Stir-fry post

This one has a bit of everything thrown in.

After spending a day doing the hedgehog recovery workout - curling myself into a ball or squatting (easy with flat feet) every once in a while - my back felt better, so I went for a run this evening. I was okay doing my normal tasks at home, but within the first ten steps or so Backham let me know all wasn't quite right yet, so I didn't push it. After a rainy cold week, the Poundland thermometer has spiked up to 70F today. And after what has obviously been a poor running month, I found it a little difficult. I feel out of shape. I did 5 miles in 40 minutes, but not long before I was doing the same thing under 35 minutes ... the only consolation, I suppose, is that I wasn't pushing too hard. Anyone want to paint a big "L" on the pigskin?

On a whim, I emailed a couple of music publishers (literally, two) yesterday. One of them asked to see some of the compositions I'd written for my students, so I've been busy today editing them. I don't know how many stymates work from home full-time, but I find the lack of structure a little unsettling. Every spare moment I'm wanting to get back to making sure the fingering is on the key notes, the musical phrases are drawn in to look nicely, the titles are all in the same font, etc. Work literally spills over into areas it's not supposed to. There's still stuff to touch up, but I've clocked ten-and-a-half hours of music editing today, and I think that's enough. Hopefully something exciting comes out of this - wouldn't it be cool to have a book published! Especially one with really awful composition titles like Eject!Eject!Eject! and Salmon Conversation. Have I shot myself in the trotter already?

We watched football (that's soccer to you folks) over on telly yesterday. An England player wasn't tripped but he fell anyway, and the referee awarded a penalty. One of the studio commentators remarked "That's alright, other countries are doing it to us, so we'll do it to them." What sort of state is society in, when bad sportsmanship is passed off by so-called role models as "doing whatever it takes to win" and even seen as being "determined"?

Enough ranting. Time to stretch, and I might risk some weights later this evening. Happy running folks!

Coming right atchoo

This week I have a mid-term break. Today was supposed to be the day I tell you I might try two-a-days, or run every day this week, or maybe run another sub-2 hour half-marathon later this week. Instead today I will tell you there is something funny with my lower back - I might have pulled something. (I've done that before, so I know the feeling.) It got progressively worse yesterday, and during the night every little move of my right trotter produced an awakening pain. Sleeping on my side alleviated things a bit, but the pain also seems to have travelled up to one of my right pork ribs. So what did I do yesterday to injure myself? Too much hillwork? Weights too heavy?

I sneezed. It's true. I sneezed and it happened.

So barring any miraculously quick recoveries, I think I'll either try to slowly walk it off today, or I might just be as still and horizontal as a spit-roasted pig.

I'll be, uh, back.

My blogging equation ...

... the one I try to adhere, at least, is No run = No post. Otherwise my posts will degenerate into retelling the more mundane details of my life, which I think, for most blogs, is the step before blog deletion. I'm not ready to give up my blog yet, nor let some Viagra guy swoop in and steal it. (Rob, your previous student blog has been hijacked.)

So, I didn't run for a few days. I've been stuck thinking about the direction I want my work to take, and I think I have more of an idea now. I did really want to work with younger kids, but I think the reality of things is that no school would consider me for interviews, because - despite the fact I do teach younger kids - I wasn't officially trained to teach younger children. To go through the motions of a(nother) nine-month teacher-training course just to be officially qualified in Poundland, is - to me - to take three steps back. I have to give up whatever I'm doing, be a student and run up debts, so that I can start at the bottom rung of the ladder as a newly-qualified teacher. And by that time I would be in the queer situation of being "newly-qualified", but having several years of teaching experience. Schools would go for a younger person because they can pay them less, and I wouldn't be able to apply for senior management roles because while I have management experience, and would be "qualified", all that experience would not count because it wasn't achieved in a British school.

Another option would have been to teach teenagers in an upper school, where I would have had a better chance to be accepted for interviews (since secondary education was what my training was in). But having seen what goes on in state schools, I'm not sure I want to be a part of it any more. The bad student behaviour, the meaningless tasks that teachers have to set to keep students occupied and out of trouble, the lowering of standards ... I mean, the money is good, but I've come to see teaching in state schools really as a dead-end job, and I don't think I want to go through the rest of my life until retirement having to deal with people yelling "fuck" in my face on a daily basis. I do think there are good teachers around, but they either have to compromise on their standards, or numb themselves to the reality of a continually downhill spiral of ill-behaved students and a lousy education system.

This is my take on it, but I think state school education in Britain is going down the toilet bowl. I don't think it's "a small minority" but the problem is more significant - in fact, it's the better schools that are in the minority now. In the past year, Britain has had three different people as "Education Secretary", each one making knee-jerk changes and putting their own different spin to things. Frankly, I don't know how each of them can look himself/herself in the mirror and accept the situation in many schools as the norm. At one of the schools I work with, the students run riot, teaching is bad, and the mantra of teachers is to "get them in, get them at it, keep them at it, get them out". But because the staff managed to hoodwink the school inspectors when they came for a week by employing more substitute staff to help out in classes, this school is recognised as "satisfactory", and will be such for the next 4-5 years until the next inspection.

I know in any job there are certain aspects that one will not like. But to spend the rest of my working life in a job where I hope no trouble happens during my classes, behaviour is bad, and I look forward to the last bell in school - that is not meaningful to me, and good salary or otherwise, I don't want to be a babysitter/policeman. It sounds sentimentally sucky, but I do believe in doing work that is at least meaningful, and I don't want in later years to be hanging on to a meaningless job just for the money.

I'll stick with what I'm doing and be patient.

Yes, I've posted, and yes, I've run. 4 miles in 31 minutes today. Now that life is less hazy, I promise all you long-suffering readers better running posts from now on.

Happy Memorial Day weekend, folks!

Evaluating

Ran for 25 - 30 minutes yesterday; 8-minute-mile pace. I don't think it breached 40 when I headed out - after a warm week at the start of May, temperatures have dipped again and on top of that, it's getting quite rainy. There were various runners at different points of my run, and I sort of tagged on to them from a distance to help keep going. I need a new route. The ones I run are getting really boring.

I found it a little hard to keep at that pace, so much so that when I'd finished, I thought I must have run half a mile more, and done 7-minute miles, but after double-checking, Brain-mina assured me otherwise. Dang. I think it's all more psychological than anything else - at the moment I'm just too concerned with how things will turn out in the next academic year, and that's sort of affecting everything I do.

I like the work I do. The only thing is that the pay is on an hourly-rate, and although the rate is quite good, the number of hours change each term. I don't get paid over the school holidays, feel guilty for not working and each holiday is spent thinking about how many hours I will get in the next term. I'm hoping to get a "proper" job that pays a proper annual wage instead of living on a three-month cycle.

There's another "but" letter for me in the post again. I'll have to run through that. The inner self says, Come on, stop moaning and deal with it!

Exams

Some of my students in schools are having exams. I love it when they have exams! What better chance for them to show off their intellectual capacities and to display to us knowledge we didn't know they had ... oh, I hear the BS siren screeching. I only love their exams because it means I have free lessons. A bit of breathing space.

My drum exam results came in over the weekend: Grade 4 (Merit). Not quite ready to be on Stick Idol yet, but having only made the decision to try drumming on April Fool's Day, and with minimal practice on a real drum kit, I'm pleased with how it went.

Ran for about 25 minutes on Sunday morning. I still had a cold and felt rubbish but went out nonetheless in the hope that running might help clear the nasal passages. Did 3 miles, 8:30 per mile, 120-130bpm, but the numbers weren't really important to me - all I wanted was to try to get back to running after 10 days of inactivity. Now I have to keep this up over the next couple of days and I can get my groove back.

This weekend sounded like a great weekend for many. Half-marathons, marathons, 5Ks, 5 miles, PRs, good training runs... too many people to list here, but congratulations to all of you. I'm inspired.

I'd better get back to writing reports. Have a good week of running, everyone!

Exercise: 0 All else: 163,482,391

Oh well, things get better.

I have been particularly stressed this week. Of course, the interview saga has had quite a big role in it. In addition, we have a concert at the weekend - I initially agreed to do it because when the Mrs said "playing for a charity concert" for her and Chordzilla, I thought she meant it would be a 15-minute gig, like one we had previously done. This is a two-hour one with about 29 songs to learn to play, and what's getting me partly irritated is the changes that are being made. "This song, we'll do the repeats, this song we'll leave them out; could you do a 4-bar introduction instead of what's written; I'm going to hold this note for 6 beats, not 4; it's fast here, slow here; loud here, soft here"; changes that are totally in opposition to what's notated in the music. I think getting them all in while trying to play my own notes and juggle page turns will be more difficult than eating and running at the same time, or trying to open a water bottle with a stuck top while making sure you don't trip over an untied shoe lace.

I am also irritated with how much of my own time I'm sacrificing for rehearsals. I've generally had a fairly cavalier attitude towards rehearsals on previous occasions, preferring to just run through things a day or two before. (That's because I find people to be fairly waffly and undecided until the last minute.) This time around, rehearsals have taken up three weekends and most of this week. Not that it really matters, of course, because my cold still lingers. And a pig's body is not made to run through colds, because it has been proven to only make them worse.

The in-laws are coming and then next week a friend of ours brings over some Parisian charm. I do like having people over and I do want to give them a good stay, but trying to ensure they have one by getting everything sorted out is getting to me a bit.

Complain, complain, complain. I'm sorry for my negative depressing mood but that's all I seem to do these days, though I know I need - and am trying - to snap out of it. Where's the chocolate? The whisky? The credit card?

Oh I can't think of a title

As we say over here, it’s chucking it down outside.

And since the area between my nose and upper lip is still Niagara Falls, I’ve decided to bunker in and do weights. It’s been a week since I last ran, and even so, the last few runs were mainly hill work and not endurance, so that’s not good. My stepper, my old Winter buddy, has one faulty hydraulic and has become a one-arm bandit. Oh well, maybe circuit training later with weights, or something like that, but I'm not going out to be pissed on.

Today I rescheduled my hours over the next few weeks so I could have the day free to reassess things and also to have a bit of breathing space to do other things before the weekend rush. I also found time to visit another school near where we live, and the Head encouraged me to apply even when I explained the business of QTS to him. So I'll do that, but not get my hopes up. It might be another knockout before we enter the ring.

I want to do a 30K some time when I get a mid-term break at the end of the month. I'd be happy running 10K/hr loops around where we live, detour home for a refuelling pit stop, and then repeat, and stick to this pattern and see how many more hours I can keep that up for. I suppose that's my goal for now.

I shall start a pamper-pig day surfing the sty and seeing if anyone's posted...

"But you didn't train in this country..."

Fed up of waiting, I pay the headteacher of the school I applied to a visit.

She politely tells me that yes, she did receive my application two weeks ago (but neglected to reject me by phone, email or text, nor gave any acknowledgement of receipt). She gives me the line that I heard from a lot of schools a few years back when I was first starting out.

"You don't really have QTS. You aren't really a qualified teacher."

QTS. Qualified Teacher Status. A requirement for teachers in English state schools to have. What it pretty much entails, is collecting a folder of materials like a year's worth of lesson plans, to show that you have the skills and aptitude to be a teacher, and being observed over one or two days at the end of it all.

I trained to be a teacher overseas. I underwent a strict training programme. It involved lesson planning, observations, teaching practice... what every teacher training programme has. I don't understand how I am not seen to be a "qualified" teacher simply because I didn't train in England.

You may suggest that the teacher training system in England is different to that of other countries'. Maybe it has some aspects that are specific to England and offers things that other teacher training courses don't.

But that doesn't explain why teachers who trained anywhere in Europe get their training qualifications accepted automatically without question.

Overseas (i.e non-European) teachers in English schools can work towards obtaining their "qualified" status. Theoretically, if they can find a school willing to take them on as an untrained teacher, regardless of much teaching experience they have in their own country, they can work on building up that portfolio of materials.

The idiocy of the situation is that schools that advertise for positions want a qualified teacher. How do you get in from the other side of the fence?

Life's a bitch sucks. I have to deal with it.

Free-for-all

A boxing ring.

Judges at ringside:
Time, Energy, Motivation.

Throw in a few competitors and let them slug it out:
Work, Running, Family, Various Commitments.

Add a pit bull called Flu to take bites off everyone (particularly the judges).

A huge chandelier above the ring, Anticipation, ready to crash down on everything.



I'm particularly getting antsy about this school I applied to. They closed applications yesterday, and interviews for successful candidates are on Thursday. I haven't heard anything from them since the two weeks ago that I applied, nothing to say "Thank you for your application which is being considered" or "Thanks but no thanks" etc, and there are gazillion thoughts running through my head - maybe someone "lost" my application, maybe they decided only yesterday after waiting for all applications (highly unlikely, don't you think?) and inform people today? Because that is my main priority, all else is pretty much on hold. All that waiting, waiting, waiting ... I've psyched myself up for this one and know I will be very disappointed if nothing comes out of it.

I may run after this flu abates. At the moment I don't see the point of possibly making myself worse before an (iffy) interview on Thursday. And it's a little tricky to squeeze out the time - we have rehearsals just about every night this week for that charity concert we're putting up at the weekend - this week is just going to run into the next.

Sorry this post is crap, but unfortunately - that's how I feel at the moment!

Nine years on

Today is our "courtship anniversary" - nine years since our first date! Ah... it all seems a long time ago. It wasn't all plain sailing - we had a long-distance relationship for much of the first six years. Until I moved over three years ago, we initially saw each other for only a fortnight every nine months, and things later "improved" to a week every three or six months. That pretty much remained the pattern until - among other things - I got sick of thirteen-hour flights and I could afford the buy-out clause in my contract. Long story, and not one I particularly feel the need to re-tell.

She is the sweetest thing in the world to me.

Warning: Sensitive Issues

This is a race-related post. No, not “race” as in “competition”, but “race” as in "ethnicity".

I would have liked to leave it out of my blog, because I know many of you don’t really like to read about these things, but I need to get things that have happened off my chest, and besides, if you have any advice or views, and would like to leave a few comments at the end, that would be much appreciated.

I am Chinese. I don’t feel particularly ecstatic nor ashamed about it. That’s just the way it is.

Part of my work involves going to different schools. At these schools I am astounded by how rude kids can be.

“Dee-Vee-Dee! Dee-Vee-Dee!”

“Jackie Chan! Haaaaai-ya!”

“Ching Chang Chong ya yor” (and other nonsense syllables)

Today since I leave later for work I walked out with Wifey to the bus stop around the corner. If we see a group of people walking towards us (and we did), we normally start running, because it means a bus has just arrived and might be about to pull out.

One eleven-year-old girl from this group of three kids starts chanting “Run, Chinaman, run! Run, Chinaman, run!” I turned back and challenged them, and of course they ran away.

I put up with this on a fairly regular basis, but I was sorry that Wifey, who is white, had to see it first-hand.

We’ve spoken about it before, and Wifey is of the opinion that people should always stand up for themselves and not let these remarks go. Her view is that it speaks badly of your self-respect if you allow others to do that to you.

My stand is that sometimes (as today) you stick up for yourself, but sometimes you have to let these remarks go, because trying to deal with it may be a complete waste of your time.

Yesterday while leaving a school a group of about ten seventeen year-olds were all congregated outside the school gate. One or two sniggered, “DVD! Four for £5” behind my back when I was about thirty yards away.

I let that go.

Why are these remarks such a big deal? Am I merely being overly-sensitive?

Let's put it this way. Want to stereotype a Chinese person as a DVD seller? I don't go around thinking black boys are illegitimate children whose fathers are in jail for drugs and gun-crimes and whose mothers have several partners. I don't look at Arabic boys and think "suicide bomber".

I must admit, I let such incidents go when the perpetrators are in a group. Not because I fear facing up to a group, but because the idiots that say such things want the attention of their friends, and I feel that if I did confront them, I’d only be playing into their hands. I’d be giving them attention, trying to talk some sense into them, while they give me the Beavis/Butthead snigger, and enjoy the attention of their friends. And my time is too precious to me to be wasted like that.

I let such incidents go because I know I cannot talk sense into such people. You cannot expect to correct years of inbred, warped thinking in a single instant. You try to tell kids to be the best they can be, but all they’re interested is being bad; notoriety.

I let such incidents go because people who say such things always invariably talk to the back of my head, instead of saying it to my face, and when challenged to stand up for their views, they reveal themselves to be the cowards they are.

I see it as social evolution. People are always trying to prove themselves better than others. “I have bigger muscles than you.” “I am prettier.” “I am richer.” But when people try to get one up on me by merely stating the obvious – that I’m Chinese – that says more about the lack of their own qualities. People who say such things show themselves to lack self-esteem.

I let such incidents go because I know (in schools, at least) such incidents will be brushed aside, and senior management do not want to waste their time pursuing these. You write a letter to a school, it gets buried or tossed. I once walked by a class and someone said "Fucking Chink" to the whole class, and the teacher pretended she didn’t hear it. Too much hassle, filling in the relevant detention forms.

Still, I can’t deny it annoys me, and sometimes preys on my mind. And I’m starting to get irritated (I would like to say “f***ing p*ssed off” but that wouldn’t be nice).

To those of you with kids, or are involved with kids in your work or life, my hope is that you bring them up not to display such behaviour. Not just because it is wrong. But also because when an individual says things that are racially-motivated, it speaks volumes about their own lack of upbringing, the lack of achievement, and ultimately, their lack of self-respect. Why would anyone want to act like that, and make people think less of them?

Oooh, I'm logged on

Better type this post quick while I'm in. Our internet company has been playing tricks on us lately. I suspect it's some corporate attempt to get us frustrated with dialup and switch to broadband. I refuse. If you don't need it, why get it?

Ran this evening after my first drumming lesson. I'm pleased with how it went; the guy only half-believed me when I told him I'd only seriously been learning for about six weeks, and today was the sixth time I'd actually played on a real drum kit (otherwise a combination of air drumming, cushions and pans). There are some drumming fundamentals I'll have to work on, obviously, but I should be ready for Sunday's exam. Gulp - did anyone say "exam"?

Today's thirty minutes were mainly a combination of flats, hill sprints, and trails. I'm trying to mix things up a bit to make running a bit more interesting rather than the usual "let's go and log some miles and get it off my conscience". I think I shall make May the pig month for hills, then switch back to normal running after that and see if my speed has improved. Today's minutiae: hill sprints: total of 5 minutes uphill; downhills - duh same, obviously; flats - 10 minutes; trails run - 7 mins; time spent cursing concealed rock, 3 minutes.

My sissy weights are calling me.

The hills are alive with the sound of huffing and puffing

Ran yesterday evening for about 20-25 minutes. One of the things I like about spring/summer is the brighter evenings make you feel as if you have more time to do whatever things you need to or want to. Normally Monday evenings are time we set aside for each other, but Wifey assured me that she wouldn't mind briefly having a chat with her sister on the phone without the sound of burps or farts in the background. It was a short run, but enough to squeeze in a few fartleks and hill repeats. I discovered a little uphill track, much shorter than the usual one, but because it’s steeper it takes a minute of fairly hard running to get to the top. I ran at a slower pace in between repeats, rather than just stop; my personal opinion is that if you allow your body to stop after a hard effort, it’s going to want to do just that on race day. Besides, one minute of sprinting isn’t really all that demanding.

Finished off with some weights in the evenings. There are really only a handful of exercises that I do – bicep curls, tricep kickbacks, bent-over lateral raises, pressups, calf raises, and occasionally hamstring curls and crunches. I do the first three with my 10lb sissy weights, and I’ve found that doing them slowly, really taking the time to feel the muscle working during the 4/5 seconds movement each way, has been more effective than piling on the weights for the sake of ego. I do the whole routine about two or three times a week, and each time after I’ve finished I can feel the next day that the soreness is muscle soreness, not joint soreness.

Off to work now, and looking forward to running later this week on my new little uphill section! Woo hoo!

The waiting is the hardest

I’ve never really been in a race before – the only times I can legitimately say I've run with others have only been training runs in the army – but it feels like that at the moment; standing at the line, the eager anticipation and anxiety; waiting for the timekeeper to shout “Go!”; egging time to move on, to fast-forward, so that life can too.

This morning’s run was 25 minutes around my local park, mainly fartleks. The air was very fresh after a night of showers, and all I had for company were little starlings and squirrels. After warm-ups, I gradually increased the number of faster sections as I went along and I think it showed in the loop times: 5:30, 5:00, 4:30, 4:10. My left knee was grumpy all the way and didn’t ease up at all, so I left it at that.

I thought through possible interview questions and answers in my head as I ran, which is a bit silly and presumptuous, considering the closing date for the job application at the school I really fancy is the 14th, and I haven’t yet been contacted about an interview. For all I know, they could put my resume in the bin at the first stage, which would be crushing, considering I’ve already gone all out to make sure that if I do get interviewed, I would impress. If they decide not to interview me, my efforts would have been for nought, but I’d rather use the time I have now and be prepared, rather than be called up and stress over not having time to do any preparations. Call it an investment. Wise one or not, I don’t know.

I need new running goals too. Last year, at this point in time, I re-started running after a half year of hiatus, and satisfied myself with how quickly I worked back to fitness. I aimed to exercise consistently over the colder and darker months, so that when the warmer months arrived I would have the benefit of being fairly fit already. I am now at this point in time. Running 8-minute miles, sub 2 hour marathons, 30-minute runs 3 or 4 times a week, seem so ordinary now. I’m getting a bit lackadaisical about running and it’s gradually becoming more and more of a to-do.

At the back of my mind I think if my job situation is clearer, I can move on with the other aspects of my life, like running. Everything is in a state of flux at the moment, involving a bit of plodding through, but that’s okay. Pigs are plodders. I can handle that.

Have a good week ahead, everyone!

Fried Bacon

Today we've had a near twenty-degree leap in temperatures over the previous day, peaking in the mid 70s. (In deference to my friends across Le Pond Atlantique, figures are in Fahrenheit.) I guess I now have experience of the daily variations of places like Texas, Manitoba, or Nova Scotia. What about Ohio? Philadelphia? Wisconsin? Washington? Colorado? North Carolina? Okay, I'm going a bit overboard now, but I do like finding out about people's lives in other parts of the world.

This is a niggly gripe, but there's one thing I dislike about warm weather. Now that his windows are open, I have to fully experience some turd's music. People who blare loud music not so much as to listen to it, but to show off to the world and attract attention of any kind, I cannot understand. The right to listen to your music in your own home is your choice, but when I can hear it from across the damn road, at a volume as if I were playing it in my own home, then that's not on. And having been on the receiving end of a witless "Wha'? f*** off none of your f***ing business it's my f***ing house and I do what I f***ing want" soliloquy, I am a bit resigned to the way things are. City folk, eh? But I will get my revenge. I've googled for, and know, some foreign swear words now. :P

Ran for a short 30 minutes today. Running on relatively flat ground was like a little treat. Still, today I found it a bit hard, even though I have been a warm weather pig for most of my life. When the weather's warm, it's also just a touch harder when you run in jogging bottoms, covered up because you don't have Runner Susan's splendid legs.

Here's something where your advice would be appreciated:
Pig has an hour free. Take away time for cool-down, breakfast and getting ready for work, Pig should have about 30 minutes left. What is a good workout in that space of time?

An okay day, I suppose

It's been an overcast day today, with only a rare glimpse of sunshine. That's alright. It's days like these that make you appreciate the warm days, and days like these that you wish for, when you're sick of being toasted.

My aim today was to make good use of my time, and I'm happy with how I've spent it. Today I managed to get a bit of drumming done - real, this time, instead of air drumming - along with bits of work preparation, housework, etc. A bit of everything, and some free time earned over the next few days. That feels good.

Did more hill work again today. Now, I know it's not a good idea to do too much hill work, too soon, especially if one of your knees is a bit wonky and the other is probably the same. But if I want to feel like I've done a proper workout, without running too far, I'll cheat with hills. I did 4 sets this time; the first and last being a full complete run to the top. On the second and third occasion I divided the hill into 3 sections and ran those sections in turn, so the recovery times were shorter. I really intended to only do 3 sets, but as I was finishing the third, someone else was running up, so I thought, what the heck....

Time for more cross-training. Ironing with dumb-bell curls. Some degree of concentration required.

I'm looking forward to running on flats again.

"Are we there yet?"

We went for our usual Sunday run again, but with a slight twist. Hills. It was Wifey's first time ever up Friday's hill, and she made it all the way to the top without stopping. The very first time I tried it, I had to stop midway to regroup. There's a bus stop near the top, and I'd rather the people waiting there saw me finishing strong ("Hill? No sweat") than huffing and puffing like the three-little-pigs Wolf. So I guess that settles it. My wife has more balls guts than I have.

It's a rainy start to Bank Holiday this morning - really heaping it down. Unless things change, it's an indoor exercise day. Not that I mind. I can go back to my hourly sets routine. I'm particularly pleased with how my - yes, wait for it - tryceps - are responding these days, and all I'm doing is four or five sets of 15-rep close-grip pressups. Effective ab exercises remain a mystery to me. I'll probably find them in the Matrix.

Many people had good weekend runs. Congratulations to Jennifer P, Runner Susan, and Olga - you guys were great!

May's going to be a busy month - I have a few things going on; that week from 14 - 21 is particularly going to be hectic, with three on the schedule! In terms of exercise, I'll be happy just to maintain what I'm doing (by the looks of it, you might think "not much" and I'm inclined to agree). Maybe throw in a few hills and try to vary the training a bit. Running the same mileage over the same loop at the same pace, after a while, gets a bit ... samey.

Have a good week, everyone!