Month: September 2010

RunningBlog: Week 35

Week 35
And up and down week. My new shoes (Asics Gel Kayano 16s) arrived on Friday so I immediately started wearing them around the house to break them in. On Sunday I decided to risk wearing them on my long run. They’re just so comfortable! The Snook joined me for a 5:1 run/walk to Centennial Park. We did about 6km and then switched to a 3:1 ratio for the trip home. I did a bit extra to make up the distance I needed. I felt pretty good on that run; my back didn’t hurt and my foot felt okay. Tuesday, however, was disastrous. I felt slow; I was thirsty; and every muscle was sore. It was such a slog. Then today I bounced back again. My legs are still sore, but my pace dropped by 30s/km. My hips are so tight though, I think I might try to arrange a massage this weekend.

Total this week: 25.5km (15.9mi)
Total in 2010: 654.32km (408.95mi)

To reach my goal of running 1000km in 2010, I should be at 673km right now. So I’m about 20km behind pace. I’m slowly clawing back ground though!

Perspective

Perspective
For those outside Australia who don’t know, we had a federal election two weeks ago. The result was so close that they’re still not exactly sure who’s going to be the Prime Minister. (It’s basically a tie between the two biggest parties, so they’re both trying to woo the few independents who were elected over to their side to form a majority.) Many of my Australian friends were extremely disappointed in this result. I saw comments on Twitter about how disillusioned they were with their fellow Australians. I saw people lamenting how stupid a lot of the the voters were. (We have compulsory voting here, so everybody HAS to turn up on polling day. Many of them chose to register blank votes though in protest of the major parties.) There are people who truly believe that this election presages a really dark time for Australia.

All I can say is: at least it’s not this crap. I’d still rather live here than in a country where supposedly a full QUARTER of the population believe that the President is a Muslim. Where a significant portion of them believe he’s the actual, literal Antichrist. Where Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh poison minds with their insinuations and manipulations. Where Sarah Palin incites violence and is somehow still viable as a Presidential candidate.

Trust me, Australia. I’ll take Tony Abbott over those ass-clown fundamentalist fearmongers any day.

And yeah, I’ve been trying not to talk politics here for a while, because I know it upsets some members of my family, and I’ll probably receive some loony drive-by comments from randoms as well. But as Ebert says, it’s time for reasonable people to start speaking up instead of ignoring this crap out of politeness.