Enough snow already!

Some of use are getting a little fed up with the snow...!

Paras 10

Well, I completed my first "race" in two years...10 miles carrying 35Ib. Was quite pleased with my 2 hours 15 minutes. This was later than the target 1 hour 50, but for some unknown reason my shins cramped up in the first mile, and it took a couple of miles to get going again. Excellent event, well organised by the Paras. Good friendly atmosphere, challenging course, with some very steep hills. It can be run as a cross county sans bergan, but I think thats kind of missing the point.

I did think it was awfully decent of the Paras to drag the dead sheep out of the water hazard before the event!

Definitely on the calendar for next year.

First Training session for the Para 10

Decided to enter the Para 10 some months ago - it for charity after all. Here is the website if you want to know more. http://www.paras10.com/

Anyway Brian, another runner from the village saw it on my facebook and entered it too. This morning we went out for our first training session. After and hour and three quarters we had covered six and a quarter miles or undulating ground with 35 pound packs. While we need to speed up from 15 minute miles to 11 minute miles and cover an extra 4 miles, all in all, I thought it was not to bad a start.

Lyon

Went to Lyon on business, because of the flights I had to go Sunday. As "microholidays tagged on to business trips" go this was one of the better ones. I was in the centre of Lyon by 16:00 local so had a good few hours wandering about, first along the river then up the slopes to the Basillica. This is the view down the steps to the old town.

The Bionic Cat

Don't know how Felix did it, but some how he managed to snap all four ligaments in his left stifle.

Two surgeries later he is now home with an external fixator. He won't get full range of movement in his leg gain, but he should get some use from it. Hoping the his course to recovery goes smoothly. Originally his knee was fixed with an internal pin but this broke through the bone and had to be removed - hence the need for the second trip to theatre.

Felix is pretty fed up with the whole situation. He is restricted to a large dog crate except for 10 minutes twice a day, and thats the plan for the next 6 weeks (he's already 10 days post op). Thank goodness for pet insurance.

Progress Report - 100 Push up challenge

Good news and bad from the press up challenge.

http://hundredpushups.com/

I have completed 2 weeks and at my first progress test I found the maximum number of reps had gone up from 16 to 25, not bad in 2 weeks. Now we come to the problems. That keeps me in the highest rank of routines, but I am finding it harder and harder to complete the sets with each sessions. On week 1 day 1, I could finish all the sets and achieve the minimum standard for the final effort. No I am failing to complete the 3 set.

I don't know if I should repeat a week, drop a rank or persevere. I think I'll drop a rank for the next session and see how that goes. If I don't achieve the full work out, I'll repeat the week at that level or if I do really bad, I'll repeat week 2.

Its a good challenge and pretty well organised. The only thing is I am not sure when I should fit the progress tests in.

The Man who wrote the Leaphorn/Jim Chee novels

I've been reading Fallen Man and re reading Coyote Waits and I am now reading Skeleton Man. I looked on Wiki to see what sort of order I was reading them in. I was all over the place as usual, but then I started with the Dark Wind. I got into Dark Wind because of the film version that came out roughly the same time as Dances With Wolves - I was going through a period of being fasinated with Native American culture at the time. I guess I still am.

Any I looked at wiki and found that the author of these books had passed on last year. Don't think its a wiki falsehood because its pretty well referenced. So when I have read the last couple of books that will be it, the end of twenty years of enjoyable exploration of Navajo, Hopi and Zuni culture through the medium of crime fiction with a bit of tracking stuff thrown in for good measure. One Navajo custom metioned is not naming the dead.

Well this is not entirely the end, because hopefully one day, I'll be able to visit the Navojo Nation see the beautifully described landscape and explore that desert wilderness myself.