Reading about Running among other Things

Claudia bought me a book at the start of the week by Haruki Murakami called What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, which I am consuming avidly at every opportunity. Even though Claudia gave me the German edition, I am getting through it at a good pace. I have to admit that I had never heard of the author before, but am interested in learning more of his work, although I guess the subject  matter will be different. What I Talk About... is a collection of reflections and memoires about his life, especially his daily running, accounts of his first marathon and a 100 km ultra marthon, and how all this relates to his work as a novelist. From what I have read so far, he seems a very 'sympathisch' (what DO we say in English? Likeable?) person and I can relate to a lot of what he writes about running. (Photo of Haruki Murakami by wakarimasita of Flickr)

Unfortunately I don't make as much time in my daily lif e as I would sometimes like to have, to read as much as I sometimes want to. One of the benefits of teaching English at the TAZ (a German daily newspaper) has been the regular reading of English books, which we discuss each week. Our most recent book is The Other Hand by Chris Cleeve about a young Nigerian refugee, which is also gripping, though in a completely different way. Over the years that I have been teaching this group, we have read a wide range of books, from The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole to The White Tiger and The Room.

A Cold Spell

Training is continuing to go well, despite the return of freezing temperatures., dropping to -12°  at nights. So far we've been spared the snow though. At the weekend I took repossession of the pulse meter, which had to have a new battery and a service. The last time it worked anything like reliably was during the marathon last September, and even then it played up right at the start, so that I ran the whole time not really knowing my time. Of course I now realise I've probably been training too fast, after today's easy run at 70% of my maximum heart rate. Actually I don't believe it is possible to run that slowly. I always end up running at around 75 or 80 %. 

One observation from today's run: I regularly pass people pushing their babies in prams and wheelchairs, sometimes men (most of whom don't look at all happy with their task), and sometimes women (who also look pretty unimpressed). What I particularly noticed today is that almost all the women were talking into their mobile phones. One could speculate on the effects of this phenomenon, and on the reasons for it. But not today. I need to go to bed.

A Week at Padmaloka

Last week I was on retreat at Padmaloka, the retreat centre near Norwich in East England where I lived and worked between 1994 and 2000. I have been back several times since I moved to Berlin and my retreat this time was as ever a joy. There was plenty of meditation and discussion on the topic of the Imagination, raised by a paper by Subhuti, recently circulated among members of the Triratna Order entitled Re-Imagining the Buddha. During the week I also managed to keep up my training schedule and avoided getting ill, with the help of Master Lam's Chi Kung 'cold prevention strategy', which I learnt from his book, The Way of Energy, from which I learnt chi kung several years ago, and was the source of inspiration to practice it over many years. Since learning this form of chi kung incidentally, I stopped having the regular problems with my back, from which I had suffered over many years, probably on account of simply becoming more aware of my body and its movements than I had been before.

Since arriving back home I have had a very full round of meetings and appointments. There has been some excitement at Buddhistisches Tor around the arrival of a film crew from ARD who have been making a documentary for showing in the autumn. While leading the meditation on Sangha evening on Tuesday, which was filmed, I was very aware of the opportunity that unusual experiences give us to experience our responses. Such occasions prevent us from falling into our habitual ways of being and so we more clearly experience the tendencies of the mind, usually tending towards one of the extremes of aversion or desire. Apprently they have been awarded prizes for other documentaries, for example one called "Gut sein auf Probe - Ein Egoist engagiert sich" (Good on test - an egoist commits himself).

A Marathon in a week

The first week of my training for the half marathon went well. I ran 40 km in the course of the week - which is more or less the same as I ran in September in one day. This morning I ran another 12 km and noticed towards the end that my hair had frozen, or more correctly, the sweat in my hair had frozen. When I touched it I was reminded of the time I stopped coming my hair, thirty something years ago and developed natural dreadlocks. I was also reminded of my winter cycling tour in Dorset in January 1991, when my beard froze and I took on the appearance of an arctic explorer, and thereby attracting a little attention when stopping to visit shops for refreshments.

Anyway, the training feels good, despite the cold, and I am looking forward to running in the Berlin half marathon for the third time in a row.

This is part of the course I ran on Sunday in Luckenwalde

Getting well again

Last week I had a cold and on the way back from Britain my ears seemed to explode. For much of the time since then I have felt as if I was underwater. Not a very comfortable feeling, although my hearing wasn't really affected. This morning things have improved considerably and ts my ears are almost back to normal.

In the week I was kept busy, arriving back from my trip to Britain to a full week of meetings and events at Buddhistisches Tor as well as teaching English. After unpacking on Monday morning I led the lunchtime meditation at the Buddhist centre, but decided against attending the inter-religious meeting at the Town Hall in the afternoon to which I had been invited, on account of feeling unwell. On Tuesday I gave a talk at Sangha Evening on the Four Sangrahavastus, or Means of Unification. We intend to dedicate each of the next four years at Buddhistisches Tor to each of the four Sangrahavastus, starting this year with dana, or generosity. Next week Dhramapriya will give a talk on dana, the first of four talks on the subject to be held during the year.

On Wednesday I gave an English lesson, attended my chapter meeting, a weekly meeting of Order Members in Berlin, and spent a very pleasant evening having a meal with members of the year-long Buddhism foundation course that I led last year and ended in November. Thursday was a full day too, beginning with two English lessons, after which I spent an hour photocopying material for the new foundation course I was starting in the evening. After photocopying and before the course in the evening I had a meeting of the centre's Teaching Team. Friday and in between my round of appointments this week I managed to catch up with a few e-mails and telephone calls. I also managed to find time to buy a new netbook and begin finding my way around it. All in all a very satisfying and enjoyable week. All being well I will be fully fit and well by Monday to begin my training for the half marathon.

New Year Plans

It has been a long time since I last wrote, and I have had a couple of people expressing their wish for me to carry on writing something here every now and again, so here I am again.

I had a bit of difficulty getting back into my running shoes after the marathon - not just because I had caught a cold - more probable was the fact of not really having a big goal to aim at any more. And then the wether broke, as well as having a heap of other things demanding my time. So I kept the training ticking over, and fully intended to run the Twin Piers 10K race from Llandudno to Colwyn Bay last Saturday, but went down with another cold from which I am still not a hundred percent recovered.

Last night I returned home from a ten day visit to Britain, where I first attended the Triratna European Chairs Assembly, a week-long meeting for Chairs of Triratna Buddhist Centres, held this time at Taraloka near Whitchurch. At the end of an inspiring week of meetings, discussion and practise, I spent a weekend with my dad in Old Colwyn. He has run the Twin Piers race many time over the past thirty years and I had hoped that we might run it together this time. However, by the time I announced to him my plan to run it this year, he had already decided not to participate again.

As it turned out, I am not too disappointed that my health let me down again, as the weather was incredibly wild on Saturday and the stormy winds and rain would have made the going really tough. Instead I enjoyed a pleasant couple of days with various family members slowly getting better, and being fed extraordinarily good grub! (The sausages were of course vegetarian.)

At Liverpool Airport I was stopped at security and had 250 ml of Marmite confiscated. To be honest, I'd completely forgotten about it in my rucksack, and even so, I probably wouldn't have thought about it contravening the rules. I tried pointing out that it isn't exactly a liquid, to which the security person gently answered, it is a cream. I am happy that I packed the two large jars (500 ml) in my checked-in rucksack, which should keep me going for a couple of months anyway.

The flight played havoc with my ears on account of my cold, and they have not yet readjusted, but they are getting there.slowly sorting themselves out.

Next week I start my ten-week training plan for the half marathon again. I would like to cut a couple of minutes off my best time from last year, when I run in the Berlin Half Marathon at the start of April.

One month later

A very quick check-in one month after the big day. I did get ill, three days after the run. I guess that my resistance was low after the strain of the race, after which it was a good hour before I could get in the shower and change out of the rain soaked gear. Not surprising really that I should catch a cold, which then dragged on in the form of a slightly irritating cough for a couple of weeks. So I didn't get to attempt my personal best 10km two weeks after the marathon that I had planned. It was actually three weeks before I managed to go out for a run again. Next planned race is a ten km in Wales in January. More deetails to follow. I have also registered for the Berlin Half Marathon on 3rd April next year, though I declined the invitation to register for next year's marathon. 

Here is a photo of me close to the end of the marathon running through the Brandenburg Gate.