1050 ... BC was the end of the second dynasty in China, the Shang dynasty and the beginning of the Chou. Like the previous change of hand seven centuries earlier, the virtuous had degraded to the corrupt (power!). The Chou, had to convince the nobles of the legitimacy of their authority, so they invented "The Mandate of Heaven". The clever people, I mean who is going to argue with God. "Oi, who do you think you are to lord it up over me", "Erm, God said I could", "I didn't hear him", "That's OK, as Emperor he picked me to look after your welfare", "Oh, looking after our welfare, that's nice, can we come and stay in one of your big palaces then?", "No, bugger off, God said I needed that", "Oh, I guess we'll have to wait another 700 years before we get another say”.... This could be an option for Bush; the queens use it back in England and here in Holland.

Actually to be honest it is actually the morning 0f 1049, but I shall be writing tonight after the Marathon, at the moment I am making important decisions, such as Tights or shorts. I have 2 1/2 hours to go to the start and I am a little nervous. I slept well, better than last night and much better than last year. I wonder if this is the sleep of the guilty. There is a theory that one can spot a guilty man, as he will go to sleep in the prison cell, as he knows he has been caught, whereas the innocent man will stay awake, wondering what is happening to him. Does my body realise that I am not properly trained for this. I have no doubt I will finish this, and I feel I will break my time from last year. Stopping is not an option. I have people set up all the way around and I can't have them waiting for nothing. I am fit. I had a huge pasta meal last night, just before 19:00, hopefully I will crap that all out before I leave the house. The weather looks perfect, ever so slightly overcast and a bit chilly. I will do it. Think of me.

Until this afternoon.

10:51 ... the time during the London marathon this year when my running hero(ine),Paula, stopped to empty her bladder before going on to win by a clear 5 minutes. htp://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/athletics/4445391.stm
This was her third London victory and the third fastest time. She already owns first, second and fifth fastest. I was worried that when she stopped that she had injured herself she disappeared from the camera view of the motorcycle going beside her. When the camera came back it was most amusing to hear the commentators try and think of a nice way to say what she was doing. I had the good fortune to see her when she started the dam to dam this year. She is great! She is the reason why I have Ice Baths, because I heard her say that she does after a long run.

An early one today as I shall be going out tonight. Yes, shock; I have a sort of life! A friend is playing in a band; so I will pop down to see what they are like.

I averaged 24.0km/h on the way in I was at 25, but had the wind behind me. I was wearing my new waterproof and boy did sweat.

I have organised cheerleaders for Sunday. Most of them will be in Vondelpark right near the end, but there will be other people at other places. I really suffered last year at around 24 onwards, so I hope to see some people there or thereabouts. They seemed to have cut out about 1.5km from the industrial estate, which is good, as that comes at exactly the wrong time and is quite soul destroying.

That’s all today more tomorrow (nothing to do with the Simpson’s coming on TV ...well maybe a little)

1052 - Mark: And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way. .... Well that'll teach the bloke for being facetious. all he wanted were a few coppers, now he's out of a job! (I know Monty got there about 26 years earlier - I am obviously a little behind the times)

Anyway, just a short one today, bought a float, so I can really begin at the beginning with the swimming. Bought waterproofs and a crash helmet so that I can cycle for longer before my winter stop and start again earlier, I have notification of my start number for Sunday’s marathon, 1486, and am getting nervous. Did a few reps with the weights, in the hope that it might help my swimming, something I should look into, to make sure I develop the right bits. I almost bought one of those things to help you do sit-ups, but i was on my bike and I would not have been able to take it back. It is a dream of mine to have a (deserved) six-pack instead of the current keg. it would make going to the pool slightly less embarrassing. Anyway much spending was going on, so I have not done so well in my aim to keep my money under control. Cheap shops cost me so much money; I buy stuff I don't need because it is cheap. Sure I could do with a pair of those shoes to make sure you don't walk in other peoples verrucas, but I don't need them, sure I would like a little wrist pocket, so that I can carry my keys and energy gel on the marathon, but I have got by without it before. These little bits add up and up.

Little by little I am, getting things in place. The Triathlon will be mine!

My cycling is erratic. I really feel I should be averaging more than 25km/hr on a regular basis before I give up for the winter. I have to work out what I have to do to achieve that, but I think it is as simple as just trying harder.

anyway it is past bed time so until tomorrow.

I promise I will have something interesting to say soon ... I start drinking on Sunday after the marathon, I am not usually that interesting when drunk, but sometimes I end up in interesting situations or places ... I will keep you informed.

1053 ... Malcolm the Big head invades Scotland with a load of English. To return the favour he picked a fight with the Frenchies who came over in 1066 (I say Frenchies, but in reality, they were mainly viking in decent, because they came from Normandy, and Normandy had been offered to the Vikings by the French to stop them being picked on).

Not much to report today. I pushed up my average speed today to 23.7km/h not very fast, I know, but at least it is going in the right direction.

I sent a mail to all the people I know in Amsterdam giving them estimated times and places to spot me running round on Sunday. It all seems so real when I put down where I am going to be at which time. I was in the pub watching the England Poland game and happened to be sitting next to a guy who was running the marathon for the first time on Sunday. It is difficult to explain how good the first time is. He is aiming for the same sort of time as me, so I might see him at various parts.

Whilst I was in the pub a very nice friend of a friend, who works for Nike gave me a pressie. It was a pair of running gloves and a running skullcap. My friend said I looked like a dork with the cap on; it looks like a swimming cap. I got home and checked myself out and I think I look a little like Daniel Day Lewis in Gangs of New York, just before he is going out for the big battle.

Thinking about doing the Luxembourg marathon in May. It is a night one, which I think might be nice. I went running in Luxembourg last time I was there; it is one seriously steep place. But I suppose I have been spoiled by the flatness of Holland.

I'm a bit new to this whole blogging thing, is it normal that the only comments you get are people trying to con you out of money?

In case you were wondering about my Goals, the only real progress has been that I have signed up for the Nederlands als Een Tweede Taal exam in May next year. That gives me 31 weeks. Should get cracking. I am trying to get everyone to talk Dutch to me at work.

I guess I should get to bed. ta ta for now.

1054 ... this year was the year when the Christian Church became the Christian churches. Constantinople and Rome fell out. Cultural, theological and political differences had been pulling at the church for centuries, but it was not until the Schism of 1054 that east and west went their separate cultural, theological and political ways.

Now what happened to 1055, I hear you cry? Well, 1055 was an experiment gone wrong. I tried to extend my day by having less sleep. On Sunday I got the 6 1/2 hours my mind was aiming for, but my body was not having any of that and it shut down at 19:30 only waking up at 22:00 to move my sleepy behind to bed to wake up again at 7:00. So now, instead of averaging 6 1/2 hours sleep I average 9. Don't mess with your body; it will always have the last laugh!!!!!!

Not much to report for training, apart from the fact that I haven't been doing any. The only training that should have been going on has been the riding to work, but I have been taking it so easy it is too embarrassing to say my average speed. I am going to now and for the next 4 days use the excuse that I am resting before the marathon, so that I won't bore you and embarrass me with my average speed.

Talking of the marathon, I have had a burden lifted. I had been using the map that ING had on the Internet, unfortunately although it had this years route (which I misinterpreted and was running an extra 500m anyway) it had last years distance markers - they fixed it now. The route changed this year and the 15km marker is about 1.5 km earlier than before. In my training I had been following the route of the marathon for various distances and had been finding myself very slow in this section. Now that I know that the distances were wrong, I know that I was probably running too fast earlier on, which is possibly why I felt so bad later. This means I have no idea what pace to run. I know I am not as well prepared as last year, but I still have to go to crack 4 hours. Which means I need to average 5:41 / km. Last year I came through the halfway at 1:59:52, but from there it was all down hill, I added 18 minutes in the last 21 km which means I was averaging 6:33 in the second half of the race. Basically then, my aim this year is to hold a 5:30 pace for as long as I can up to and after the half way and to really pick up the pace in the last 2 km - last year from the 40 km marker it took me 14:48 to cross the finish. If I can pick up the 18 minutes I lost last year I will be one happy trooper. You know what, I'm in the mood to destroy myself again. I am going to aim for 5:20 / km for the first half. If I do that I have 7:30 in the bag. No, no, no ... there is no such thing as time in the bag. Just finish the damn race!
I think it is time to go to bed ... when I start arguing with myself it is definitely time to go to bed ... but lets be honest, if you want to impress the chicks, you got to get under the 4:00:00!!! Not that I am running to impress the chicks - no I'm running for myself - so that I can have a great body to impress chicks with - definitely time for bed.

Yeast strain 1056 ... American Ale Yeast. Very clean crisp flavor characteristics. Low fruitiness and mild ester production. Slightly citrus like with cool 60-66º F, (15-19º C) fermentation temperatures. Versatile yeast, which produces many beer styles allowing malt and hop character to dominate the beer profile. Flocculation is moderate.

Oh I wish I got to make up words like Flocculation..."Oh look, fluffy masses are being formed" ... "mate, fluffy masses are being formed all the time, and it's getting to be a bit of a mouthful, we really ought to call it something" ... "how about flufferisations or flufform or ... no no I got it Flocculation" ... "yeah I like that" ...

Today I went swimming for the second time in 12 years. I was appalling. It was disgracefully. It is a good job that there are 1056 more days to go, because I am going to need a lot of practice. It was great going, but I am a long way off swimming 25 meters of front crawl. I was all right with breaststroke ... well a whole lot better than my crawl. A whole lot of learning and practice is needed. I spent Eur 120 on a ticket for 50 visits. I know this is going a little against my spend thrift habits I am trying to form, so that I can get a grip of my finances, but I figured, either I am in this for real or I'm just BSing. So I might as well put my money were my mouth is. Swimmers have good bodies, so I hope to get one of them. (either my own or someone else’s).

So with the exception of cycling to work, that’s me done with exercise until me and nine times world champion Halle Gabreselassi go head to head in the big M next week. Halle's aim is to beat Robert Cheboror's course record, set last year of 2.06.23. My aim is to get less than twice that time. I didn't manage it this year, and I am seriously under trained this year, but hey, life would be too easy otherwise. I have to run this race as a lesson to myself as to what happens when you do not train.

I have been thinking a little about what one of those famous rich dudes did to his kids, I think it could have been Rockefeller, actually for all I know it could be Daddy Warbucks (my sister used to watch Annie a lot). As they were growing up he made them put 10% of anything they earned into investments, the sort of pay yourself first principle that all self money management books go on about, but then he used to make them put the second 10% to charity. I was wondering if I should do this. I already put 10% of my gross income into savings and investments and have been doing so for the last year, not that it has done me much good, as I didn't stop spending that 10% (or 17.5% of my net income) and piled on the debt, having to raid my savings. but that is, drip by drip getting under control. Anyway, if I could get the money paid out of pretax money like covenants in UK then it would only cost me 10% of my net to pay 10% of my gross to charity. Something to think about. Could this also be applied to my time? Should I spend 16 hours and 48 mins per week investing in my future (learning Dutch / work related studies / learning about investing etc.) and 16:48 on charitable works? Something else to think about. If I spend 50 hours a week at work, traveling to and from work and eating at work, though 4 hours per week of that could go to work based personal investment (training). I recon I sleep 8 hours a night, which is 56 hours. I could cut this to 6.5 which would be 45.5 hours, but that might be a bit difficult with the training. With running and swimming training expecting to take up 9 hours a week including traveling. This leaves me between 23 and 34 waking hours a week to have the rest of my life. I recon you can have a good craic in the charitable field. Not that this would be a reason that I would do it, but I should pick a more appealing charity to the ladies than my last one, homeless people with mental health issues. If I am already donating 10% of my earned cash, does that mean that 10% of the 40 hours that I work, i.e. 4 hours, could be lopped off the 16:48?

Lots of things to think about.

Time for bed.

1057 ... Leofric, earl of Mercia died this year. "A man of broad but obscure interests; a religious man thoroughly Christian, and an entrepreneur, raconteur, and general all around good sport " to quote http://www.abacom.com/~jkrause/godiva.html. Apart from being the place of Birth, Coventry is famous for a few other things; one of them is Lady Godiva. In a battle of wills between her and her husband, Leofric, in order to get taxes reduced she agreed to Leofrics condition of riding through Coventry Naked. I am a big fan of naked women, so big up to Leofric.

Now training: Today was cool. Mike and I did 3 times round Vondel park, which is 10km. now the best time I have done before over this distance was 52:30. As I think I have mentioned Mike makes me run faster as he naturally seems to run faster. This time I did it in 48 minutes. Wow, I used to dream of the day I would crack 50 minutes, and today I seemed to do it without even noticing ... Well I could tell I was going faster, but it is so much easier to get faster running with someone who is faster mike must be about 10 % faster when he runs with me and he has another 10% in the tank, so I recon I can get my time down to 45 minutes by Christmas. This is way ahead of what I thought I might do I was hoping to get down to 42 by the time I run a race with a colleague of mine. Anthony has decided to get fit, and he has set a target of running a 10km race in March. Now being that I am the runner in the team, I obviously don't want to get beat. Anthony does not recon he will run that fast, but he informs me that he was quite a fast runner when he was younger and I don't want to take a risk. Having this target should keep me running through the winter, which I did not do this year. My friend Andy, "the Reverend" has told me that there are two schools of thought as to how to train for a marathon, one is to do long and slow, and the other is to train to be a fast 10km runner. Hopefully I can push myself with the help of Mike. With this in mind I might take up the suggestion of a guy I met whilst running by the Amstel last week. He suggested I go to the running club at Olympisch Stadion. I would be able to find runners with whom I could push myself, if I ever get to the stage, where Mike is no longer pushing me. that I think is a long way off at the moment.
Tomorrow I swim for the first time in 6 years. I had to get some trunks. I went to Perry sports; the first pair I looked at was Euro 35, for what is essentially a pair of kaks. Unbelievable! Anyway I have my trunks, goggles and swimming cap and am looking forward to the pain.

On the goals front I will give you an update tomorrow as I am cream crackered and it the Godfather is on the telly.
until tomorrow.