So far, the series of posts in this blog on how to run a marathon were written largely in parallel with my own progress towards the one that will take place this weekend in Malta. Before setting off to Malta I had been hoping to include a post about the last few days and including the event itself. It's already half written, but unfortunately I didn't manage to complete it. Too bad! It will have to wait till after my own marathon. Well, at least (I think) I know what I should and shouldn't do on the big day. Let's just hope I remember to apply this knowledge correctly, and that the recommendations I write down on how best to tackle the marathon itself will be a close reflection of what I will actually do myself this Sunday 1 March.
Good luck to those readers of this post who will be doing the half or the full marathon this Sunday, and thanks to many friends and colleagues and most of all to my family for all your support. It's truly very much appreciated!
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Saturday, February 21, 2009
How to run a marathon - 15 - the entire training schedule
Continued from How to run a marathon (parts 0 to 14).
I have now covered most of the important aspects related to taking up running and preparing for a marathon, starting from absolute zero.
I haven't mentioned yet that it might be a good idea to join a running club in your area. The club would be your reference point where running is concerned. You will make lots of acquaintances there, and new friends who are also addicted to running, and who could give you tips for improving. The club will keep you informed of events that might interest you. It organises training runs, particularly long runs, to help keep you company in those very long or not-so-long runs. They provide coaching, training tips, organise races. You might even wish to become actively involved in the club's organisation. And you will proudly wear the colours of the club you're representing in running events.
It's now time to recap. Here I will give a summary of the entire beginners' training schedule for running a marathon, starting from nothing.
Phase One - get into the rhythm (running at an easy pace):
Week 1 (no. of minutes run, starting on Monday): 10, rest, 10, rest, 10, rest, 15 (on Sunday)
Week 2 (starting on Monday): rest, 15, 15, rest, 20, rest, 20 (on Sunday)
Week 3 (starting on Monday): rest, 20, 20, rest, 30, rest, 30 (on Sunday)
Week 4: rest, 30, 30, rest, 30, rest, 40 (on Sunday)
Week 5: rest, 40, 40, rest, 40, rest, 50
Week 6: rest, 45, 45, rest, 45, rest, 60
Week 7: rest, 50, 50, rest, 50, rest, 60
Week 8: rest, 10k, 10k, rest, 10k, rest, 1h 10min
In two months, we have progressed from a state of inactivity to a well-structured pattern of 3 midweek runs of 10km, and one longer run on Sunday. The second phase introduces the concept of quality training, consisting mainly of fartlek (speed play), tempo running, or interval training. This is done once, or at the most twice, per week. The long run on Sundays keeps gradually increasing, and will eventually become the mainstay of the build-up to the marathon.
Phase Two - the consolidation phase:
Week 9: rest, 10k, 10k fartlek, rest, 10k, rest, 1h 10min
Week 10: rest, 10k, 10k intervals, rest, 10k, rest, 1h 15min
Week 11: rest, 10k, 10k tempo, rest, 10k, rest, 1h20
Week 12: rest, 10k, 10k intervals, rest, 10k, rest, 1h20
Week 13: rest, 10k, 10k tempo, rest, 10k, rest, 1h30
Week 14: rest, 10k, 10k intervals, rest, 10k, rest, 1h30
Week 15: rest, 10k, 10k tempo, rest, 10k, rest, 1h30
From now on, it's just a matter of building up the Sunday (or whichever other day is most convenient) long runs to a marathon. The midweek quality training session may alternate between tempo running, interval training or fartlek. The other 10k "fillers" of easy running remain always the same.
Phase Three: building up to a marathon
Programming 4 weeks for each increment of 15 minutes in the long run will allow for one week off, due to a road race that you wish to do, or for unforeseen circumstances such as illnesses or the (caution) rare wild party. This will also give your leg muscles a well deserved chance to recover their strength after several consecutive weekends of running long distances.
From Week 16, the progression of long runs is therefore as follows (including one week without a long run in each batch):
Weeks 16 to 19: 1h45
Weeks 20 to 23: 2h00
Weeks 24 to 27: 2h15
Weeks 28 to 31: 2h30
Weeks 32 to 35: 2h45
Weeks 35 and 36: 3h
Alternatively, to simplify matters, you could progress by calendar months: 1h30 during the first month, 1h45 in the second, etc, taking one Sunday off each month. The whole, starting from 1h30 to marathon day lasts exactly 8 months. It's also possible to compress the build-up a bit by not including weeks off, but this could result in forced stoppages wreaking havoc with your schedule. The build-up recommended here is more likely to be fully achieved, and should get you to the big day in top form.
Phase Four: peaking
Week 37: 3h15
Week 38: 1h30 / short race / no long run
Week 39: 3h15 (exactly 3 weeks before the marathon)
The very long runs are the closest you'll get to the real thing itself, and they're crucial to enable you to get used to the physical and mental rigours involved in a 42km run. At the early stages of the build-up, a three-hour run would seem impossibly long. But with a gradual build-up the long distances become quite accessible, although you should of course be well prepared for the fact that you're not going out for a simple walk in the park... It probably helps to do these runs accompanied, but it's even more important that your companion(s) have more or less your own pace, otherwise one of you would certainly have to give up in sheer exhaustion.
Depending on your natural ability, the biggest run before the marathon, lasting about 3h15, will be around 33 km to 38 km long. Avoid a longer distance, otherwise you would have completed your marathon earlier than the organised event itself, wearing yourself out considerably in the process. This should be done at least 3 weeks before the event, after which training will taper out to enable your body to recover its full strength prior to the marathon.
Phase Five: tapering
Week 40 (Monday to Sunday): rest, 10k, 10k, rest, 10k, rest, 2h15
Week 41: rest, 10k, rest, 10k tempo, rest, 1h30 (on Saturday), rest
Week 42: 10k, rest, 10k, rest, 5k, rest, Marathon
That's rather neat. I swear I didn't plan this - a build-up from zero to 42k... in 42 weeks!
The tapering phase is a delicate part of the schedule. The hard work is over, but you need to be extra careful not to undo all the good work by falling ill or getting injured. If such a mishap were to happen, the time available for recovery would be limited indeed. So, take the precautions I mentioned in a previous post, and don't train too hard. What you need to do in these three weeks is to stay moderately active, while at the same time recovering from any nagging pains that you are bound to have acquired through all these weeks of hard work. Pamper yourself. Be moderate in everything you do and all you consume. You've invested too much effort into this to let it go to waste through carelessness.
There's a complicated diet for the last few days, called 'carbo-loading', that is said to boost the glycogen (fuel) levels in your muscles. I wouldn't bother. In my opinion, the best thing is to eat normally, avoiding excessive or heavy food like fats and red meat, drinking sufficient fluids and preferably no alcohol at all, and ensuring the required amount of sleep. That should get you to Marathon Day in top form and ready to go.
I have now covered most of the important aspects related to taking up running and preparing for a marathon, starting from absolute zero.
I haven't mentioned yet that it might be a good idea to join a running club in your area. The club would be your reference point where running is concerned. You will make lots of acquaintances there, and new friends who are also addicted to running, and who could give you tips for improving. The club will keep you informed of events that might interest you. It organises training runs, particularly long runs, to help keep you company in those very long or not-so-long runs. They provide coaching, training tips, organise races. You might even wish to become actively involved in the club's organisation. And you will proudly wear the colours of the club you're representing in running events.
It's now time to recap. Here I will give a summary of the entire beginners' training schedule for running a marathon, starting from nothing.
Phase One - get into the rhythm (running at an easy pace):
Week 1 (no. of minutes run, starting on Monday): 10, rest, 10, rest, 10, rest, 15 (on Sunday)
Week 2 (starting on Monday): rest, 15, 15, rest, 20, rest, 20 (on Sunday)
Week 3 (starting on Monday): rest, 20, 20, rest, 30, rest, 30 (on Sunday)
Week 4: rest, 30, 30, rest, 30, rest, 40 (on Sunday)
Week 5: rest, 40, 40, rest, 40, rest, 50
Week 6: rest, 45, 45, rest, 45, rest, 60
Week 7: rest, 50, 50, rest, 50, rest, 60
Week 8: rest, 10k, 10k, rest, 10k, rest, 1h 10min
In two months, we have progressed from a state of inactivity to a well-structured pattern of 3 midweek runs of 10km, and one longer run on Sunday. The second phase introduces the concept of quality training, consisting mainly of fartlek (speed play), tempo running, or interval training. This is done once, or at the most twice, per week. The long run on Sundays keeps gradually increasing, and will eventually become the mainstay of the build-up to the marathon.
Phase Two - the consolidation phase:
Week 9: rest, 10k, 10k fartlek, rest, 10k, rest, 1h 10min
Week 10: rest, 10k, 10k intervals, rest, 10k, rest, 1h 15min
Week 11: rest, 10k, 10k tempo, rest, 10k, rest, 1h20
Week 12: rest, 10k, 10k intervals, rest, 10k, rest, 1h20
Week 13: rest, 10k, 10k tempo, rest, 10k, rest, 1h30
Week 14: rest, 10k, 10k intervals, rest, 10k, rest, 1h30
Week 15: rest, 10k, 10k tempo, rest, 10k, rest, 1h30
From now on, it's just a matter of building up the Sunday (or whichever other day is most convenient) long runs to a marathon. The midweek quality training session may alternate between tempo running, interval training or fartlek. The other 10k "fillers" of easy running remain always the same.
Phase Three: building up to a marathon
Programming 4 weeks for each increment of 15 minutes in the long run will allow for one week off, due to a road race that you wish to do, or for unforeseen circumstances such as illnesses or the (caution) rare wild party. This will also give your leg muscles a well deserved chance to recover their strength after several consecutive weekends of running long distances.
From Week 16, the progression of long runs is therefore as follows (including one week without a long run in each batch):
Weeks 16 to 19: 1h45
Weeks 20 to 23: 2h00
Weeks 24 to 27: 2h15
Weeks 28 to 31: 2h30
Weeks 32 to 35: 2h45
Weeks 35 and 36: 3h
Alternatively, to simplify matters, you could progress by calendar months: 1h30 during the first month, 1h45 in the second, etc, taking one Sunday off each month. The whole, starting from 1h30 to marathon day lasts exactly 8 months. It's also possible to compress the build-up a bit by not including weeks off, but this could result in forced stoppages wreaking havoc with your schedule. The build-up recommended here is more likely to be fully achieved, and should get you to the big day in top form.
Phase Four: peaking
Week 37: 3h15
Week 38: 1h30 / short race / no long run
Week 39: 3h15 (exactly 3 weeks before the marathon)
The very long runs are the closest you'll get to the real thing itself, and they're crucial to enable you to get used to the physical and mental rigours involved in a 42km run. At the early stages of the build-up, a three-hour run would seem impossibly long. But with a gradual build-up the long distances become quite accessible, although you should of course be well prepared for the fact that you're not going out for a simple walk in the park... It probably helps to do these runs accompanied, but it's even more important that your companion(s) have more or less your own pace, otherwise one of you would certainly have to give up in sheer exhaustion.
Depending on your natural ability, the biggest run before the marathon, lasting about 3h15, will be around 33 km to 38 km long. Avoid a longer distance, otherwise you would have completed your marathon earlier than the organised event itself, wearing yourself out considerably in the process. This should be done at least 3 weeks before the event, after which training will taper out to enable your body to recover its full strength prior to the marathon.
Phase Five: tapering
Week 40 (Monday to Sunday): rest, 10k, 10k, rest, 10k, rest, 2h15
Week 41: rest, 10k, rest, 10k tempo, rest, 1h30 (on Saturday), rest
Week 42: 10k, rest, 10k, rest, 5k, rest, Marathon
That's rather neat. I swear I didn't plan this - a build-up from zero to 42k... in 42 weeks!
The tapering phase is a delicate part of the schedule. The hard work is over, but you need to be extra careful not to undo all the good work by falling ill or getting injured. If such a mishap were to happen, the time available for recovery would be limited indeed. So, take the precautions I mentioned in a previous post, and don't train too hard. What you need to do in these three weeks is to stay moderately active, while at the same time recovering from any nagging pains that you are bound to have acquired through all these weeks of hard work. Pamper yourself. Be moderate in everything you do and all you consume. You've invested too much effort into this to let it go to waste through carelessness.
There's a complicated diet for the last few days, called 'carbo-loading', that is said to boost the glycogen (fuel) levels in your muscles. I wouldn't bother. In my opinion, the best thing is to eat normally, avoiding excessive or heavy food like fats and red meat, drinking sufficient fluids and preferably no alcohol at all, and ensuring the required amount of sleep. That should get you to Marathon Day in top form and ready to go.
Friday, February 20, 2009
A gross work of "art"
I've been intending to write about the Entropa "work of art" for a good while, but never got round to do it yet, generally due to Capital Radio's advert production team hogging most of my attention.
Quite frankly, I agree with those who find this object offensive. It's not a matter of people taking themselves too seriously. Neither are they lacking a sense of humour. To see the funny side of something, it needs to have a funny side. Depicting Bulgaria as a Turkish toilet, Germany as a network of autobahns resembling a swastika, and Greece as a country on fire is not funny at all, and is disrespectful in the extreme.
During the current Czech presidency, Entropa "graces" the entrance of the Justus Lipsius building that houses the Council of the European Union. As you enter you are greeted with grotesque roars emanating from a figure representing Vladimir Dracula, the supposed stereotype of Romania, resting on top of the gross object. It's as if you're entering a lunapark.
My, oh my, how funny. My sides are splitting with laughter. The Czechs' theme for the presidency is that they want to pull down the existing barriers, symbolic or otherwise, within the Union. The highlighting of their commissioned artist's own prejudices about various fellow member states has had exactly the opposite effect, and especially in their own regard.
Quite frankly, I agree with those who find this object offensive. It's not a matter of people taking themselves too seriously. Neither are they lacking a sense of humour. To see the funny side of something, it needs to have a funny side. Depicting Bulgaria as a Turkish toilet, Germany as a network of autobahns resembling a swastika, and Greece as a country on fire is not funny at all, and is disrespectful in the extreme.
During the current Czech presidency, Entropa "graces" the entrance of the Justus Lipsius building that houses the Council of the European Union. As you enter you are greeted with grotesque roars emanating from a figure representing Vladimir Dracula, the supposed stereotype of Romania, resting on top of the gross object. It's as if you're entering a lunapark.
My, oh my, how funny. My sides are splitting with laughter. The Czechs' theme for the presidency is that they want to pull down the existing barriers, symbolic or otherwise, within the Union. The highlighting of their commissioned artist's own prejudices about various fellow member states has had exactly the opposite effect, and especially in their own regard.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Where would you go to film hunters in action?
There was a report on Euronews TV this morning, which was about hunters and some demands they are making to the European Parliament. Euronews accompanied this item with filmed footage of some hunters killing birds and trying to kill some more. The place looked vaguely familiar, and had very much the look of what's left of the Maltese countryside, complete with strong sunshine and a general dusty look.
Sure enough, at the very end of the report, I heard one hunter calling to the other, "Hawn Paul". To which his mate asked, "Xejn?" and got the expected dejected reply "Xejn!" (Hello, Paul. - Nothing? - No, nothing!). Of course, there wouldn't be anything. You and your pals killed the whole bloody lot!
It hurts to have my suspicion confirmed, that the obvious choice for a reputed international news TV station to film the activity of bird hunting is my own beloved country. What a bad reputation we have earned. By the way, thank you dear Partit Nazzjonalista for making it clear, through your general secretary Paul Borg Olivier, that the PN are in favour of Maltese hunters killing birds even in spring, in clear defiance of the Birds Directive. I'll keep that fact very much in mind.
Sure enough, at the very end of the report, I heard one hunter calling to the other, "Hawn Paul". To which his mate asked, "Xejn?" and got the expected dejected reply "Xejn!" (Hello, Paul. - Nothing? - No, nothing!). Of course, there wouldn't be anything. You and your pals killed the whole bloody lot!
It hurts to have my suspicion confirmed, that the obvious choice for a reputed international news TV station to film the activity of bird hunting is my own beloved country. What a bad reputation we have earned. By the way, thank you dear Partit Nazzjonalista for making it clear, through your general secretary Paul Borg Olivier, that the PN are in favour of Maltese hunters killing birds even in spring, in clear defiance of the Birds Directive. I'll keep that fact very much in mind.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
How to run a marathon - 14 - running at a "certain" age...
Continued from How to run a marathon (parts 0 to 13).
In the beginning, I used to think that sports was only for young people. This is hardly surprising, since most people do in fact have that opinion. Football players retire from the game in their middle thirties. So do practically all other sports persons. A 40-year-old sports champion is a remarkable exception.
So imagine my surprise when I found out, as I took up running at the age of around 28, that a good proportion of runners are what used to be called 'veterans', and nowadays 'masters', i.e. older than 40. As an aside, I can't understand why a woman is considered to be a 'veteran' (mistress...?) at 35, whereas men only reach this grade at 40. Surely, it makes the mistresses feel 'old' at a rather early age, doesn't it? Anyway, that's beside the point.
Even now, at 46, when I line up for a race I'm very much in the middle of the pack as far as age is concerned. The impression I get is that I'm younger than a good proportion of my competitors. Which is all good news. Not only do many runners keep enjoying their activity practically into old age, but they also manage to clock in some quite excellent times.
In fact, long distance running is considered by many to be a sport for "mature" people. Whereas in most sports the best performances are obtained in the mid to late twenties, in long distance running, and particularly the marathon, it's very common for the top performers to be in the middle thirties. After that, age does start to have an effect on performance, but the decline is gradual, and hardly as dramatic as for other sports. One reason could be that long distance running is a combination of physical AND mental effort. You need to be very disciplined and mentally focussed to maintain the long-term regularity of training for a marathon, and this you acquire through life experience. One other reason may be that it doesn't involve the severe momentary stresses required by other sports. So, while there are probably hundreds of thousands of long distance runners who are over 60 throughout the world, you would find many less sprinters of that age.
If you're over 40 and just beginning to run, in fact even if you don't do any sport at all, you should carry out a general check-up of your state of health every one or at the most two years. If you don't have any particular problems, then you should have no problem whatsoever to take up, or to keep on, running. What you will notice, and this is inevitable unless you're a walking miracle, is that your performances will start to deteriorate slightly. It will become increasingly difficult to establish a personal best time at any distance. But if you train well it will still be possible to overtake a good number of rivals, most of them younger than you, during races. You may also aim to obtain an improvement on your performance the previous year or several years. This is perfectly possible. Besides, you can still aim to beat the 'usual' rivals, who are also not getting any younger.
Or you could take a different approach, and start a collection of completed marathons. For a marathon, the completion time doesn't matter very much. Whether it's sub-3 hours or 5-hours, a completed marathon is still another feather in your cap. If you just accept the fact that you're no longer at the very peak of your physical strength, you will be very happy if you manage to keep your optimum fitness. You will both feel as well as look younger than your contemporaries. Allow more time for recovery from strenuous training sessions, like very long runs and speed sessions, and (the overriding golden rule for all ages) don't overdo it. This, plus a sensible lifestyle with no exaggerated excesses and a slight dose of good luck should enable you to reach a well-advanced age in good shape.
That would be a great life achievement!
For the time being, most of us have a good lot of things to look forward to before we can crow about this achievement. Such as Weeks 22 to 25 of our beginners' schedule to running a marathon, which doesn't vary much, by the way, whether you're 28 or 58. We're now beginning to get close to our target. Here are my suggested workouts:
Monday to Sunday, easy pace, unless indicated otherwise:
Week 22: rest, 10k, 10k tempo, rest, 10k, rest, 2hr
Week 23: rest, 10k, 10k tempo, rest, 10k, rest, race / forced stoppage / 10k
Week 24: rest, 10k, 10k tempo, rest, 10k, rest, 2hr15
Week 25: rest, 10k, 10k tempo, rest, 10k, rest, 2hr15
Enjoy your running!
In the beginning, I used to think that sports was only for young people. This is hardly surprising, since most people do in fact have that opinion. Football players retire from the game in their middle thirties. So do practically all other sports persons. A 40-year-old sports champion is a remarkable exception.
So imagine my surprise when I found out, as I took up running at the age of around 28, that a good proportion of runners are what used to be called 'veterans', and nowadays 'masters', i.e. older than 40. As an aside, I can't understand why a woman is considered to be a 'veteran' (mistress...?) at 35, whereas men only reach this grade at 40. Surely, it makes the mistresses feel 'old' at a rather early age, doesn't it? Anyway, that's beside the point.
Even now, at 46, when I line up for a race I'm very much in the middle of the pack as far as age is concerned. The impression I get is that I'm younger than a good proportion of my competitors. Which is all good news. Not only do many runners keep enjoying their activity practically into old age, but they also manage to clock in some quite excellent times.
In fact, long distance running is considered by many to be a sport for "mature" people. Whereas in most sports the best performances are obtained in the mid to late twenties, in long distance running, and particularly the marathon, it's very common for the top performers to be in the middle thirties. After that, age does start to have an effect on performance, but the decline is gradual, and hardly as dramatic as for other sports. One reason could be that long distance running is a combination of physical AND mental effort. You need to be very disciplined and mentally focussed to maintain the long-term regularity of training for a marathon, and this you acquire through life experience. One other reason may be that it doesn't involve the severe momentary stresses required by other sports. So, while there are probably hundreds of thousands of long distance runners who are over 60 throughout the world, you would find many less sprinters of that age.
If you're over 40 and just beginning to run, in fact even if you don't do any sport at all, you should carry out a general check-up of your state of health every one or at the most two years. If you don't have any particular problems, then you should have no problem whatsoever to take up, or to keep on, running. What you will notice, and this is inevitable unless you're a walking miracle, is that your performances will start to deteriorate slightly. It will become increasingly difficult to establish a personal best time at any distance. But if you train well it will still be possible to overtake a good number of rivals, most of them younger than you, during races. You may also aim to obtain an improvement on your performance the previous year or several years. This is perfectly possible. Besides, you can still aim to beat the 'usual' rivals, who are also not getting any younger.
Or you could take a different approach, and start a collection of completed marathons. For a marathon, the completion time doesn't matter very much. Whether it's sub-3 hours or 5-hours, a completed marathon is still another feather in your cap. If you just accept the fact that you're no longer at the very peak of your physical strength, you will be very happy if you manage to keep your optimum fitness. You will both feel as well as look younger than your contemporaries. Allow more time for recovery from strenuous training sessions, like very long runs and speed sessions, and (the overriding golden rule for all ages) don't overdo it. This, plus a sensible lifestyle with no exaggerated excesses and a slight dose of good luck should enable you to reach a well-advanced age in good shape.
That would be a great life achievement!
For the time being, most of us have a good lot of things to look forward to before we can crow about this achievement. Such as Weeks 22 to 25 of our beginners' schedule to running a marathon, which doesn't vary much, by the way, whether you're 28 or 58. We're now beginning to get close to our target. Here are my suggested workouts:
Monday to Sunday, easy pace, unless indicated otherwise:
Week 22: rest, 10k, 10k tempo, rest, 10k, rest, 2hr
Week 23: rest, 10k, 10k tempo, rest, 10k, rest, race / forced stoppage / 10k
Week 24: rest, 10k, 10k tempo, rest, 10k, rest, 2hr15
Week 25: rest, 10k, 10k tempo, rest, 10k, rest, 2hr15
Enjoy your running!
Monday, February 16, 2009
Capital Radio strikes again
Unfortunately, I don't have much time for blogging these days, also due to fierce competition from Facebook, plus a new addiction to Twirl, from which I hope to snap out very soon!
But today, good old Capital Radio gave me a good reason to add a linguistic gripe, that I haven't had since too long, possibly also because I haven't been listening to a lot of radio either. My favourite online radio station is really the tops where commercials are concerned. This one has been aired for months, but I never got round to denounce it. This is how it goes:
"Do you enjoy laughing at yourself, or do you like to laugh at other people?" The ad kicks off with this message to draw the listeners' attention. It's intended to publicise some "comedy" show, Maltese style, on Maltese TV. It's one of my life's biggest regrets that I haven't ever been able to watch it yet... (please note carefully: irony flag raised high)
Now, the scriptwriter probably intended the question to target listeners who like to laugh at themselves as well as at others. But the way it was written was ambiguous, and the female voice, that in the past famously placed the pop singer Madonna in the Christmas crib, interpreted it this way: "Do you enjoy laughing at yourself, or do you [prefer] to laugh at other people?" She doesn't actually use the word "prefer", but the way she intonates "like" in the second part of the question has exactly that meaning. The message conveyed is this: you can EITHER enjoy laughing at yourself OR like to laugh at other people. In that case, the ad proceeds with a colossal non sequitur, you should watch the comedy show whatever it is: it's so funny!
If the scriptwriting and its interpretation for this comedy show are anything similar to the quality of the advert, the Blackadder gang's efforts would pale into insignificance by comparison.
They then add the recording of a laughing clown at the very end of the ad. YUCK!
But today, good old Capital Radio gave me a good reason to add a linguistic gripe, that I haven't had since too long, possibly also because I haven't been listening to a lot of radio either. My favourite online radio station is really the tops where commercials are concerned. This one has been aired for months, but I never got round to denounce it. This is how it goes:
"Do you enjoy laughing at yourself, or do you like to laugh at other people?" The ad kicks off with this message to draw the listeners' attention. It's intended to publicise some "comedy" show, Maltese style, on Maltese TV. It's one of my life's biggest regrets that I haven't ever been able to watch it yet... (please note carefully: irony flag raised high)
Now, the scriptwriter probably intended the question to target listeners who like to laugh at themselves as well as at others. But the way it was written was ambiguous, and the female voice, that in the past famously placed the pop singer Madonna in the Christmas crib, interpreted it this way: "Do you enjoy laughing at yourself, or do you [prefer] to laugh at other people?" She doesn't actually use the word "prefer", but the way she intonates "like" in the second part of the question has exactly that meaning. The message conveyed is this: you can EITHER enjoy laughing at yourself OR like to laugh at other people. In that case, the ad proceeds with a colossal non sequitur, you should watch the comedy show whatever it is: it's so funny!
If the scriptwriting and its interpretation for this comedy show are anything similar to the quality of the advert, the Blackadder gang's efforts would pale into insignificance by comparison.
They then add the recording of a laughing clown at the very end of the ad. YUCK!
Friday, February 13, 2009
How to run a marathon - 13 - forced breaks
Continued from How to run a marathon (parts 0 to 12).
While running is a life-long commitment, a marathon is a bit less than that. But only a bit. It's still a long-term commitment.Last summer (that's seven months ago) I was forced by a hamstring injury to stop for an extended period and re-start my training from the very beginning - literally from 10-minute jogs. I have now managed to build up my fitness so that in just about two weeks I should be running my tenth marathon. It's taken me seven months, but I had seventeen years of experience in running, which helped me progress from zero fitness to marathon level in just seven months. A complete beginner should allow close to a year of build-up to a marathon, including several middle-distance races and preferably a half marathon.
Whichever way you look at it, it's a long term venture, and because of this any aspiring marathoner is bound to encounter pitfalls along the way that will force him or her to stop training for a certain period.
I would categorise forced stoppages from training into three: life- or work-related commitments, illness or injury, and the same adage applies for them all - prevention is better than cure. Let's consider them one by one.
Training for long-distance running necessarily involves several sessions per week. You need to establish a routine for the time when you do your training. I have recently found the midday break to be particularly convenient. You could of course prefer the evening, or the very first thing in the morning. In fact, whenever something crops up that prevents me from running at midday, I wake up early and finish off my daily training first thing in the morning. It's a last resort, and never an easy task, more so during winter! Still, if you're really determined to accomplish your training, early in the morning is probably the best option if you have an unpredictable daily schedule. As far as non-running related commitments are concerned, this is really a matter for you to decide. Basically, it's a matter of priority: if you wish to train, you somehow set time aside for it. Otherwise, you need to postpone the whole thing to a period of your life when you can afford to allocate the necessary time.
There are other, less dramatic causes that may make you miss training. Holidays abroad are notorious routine breakers. Saturday night parties are difficult to reconcile with an early morning Sunday long run, and you might probably need to give the big session a miss the day following such occasions. As long as this doesn't develop into a routine, it isn't a problem at all, and you will be perfectly able to resume your schedule the following week.
Then there is illness, which for most runners is the main cause of forced stoppages in training. I have experienced so many common cold infections that I've learned to immediately recognise the early symptions in my throat, sometimes even in the middle of the night in my sleep. Whenever this happens, I resign myself to the fact that I will need to endure the annoying process of this malady for a week. Also annoying is the fact that my training suffers from an unexpected setback. It's not a good idea to train through a cold, as you risk making matters much worse. Consider it an occasion to rest your muscles. Your rule of thumb for whether you should run or not is this: if you feel like going out for a run, you're probably fit enough to run. If you don't feel like running, it means you're still sick and shouldn't run. NEVER RUN IF YOU HAVE A FEVER! Or against your doctor's advice. There's no comparison whatsoever between the importance of going out for a training run and the maintenance or recovery of your good health.
Once you feel well enough to be able to run, take it easy in the beginning of your comeback. Ease back into your schedule to the point where you had broken off, avoiding anything stressful like a speed session or a long run on the day of your return to training. If the stoppage is not much more than a week long, you shouldn't notice any difference at all in your form. In fact, it's said that well trained runners maintain their fitness level through three weeks of stoppage. What should you do if you JUST manage to recover in time for a race for which you had already applied? [In a whisper:] Don't tell anyone, but I have to admit that I give it a try, applying the rule I mentioned earlier - if I feel like taking part it means that I'm fit enough to do it... Just keep in mind, as you race, of the fact that you shouldn't expect any personal best at that event, and give up at once if you feel unwell.
Of course, the ideal would be to avoid getting ill in the first place. In fact there are some precautions that can help you minimise the risks. There's a continuous controversy in the medical world about the effectiveness of Vitamin C in boosting immunity. Some say it only has a placebo effect. Others say it's really effective. I take 500mg of the prolonged release type each morning with my coffee, and it does seem to be effective since whenever I try to get by without it I'm soon after struck down by a cold. Precautions you should take include avoiding crowded closed spaces, such as buses, trains or closed chambers with lots of coughing people. If you cannot avoid such situations, and sometimes you really cannot, close your mouth and breathe only through your nose. If someone is evidently suffering from a cold (red nose, sniffling, sneezing, coughing), stay the maximum distance possible away from them. Think nothing of leaving your seat and going into another cabin. They may be a bit offended, but it's still not the end of the world for them...
This leaves us with the vast subject of injuries. It's not my intention here to describe the symptoms or treatment of any one of them. Rather, I will stress again the fact that it's so much better to seek to avoid them, through avoiding overtraining, sudden changes in training intensity or distances, and running through pain. The golden rule is for increases in training and physical and mental stress to be gradual, otherwise your body will not have time to adapt to them, with inevitable consequences.
However, it does happen, unfortunately, even though you're careful, that an injury prevents you from running. It's a frustrating situation, particularly if you have reached a good level of fitness and are forced to stop training, and watch other people jog along the pavement as you're driving. You're aware that your level of fitness is ebbing away with each day of inactivity. Sometimes it's just possible that a few days of rest are sufficient for a full recovery. If that's really the case consider yourself lucky. I've had hamstring strains that prevented me from running for months. I would try running every two weeks, and had to postpone each time as I realised I still couldn't run. In such situations my friends ask me if I'm seeing someone, or if I'm taking anything for a cure. No, I don't. I may be wrong, but it saves me loads of money, besides which I don't think I'm wrong. The way I treat my (thankfully rare) injuries is simple and straightforward: complete rest. Time heals.
Depending on how long you have been inactive, you may need to re-start building up your fitness from scratch, although you will not have lost any of the experience gained in your previous training. In fact, the injury plus the recovery phase themselves constitute further valuable experience. You will also gain, in the process, one very important factor that may well have waned considerably before the injury: renewed sky-high motivation.
Of course, hopefully none of the above minor catastrophes will happen to you, and you're merrily embarking on your 18th week of the beginner's guide to running a marathon. If that is the case, this and the following weeks would be more or less as follows:
Monday to Sunday (easy pace unless otherwise indicated):
Week 18 - rest, 10k, 10k tempo, rest, 10k, rest, 1h45min
Week 19 - rest, 10k, 10k intervals, rest, 10k, rest, race/forced stoppage/10k/no long run
Week 20 - rest, 10k, 10k tempo, rest, 10k, rest, 2hr
Week 21 - rest, 10k, 10k intervals, rest, 10k, rest, 2hr
Enjoy your running!
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Some good news from Malta, at last!
Some good news from Malta, at last!
"R11 million for restoration of Valletta bastions
by Annaliza Borg
Valletta bastions are to be fully restored to their original glory and areas which to date are inaccessible will be reopened for public enjoyment, officers within the government restoration unit told The Malta Independent.
The project is estimated to cost E11 million and is being conducted by the Resources and Rural Affairs Ministry with assistance of EU funds under the European Regional Development Fund 2007 - 2013. [...]" http://www.independent.com.mt/news.asp?newsitemid=82951
I suppose in the title it should be EUR, or €, not R which might give the idea that it's the Russians providing 11 million roubles for the project. But never mind the linguistic quibbles. This is one project to whose completion I really look forward. Well done, whoever is responsible for the idea. Hopefully, the work itself will be top notch quality.
"R11 million for restoration of Valletta bastions
by Annaliza Borg
Valletta bastions are to be fully restored to their original glory and areas which to date are inaccessible will be reopened for public enjoyment, officers within the government restoration unit told The Malta Independent.
The project is estimated to cost E11 million and is being conducted by the Resources and Rural Affairs Ministry with assistance of EU funds under the European Regional Development Fund 2007 - 2013. [...]" http://www.independent.com.mt/news.asp?newsitemid=82951
I suppose in the title it should be EUR, or €, not R which might give the idea that it's the Russians providing 11 million roubles for the project. But never mind the linguistic quibbles. This is one project to whose completion I really look forward. Well done, whoever is responsible for the idea. Hopefully, the work itself will be top notch quality.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Scrambled signal
Italy and Brazil today face each other at the Emirates Stadium in England. It's a prestigious friendly encounter between the two nations that have won most World Cups. At 8:30 I sat down on the sofa to watch the match - only to find out that the signal had been scrambled by RAI. Damn! Apparently, they are only entitled to broadcast the match on Italian territory. To watch the match in Belgium, I needed to have paid hundreds of euro for a yearly subscription with the Belgian sports channel, for the great privilege of watching the Jupiler Belgian league matches, and the Bundesliga...
I used to be passionate about football. That's when I was allowed to watch it being played. Now that this is becoming ever less possible, the interest is waning. I already prefer browsing the internet or blogging for a good part of the time when there is actually some football on TV. Soon I won't bother checking if their precious matches are free to air or scrambled. Let them enjoy counting their millions on their own.
I used to be passionate about football. That's when I was allowed to watch it being played. Now that this is becoming ever less possible, the interest is waning. I already prefer browsing the internet or blogging for a good part of the time when there is actually some football on TV. Soon I won't bother checking if their precious matches are free to air or scrambled. Let them enjoy counting their millions on their own.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
21st century crusaders
I get so upset when people who I like and respect jump on the anti-illegal immigrants bandwagon. It's because I hold them in high regard, and because I cannot understand how they harbour such praiseworthy values and then go align themselves with a bunch of racists and xenophobes.
A group of 21st century crusaders want to "save Malta" from illegal immigrants. What exactly do they have in mind? What's this great danger facing our nation, from which it needs to be saved? Are those Africans, who are so desperate as to risk their lives by crossing the Mediterranean sea in a leaking bathtub, only to end up in a concentration camp in Malta, going to eat the Maltese population alive?
Instead of boasting and preaching about our Christian values and our hospitality, wouldn't it be a better idea to actually put them into practice? We could start by looking up the meaning of the word "solidarity".
A group of 21st century crusaders want to "save Malta" from illegal immigrants. What exactly do they have in mind? What's this great danger facing our nation, from which it needs to be saved? Are those Africans, who are so desperate as to risk their lives by crossing the Mediterranean sea in a leaking bathtub, only to end up in a concentration camp in Malta, going to eat the Maltese population alive?
Instead of boasting and preaching about our Christian values and our hospitality, wouldn't it be a better idea to actually put them into practice? We could start by looking up the meaning of the word "solidarity".
Thursday, February 5, 2009
How gullible can people be!
I was looking for something to write about, and it appeared right in front of my eyes, in the shape of an advert - for "professional" horoscopes. Indeed, in this day and age, people actually pay other people good money so that these latter can tell them their future, based on the relative positions of planets and stars that are many light years away and apart.
Now a light year is a long, long distance. It's more than 9 million kilometres, for a million times. A modern passenger plane would have had to start a flight earlier than the appearance of mankind on earth, more than a million years in the past, and keep on flying up till today to go that far. And that's less than a quarter of the way to the nearest star, which is 4.3 light years away. Most stars that we can see in the night sky are dozens and even hundreds of light years distant. No one has ever and will ever be able to show how the position of some (but not all) of the planets against the backdrop of distant stars as seen from planet earth, that some remote ancestors on dope imagined had the shapes of bulls and virgins, should have any effect whatsoever on human affairs. I don't think the people who are duped into paying money for a horoscope ever pause to reflect on this reality.
"Send an sms to thingummy to receive your horoscope", says an ad each morning on the Italian Canale 5, whose repeated morning news in brief includes a horoscope, thus elevating the channel to trash status. The same can be said of numerous other TV programmes, websites, newspapers and publications the world over.
Astrology should be outlawed, as should all adverts with false claims about the products they're trying to sell. It's an activity aimed at extracting money from gullible people, and purports to offer a service that is entirely fallacious. As such, it is therefore sheer fraud, pure and simple.
Oh why, but why don't people take an interest in astronomy instead? It's such a fascinating universe, provoking profound reflections on the meaning of our existence and our place in the cosmos! I really can't understand how people can be so shallow. Could it just be a lack of education? It's such a pity, and so frustrating.
What's your star sign? I don't have any, thank you very much.
Now a light year is a long, long distance. It's more than 9 million kilometres, for a million times. A modern passenger plane would have had to start a flight earlier than the appearance of mankind on earth, more than a million years in the past, and keep on flying up till today to go that far. And that's less than a quarter of the way to the nearest star, which is 4.3 light years away. Most stars that we can see in the night sky are dozens and even hundreds of light years distant. No one has ever and will ever be able to show how the position of some (but not all) of the planets against the backdrop of distant stars as seen from planet earth, that some remote ancestors on dope imagined had the shapes of bulls and virgins, should have any effect whatsoever on human affairs. I don't think the people who are duped into paying money for a horoscope ever pause to reflect on this reality.
"Send an sms to thingummy to receive your horoscope", says an ad each morning on the Italian Canale 5, whose repeated morning news in brief includes a horoscope, thus elevating the channel to trash status. The same can be said of numerous other TV programmes, websites, newspapers and publications the world over.
Astrology should be outlawed, as should all adverts with false claims about the products they're trying to sell. It's an activity aimed at extracting money from gullible people, and purports to offer a service that is entirely fallacious. As such, it is therefore sheer fraud, pure and simple.
Oh why, but why don't people take an interest in astronomy instead? It's such a fascinating universe, provoking profound reflections on the meaning of our existence and our place in the cosmos! I really can't understand how people can be so shallow. Could it just be a lack of education? It's such a pity, and so frustrating.
What's your star sign? I don't have any, thank you very much.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
The Antonian Calendar
Come to think of it, there are so many things we take for granted when it comes to time and the calendar. Let's consider the beginning of the year: January. That's an entirely arbitrarily chosen start to the year. It could just as well have been November, or April. Actually, considering the names September, October, November and December, it would make more sense for the year to start in March, so that way September would be the seventh month, etc.
However, since the year is based on the progression of the seasons, one would expect the beginning of the year to be somehow connected to this fact. The ideal would have been the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, from which moment the day would become progressively longer to reach a peak in midsummer and then start to shorten and die down to a minimum at the end of the year. It would have been ideal, but it's not worth the considerable trouble of deleting 10 days off our present calendar just to have our years beginning at the winter solstice.
Why a twelve-month year? I suppose because arithmetically the number 12 is more convenient than 13, which is almost the exact number of moon (month) cycles in one year. So it was decided some time in the distant past that the number of months would be in synch with the seasons - three months per season (it would have been impossible with 13 months) - by distributing the days making up the 13th month between the remaining twelve, hence the present 30/31/28/29-day long mix.
So, now that they have been divorced from the moon cycle, the months are not related to anything at all. In fact, if we were not so much used to receiving a wage at monthly intervals, and if we were not so much attached to certain dates - our own birthdays, April fools' day, 25 December and so on - we would really not need to have any months at all. To stay in theme with the seasonal cycle, which is in actual reality what the year is all about, we might as well have just four "months", or rather seasons, and name them winter, spring, summer and autumn. The dates would be the following:
Winter 1, Winter 2, ... Winter 91, Spring 1, Spring 2, ..., ..., Autumn 91, New Year's Eve. The latter would be a bonus day that would complete the 365-day cycle. On leap years, it would be preceded by Leap Day.
This would be the perfect calendar, which could also accomodate another unrelated day naming cycle, which is also meaningless, that is superimposed on our own calendar that we know so well. I'm referring to the week days, which originated in the mists of time, when the roaming visible planets (they had no telescopes in those times) were gods who gave their names to seven different days, which was the period taken by the moon to change its shape by a quarter. Obviously, 7 was decreed by the gods to be a magical number, besides which seven days was a convenient interval to have a day off work.
Like the meaningless parts of DNA that were copied from generation to generation for billions of years, the 7-day week remained intact throughout history, and will probably survive until the end of civilisation. Whatever calendar system one considers, it will need to have a 7-day week superimposed on it. So, besides a day being called Winter 1, or January 1, it also needs to be called by another name, which is Monday... or Friday... or Thursday... or ... what? You can never know in which day of the week a particular date will happen to fall, because the weeks drift each year.
That's unless we adopt a neat trick to defeat the fact that 365 isn't exactly divisible by 7. You get a remainder of one, which can be taken out of the whole system, and on that nameless day we hang on for dear life and desperately wait 24 hours until we can get back to our beloved day-of-the-week denomination. No. I have a better idea. We have a 24-hour long party, and call it New Year's Eve. New Year's Day would then be, ALWAYS, Sunday 1 January, or Sunday 1 Winter according to the seasons-inspired calendar described above. Each year, all dates would always fall on the same week day, so that (quoting the Wikipedia entry on the World Calendar):
The season-inspired calendar, then, would consist of four seasons of exactly 13 weeks each, all starting on a Sunday, and ending on a Saturday. In a leap year, we have two bonus days, which can be named Leap Day and New Year's Eve. This would mean a 4-day long weekend starting on Saturday, Autumn 91, and ending on Sunday, Winter 1. An ordinary 365-day long year, would end with a three-day long weekend: Sat Aut 91, New Year's Eve, Sun Win 01.
I do realise, however, that doing away with the 12-month system would be too disruptive to our society. As I said earlier, we are too attached to certain dates to simply write them off. And there are too many activities that are intimately bound with the monthly interval. Let's face it, we love our twelve months. Each one of them has developed a character that is particular for every one of us.
So, here is my proposal for a calendar that keeps the same week day for each date, not only within each year, but also keeps the same weekday for each day of each month. It's easy to memorise, even if you have a weak memory.
All the months are exactly the same, except for the names, and the weather conditions. They will each commence on a Sunday, and will consist of four weeks:
Sunday 1st to Saturday 7th
Sunday 8th to Saturday 14th
Sunday 15th to Saturday 21st
Sunday 22nd to Saturday 28th
Bonus days - 29, 30 - in between Saturday 28th and Sunday 1st, making a nice long weekend.
Dead easy to remember. Yes, there will be a Friday the 13th each month instead of an average of once every 7 months. Oh dear, how scary. I think it's about time we grew up and stopped believing such silly superstitions.
Twelve 30-day months gives 360 days, and leaves us with five days on our hands. We will need to revive an ancient Roman tradition, which gave rise to the modern day Christmas holiday period, and invent a new one to celebrate the peak of summer. The extra five days can be distributed as follows: Estivalia I, Estivalia II, Estivalia III inserted between 30 July and 1 August (a lovely 7-day summer break - or winter break in the southern hemisphere), and Saturnalia I, Saturnalia II between 30 December and 1 January (6-day Christmas break). Leap years will enjoy an additional Saturnalia III.
Each month will end with a long weekend, consisting of four days. Saturday, 2 days with no name, and Sunday. Too many holidays? Not really. In fact the present calendar and the proposed calendar would have practically the same number of days off work. Let's compare:
Present (Gregorian) calendar:
52 weekends = 104 days
an additional approx. 12 public holidays
optional vacation leave: 24 days
average "sick" leave: 8 days
Total days off work: 148 days
Proposed (Antonian) calendar:
48 weekends = 96 days
'Bonus' days (2 per month) = 24 days
Estivalia (between July and August) = 3 days
Saturnalia (between December and January) = 2 days
"Sick" leave (you are officially allowed to use them all, even if you're not sick) = 23 days
Total days off work: 148 days
Some other features of the Antonian calendar
Christmas: most people take the end of year festival very seriously, so it needs to be considered carefully. The date itself of Christmas day would need to shift. The dates would be Friday 27 Dec (Christmas Eve), Saturday 28 Dec (Christmas Day), 29 December, 30 December, Saturnalia I, Saturnalia II (New Year's Eve), Sunday 1 January. As is customary in the present system, one might add a few days of "sick" leave (given an alternative politically correct name) before and/or after the whole shebang, et voilà, Christmas is well and truly catered for, with non-essential services workers all getting a 6-day break from work (7 days in leap years).
Public holidays: national feasts and commemorations are celebrated in the 'bonus' days without weekday name, or during a weekend. To take the case of Malta, with which I'm most familiar:
New Year's Day - Sunday 1 January (no change)
St Paul's shipwreck - Sunday 8 February
St Joseph's feast - Sunday 22 March
Jum il-Ħelsien - 30 March
Workers' Day - Sunday 1 May (no change)
Sette Giugno - Saturday 7 June (so the name can stay the same...)
L-Imnarja - 29 June (no change)
Santa Marija / Ferragosto / Assumption Day - Sunday 15 August (no change)
Il-Vitorja - Sunday 8 September (no change)
Jum l-Indipendenza - Saturday 21 September (no change)
Il-Kunċizzjoni - Sunday 8 December (no change)
Jum ir-Repubblika - Sunday 15 December
The beauty of this calendar is that I never needed to check to work out the day of the week of all these dates! And an incredible 8 out of 12 holidays would keep exactly the same date. Others would need to shift by a couple of days. It's happened before, and in fact it's even now the practice in Malta to celebrate Ascension Day and the Epiphany (and previously several other religious feasts) on the Sunday closest to the actual date.
Estivalia: this is similar to Saturnalia, but it's inserted between July and August. Here the sequence is Saturday 28 July, 29 July, 30 July, Estivalia I, Estivalia II, Estivalia III, Sunday 1 August. A seven-day summer/winter holiday, to which one can again add a few days of "sick" leave...
Easter: there is no fixed date for Easter, and the endless shifting of this feast and so many others that are strictly fixed to it causes so much trouble to fixers of schedules of whatever organisation. But I doubt if any religion will ever accept decoupling the date of Easter from that of the full moon, so I guess we'll have to live with this constant shifting. In some countries Good Friday is a public holiday, and the Antonian calendar would need to acknowledge this. Governments might decide, then, in order to recover the day of productivity lost due to this feast, to allocate 22 instead of 23 days of "sick" leave...
That's it. The Antonian Calendar is invented, and in a few minutes it's going to be published. It was an enjoyable trip of speculation on the way we might organise our days. I think it would be a fun calendar. It will of course have no impact whatsoever on human civilisation. So why did I bother writing all this? Well, I've been figuring it out for such a long time, that it would be a pity not to share it with you, dear reader. Good night!
However, since the year is based on the progression of the seasons, one would expect the beginning of the year to be somehow connected to this fact. The ideal would have been the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, from which moment the day would become progressively longer to reach a peak in midsummer and then start to shorten and die down to a minimum at the end of the year. It would have been ideal, but it's not worth the considerable trouble of deleting 10 days off our present calendar just to have our years beginning at the winter solstice.
Why a twelve-month year? I suppose because arithmetically the number 12 is more convenient than 13, which is almost the exact number of moon (month) cycles in one year. So it was decided some time in the distant past that the number of months would be in synch with the seasons - three months per season (it would have been impossible with 13 months) - by distributing the days making up the 13th month between the remaining twelve, hence the present 30/31/28/29-day long mix.
So, now that they have been divorced from the moon cycle, the months are not related to anything at all. In fact, if we were not so much used to receiving a wage at monthly intervals, and if we were not so much attached to certain dates - our own birthdays, April fools' day, 25 December and so on - we would really not need to have any months at all. To stay in theme with the seasonal cycle, which is in actual reality what the year is all about, we might as well have just four "months", or rather seasons, and name them winter, spring, summer and autumn. The dates would be the following:
Winter 1, Winter 2, ... Winter 91, Spring 1, Spring 2, ..., ..., Autumn 91, New Year's Eve. The latter would be a bonus day that would complete the 365-day cycle. On leap years, it would be preceded by Leap Day.
This would be the perfect calendar, which could also accomodate another unrelated day naming cycle, which is also meaningless, that is superimposed on our own calendar that we know so well. I'm referring to the week days, which originated in the mists of time, when the roaming visible planets (they had no telescopes in those times) were gods who gave their names to seven different days, which was the period taken by the moon to change its shape by a quarter. Obviously, 7 was decreed by the gods to be a magical number, besides which seven days was a convenient interval to have a day off work.
Like the meaningless parts of DNA that were copied from generation to generation for billions of years, the 7-day week remained intact throughout history, and will probably survive until the end of civilisation. Whatever calendar system one considers, it will need to have a 7-day week superimposed on it. So, besides a day being called Winter 1, or January 1, it also needs to be called by another name, which is Monday... or Friday... or Thursday... or ... what? You can never know in which day of the week a particular date will happen to fall, because the weeks drift each year.
That's unless we adopt a neat trick to defeat the fact that 365 isn't exactly divisible by 7. You get a remainder of one, which can be taken out of the whole system, and on that nameless day we hang on for dear life and desperately wait 24 hours until we can get back to our beloved day-of-the-week denomination. No. I have a better idea. We have a 24-hour long party, and call it New Year's Eve. New Year's Day would then be, ALWAYS, Sunday 1 January, or Sunday 1 Winter according to the seasons-inspired calendar described above. Each year, all dates would always fall on the same week day, so that (quoting the Wikipedia entry on the World Calendar):
In each year, every weekday is assigned to the same date. Quarterly statistics
are easier to compare, since the four quarters are the same length each
year. Economic savings occur from less need to print calendars because only
the year number changes. Work and school schedules do not need to
unnecessarily reinvent themselves, at great expense, year after
year. [The calendar] can be memorized by anyone and used similarly
to a clock [and] there is no need to change out copies of it every year.
The season-inspired calendar, then, would consist of four seasons of exactly 13 weeks each, all starting on a Sunday, and ending on a Saturday. In a leap year, we have two bonus days, which can be named Leap Day and New Year's Eve. This would mean a 4-day long weekend starting on Saturday, Autumn 91, and ending on Sunday, Winter 1. An ordinary 365-day long year, would end with a three-day long weekend: Sat Aut 91, New Year's Eve, Sun Win 01.
I do realise, however, that doing away with the 12-month system would be too disruptive to our society. As I said earlier, we are too attached to certain dates to simply write them off. And there are too many activities that are intimately bound with the monthly interval. Let's face it, we love our twelve months. Each one of them has developed a character that is particular for every one of us.
So, here is my proposal for a calendar that keeps the same week day for each date, not only within each year, but also keeps the same weekday for each day of each month. It's easy to memorise, even if you have a weak memory.
All the months are exactly the same, except for the names, and the weather conditions. They will each commence on a Sunday, and will consist of four weeks:
Sunday 1st to Saturday 7th
Sunday 8th to Saturday 14th
Sunday 15th to Saturday 21st
Sunday 22nd to Saturday 28th
Bonus days - 29, 30 - in between Saturday 28th and Sunday 1st, making a nice long weekend.
Dead easy to remember. Yes, there will be a Friday the 13th each month instead of an average of once every 7 months. Oh dear, how scary. I think it's about time we grew up and stopped believing such silly superstitions.
Twelve 30-day months gives 360 days, and leaves us with five days on our hands. We will need to revive an ancient Roman tradition, which gave rise to the modern day Christmas holiday period, and invent a new one to celebrate the peak of summer. The extra five days can be distributed as follows: Estivalia I, Estivalia II, Estivalia III inserted between 30 July and 1 August (a lovely 7-day summer break - or winter break in the southern hemisphere), and Saturnalia I, Saturnalia II between 30 December and 1 January (6-day Christmas break). Leap years will enjoy an additional Saturnalia III.
Each month will end with a long weekend, consisting of four days. Saturday, 2 days with no name, and Sunday. Too many holidays? Not really. In fact the present calendar and the proposed calendar would have practically the same number of days off work. Let's compare:
Present (Gregorian) calendar:
52 weekends = 104 days
an additional approx. 12 public holidays
optional vacation leave: 24 days
average "sick" leave: 8 days
Total days off work: 148 days
Proposed (Antonian) calendar:
48 weekends = 96 days
'Bonus' days (2 per month) = 24 days
Estivalia (between July and August) = 3 days
Saturnalia (between December and January) = 2 days
"Sick" leave (you are officially allowed to use them all, even if you're not sick) = 23 days
Total days off work: 148 days
Some other features of the Antonian calendar
Christmas: most people take the end of year festival very seriously, so it needs to be considered carefully. The date itself of Christmas day would need to shift. The dates would be Friday 27 Dec (Christmas Eve), Saturday 28 Dec (Christmas Day), 29 December, 30 December, Saturnalia I, Saturnalia II (New Year's Eve), Sunday 1 January. As is customary in the present system, one might add a few days of "sick" leave (given an alternative politically correct name) before and/or after the whole shebang, et voilà, Christmas is well and truly catered for, with non-essential services workers all getting a 6-day break from work (7 days in leap years).
Public holidays: national feasts and commemorations are celebrated in the 'bonus' days without weekday name, or during a weekend. To take the case of Malta, with which I'm most familiar:
New Year's Day - Sunday 1 January (no change)
St Paul's shipwreck - Sunday 8 February
St Joseph's feast - Sunday 22 March
Jum il-Ħelsien - 30 March
Workers' Day - Sunday 1 May (no change)
Sette Giugno - Saturday 7 June (so the name can stay the same...)
L-Imnarja - 29 June (no change)
Santa Marija / Ferragosto / Assumption Day - Sunday 15 August (no change)
Il-Vitorja - Sunday 8 September (no change)
Jum l-Indipendenza - Saturday 21 September (no change)
Il-Kunċizzjoni - Sunday 8 December (no change)
Jum ir-Repubblika - Sunday 15 December
The beauty of this calendar is that I never needed to check to work out the day of the week of all these dates! And an incredible 8 out of 12 holidays would keep exactly the same date. Others would need to shift by a couple of days. It's happened before, and in fact it's even now the practice in Malta to celebrate Ascension Day and the Epiphany (and previously several other religious feasts) on the Sunday closest to the actual date.
Estivalia: this is similar to Saturnalia, but it's inserted between July and August. Here the sequence is Saturday 28 July, 29 July, 30 July, Estivalia I, Estivalia II, Estivalia III, Sunday 1 August. A seven-day summer/winter holiday, to which one can again add a few days of "sick" leave...
Easter: there is no fixed date for Easter, and the endless shifting of this feast and so many others that are strictly fixed to it causes so much trouble to fixers of schedules of whatever organisation. But I doubt if any religion will ever accept decoupling the date of Easter from that of the full moon, so I guess we'll have to live with this constant shifting. In some countries Good Friday is a public holiday, and the Antonian calendar would need to acknowledge this. Governments might decide, then, in order to recover the day of productivity lost due to this feast, to allocate 22 instead of 23 days of "sick" leave...
That's it. The Antonian Calendar is invented, and in a few minutes it's going to be published. It was an enjoyable trip of speculation on the way we might organise our days. I think it would be a fun calendar. It will of course have no impact whatsoever on human civilisation. So why did I bother writing all this? Well, I've been figuring it out for such a long time, that it would be a pity not to share it with you, dear reader. Good night!
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Les Hivernales de Boitsfort 2009 - 19,2km - 1h29:05
Less than one full day after blogging about how to run races, I joined over a thousand other running enthusiasts to brave the zero degrees plus windchill factor at the Avenue de la Hulpe, in Boitsfort, for the traditional Hivernales de Boitsfort ("the winter event of Boitsfort"), consisting of two concurrent races, a 10k and a 19,2k.
After tiring myself out too early at last December's Mdina - Spinola in Malta, today I made it a point to start cautiously. It could hardly be otherwise since the initial loop around a number of Boitsfort streets was very crowded. After a couple of kilometres we entered the Foret de Soignes, which was the rather hilly, but also pleasant and quiet setting for the remainder of the race.
For me, it was an exemplary race. After running about a third of the distance at a comfortably moderate pace, from the 7km mark I began to set my sights on the next runner ahead and aim to overtake them. This went on right until the finish, and I was happy to note that the long distance training of the past few months has been successful - I never, at any stage, felt tired. In fact I was hoping the race would last longer to enable me to overtake even more rivals.
It was therefore a bit of a disappointment for me, after what I considered to be such a strong run, to discover that the finishing time - 1h29:05 - was more than a minute worse than the previous year's. There may be various explanations for this. First of all, the fact that I'm not getting any younger means that statistically, all other factors being equal, my times are eventually bound to get worse. I may also have been over-cautious in the early stages, which would easily account for the extra minute. There's also the fact that my training is endurance- rather than speed-based. This last factor, i.e. that I'm better at long distances rather than at speedwork, is in fact quite encouraging in view of the Malta marathon that I should be running (flu and unknown other mishaps permitting) in four weeks' time.
Altogether, it was a very pleasant occasion, and I do hope to repeat the experience next year. Besides, a finishing position of 325 out of 931 finishers is not a bad placing at all.
After tiring myself out too early at last December's Mdina - Spinola in Malta, today I made it a point to start cautiously. It could hardly be otherwise since the initial loop around a number of Boitsfort streets was very crowded. After a couple of kilometres we entered the Foret de Soignes, which was the rather hilly, but also pleasant and quiet setting for the remainder of the race.
For me, it was an exemplary race. After running about a third of the distance at a comfortably moderate pace, from the 7km mark I began to set my sights on the next runner ahead and aim to overtake them. This went on right until the finish, and I was happy to note that the long distance training of the past few months has been successful - I never, at any stage, felt tired. In fact I was hoping the race would last longer to enable me to overtake even more rivals.
It was therefore a bit of a disappointment for me, after what I considered to be such a strong run, to discover that the finishing time - 1h29:05 - was more than a minute worse than the previous year's. There may be various explanations for this. First of all, the fact that I'm not getting any younger means that statistically, all other factors being equal, my times are eventually bound to get worse. I may also have been over-cautious in the early stages, which would easily account for the extra minute. There's also the fact that my training is endurance- rather than speed-based. This last factor, i.e. that I'm better at long distances rather than at speedwork, is in fact quite encouraging in view of the Malta marathon that I should be running (flu and unknown other mishaps permitting) in four weeks' time.
Altogether, it was a very pleasant occasion, and I do hope to repeat the experience next year. Besides, a finishing position of 325 out of 931 finishers is not a bad placing at all.
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