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Juneathon!

I don't know about you lot, but for me, things always seem to go best when there is a challenge to work towards. My original plan was to do the Blenheim Triathlon this month, but for various reasons that wasn't possible. Then I saw Cathy's "call to action" tweet about Juneathon, and remembered what fun Janathon had been earlier...

Goodbye Louie, lovely family cat

So quick, such a waste. We set off in the car to go to the kids' piano lesson; Louie was hiding in the dark behind one of the car wheels...

We took him down to the vet, but it was too late. The older children are distraught, and tomorrow morning our youngest will be too. Although Louie was only around 9 months...

Google Play Music: goodbye shuffle, hello Instant Mix!

I just love it when technology comes up with something that genuinely surprises me! I had this the other day when I was trying out Google's cloud music player on my new Nexus 4.

Listening to music has typically involved either setting up a manual playlist or randomly shuffling...

Janathon day 31: a disparate community, a lunchtime run and a personal record

Wow, the final day 31 already - that went past like a rocket! A good, pointy, fast one, too. I came across it first through a community on Twitter; in participating, I've felt part of a group of similarly-minded people, manifested in a rather enjoyable on-line but disparate community. I still haven't actually met any other Janathoner in the flesh,...

Janathon day 30: the best made plans...

... crash and burn when life has other ideas. I was supposed to be doing another hot yoga session this morning. However, a rather late "tax return" session meant I would only manage 4 hours of sleep: forget it! With the rest of the day then full of work (productive, but fraught) and an evening with friends round for a nibble...

Janathon day 29: plenty of variation!

Janathon was the easy bit today. A short run to/from outdoor circuits (1.49 miles in 12:36), and then our new phase of activity which is pretty cardio with sprinting, lunges against resistance, slow twitch/fast twitch and so on. Okay, it was a bit wet (read: rather miserable) and not wearing my waterproof trainers was a bad call, as I discovered...

Janathon day 28: how does everyone fit it all in?

Given that it isn't possible to increase the number of hours in a day, I need to find new ways of fitting in the things that are important to me, and jettisoning the ones I can live without. Today I have been trying the first approach!

The day started very early with a trip to Absolute Hot Yoga in...

Janathon day 27: back on the job

With the concert, and snow, out of the way, it was back to something more normal today. After mile of hill running as a warm-up, Holger and I had an hour of pairs training, doing various combinations of weights and so on. Felt good to be doing some proper graft after all the not-really-quite-the-same work that is flute/music. (Which I've...

Janathon day 26: marathon..!

Not that kind, though! Today has been dominated by a rehearsal and concert with my local orchestra, the Misbourne Symphony Orchestra in Amersham. With the recent snow, we had dropped a rehearsal so today has been quite tense and long, as we catch up.

It all came off very well indeed, in the event. Adam Summerhayes put on a...

Janathon day 25: today's recipe

Ingredients: lots of work, a planned run for lunchtime, a concert tomorrow, a more scary concert in April, a TRX suspension system and a gin and tonic.

1. Take the planned lunchtime run and put it aside for future use, after a particularly complicated day at...