About Bo

Dog lover. Runner. Although very slowly. Keeping up with the stresses of running and life...

Time for a clean up

Posted on April 2, 2012 by Bo

I’ve heard it so many times before: If you are trying to lose weight, make sure you don’t stock anything that can potentially tempt you. To be honest, if I’m going to be serious about sticking to a proper, healthy eating plan, I got to do what’s right.

So I finally cleaned out my sweet cupboard. By cleaned out, I don’t mean I sat down and ate everything. I literally threw stuff away and took the rest of the sweets to work (only to make my colleagues grow chubby!).

I have been meaning to do it for ages but never got around to doing it and every weekend, I’d just buy more and more goodies, adding to the heap.

My weakness is chips. I love chips! Any flavour but especially the chutney flavoured ones.

Funny enough, I am able to resist chocolates. In fact, some years have gone by when we’ve had to throw Easter eggs away because they’ve gone old.

Sorting through the cupboard, I was horrified that so many of the sweets had passed their expiry date. So much of it had to be thrown away as it was inedible. Some of the goodies I had no memory of even buying. Worst of all was that some of it were gifts from people that had gone to waste.

What’s left in my cupboard are packets of nuts, dried fruit (and maybe one bag of speckled eggs and a pack of caramello bears). But no more chocolates. No more buckets of sour gums. No more chips.

And it feels good…

Why do we allow things in our lives to gather dust? Why do we put off clearing out and getting rid of things in our lives that are only causing us to slip up or not accomplish our goals? How come we don’t see how unnecessary things take up so much space in our lives?

Chatting to a Champ about my feet

Posted on March 28, 2012 by Bo

At the Jackie Gibson race on Sunday, I was strolling around the field, waiting for KK to finish his race when I happened to bump into top marathon runner and Comrades champ, Lesley Train. (LOL, I say it so casually, as if I know her!)

Lesley happened to be talking to KK’s bestie’s mom-in-law and as I walked up to the two of them, I was introduced to Lesley. I must admit, for the initial 10 seconds, I was a tad star-struck! I have watched Lesley on TV, I’ve heard the running commentators singing her praises, and here in front of me, stood this teeny tiny, bubbly woman.

Lesley was not running Jackie Gibson on Sunday due to a stress fracture and was expressing concern about the upcoming Two Oceans. I mentioned that I had pulled out of the half marathon race due to plantar fasciitis and it’s then that she told me about her experience with the crippling pain of PF that she too had suffered with in 2011.

She said it took her 6 months to get rid of her PF. In fact, she had to stop running altogether for 3 months because of it. I have been struggling with it for just as long so it was comforting to know that treatment and recovery wasn’t a quick fix.

She went on to give me her top tips which helped her get rid of PF:

Magnesium (and lots of it). She recommended a liquid form over the tablets.
Foot splint. She borrowed one from a friend and although it was uncomfortable to sleep with at night, it did help stretch her calf muscle.
Sitting in front of TV, Lesley would slip those toe dividers you use when painting your toenails to help stretch the foot open while she watched TV (such a girl!).

The obvious one to all of this is rest. I’ve been doing that!

But I’m definitely going to give these tips a go!

Life is like a game of Scrabble

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Bo

If you appreciate a good game of Scrabble, then you’ll understand this post…

There’s a rule in Scrabble which says that when you are unable to use your letters to form a word, you can throw them all back, skip a turn, but then get to choose 7 new letters and start from scratch. You also have the option to skip a turn when you are unable to make a move.

I sometimes wish life could be this simple and have these options.

I often get so bogged down with the stresses of life that some days I feel totally overwhelmed. I am too stressed out, too tired to focus and it feels as if there’s just too much to do.

Days such as these, I wish I could throw all my problems and issues back, skip a turn and take my chances with a whole new set of challenges tomorrow.

The irony is that these complicated letters usually hold the biggest values. The Z is worth 10 points for example.

Life works pretty much the same way. If we are able to overcome the big problems, survive the painful days and get through the stresses, there is much value in store.

But sometimes, it’s so much easier to want to throw in the towel, give up, skip a turn and take the easy way out…

What exactly do you mean by personal best?

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Bo

Non-runners who read my blog often ask me what a PB is. I tell them that it’s a Personal Best – when you run your fastest time over a specified distance to gauge improvements. They look at me oddly as if, well, what does that mean?

Funny thing is that when I listen to my running buddies, it appears to me that most of them are on a sole (excuse the pun) mission to increase their running speed and get a PB. (Hey, wait a minute? So it’s not just me?)

Achieving a PB is the ultimate benchmark for most runners. It’s as if this is the signal that they are getting better as runners. But I do wonder sometimes if speed is the ultimate goal?

Is your best always measured in terms of time?

Here’s where I’m going with this …

I’ve been busy at work refreshing my Key Performance Areas (KPAs) for 2012. A new process has been implemented and apart from the normal ‘doing your job KRAs’, there’s a new section called “Stretch goals”. This is meant to be areas where I manage to perform additional tasks above and beyond the normal KRA’s. But the measurement required to see whether or not I have achieved this is the difficult part.

You see, it’s not like running where I am able to record PB’s which indicate ‘best’. I need something more concrete because I can’t just use a PB (time) to indicate greatness for everything I do. The measure has to be tangible and measureable and different for each task.

But yet, in running, it’s okay to just use time. It’s okay that getting faster and faster is the ultimate measure of improvement.

I think this is sometimes where running fails. Because runners have become obsessed with PB’s that even all their “Stretch” goals are based on time/pace/speed. Are runners also training for goals of fitness levels, endurance or overall post-race recovery…or anything else?

I do realise that all these contribute to better times and faster running. But is there an alternative measure than the PB? *just a thought*…