Rat Race

Walking miles this week - about 15, I think. I did the usual four on Monday, Wednesday and Friday but didn't really log what I walked on the other days. The week's been busier, my in-laws were with us, and I've had yet another cold, so I didn't do any running.

I've been toying with the idea of signing up for a local race in the middle of May. It's a 10K race that goes along the hilly 9K route I run, so I'm familiar with the course - although that's not necessarily a good thing. Taking part would give me something for the next few weeks to aim towards, and get me running and stretching more often. I would like to aim for a good time in that race if I did take part, hoping my competitive juices would get me there, but if they're marking the course to go up and down the killer hill twice, to make the 9K into a 10K, then the closest I'm going to get to a PR is in needing CPR.

The main obstacle, though, is not the effort, but the thought of why I would want to pay to spend a quiet Sunday morning jostling with others at various speeds along a sidewalk, fighting for space and position and dodging traffic. I do that every single day trying to get to work!

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venturing

I've had fewer walking miles this week as some schools are on their mid-term break, while others aren't. It's the first time in a few years that I've had mid-terms in different weeks, which is a bit of an irritation as it means not being able to get away anywhere for a few days. My neighbours are annoying the hell out of me! We live in a semi-detached house and they have been redecorating ... up to about 11pm in the evening. I can tolerate the sounds of hammering, drilling, paint rollers, sandpapering and doors slamming during the day (in addition to the screaming baby they leave out in the garden), but I think it's a bit too much to have to listen to that in the evening. In London, as a rule of thumb, during the hours of 7am and 11pm reasonable noise/sound is acceptable, so I suppose they're well within their rights, but after a week, it's getting on my nerves - this coming home to feel as if I live on a construction site.

Walking miles
Monday: 2
Tuesday: 4
Wednesday: 2
Thursday: 2
Friday: 4

Total: A paltry 14

Got back early from work yesterday so rather than listening to the aspiring property developers next door I went out for a run. The sun was setting already as I began, and I don't really like running in the cold and dark, but there was something nice in watching day transcend into night, as the last glimmers of light shied away behind the dark curtain, slowly-drawn from across the horizon. It was cold and despite thermals, gloves and a jacket I never got reasonably warm until about 40 minutes into the run. Keeping at a fairly even pace, I negotiated the big blimp on the landscape twice and eventually finished with 7 miles in an hour. Slightly off 8 mins/mile, but considering at my best I did 9km on the same route in 42:15 - and I'm not at my best, nor was too concerned with timings - I think that time and distance is acceptable (although only just).

Targets were to go above 10km, get reaccustomed to running in the cold and dark, and run for more than an hour - tick, tick, tick. Sounds like the knocking from next door.

Happy running, everyone!

"Grasp today with all your might. It is the tomorrow you feared yesterday."

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sniff

This week's walking miles:

Monday: 4
Tuesday: 3.5
Wednesday: 3
Thursday: 4.5
Friday: 4
Saturday: 2.5

I've had a cold all week and am still under the weather, so the weekly test run is off. Next week is mid-term at some schools and so I hope to be better by then.

It's a shame, because we have such glorious weather today. It's sunny and about 53F today.

I'm messing around with the template (you might have noticed the changes) so bear with the things that don't seem to work right.

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weekly update

It's been a long time since the last post, but nothing too interesting has happened running-wise, unless you consider interesting the two Sunday evenings we went running in the cold and rain... whose idea was that?

This week's walking miles:

Monday: 4
Tuesday: 3.5
Wednesday: 4
Thursday: 4.5
Friday: 4
Saturday: 4.5

Today's run: 40F, 20mph wind, tired Pig, 4.16 miles at 7:56 mins/mile. Not exactly ideal, but I'm happy to hover around the 8-min mile stage for now with no running.

I'm toying with the idea of getting a foldable chin up bar, but I don't really know what it will do to the doorway. I'm not the heaviest pig in the world, but it's hard to believe that my weight, transferred laterally across the doorway, isn't going to cause damage over time.

It's not always that I get an empty train carriage on the way to work, but on Wednesday I did, so I did 14 pullups using the handrail. I hope there's no CCTV, or you might see me on YouTube.

For the oinkatronic technogeeks among us, YouTubeGet is a great tool to have. (You might be using it already - I'm probably last in the world to know about it.) You can use it to download and convert YouTube clips into media files to play on your computer without going to the site.

That's it for now - happy running!