Going Greek

This is clearly the sign of someone with way too much time on their hands - and clearly suffering from running withdrawal symptoms. It has now been 39 days since I was last able to run in comfort. When I put it that way it doesn't sound too bad, but when I say over 5 weeks or over 1 month, it actually stings!

Anyways, I have decided to start naming my training equipment and decided to go for a general theme of Greek mythology. It probably should not be any sort of surprise - marathons were started by the ancient Greek and they were all super-humans back then.

So taking things in turn:

Foam roller: Paeon
Physician of the gods. That one was too easy.

My 2 tennis balls taped together: Asclepius
God of medicine and healing - let's hope it rubs off on my leg as well.



Spiky massage ball: Iaso
Goddess of recuperation from illness - you're probably noticing a theme by now, eh?

My Brooks Defyance 3 shoes: Either Perses or Apollo
Can't decide this one yet. I am going to get my gait re-checked some time this week because I am convinced these shoes are wrong for me and that is what caused my ITBS - if that is the case, they shall be called Perses, god of destruction - for destroying my ITB and my chances of doing Silverstone last week.

If however it turns out that they are actually good for me, I shall name them Apollo. Actually the name Apollo will keep transferring to the shoes I run in. God of music, healing, plagues, prophecies, poetry and archery, associated with light, truth and the sun according to Wikipedia. Not bad, eh? In case there is any confusion why I am throwing poetry and plagues in there, the short answer is I'm not - I was going for the prophecies angle (I have one to fulfil after all!) but thought I should throw in the whole quote.

My Garmin forerunner watch: Athena
Goddess of wisdom, warfare, strategy, heroic endeavour, handicrafts and reason. I use my watch to track my training and progress, which throws in the whole wisdom, strategy and reason angle - I think?

My bandanas: Helios and Astraeus
Helios is the god of the sun and now also the name of my white bandana. Astraeus is the god of dusk, and the name of my black bandana - yes I know they aren't exact match on either side, but meh.

My water bottle: Poseidon
This one is probably pretty obvious. The sea god...water bottle...if I need to point out the connection, do us a favour and stop reading now!

Yeah ok so I am now running short of names that I like (and feel comfortable pronouncing) so I am screwing the descriptions for the kettlebells at least. Anyways here they are:

4kg kettlebell: Cerberus
8kg kettlebell: Erebus 
12kg kettlebell: Thanatos
16kg kettlebell: Hades


I do know that if I get beyond 16kg and move up to 20kg, I am naming it Tartarus, and if I get a 24kg that will be Hercules.

There is one more, which I haven't pointed out above. Zeus. Yep - king of the gods, ruler of Mount Olympus, and god of the sky, weather, law, order and fate. So what amongst all my kit is there that I can equate to being that high and mighty? To be completely honest, I don't have anything that I can put on that level.

Zeus is my spirit, my drive, my determination, my guts which will get me to the goals I have set myself. That seems more fitting than any piece of equipment.