TryAthlete 1, Procrastination 0

I dragged my sorry butt out for a run today while the Mrs was teaching - a simple run, 25 minutes, but a lot more than I taught I could manage, especially after an August of little running. I think what might work, for me at least, would be to set myself a certain number of cardio sessions, and see by when I could achieve that. So I'm setting myself 50 cardio sessions. Let's see how long it takes for me to get them done.

I'm itching to get back to work, back to school. Summer sometimes feels too long. Yet I'm trying to think about things that need to be done before term starts, whether I've missed out anything; anything that could be done within this week before I return; anything that I could do before I say "I wish I'd done that when I had the time". I used to be quite able at planning out my whole year ahead of me and making good use of time. Now I'm not so.

One of the best quotes I've read is, "If you feel yourself to be important, you will feel your time to be important, and want to make the most of it." Well, this week I've done... not much. Anyway, enough said.

Some blogs worth checking out:

http://trainingformyfirstmarathon.blogspot.com

http://escapefromdiabetes.blogspot.com

http://holgenevie.blogspot.com

The in-laws came to visit mid last week, and we had a good time together. I was a bit apprehensive because I'm wasn't sure which one of the Mrs' Dads was going to show up - the nice one or the foul one - but thankfully it was the former. Perhaps it was because he spent all but the last day tinkering around with the failing computer, that he never got time to get in a bad mood. (Usually it's when he's got too much time, that he seems to like stirring things up. Christmas and Easter are worrying times.) The computer's been nobbled together from old bits, and although some are new, it's been giving problems quite frequently. Throw in a new CD drive and a data drive that chose to fail at the same time, when he was here, and that's enough to keep a computer geek thoroughly occupied. It further turned out that our stealthily-failing CD drive wasn't writing the data from the backup program properly, so we've been trying to cobble together the missing bits from various backup discs and all that. Pure joy!

I haven't run regularly in the last month, and I'm starting to feel it. In addition, as I age I feel the need more to stretch regularly. Why is it the areas you wish to be flexible (i.e. hamstrings) aren't, and the areas that could be a bit tighter (i.e. abs) aren't as well? The term flab-xibility comes to mind. My midsection is starting to resemble a contour map or isobars, depending on your preference.

Hopefully I get my timetable on Thursday and get an idea of where I can squeeze in my runs. My timetable varies from year to year, which is the way I like it, although sometimes I'd rather settle for the monotony of knowing than the unpredictability.

Enough rambling - time for some weights. Today I expect to do the full complement.

It was weights yesterday evening. I supersetted dumbbell curls, tricep kickbacks, presses, lateral raises, situps, pressups. Done within 20 minutes.

Still heaping down rain today, so it might be stepper for me again. I have to wait 2 more weeks before I get my school timetable and can plan out the term ahead of me. Will I run before school, or during lunch break? Will I have time to fit in the things I want to do? I'll have to wait and see. I can't wait to get back to work. I don't mind working throughout the entire year, with a reduced weekly load, but I hate having periods of rushing about followed by periods of no work. Given the choice, I'll take the evenly spread-out week over a year instead of the fartlek.

It's been raining all day since 2am. I've spent much of the day on the computer, updating my CVs, preparing work for the beginning of term. It'll have to be the stepper tonight, I think.

On another note, I notice that I have a fanatical blog reader whose ISP is speedfactory.net. Hope you like your visits, whoever you are!

Back after a week away overseas - almost two weeks from home in total, really. We had a lovely time in Porec. Mrs and I had a week of swimming (pool and sea), biking, tennis, boat rides, walking and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Neither of us had swum in the sea before so it was a little strange, but the water in the fjord was pretty calm so it was alright. The food at the resort was good - more options for vegetarians than either of us had expected, so I was pleased for her, although I did scoff the meat options at the buffet table. We've just been tidying up and doing our household chores (plenty of washing!) and I think it'll be weights tonight, seeing as I'll be indoors for most of it. I might run tomorrow to shake off the caloric excesses.

Mr and Mrs

Final Preparations

That's it! We're all packed now for an early start tomorrow. Bring on Saturday! Butterflies? Nah.

Good luck to Vertical Man and Wil in the Steelhead on Saturday!

We ended up taking my dad to Hyde Park yesterday, mainly to give him a break from tagging along the shopping sisters. I don't think he fancies trailing behind them, having them suddenly disappear into a shop somewhere and having to look for them. He enjoyed strolling in the park and just taking it all in at a slower pace. Towards the end we went to the lake where we fed the ducks and geese. The geese waddled expectantly towards him and took the bread from his hands, their long necks like vacuum hoses. He even persuaded a shy little duck to come out of the water for food!

Dinner was risotto with mushrooms, peppers and chicken. With some usual additions of chilli. My aunt spread chilli on top of her rice, then sprinkled parmesan over the chilli. Er....

Today's going to be spent packing and getting other stuff ready as we're all leaving tomorrow. My back's improved but I'm still wary of doing anything to mess it up. Saturday is too important for that.

See, Try, Buy

My back's improving. I think I know what did it in. While trying to get a pillow from the bunk bed by jumping up repeatedly I must have done something to my back. I am lucky to have a fiancee who is an Alexander Techniqueteacher. My back feels better today although there seems to be a slight strain around the pelvis.

My mum and aunt are going on their shopping triathlon today: See, Try, Buy. We intend to take my dad boating on the lake. He's seen most of the sights and sounds of London and obviously doesn't give a damn about shopping, so I figure boating will be nice. He can take all the pictures he wants. It's going to be a nice warm day too. I'll have to be careful not to do my back in!

Ow ow ow

My lower back hurts. Not like crazy, but bad enough that I have to walk slowly. I was intending to go for a run but that will have to be shelved. I don't know what I've done to aggravate it. I only did pressups yesterday. I can't be having that. The big day's exactly 5 days from now and I'm all packed for Yorkshire and Croatia, and I could do without the inconvenience of a sore back. This is what you get when your flexibility's crap.

Yesterday went well. Very well, in fact. My parents came over to our place to visit. We had lunch and then walked to the shopping centre for them (mainly my mother and aunt, the Shopping Sisters) to have a nose around. My dad looked tired by the time he got there, but hey, he's 64 and was jet-lagged. They'd all got up at 4:30am. He did very well, as far as I'm concerned.

I could go on endlessly about every minute detail about what we did but it's not really necessary - at the end of the day, I was happy to know that it was the first time in years I've spent time together with them and had not been awkward in their presence. Despite living with them for over twenty years, I was never really comfortable and we didn't really speak much even though we were in the same house. Every day when I got off work I would go home, say "hi" and that would more or less be the extent of conversation. The problem's obviously with me, of course, but each time we had "discussions" I would get the feeling they were trying to impose their thoughts on what I should do with my life on me, without having the benefit of understanding the full picture for their advice to hold weight. In the past two days there was this sense that they've more or less accepted my choices in life and have not tried to impose any of their beliefs on me. They are who they are. I am who I am. So we got on fine; very well, in fact. It's weird but moving 7000 miles away from home has actually helped me have a better relationship with my parents - which is one of the things I wanted to have in the first place. I hope to build on that.

Kate did them a brilliant stir-fry in the evening. She was a little taken aback when they were not used to her cous cous for lunch, and they absolutely wolfed down the stir fry noodles, guzzled her gingerbread and brought the rest back to the hotel. She loved it. I bet the gingerbread was gone before bedtime.