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Av Pelle - 16 oktober 2008 23:07

Yes indeed, I have been in the office today again. I haven't spent to much time there lately, after the vacation & some parent leave. Can't say I miss the office as such, but I do miss the regular interaction and social relationships with some colleagues etc. I have probably seen more of the Office on TV (Channel 9) during this period. They are running the old episodes from both the original English version and the American copy, more or less every night. I was a big fan of it when it was first shown on TV some years ago, with Ricky Gervais as the magnificant super-mix of manager & comedian = David Brent.

For me, this was more or less a true story, since I spent 2 years (in the late 80's) in a very similar office in the outskirts of western London, not in Slough but very close. My experience was even a bit more extreme. It was at British Telecom in Osterley, where I was contracting as an IT support analyst/programmer during a major conversion to a new IT business application platform. I had a team leader called Andy, that actually looked like D.Brent, but double as fat and never ever serious. Most jokes were far below the belt and most of his time was spent across the road at the rugby club's private pub, where all we at BT where members. I had many lunches there myself consisting of one small bag of potato crisps and 3-4 pints of lager. Andy was there every day together with some other middle managers, with the same values in life. When they dropped back in to the office again between 3 and 5 PM, Andy was sitting in the middle of the office space, burping, farting, laughing, repeating old bad jokes and just needed lots of attention from everyone else. His manager, Dave, was another joker, but with much more style (John Cleese type), also a happy drinker, but his speciality was to be away on lots of important activities most of the time and it didn't take me long to realize that he was doing non-work activities outside the office. The top manager, Bob, was an old guy waiting for retirement, so he didn't really care at all or knew what was going on. For me, this was a gold mine. Because in the end, someone have to do the work and it didn't take many months before I was more or less indispensible. They also treated me extremely well and I felt more valuable then ever before. It also paid off nicely on my bank account ;-) There were lots and lots of funny incidents and when I see the TV serie about the Wernham Hogg office in Slough, it's like a nice memory flashback.

Tonight, it was an episode from the American version, where Steve Carrell is playing the Manager role. It's not at all as funny as the English version and it shows very much, according to me, the difference between British and American humor.

By the way, when I talked to an old colleague (Sid) some years later, I was told that the Osterley branch had been closed down or merged with another BT branch, due to overcapacity & low efficiency. The success of the new IT system that I was working with was not mentioned. Yeah, yeah, yeah ... get on with the story please.

I guess that some new management had stepped in with sober eyes. No big surprise regarding the end of the story and also very much just like the final parts of the TV serie. All fun has to come to an end ... Cheers David Brent & Andy Crompton!

Av Pelle - 15 oktober 2008 22:32

That might be a good label on todays exercises. 13 km's on roller skiis in the rain was very refreshing and also good for my mind. The speed was significantly reduced due to pools of water all over the road. The water splashed up in under the small funny-looking mudguards that are covering the fat wheels. It made a nice sound and it also felt more wild and real somehow. My track up here in Öjersjö is a bit limited in distance, if I don't want to challenge myself going downhill to Partille. The main problem is to brake when there are some obstacles in the way, like dogs or kids or crossways or abrupt bends. So far no accidents, but I haven't really been on any tougher tracks yet.

I have also just done another indoor cycle training session in the garage. This time with loud music in the background. Bandit Rock 104.8 made the half an hour go very quickly.

Now I'm rather tired. It's hard work doing "active resting". Good Night!

Av Pelle - 13 oktober 2008 21:21

I decided to start up my Ironman training tonight, after getting my Tacx cycle trainer back from Kristian S, who has used it over the last two seasons and also getting some inspiration from Sinus, who did a 8 hour spinning session at home this weekend while watching Ironman Hawaii on internet (he also ran the ½marathon earlier the same day), puuuh looong sentence ...  but lots of quality content. My target is Kalmar on August 1 next year.

So I organized a bit in the garage and mounted my good old Eddy Mercx bike on the Tacx trainer and took a 30 min workout. It's actually very good aerobic training and it felt like good value for the time invested. Also nice to be able to do some more alternative training. I believe that this is good for my poor achilles tendons. Hopefully they will be better if I mix in a couple of biking sessions each week over the winter period. Before next time I will install a music system in the garage, so I can enjoy it more. Otherwise, it's a bit of a mind killer to sit there in our messy garage all alone. There's no scenary, no downhill, no drafting, no resting, just pushing, pushing, pushing and lots of sweating.

Av Pelle - 12 oktober 2008 14:04

Yesterdays Göteborg Marathon was a fall forward for me. I managed to keep an optimistic mindset all through the race, even though I got a bit stiff in my legs after 26 km's. But I was pretty confident about a finish time below 4.30, so the motivation was never an issue. 4.06,50 was far better than I could imagine. The 2 laps turn-around course on Säröleden is very flat and it's also fun to meet the other runners 3 times along the way. The air was full of oxygen after the morning rain and a nice temp approx 12-14 degrees. My first 10,5 km took 57 min, the second 10,5 also 57 min, then I dropped to 63 min and finally 69 min. No walking, just some brief stops at the water stations. It's a pity that there aren't more runners on the Marathon distance, since it's a nice course and also a very good arrangement all in all.

Most participants yesterday ran the half marathon, so the first half was more fun due to all the other runners around.

I'm very impressed by David L who set a new PB with 3.18 He's going from good to better all the time and I'm even more impressed by his attitude to whatever he's getting involved in. Jumping out of bed in the early mornings for training before work etc. Positive enthusiasm all the way.

I checked my race log and realized that I haven't performed better in a marathon since April 2005, that's 3½ years ago. So I should be more than pleased. The boring thing is that my right achilles tendon & heel are very swollen and painful today. I can hardly walk, but with some more Arcoxia tablets I will hopefully be OK tomorrow again.

Av Pelle - 9 oktober 2008 21:11

That's what I feel like doing at the moment. There are so much negative media news about the financial crisis around the world, so it's making people depressed and miserable. You can't ignore it of course, but these endless media coverages of the financial collaps, have to much negative psychological influence on people. Since most people can't do much about it at the moment, just laying sleepless worrying about their savings, pension funds, house loans, jobs, etc, I recommend to go for more funny stuff instead. The Simpsons for example, is putting our crazy reality (at least the American side of it) in to perspective quite often. Marge is always a reliable figure to trust when Homer & the kids are messing up. Important that someone stays sensible with the feet on the ground when the rest of the world is in tumbledown. So skip the news on TV for a while and watch more Simpsons. I'm sure you will sleep better then.

Av Pelle - 8 oktober 2008 22:49

Today I had my last run before the marathon on Saturday. 13 km's without pushing it and surprisingly enough, it was my fastest time on that lap for the last six months. It might be a sign of that I'm going to slow other times, but right now I need some positive messages, so I decided that it's due to that I'm in better shape right now, then previously this year. I also checked in my training log and tried to analyse why I sometimes do better marathons and sometimes end up around 5 hours. It hasn't just been because it's been very tough climate conditions in Asia the last 2 years. It has to do with the amount of LSD (Sorry Kenneth, this is Long Slow Distance) training the last month before a race. At my best race so far this year in Japan in January, I did a 25 km run the weekend before and two 21 km runs two weeks before. Otherwise, I normally try to run a couple of times per week, doing distances around 8-13 km's. Not good enough for running marathons, but it has been my only possibility due to lack of time and injury problems. Or is that just an excuse for being lazy or lack of respect for the distance?

My statement or conclusion here is nothing new for runners. Arthur Lydiard (NZ) introduced the LSD training already in the sixties and it's still the most important ingredient for marathoners. It just takes some diciplin and time to practice it. When you read about it in Runners World etc, it sounds easy and straight forward. That is, if you live your life with prime focus on running. For the rest of us (99,9%) it's a matter of compromising with all other things on the daily agenda, but still not to miss out all together from running.

Some added activities to this agenda (probably on the expense of some running), seems to be that it looks like there will be more and more roller skiing this season. Tonight I had a session with Sven, who made his debut. The same with Micke on Monday and with Jörgen on Friday. Very promising development and I'm picking up good vibrations, good good good good vibrations, from all the MC-gang members. Soon we also have to add some LSD to these sessions. We all wanna get high on adrenalin and endorphins. YEAH!!!!

Av Pelle - 7 oktober 2008 22:46

New day = New experience or ... just another day? I used to like the idea of adding something new to every day, to somehow make them unique, but when you are fully busy just to survive, it's not that easy. Currently I have to look for the small rather unimportant things that might be new or different in some way or another. The same applies to years. It's to nice to be able to pick one year on random from your life history and easily remember it for a couple of significant reasons. What happened 1979? or 1987? or 2003? etc etc. It frightens me a little bit if it just becomes a blurry mess of time without any interesting happenings, where one year looks like the previous. Before you know it, the mess might come to an end. Of course it will end, but before that, I want to be able to sit down and reflect a bit. Tell my stories to my kids & grandkids etc. On the other hand no one will probably not notify me when the time is due regardless of how the time has been handled.

Kids are actually something that makes time unique and more easy to classify, especially these small ones, that are developing so fast. 18 months ago, Nellie & Jim didn't even exist and here they are, stealing all attention from us. Lots of work, but lots of joy.

Todays new experience was to use the selfscanning device at the ICA supermarket for the first time. "A small step for mankind, but a giant leap for Pelle". Next time I will be even more advanced, by packing the groceries in the bags already from start. Fantastic, there are always room for some improvements.

Av Pelle - 5 oktober 2008 22:24

This weeks training has been on a very low level. No real motivation or energy in my system. Stiff achilles tendons on top of that, hasn't really given me any enthusiasm for running. I also think that the last couple of weeks with bad sleeping due to that Jim & Nellie are keeping us awake on and off all nights, has effected me more than I want to admit. Good sleep is now a luxuary and I'm very impressed by Misia, who are waking up a couple of times each night to do the breast feeding business, without complaining.

I'm very pleased that I managed to get out for a 21 km run today. Felt rather OK, but I thought about the coming challenge next weekend with some doubts ... Göteborg Marathon 42 km. Only 6 days away and I'm not really prepared for it. But, but, but ... I've been even less prepared before some other marathons, so I will for sure be able to complete it. I have to calculate with some walking in the end. That's alright, I'm not going there to win. Right now, my overall target is to collect another 16 marathons, so I will break the 100 barrier and receive the next major trophy. One race at the time and it will hopefully happen in the end of 2010. If I can keep the pace up and time it in a nice way, I would like to do race no 100 at the classic course between Marathon and Athens. It's normally staged in November each year. Okidoki, the visualization process can begin, with me running in to Athens screaming "Chairete nikomen", but instead of dying myself, I will consider letting my Marathon running "career" die and do something else instead.

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