Amidst the great coverage of the Beijing Olympics on TV, I came across this article from the New Zealand Railways Magazine from 1936 that mentions my grandfather (a mile runner for the South African national team), I’ve bolded a few bits:

What is the predominant personal factor about the champion athlete? What manner of man makes the best athlete? These are two questions that come to my mind when recalling my associations with some twenty-four of the best athletes who have visited New Zealand since the Great War.

Men of the calibre of Jock Oosterlaak, Bukes, and Dave Leathern, from South Africa; Kirksey, Krogness, Merchant, Hahn, Scholz, Lermond, Simpson, Rothert and Kiser, from America; Carlton, Golding, Fitt, Cooper, Metcalfe, Barlow and Hampson, from Australia; Peltzer, from Germany; Perasalo and Sippala from Finland; and the four British athletes, Craske, Murdoch, Powell and Rampling, come readily to mind as one visualises the excellent athletic contests seen and personal friendships made.

It is not my intention to sort out the greatest sprinter, middle-distance runner or field event man from that assortment, but I will endeavour to analyse the personalities of the men who helped to encourage athletics in New Zealand—men who have won honours in big company.

Take Jock Oosterlaak, the wellbuilt Springbok athlete, who came to New Zealand in the 1921–22 season. He had an ideal temperament for big athletics. He knuckled down to serious business when the occasion justified it, but he could see the humorous side of sport as well. What New Zealander would see the funny side of travelling nearly 200 miles over the rougliest roads in New Zealand when seated on the door of a motor car? Well, Jock thought it an experience worth the while and is it any wonder that his memory, to-day, is cherished by those who had the good fortune to know him? Yes, he sat on the side door of a car when travelling from Napier to Gisborne; there was insufficient room on the seats, so Jock volunteered to sit on the door—and would not change places with any of the others. He won the big sprint at the meeting next day!

And J. W. Bukes, another Springbok athlete, was a fine fellow. Here we had the more stolid type of athlete; a man who would go to sleep twenty minutes before the start of his race, wake up and run 73/5 sees, for 75 yards! Dave Leathern, the third member of the Springbok team I met, was more serious than any other athlete I have seen. He took his sport as a serious mission and was always anxious to return good measure to the public. Before any contest he desired most of all a cup of tea.

It’s pretty cool how older articles get made available electronically, from all over the world just like this!

I really enjoyed my running on Saturday — was just a regular training/long run but decided to make it 13.2 miles, just enough to cover a half-marathon distance. I was aiming to run it at my marathon target pace of under 4 hrs (thus 2 hrs for the half) which I did. It felt really good, actually — I’m definitely enjoying the new Brooks Glycerin 6’s that I bought recently. RoadRunnerSports is great: I was in the store, and had my eyes on some Asics that I was ready to buy and were conveniently on sale (I’ve used Asics exclusively the last many years) but we looked at me on the treadmill on the video camera and after I tried the Brooks shoes at the fit consultant’s suggestion, I was sold. They are awesome.

Speaking of awesome, the Men’s 4×100m free relay last night was very cool — what a finish!

I ran my first timed track mile on the 23rd. It was fun: not ever having run a timed mile before on the track and of course not yet being in great shape, I ran out a bit too quickly doing the first lap in 1:20. Anyway, I got quite tired and ran the rest of it a lot more slowly! My time was 06:35 … so I have 11 and a bit months to shave off just over one and a half minutes!

I have given myself 12 months to run a marathon (preferably attached to a fundraising effort) as well as to run a mile in under 5 minutes. I still have to come up with a time that will make the marathon goal a bigger challenge, though of course just finishing a marathon is a big achievement in itself. I’ve never run more than 10 miles… but I find myself enjoying running a lot more than I used to. Perhaps it’s the music and the GPS/heart-rate monitor gadgetry.

I was reading a bit about training methods, and keeping your target heart-rate in a very narrow zone. So when I ran today, for the first time I really paid close attention to varying my pace in order to keep the heart rate fairly steady. Interesting - lots more research for me to do here. Today was 5.47 miles at a relatively slow 9:13 per mile, or 50:27. I hadn’t had any chance to run for the past week while I was out of town, so it felt pretty good!

I went to the gym again today, did a light workout… but I ran to the gym and back (3.2 miles) so that counts as exercise. I want to run at least 12.5 miles a week (modest yes) and work out 4x a week in addition, through the end of the year when I’ll reassess. Perhaps I’ll run a half-marathon or something next year, but the main thing is just being more regular again about exercise.

It’s been too long since I was in the gym. I’m getting back into it, and have decided to keep track of things including what songs I listen to while I’m working out. Some of them it turns out, are quite good. I have a limited list that’s on my Nano and is mainly stuff I like for working out, with some exceptions. I don’t manage my music as well as I should I will admit. I then shuffle and fast forward to get to stuff that’s better. So it’s somewhat random.

First day back is always tempting to do too much, so I kept it pretty light:

Bench Press: 1 x 10, 1 x 12 reps of 135lbs, 1 x 10 x 155, 1 x 9 x 155 (yes I know these are lame numbers!); [Renegade by ATB] Dumbell press behind neck: 1 x 10 x 40 each, 1 x 10 x 50, 1 x 6 x 50, 1 x 10 x 40[Hey Man Nice Shot by Filter then Learnt My Lesson Well by Kaiser Chiefs]; Dumbell incline press: 1 x 8 x 50; Bent-over one-arm dumbell row, 3 x 15 x 55 [Lethal Industry by Tiesto]; Seated upright row machine: 1 x 15 x 70, 1 x 15 x 100, 2 x 15 x 120 [Arisen Radio Edit by Armand van Helden then Galaxy Bounce by the Chemical Brothers]; Lat pulldown 3 x 10 x 120 [Float Away by Tall Paul]; Fast hammer curls 1 x 25 x 25; Crunch machine 100x [Fever by Sarah Vaughan (Adam Freeland Extended Mix)].

I’m not going to post up here every day in detail, but will be keeping track of my own progress and might share it from time to time… I have no idea if people consider that more or less interesting that talking about the internet industry. Gosh it sure it sometimes! Guess we’ll see.