aprovado na equipa e já lhe foi transmitido que só em "Assembleia Geral" (leia-se jantar com muita Mousse de Chocolate!). O Elvis disse também que o novo membro teria de passar o "teste de Monsanto", mas não me parece que este reúna consenso, até porque nem todos os actuais membros passaram o teste!
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Bento, faltas tu para combinar o Rendez-Vous. Como o Presidente só está de volta do Estágio Algarvio na Quinta, terá de ser para depois... Não sei o Calendário estival do resto da banda, mas presumo que as férias estejam no fim para todos...

terça-feira, 19 de agosto de 2008

BiDiário

O treino da GAFE para BERLIM está mesmo no auge.

Eu e o meu inseparável colega de sofrimento Pedro Teixeira completámos ontem o nosso primeiro bidiário de preparação para Berlim. Mas não foi um bidiário qualquer foi um bidário de recuperação.
Quando o nosso Eng. do treino (Elvis galego) ler isto vai ficar de boca aberta.
As duas sessões de treino neste extraordinário dia foram constituídas por:
- sessão matinal de 60 minutos no fabuloso ginásio da FMH (não confundir com FHM);
- 40 minutos, ao fim da tarde, de corrida em ritmo lento na praia de Carcavelos (treino muito difícil pois existia muitos factores de perturbação para que o treino decorresse em ritmo cardíaco baixo).

E vocês caros amigos que estão em plena labuta diária por favor não se ROAM de INVEJA.

segunda-feira, 18 de agosto de 2008

estes senhores sabem (em inglês :D)

é verdade que é publicidade, mas eles sabem transmitir uma mensagem...

“He’s competed against the past. He’s competed against the history books. He’s competed against time, expectations and everyone who came before him. Most of all, he’s competed against himself.”

domingo, 17 de agosto de 2008

6 semanas

Depois de uma semana anterior muito dura (78,5 Km).
Esta semana foi mais suave passei para 53,5km. Apostando essencialmente em treino de qualidade.

Estar de férias permitiu que esta fosse uma verdadeira semana de estágio aonde pude treinar e descansar como nunca. Claro na companhia dos Jogos Olímpicos. A semana de estágio foi assim:
Segunda: Ginásio (descontracção absoluta com alguns exercícios de forças concentrados no membros superiores)

Terça: séries (2*400+800+1200+1600+1200+800+2*400) entre cada série 3:00 entre cada série. Aqui está o resumo dado pelo meu POLAR

Sessão de treino muito boa com boa recuperação cardíaca.

Quarta: Ginásio (a mesma coisa que na segunda-feira)

Quinta: Semi-Longo de 18Km a ritmo de maratona (media de 4:48/km)

Chegada do treino de 18km


Sexta: TempoRun – Para controlarmos melhor quer a velocidade das séries quer do descanso fizemos este treino em pista. A sessão foi composta por 2*1600m + 2*2000m sempre com 800m de descanso entre cada série. Do POLAR tirei estes dados:


Domingo: - Era para ser um treino de 15Km com 5 lentos e 10 mais rápidos (4:45). Por algumas contas mal feitas e por algum cansaço da semana acabou por ser 5 lentos (5:07) e 7 a (4:55).

Esta semana foi suave mas permitiu-me aumentar o meu moral, pois trabalhei a um bom ritmo sem grande cansaço. Claro que este tipo de treino só é possível fazer quando estamos de férias e podemos descansar ao máximo.

A semana que vem vai ser a mais dura de todas neste plano de treino (quase copia do de Londres). Temos 10*800m de séries, 20km de semi-longo, um tempoRun de 9*4minutos e para terminar um longão de 32km. Grande parte da semana vai ser feita sem companhia o que tornará tudo um pouco mais difícil.
Depois conto.

BONS TREINOS AMIGOS.


quarta-feira, 13 de agosto de 2008

Moral ascendente

caros
graças à solidariedade gafista já me sinto melhor.
obrigado pelos votos de melhoras.
abraço e bons treinos.

p.s. - ouvi dizer que o buda ia começar a época desportiva ... balnear!
será verdade?
vai dedicar-se aos desportos nauticos???
talves tenhamos um novo velejador em londres 2012

Some numbers...

Yesterday, it was track day and we "rigorously" completed the pyramid workout as planned. Elvis and I did all intervals at sub-3:40 (except one), as shown.



Just for fun, we ran the last 400m as a "real race", starting on one lane each and staying there until the end. I finished in 1:04, , which corresponds to a pace of 2:40 per km. Just to put this pace in perspective, I did some calculations and here are some world record (WR) paces, for a comparison:

Marathon pace WR pace: 2:58
Half-marathon WR pace: 2:47
10.000 WR pace: 2:38
5.000 WR pace: 2:31

So at my 400m fastest pace today, I could not keep up with the WR holder in the 10.000m... for 1 lap... Humbling!!

My last two weeks of training (courtesy of Motion Based):


domingo, 10 de agosto de 2008

7 weeks to go (and one morning to remember)!






Very, very beautiful morning at GAFE's "sanctuary", the route Cascais-Guincho. Carlos and I had 28 km on the plan (our second "longão", two more to go). And Elvis was there, with his friend Katarina (a young triathlete from Sweden living in Portugal), to run some, provide coaching support and photo coverage. It all went... well... beautifully. Carlos did his 28km at an average of 4:55 pace, which is worth of note, since his marathon pace (to brake 3h30) is just at 5:00 pace! In other words, he did his long run faster than his projected marathon pace, and I can attest he wasn't completely exhausted at the end. I think this is the result of his fast training, especially on the track where the progress has been obvious. So the indications are good for our Great Leader! We just have to keep him injury-free... which means entertaining him during off-training days, to minimize the risk of him going running when he should be resting or cross-training. I have some ideas for that... in the brand new "big screen" of Cruz Quebrada and some nice meals!

Here's just a sample of this morning's training:



For the whole coverage (22 pictures) , in low definition CLICK HERE:

And in "full HD" (35MB) CLICK HERE!

Big thanks to Elvis and Katarina, both of whom did the first 14 km with us (we were at 4:10-4:15 pace for most of that), and then provided top-rated athletic support to Carlos and me. And Elvis is clearly improving on his photo skills, as you can see!!

This week, the plan for the "training camp" is:

  • Mon: gym workout/active recovery (at least for me, in the morning at FMH)
  • Tue: track interval training (some pyramid Carlos has built!)
  • Wed: mid-range marathon pace flat run (18 km)
  • Thu: active recovery (details TBD)
  • Fri: track workout (details TBD - Elvis???)
  • Sat: rest/active recovery
  • Sunday: no idea! it's "no-long run Sunday"...Carlos, what's on the plan??
There may be some "improv" changes along the way (my speciality), but this is the general idea.
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Next time somone asks me "what is all this crazy running about?", I'll just show them the pictures from today. They tell the story better than any words...!

sexta-feira, 8 de agosto de 2008

one more post (to be ignored) - in portuguese



Maratona de Berlim 2007 - um candidato à presidência do México ganha a categoria de 55 anos com 2h40m, e bate o seu record pessoal em mais de... 60 minutos, tinha 3h44m feitos em San Diego - EUA.



É claro que teve que desistir das eleições e descobriram que fez menos 15 Km via chip.


O seu nome é Roberto Madrazo, e o atalho que ele fez lá em Berlim está aqui:



Take care (tenham calma)

quinta-feira, 7 de agosto de 2008

Training Camp 2008

Training camp has officially begun yesterday!


With a mid-distance (16km) run, as pictured...


And today with an "Elvis-like" interval training (6 x 4 min at sub-marathon pace [3:50 or so] with 2 min rests at 5:00 pace), as pictured


Tomorrow we will continue with the first twice-a-day training (at least for me): cross-training in the morning: walking, gym, and/or something else and 8 x 800m in the evening, fresh from an afternoon watching over the Bird's Nest!

Looking forward...


...or looking up...


... the road ahead is the same:

segunda-feira, 4 de agosto de 2008

modas



Parece que agora há uma nova moda no treino, fazer um "teste" em pista a cerca de um mês da maratona
Tenho andado a ler sobre outras modas -  fazer o longão sem ingerir hidratos de carbono, antes e durante o treino, pareceu-me uma boa ideia, vou por em prática nos meus longões acima de 4 horas (outra moda), vai-se no entanto, intercalando num longão mais curto (mais uma), mas com um ritmo de competição no último 1/3, devendo os últimos 2 km ser mais rápidos que o ritmo de uma prova de 10 K


abraços,



e tenham calma... não dêem o corpo pela ialma :D

domingo, 3 de agosto de 2008

TESTE de 10KM

Nota prévia
Como eu não sou um gajo muito popular nem na estranja nem cá em Portugal vou mesmo escrever estas minhas linhas em “bad Portuguese”. Espero que os meus fiéis leitores fiquem contentes com esta difícil decisão.

Introdução à estupidez
Este teste estava previsto inicialmente para ter lugar no IV GP de NISA mas tendo em conta que a viagem era muito longa e hoje iria estar um grande calor resolvi ficar mesmo pelo EN. E beneficiar da companhia do Pedro Teixeira e do Elvis.

Previsões só mesmo no final do jogo...
Como tenho sinto bem nas últimas semanas e não treino desde quinta-feira pensei que poderia ter bater o meu record dos 10km (43:43). Seguindo esta lógica marquei no meu relógio um ritmo de 4:22/km. Mas logo no aquecimento me “cheirou” que tudo era um sonho.

Primeira parte
Parti sozinho por razões logísticas (fotos). Enquanto o fotógrafo tirava de forma afanosa fotos ao Je e a tudo a que se mexia mais rápido do que eu (e estavam lá alguns com esperanças de dar aos portugas muitas alegrias nos próximos JO). Lá fui eu a bom ritmo não muito longe do previsto. Após as fotos e durante quase 2km o Pedro e o Elvis acompanharam-me o que ajudou a manter o ritmo (nessa altura ainda achei que o pouco tempo que estava a ser perdido podia ser recuperado mais tarde se tudo continuasse bem).

Segunda Parte
Por volta do Km 5,5 tive o meu reabastecimento de líquidos e foi a partir daqui que senti que tinha ocorrido o “estoiro”. Fui sempre descendo (como podem ver pelo gráfico). Parte dessa queda não é só física mas também psicológica. Lá consegui terminiar (o que eu mais desejava desde o km 6) sem muita vontade e sem querer saber o tempo final (45:24).

Porque?
As razões deste semi-fracasso ficaram a dever-se: Ao muito calor (estou eu para aqui a quiexar-me mas os atletas do RAID MELIDES TRÓIA é que devem ter mesmo sofrido), correr quase sozinho e forma não tão apurada quanto eu julgava ter.

E agora?
Continuar a treinar e a gozar o máximo que puder. Estas próximas semanas vão ser decisivas para a melhoria da forma e para gozar o maximo esta actividade.

Back in time

(Note: This makes more sense if you read the previous post first. Right below.)

Please forgive the high prevalence of half-naked pictures of myself, but this one has a story, and it's the only one I have...! As I was re-reading my previous post, I was reminded of another picture of myself. This one:
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Just thought it was funny to compare, considering the time difference. Would you guess how old I was? Anyone? A hint: same year Mike Powell established his long jump world record!

(at least one person knows... :)
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Yes, 1991...! Which means I was 21.
I wanted to be a triple jumper then. That didn't go very far...!

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OK, I'll share a picture of me with much more clothes on and where I don't look nearly as sharp, from 1995... when I first tried cross-country skiing! That didn't go very far at all...!

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And since we are going back in time, how about one (with some clothes) from my first marathon, in 2000 (San Diego, 3:22 in a lot of pain!). This was when this craziness began...

The motivation for that one is a long story... let's just say it wasn't so "intrinsic"... (and guess what football club I was a fan of?)

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8 weeks to go... 58 seconds away...!


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Esta semana dei por mim a relatar por email (em inglês), as periécias dos meus treinos para amigos Australianos, Ingleses, Americanos e Canadianos...! Peripécias que assim não ficaram neste Blogue, como deviam. Pois com a permissão do Presidente e a anuência tácita do nosso escriba Bento (apanho-o "a banhos" e lá se vai o Português borda fora!), passo a fazer estes posts na língua de Shakespeare. Assumo que todos entendem, até porque entre o meu inglês e o do Shakespeare vai uma diferençazita! Mas assim posso partilhar o que vai acontecendo nos "workouts" com todos, cá dentro e "lá fora". Sou um gajo muito popular "lá fora", como sabeis! (expressão muito Portuga, por sinal... Bento, esta foi só para ti)... Bom, já estou a ficar com saudades do Português e ainda não o deixei... Mas posso sempre "regressar", se as mesmas apertarem... Mas não poderei escrever "saudades" em inglês...! Ai, que isto vai ser mais duro do que pensava... Mas saudades de quê, afinal?! Isto é um Blogue de corridas, não de Descobrimentos marítimos! Coragem... Vamos a isso...



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Et voilá! (só para baralhar mais um pouco... e prestar tributo à minha amiga Simone, Québéquoise de gema):

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Eight weeks to go, indeed, for the Berlin 2008 adventure! Since I've decided to complete the 5 Major Marathons (Boston [done], London [done], Berlin, New York, Chicago), I have set up breaking 3h as the goal for Berlin. Which would imply an upgrade in my training, given the last "close calls" under 3:03 (Rome, Florence, and London). So I had decided that this summer the conditions would be ripe for some (more) serious training, at least for a few weeks, so breaking 3h in Berlin would not not be the last thing I would accomplish in my life!


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Why this fixation with 3h, I have asked myself lately?? It's not like after this milestone my mood will finally stabilize, all my papers will get accepted for publication at first review, and my morning low-back pain will be gone (this one could actually get worse!). Why 3h, then? I have done 3:00:58 in Rome, for crying out loud! All this suffering for 58 seconds?! It's the time it takes to brush my teeth at night! (ok, I know it should be 2 minutes but in most days it's not! But I floss, that must count...). 58 seconds are worth the pain I went through this morning to run 10k in 40 minutes, my legs feeling like stones? 58 seconds so I can say "I broke 3 hours in the marathon"...? So what?! My grand-mother takes 30 minutes to walk 100m to the Pharmacy, with bad knees, in pain. My house is less than 1 km from my work and I take the car just about every morning! "Yes, but I broke 3h..." Big deal.


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Why 3h...? why 3h...?


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Well, the truth is I need these artifical goals, without much intrinsic value, to structure and motivate the day-to-day process, in order to get them. Maybe it's a male thing. "Men do, women are", I read again the other day (women have the better hand, if you ask me!). In many tribes, men become men going out into the wild with elder men, do stuff (running after animals, or from them!... here's the running again...) and when they come back after a series of rituals, they have become "men". In the same tribe, women go into a hut when their time comes, sit down, have their first period, and they come out as "women". They don't DO anything, just bear witness patiently. OK, before my women friends get mad at me for the pretty limited (amateur anthropologist) analogy, I'll stop. But I do like the general idea, and so do some clever people I like to read once in a while. Actually, the whole idea reminds me I should sit down more and just bear witness, patiently. It would do me good... (hopefully, nothing would come out of my body!).


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Well, I do need these silly goals to structure my process. Maybe I'm not alone. And therein lies the secret - in the process! The question then is NOT why 3h, but why training for marathons in the first place?! For the process, no doubt. The pictures in this post (and other posts in this and other Blogs) tell the story. The process - of joining friends for running sessions and laughing, of getting fitter and noticing as the body adapts, of feeling tired as hell as then recovering, of being outside in beautiful places in this beautiful corner of the world we have, of feeling lighter and stronger (at faster and faster paces) - all of this is worth it and makes running and training intrinsically fun. Meaningful. And to go back to where I started in this by now pretty long rambling, it makes it worth to train even more seriously (this is very relative, of course... Naíde Gomes [sitting in the picture below] trains "seriously"... we just goof around a few times a week, pretending we train a lot!). And SO...


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Carlos and I decided this month would be a good time for a kind of "training camp". Living the "athlete's life" if you will, for perhaps the last time in our lives. Training "hard", eating well, resting a lot, stressing very little, sleeping well. Yes, we'll skip the "nutricional supplements", the ice-cold leg immersion after practice, and putting up with nagging coaches! (Elvis, you're a cool coach, man - we need you!). Just the good side of training, yes. So we started "warming up" 2 weeks ago... Increased the mileage, stopped working (no more stress, yeaahh!), did our first "longão" (long run) last weekend (25km), did some nice recovery workouts, and this coming week this will continue, and we'll keep at it until Carlos leaves for a break, on the 18th or so. The Olympics will start soon and will be a good source of motivation, as vicarious experiences usually are. Just to prove are not that serious, we don't really have a plan! Well, at least I don't (and I'm usually pretty successful at screwing up Carlos' very precise plans anyway!). The general idea is to train just about every day, including recovery workouts, run 4-5 times a week (may include some twice-a-day session days!), do our schedulled long runs (~28km on Aug 10; ~32km on Aug 24; ~36km on Sep 7), do some nice track (1-2) workouts every week, and do at least one mid-range run during the week (60-90 min), at close to Marathon pace. This should suffice for two laid back "athletes" to improve their times in Berlin, injuries-allowing. By the way, Carlos wants to break 3:30, his Boston-qualifying time. He HAS already qualified with a sub 3:01 time in London, but the man is proud and brave (or silly just like me) and wants to "brake 3:30" clean! And, of course, we have planned to prepare and enjoy many nice meals watching the Olympics!


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This morning, walking for the training session (a few minutes before the backpack picture below), I had this thought: "Lately, the older I get, the younger I remain" ("ultimamente, os anos passam e mantenho-me cada vez mais novo"). It's of course logical non-sense (impossible to "remain" younger and younger), but it makes sense to me for some reason... The fact is, at the age of 38, I feel as fit as I have ever been ("lean and mean", as the Americans say!) and physically at the top of my game*. A nice feeling. So I'll keep pressing on for just a few more weeks until September 28th!

(*Note: psychologically, one grows a little every day, but the road is steeper and "training" more challenging, anyway. My goal is just not to "miss practice", with my eyes open...!).


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OK, I'll stop here. More in the next few weeks...


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