Happy Holidays!

Have a wonderful holiday season and all the best for 2014!

with Santa at Christmas market in Osaka, Japan

Christmas market, Grand Front, Osaka, Japan

Christmas, German-style

Feliz Noche Buena!

One final quote to end this year and begin a new.

"A journey of 1,000 miles begins with just one step."

Busy Month

"It's amazing what happens when you just won't give up."

Between wedding plans, applying for new jobs, studying Japanese, work and fitting in gym sessions, it's been super-busy.  Despite getting max 6hrs of sleep each night, I'm not complaining.  I've chosen to fill my plate, it's just a matter of finding motivation.

Recent motivation comes from the quote and video above.  It's hard to believe the things this guy can do.  I imagine they're the kind of things that can be done when we refuse to give in.

Back At It

After a superbly lazy week following the marathon, it was time to get back to it.

I'm doing a very unstructured plan with the aim to put on some muscle and move a bit toward barefoot running.

For packing on weight, I'll lift in the gym twice a week and do plyo and callisthenics at home twice a week.  For barefoot, Alan recently got his license as a vivo barefoot coach, so he's giving me some exercises to do: jumping in place, squats while up on my toes and picking up towels with my toes.

Other than this, I'll be getting out on the bike, swimming and hopefully bouldering once in a while.


On a different note, last weekend was the Ultraman World Championship on the big island of Hawaii.  This is the first year that I really followed the event, and one thing that stands out to me is the age of the competitors.  Most of the male competitors, including the overall winner, are in their high 40's or even 50's.  I guess that gives me plenty of time to prepare!

Read all about it at the links below.

Story behind the race

Athlete bios

(Short) Race report

Full results