30

At 1996 when I finished my school I stopped all physical activities. I started to work in the office. After work I used to spend long hours at the PC at home. This winter a couple of nasty sickness attacked me. One after another.

I picked running as a way to deal with them. I was trying to run couple of times earlier. Had a different private plans but none of them worked (like the one to run each day to work). This time I decided to change the approach. I start to read. Books, magazines, forums... anything that brings informations. I bought a pulsometer. And a shoes. And installed runkeeper on my android phone. And asked hundreds of questions to a friend that is running for years and gets closer to the 3h time in marathon.

Armed with all of those, I started to run. I have never understand people posting info on forums that they can run for 400 meters only. I almost couldn't run for 100m so they were 4 times better than me and they complaining!

I didn't use any plans, like the Puma ones. I was following my heart: run at the 60-75% of HRmax.

The first runs where stressing heart. I was reaching 75% HRmax (heart maximum bitrate) after couple of steps. It passed after week - my heart get used to the exercise and... my legs started to generate the pain. As a result I had about 10-15 breaks for marching. It was calf all the time. I was following the advices: when something is in pain, do an extra break to avoid injury.

Yesterday I've send a tart letter to the friend that was giving me advices. It passed a month of running and I'm still at the beginning. During 30 minutes "run" I still need 10-15 breaks. I have seen no progress and didn't see a sense in all this running. (Maciej, BTW: I didn't get the response yet :) )

But I decided I won't stop. I'm in love in the runners proverb: "Make friends with pain and you will never be alone". (found in "Born to run" book).

I wear the running gear, did a warm-up and start to run. Till now 6 minutes of continuous running was my highest achievement. After 5 minutes my calf started to sing his song. "Relax legs, don't stretch them" I was repeating myself. "You can do it without stopping". And I did.

I was approaching 1km distance: never get that far with continuous running. Wow, another private achievement! Now, there is a church at about 1,4km will I be able to get that far? "Time passed: 14 minutes 59 seconds" - it was lady voice from runkeeper application. "So I'm running for 15 minutes without stopping, won't be any more longer probably, I'm almost exhausted." - I was thinking.

20 minutes passed. Calf is talking to me: "You won't get much further...". After those 20 minutes a hope started to talk to me quietly: "Don't charge too much and you can make it". A rain started to rain. A warm rain at spring. This was mystical: rain at night and a lone runner in the middle of a street. "I'm almost out of stamina, what's the time? 23 minutes? Still far! Keep the pace!".

"Time passed: 24 minutes 59seconds" said lady for runkeeper. 5 minutes more and I'll be running for 30 minutes! But I had to come down. In 5 minutes a lot can happen.

28 minutes and I knew I can make it. I even found extra strength to run faster, I felt like I'm almost flying. Nothing could stop me! And then:

"BEEP BEEP BEEP" - it was pulsometer saying: "your heartbeat is above 160, slow down". It means I should slow down or stop. I didn't respond to that. Runkeeper did: "Workout completed".

I made it! 30 minutes of continuous running! I can call myself a runner now! And I had so much power that I could run more! After only 4 weeks of practising!

And you know what? It's only beginning of the great adventure.

What was the key? Breaks to let the muscles regenerate. Breathing. I almost stopped 2 times because of colic. I deal with it by breathing more air.

Now I'm off to stretching.

I want a Buff!

If you judge from the subject I have to disappoint you, it won't be about MMO although I scout Azeroth sometimes.

I was looking for a piece of wear to protect the neck. I was using bandana till now, but by accident I found Buff. Similar to bandana you can use this as nect protection, headwear etc. I like the idea and the look! Will buy one definitely. Check out the demo here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewVEK-AElDY

Nope, I'm not linked with the Buff company in any way.

Suitcase case

OK, I travel a bit. In most cases those are the business travels. Recently I found that I wish a good suitcase. And  here all problem starts. I am old fashion. Well maybe a mix of new tech and old fasion. For example: I love the idea and look of steampunk stuff. It's amazing.

Now back to the suitcase. I wish a leather case with hard cover, without wheels, with no extend-able grip... but with metal protected corners. And I have a clever plan to buy a sticker with name of the country I'm in and stick it to the suitcase. It's nothing new, I know. You can type "suitcase" into the Google and click on the Images link above to get a lot of images of such suitcases. With stickers already on! But I wish to made one myself, personalized. Do you know what's the biggest problem? To find such suitcase. All of them have wheels and the irregular shape... at least in the place I've check so far. Oh, maybe you have some suggestion?