One step at a time! - ok 1096 then!
For those of you uninitiated, Jacob’s ladder in Perth is near King’s Park (Bellevue Tce). Its around 270 steps and it attracts a multitude of zombies. Zombies is the appropriate word because we all get ‘in the zone’ at Jacob’s ladder. Today, it was 1hr 50mins of climbing at two steps at a time. I had a few times running up but I pace myself on the longer efforts. Dee and I usually set ourselves on climbing up 20 times. She descends quicker than me then I catch her on the way up. It’s quite inspiring to see the ‘regulars’ , in particular, people who are obviously getting fitter and shedding kilos rapidly.
It’s also a great place as the Mount St hill is a few hundred metres away and lots of training groups use this to run up, carry weights up. Its a little sweaty, energy-packed microcosm of fitness. Let’s hope it’s always there as a fitness option for us ‘zombies’.
The Central Park Tower stairclimb is on in 2 weeks and roughly the equivalent of 4 times up Jacob’s ladder. Dee and I are setting ourselves to do this. Challenges in coming weeks include the Perth Half-Marathon (I managed this is 2hr 37mins last year only to have a young girl who used to race against my daughter pip me in the last 50metres. Still, its a flat run and quite scenic from the WAMC at Burswood up to UWA and back.
Not sure whether Dee will be up for the Perth Marathon in July (it seems to back up from the Perth Half Marathon approx 4 weeks after). If not, we’ll do the Rottnest Island Marathon in October. Dee and I will both do the Bankwest Half Marathon as part of the City to Surf event at the end of August. I can’t quite get Dee into Cyclosportif. I must admit after Chidlow and Lancelin I’ve made it sound pretty harrowing. We still have plans to put an Ironman WA team together for the start of December. Mt Kilimanjaro beckons for Dee and her training buddies in January - let’s hope altitude sickness doesn’t emerge as an issue.
Poor Ernie the Colnago is still waiting on an Italian bottom bracket. I’ve been commuting on Sparkles ’sans’ aerobars but I’ll put them back on tonight. Its just that Cyclosportif discourages their use.
As a complete aside, some mongrels broke into my son’s car at Corpus Christi (and a few other cars) and stole iPods, wallets, PSPs, etc, etc. Just by breaking the window of Matt’s Commodore, its cost him $330. Let’s hope they left lots of fingerprints. Dogs! And Matt just found out he scored an apprenticeship with Austal Ships a couple of hours earlier so it was a real dampener.
Dee’s 44th birthday tomorrow so we’ll go to the Atrium at Burswood. She keeps thinking she’s only 42 and I feel decidedly guilty reminding her that she’s actually a year older.
Finally, Dee and I went running yesterday morning at Deepwater Point in Mt Pleasant (Mt Henry to Canning Bridge circuit, around 7.5kms). Dee did this in 36mins which, at sub 5min/km , is the first time in a while so this gave her plenty of heart. Gets her new orthotics soon.
And we had another red letter day yesterday, my wife, daughter, son and I - watching our beloved Carlton Blues get over Fremantle. We had to withstand the usual barrage of disgruntled Freo supporters telling us how much they believed they were robbed - but, at the end of the day, they lost, after being 10 points up in the final quarter. And fantastic for Hull City overcoming Bristol City to join the Premier League big boys - worth $124 million in sponsorship/revenue.
Stay fit, healthy and happy. Ok, if you’re a Dockers supporter, just stay fit and healthy. By the way, well done to a young man we know (Garrick Ibbotson) who played very well for the Dockers.
CHRISTO