Saturday night, the kids are in bed, the chocolate biscuits come out, and the movie goes on.
Free Solo. This year’s Oscar Winner for best documentary.
It is seismic, fascinating, inspiring and extremely thought-provoking. About Alex Honnold’s attempt to climb El Capitan, an incredible natural wonder of a wall in Yosemite, without any ropes or gear.
I go to bed dreaming about Alex, wake up Sunday morning still thinking about Alex, and run my 20 miles contemplating Alex.
Even for someone who knows next to nothing about climbing (me), the documentary is still incredibly powerful. And I think, for me, it is the psychology of the feat that is so compelling. Alex has climbed the 3000ft ‘El Cap’ 40-50 times successfully with a rope as backup. But taking the safety rope away transforms the challenge into something entirely different.
Every once in a while, an athlete comes along and changes the game forever. I’m thinking; Michael Jordan, Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps, Tim Henman (just kidding). No one else in the world can even come close to achieving the same ‘free solo’ climbs that Alex is doing right now.
But lets get right to it, the brain bit. Alex is filmed taking an MRI scan, which picks up that his amygdala is severely under-active. Excuse me as I name drop a Commonwealth Champ into this paragraph; – Augustine Choge, lent me a book ages ago called Emotional Intelligence (Daniel Goleman), where I first heard about the part of the brain called the amygdala, and I quote:
Animals that have their amygdala removed, or severed, lack fear and rage
Tears, an emotional signal unique to humans, are triggered by the amygdala
One young man whose amygdala had been surgically removed to control severe seizures became completely uninterested in people, preferring to sit in isolation with no human contact
The filmaker of Free Solo does not expand into any of this, but I am painfully intrigued by it. It instantly reminded me of an account I read from Endure (Alex Hutchinson), about Ultra Runner, Diane Van Deren, who had brain surgery to cure her seizures. The operation was a success, but came with massive side effects; short-term memory loss and a distorted sense of time. These traits helped to make her a formidable ultra-runner.
“I could be out running for two weeks, but if someone told me it was day one of a race, I’d be like, ‘Great, let’s get started!’ “
After Alex Honnald achieves the climbing feat, (sorry if that’s a spoiler, but come on guys! It was all over the news, he was at the Oscars!) he can’t make himself cry. He does some chin ups, and goes back to sleep in his van, by himself.
That blows my mind. Maybe there is a human element MISSING, that makes these athletes so great.
I have a brilliant week, this week. Mondays are normally the hardest day for me. Walking around in a daze after Sunday long run. But this week it is the best day ever. Beautiful sunshine ushers in my brand new NoblePro Elite 8.0 Treadmill. I get it all set up in my basement and am abit nervous before trying it out. I have become an Ambassador before actually trying out the product. I am so excited to say they are the real real deal. Cannot believe how quiet and powerful the machine is. The running deck is smooth and cushioned, everything is in the right place, it feels as close to running outdoors as I have ever experienced, I highly recommend.
We believe that the collaboration between indoor and outdoor training is the road to success. One compliments the other and you can find joy and adventure in both nature and machine – NoblePro
Totally agree with this, treadmill training is absolutely essential for me in so many ways, and I will be writing an article/ blog soon, on how it can compliment and improve your outdoor performance.
To make my head even bigger, I also get an incredible kit-drop from my sponsors at ON, I am not ashamed to say, I am so busy playing with my new treadmill and trying out my new ON gear, that I only get 2 miles done on Monday, leaving me playing catch up for the rest of the week!
| 25/02/2019 | AM | PM |
| Monday | REST | 2tm |
| NoblePro treadmill arrives! | ||
| Tuesday | 7tm | 1 x mile in 5.14. 5 x 1km in 2.57 (3min rest). 2 x 200m in 27 (2min rest). 8 miles total |
| Beautiful day at work, and more beautifuller on track! | ||
| Wednesday | 6tm | REST |
| v.tired pm, hard day at work | ||
| Thursday | 5tm @7min miling | 12tm @6.30min miling |
| Friday | 9tm | 10 |
| Saturday | Bangor parkrun – 16.47. (30min rest) 5 x mile in 5.13 (30 sec rest). 12 miles total | REST |
| very windy but feeling smooth | ||
| Sunday | 20 miles @ 5.59 min miling | 9tm |
| is sposed to be a 23-24 mile long run, but shouldn’t have had pizza for dinner | ||
| TOTAL: | 100 miles | tm = treadmill |
Non-Running Highlight Of The Week:
The incredible Free Solo, could already be my favourite movie of 2019!
link here
Best Thing On The Internet This Week:
Laura Muir just destroying the field in the 3km and 1500m European Indoor Champs. Absolutely flawless running form, probably the best middle-distance runner in the world right now. Check her out here
Thing I’m Digging This Week:
Katie, Bobo and Gwyn, running friends, clean up at Anglesey Half Marathon and 10km this weekend, with 3 wins! AND they all win ON trainers!
