Cracker by Damian Christie

"...having spent today being blown around Wellington in increasingly deteriorating conditions"

Damn straight Aucklanders, ditch your preconceptions about the recreational opportunities in grey old Wellington...

T.

"...having spent today being blown around Wellington in increasingly deteriorating conditions"

"...having spent today being stuck in Auckland in increasingly gridlocked conditions"

Seriously though, the situation in Fiji is the proverbial pimple on the arse - annoyingly irritating, but not a life & death issue.

Damian that ankle is telling you that running is not just for one half marathon, it is for always. Otherwise you will always be thrashing a vulnerable body into shape in not enough time. I have recently survived Swine Flu (apparently regular exercise prior to infection reduces its severity). All I will say is I wouldn't want it without being as fit as I am. On the worst day I didn't have the energy to sit upright in a chair. I hate to think what that would have been like if I hadn't been fit with all my normal energy.

There's another half later in the month in Auckland

http://www.adracharityrun.org.nz/

gives the ankle a couple of weeks to heal. Why waste all that training?

Seriously though, the situation in Fiji is the proverbial pimple on the arse - annoyingly irritating, but not a life & death issue.

Are you sure?

Whilst the travel ban clearly irritates the hell out of the regime in Fiji, Paul Buchanan says the Chinese are easily negating whatever sanctions we have with lots of "no strings" aid. Maybe we need to do something to send Bejing a message to back off from our backyard?

Surely patience must be running short in Canberra and Wellington with the tiresome Bainimarama and his petty dictatorship? Bainimarama seems to like to play the game of swaggering realpolitik, perhaps the ANZAC's should start to show him what that really means?

I suggest we start with a withdrawl of landing rights in Australia and New Zealand of any airline that continues to fly to Fiji. It would need US cooperation, and would effectively spell the end of air links to Fiji.

There's a reason why people interviewed at the airport today were still happy to jump on those Fiji-bound flights.

They did that again? I remember thinking last time - if you ask people going to Fiji whether they have a problem with people going to Fiji, what do you expect?

... and you don't even have to come to my stupid church or wear a crappy ring of loyalty.

For someone who declares himself so anti-homosexual, I'm still not sure what Brian Tamaki's "First Fruits" scheme was all about.

I would thoroughly recommend having your running stride analyzed in a running-shoe shop, and then buying a shoe that prevents the movement that may be causing it. The shoes you buy may be expensive, but arthritis or joint replacement surgery is worse, unfortunately.

Also, if you want to avoid injury, increase your distances very slowly. No more than 10% more a week in both your total and your longest run. It may feel too slow, but you'll have more distance to look forward to the next week and you can sustain it. I think you could do a half within 4 months, assuming you're doing 10k comfortably now.

@George - yeah I did that in order to get the shoes I've got. They're good, but I think any injury was the result of an impromptu 11km run last Wednesday when I hadn't done more than 5km for a few months... bang on with your second piece of advice.

@Peter - you might want to remind yourself exactly what 'all that training' was in my case. About 6 runs. So a couple of weeks probably isn't ideal, but yeah I'm planning on doing one before this time next year at least.

@Lyndon. Exactly.

Damian -

I can only appluad the wisdom that allowed you to choose not to run. There is supposed to be a smidgin of enjoyment involved. Others are not so smart.

FWIW. If you do have long-term mechanical difficulties that make running unpleaasant I highly reccomend Kelly at AUT. The running clinic is the only one of its type I have ever come across and is a complete one-stop shop, being affiliated with a school of Physiotherapy and of Podiatry. Not cheap but highly reccomended by a number of people who have done a fair few miles.

@Damian

Another example of sarcasm being easily missed in text conversations. Dammit, I was trying to encourage you!

I'll second George Darroch's points too. Get some good shoes, and keep them only for running. Your feet and legs will thank you. In a couple of weeks it's my birthday and I will then have two concurrent pairs of running shoes. I'm not sure all that luxury won't spoil my ascetic perfection though.

Can I recommend cycling? My Dad was a marathon/half-marathon runner for many years and had endless injuries. Frankly, I'd like someone to show me the medical evidence that humans have evolved for that amount of running.

I've been cycling for years (longest cycle 2,000 km -- not in one day) and never had a single injury.

Furthermore with cycling you get to integrate it into your daily transport needs. Like going to work. Y'know, commute and save time/money at gym at the same time.

Good luck with the mo', dude.

Sure we're designed for running. We're also designed to be eaten by the faster lions some time around 30, so if your joints are packing up by then, tough.

I am enjoying short runs in bare feet -- call me an anti-fashion victim. It's all the rage you know.

@David, I think I mentioned this in the last post - I bought a bike a few months back for exactly that reason - fitness AND transport. Living about a 30 minute cycle from town now makes it worthwhile too, although it does mean on those days I'm running late I'm a lot more likely to jump on the Vespa instead. But I love it when I do get to bike.

@Peter - sorry, your sarcasm was far too subtle in this instance, and I just assumed you hadn't read my previous post about my awesome training programme. As you were.

@ Damian
If you read my message on your movember page, can we?Can we? please. C'mon sport. ;)

@David

Ahem, I regularly run and ran home from work, up to 9miles not being a problem. I knew a medic who ran 6miles into work every day of the week.

I also find it silly that you claim we aren't evolved to run but then claim we should cycle as though we were evolved to exercise sitting down?

The bushmen in the Kalahari hunt game by running it to exhaustion. The tribes in Kenya that dominate their and the world's distance running are good runners because their tribes used to specialise in cattle raiding and lacking domesticatable steeds did it on foot. it isn't just the altitude though that certainly helps.

@Sofie - yeah of course, anyting you want :) Thanks for the donation!

succame (is that a word? It should be)

No, it's not. Succumbed is what you're after. And succame shouldn't be a word, because silent `b's are awesumb.