Ode of Remembrance.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow,
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

Lest We Forget.

A Tribute to Ivor W.Smith.

This post is a tribute to an extraordinary man.

21 June 2008 – This is a date we would like to remember. This is the day a wonderful, kind, caring and unassuming gentleman named Ivor W.Smith, passed away and went home to be with the Lord.

He was 86 years of age.

Ivor devoted his life to serving other people. He was a digger serving Australia in PNG during the war. Subsequently, he got shot in the leg by a machine gun but was one of the lucky ones to have lived and tell the tale.

Ivor never married and did not have any children.

About six months before, Ivor had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. However, I am unclear as to if that was the cause of his passing. At the time, the surgeons did not try to operate because he was presumed too weak to have been able to survive the trauma of the surgery.

Since having been diagnosed, Ivor’s health has just taken a downward spiral. Prior to the diagnosis, he was in the pink of health, lived by himself and was an active gentleman. I often contemplated if the speed of deterioration of a person’s physical being was due more to their mental or physical state, after the knowledge that they have contracted a terminal condition.

Within six months, Ivor was reduced to just skin and bones; a shadow of his former self. He had a good sense of humour which both P and I enjoyed. It made our visits easier. Even on some days when he was not his best, he had always managed a smile for us.

He often seemed to be in high spirits when we visited him in palliative care; we tried to visit every weekend. On some visits, I find myself wondering when would be the right time for a person to accept his mortality.

When he was feeling better, we used to take him for a walk in a wheelchair so that he could at least feel the sun’s rays or the gentle breeze on his skin. But one day, he had a fall when he was by himself and had to be admitted to the hospital. He hasn’t been the same since he got back, and has never become strong enough to get out of bed or for us to be able to take him out on a wheelchair again.

Ivor hung on bravely, and made it through his birthday on the 15 June.

It was always very heart-wrenching to visit him as he only seemed to be getting worse. A week ago, he was in a really bad way. When we saw him, we knew then that he was hanging by a thread and anticipated that he might pass away anytime soon. We spoke to the carers there who confirmed our thoughts. We began visiting him every other day, with the last visit on Friday, 20th June.

P commented after the visit on that day that Ivor didn’t recognise him anymore- he had always recognised P whenever we visited and would call out P’s name and give us a huge smile. P also said that Ivor no longer looked like himself and his eyes seemed to have sunken in.

On Saturday morning, 21 June 2008, Ivor W.Smith gave up his wretched body and went home to be with the Lord. We pray that his spirit may rest in peace in the eternal kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Please, join us in praying for him as we mourn our loss. We will miss you, mate.

Ivor W.Smith – 15 May 1922 to 21 June 2008.

“You’ll remember me, won’t you?” – Ivor W.Smith, during one of our visits.

Suffer Fest.

Blessed rest day today. Yayyy!!!

Yesterday was intended to be a brick session. I spent three hours doing intervals on the trainer. After the first hour, I started to feel like crap and struggled through the second hour. I struggled BIG time. To make matters worse, the dvd malfunctioned and I had to spend some time trying to get it to work again and get back to where we had left off. It was an added distraction I could have done without as my focus and concentration was already drifting prior.

When (finally) into the final hour, it was beginning to feel like pure hell, agony and torture. I tried to keep everything together however best I can; to complete this SUFFER-FEST no matter what. Needless to say, by the last half-hour of the workout, I had already made up my mind to not go through with the run session after getting off the bike. I just didn’t feel up to it and knew it would be very tough to drag my sorry self through another hour and a half of running.

My body and mind was definitely not up for it; it was not my day.

Not sure why I was feeling this way because I could not remember having felt this way the last time I did this workout. But it was almost six months ago since I did it….perhaps my memory failed me? *shrugs* Or maybe I was pushing myself more this time around compared to my last attempt. Will try changing my nutrition alittle when I do this workout next and see if its better.

Week 4 is almost done.

Swimming Distraction.

Arrived at the pool alittle late this afternoon. Something cropped up at the last minute just as I was about to leave and then got caught up in the slow traffic on the way to the pool. Traffic has been pretty bad of late, not sure what has changed. The rising costs of petrol certainly has not seem to have any impact.

Anyway, got to the pool and got changed. Started my routine warmup with breast-stroke and then followed immediately by my frontcrawl sets. As usual, I was aiming to do four sets of 800m but would have been happy with at least three since I was late.

Somewhere into my second set, two guys got into my lane and started swimming breast-stroke. The lane started to feel abit crowded and I became distracted and lost count. Bugger. I stopped when I saw the time on my watch and realised that I must have done more than 800m.

Halfway into the third set, I decided to move over into another lane when I saw that it was empty. Yippee! I completed the rest of the third set in peace, having the whole lane to myself. Checked the time upon completion and saw that I don’t have enough time to play with my “toys”. Oh well, we’ll just have to try again next time.

Got out of the pool and had a shower before the pool closes. Now that I’m home, I’m pouncing the house for some food to fill my grouching stomach.

Overall, not a very satisfying swim due to the distractions

Week 4.

We’re now onto Week 4.

Week 4 is rest week. This means rest days and reduced mileage is the menu of the week in order to give my body the opportunity to adapt and catch-up. Yayyy! You won’t be hearing any complaints from me as I’m the lazy one, as always. The significance of rest week is so

Tried something different this evening. Did a brick session but had the run session prior to the bike. Wooooo, its amazing how difficult it feels on the bike afterwards and I’m left with very sore quads. Felt like a mammoth effort to push through the hour-long session on the bike.

The run session didn’t go very well either. Even though HR seemed normal but breathing felt kinda laboured. Checked the timing of the run later on and found that I had actually ran at a faster pace than usual.

Tomorrow is swimming day. Looking forward to another chance to refine my frontcrawl propulsion technique.

Week 3.

Week 3 is almost gone.

Traded one run session on Thursday evening for a massage session instead. Geez, it hurts sooooo damn goood!! It actually hurts so good I didn’t want it to end. Thanks to JM (the massage therapist), my body has been restored to its former glory, ready for it’s next bout of abuse.

The weather has been abit wet of late, which is not necessarily a bad thing as we really need as much water as we can get. Yesterday morning was rainy when I awoke so decided to do a two-hour Spinerval interval session on the trainer. This morning was a different story. Though the skies were dark and cloudy at first, the sun won in the end and broke through the dark clouds to reign supreme.

So I left for a run this morning and on the way back, decided to do a loop of the lake. It must be round about six-months now since I last did anything by the lake. I have had no business there anymore since we moved here. I wanted to do a loop of the lake because I wanted to add an additional 2km to my run this morning. And secondly, I wanted to run past that spot by the lake where I used to finish all my run workouts and did all my warming-down afterwards.

Guess I didn’t realise how much I have actually missed the lake, or rather, finishing by the lake anyway.

Afterall, we stayed there for three years before moving. And I remember the first time I tried to run a loop of the lake (must be four years ago), I had to walk halfway through as I just didn’t have the stamina to finish running the whole way. I suppose I’ve come a long way since.

And I have enjoyed each and every minute of the journey.

Week 3 Commences.

This is Week 3. Whilst everything has been well so far and my aerobic system is improving, I’m finding this training schedule alittle insufficient for what is required. Maybe insufficient is not the right word, but I’m getting the feeling that it would eventually leave me less prepared and undercooked for the event.

Its not that the workouts are easy, but I find the lack of consistency slightly disturbing and the alarm bells in my head are ringing. After some planning, I’ve decided to revert back to the same training I’ve used for my last IM after some alterations. I’ll try it out for the next 2 weeks and see how it goes.

World Cup Qualifier – Aus vs Iraq.

Some piccies from today’s match available at the right-side link.

Week 2 – Gone.

Week 2 has been another good week for me.

The sessions are starting to get just a teeny bit longer and my body is trying really hard to adjust to the intensity and frequency of the sessions. Everything is feeling fine but my legs are feeling tired and I desperately need a massage. Tried ringing the therapist but its all fully booked till the coming week.

Looking forward to pain…hehehehe…