Good and the Bad

Hey there,
so a more running specific post this time round, as I recently came back from the World Half Marathon Champs in Bulgaria.
                                             

If anyone saw the result next to my name, you would justified in thinking that I had performed below my best. I finished in 51st (last time I raced this event in 2010, China I was 44th, which included me getting tripped over at the 5km mark and carting a cut up and battered body round the rest of the course!) and ran 67 and a half minutes.

This time round, I stayed on my feet, but after 11km they seemed to disappear from me and I had major problems thereafter. I went from feeling controlled running with the boys at around 3:00/km pace to feeling like I had gone a few rounds with Tyson in the ring, I was fatigued and tired all over. I started to lose pace and places and just aimed at keeping it as together as possible and getting to the finish line.

Immediately post race, I was frustrated and wondering why such a bad day had to be on such a big day, but I am not sure if the heat/humidity got to me, or I was slightly sick or tired going in?
All I knew was that I was glad it was over and slightly embarrassed to perform poorly while wearing my countries singlet. The rest of the team did great and I wanted to also hold my own and post a pleasing result.

From here, after coming down a bit, I have marked it off as an experience (albeit a bad one) that I can use to fuel the fire for the next one. I know I didn't quite do all I could have in my build up, although a few key sessions gave me confidence that my form was good. Next time I will be ready and hope to get the body firing on the right day!

For now I have holidays from school coming up as well as another Half Marathon in Lausanne at the end of the month. I will be looking for a better showing this time round and hoping to have the good feeling when running at my best.

Keep smiling and check ya later,

Clint

Summer break

Hey there,
It has been a while since my last blog, and I have fallen out of the rhythm... and I would say, mainly due to the Summer.
I blame the Summer, for offering warm days, where being outside, preferably by some water somewhere as the perfect distraction and excuse for not blogging recently. The last one I did was not long before breaking for the Summer holidays in mid June, and since then it has been also a break from routine, normality and major commitments!

During the break I have spent a bit of time close by home, organising some things and doing those little jobs that have been needing time to be done.

After that, we booked  a week in Teneriffe, one of the islands of the Canary Islands. This place is full of contrasts, with busy and secluded beaches to choose from, desert surrounds in the middle (where alot of 'Country Western' movies are shot) and a dormant volcano, with the peak being over 3000m above sea level and recognised as the highest point on Spanish soil (this chain of islands is owned by Spain by the way).
The closest example I can come up with of such a place would be that of Hawaii, with beach, rainforest, bushland and high peaks all rolled into one "super" island!
                                         

We were home for a few days, and then started, what would be a crazy sports month, where I have been able to tick off some of my personal must do's as a sports fan.
First up, we had a boys night in Bern, where we were witness to a  World Heavyweight fight, feauturing the Ukrainian machine, Vladimer Klitchko. He dominated his underprepared rival, sitting him on the canvas after 5 rounds!
                                     
Then the next day, we drove an hour West, to see a stage of the Tour de France pass into Switzerland, which was greatto see the festivities and hype surrounding such a gruelling sports event. we had a good spot, where we got to see the riders take on some hills at a few different points.
                                                   
And to cap it off, next weekend we will be in London to soak up some Olympics atmosphere.  I wasn't able to be at the Sydney Games, but with Basel to London direct flights and only 1.5 hours away, it is a chance not to be missed!
It is amazing to have the oppurtunity to get to these events, being in the middle of Europe, making it that much easier. We are really looking forward to flying the Aussie flag (and maybe a Swiss one too!) when we are at the Olympics, where we will meet up with my Mum and Dad who have arranged to be there at the same time too, all the way from Australia!
                                      


On the running side of things, Renate and I have just returned from a stint of altitude training in beautiful St.
Moritz, where the fitness was worked on, amongst the hills and trails of this most picturesque location. There were plenty of other runners up there to train with, and the weather was usually pretty good for the training.
While up there, I recieved an email to confirm my selection into the World Half Marathon Championships to be held early October in Bulgaria. I was hoping that my performances on the road over in Europe had been enough for selection, and that they hadn't gone unnoticed, and was pleased to hear the positive news... giving me a great goal to aim towards for the next few months. I am very much looking forward to testing myself against the best Half Marathoners in the World and strapping on the Aussie colours for this big event.

http://www.athletics.com.au/home/news/news/2012/july/five_added_to_australian_world


Finally, with routine beginning to return, we are going through the last preperations for the Wedding Day in August and are hearing more and more from people that are planning their trips over to Switzerland for the special day. It is getting exciting and we can't wait to celebrate with all those that can be make it there!

till next time,
must get back to the plentiful viewinfg options of the London Olympic Games... will it be Rowing, Hockey, Volleyball or Cross Country Equestrian for now???!

Cheers
Clint

Sports Blog

Hey friends,

I am sitting here and I was thinking about what I am about to Blog about. I could tell you a cool story, I could fill you in on what has been happening since the last blog, or I could tell you about a realisation I have had while sitting here.
Well, it is not really a realisation, I have known this for a long time, but when you really think about it, it is like, whoa, Sport hey!!??
 

What I mean is, how much does sport take up my life, across all areas and in all ways.
To keep it a little bit more conscise... the last blog got a bit lengthy with flying distractions amongst it (if you don't know what I am talking about, read my previous blog!) I will break it down into major categories.
Social, Work, Food, Leisure/Free time, Entertainment, seem like good categories, you could even throw in Future and boring things like Daily living, expense, etc.
So lets have a look at this then.

I am sure I am not the only one with this addiction, affiliation and passion for all things sport, but here is my personal take on how it engrosses my daily life.

Work: considering I am a P.E. teacher at a school for students from Kindergarten to Middle School, it is fair to say that almost all of my work time is made up of teaching, demonstrating, playing, officiating and generally being amongst physical movement all school day. When  I am not with a class, I might be uploading photos or videos of the previous class doing different sports, writing reports about students in the class using sport related words, or planning the next lesson or sporting activities coming up at the school. Along with the Sports coaching of Cross Country and Track and Field at the school which I do, and being on playground duty, where most of the kids are running around being active, I would say that my work day is pretty sport filled. The only time it is not, is when I am sitting down to eat something in the Staffroom. Which leads me to my next one.

Food: So I would not say that I am obessed with food, but I do like eating, generally large portions, as fuel for the fire, charging up for more sport. If I am not eating or drinking enough, then I won't have the energy needed to do sport. So basically, this is important right? I guess I could take it up a notch and make eating a sport... well at times it can be, when I am using my competitive instincts to eat fast, so I get a chnace at the last slice, order big at resturants so I can win the 'best meal on the table award' (note: this award does not actially exist) or make some fancy food so I can enjoy the spoils later with a big eat.

Social: Many of my social networks are sports related, be it training partners, friends to go and watch sports with or talk about it with and then actually planning social events that involve some sort of movement. Example, hey guys, do ya wanna meet up and go for a run in the morning? or hey, its nice weather, lets meet at the beach volleyball nets and get a bit of a game going, after we can go eat, you wanna?

Leisure: So as with the above, my free time is inundated with sports activities. For example, last night when I left my sport fuelled workplace, I went to the Physio, to get some treatment for a sports related problem, so I can then go on and continue doing sport. After this I came home, switched on the TV for a few minutes to watch some of the Euro 2012 Soccer match between France and England, while I was getting ready to get out the door for an hour run with Renate. Then we got back, did a circuit and stretching, then ate, and then settled down to watch the next Euro 2012 match, Sweden versus Ukraine. When this was done, it was time to get off to bed. I fell asleep pretty quickly, as I was tired from a big day and happily started dreaming about sports...so much so, that I was jolted awake when I was punched in the guts, in my dream boxing fight versus, Super heavyweight champ, Wladimir Klitschko.
Good story hear, and completly true.... I got puched in my dream fight, it woke me, then I must have jumped a mile as it also woke Renate and I distinctly remember making some sort of sound effect that resembled being punched in the guts by a heavyweight boxer, then Renate turned over and said... 'It's ok, go back to sleep'... maybe she saw the look on my face!? I only remebered this early sleeping incident in the morning and am yet to ask Renate for clarification, but that is how I remember it!







Entertainment: well obviously it would be sports viewing (live, online or tv) or playing that would be my number choice of entertainment. When I have had a break with running, I will always fill this time with other sports that I don't generally get to do when in full time training (last time it was Beach Volleyball, Squash, Tennis and Basketball) as well as looking for Sports events to watch, I even considered going down to the local indoor sports stadium to watch the World Champs in Curling when they hit town a couple of months ago!

Future: I am not talking about any Michael J Fox movie or anything here, more my personal future. When discussing the future, we have talked about where we might like to live in the future, which holiday destinations we would like visit, how we want to spend money... It all has a similar theme, sport.
When we were looking online at places to live here in Switzerland, the first thing we checked was how close it was to a good forest with running trails in it, thereafter we considered how close it was to shops, how big the apartment was, vicinity to public transport, price. etc. This is a major factor in our choice of living and in the future what decisions we make.


All in all, as you may have gathered from the above, sport takes over and is what makes up me personally. If it wasn't for this healthy addiction, I would be unemployed, probably obese, bored and untravelled. Thankfully I found sports at a top level to be involved in (which I have been doing competitively since I was 9 years old) as well as teams to support, across a range of sports, and reasons to see the world. I believe sport gives you a purpose in life, and in your day to day activities. If it wasn't for that, why get out of bed in the morning?  Instead we choose to go to bed earlier, to wake up earlier, so we can go for a Long Run on a Sunday morning, while the rest of the world sleeps in and misses out!


So that's why I do it, comment below or respond as to why you do it, I would be interested to hear from you all.

That is it for now, I am going to go on the Guiness Book of records website and see if there is a section for the most mentions of the word 'sport' in a blog post... if not, then I reckon we just may have a winner!

Catch ya soon, and feedback is appreciated
Cheers
Clint

Trying to get it "back" together!

Hi there,
just checking in with a bit of an update and unfortunately on the running side of things not the best of news...

Hang on I have to pause, I am just trying to kill a fly that has been hassling me while trying to be on the World Wide Web.....damn missed him...but gave it a stern warning not to be hanging round....wait on, the cheeky bugger is back and just taunting me....arrrggh strike two, I Mr Miyagi'd up to him, all stealth like, but this guy is a player and is quick... maybe I don't have enough fast twitch fibres in my hand to activate and get him... if pain in the arse fly doesn't leave me alone I am gonna look like one of those crazy people you see in the street.... all agitated, talking and swearing (presumably at nothing, but most likely at an agile and annoying fly)...ok stop, he is propped on the actual screen of my Laptop, he absolutely wants to get smacked, here we go.....ah ha, boo haa, got that sucker, with the classic thong wack (that's a flip flop for any Nth Americans playing at home, not a G-Banger, I am not that weird!).
Luckily for me, the weather is warm enough that I can cruise around the house in my red thongs, and have them handy for any fly issues... ahhh the peace of no more buzzing, now I can get back to it.

 

Ok, so anyway, before that distraction I was saying..... Yeah so, the running caper is a bit up and down at the moment, I have been able to put together a few decent weeks, but it all got a bit too much this week. I was running with super tightness all over in my body, in the mornings waking up, I felt like an 99 year old, not a 29 year old, so I cracked it and booked in to see a Sports Doctor, here in Basel.

I was sore all over, so I explained this to my Doctor, and he took a look at me, checked me over, and found that my spine was shaped less like a spine, and more like the letter 'S'!! He siad the curvature was the wrong way around, and this was the primary reason for my pains further down the chain in the glutes, legs and especially calves and achilles.
He was confident he could get it all sorted, starting with multiple accupucture needles all down the spine, and across the upper back, to 'unfreeze' the muscles that had gone into spasm to protect the back. Along with this he was finding pressure points, all over the place, where I didn't know there where even pressure points.
After about 45 minutes of treatment, I left there feeling alot more relaxed in my back muscles and more confident that I can build back up without too many more hurdles, here's hoping anyway!

 

I have had a staggered re-build since the marathon, and quite possibly it has been due to these frozen muscles in the back, along with some sickness and business with work, I think it has all come and gone and I can look forward to a bit more of normality and routine (which I am sure I have mentioned in a previous post). This will be helped with finishing up at work for our long school hoilidays next week! Almost 7 weeks to get back at it, and re-charge those batteries!
 

So with holidays around the corner, I look forward to some more time to relax and hopefully have a bit of fun along the way, Renate and I are in full swing of Wedding planning, all of which took a bit of a diversion last week, when our initial Reception location dogged our party for another one with double the numbers and kicked us out of our spot. The guy made up some bogus story that we never confirmed the date with him and that he tried to call us to speak with us. He was such a spinner, that I wanted to head butt him, but I held back, we breathed deeply and went on search for a new location.
To cut a long strory short, we had some stress, we dealt with it, we looked for alternative venues, in which many were already booked as the date is less than three months away, then we got a confirmation from a better and cooler loaction on Tuesday. So suck on that, bloke from the other Reception place, we are all going to have a more fun time at the new location!!!!






We have some music, cars, menu, and some suits to organise over the holidays, but we are chipping away at it and am sure we will all have a good time.

With that said, I better get back to it. One last shout out to my Fiancè, Renate who had her birthday yesterday, good luck to Ev in his new job in Sweden, well done on a new 5km PB Collis, and awesome news that my brother, Brad has commited to making it over for the Wedding Day too. Everyone else (if anyone is reading!) keep it real and good luck, machts gut and viel glück!!

Clint

G'day peeps.
whats going on? Really... cool!

I have been busy with work and getting back into the swing of a routine over here. I have had to travel alot in the past few weeks and as a result, normality and routine have been hard to come by.
Also as a result I have been a bit sick, which is not normally the case when set up and doing everything from home base. So anyway, that is enough whinging, it is not that bad... and I have been racking up a few countries and sights along the way when I can.
Since the marathon in April, I have been in Tunisa, Berlin, Stuttgart, Verbier in the Swiss Alps and just over the last long weekend, The Black forest over the border in Germany. Good places, all with their very own character and sights to see.

We have just three weeks of teaching time left, before our long break for School Hoildays, so we will be lining up a bit of travel and racing as I build back into full fitness. So far we plan to head up to THE best training location in the World (in which I have experienced anyway), St Moritz in the Swiss Alps, for about 3-4 weeks. So off that I should be in some decent form.

Last year we welcomed Aussie runners, Collis and Ben St. to the high times in St Moritz and got some good training done

Before that though there is a bit of wrap up to do, with Reports, etc taking priority until we can sign off for Summer.
Speaking of which, the weather has kicked off well, with last weekend being a solid one. It is not too hot yet, but enough for a dip in the River after a run... the next step is to blow up the rubber boat we bought last Summer and get cruising down the rapids, maybe this time, however, we will invest in some paddles for our little boat!

Getting back into it with future Bro-in-Law, Roger

Looking forward with the past as motivation

Hey readers,

So I have needed a couple of weeks to get my words together after the marathon attempt on the 15th April in Brighton.
For those of your that I may have spoken to already or have heard along the grapevine, I was most definately not happy with my result on the day....but as I have come to accept, that is marathon running!

Sometimes it works, some days the legs feel great, other days for some un explained reason the energy is non exsistent on the day when you need it!
So although I ran 2hr 24min for my last marathon, I know that based on my lead up races and great training preperation, I am better than that.... it is just now I have to wait until October sometime to show what I am capable of.
Until then it is getting back into the running this week, feeling fit again and getting motivated for the next few low key races and onto another good marathon build up.

One thing that I can take away from the race in Brighton, was the fact that I didn't quit, when I wanted to stop at the 20km, half, 30km and 35km marks... I know the feeling won't be as bad as that again, and I am happy that I was able to get to the finish line, when all my goals were disappearing in front of me.

I did end up getting that finishers medal in the end, that will join the other two, which I thought would not be the case mid way through the race, when the chips were down.

In my time off, I have been enjoying living like a normal person. Sleeping in, eating and drinking what I want, a few late nights and entertaining myself and expending energy through other activites and sports for a bit of fun.

Since post race, i have been to Tunisa for a 4 day work conference in a 5 star beach Resort, been to Berlin for a couple of days, Stuttgart for a weekend of track and field with my School Squad and am now up in the Swiss Alps for a week at another school camp. Here at 1500m altitude I plan on getting back into my training routine and finding my rhythm again.

Until then here is a my musical chocie for a week, a nice colab with a few faves and featuring some solid "Banksy" artwork.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRd5GDpWt9c

PS: I will be back into my blogging routine also now that i am going again and will keep you updated (and hopefully entertained) more regulary.

Cheers
Clint

A week of waiting

Hey there,
so you know when it is Christmas time and you are something like 8 years old and you are counting down the days till the big day... you can't sleep properly cause you are looking forward, and you are on edge in your day to day things as you hope for that new bike from the Jolly Fat Man on Christmas Day....? yeah well that's how I am feeling right now.
The only difference it is not a bike I want, I have one already which suits me fine, and I am not hoping for a big, fat fella to deliver, but gotta go out and do the delivering myself over 42.2km.
Everything the else....the same.

The taper weeks before a marathon requires you to be smart not to run too much, smart not to get sick, smart to eat the right (and enough) foods and smart to make sure you don't let heavy legs or a generally different feeling get to ya before race day. I am only a few days off now, and I have got through most of that.

I fly out on Friday afternoon for London, where I will get picked up and drive down to Brighton, to settle in and prepare for the Big Dance!!! Until then I am just relaxing and keeping myself busy.

I was in Tuscany over the past few days, with Renate and her family, and we stayed in a beautiful Villa overlooking the Tuscan hills, the place was peaceful and picturesque and nice to be away for a few days.
Photos don't really do the place justice.

Unfortunately we didn't get the best of weather, but we were still immersed in the land of Carbos... so good for me.... Pasta, Bakeries and Pizza!!!

I had the final real run today with Aussie visitor, Nate Hartigan, who arrived in Basel last week and has been staying with us for the past week. He is in his final preps for his marathon in Hamburg at the end of the month.
It has been good to shoot the breeze and basically talk dribble with him on runs and in between as I am still on school holidays at the moment and have time to relax a bit before starting back up again on Monday.
Today we scooted over the borders and crossed into Germany and France and then back to Switzerland, all by foot, which Nathan was loving. We enjoyed getting out a bit, but not too much wandering about in the cold weather for me, so back home to put the feet up and relax. He is off to his favorite city in the world, Paris, tomorrow morning, when I head north to the U.K.


So hope you are up to date, good luck to those racing over this weekend back in Oz and in the marathons that are taking place too, Paris, Rotterdam and of course Brighton marathons coming at ya, with some great results we all hope!

Till later here is the latest musical offering.

Pegz and the Obese boys rolling through the streets of Melbourne.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrVMISZ0ePU