Can marathoners be good crossfitters ?

My first Linda

Crossfit experience so far

I started with crossfit on the 12 of July 2014 and track my progress with beyondthewhiteboard.com software. Crossfit helped me mainly to  lower my time to recovery for now in terms of real life results. Furthermore it widened my horizon to learn about different movements apart from running. 

Review of the second season of Game of thrones (SPOILER ALERT)

I admit to it. I am a Game of Thrones addict. After devouring season one of Game of Thrones together with my girlfriend I found Season 2 under the Christmas tree (awesome present that's why I love her). And I am not alone with my addiction. First thing my girlfriend wanted to spent her Jervys voucher on was Season 3 of Game of Thrones. We went just to be informed that it won't be released until later this year. The fact that I am writing a review on the 4th of January about a season with ten episodes which was given to me on Christmas day just shows how desperate we are. 

Season 2 of Game of thrones was released by HBO in mid of 2012 and covers the content of the second book "A Clash of Kings" from the novel series "A song of Ice and Fire" written by George R.R. Martin. David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are the main contributors behind the scenes of the second season while Bryan Cogman also wrote two episodes. Vanessa Taylor and George R.R. Martin also showed their allegiance to the cause by writing one episode each. It will be interesting how the dynamic between the show and the unfinished novel series will pan out in the long run.
Stannis Baratheon, brother of the former king Robert Baratheon is played by Stephen Dillane and is one of the most important new characters in season 2. Melisandre, a manipulative witch who advises Stannis, is also introduced and played by Carice van Houten. For the Irish community it is nice to see that Liam Cunningham (The Guard, The wind that shakes the barley) makes an appearance as Davos Seaworth, the trusted right hand man of Stannis. The second season replaces Malta by the town of Dubrovnik in Croatia for the scenes in King's Landing, the capital where the King of the seven Kingdoms resides. For the icy landscapes behind the wall HBO opted for the Vatnajökull glacier in Iceland. In addition the production was also extended to further shooting locations in Northern Ireland.

After Ned Starks (the former advisor of the deceased King Robert Baratheon) decapitation by King Geoffrey, the illegitimate son of the Lannister siblings Jamie & Cersei who is thought to be Robert's heir, Ned's son Robert declares himself King of the North and wages war against King's landing. Robert's aim out of season one is at first to rescue his father and his sisters who are in King's Landing which after the violent death is reduced to the latter. Meanwhile Stannis Baratheon, who was informed that Ned Stark challenged Geoffrey as the rightful king due to his parent's conduct of incest, claims to be the rightful king and plans to attack King's Landing from the sea. Tyrion Lannister, brother of Jamie & Cersei, gets a more central role in the second season as hand of the king and major organizer of the defense of King's Landing.

While the events in King's Landing unfold Jon Snow, the bastard son of Ned Stark, makes his first experiences in the field north of the Wall as a man of the night's watch. Soon he will get separated from his group and a new set of characters will be introduced to the plot.

Meanwhile after the death of her husband Khal Drogo Daenerys Targaryen has to make it through the deserts of Essos with her remaining people. After hatching her dragons are too young to defend her or hunt for food and she has to search for shelter in the city of Quarth, which comes at a price.

HBO put great effort into promoting the second season which in combination with the established fan base from the first season translated into more views in compared to season 1 . Generally the response of the critics (for those who care about such things) was good with some remarks about the intense use of violence and sex scenes throughout the series (which is old coffee as same was said about the first season). 

The second season of Game of Thrones shows for me personally again how vital it is for television series & movies to have a great background story / writers working for it ( to name a few good examples : The Lord of the rings, The help, A beautiful mind or Breaking Bad). The twists and turns in the character development never cease to impress me and keep the story interesting. Peter Dinklage does a brilliant job at keeping the whole second season together due to his marvelous performance as Tyrion Lannister. I might be overreaching in my use of adjectives here, but as said before, I'm completely hooked. At the end of the second season (set you didn't read the book) you will get an idea why the novel series is called "A song of Ice and Fire". I am repeating my pledge, please don't pirate this series. Everybody involved deserves their due respect in form of revenue out of DVD's, book sales or advertisement (we can debate the Hollywood money machinery, but at least this is not a rip off like the last Indiana Jones movie...

 Injury free training:

Can I hurt myself lifting weights ?

Yes, you can severely hurt yourself lifting weights so be smart about it:

 What usually happens, when people hurt themselves lifting is that the excercises are being done with bad form, with too much weight or without a spotter. Injuries in weightlifting can be very severe, especially when the pounds are being lifted overhead. Always remember that Newton's laws will catch up on you if you lack the strength and the barbell will make its way to the ground either way. The heavier the weight, the more likely it will travel to the ground ignoring your skin and bones. Be wise, train reasonably.

Your risk of injury is a function of the repetitions you do and weight you lift:

The more repetitions you do with heavier weight, the more likely it gets you get injured. Having said that always reach your maximum weight on any given excercise from below. Do a proper warm up and make that one rep max the highlight of the day. Also get a spotter, because if you already know that you only can lift this weight once, it is not unlikely that you will miss that rep and need someone to help you out. In lack of a spotter, set up a power rack accordingly so that the might of the weight does not come crushing down upon you.

Review of Richard Branson's

"Losing my virginity"

Losing my virginity is one of the books which crops up in almost every reading list on the web for someone who is interested in leadership, entrepreneurship, business or a mixture of these topics. So this book went onto my reading list as besides the biographies of Steve Jobs, Ernest Shackleton, Margaret Thatcher, Willi Brandt, Helmut Kohl, Nelson Mandela and Abraham Lincoln. So far it has been the most entertaining read of all of these.

Richard Branson is the founder of the Virgin Group who is majorly known for their airlines, trains and activities in the music business mainly in the 70's and 80's. Furthermore he is an adventurer who crossed the Atlantic at record speed in a boat and won several hot balloon challenges like crossing the Atlantic and the Pacific. Currently the Virgin Group is a conglomerate of roughly 400 companies.

In the edition of the autobiography which I own Branson covers the years from 1950 to 2007. He gives insight on how he built his newspaper "Student", for which he amongst others interviewed Mick Jagger, and moved on to bigger ventures like his record company or airline operations. The book starts with the near death experience of one of his balloon adventures and return to this point in time later in the book. In the end Branson describes his meetings with Mandela and other leading personalities to build a better future for mankind. Furthermore there is insight given in his marriages and approaches to bringing up children. Failures are not spared and analyzed. 

The style of the book is easy accessible and very likeable which is known to be one of Branson's major strengths in business. It covers, sex, drugs, rock & roll, festivals, hippies, how to run an airline, trains, how to fight dirty corporate tricks and much more.

This was a great and easy read with common sense approaches to business. The major messages to take away from Branson are "You have to try everything at least once" and "Give it all you got". Business is about people and with all the mistakes he did he seems not to be shy to talk about them. Make a plan and execute it. Dare to read this book.

Book Review: Running

Snooker Champion Ronnie O'Sullivan about his life, his passions & self control

 Injury free Training:

Can I hurt myself running?

Yes you can hurt yourself running so be smart about training:

There is a multitude of injuries you can obtain on the journey to improve your run time and fitness level. To avoid those you have to be aware of how much you can take and where your limits are. This is highly depending on your age, fitness level and familiarity with the runs you do.

Your risk of injury is a function of how fast you run combined with how long you run:

I am a friend of rules of thumb which are easy to remember. Especially for new athletes who want to run faster. The longer you run, the longer you are exposed to a risk of injury due to fatigue. Most of these injuries are minor injuries which won't stop you from training, but make you less efficient in training. The faster you run, the more likely it is that you will severely injure yourself in a manner which will stop you from training. The combination of running faster than you should for a long time rapidly increases the risk of injury.

At the Fingal 10k in Dublin on the 20th of July i ran a pr 10k of 39:48:

The 10k run was part of my current preparation to the Frankfurt Marathon on the 26th of October 2014. I am running for a good one and a half years and when i got the result i couldn't believe that i made it to the crowd who is capable of running 10k in under 40 minutes.

I got a feeling that i was onto something when i started slightly behind the top runners and was still going strong with barely anyone overtaking me. I passed the club runners who I admired when I ran the Finglas 10k last year. As i passed one of the senior runners who had been pointed out by the commentator at the beginning of the race I felt proud.

The things i did differently from the year before which definitely helped me run faster:

• Made use of the bag tag to leave my bag comfortably behind
• Arrived one and a half hours early, checked out the area and did a proper warm up
  
• Left my I phone at home. The chip already measures your time 

Book review: On the map

To be on the map or off the map gets more important and easy in the 21st century through Google, facebook, youtube and Linkedin. But how did you get on or off the map in the past?

Did you ever stroll through the streets of your hometown and marveled who came up with these street names? Did you ever ask yourself why America is called America? Did you ever wonder on your way to work who came up with the design for the map pinned to the ceiling of the carriage ? Simon Garfield goes to the bottom of these questions and beyond in his book "On the map: Why the world looks the way it does".

Review of "I never knew that about Ireland" 

The White House, symbol of American political authority was invented

 here. Coca Cola launched its success story from this very country. The ideas for the Sydney opera house, Louvre Pyramid and one of the longest buildings in the world, the Kasai International Airport Terminal, sprung from the mind of the children of this very place. If you expected this place to be the U.S.A., France, Germany or China stereotypes fooled you. This all comes from Hibernia, Ireland.

Book review: A short history of the Irish Revolution

Your jump start to irish history:"A short history of the Irish Revolution" by Richard Killeen.

If you are amongst the visitors/citizens of Ireland who ask themselves why Hibernia is seprated and how this came to pass Richard Killeen's 152 page short overview is just right for you.