Thursday 28 January 2016

metamorphosis


This is the metamorphosis of my feet during a regular day of intense training. Footwear is the key for everything. So I start my day with monster feet then progress to running feet and finish my day with spiderman feet. Basically the size of my feet shrinks. The spiderman shoes are one size bigger than those terrible foot binding things from China. The photo is a CLOSE UP one. It's wonderful how putting on a pair of shoes can enable you to transform into a whole new character. I love shoes that have a purpose, shoes that give me superpowers. Those are the very shoes that ran the London marathon. I could have not done it with just any shitty pair of shoes. The tiny spiderman ones allow me to climb walls in a way that no normal shoes would. And the monster ones…well they make me a monster!

Today I ran 13km. I took my phone with me in case I wanted to check the map because I wanted to conquer unknown areas. I still feel new to Hackney because we live right in the border of the council next to the areas I know very well. I really need to wander deeper into Hackney more often. Running is ideal for discovering new lands! But my phone has camera as well. So I had to stop for selfies every now and then. Here's me in the marshes wondering how to cross over the water area. The clue is in the name: MARSHES. It was wet. A week ago it was fine in there due to frosty conditions but now it was all simply water! My feet got totally soaked.


And this is me well…I don't know, taking a pretty selfie.


Thursday 21 January 2016

Not so High Tech after all


When training for the marathon I bought a GPS running watch. I felt like I had taken my sports to a brand new shiny level. I had become a high tech runner! After the marathon the watch got abandoned. I felt liberated running without meticulously tracking my every move. I preferred the old fashioned freedom of just running. Today I dug out my high tech device again, charged it and relearned how to use it. Then I ran under the watchful eye of the satellites and felt very pro. So now I know PRECISELY how far and how fast I go. The results are beautifully showcased in this colour coordinated picture. (yes the watch matches the flowers I got from Rob yesterday…but then again yellow is my favourite colour and I can easily match lots of yellow things together)

BUT apparently I am not so high tech after all. A friend asked me to become his friend on this running app or website called Strava. You need to have a GPS device compatible with the app to take part. Basically you should be able to upload your runs directly from this device to the app and then you can track your training and compare results with friends and all sorts of things. My not so high tech anymore GPS watch uploads info to other devices using the old fashioned route called eyes then brain then maybe pen and paper. Well, I am a hippie sort of runner anyways so this didn't bother me too much, however the ability to map your runs made me jealous. Since I can't get the map out of my GPS watch I had to use old fashioned mapping skills. I found a website called mapmyrun where I can recreate my runs on the map. This obviously involves a bit of guess work around the park areas where there are no marked roads or paths. But I love maps and am pretty good with orienteering so here it is, todays 10 km created with my very own GPS brain!

So today I ran 10km. It was cold for this country which is good, very good indeed. Cold enough for all the damn mud to be sort of frosty. From tomorrow on the weather goes warmer again and this country returns to it's normal state of mega mud. Then again I should be happy with the muddy conditions. I am training for the Tough MUDDER after all!

Wednesday 20 January 2016

Superhero Ninja Warrior RAMBO edition


 It's time to say goodbye to the old superhero challenge and say hello to a brand new and even crazier one!

 Well to be fair the last challenge, the London Marathon 2013, happened pretty much already THREE years ago. It was the biggest and stupidest challenge of my life so far and since then I obviously haven't stopped being a superhero but uhm …there just haven't been such mega projects. I did climb up some mountains but I  wasn't too worried about the mountains. I am a superhero ninja warrior after all. Also I sort of believed that I am done with stupid athletic challenges such as marathons. One marathon in a lifetime surely is more than good enough? Turns out the answer is NO. My subconscious clearly wants me to run more marathons. It has taken me a good few years to come back to this business but I am here again. So I want to run the damn marathon again. This time I want to run in my original home town Helsinki. It feels right. Helsinki marathon is in August and annoyingly I already have commitments for this August. No worries, I will train well and run next year, I sensibly thought. The very next moment I found myself signing up for something totally different and totally much more bonkers: The Tough Mudder! Once my head wants a challenge it needs it faster than next year August! So this May I will be a Rambo fucking version of myself. I know I can do long distance running and Tough Mudder is "only" 16 kilometres BUT holy fuck all the other challenges on the way seem like a mission impossible! How do you train for electric shocks, rotating obstacles, slippery slopes, mud pools….? I am very very scared and do not have a clue how to get myself ready for this, but am also rather excited. This time the mission is not a solo mission either but I am part of a super team. It's all Jim's fault….