I remember being in Mrs Simpson’s class at Woodingdean Primary School, which would make it the early seventies, when I first tasted a Kiwi fruit. The combination of this memory and the fact that I’m a Chinese Wood Dragon meant that Waitrose had a pretty much guaranteed sale when I saw this Pitahaya or Dragonfruit on the shelf. It’s actually the fruit of a cactus called Hylocereus and it was such a new line that the staff hadn’t even had a chance to try it, so we had to look on-line to see how to prepare and eat it.
It is full of vitamin C, antioxidants etc (that is, it’s healthy, so long as you don’t eat the pink outer skin) and is a little like a Kiwi in both taste and texture… close enough in many regards to make the less expensive Kiwi a more appealing prospect. Nice to try though.
I’ve had a couple of manic weeks and didn’t get around to writing last weekend… more specifically as a result of having to mark twenty 3,000 word essays on different aspects of entrepreneurship. I used the same excuse for not running last Sunday, but that didn’t mean that I had no exercise… in fact, I had really stiff legs for most of last week!
The reason for this was Clive’s 50th birthday party on Saturday night. There must have been 200 people there, of all ages, but it was the Falmer class of 1982 who dominated the dance floor with their totally weird gyrations. Still young enough to have the stamina to dance all night, old enough to be really embarrassing to anyone under 30!
It probably counts as the most fun I’ve had all year!
This week I’ve had the first normal weekend since July. Weekends in August & September consisted of recovering from heavy weeks in Cambridge, finalising modules for my Brighton Business School course and then driving off on a Sunday evening. Those in October and November have consisted of reading and preparing for Brighton, UCL or Terbell lectures.
Aside from catching up on sleep, my ‘normal’ weekend has consisted of minor chores such as cleaning the windows with Kim, washing the cars, stretching out a painful shoulder from these activities etc and more enjoyable things like reading, playing guitar and so on.
This morning’s run fell in between these two categories. To build on my good work two weekend’s ago I decided to attempt a tempo run at 8 mph… that is, running at the same speed for the whole duration.
The machine needs a little time to get up to speed, so despite running at 8 for the first two miles I was about 12 seconds behind at the halfway mark. As a result I ran the next mile at 8.1 and the final one at 8.2 for good measure, clearing 4 miles with seconds to go.
It was hard going, but at least the discomfort was balanced in all areas, with nothing standing out to put a stop to proceedings. Whether this training regime will result in a faster latent running speed outside is yet to be seen, but it’s an interesting (if not wholly enjoyable) exercise.
4 miles in 30 minutes, 8mph average.
Next week is looking a little quieter at the moment and although this is ot good, there is still time for new challenges to arise! Have a great week peops!
