New Religion

Great shot of The Church live who rocked The Troc this evening,more of that in a moment.

Opted for an 10 miler,had scheduled some hill repeats and an easy 6 miler but opted to defer that till tomorrow,I recall doing back to back repeats on Memorial Day weekend on the Saturday and Monday and feeling flat on Monday so having just come off of Sunday's 12x400m repeats I felt another days rest b4 tackling 12x the hill opposite Catherine Street was the way to go,plus I have the luxury of doing them on a day off from work and taking care of them in the early afternoon.

As for the 10 miler I ran it at a decent clip,if yesterday was about working the gunk out of my legs from Saturday's 16 miler and Sunday's track repeats today was about getting out there and and pushing the pace a little as I begin to focus on my next race a 3,000m at The Armory next Thursday,I'll talk more that closer to the time.

As for The Church they were awesome,it's criminal that so few people know who they are and yet this "Future Past Perfect"tour is to celebrate 30 years together, maybe as a bigger name this show wouldn't have made the intimate setting of The Trocadero which worked well for the show they performed.

I've seen bands do whole albums{cds as you young folk call them now a days}but never seen a band perform three whole albums.

Kicking off w/ their most recent offering"Untitled 23" this was the one album I wasn't sure about,I've heard it less than their 90s offering "Priest=Aura" and the album that introduced not only me but most people outside of their native Australia to them 88s "Starfish" but frankly that album never sounded as good as it did tonite and I'm sure when I hear it again on my ipod it'll sound different.

"Priest=Aura" sounded great,it was the albums longest tracks "Aura''"The Disillusionist"and "Chaos" that stood out the most for me and then came"Starfish"

This is a great album,it should be in most peoples music collection,often described as a lush psychedelic sound the album just washes over you and to see it performed live was just a treat,I strongly recommend anyone to check out "Starfish" and The Church the next time they tour.....the mass has ended go in peace!

It's A Thin Line Between Love And Hate

After a crud day at work I was happy to get out and run 9 miles this afternoon,the less said about work today the better
As for Valentine's Day cupid and I are not only not on the same page.....I think we're in separate books in different bookstores,I'm a big fan of love and romance.....it doesn't seem to feel the same for me,such is life.....however from great tragedy come great art....or at least the material for my two Valentine's Day mix tapes.
Love Songs
The Mission-Swoon
Pat Benatar-Here's My Heart
The Darkness-I Believe In A Thing Called Love
Sinead O Connor-Thief Of My Heart
The Cure-Love Song
Leona Lewis-Bleeding Love
Inxs-Never Tear Us Apart
Celine Dion-Because You Loved Me
Van Halen-When It's Love
Lone Justice-I Found Love
Sting-Shape Of My Heart
Heart-What About Love
U2-Two Hearts Beat As One
Vixen-Love Is A Killer
Thompson Twins-Hold Me Now
The Pretenders-I'll Stand By You
Simple Minds-I Wish You Were Here
Sade-Please Send Me Someone To Love
Communards-You Are My World
Evanescence-My Immortal

The Other Side Of Love
Glasvegas-Fuck You It's Over
Phil Collins-Don't Care Anymore
Blur-No Distance Left To Run
Sheryl Crow-My Favourite Mistake
Level 42-Leaving Me Now
Stiff Little Fingers-Just Fade Away
Keith Richards-You Just Don't Move Me Anymore
Bonnie Raitt-I Can't Make You Love Me
Steve Earle-Goodbye's All We've Got Left
Joy Division-Love Will Tear Us Apart
Damien Rice-Rootless Tree
Annie Lennox-Everytime We Say Goodbye
The Cure-Apart
Buzzcocks-Ever Fallen In Love W/Someone You Should't Have Fallen In Love W/
Whitesnake-Ain't No Love In The Heart Of The City
Iron Maiden-Wasting Love
Alison Moyet-All Cried Out
Talk Talk-Hate
Velvet Revolver-I Fall To Pieces

Happy Valentine's Day,and as a bonus track to Cupid
Simple Minds-Don't You Forget About Me.

The Warriors Code

On the day I finally saw"The Fighter" the Micky Ward story I dug deep myself to eek out not so much a 12 round decision but 12 400m repeats.
I've baulked at making the trek out to Lower Merion for the past few weeks due to the weather fearing it to be a wasted trip due to the snow but after the 800m at The Armory the other nite I knew I had to get my sorry butt on an outdoor track and soon to correct that error and since "The Fighter" was playing just a few miles up the main line on Lancaster Avenue I figured why not do both?

On my approach to Lower Merion's track I feared that the snow that had kept me at bay for weeks was going to scupper me....however upon closer inspection lane one of the track was clear,and unless any other ejit was fool enough to be out on a Sunday lunchtime to do repeats I was going to be in the clear.
Mile warm up taken care of it was have at it time,I'd have preferred to have been able to strip off a layer of clothing as my 400s begun but the harsh wind that blew across the track meant I'd be keeping my jacket and warm up bottoms on,sure I'd lose a second per repeat but at least I wouldn't catch a chill doing so.
400m #1 74.58.Not exactly how I wanted to kick off proceedings but I knew why #1 felt so comfortable....
400m #2 76.07.Christ so much for improving,I've heard of ring rust after 7 weeks but strewth!
400m #3 75.63.Marginally better but still well short of where I wanted to be,prior to my 7 week winter enforced repeat hiatus I was hitting 68s
400m #4 77.40.At this point I was seriously considering throwing the towel in,clearly this was not going to plan,quit and be pissed off?carry on and fight back,did Micky Ward throw in the towel?...did he fuck!!
400m #5 72.98.That's a little more like it,a combination of coming out swinging,learning to handle the wind along the back straight and slowly getting back in to the habit of working on knee lift.
400m #6 74.16.Did I speak too soon?
400m #7 72.82.Repeat after me,knee lift,knee lift,knee lift.
400m #8 72.92.Isn't that why they're called repeats???
400m #9 73.64.It's going to take a while for the fundamentals,knee lift,leg turnover,arms pumping to become second nature but this is a start.
400m #10 74.50.Uh oh I now had 3 72s and 3 74s and remarkably they'd all come in the last 6 repeats after a less than stellar beginning.
400m #11 72.67.Credit where credit's due this was new territory now in mid December I was only running 10x400m.
400m #12 70.90.Now that's the way to wrap up a repeat workout w/ the fastest repeat of the session.

Clearly there's a boat load of work to be done still but this is a step in the right direction and providing the weather gods take pity on me I should be hitting Lower Merion's track each weekend for the foreseeable future,and as long as that happens I'm prepared to stick my neck out and say March 18th's 800m at The Armory will be an improvement on Thursday's 2.06.
.....Oh Yeah "The Fighter" was really good too!

Six Of One,Half A Dozen Of Another

Well,the plan was get up at a reasonable hour this morning and head out to the main line to find a track I could use for my repeats,it's all well and good harping on about a lack of speed if I'm not going to do something about it.....however!
Since I was balls arsed tired when I got home from New York on Thursday nite it was last nite b4 I wrote Thursdays blog entry w/ yesterdays to follow hard on it's heels......cue my pc acting up,just as I got to the end of Thursdays entry but before I could hit publish post I lost my AOL connection and w/ it the whole blog entry......cue a few choice anti social black hearted born again celtic pagan phrases aimed at the pc!!!
The upshot of this was I now had 2 entries to write and w/ a workout on tap this morning make that 3,that's a lot to do in one sitting so I opted to still get up early and knock out Thursday and Friday's entries and then hit the Art Museum Loop for my 16 miler today in order to hit the main line tomorrow morning for my 12x400m repeats.

Time will tell if it's wise to run a 16 miler and then repeats but frankly there wasn't much choice,hopefully I can kill 2 birds w/ 1 stone by heading out to the main line tomorrow and catch"The Fighter" as it's playing in Wayne,I'd wanted to see it when it first came out but never found the time but w/ the Oscars coming up in 2 weeks time I thought it'd be neat to catch it b4 then,there was a plan to see it this evening but it seems daft to head all the way out there tonite only to head back that way tomorrow morning for my repeats so tomorrow it is for the main line for my repeats and a movie.

16 miler was easy enough it was 10.20am when I hit the road,conditions were grey but mild out there but a lot more runner friendly than my last 16 miler 2 weeks ago.
So officially I'm done for the evening, a little dinner,some tv and my feet up b4 returning to the realm of repeats for the first time in 7 weeks.....this ought to be interesting to say the least!

Good News From Across The Pond

The much touted tug of war between West Ham and Spurs for who'd get the Olympic stadium after next summers 2012 Olympic Games was resolved yesterday w/ West Ham getting the nod.
As an ardent Spurs fan obviously this was a little close to home so to speak given Spurs didn't want to keep the track plus moving to East London from their native North London home seemed a bit of a stretch.
While I have no love for West Ham they at least were willing to keep the running track in the stadium which as a fan of track and field was a key issue.

London's only major track is at Crystal Palace,it was probably built in the late 60s early 70s and isn't even the main track facility in the country anymore,in 2005 London was slated to host the IAAF World C'ships however as the "track,no track" debate for the rebuilt Wembley stadium dragged on and the issue of building a new track at Pickets Lock fell by the way side and not only did London lose the chance to host{Helsinki was awarded the honour meaning they'd twice had the honour}but London was still w/out a major track facility.....cue the 2006 decision to award London the 2012 Olympics and the building of a new track stadium.
While there's only an outside chance of London hosting the 2015 WMA{World Masters Athletics}C'ships the prospect of the stadium being refurbished w/out a track put a serious dent in that but also London can now have a major world class track meet on the IAAF Grand Prix circuit.
As for my beloved Spurs,I hope we can find a new stadium in our native North London,moving to East London is a bit like saying the New York Giants and New York Jets are New York teams when they actually play in New Jersey,it's a bit of a piss take to call yourself the pride of North London when you ply your trade 5 miles up the road in East London.

While I doubt we've heard the last of this matter for now the track remains in the Olympic stadium and the proposed move from Upton Park to the new stadium is slated for 2014...it remains to be seen if "The Irons" are still in the Premier League given their current lowly position of 19th of 20 teams{the bottom three each year drop down to the Championship}
Since this is a running blog after all I ran 10 miles at lunch time to not only rid myself of the memories of my 800m on Thursday nite but also tack on another 10 miles to my 23 for the week and also begin to map out where and when my much needed repeats will fall in to my schedule.

Told You So!

Well I did say that jumping in to an 800m race w/out speed work was potentially dangerous on Wednesday!
As is my won't I opted for the seeded heat between 1.45-2.00,it's fair to say that even a 2.00 is wishful thinking for me right now but if I was going to find out where I was why not do it in a fast heat?
I lined up 8th of 10 on the starting line and got a good reaction to the gun,however I was left at the back of the field almost immediately which just underlines my lack of leg turnover,not only have I not been on a track for repeats since Dec 24th but my last repeats prior to the 4 repeats I managed in mid December came in mid September.
29 seconds at 200m and 31 seconds for the second 200,60 seconds at 400m,if I thought I was in over my head b4 the gun went off I knew it for a fact now!
I did manage to overhaul the 9th place runner just after 400m but the rest of the field were clear of me,now it was just a matter of digging in and seeing it through to the finish.
1.32 at 600m a 32 second 200m b4 closing in 2.06.0 off a 34 second final 200m.

Not exactly what I had hoped for time wise,conventional wisdom dictated that 2.04 would've been a legit target time but even falling short of that by 2 seconds would've been a disappointment.
This time last year I found myself w/ plenty of speed work and next to no mileage under the hood,now it's a reversal of that,plenty of miles but next to no speed but just like last year when I corrected that and went on to have a great season I'm confident I can do the same again this year.

While we still have 5 more weeks of winter things are getting warmer,there's been no snow for 2 weeks and none forecast for the upcoming week which means getting to a track on Saturdays and doing hill repeats on Tuesdays until the track at Temple is user friendly again.
If last January's 4.51 mile was the bitch slap that was heard around the world then Thursday was a flash knockdown that left me on my butt in the middle of the ring,I was humbled and now it's time to do what needs to be done to turn that 2.06 in to a 2.01 or lower b4 July.
There's 5 weeks till my next 800m and another 3 b4 my outdoor season opener,I need to make sure I'm doing repeats at least once a week between now and then to get that leg speed up to par.

Shifting Gears

I've had this shot of David Rudisha since he broke and re broke the 800m world record last summer but never had the time to use it....till now!
Tomorrow nite I run not only my first indoor 800m of the season but my first 800m since Nationals last summer in Sacramento{technically I ran an 800m at the Track Pentathlon a few weeks later but it was the 2nd race of a 5 race event so Nationals was my last meaningful 800m}
W/ no speed work under my belt since Dec 24th perhaps the 800m isn't the right race now but at some point in time I have to go for an 800m so why not tomorrow,another mile seems pointless having ran one Saturday, a 1,500m would've worked and to be honest the 2 miles probably is more "up my alley" off of all my distance work of late,but fortune favours the brave so they say so let's have at it over 4 laps and see where I'm at right now b4 the serious 800s begin in April......it'll hurt that's for sure but it's just over 2 mins....I think I can deal...tune in tomorrow to see if I'm still singing from the same hymn sheet!!