Author Archives: The Jogging Dad

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About The Jogging Dad

I'm a father, I'm a jogger, I'm a part-time blogger. I love my kids but I must run. www.joggingdad.com.

Pre-race jitters and all that matters

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The most popular place before a race

The most popular place before a race

Over the past 6 years or so, I must have slogged through a dozen half-marathon races, 6 heart-breaking trips from Sydney city to Bondi Beach (the famous City-2-Surf), a countless number of fun runs, and even a 42.2km legal torture that is called the marathon. I can honestly say, hand to my heart and Brooks runners to my thighs, that I enjoyed every one of those races. The atmosphere, the camaraderie and the official recorded time that provides a progress report on my running ability – these are all factors which entice me back to the starting line again and again.

But … there is one thing I have yet to master before every race. And that is the pre-race rigmarole which, to this day, I still struggle with. Continue reading →

Daddy’s blog – hacked … again!

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My daddy's not this bad!

My daddy’s not this bad!

Hi everyone, my name is C and I am Jogging Dad’s younger 4 year-old son. I just found out that my big 6 year-old brother, L, somehow hacked into daddy’s blog back in December last year and wrote up some gibberish.

“NOT FAIR! How come L gets to write on your blog and not me?” was my immediate bottom-lipped whinge to daddy upon this discovery.

He tried to calmed me down by offering me a jelly-snake (a bribe which I gladly accepted), while denying ever letting L get anywhere near his blog (a lie which I brusquely rejected). After swallowing the jelly-snake, I pouted and complained some more about the injustice of it all, at which point daddy suddenly put on his pair of joggers and rushed out the door for a run. Continue reading →

Body over mind

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There is this exercise concept called “Listening to Your Body“.

In technical terms, I think it means one should go easy on exercising whenever he feels the body needs a little break. That way, no serious damage is inflicted physically and no angst is endured mentally. And, believe me, I’m in wholehearted agreement with this principle, what with foolish injuries sustained from running half-marathons while nursing sore knees, to lifting weights while nursing a sore back.

Listening to your body or to what you wanna hear?
Listening to your body or to what you wanna hear?

However, I do at times abuse this “Listening to Your Body” philosophy. I invoke it whenever the temperature is too low to wake up early and hit the gym, or the stress too high to get off my backside and hit the pavement.

That’s right. Despite my tremendous passion for running, there ARE occasions when even I, the Jogging Dad, want to skip a run, all in the name of “Listening to Your Body“. The truth of the matter, I hate to admit, is that it is invariably just an excuse. A very good excuse, mind you, one with a ring of Confucian legitimacy to it and virtually impervious to criticism. But it is still just an excuse, at the end of the day, to hide the fact that I just feel too lazy to go for a run.

Continue reading →

To all the friends I bored before

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In the years of B.C. (Before Children), there was one thing I found more mind-numbing than watching paint dry. No, it was not work – a soul-destroying endeavour but never mind-numbing. Neither was it shopping with my wife for things to clutter the house – the choices always boggled the mind so much that it never had a chance to get numb.

Guess who's talking and what he's talking about
Guess who’s talking and what he’s talking about

No, the thing that never failed to bore me witless, that always lulled me into a comatose state, was listening to people talk about their little kids during social gatherings. It was as if the very act of becoming parents had somehow transformed these once-interesting friends and colleagues into a homogeneous species – one whose conversation skills were confined to talking about their precious offsprings. Continue reading →

Two wheels good, two legs better

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I was cleaning my little shed in the backyard the other day, for no other reason than to show my two boys that: (1) this is what a man does on weekends in suburbia when there’s no sports on TV; and (2) to justify to their mommy a planned long run later in the afternoon, daddy has to be seen to be doing some quid pro quo.

Which do you prefer? Or would you rather cakes v donuts?
Which do you prefer? Or would you rather cakes v donuts?

Since we moved to this house over 2 years ago, I have had some big plans for this little shed, a.k.a. The Men’s Land. I have a vision of it furnished with a 70-inch flatscreen SmartTV (apparently Smart means I can surf the ‘net on the thing), a bar-fridge filled with all kinds of exotic beverages (exotic = alcoholic), and a pool table which transforms into a poker one at night (with billiard pockets turning into chip holders) – all this perfectly nestled in reverse-cycle air-conditioned comfort. A true all-season sanctuary to which me and my fellow middle-aged guy friends can periodically retreat and be … well … men. Continue reading →