Runningmonkeys

Last weekend was the next in the season’s enduro races at the Tsukuba circuit.  Our team entered two teams of 4 riders.  We had a very successful race in terms of staying on our bikes and staying upright.  The track was quite wet and so I guess all of the riders were a little more […]

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Here is a quick illustration that I found by chance.
Stand with your back to a wall (a strong, not easily damaged wall or at least someone Else’s wall).  Lift one foot off the ground and place it on the wall a bit below knee height.
Now take your foot off the wall and sharply send it back […]

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This week I have launched a brand new website.  For me, it is sort of like giving birth to a new baby.  I’ve been planning about it for about 9 months and last weekend the birth finally happened.  Enough of the analogies!
I’d like to introduce you to my brand new site called LifeGoalAction.com
It is a site […]

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A journey of 8 months starts with the first few weeks (and all that cliched wisdom).  I finished the first three weeks of my conservative, gradual, perfect base training phase last week.  This was three weeks of running 8kilometres 6 times a week at about 5:04 per kilometre.  Nice easy base distance.
This next three weeks […]

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This coming weekend is the second enduro race this season at the Tsukuba race circuit.   This time it will be a 6 hr event, and I think we have just one team of four entered, instead of two.  For six hours, our team will have one rider on the track at any one time each […]

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Running can be a reasonably painful experience for some.  They suffer from all sorts of blisters and chafing, muscle soreness and joint aches.  These are minor issues that typically go away quite quickly.
Realistically, the main pain of running comes from injuries.  These can range from the low intensity, short duration injuries like a pulled muscle […]

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The words relax and run are very seldom seen together in the same sentence.  Most people on this planet seem to think that it is impossible to relax and run at the same time.
Most runners have realised that they can use running as a trigger for mental relaxation.  For many of us, the simple ritual […]

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I have been running with the Pose Method, more or less successfully, for quite a few weeks now, and so I have taken the opportunity to re-read some sections of the book to pick up where I am going wrong.
The main points that jumped out at me were these:

I was hitting the ground with the […]

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Umeboshi is the Japanese Pickled Plum.  They are eaten by the Japanese in many different situations.  A lot of Japanese people eat a couple with their breakfast every day.  Many Japanese Obento (lunch boxes) have a small Umeboshi on top of the rice.  They are used as fillings in rice balls and other recipes and […]

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Today we are sitting at the front of a typhoon.  It has been coming up from Okinawa and is just starting to show up here. 
First thing this morning I went running in the rain and I didn’t see any other runners.  All I saw were people huddled beneath umbrellas or giving me strange looks through the […]

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