Frustration and relief...

I had to make a decision last weekend to pull out of Tough Guy. It's the first time that I've failed to do a race, however I couldn't risk repeating what happened to me at the Grim in December. I'm stubborn and bull-headed enough to finish a race even when I'm in agony and doing serious damage to myself, so ultimately the safest option was to not go. The deciding factor was a treadmill session on the Friday, where my knee twinged at 8km... There was no prolonged pain, but just a warning shot to remind me that it was still vulnerable. I was really down about it, however the weather this weekend has been verging on biblical, with sub-zero conditions and snow. Harry, a mate who has done it previously, and did it again this year, has reported ice-covered lakes and "extreme pain". I'm not in optimal shape, and I can't believe anything other than attempting to complete that would have set my recovery back 3 months. Maybe next year...

The rehabilitation is still on target, and I'm running 5'ish miles at the moment, with 7 weeks to go until the half. There is still a long way to go, and I'm hoping the weather warms up a tad soon, as it's extremely hard to motivate myself to run outside right now, while treadmill sessions are just sweatathons. The swimming continues to go extremely well, with the average session covering a couple of kilometres. I need to start focusing more on technique and speed now, and have a couple of articles to work from to aid that. Feeling pretty confident about getting some triathlons under my belt this year now... hopefully this month I can source a bike and wetsuit.

Generally January can be considered the month of birthdays. I'm fairly rubbish at doing anything on mine (I went swimming), however Gill was a star, and whipped up a delicious roast lamb dinner for me (her first ever roast as well). Her birthday was a couple of days later (how organised of us to co-ordinate our birthdays), and we went to Ikea to buy stuff (she has a couple of projects, including a cat furniture tower, while I wanted some kitchen storage), and went out on the Saturday (pizza and film..I'm a classy guy). Then, Kate's birthday (Rob's better half) was on the following Wednesday, so we all went to a Chinese for an "all you can eat, and then a dessert". Delicious stuff all round. Next weekend is mine and Gill's first anniversary (that's shot by) and we are off to Colleys to celebrate. God knows why she puts up with me, but she does, and I'm all the luckier for it...

Work is a bit manic at the moment. There is a big project in the offing, and I have a large chunk of work to do for it. To make things a bit more awkward I took some holiday last week (for all the birthdays), and I was on a First Aid Course for most of last week. The end result is that I have 1 week to do an excessive amount of work. Yay? On top of that we have the fallout from the redundancies from the last month, and a general reshape of the department. The full announcement is on Wednesday, however it looks like my next year there is going to be more than a little hectic.

So lots happening, and lots to do, so doing something stupid like staying up half the night to watch the Super Bowl would be a stupid thing...right? Ohh..2nd Quarter has just started...!

The Gauntlet has been thrown...

We are approaching the time of new year resolutions. Gill has gone and made hers all public, so I suppose I'd better go and do the same. I started doing these 3 years ago, and they have included such fun things as "Run a half-marathon", "get in shape", and "buy a house".

However, before heading off on what I'll be attempting next year, I'll just remind myself of some of the achievements from 2008.

1) Achieved a sub 1h30 half-marathon
2) Achieved a sub 40min 10k run
3) Learnt to swim
4) Swam over a mile non-stop
..and some non-exercise based ones...
5) Found myself a lovely girlfriend (who will probably complain that shes not no.1 on the list)
6) Sorted out garden and bathroom (just...)
7) Finished the year with more savings than I started with (ropey, but I'll count it)

Not bad...un-shockingly all rather exercise based (to be expected, in line with the "attainable and sustainable" one from 3 years ago...). So onto this year...

1) Regain running fitness after injury. Target is to achieve 1h30 in the Reading Half (end of March)
2) Start cycling to work. Target is early spring (like I'm going to start in winter...)
3) Do a triathlon. OK, not overly sure on this one, as there is equipment considerations. There seems to be a good beginner one in Henley in summer.
4) Sort out the porch...replace the flat roof with a tiled one, re-plaster, and new suite fitted.
5) Eat healthier. I've re-acquired my snack-habit, and it needs to be beaten back into submission.
6) Be a little less paranoid. I should probably have this as a standing one every year. Apparently not everyone is out to do me in (unless I'm on a motorbike, in which case I have a big bonus point sign floating over my head...)

That should keep me busy...

A Constructive Exercise

You can spot a bachelor house by the games room. I have one...it leads a schizophrenic life as a table football room, a library, and a board gaming den. For the boardgames I have some large pieces of MDF, covered in felt, that are tied to the top of the Foosball table. It's good in that it is 5 foot square, and can cope with any game...even one of fantasy Flights big-box specials. On the downside it's a little flexible, and does have a habit of bowing under a hardcore lean.

So over the Christmas break I intend to re-design it. I was originally going to completely re-build it using a less flexible surface, however after an hour wandering round B&Q with Gill patiently in tow I decided that it probably wasn't going to work feasibly...the wood was too thick, and too expensive.

So Plan B is to re-surface and re-enforce the existing panels. Fish has most generously supplied some new material (lots of it actually), and I've picked up 4 panels of furniture board. These will be screwed to the underside of the existing boards, and rather than the current hinges I have a collection of clips and deadbolts. I wasn't able to find any d-loops for the webbing, which is a little disappointing, however they can be affixed at a later date. I also need to add on some edging to hold it in position on the Foosball table, however again this is not vital, and I may be able to come up with some better mounting mechanism if I look around a bit...