Like Communism, this program is good in theory

So today at lunch time I came up with a "timetable" for my fitness. This is the first time I've had a timetable since finishing uni, but I'm pretty excited. If I'm disciplined and follow it, it'll see the creation of Fit Brendan 2.0, hopefully seeing my fitness become more comprehensive, rather than simply cardiovascular/legs of steel fitness.

In fact, before I started running I was actually pretty involved with rock-climbing. It was an injured wrist (from skating - my injury demonstrates my skating ability) that got me into running in the first place. But now that I'm wrist-injury free, I'm pretty pumped to get climbing and gym-ing again.

According to my timetable, my weeks will look like this:

Monday - Indoor climbing

Tuesday - Morning run, yoga/pilates class at lunch

Wednesday - afternoon gym session

Thursday - Morning run

Friday - afternoon gym session and yoga/pilates class

Saturday - rest day

Sunday - Bike ride to and from church

Boom.

If I'm disciplined, I'm pretty sure I can handle it.

The only thing I'm worried about is the morning runs during winter. I'm not so concerned about running in the cold (I kinda like it) as I am about actually getting out of bed. I've been pretty much hibernating lately, sleeping more than 8 hours a night. Which means some pretty early nights if I want to be getting up early in the morning. Or I could just man up.

Envious

When I saw this post on a blog I follow, I turned slightly green. It's written by Scottish rock-climber Dave MacLeod.

If I lived in a place like this I don't think I'd ever run on roads or paths again.

Beautiful Ladies

Quite possibly the best three lady singer-songwriters in Australia have joined forces, and with their powers combined, it's Captain Planet! Well, no Captain, but it's a band called Seeker Lover Keeper,and consists of Holly Throsby, Sally Seltman and Sarah Blasko. Now I may be a little biased, as people close to me are well aware of my unconditional love for Ms Throsby, but there is no denying the beauty of the music that results when these girls write music together.

If you'd like a taste, go here to check out the videos for three of the tracks from their self-titled album, which comes out on the 3rd of June. The videos feature some familiar Aussie actors mouthing the words. Very interesting seeing the voice of a young lady emerging from the mouth of a middle-aged man, heh heh.

If you want more than a taste, you can grab the whole pie at triple j. They're featuring the album this week on the wireless, and streaming the album in full on the web.

Holly, Sarah and Sally begin touring nationally soon, including an appearance in July at Splendour in the Grass. They will be joined on tour with Jim White of the Dirty Three on drums, and David Symes on bass. Try not to miss them.

And so it begins

So after getting excited yesterday about training for a purpose again, I decided to run after work tonight. The loop I did I estimated to be around 7.5, but thanks to the satellites in the sky and the smartphone in my hand, I was able to track it accurately:

Hurray! I underestimated a distance for once!

At least I know where I'm at now, fitness-wise. I ran 5:15min kilometres, which ok, but the route I took has a lot of downhills. For my half-marathon training I was running the other way, uphill. And that's what I'm going to do from now on, so obviously the pace will be a bit slower to start with. Today was just my way of easing into the training.

I'm really looking forward to the point where my foundation fitness is cranking again, and the only way to do that is by running three times a week. And hopefully by doing this I can get that time down. Running the current pace for 10km would see me running a time of between 52-53 minutes, but I doubt I have the stamina to do that yet. And training is the only way to fix it!

Future goals

So I was gonna post a like to this site, and you'd click on it and be directed to an awesome site for the next running event I'm planning on entering. But instead "canberratimesfunrun.com" is code for the "Canberra Times Outdoor Art Show that we're gonna tell you about four times in a row."

Anyways, hopefully when I rock up to the start line in September I am greeted by water stations and a starting gun, not running through a group of disgruntled artists and their paintings I've just knocked over.

The Canberra Fun Run is 10km, which is a darn sight shorter than a half-marathon. I know I am capable of running the distance, so this time around it's all about the time. I have two benchmarks with which to measure myself by, and my aim is to hit somewhere in the middle.

First of all is my dad, who wasn't much of a runner, but I can still learn a bit from his determination/stubbornness. When he was a young lad, he had a goal to finish the Canberra Fun Run within an hour. I don't know much about how he trained for the run, but on his first two attempts at the (annual) Fun Run, his time was outside the hour. In his third year, he managed to run a 59:58, and promptly vowed to never run in the event again. I hope that I have the same strength of will to set my mind on a target, and to persist until I achieve it.

The second benchmark is a guy from my church. He's the dad of one of my best friends, and has been running for a solid chunk of his life. I talked to him a few days ago about running 10k, and he told me the last time he ran the Canberra Fun Run was 20 years ago, and he posted a PB for 10k in that race. His time was 36 minutes. THIRTY-SIX MINUTES. Apparently he was tired after running 17 minutes for his first 5k, that he only managed to run the final half of the race in 19 minutes. What a freak. But I'm going to try and let that inspire me, rather than scaring me off.

So my aim is to run a time somewhere in between my dad's "I'm never running again" time and Lloyd's "I was tired so I only ran the final 5k at a SEMI-elite pace" time. I think 45 minutes is a nice figure.

I feel that my fitness is on a slow decline after completing the half-marathon, so hopefully having something to aim towards again will remedy this. Lately I've only been managing about one run a week. It's a lot easier to just stay in bed when you don't have a program to follow, or a goal to achieve. And armed with some training advice from Lloyd, I think I'm ready to write up a program that will get me out of bed and into the blizzard that is the winter morning in Canberra.

The awesome thing is that the start line for the Canberra Fun Run is practically across the road from where I live, so I just need to make sure I bring enough change with me on the run to catch the bus back homw.

Lego Brendan is just not suited to Full-Time Work

Lego Brendan was born last year in Europe. He entered Australia illegally, without a passport, by stowing away in my friends' luggage. Shortly after, he came to live with me, and it wasn't long before he began working at my office.

However lately I have noticed that

Lego Brendan doesn't seem to be handling full-time work very well. In fact, I've come to suspect that he may be bipolar.

Above is Lego Brendan's reaction to some work that he and I had been given. It was a drastic overreaction on his part, as this work only too

k half a day to complete (or less if he had helped out instead of cowering in the corner).

And more recently, I came in one morning to discover that he had misplaced the hat that he insists on wearing even though he never goes outside.

Granted, his rise in blood pressure might have other contributors, and his mental state isn't helped by the company he keeps, however once again I believe he is overreacting. I mean the soldier who has tried to shoot him a few times hasn't hit him yet, on account of lacking a fully-functioning head. But even more disturbing than his overreaction to losing his hat was what he did next.

Lego Brendan's taste in fashion has always been somewhat eclectic. I think it's because he's European. But this latest addition to his wardrobe in a bid to replace his totally unnecessary old hat scared me. I feared that his manic depression was becoming increasingly apparent. He seems more than ever to display only two emotions; either very distressed or very ecstatic, with no in-betweens, and he can change from one emotion to the other quite rapidly.

I am considering suggesting he take a break and spend a few weeks at home, however I am apprehensive about how he will take it. And I doubt he will survive a Canberra winter if he continues to dress the way he does.

Look out

I saw Kimbra last year when she was supporting Little Red and Sparkadia in Canberra. She is one of the classier support acts I've had the pleasure of seeing, in fact along with her very talented band, this little lady blew me away. I am super-stoked that I'm seeing her again at Splendour in the Grass.

Here's a little taste of what she's capable of, covering a Nina Simone classic.

Kimbra - "Plain Gold Ring" (Live at Sing Sing Studios) from Forum5 Recordings on Vimeo.

A Recent Turning Point

Strap yourself in, this is gonna be a long one.

At the start of this year I was feeling pretty good about myself. Mid-November of last year I injured my wrist, so the only thing I could really do to keep fit was run. So I set myself a goal to run 10km non-stop by the end of the year, as it was something I had never done. I managed to reach that goal around the 20th December, and was pretty stoked.

And then in mid-January I travelled to Hawaii for my brother's wedding. It was such a beautiful time, in a beautiful place.

So as I've already mentioned, I was feeling pretty darn good when I got back to Australia.

Shortly after returning, I got a phone call from a friend. in short, he wanted to know if I'd be interested in running a HALF-MARATHON. Without too much thought I said yes. That call and my impulsive decision marked the beginning of a stage in my life that has left a pretty big impact. And I'm so glad it did.

After a week or so of stuffing around I got into contact with a friend who had run a marathon a year earlier, and asked her for advice in training. At this point I had about 6 weeks left before the race. I was freaking out a bit as this did NOT seem like enough time, considering it was more than double the longest distance I had run before.

With some encouragement and great advice from my friend, I was able to set up a program that would hopefully see me crossing the finish line. And this meant discipline.

So for the weeks leading up to the race, I was getting up very early in the mornings in order to run long distances and still make it to work on time. This was a challenge for me, firstly because I don't do mornings (in fact I'd rather days were made up entirely of afternoons), and secondly this was the most I'd trained in such a short period of time.

The training was hard, especially the weekends, where instead of running alone I'd run with the friend who initially asked me to run the half-marathon. He is much, much fitter than me, and as a result I had to work to keep up with him. Also about halfway through the program I caught a cold, which stopped me from training for about 10 days, which is a big deal when my program was such a short one.

However I turned a corner in my training on my first run back after recovering from the cold. I realised that I had just over two weeks left, so it was make or break time. It was at this point that I began to really understand the importance of the mind in exercise. I found that I could push myself faster and further than the point I thought was fast enough and far enough.

In the end I managed to complete the half-marathon in just under two hours, when initially my aim was to complete it in two and a half. But the end result wasn't everything.

There were a number of benefits I got from the training. First of all it taught me how to get out of bed early. However, this is a lesson I forgot pretty soon. The rest of the benefits have lasted. As a result my friendship with Tim (the guy who asked me to run the half-marathon with him) grew a lot, and we were able to feed off each others' enthusiasm. I love that guy, he's the most positive guy I know. I also learnt about the power of the mind to control the body. I realised that running a marathon (something I want to do at least once) is very achievable. I learnt that you can achieve great things as long as you are organised and disciplined.

And one final thing I realised this afternoon as I was walking home: that you don't receive benefits when you take the easy option. Real progress, real growth only comes when you leave your comfort zone. I think that's why brussel sprouts taste so bad.

One of the highlights from rural Australian music festival Groovin' the Moo. It got the whole joint dancing.

That Beep from Architecture in Helsinki on Vimeo.