Tag: running

  • The Ultra Ethos

    Why do ultras? The ultra-ethos: Get yourself strong, start something you might not be able to do. When the going gets tough, go on; when it gets tougher dig deeper;  go on until you finish it. Not because you have to, were told or paid to, not because there is a crisis or a medal…

  • Logic of Running

    The logic of running: Running strength grows only if enough recovery and adaptation is allowed between runs. I know I should rest tomorrow. I know too I won’t. Gotta feel I’m working and not indulging as I might easily do.

  • Comrades 2012 training: Gotta get serious now

    Well not too serious. More like focusing a little more Last year (2010) this time: recovering from a seriously twisted ankle. Gingerly running maybe 7 km a day, 3 and if I could, 4 times a week. I had my focus and inspiration: in deference to getting older, I wanted just one more medal; one…

  • Ultras and rationality

    Running has a logic that is simple rational and gets you where you want to go. It is possible to apply a rational logic to what can appear to be an irrational activity. The logic of running doesn’t require irrationality because the activity of ultra-running can appear irrational. In any event all it takes to…

  • Running ages-10

    The 10 year-old in me enjoys my running antics. His cheers are loud. He finds my name in the results; not worrying I don’t make the headlines. He loves the peeling naartjie smell, how his mouth sucks at its taste-burst after a run. The taste is as fresh as that of the ones he used…

  • Boys in the rain

    On the past weekend’s little trail runs I remembered (a long ago running partner) Rick Shaeffer’s comment: When I was little. my mom shouted “Come out of the rain, stop jumping in puddles, you’ll get wet and dirty.” Now I run in the rain, jump in the puddles and take photos of mud-splats all over…

  • For the last gasp

    Back in the city-grime on its hard roads. Long weekend treat in a nature reserve: what of those riverside trails in the earliest light, mist on the water; hands-in-sleeves cold, grass wet, leaves drip, grin stretched up to the snow-topped mountains? Well they’re etched deep enough to last past my last gasp.

  • 2011 digestion: Motivation,faith, trepidation

    A good reason to run, strong motivation, is a great help in getting through the training and then through the run on the day. My motivation this year came from the doom that hangs over my running. That I’m getting older is a part of it. The set-backs that made it a struggle to build…

  • Co-incidence

    Moon high, Venus bright in a clear sky, city still; mountain quiet under its cloud; silence of a crisp morning before the first bird. Three joys of winter. Focus: car backs from garage at me padding the middle road, bright headlights rush at us. Three beings at the same place and time. Eyes brighten, breathing…

  • Comrades 2011 digestion

    Part of perfect ultra-running is being able to run with, let’s say, ultra-efficiency for hours on end. The best I got to was maybe 6 hours on tar with hills; maybe 10 hours on a paved, flat 100-miler; and, around 14 hours on mountain trails as long as I didn’t twist an ankle or two.…