Today we went up to near Cambridge to visit my parents-in-law. My MIL has been rather unwell, but thankfully is making an astonishing recovery after a rather up-and-down period over Christmas. When we said we were heading up, the instruction was received to bring my flute, and who am I to argue! As if any excuse is required... So activity...
Well, the exercise bit went alright, which is something. A quick weights session in the morning, ran down to the Old Town for some coffee and then took our 10yo out for a little bike ride. Nothing earth-shattering, but just about hit the spot. The picture is of the weights breakdown.
Thursdays are always busy - I play the flute, and orchestra rehearsals are on Thursday evenings. Our youngest also has Brownies, and Ellie is teaching yoga. That's enough to keep anyone busy. It's also been extra-full-on due to having to try to sort out some woes with the PPLPRS organisation (but that's another story).
I'm very happy with the idea that people need to pay for a licence to use music commercially; it adds to a business, and the musicians creating it deserve to get a payback for it. Mrs H uses music to create...
Thursday was not going to be a rest day; I took my kit to work ready for Metafit at lunch, and was planning to go for it. However, two problems came up:
work was very busy indeed
after Wednesday's yoga, with some goddess poses in particular, my inner thighs have been ON FIRE ALL DAY!
My plans are rather falling apart here as we near the end of Janathon, so thank goodness that Wild Training was scheduled in! A freezing cold one, it was, but enjoyable (even if I couldn't feel my toes by the end).
Music and exercise are coming together: there are now two other members of my orchestra doing Wild Training with...
Today has basically been a music day. OK, this morning was spent briefly helping out Mrs H plan a yoga event by checking out some possible local venues, but once lunch was done, it has been rehearsals and concerts all the way.
The concert was with the orchestra I play in, the Misbourne Symphony Orchestra. It went pretty well, all...
Or, more accurately, it took Google Play Music All Access, which I find myself listening to more and more these days. It has been day 2 of our penultimate "yoga weekend", with Mrs H out since late morning on her course, and a rather full day for me and the kids in her absence. This meant that basically every minute...
Given last night's horribly short sleep, today has actually been alright, albeit a bit busy. I basically haven't stopped between 6:50 when I got up and now, so wasn't able to fit much in. On the plus side, orchestra was fun this evening. We have a concert next weekend with the Misbourne Symphony Orchestra in Amersham if you're interested!
Today resembled yesterday in lots of ways, except that instead of kids having piano, I had orchestra. So - for the third time in three days - I found myself in Hervines Park doing Tabata squats and lunges, with work on the Bulgarian Bags as well. By this point, as you can imagine, my back-side was on fire! Warming up,...
Two events coincided today: Mrs H was in London all day for her yoga teacher training; and I had rehearsals all afternoon for my Misbourne Symphony Orchestra concert, and then the concert itself in the evening. With three kids to deal with, it was always going to be a busy sort of day!
I always look forward to Fridays, and my regular PT session with my friend Holger. Today was no exception - although, if I had known in advance how hard a session it was going to be, I might have felt differently! It was quite a simple session, but hideously cardiovascular... The main features were a Bosu ball (I had no...
Today has been pretty frantic, in a good way, and right now I am buying drinks at a Wild Training social event, so all I've managed is 20 TRX press-ups.
(Written later) That was quite an evening! There's a lovely group of people doing Wild Training, and we had a brilliant night out at the Boot and Slipper, hence...
Okay, it's late and we have an early start in the morning, so let's hit hard and fast! Saturday, with an action-packed oasis of activity in the desert of calf woes: I salute you!
The day started well, with a Wild Training session. That was an hour of tabata, alternating between rip training and various kinds of jump lunges and...
I am continuing to love Google Play Music, and find myself using it alongside Spotify on my phone in equal measures. I have now uploaded all my purchased music to the Google servers, so can listen to everything at very high quality wherever I am. How technology has come along in the last decade!
Thursday is orchestra evening - the Misbourne Symphony Orchestra, rehearsing in Amersham. It doesn't leave a lot of time for exercise, so I thought I'd fit in a walk at lunch, as a calf-recovery-friendly option. I had a very pleasant wonder around Rickmansworth, managing 3.18 miles in just over an hour. What beautiful weather...
As I was writing my Juneathon kick-off post, I couldn't help but notice a distinct lack of "blog love" since about March, so this is a very quick catch-up! It has been very eventful. Here's a potted summary of the most interesting bits...
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...
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,...
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...
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.
Gin and tonic, with a dash of Wordpress
Take the planned lunchtime run and put it aside for future use, after a particularly complicated day at...
So, after a busy and snow-laden day, it had got to 11PM with no sign of exercise. I had been really hoping for a run, but the freezing ground with new snow fall was making me a bit nervous of taking a fall in my tiredness. There was a bigger hurdle, though - I also needed to fit in some...
Today's Janathon contribution took the form of a circuits class this evening at Hervines Park in Amersham. It was cold and extremely vigorous, involving kettle bells and barbells, with various combinations of lunges, swings and the like. As usual, there was a good selection of...
Thursday evening is orchestra practice for me - I play flute in a local orchestra, the Misbourne Symphony Orchestra. (We have a concert soon, that you might like to come along to!) So doing exercise this evening just isn't going to happen. Instead, I thought I would slip in a quick run at lunchtime.
The story so far: Colin, pianist with "Two Flutes and a Flirt", managed to get the group a slot at the Phoenix Artist Club's "Christmas Spectacular". A few rehearsals, and a few more bottles of wine, and we were ready to give it our best shot. With the...
I am very excited! Next Sunday, 23rd December, from 5 to around 7:30PM, I am playing in a little show at the historic Phoenix Artist Club, with a couple of friends (Nicky Bolster and Colin Savage) in our group, dubbed "Two Flutes and a Flirt". We have been playing together for quite a few years...
There are things we all have to drag ourselves through at times: paperwork, ironing, work at times... This short post is a reminder that this doesn't always have to be the case!
For me, it has been all about playing my flute again. Life is busy, and it's not always easy to take much time out to practice and play...
There I was, mulling over how best to "break the ice" with my new blog: what could I write about that combined most, or perhaps all, of the loves in my life - home/family, music, exercise, ... *cough* gadgets? Then - a flash of inspiration: Spotify and Squeezebox! I listen to a lot of music - on the...
It has been easier to do the exercise for Janathon than blog about it! The last few days have been very busy, what with one thing or another, and I've barely stopped between Friday morning and now, it feels like. Good busy, though, rather than bad busy; work, but also catching up...
There I was, mulling over how best to "break the ice" with my new blog: what could I write about that combined most, or perhaps all, of the loves in my life - home/family, music, exercise, ... *cough* gadgets? Then - a flash of inspiration: Spotify and Squeezebox! I listen to a lot of music - on the...
Not my usual subject on this blog, but I'm just SO EXCITED! For the last year or more I've been relying on a nasty hack to make SQL Developer bearable on a linux HiDPI display. With a few simple updates, I can now get something genuinely usable!!
In my capacity as part-time CIO of the HSL (Hodson Support Line), I occasionally involve myself in the running of websites around the family. One such website is that of Mrs H previously aka Yoga By Ellie, now known as Ellie Denman Yoga! We've bought her a new domain name (https://elliedenman.yoga), and have moved the site over. The content is...
My plans to do some weights failed due to lack of time. However an hour of yoga went down very well: back bends. Oh yeah.
I must have managed a fair few steps as well, but can't actually come up with a number as my FitBit ran out of batteries. Oh no. I'm going to guess about 9,000.
We have three kids between 7 and 13, and they each do different activities on a Friday. It can get rather complicated! Despite not formally "doing some exercise" today, I've still managed to walk just under 13,000 steps / 6 miles (mostly dashing to swimming, or round the shops, or whatever). Then we had friends round for...
It's late, and I've an early start tomorrow, so let's keep this quick! I managed a quick lunchtime run at work in Rickmansworth - not sure the distance of 3 miles on Strava is right, but hey! Then, this evening, I had an hour of Wild Training in Hervines Park, Amersham. Apparently, according to my FitBit, I've done nearly 9 miles, but...
Or, more accurately, it took Google Play Music All Access, which I find myself listening to more and more these days. It has been day 2 of our penultimate "yoga weekend", with Mrs H out since late morning on her course, and a rather full day for me and the kids in her absence. This meant that basically every minute...
I love a good torch! Always have, and probably always will. So when I first came across a particular type of small, bright, zoomable and extremely cheap LED torch on Amazon, I was very interested. They use a particular LED called a Cree Q5, which appears to be widely known, and are available from a number of different vendors, the...
If you'd asked me an hour ago how today went, I'd be sounding pretty up-beat. Yes, the working day was mostly topped and tailed by school drop-off/pick-up, followed by some extensive juggling to make it to an early evening meeting at school to do with going up to senior school. But, after that, I had the chance to head out for a run...
For starters, it was pointed out to me, quite correctly, and indeed picked up by Cathy, that I had described my last Juneathon post as a Janathon one ... and that I therefore had to perform the forfeit of 20 press-ups. Well, the office was empty so...
There is no way that I'm going to be able to run every day during Juneathon, even though I would have loved to. If nothing else, the next few days will be tricky, as unfortunately Mrs H is away for the rest of the week, and child-related activity and work aren't going to give me much leeway during this time....
I am continuing to love Google Play Music, and find myself using it alongside Spotify on my phone in equal measures. I have now uploaded all my purchased music to the Google servers, so can listen to everything at very high quality wherever I am. How technology has come along in the last decade!
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...
With all the uproar about Apple's new mapping approach, attention has been diverted from other aspects of the latest iteration of iOS - version 6. In this short post I hope to make a start at redressing this balance! So, without further ado...
First - Do Not Disturb. This is the facility to avoid being disturbed by unwanted calls. I...
… My last phone was a Samsung Galaxy S2, an Android phone which on the whole I was very happy with; one morning a few months ago, though, it upped and died. Amazon were brilliant as ever, and gave me a full refund. However, I was left with the question as to what to replace it with. The S3 was…
There I was, mulling over how best to "break the ice" with my new blog: what could I write about that combined most, or perhaps all, of the loves in my life - home/family, music, exercise, ... *cough* gadgets? Then - a flash of inspiration: Spotify and Squeezebox! I listen to a lot of music - on the...
Well, it was Regent's Park again today, then a walk down to town to pick up the car we left there last night. Total: just over 16,000 steps, which I'm guessing is about 7 miles perhaps? (Oh, and a nice dog we saw while there). I had hoped to get a run...
Mrs H was in London today for a training course, so I went into Town with her and we had a good walk through Regent's Park. Cutting to the chase, I have just hit 20,800 steps so with the round trip and some walking later I've done alright overall. Quite eventful it was, though - in no particular order:
Mrs H had a pretty full-on day yesterday, starting very early and requiring some careful planning. So circuits was out of the question, realistically. Then, after the day was over, I couldn't really avoid my full Uber-Dad duties, ferrying children to/from Guides, jobs etc. Then I got sucked into helping my 16yo set up a revision timetable - where I...
I managed to fit in a sneaky 10K run this lunchtime, round Rickmansworth. Pretty muddy, hillier than I remembered, and worst of all - too much of a queue in the coffee shop when I got back. Boo!
This month has actually gone pretty well, it seems: so far in January I've...
You might argue - third verse day, same as the first... Today was awfully similar to day 1 this week, with circuits in the morning and yoga in the evening. Why change something that isn't broken, I say. There - that definitely proves my love!
As it turns out, the last couple of days of circuits have left my legs feeling pretty broken! That'll be all the squats, burpies, lunges and so on. However, having the idea in mind of doing a half marathon in a few months, I found myself thinking I ought to get some miles in the legs.
A couple of traditional hearties today. First off, an early start for circuits at 6:30am. It was freezing - pleasantly so, in fact, it being pretty dry so rather enjoyable to be out in, with the crunching under foot as we went about our exercises! I was concerned I was under-dressed, with just a long-sleeve tee-shirt and running jacket. However,...
We tried a local circuits class that was running this morning, at Fit Club Amersham. It was a TRX class, which was to say that about half the stations involved TRX. I'd forgotten how much I like a bit of that; it was hard work and enjoyable, and well-taught by the trainer, Marco.
A late entry for Saturday (we went out on Saturday night and I was too tired to get this post done). The day split up neatly, starting with Parkrun over in Rickmansworth.
The aquadrome was really cold and icy, and numbers were really high - over 700 people finished the event. I...
Friday: circuits, the same as on Monday. Challenge week with the folks at FFS. I pushed as hard as I could under the circumstances, and managed to get a little bit further than Monday (just over 7 times round the circuit this time). Turns out the whole period was captured...
Yesterday's proposed early-morning run went ahead; my friend and I met up at 6:30am and headed off for a run. Long story short, we started a bit quicker than expected, such that timings meant we could just about hit 10K. So we did.
In the end, Strava claims we managed 6.35 miles,...
I had intended to do circuits this morning. Events overtook me, though; my son needed a late lift back after a try-out for bar work at a local-ish pub, and that combined with some inevitable faffing around meant I was rather pushing it to manage a 6am start.
Of course that created the perfect conditions for my psyche to keep...
It was dry this morning, thankfully, so my friend and I headed out for a sneaky run. We ended up doing a slightly higher pace than expected, which felt like progress! We went just over 4 miles in the end.
Then, after a day of work it was off to yoga for an hour of following. Nice!
Monday equals circuits, at 6:30am. Today was what's known as "Challenge Week". The good news: it is only half an hour. The bad news: the format is AMRAP (as many reps a possible) over that half-hour. Each round of the circuits was:
I had hoped to fit in a bit of weights today, inspired by this picture of a massive crane lifting part of a new bridge at our local station in to place. However, it was not to be.
Instead I have managed a round trip to near Cambridge, a load of website...
Rickmansworth Parkrun was the host for Saturday's Janathon activity. In fact, not just for me but also for the other 691 people who had the same idea. Wow! I took a selfie to try to give some idea of how big the crowd was, but it doesn't really quite capture the scale.
Today's physical activity - an hour of circuits - was all tied up by 7:30am. It was warm enough (certainly by the end!) and a good crowd was involved, so all told it was a fun session. It would have been even better if I'd actually managed to get in to bed at 10:30pm as intended, rather than more like...
Today has been really busy, but not with exercise or other activity, much! (I'm guessing driving doesn't count...) I had hoped to at least get a quick weight training session in, but a last-minute school parents evening put paid to that too. Oh well.
So it is time to pull out joker number 1: 20 press-ups. That'll have to do!
Boo, work meetings all day today. Between about 10 and 5 I basically sat at a table talking. Thank goodness, therefore, that I was able to use this rather dry meat as the filling for a tasty circuit/yoga sandwich! Mmm-mmm.
Circuits was a balmy 8C outing at 6:30am, with an hour of running around and lifting/squatting/generally getting vigorous with stuff....
With the benefit of hindsight, I've probably over-done it a bit today!
It all started at 6:40 this morning when my friend and I went out for a 4.25 mile run. (Actually it started a few hours before that - whenever I need to get up early, my body keeps thinking I've over-slept, and wakes me up every hour or...
That was it, really: an hour's circuits class this morning at 6:30am. Numbers are moving up a bit now that the year is getting going, which makes it a bit more fun. Today was a good mix of running, strength and core. Overall I seem to have managed 12,000 steps so that's all good.
Today we went up to near Cambridge to visit my parents-in-law. My MIL has been rather unwell, but thankfully is making an astonishing recovery after a rather up-and-down period over Christmas. When we said we were heading up, the instruction was received to bring my flute, and who am I to argue! As if any excuse is required... So activity...
Parkrun has become something of a regular outing. What they say on their blog is quite right: it's a really inclusive kind of event, with all sorts of people doing it in their own way. (No Frosty the snowmen today, though - that I noticed, at least.) As I presume is usually...
I'm just putting this out there now since, based on the way I'm feeling, there's not much else I'll be doing!
There is a local outdoor training bootcamp-type group I train with during the week. It is called FFS - standing for Faster, Fitter, Stronger, of course! Given the normal weekly business associated with having three kids and a...
Today's main activity was a run. My friend had been feeling a bit guilty about not doing Parkrun yesterday, so suggested a quick outing this morning. This seemed like an excellent idea when he suggested it, and so we agreed to meet up at 8:30 for a run round Amersham.
This morning it didn't seem like quite such a good...
After a surprisingly early night/good sleep, the idea of doing Ricky parkrun was pretty appealing. It was really very chilly, and I felt a bit under-dressed in comparison to some people there, e.g. the snowman on the right!
Excellent news! I ran just over 2 miles with Mrs H, and my foot didn't hurt. That's brilliant, as it means I can resume my running schedule, which is broadly working towards a (not-yet-selected) half-marathon. Note to self: don't build too quickly.
Other than that, it was back on the bed-making circus. This time it was a double bed for...
I'm feeling a lot better today, so thought I'd try out some weights. I went for a bit of a classic kind of programme: squats, bench press, bent-over row, tricep dips. I also finished off with some kettle bells (double-handed swings, and clean and presses). Doing this kind of workout always makes me feel better, so I'm really glad I...
Unfortunately I was still feeling a bit rubbish on Friday, and I decided to let discretion be the better part of valour and not do the swimming I had been planning. Having something bad happen in the water doesn't sound too sensible. So apart from walking a few miles there really isn't anything good to say about this one. Boo.
So long, Thursday. My day was rather hindered by an annoying headache. I put it down to either dehydration or lack of sleep (both entirely possible given the last week). An early night was in order, and some pain killers. All I can really claim on the Janathon front, therefore, was walking about 5.5 miles (just over 12,000 steps) and...
With my foot not really playing ball yet, I was left with two main physical activities to perform today:
Eating lots of really bad food
Yoga
As far as Janathon goes, I guess one out of two ain't bad! :-/ I'm hoping tomorrow will feature less bad food and more physical activity; perhaps I'll try another short run...
Today has mostly been a day of wincing when confronted by stairs. Yesterday's weights has definitely taken its toll!
Thankfully, I was down for yoga this evening. Mrs H has just started teaching at a new venue - the rather splendid dance studio at the Amersham School. So we lugged what felt like about a million mats etc to the...
I've had a fairly long-standing arrangement with a friend to do weight training on a Monday evening. Today we got back "on plan" after a few weeks of disruption (not least because of my recent months of training for a run). It was hard after too long a break, but fun!
Everyone in my family, it seems, is demanding a new bed. Today was the day that two such demands were met. An Ikea trip yesterday meant we returned home with a "day bed" in the back of the car, but a bunk bed in the room it was meant for. So today I have:
Today started pretty badly; nothing was really wrong, but I was feeling pretty low. First world problems really, though, as I am still healthy and have somewhere warm to live etc.
My training is being a bit disrupted by having to give my foot a chance to recover (not really sure what's up with it, but I'd like it to...
Ok I did walk about 3 miles including commuting etc, but really it has been something of an enforced rest day. I seem to have hurt my foot running (this started mid December but has been getting worse), and I've also pulled something in my neck or shoulder. This put running, weights and swimming out of reach: annoying.
A lunchtime run was my poison of choice today. Working in Rickmansworth which is blessed with a splendid aquadrome and canal, this seemed like the ideal option. I couldn't decide on a route so basically "winged it", just setting off to see where I ended up. It was cold but pretty, and my eventual route took me down the canal...
I was back at work today, but the kids were still on their last stand before school. So an early run seemed like the thing! Today was a slightly hillier version of yesterday's run, about 2.3 miles with a small hill. Again, it was lovely to be out in the countryside, and I found my work day went better as...
I wasn't sure whether I was going to be back here this year, but looks like I am! The last couple of months have been pretty active as I was training for a 10 mile run on Sunday. That went well-ish, and now I'm keen to keep up the momentum. I was going to go the Facebook post route, but...
Am I talking about Juneathon or my training this morning? Both, it turns out! But before I go into that, first here's a quick overview.
Strava tells me I've run 26.1 miles this month, cycled 16.6 miles and swum a bit over one. There's also been a fair number of yoga classes, weights sessions and other stuff. My FitBit claims...
Commuting takes up such a lot of time! Going in today was brilliant: a five minute head-start got us there a good 25 minutes earlier than normal. Coming back, though, was disastrous: a few accidents on the M4 meant massive detours and an overall time of not far short of two hours. So again, at least 2.5 hours spend driving....
Clinging in there for the last few days. There was too much going on with commute and family to manage much: all I can claim is to have managed about 7,000 steps and an emergency 35 press-ups to get me through. Hopefully Friday will be better!
Much like yesterday, however a combination of luck and setting off 10 minutes earlier made the commute a bit shorter. Today I've only spent about 2.5 hours driving rather than 3.5 yesterday.
The same yoga class too - an hour of it. Temperature not too bad, and I'm noticeably better at touching hands behind my back, on both sides. Now,...
Nasty commute to Theale, day's work, nasty commute back. Then an hour of yoga - an excellent antidote to vehicular stress! This is roughly how my days are going to look until the end of next week. I'm lucky to not have a bad commute normally, so this is a useful reminder to me of how generally lucky I am!
Driving is something I've done a lot of today. My son started two weeks of work experience today, based in Theale. Guess who has to get him there and back from Amersham? That's right. Then, while he was there, I was working in Bracknell. Add in some awful M4 traffic and you get the idea. I'm thinking perhaps 3.5 hours?
Training this evening was rather knocked out by finally getting round to booking our summer holidays. I'm now feeling a great deal poorer than I was earlier, but rather less anxious on the subject!
So while proper training didn't happen, I did at least manage about 10,000 steps, partly walking round the...
We made a pilgrimage up to see my parents-in-law today, who live fairly near Cambridge. Knowing there would be scant chance for a decent Juneathon performance while I was up there, I went for an early stint to get it out the way. First off came a 45-minute weights session. Short and sharp was how I was thinking: squats (maxing...
Today has been splendid. I've walked a fair old way (just over 14,000 steps right now), partly because I managed to work somewhere a decent walking distance from home, and had a quick lunch outing. Heading down, the sun was out, the sky was blue with just a spotting of clouds,...
Who knew it was the solstice today? Not me! However, I did manage to get to a yoga class - my third this week, for the win! It was a touch cooler than it has been earlier in the week, making it rather more pleasant. I can definitely feel my body getting more flexible as I keep on doing it....
I was out all day in work meetings. That's not especially conducive to training, it turns out. However, when I got home Ellie suggested a run, and who am I to disagree! So out we headed, this time for a route of about 2.2 miles, at an average 9:45/mile pace. Very hot it was, but good!
Not quite what I expected, this one. I had been thinking a run would be a good thing to get me going after staying up a bit late helping one of the kids with some homework. However, my work threw that slightly, and so it was that at the end of the work day nothing much had happened. So I...
I'm noticing a pattern emerging. Ellie is keen to up her running levels, and likes a little 2-mile-ish loop we've got going down in the Old Town. So, if she's up for a run, that's been proving a pretty solid Juneathon entry. Did the trick today, that's for sure.
Well, the exercise bit went alright, which is something. A quick weights session in the morning, ran down to the Old Town for some coffee and then took our 10yo out for a little bike ride. Nothing earth-shattering, but just about hit the spot. The picture is of the weights breakdown.
So yesterday I had to resort to token press-ups, while today I manage two separate runs! I wasn't sure how the day was going to pan out, and so grabbed the opportunity to head out for a quick run in the morning. It was quite hilly in the end, going for a circuit including Amersham on the Hill and Old...
Thursdays can be tricky! My day was knocked out by a work trip into London (at the Hurlingham Club no less, don't you know!), and then the evening was swamped by brownie trips and then orchestra. After at least two "minimalist" nights of sleep, I just needed to get to bed! And so it was that I cracked out my...
I don't remember quite how the idea of a morning run came up, but I'm glad it did. After the kids were on their way to school, Ellie and I headed out for a quick run outing in the Old Town. It was pretty warm, and the second half was distinctly faster than the first; Ellie turned round to head...
Quite often on Mondays, my friend Holger and I do some weights. Today we did train, but mixed things up a bit for a change. We started off with some interval training, doing kettlebell swings (28kg ... ouch) and slamballs (10kg) - 1 minute on each, 15 seconds break, alternating so we each did 4 of both exercises. The slamball...
We were invited to a rather splendid barbecue today. I ate more than was probably good for me, and it was all delicious. The hosts and guests were all good company too, making it a very enjoyable day overall.
After heaving ourselves into the car and getting home, Junethon was...
Last night it was pointed out by my kids that our wifi had gone wonky. Obviously this is a catastrophe, and so it was that I ended up dealing with family IT support woes until about 1:30AM trying to make it work. I then resumed it this morning (after an early start / Tesco visit), and went straight on to...
What a lovely, warm evening for a gentle run from the cricket pitch near Old Amersham through to Little Missenden. Some kind of children's cricket activity was going on as we left, with plenty of players and parents in attendance. Further on, it was the ducks and geese who were...
Thursdays are always busy - I play the flute, and orchestra rehearsals are on Thursday evenings. Our youngest also has Brownies, and Ellie is teaching yoga. That's enough to keep anyone busy. It's also been extra-full-on due to having to try to sort out some woes with the PPLPRS organisation (but that's another story).
... again, yoga. It's been one of those days which has only really included preparation, work and home. This evening, thankfully, I was booked on to another yoga class with Ellie. Another hour of yoga ensued, which I enjoyed greatly. It's been pretty strong this week, with quite a few balances and so on. Fun!
What with it being dry and everything, a bit of a walk around Rickmansworth seemed just the ticket for this lunchtime. So out I headed, for a brisk circuit touching the river and town. A great way to clear my head of work! Adding in the walk to and from work, I'm standing at about 12,000 steps right now.
I felt pretty good after yesterday's triathlon, all things considered. However, I realised my legs are still sore, so thought I'd better give them a break! The obvious answer: some upper body weights.
So this evening I worked my way through a weights session to try to get things moving again: bench presses,...
My friend Sarah and I did a sprint triathlon at Blenheim today, with some family and friends there to support us. Sitting here now in the cool writing this post, the main word in my mind is "hot". It was absolutely scorching!
I haven't checked the detailed timings yet, but the text message from the organisers said I completed it...
Well, that's a bit of an exaggeration. Sunday is my triathlon at Blenheim, and I thought it would be daft to try to do too much. So instead I've been rushing around getting ready, managing about 10K steps. I did, however, have a quick outing on the bike: my 10yo was DESPERATE to have a ride, and it would have...
Gosh, is it June already? Wow, in that case - let's DO THIS!
Day 1 of Juneathon: tick. I had the day off work, and we had a family outing into London before the kids go back to school. My FitBit claims I've taken about 18,000 steps (just over 8 miles), and that sounds about right.
In my capacity as part-time CIO of the HSL (Hodson Support Line), I occasionally involve myself in the running of websites around the family. One such website is that of Mrs H previously aka Yoga By Ellie, now known as Ellie Denman Yoga! We've bought her a new domain name (https://elliedenman.yoga), and have moved the site over. The content is...
My plans to do some weights failed due to lack of time. However an hour of yoga went down very well: back bends. Oh yeah.
I must have managed a fair few steps as well, but can't actually come up with a number as my FitBit ran out of batteries. Oh no. I'm going to guess about 9,000.
Busy day, short post. Ok, no weights or anything, but I did at least manage to get over 11,000 steps in through the day. I have higher hopes for tomorrow...
Back in Amersham after a weekend away, time was limited. So I went for the classic choice: about an hour of lifting heavy bits of metal. We're talking squats, bench presses and bent-over rows - I'm roughly following the so-called StrongLifts 5x5, mainly as I've had decent success with it in the past.
Family commitments have rather taken their toll on today. I've spent more than 3 hours driving, and eaten quite a lot of cake and lasagne, if that counts. In Janathon terms, all I can really claim is just over 9,000 steps plus a token 25 press-ups. That's consistently something, right?
With a busy work day on the cards and an outing in the evening (a very enjoyable birthday gathering, but I digress), I knew that there wouldn't be much specific exercise going on. Therefore I had to depend on fitting in some general activity between other things, namely walking and running. The main run was a quick sprint to the...
Most days, just the walks between home, station and office mean that I can manage 10,000 steps per day without especially trying. Today, though: no. Due to a child-related incident (of the kind where, unlike their older siblings, you take them to school and notice a distinct absence of other children), I found myself working at home. I didn't actually...
To complement the previous day's weights, day 3 featured an hour of yoga with Mrs H - a definite perk of being married to a yoga teacher! It was a fairly strong, mixed class, introducing some new back bends I haven't tried before. It certainly felt good being back on the mat: as it turns out, yoga is one of the...
The title refers to today's two main activities. In the morning, Mrs H suggested we try out the Bodycoach Facebook Live HIIT session. 20 minutes, hard work! Recommended, we'll be doing it again in 2 days...
After that, my 15yo and I did a round of weights: squats, bench press and bent-over rows. It was his first session, so I'm...
Can't believe it is 2017 already! Wow. And so another year of Janathon. Cool!
Given that it's been a pretty busy day (family visits etc), but to keep in the game, I've started off with a somewhat dismal 32 press-ups. Not great, but I've definitely done worse!
Since this lacks photogenic appeal, instead I'll post a picture of our...
Last day, woo hoo! Janathon has actually been very helpful for me this year. I've really enjoyed following a number of my fellow Janathoners' blogs through the month, and have also done better on the exercise front than I would otherwise have done, of that I'm sure. In addition, though, it has kicked off the thought process of goal-setting, and...
My Dad has a big birthday around now, so Saturday was a bit of a crazy whistle-stop ride down to near Bath and back in a day for his birthday party. The party itself was at the rather nice venue of Tracy Park, between Bath and Bristol. Loads of family were there - in fact it was actually...
What a day. After making it to evening, I just about managed to head out for a wet, windy 1.5 mile run round Amersham. I wasn't feeling great, so for once took the sensible option and headed back early.
That was the easy bit though: worse by far was the funeral this morning of a friend of Mrs H and...
This is going to be quick! After a rather work-heavy day, I rounded things off with our pairs PT session, moved from Friday. As my shoulder has been a bit achy, this one was LEG DAY. Ouch! We mainly did deadlifts, squats and Bulgarian squats. Darrell took some pics which I have included here. Time is short so that's all...
Today started with a pretty strong weights session in my pairs PT that is usually on a Friday. The only problem was that while chest-pressing some 17Kg dumbbells, my left arm/shoulder failed in a way that was a) a bit painful and b) ended up with the weight whacking my hip. Annoying - owwww!
I've been out with work meetings today, but luckily had a yoga class booked this evening with YogaByEllie. Result: it was delicious, and I'm now feelin' gooooood! My step count is a bit dismal (5-6 thousand ish), but I'm not letting that affect my mood, that's for sure.
Anyway, now bed - pairs PT tomorrow morning, and could...
It all hurts rather today! For a start, I bought new shoes over the weekend, and as it turns out they need a bit of wearing in. Worse, though, I'm aching quite a lot from yesterday - the run was quite literally a step too far.
I was going to do some Metafit today but work got in the way,...
My cycling club, the ARCC, has outings on Sunday mornings. I don't manage many of them due to family commitments - rides knock out half the day, typically, and that's quite a big "ask" for Mrs H. However I do go out periodically, and with dry weather forecast, this was my day.
Today has been full-on! Mrs H was out doing circuits this morning, and our oldest was on the footie, and then our littlest had a school cross country event at Hervines Park in Amersham! As it turned out, hers was actually the earliest, so she and I traipsed over to the park ready for some action. It was cold and...
Friday, but not like normal Fridays... I would usually have a "pairs PT" session in the morning, but our trainer was tied up with some kind of franchise meeting so we had to reschedule. Instead, I took my gym stuff into work with fingers crossed.
All went to plan, and I managed a work-out at Bodycoach in Rickmansworth. I started...
My plans for a lunchtime workout might have failed due to a work deadline, but I still managed my evening yoga session thankfully. It may have been very cold outside, but the yoga was distinctly warming, with some pretty serious squats, planks and balances to challenge my body and distract my mind. Brilliant!
Annoyingly, I seem to have developed some heel pain on my left foot. I'm not sure if it is just a bruise or something more serious, but it does rather limit my running options. However two of my other regular activities seem unaffected, and I managed both of them today. Yay!
Sunday was a catastrophic fail. We were out a fair chunk of the day, and I wanted to get an early night to get my mood and eating back on top. So "rest day" it was - but the night certainly wasn't! Our burglar alarm took the opportunity to develop a fault and go off 5 times between 4 and...
But not the kind of lifting I ought to have been doing, mostly. Friday started alright with pairs PT activity - boxing training followed by quite a lot of assorted weights, which I enjoyed. Overall I did just over 12,000 steps too. It all went a bit downhill from there, though...
Another day of things being kicked into touch by other things... A lunchtime Metafit was out of the question as work is rather mental at the moment. Then my plans for an evening run were also knocked out getting my 12yo packed for Guide camp on Friday. All I can really claim, therefore, is to have managed a generally fairly...
Work is very busy at the moment, so by lunchtime I was in urgent need of a little break. Down to Bodycoach gym in Rickmansworth I headed, slightly undecided as to what I was going to do. In the end I spent a bit of time on the upper body, did a warm-up on the treadmill and headed out for...
While it could have so easily gone the same way as Monday, this day went much better! Metafit worked out well, and I even managed to top it off with some upper-body exercises afterwards. Then, in the evening I had a really enjoyable hour of yoga with YogaByEllie - just what was required after all the squats of earlier!
So I hauled my gym kit in to work in preparation for Metafit at lunch - as well as a big bag of books for the charity shop. But life had other plans, it turns out; some work stuff came up, and next thing I knew, I had completely missed the class.
Something similar happened with my revised plan for...
Well, after going to Bath on Saturday morning, we returned on Saturday afternoon. Then the 14yo returned from a weekend of scout water activities, and after the usual round of de-mudding and general tidy-up it was time for the weekend end-game! So not a huge amount of Janathon activities took place. The best I can claim is that I ran...
With a family gathering today, there wasn't all that much chance to get out and exercise. Thankfully, I did manage to get out for a late morning run - about 3.6 miles ish around Amersham. Unfortunately, Strava had a bit of a strop in the middle, so I can't be sure about the pace and distance unless I...
Today has been extremely busy. Which is a good thing; I tend to work at my best when there's lots going on and the pressure is mounting. While it didn't leave time for any training at lunchtime, luckily it is Friday - pairs PT day! So in fact my main activities were out of the way by 8:30 this morning. And I...
Thursday was not going to be a rest day; I took my kit to work ready for Metafit at lunch, and was planning to go for it. However, two problems came up:
work was very busy indeed
after Wednesday's yoga, with some goddess poses in particular, my inner thighs have been ON FIRE ALL DAY!
Another day, another Metafit class in Rickmansworth at lunch. For some reason, this one was heaving; before today, the largest class I have attended stood at about 5 people ish, but today there were a full 10 of us. The weather was good, the exercise gruelling but only about 30 minutes,...
Running was out today. But, metafit was back on the normal timetable at the Bodycoach gym in Rickmansworth, and a plan was forming.
A quick lunch outing and I was in. The metafit format is appealing: a 30 minute HIIT (high-intensity interval training) programme, timed precisely with a recording to guide you through the programme. I can't bring myself...
All limbs felt recovered today, and Mrs H was up for it too, so today we headed out for a little 3.6 mile loop around Amersham. It felt quite hard but I was happy with the pace, overall (10:06/mi ish, apparently). And we timed it well to (mostly) miss the rain. Conveniently, our return home took...
I avoided running today because my knee is feeling just a bit sore. So instead, my friend kindly let me have a go on his Concept 2 rowing machine. I realised, as I was rowing, that I hadn't actually picked the most knee-friendly option, but all worked out in the end! I managed to bash out a 3km row in...
A successful start to Janathon! My wife and I took an opportunity around lunch time to head out for a quick run around Amersham, clocking up around 3.5 miles. It was cold but at least the rain held off; can't complain about that!
It was interesting how relatively straightforward it went, as I'm currently also experimenting with...
Well, 2016, you sure crept up on me stealthily! I'm not going to complain, though: 2015 was a pretty tough year, all told, and I won't be weeping tears of sorrow on its passing. So - what better way to turn things round and prepare for the new year than to sign up for Janathon? A month of fitness, blogging...
Not much to say. The last few days have been a general wash-out, given the health events that have overtaken the family. I've managed a token plank (day 18) and some press-ups (day 19) to just about meet the spirit of Juneathon. It has been completely right to prioritise health above exercise, though, so I have no regrets.
When health problems come up, other things tend to take a bit of a back seat. That's where we are at the moment. I'm just about ticking the boxes with a token plank of just over a minute, but circumstances haven't allowed me to get out for a run or indeed any other kind of exercise (apart from a bit...
With the best will in the world, things don't always go to plan. We have had some illness in the family that has distinctly thrown a spanner in the works. Grand plans for Tuesday ended up being watered down to a rather token 30 press-ups.
On the plus side, I think the kids can claim the prize for best outcome...
Well, this morning Mrs H and I managed to pop out for a quick early run once the kids were dropped at school. We did about 30 mins ish of gentle jogging/walking, probably a couple of miles ish. My legs were a bit sore after yesterday, so this felt like a nice kind of level to maintain sanity. Then we...
The big day arrived! After a hideously early start (setting off at 5:15), and heavy triathlon traffic at the other end, we were there and ready to go. Time was a bit short, so it wasn't all that long before Karen was jumping in the Thames to get the ball rolling. Once she had set off, Holger...
With the Windsor Triathlon tomorrow, I didn't want to do much today, to give my body some rest. So apart from marching around a lot, it's been pretty quiet. We went to register in Windsor and check out the lie of the land, which was useful. Now, though: time for bed, as we are leaving at 5:15... I've walked over...
Friday is pairs PT day, which conveniently ticked off my Juneathon requirements by 8:05 this morning, featuring some pretty comprehensive arm work, mainly. After that, I hared it back to our place and got changed, then we took the kids to school and went over to ...
Danesfield House, local spa venue as featured in a recent Amazon Local voucher!...
There wasn't a minute spare yesterday, and the usual evening exercise slot was knocked out by our youngest daughter being inducted into Brownies. This entailed a ceremony in a private woods near Chesham, and the eating of burgers. So there hasn't been much in the way of specific exercise.
This coming Sunday, some friends and I are participating in the Windsor Triathlon, in particular the Olympic distance relay. I'm down for the 10K run at the end, but my training hasn't been going especially well: it is in only 4 days, and I haven't actually run 10K in really quite some months! So today I wanted to do...
My grand plan for the day featured a run in the evening. Reality set in, though, when at 11PM I realised I still needed to do a sprint round Tesco. Revising my thinking, I ended up with:
A sprint round Tesco (mileage unknown, but always further than I think!)
Still tired from yesterday, and busy at work: what to do? Well, today, I kept it simple: a quick run around Ricky. Apparently it was 3.3 miles, and I wasn't going fast since I'm trying to prepare for 10K on Sunday and will need to be gentle!
A couple of weeks ago, I attempted an introductory ride with the Amersham Road Cycling Club. Unfortunately, my plans were thwarted very early, when about 10 minutes in to the ride my chain snapped spectacularly, knocking out my rear gears. Today I managed my first proper ride, though, and it was really good fun!
A fairly varied day, really. This morning, I took the girls to see Mrs H doing the "Color Obstacle Rush" at Dorney Lake. Timing meant that we were in a bit of a rush ourselves (getting packed is always a challenge) so had to leg it to see them set off! The day was then rather...
We have three kids between 7 and 13, and they each do different activities on a Friday. It can get rather complicated! Despite not formally "doing some exercise" today, I've still managed to walk just under 13,000 steps / 6 miles (mostly dashing to swimming, or round the shops, or whatever). Then we had friends round for...
I usually have a pairs PT session on a Friday morning, however this week we had to bump it to Thursday - today. With the weather being so utterly beautiful, we decided to cycle the 6-ish miles to Deep Mill where we train, which was a delight.
With another full day on site with a client, Juneathon options have been limited. A horrendously late night last night hasn't helped matters either! However, current logistics often allow me to head over to a blissful yoga session with Yoga By Ellie, aka Mrs H, and this evening was one of those!
I was hoping to manage a run today, but decided to do an early weights session anyway, with my friend Holger. Starting around 6:30AM (fools), we worked mainly on chest and back, with sets of bench presses, flys and so on, for about 45 minutes.
Lucky we did, as it turned out; the rest of the day has been rather...
It's late, and I've an early start tomorrow, so let's keep this quick! I managed a quick lunchtime run at work in Rickmansworth - not sure the distance of 3 miles on Strava is right, but hey! Then, this evening, I had an hour of Wild Training in Hervines Park, Amersham. Apparently, according to my FitBit, I've done nearly 9 miles, but...
I've written a number of times over the last few years about doing yoga, either with Mrs H or other local teachers. Well, I can now officially un-mask Mrs H in her own right as the Ellie behind Yoga By Ellie!
I am a broken man. The combination of minimal sleep over the last few days, plus yesterday's upper-body workout, has left me absolutely shattered! You know that thing when you become run-down, and start getting colds, headaches, delirium etc? That.
Friday is pairs PT day. Last Friday wasn't, though, due to illness, so in fact this week there has been a pair of pairs PT sessions. The first one, on Monday, concentrated on legs, so today was mainly working on the upper body. It was very hard!
I had to work at home today as we had so many shipments coming. Our oldest has a trip to Germany with his school tomorrow, with a "stupid o'clock" start time, so we needed to make sure everything could be signed for. With limited time, all I was able to fit in was an unexpected walk to run some errands...
My plans are rather falling apart here as we near the end of Janathon, so thank goodness that Wild Training was scheduled in! A freezing cold one, it was, but enjoyable (even if I couldn't feel my toes by the end).
Music and exercise are coming together: there are now two other members of my orchestra doing Wild Training with...
So many things to do by the end of the month! My main planned Janathon activity was to have been a yoga class, but circumstances didn't turn out as expected, sadly, so I had to resort to a set of press-ups and some extra walking (just over 4.5 miles in the end).
The biggest challenge in the end was completing...
Result! My regular Friday morning pairs PT session was cancelled last week as the trainer was ill: we managed to reorganise it for this morning! This is therefore a "two sessions" week, so this morning we concentrated entirely on legs.
Ouch! I'm now walking in to work ... well, hobbling is probably a more accurate term. All I'm saying...
Today has basically been a music day. OK, this morning was spent briefly helping out Mrs H plan a yoga event by checking out some possible local venues, but once lunch was done, it has been rehearsals and concerts all the way.
The concert was with the orchestra I play in, the Misbourne Symphony Orchestra. It went pretty well, all...
The week has caught up with me: I'm completely exhausted.
I was supposed to have done my regular Friday morning PT, and was up in time, but was very sorry to hear that our trainer was sick in the night (food poisoning, it seems), so the session was off. However, this did give me a few extra minutes in bed,...
... and that's the write-up, not just the exercise! With a parent's evening and orchestra rehearsal after work, options were severely limited. Again I had to resort to some substantial walking (15,177 steps / 7.05 miles - which did include the odd run to the station etc). I also managed to bash out a final 30 press-ups to round things...
Very busy, so keeping this brief! After much juggling (hockey lifts, Mrs H on circuits etc), I managed to just have time to run to Wild Training at a nippy Hervines Park, do the set there (resistance bands in all sorts of awful ways) then run back. Final score: 13,814 steps/6.5 miles over the day according to my FitBit; and...
There were plans; I was going to be back on Wild Training, followed by a yoga class. But plans change, and this time it was the Wild that took the bosh. However, all wasn't lost, as the yoga still went very nicely, thank you! Probably a rest wasn't a bad plan, either, as I'm still a bit achy from yesterday......
An hour's Wild Training, using resistance bands for squatting, lunges, rowing and pressing, finishing with an awful abs workout with Russian twists etc. I doubled up on bands, too, so this was quite a challenging session, for sure
Or, more accurately, it took Google Play Music All Access, which I find myself listening to more and more these days. It has been day 2 of our penultimate "yoga weekend", with Mrs H out since late morning on her course, and a rather full day for me and the kids in her absence. This meant that basically every minute...
This post might alternatively have been titled "emergency press-ups". Mrs H left at 7:50 ish this morning, back at 8PM; she had one of her last yoga teacher training days at Yoga Junction in Crouch End. So it was me "home alone" with the three kids, without much chance to get out for some training.
It's 7:30 on Friday morning, it's ... pairs PT time! Woo, yeah. Today, upper-body strength was the name of the game, with all manner of bench presses, dips, curls and what have you! There was some excellent shoulder work too, with weighted flies in different directions. An hour of that was a most invigorating start to the day.
Given last night's horribly short sleep, today has actually been alright, albeit a bit busy. I basically haven't stopped between 6:50 when I got up and now, so wasn't able to fit much in. On the plus side, orchestra was fun this evening. We have a concert next weekend with the Misbourne Symphony Orchestra in Amersham if you're interested!
Too much to do, not enough time! I did manage a run, though - a sneaky 4.4 miles round Amersham in the evening. It was cold and wet, and felt rather hard without being fast, but I'm glad to have actually made it out!
Glorious morning walking to work, beautiful day ... then lunchtime brought thick, dark clouds and nasty cold rain. With work pressing in on me too, I had to give my idea of a lunchtime run a miss. Shame!
Luckily, there was a space for me in Mrs H's YogaByEllie class this evening, so I had a thoroughly enjoyable hour...
Another full-on day, but luckily I managed to keep my Janathon streak going with a place at tonight's Wild Training in Amersham. This week is the first in the so-called "complex phase", which makes extensive use of elasticated bands to focus on particular muscles. The main moves were:
1) Hold the handles by your shoulders, run the bands under your...
Busy day! I've done loads, but now it is 23:20 and a run is out of the question. I've gone for the "token" option: 20 press-ups and a 1:16 plank. (I'm guessing a tax return doesn't count?).
The plan now: sleep, then tomorrow ... THE WORLD! Night all...
It wasn't what I'd planned, but nonetheless today has been a good day.
First, I hadn't expected to make it to Wild Training this morning, as Mrs H had designs on a yoga class. However, she very kindly let me go anyway, so I had an hour of "kettlebell challenge". For further details on what we did, take a...
This evening, our three children each had different events going on. As one of them involved packing and leaving on a winter camp, there was never going to be a lot of time for exercise between taxi and other parental duties!
Lucky, then, that I have a regular Friday morning slot with Holger, having an hour's shared PT session with...
Thursday evening is orchestra evening (the Misbourne Symphony Orchestra in Amersham), and I had an errand to run in Watford this lunchtime, so I wasn't sure where Janathon was going to fit today. Then Mrs H suggested I might like to try the yoga workout she had just prepared: she didn't have to offer twice! What a great start to...
... but shattered! A long day working and travelling left little chance this evening to manage Janathon. I had hoped a yoga session might be on the books, but tomorrow now looks more likely for that.
So, tonight, I slipped in a quick plank (1:07) and 40 press-ups. And hopefully one long zzzzzzz...
It's been a busy day, and hasn't finished yet, so I'll keep this brief (ish). Today has been a two-pronged effort, starting off with a quick and sneaky lunchtime run round Rickmansworth. That was nice! It was cold but not excessively so, and muddy but not unpleasantly much: I...
Sunday, the day before a week of work and school: family time. A friend had suggested a group walk in the morning, and we thought it might be fun to walk from the field below Shardeloes House up to the Red Lion in Little Missenden, and back. There were 9 of us in total, and we had a very good...
If you've got kids, and it's the weekend, then your day's going to be pretty busy, right? Do I get a "yes brother"? Today was one of those days.
First, we realised that, despite our cupboards being full of Christmas cake, mince pies and the like, we didn't actually have anything whatsoever to eat as a meal! A pretty extensive...
I had planned for today to be an "exercise sandwich".
The base piece of bread was this morning's pretty intensive hour of personal training with my good friend Holger and our trainer Darrell; today's session concentrated on strength, involving plenty (too much, some may say) of squatting, bench presses and so on. A mighty fine session, to be sure! I...
Hello, fellow Janathoners, and welcome to 2015. May it be a great year for all of you!
Ok - now to business. Uncharacteristically, day 1 was done and dusted well before lunchtime. A fellow Wild Training friend of mine had suggested a New Year's Day bike ride, and the hearty response and subsequent planning meant that by 10am there were...
I love a good torch! Always have, and probably always will. So when I first came across a particular type of small, bright, zoomable and extremely cheap LED torch on Amazon, I was very interested. They use a particular LED called a Cree Q5, which appears to be widely known, and are available from a number of different vendors, the...
I had two main ideas in mind when planning today's Juneathon activity. First, I've been absolutely dying to have a proper test run for the new Vibram Spyridons I bought about a week ago from Ten Point in Chesham Bois. (I really love my old Vibrams, but they are more aimed at road running with barely any tread and...
Jog, log and blog. Well, I've mostly managed two of these, at least... I'm rather behind on the blogging, though, as basically I've been really busy with loads of other things, especially at work. All part of the rich tapestry of life though, so I'm not complaining!
To get back on track, then, here's a brief summary of what I've...
Rest days are on my mind. I noticed chat about this in some of the other Juneathon blogs I follow, and feel similarly, that it is important to incorporate some level of rest into the week. So I had a very pleasant stroll round the canals of Rickmansworth over lunch, getting quite a few...
Work has been a bit manic, so I'm doing a short and sharp catch-up of the last two days. My Juneathon activities for Monday were:
1) A lunchtime trot at work, doing about 3.5 miles starting off down the beautiful Chess river and then meandering round and back. The weather was just lovely! ...
A pretty quiet day today. We had a family trip to near Cambridge, so there was limited scope for activity. The main feature was therefore about 30 minutes of yoga, trying out part of a class prepared by Mrs H with her YogaByEllie hat on for someone this week.
Yoga is often written off as glorified post-exercise stretching, but to...
What a lovely day! Our local exercise group had fielded a team of 7 to have a go at Wolf Run. In case you haven't come across this before, it is a 10k challenge which entails crossing various kinds of obstacles and traversing lots of muddy terrain. There are an increasing number of...
Another busy day at work, so thank goodness for my regular Friday morning pairs PT session with Holger. Knowing that I had Wolf Run tomorrow, I asked that we didn't do anything that would scupper me too badly. Somehow, therefore, we ended up doing Tabata battle ropes, Bulgarian bags, burpee variations and other hideous exercises. Then we moved on to...
A long one! I spent most of the day on a train going to or returning from Huddersfield, making some proper exercise difficult. However, I did manage to get some decent walking in, going by foot from Euston to Marylebone when getting home. The lovely weather helped!
Better still, I made it home before Mrs H's YogaByEllie class started,...
Wednesday is piano day for my two older kids. For various reasons, today was a long session: 45 minutes each, giving me 90 MINUTES FOR A RUN! Sweet.
I need to sleep, so I'm keeping this short. I managed a fantastically enjoyable 7.1 mile run round from Chalfont St Peter, heading out to Jordans and Chalfont St Giles,...
With some good weather forecast and uncertainty about what would be going on later, taking my running kit into work felt like a no-brainer. And so it was that I headed out for a 3.7 mile run around the aquadrome at Rickmansworth in the sun. There isn't a huge amount to say about it, apart from the fact that...
Well, that was fun! I just had a trip into Town to meet up with an old friend from university. We had been trying to organise such a gathering for absolutely ages, but I'm always hard to pin down because of everything going on with the kids, orchestra etc, and he works in TV so finds himself disappearing for months...
That was much more fun! Mrs H is now back, sighs of relief all round and Juneathon activities can resume. We had a pretty active day even before she returned, though, what with straightening out the house, doing some shopping etc.
Post reunion, once we were all home and the kids were dispatched to...
Friday, aka manic day, how glad am I that you are nearly complete. Fridays in this household are usually filled up at both ends with good things: in the morning, I usually have my pairs PT session, while our youngest has "parents come in for some reading" sessions; Mrs H teaches yoga after drop-off too; then the evenings tend to...
If you'd asked me an hour ago how today went, I'd be sounding pretty up-beat. Yes, the working day was mostly topped and tailed by school drop-off/pick-up, followed by some extensive juggling to make it to an early evening meeting at school to do with going up to senior school. But, after that, I had the chance to head out for a run...
For starters, it was pointed out to me, quite correctly, and indeed picked up by Cathy, that I had described my last Juneathon post as a Janathon one ... and that I therefore had to perform the forfeit of 20 press-ups. Well, the office was empty so...
(Edit: argh! It was just pointed out that I had called this post a Janathon one! Fixed...)
And so it was that Mrs H relocated for a few days into the wilds of North Wales, staying at an ashram as part of her yoga teacher training. I'm holding the fort back home while she's away, keeping the kids happy...
There is no way that I'm going to be able to run every day during Juneathon, even though I would have loved to. If nothing else, the next few days will be tricky, as unfortunately Mrs H is away for the rest of the week, and child-related activity and work aren't going to give me much leeway during this time....
How time flies! June caught me unawares, and so it was this morning that I saw I had a decision to take: Juneathon or not? But you know the answer already!
So, on to day 1. A day-trip to visit family with the kids saw us only back and sorted by about 10pm, so a quick run was about the...
1) My usual Friday pairs PT session this morning, which again featured mainly upper-body exercise, with much weights 2) Quite a lot of walking - I'm heading to the O2 Arena later to watch my 10yo sing in Young Voices...
For me, Janathon finished about 3 weeks ago when my ankle packed up; I'm really hoping...
Right, that didn't quite go to plan. I had been down for Wild Training, but circumstances changed so Mrs H went instead. Without being able to run, I mainly walked quite a lot to keep my FitBit happy (11,487 steps / 5.28 miles), and did the exercises I've been prescribed to get my ankle back on the road to running...
I confess that, not being able to run, Janathon has turned out rather different from what I had hoped. My ideal outcome was to have run every day and boosted my stamina and range well beyond current levels; that's not how it's worked out at all. I've therefore had to console myself, largely, with lots of circuits and other similar...
After the success of Friday's pairs PT session, the weekend was a bit of a come-down. Saturday saw me taking the highly unusual step of having to go to bed for a few hours in the afternoon, and Sunday was equally quiet. I think I must have been going down with something last week, which has been pretty mild but...
Today resembled yesterday in lots of ways, except that instead of kids having piano, I had orchestra. So - for the third time in three days - I found myself in Hervines Park doing Tabata squats and lunges, with work on the Bulgarian Bags as well. By this point, as you can imagine, my back-side was on fire! Warming up,...
Friday is PT day. My PT partner has just seen a physio who said he can't run or do lunges or squats for 6 weeks, so we were on a strict upper-body regime today. After yesterday's final nail in the squatting coffin, I wasn't going to argue!
As ever, Darrell our trainer found a way to destroy us within...
I'm glad that not every week is as busy as this one. I've managed the activities, just about, but getting them up on the blog has been a bit harder!
Wednesday is piano day for our two oldest kids, and we have devised a cunning "tag parenting" approach to deal with it. This involves one of us going to...
Today has been characteristically busy. Despite this, though, this evening I was booked onto our Wild Training class at 7:30. We're still doing lots of Tabata training, and since I'm not running, I found myself doing walking lunges with a 12Kg Bulgarian Bag thrown over my shoulders in the Tabata style. My glutes are now rather on fire! Come to...
Since I still can't run, and life is very busy, I am looking at things that are easy to slot in but help stay fit. My FitBit is helping here, reminding me to walk rather than drive, for instance. Press-ups are also coming along nicely too.
Despite feeling rather ropey yesterday afternoon/evening and having to come off my exercise...
Today was the second of Mrs H's "yoga days", so any kind of fitness outing was out of the question. However, my 10yo had a hockey tournament in Tring, so we headed out that way for the game. It was a lovely day, but very cold indeed! My 5yo and I trudged round the hockey park for an hour or...
Two events coincided today: Mrs H was in London all day for her yoga teacher training; and I had rehearsals all afternoon for my Misbourne Symphony Orchestra concert, and then the concert itself in the evening. With three kids to deal with, it was always going to be a busy sort of day!
I always look forward to Fridays, and my regular PT session with my friend Holger. Today was no exception - although, if I had known in advance how hard a session it was going to be, I might have felt differently! It was quite a simple session, but hideously cardiovascular... The main features were a Bosu ball (I had no...
When did life get so busy? What with not being able to run, and work and other activities pressing in on all sides, it is proving tricky to come up with interesting Janathon activities. Today was another press-up day, trying to build up my capacity. I managed 50 of them, which I'm pretty happy with.
So running is still off the cards. The substitute for that activity at tonight's training was therefore squats and lunges, again. That gave me about 120 squats, and 90 lunges each on my left and right legs. Having done this twice during the week, my legs are really quite achy; I am consoling myself with the thought that all this...
Today was looking a bit tricky on the Janathon front. Mrs H took my Wild Training spot as I've been feeling just a little bit under the weather, and my feet have been a bit sore all day after attempting to break in my new Doctor Marten's shoes! So I was very happy to hear that Mrs H needed someone...
How can it be that things are getting so busy this early in the year! Work is really hotting up at the moment, meaning some late nights are coming up. Janathon today has been alright, though.
First, I managed another set of 20 press-ups (not wanting to lose the momentum started on the last few days of not running). I'm...
I really hate being injured! My ankle is making a - literally - painfully slow recovery. In the meantime, I'm having to think of alternatives. Today was 20 press-ups, but if anyone has any suggestions for 12th onwards, I'd love to hear them!
The last few days have been pretty mad, what with our brilliant Wild Training outing on Friday...
Today has been pretty frantic, in a good way, and right now I am buying drinks at a Wild Training social event, so all I've managed is 20 TRX press-ups.
(Written later) That was quite an evening! There's a lovely group of people doing Wild Training, and we had a brilliant night out at the Boot and Slipper, hence...
Something I've done over the last few days has made my left leg hurt, so running is off the cards for a few days to give it a chance to recover. What with today being so busy, and my orchestra rehearsal this evening (I play flute, and we have a next weekend), I haven't had time for much exercise today....
Good day on FitBit!(Edit - was originally called day 9, but that's silly!) Given last night's 3 1/2 hours of sleep, today has been astonishing! After a productive day at work, I managed to fit in 50 minutes of a Wild Training session (running just over 1.7 miles in the process), then took the kids...
That applies both to today's exercise and this blog post. I've only just finished a totally different project I've got on the go, and it is gone 2:30AM, so I will do no more now than report that I managed Wild Training in Hervines Park this evening. the key features of note are:
So today was my first day back in the office this year (if not actually my first day of work), so I thought I would do a lunchtime run. I had a rough idea of a route, heading round the lakes at the aquadrome, and cheerfully set off in that direction. It was a lovely run, staying mostly dry and...
Oh that was fun! It's been a really busy day, but I just managed to sneak in a quick run before bed. Same route as Friday, recorded on my watch as 2.94 miles in 33:31. Can't tell yet how that compared, but will check when home. My DOMS from friday is now even worse, so I was worried that the...
Today was my first session this year of Wild Training, a local outdoor fitness group I've been attending for a couple of years now. There's a lovely mix of people at the group, and sessions manage a fine balance between good, strong exercise and fun.
Today's session was the last of a phase called PHA, aka Peripheral Heart...
This is going to be a brief write-up, what with it being late. Today has been an exercise sandwich, squashed as it was between two thick-sliced chunks of exercise and with some good slabs of meat in between!
The bottom slice started at 7:30am, when me and my friend Holger had our regular Friday morning personal training session with our...
It is hard to imagine how different today's run turned out! First to fill in the back story now that the technology is playing ball...
Mrs H and I have just returned from a yoga retreat run by "Yoga with Emma" at Godshill Park Farm, a lovely bed and breakfast on the Isle of Wight. I...
Happy new year, everyone! So here we are again: a month of training every day for Janathon.
In the absence of any decent internet connection whatsoever at the place I'm staying, I will do nothing more at this point than record the fact that I made it out for an extremely wet and windy run through some muddy Isle of...
So, for me, Juneathon was brought to a close with a very pleasant lap of Heron Lake. With an early start, it was all over by 8:15AM. I think it was about 1K or so, which we did in about 30 minutes plus/minus a few. The rest of the day has been, variously, manic in a good or bad way,...
If you are participating in a triathlon soon, or indeed you just enjoy swimming but are a bit fed up of the pools near you, there is a lot to be said for heading down to a lake for some outdoor swimming. As well as taking a bit of practice to feel comfortable, it can also be just a little...
Words like "write-off" spring to mind when I think about today; with Mrs H out from 6:40AM until 10:30PM, and a not-yet-housetrained Sam the Cockapoo around, there hasn't been a good deal of chance to get out for some decent Juneathon-ing! So, again, all I've managed is a token 1:40 plank to keep my record clean.
Some days just don't go as you plan. Today, for instance, I was hoping to go for a run or at least a swim; in the end all I managed was a plank and some foam rolling. Oh well, such is life!
In other news, Sam appears to be finally showing encouraging signs of starting to get the hang of...
The mood this afternoon has been managed most effectively through exercise! My 6pm circuits with Wild Training was a great lift - metaphorically and practically. We are still on TABATA, mixing ropes, kettle bells and running (plus mountain climbers ... ouch). It is very challenging, but is definitely helping my fitness.
This lunchtime, I had an overwhelming urge to go for a run. Rather cunningly, I had some running kit I'd left in the office for just this sort of situation, so I changed and headed off for a run down the canal and round Rickmansworth Aquadrome. I always enjoy this route; there are usually plenty of child- and dog-walkers to...
I hadn't expected today to work out quite like this! The original plan had been just the usual Monday "piano run" while the kids had piano lessons. However, Mrs H had two excellent surprises in store. Firstly, it turned out that she wasn't going to be able to do her circuit class booking for Wild Training, so I did that...
I don't know when we first started referring to our pairs PT sessions as going into the "man cave", but the name has certainly stuck. I received a suitable placard for Fathers Day; at this morning's weekly PT session, we hung it on the door of the gym room, just in case anyone wasn't clear what was going on. (I...
Circuits was much the same as yesterday, but with a hideous variation at the squat/lunge phase, where I was given two kettle bells. Suffice to say in still hurting!
Today we got our new puppy Sam home. He is a Cockapoo, black and beautiful, and very calm - apart from right now when he hasn't quite bought into sleeping in...
After a busy day at work, what's better than to settle down to ... an hour of high-intensity intervals with Wild Training?! It was hot out there in Hervines Park, and I was slightly at sixes and sevens when I arrived, as my 9yo daughter had her brownie meeting in the same park, throwing our usual pattern for the...
Today was the second time I had the chance to play guinea pig for Mrs H's yoga class homework. We had a very pleasant half-hour going through various poses and flows, and I ended up feeling distinctly relaxed. I'm really looking forward to when she becomes a fully qualified yoga teacher!
Monday: piano day. The older kids head to their piano lesson in Chalfont St Peter; I then use the next hour for a run. Today's was lovely: nice and warm, not raining, beautiful countryside.
I went for the simpler of my routes: straight up the road to Chalfont St Giles, up to the end of White Hart Close (where my...
Well, that's one day I would happily blot from the diary of life. Proof, as if it were needed, that you really can try to fit too many things in. I am my own worst enemy...
On the plus side, I did manage to foam roll my calves: my sole Juneathon contribution for today.
So it's Mrs H's yoga training day; she slogged into Town for her full-on day of yoga learning in Crouch End, and the kids and I had some time at home. We have some fantastic local teenagers for babysitting, so today one of them held the fort while I managed a thoroughly enjoyable Wild Training session, then a quick run...
This morning's early PT session, following last night's late run, looks with the benefit of hindsight a bit over-enthusiastic! It was fun though; I always enjoy these sessions. Again, Holger and I trained at Deep Mill Equestrian Centre near Great Missenden, presided over by Darrell from Wild Training.
My strength is returning, definitely, despite a near absence of carbs. Today has been a long day, starting at 6 to get to the airport, and walking back from my run at 23:51. But I feel like I am beginning to recover some of the speed I had before starting my experiment.
Wednesday evening: circuits! It was a bit soggy, but we had a thoroughly enjoyable hour of high-intensity interval training this evening with Wild Training in Amersham's lovely Hervines Park. The class started off alternating rounds of kettle bells and "rip training". Each round was classic TABATA, entailing 8 x 20-second repetitions of the exercise, with a 10-second gap between, and...
It was spectating at Blenheim that did it. Watching people jumping into the lake, swimming, cycling, running ... winning. I had wanted to do Blenheim myself, but all the tickets had gone when I applied. Then, with all the music that was going on earlier in the year, I didn't get anything else in the diary. But it all came...
I have two conflicting views about today. On the one hand, I'm delighted that I managed my longest run since my calves started giving me agro (4.37 miles in 44:31) and they stood up fine. This was done during my "piano slot" (when the kids have lessons and I have an hour), and was lovely! And I had even...
After yesterday's late night, another long day. I was up at 6:30 to make breakfast, then after some quick packing we set of to pick up friends then drive on to Blenheim. Our friend Karen and Holger were both competing, starting pretty early. It felt a lot colder than when I did it last year, although I gather the water...
Okay, it's late and we have an early start in the morning, so let's hit hard and fast! Saturday, with an action-packed oasis of activity in the desert of calf woes: I salute you!
The day started well, with a Wild Training session. That was an hour of tabata, alternating between rip training and various kinds of jump lunges and...
I also look forward to Fridays. My friend Holger (aka @TheHolgernator) and I head over to Deep Mill Farm, a nearby and most excellent equestrian centre, for an hour's training session, under the supervision of Darrell from Wild Training Amersham. We do something different each time: given my continuing calf woes, today we majored on strength training.
Thursday is orchestra evening - the Misbourne Symphony Orchestra, rehearsing in Amersham. It doesn't leave a lot of time for exercise, so I thought I'd fit in a walk at lunch, as a calf-recovery-friendly option. I had a very pleasant wonder around Rickmansworth, managing 3.18 miles in just over an hour. What beautiful weather...
I am getting intimately familiar now with our foam roller. I bought ours from Helen at Ten Point in Amersham (a present for Mrs H, but that's another story!), and am very pleased with it. Helen directed me towards a Barefoot Audio YouTube video showing how to use the roller, which is excellent and thoroughly recommended as a...
Juneathon: "an annual festival of activity and excuses". I've managed a bit of each today!
While I was keen to get a run in today, my calf had other ideas: going down the stairs to get breakfast, it was clear that it wasn't much better than last night. So I would have to do some other kind of exercise.
I look forward to Monday evenings. The two older kids have piano lessons; dropping them off gives me an hour that can't realistically be used for anything useful but ... running. Ok, I could perhaps bring a bike, but even the pool round the corner is shut, so a jaunt round Chalfont St Peter, in a way that is entirely...
Is it just me that finds it hard to fit runs in to busy family weekends? Today we have been up at my parents-in-law's place, having fun at the playground and later at nearby Wimpole Hall, only getting back to ours near 9pm. I did take running stuff, but it just wasn't going to happen there...
Today's Juneathon activity started pretty early; soon after 6:30am, me and my friend Karen were in a car heading over to near Egham for some open water swimming in Heron Lake. It was a lovely sunny morning, if a bit nippy. When we got there, it...
As I was writing my Juneathon kick-off post, I couldn't help but notice a distinct lack of "blog love" since about March, so this is a very quick catch-up! It has been very eventful. Here's a potted summary of the most interesting bits...
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...
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,...
... 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 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...
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!
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...
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...
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.
Gin and tonic, with a dash of Wordpress
Take the planned lunchtime run and put it aside for future use, after a particularly complicated day at...
I am one tired Janathoner today, intent on getting to bed on time after yesterday's late night: I need sleep! So, onto the facts. Tonight I did an hour of circuits: 45% triplanar barbell work, 45% kettlebells and 10% abs with planks, weighted V-sits etc. Hard work, and temperature control a problem, balancing snow against excessive heat generation. Good, though,...
So, after a busy and snow-laden day, it had got to 11PM with no sign of exercise. I had been really hoping for a run, but the freezing ground with new snow fall was making me a bit nervous of taking a fall in my tiredness. There was a bigger hurdle, though - I also needed to fit in some...
I can't spin much of a yarn around today's Janathon effort, so won't try! I managed an hour's circuits in the snow in Hervines Park, and stuck with the 20Kg kettle bell ... just. It has been a day of trials and tribulations - the cat wee-ed on the duvet, so it had to go to the drycleaners, and the...
The unexpected thing about our outdoor exercise class in the snow is that, when you're there, being too cold is the last thing on your mind. You tend to go in suitable footwear and perhaps an extra layer or two, with gloves and hat, but by the time you are ten minutes in to the session, you're losing clothing pretty...
Today was a characteristically busy Sunday. With the kids around, snow by now very slippy, homework to be done and the like, a run was always going to be a long shot. A stint in the pool, though - that's another story.
Today's activities have involved having the most fun I've had in a long time! Yes, there was circuits in the snow - which was brilliant, with the hardcore enthusiasts making it through the bad conditions to be rewarded by an hour of cold pain! And yes, the run there...
Snow. Lots of it. Enough to get the kids off school, and make the journey over for today's pairs PT session interesting. Today's Janathon effort has been fun. The initial hour of pairs PT training was hard work but very entertaining, as usual, with lots of tyre-flipping, boxing and so on.
It is about 7.5 miles from my office in Rickmansworth to where I live in Amersham. One day I plan to run home: this is quite a lot longer than my current regular range, but not beyond the bounds of possibility. I thought, for my Janathon run today, that I would go just a part of the way, to Chorleywood...
Today I have been exhausted. Tired, after a late bedtime and waking children; physically rather achy after a few hard days; and emotionally drained with everything that is going on. While I like being busy, probably more than is sensible, right now I'm feeling the pressure of all the things going on and coming up. Janathon and general running to...
Today's Janathon effort had some definite extra "get up and go" about it.
For a start, I was booked onto my circuits class, which was a good session and extremely core-intensive (hence the dodgy pun title). Today I thought I would describe a bit more about what we do at Wild Training. Every week the programme changes, but today...
Today's Janathon contribution took the form of a circuits class this evening at Hervines Park in Amersham. It was cold and extremely vigorous, involving kettle bells and barbells, with various combinations of lunges, swings and the like. As usual, there was a good selection of...
It has been easier to do the exercise for Janathon than blog about it! The last few days have been very busy, what with one thing or another, and I've barely stopped between Friday morning and now, it feels like. Good busy, though, rather than bad busy; work, but also catching up...
Weekends tend to involve a lot of kid stuff, and this weekend we've also got friends coming over for a visit. So I thought I'd get my Janathon commitment out of the way early, with a short-ish and quick run before breakfast, using one of my local routes around Amersham. I didn't want to overdo it, since I'm planning...
A slightly late blogging of yesterday's effort... It was all over by 8:30am, and most invigorating. On Fridays I have been having morning pairs PT sessions with my friend Holger; this one was a bit different. We started with a brisk warm-up walk, then moved into 45 minutes of various activities - rowing, weights, flys, chin-ups etc. All hard work,...
Thursday evening is orchestra practice for me - I play flute in a local orchestra, the Misbourne Symphony Orchestra. (We have a concert soon, that you might like to come along to!) So doing exercise this evening just isn't going to happen. Instead, I thought I would slip in a quick run at lunchtime.
On balance, it seemed like the best idea today was to take things a bit easier - I noticed on my training log on FetchEveryone that I had reached nearly 19 miles so far this month, which is way more than normal for me. Advice from all directions was to avoid pushing it and running the risk of injury,...
I confess to getting slightly nervous about all this extra running mileage! Don't get me wrong, I'm really enjoying it. I've run further in the last week than any previous week of my life, though, and with the general advice "out there" that you shouldn't boost your mileage by more than something like 10% per week, I fear I'm running...
After 3 (for me) longish runs over 3 days, I thought that perhaps a day of recovery might be sensible. (I have a little plan in mind for tomorrow, too, that would benefit from fresh legs!)
Instead of running, I have been walking to keep things going (there may have been the odd slow jog mixed in there too, once...
Well, that was fun! At last I managed to do my planned Pednor Loop circuit. The weather wasn't especially encouraging when I set off at about 9am, with fog and a little bit of light drizzle. As it turned out, though, it was perfect: rather...
Never underestimate the importance of sleep! One late night/early morning, and next thing you know you're up a half-hour late and all your plans fall apart. We have a busy family day in London, and a few things to do before we go, so there was barely an hour to fit Janathon in. This ruled out my Pednor Loop run,...
As it turns out, all today's exercise for Janathon was complete by 8:30 this morning. I had been hoping to do a run this evening, but yesterday's circuits and subsequent very late night, followed by this morning's early PT session, did me in completely! (But at least I managed to get my "spractice" in too, and not too late for...
Today I made it, for the first time, to a "hot yoga" class at Absolute Hot Yoga in Gerrards Cross. Mrs H is an ardent fan of yoga in general, and I have watched her get fitter, stronger and happier as she has continued with her practice. Today, with the kids at my parents' for a short break, we...
How funny! While looking through some pictures on my computer, I came across a slug of well over 200 pictures taken with my SLR by my son, then 10, when I did the Blenheim Triathlon in support of MS Trust back in June 2012. Hidden in this huge pile of random shots were some pretty decent pictures; I'll make...
Talking with a colleague earlier about triathlons, I was reminded how much I had enjoyed my first-ever personal triathon experience, completing the Blenheim Sprint Triathlon earlier this year. Here is a brief account of what happened, and a fun site I found on the way!
We had a lovely family outing on Saturday, to see the Women's Olympic Triathlon at Hyde Park. It seemed like a natural choice, after all the work that went into training for the Blenheim Triathlon, earlier in the year. Then, having got a taste for...
Mrs H was in London today for a training course, so I went into Town with her and we had a good walk through Regent's Park. Cutting to the chase, I have just hit 20,800 steps so with the round trip and some walking later I've done alright overall. Quite eventful it was, though - in no particular order:
Mrs H had a pretty full-on day yesterday, starting very early and requiring some careful planning. So circuits was out of the question, realistically. Then, after the day was over, I couldn't really avoid my full Uber-Dad duties, ferrying children to/from Guides, jobs etc. Then I got sucked into helping my 16yo set up a revision timetable - where I...
We tried a local circuits class that was running this morning, at Fit Club Amersham. It was a TRX class, which was to say that about half the stations involved TRX. I'd forgotten how much I like a bit of that; it was hard work and enjoyable, and well-taught by the trainer, Marco.
A late entry for Saturday (we went out on Saturday night and I was too tired to get this post done). The day split up neatly, starting with Parkrun over in Rickmansworth.
The aquadrome was really cold and icy, and numbers were really high - over 700 people finished the event. I...
I had hoped to fit in a bit of weights today, inspired by this picture of a massive crane lifting part of a new bridge at our local station in to place. However, it was not to be.
Instead I have managed a round trip to near Cambridge, a load of website...
Rickmansworth Parkrun was the host for Saturday's Janathon activity. In fact, not just for me but also for the other 691 people who had the same idea. Wow! I took a selfie to try to give some idea of how big the crowd was, but it doesn't really quite capture the scale.
Today's physical activity - an hour of circuits - was all tied up by 7:30am. It was warm enough (certainly by the end!) and a good crowd was involved, so all told it was a fun session. It would have been even better if I'd actually managed to get in to bed at 10:30pm as intended, rather than more like...
Today has been really busy, but not with exercise or other activity, much! (I'm guessing driving doesn't count...) I had hoped to at least get a quick weight training session in, but a last-minute school parents evening put paid to that too. Oh well.
So it is time to pull out joker number 1: 20 press-ups. That'll have to do!
With the benefit of hindsight, I've probably over-done it a bit today!
It all started at 6:40 this morning when my friend and I went out for a 4.25 mile run. (Actually it started a few hours before that - whenever I need to get up early, my body keeps thinking I've over-slept, and wakes me up every hour or...
Everyone in my family, it seems, is demanding a new bed. Today was the day that two such demands were met. An Ikea trip yesterday meant we returned home with a "day bed" in the back of the car, but a bunk bed in the room it was meant for. So today I have:
Am I talking about Juneathon or my training this morning? Both, it turns out! But before I go into that, first here's a quick overview.
Strava tells me I've run 26.1 miles this month, cycled 16.6 miles and swum a bit over one. There's also been a fair number of yoga classes, weights sessions and other stuff. My FitBit claims...
Commuting takes up such a lot of time! Going in today was brilliant: a five minute head-start got us there a good 25 minutes earlier than normal. Coming back, though, was disastrous: a few accidents on the M4 meant massive detours and an overall time of not far short of two hours. So again, at least 2.5 hours spend driving....
Clinging in there for the last few days. There was too much going on with commute and family to manage much: all I can claim is to have managed about 7,000 steps and an emergency 35 press-ups to get me through. Hopefully Friday will be better!
Much like yesterday, however a combination of luck and setting off 10 minutes earlier made the commute a bit shorter. Today I've only spent about 2.5 hours driving rather than 3.5 yesterday.
The same yoga class too - an hour of it. Temperature not too bad, and I'm noticeably better at touching hands behind my back, on both sides. Now,...
Nasty commute to Theale, day's work, nasty commute back. Then an hour of yoga - an excellent antidote to vehicular stress! This is roughly how my days are going to look until the end of next week. I'm lucky to not have a bad commute normally, so this is a useful reminder to me of how generally lucky I am!
Driving is something I've done a lot of today. My son started two weeks of work experience today, based in Theale. Guess who has to get him there and back from Amersham? That's right. Then, while he was there, I was working in Bracknell. Add in some awful M4 traffic and you get the idea. I'm thinking perhaps 3.5 hours?
Training this evening was rather knocked out by finally getting round to booking our summer holidays. I'm now feeling a great deal poorer than I was earlier, but rather less anxious on the subject!
So while proper training didn't happen, I did at least manage about 10,000 steps, partly walking round the...
We made a pilgrimage up to see my parents-in-law today, who live fairly near Cambridge. Knowing there would be scant chance for a decent Juneathon performance while I was up there, I went for an early stint to get it out the way. First off came a 45-minute weights session. Short and sharp was how I was thinking: squats (maxing...
I was out all day in work meetings. That's not especially conducive to training, it turns out. However, when I got home Ellie suggested a run, and who am I to disagree! So out we headed, this time for a route of about 2.2 miles, at an average 9:45/mile pace. Very hot it was, but good!
Not quite what I expected, this one. I had been thinking a run would be a good thing to get me going after staying up a bit late helping one of the kids with some homework. However, my work threw that slightly, and so it was that at the end of the work day nothing much had happened. So I...
I'm noticing a pattern emerging. Ellie is keen to up her running levels, and likes a little 2-mile-ish loop we've got going down in the Old Town. So, if she's up for a run, that's been proving a pretty solid Juneathon entry. Did the trick today, that's for sure.
So yesterday I had to resort to token press-ups, while today I manage two separate runs! I wasn't sure how the day was going to pan out, and so grabbed the opportunity to head out for a quick run in the morning. It was quite hilly in the end, going for a circuit including Amersham on the Hill and Old...
We were invited to a rather splendid barbecue today. I ate more than was probably good for me, and it was all delicious. The hosts and guests were all good company too, making it a very enjoyable day overall.
After heaving ourselves into the car and getting home, Junethon was...
Last night it was pointed out by my kids that our wifi had gone wonky. Obviously this is a catastrophe, and so it was that I ended up dealing with family IT support woes until about 1:30AM trying to make it work. I then resumed it this morning (after an early start / Tesco visit), and went straight on to...
Thursdays are always busy - I play the flute, and orchestra rehearsals are on Thursday evenings. Our youngest also has Brownies, and Ellie is teaching yoga. That's enough to keep anyone busy. It's also been extra-full-on due to having to try to sort out some woes with the PPLPRS organisation (but that's another story).
... again, yoga. It's been one of those days which has only really included preparation, work and home. This evening, thankfully, I was booked on to another yoga class with Ellie. Another hour of yoga ensued, which I enjoyed greatly. It's been pretty strong this week, with quite a few balances and so on. Fun!
What with it being dry and everything, a bit of a walk around Rickmansworth seemed just the ticket for this lunchtime. So out I headed, for a brisk circuit touching the river and town. A great way to clear my head of work! Adding in the walk to and from work, I'm standing at about 12,000 steps right now.
My friend Sarah and I did a sprint triathlon at Blenheim today, with some family and friends there to support us. Sitting here now in the cool writing this post, the main word in my mind is "hot". It was absolutely scorching!
I haven't checked the detailed timings yet, but the text message from the organisers said I completed it...
Well, that's a bit of an exaggeration. Sunday is my triathlon at Blenheim, and I thought it would be daft to try to do too much. So instead I've been rushing around getting ready, managing about 10K steps. I did, however, have a quick outing on the bike: my 10yo was DESPERATE to have a ride, and it would have...
Gosh, is it June already? Wow, in that case - let's DO THIS!
Day 1 of Juneathon: tick. I had the day off work, and we had a family outing into London before the kids go back to school. My FitBit claims I've taken about 18,000 steps (just over 8 miles), and that sounds about right.
In my capacity as part-time CIO of the HSL (Hodson Support Line), I occasionally involve myself in the running of websites around the family. One such website is that of Mrs H previously aka Yoga By Ellie, now known as Ellie Denman Yoga! We've bought her a new domain name (https://elliedenman.yoga), and have moved the site over. The content is...
Family commitments have rather taken their toll on today. I've spent more than 3 hours driving, and eaten quite a lot of cake and lasagne, if that counts. In Janathon terms, all I can really claim is just over 9,000 steps plus a token 25 press-ups. That's consistently something, right?
Can't believe it is 2017 already! Wow. And so another year of Janathon. Cool!
Given that it's been a pretty busy day (family visits etc), but to keep in the game, I've started off with a somewhat dismal 32 press-ups. Not great, but I've definitely done worse!
Since this lacks photogenic appeal, instead I'll post a picture of our...
What a day. After making it to evening, I just about managed to head out for a wet, windy 1.5 mile run round Amersham. I wasn't feeling great, so for once took the sensible option and headed back early.
That was the easy bit though: worse by far was the funeral this morning of a friend of Mrs H and...
Today has been full-on! Mrs H was out doing circuits this morning, and our oldest was on the footie, and then our littlest had a school cross country event at Hervines Park in Amersham! As it turned out, hers was actually the earliest, so she and I traipsed over to the park ready for some action. It was cold and...
Another day of things being kicked into touch by other things... A lunchtime Metafit was out of the question as work is rather mental at the moment. Then my plans for an evening run were also knocked out getting my 12yo packed for Guide camp on Friday. All I can really claim, therefore, is to have managed a generally fairly...
While it could have so easily gone the same way as Monday, this day went much better! Metafit worked out well, and I even managed to top it off with some upper-body exercises afterwards. Then, in the evening I had a really enjoyable hour of yoga with YogaByEllie - just what was required after all the squats of earlier!
Well, after going to Bath on Saturday morning, we returned on Saturday afternoon. Then the 14yo returned from a weekend of scout water activities, and after the usual round of de-mudding and general tidy-up it was time for the weekend end-game! So not a huge amount of Janathon activities took place. The best I can claim is that I ran...
Not much to say. The last few days have been a general wash-out, given the health events that have overtaken the family. I've managed a token plank (day 18) and some press-ups (day 19) to just about meet the spirit of Juneathon. It has been completely right to prioritise health above exercise, though, so I have no regrets.
When health problems come up, other things tend to take a bit of a back seat. That's where we are at the moment. I'm just about ticking the boxes with a token plank of just over a minute, but circumstances haven't allowed me to get out for a run or indeed any other kind of exercise (apart from a bit...
Well, this morning Mrs H and I managed to pop out for a quick early run once the kids were dropped at school. We did about 30 mins ish of gentle jogging/walking, probably a couple of miles ish. My legs were a bit sore after yesterday, so this felt like a nice kind of level to maintain sanity. Then we...
I've written a number of times over the last few years about doing yoga, either with Mrs H or other local teachers. Well, I can now officially un-mask Mrs H in her own right as the Ellie behind Yoga By Ellie!
Friday is pairs PT day. Last Friday wasn't, though, due to illness, so in fact this week there has been a pair of pairs PT sessions. The first one, on Monday, concentrated on legs, so today was mainly working on the upper body. It was very hard!
This evening, our three children each had different events going on. As one of them involved packing and leaving on a winter camp, there was never going to be a lot of time for exercise between taxi and other parental duties!
Lucky, then, that I have a regular Friday morning slot with Holger, having an hour's shared PT session with...
Sunday, the day before a week of work and school: family time. A friend had suggested a group walk in the morning, and we thought it might be fun to walk from the field below Shardeloes House up to the Red Lion in Little Missenden, and back. There were 9 of us in total, and we had a very good...
If you've got kids, and it's the weekend, then your day's going to be pretty busy, right? Do I get a "yes brother"? Today was one of those days.
First, we realised that, despite our cupboards being full of Christmas cake, mince pies and the like, we didn't actually have anything whatsoever to eat as a meal! A pretty extensive...
Jog, log and blog. Well, I've mostly managed two of these, at least... I'm rather behind on the blogging, though, as basically I've been really busy with loads of other things, especially at work. All part of the rich tapestry of life though, so I'm not complaining!
To get back on track, then, here's a brief summary of what I've...
Rest days are on my mind. I noticed chat about this in some of the other Juneathon blogs I follow, and feel similarly, that it is important to incorporate some level of rest into the week. So I had a very pleasant stroll round the canals of Rickmansworth over lunch, getting quite a few...
With the best will in the world, I wasn't quite sure what I was going to be able to manage for Saturday. Picture the scene: me, home alone with three kids; various kid events in the diary requiring taxi-ing, and no adults anywhere near. I had a vague hope that a teenager might be able to babysit for a short...
Friday, aka manic day, how glad am I that you are nearly complete. Fridays in this household are usually filled up at both ends with good things: in the morning, I usually have my pairs PT session, while our youngest has "parents come in for some reading" sessions; Mrs H teaches yoga after drop-off too; then the evenings tend to...
There is no way that I'm going to be able to run every day during Juneathon, even though I would have loved to. If nothing else, the next few days will be tricky, as unfortunately Mrs H is away for the rest of the week, and child-related activity and work aren't going to give me much leeway during this time....
How time flies! June caught me unawares, and so it was this morning that I saw I had a decision to take: Juneathon or not? But you know the answer already!
So, on to day 1. A day-trip to visit family with the kids saw us only back and sorted by about 10pm, so a quick run was about the...
Today was the second of Mrs H's "yoga days", so any kind of fitness outing was out of the question. However, my 10yo had a hockey tournament in Tring, so we headed out that way for the game. It was a lovely day, but very cold indeed! My 5yo and I trudged round the hockey park for an hour or...
I hadn't expected today to work out quite like this! The original plan had been just the usual Monday "piano run" while the kids had piano lessons. However, Mrs H had two excellent surprises in store. Firstly, it turned out that she wasn't going to be able to do her circuit class booking for Wild Training, so I did that...
Circuits was much the same as yesterday, but with a hideous variation at the squat/lunge phase, where I was given two kettle bells. Suffice to say in still hurting!
Today we got our new puppy Sam home. He is a Cockapoo, black and beautiful, and very calm - apart from right now when he hasn't quite bought into sleeping in...
After a busy day at work, what's better than to settle down to ... an hour of high-intensity intervals with Wild Training?! It was hot out there in Hervines Park, and I was slightly at sixes and sevens when I arrived, as my 9yo daughter had her brownie meeting in the same park, throwing our usual pattern for the...
I look forward to Monday evenings. The two older kids have piano lessons; dropping them off gives me an hour that can't realistically be used for anything useful but ... running. Ok, I could perhaps bring a bike, but even the pool round the corner is shut, so a jaunt round Chalfont St Peter, in a way that is entirely...
Is it just me that finds it hard to fit runs in to busy family weekends? Today we have been up at my parents-in-law's place, having fun at the playground and later at nearby Wimpole Hall, only getting back to ours near 9pm. I did take running stuff, but it just wasn't going to happen there...
Today's Juneathon activity started pretty early; soon after 6:30am, me and my friend Karen were in a car heading over to near Egham for some open water swimming in Heron Lake. It was a lovely sunny morning, if a bit nippy. When we got there, it...
As I was writing my Juneathon kick-off post, I couldn't help but notice a distinct lack of "blog love" since about March, so this is a very quick catch-up! It has been very eventful. Here's a potted summary of the most interesting bits...
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...
Today I have been exhausted. Tired, after a late bedtime and waking children; physically rather achy after a few hard days; and emotionally drained with everything that is going on. While I like being busy, probably more than is sensible, right now I'm feeling the pressure of all the things going on and coming up. Janathon and general running to...
For slightly over a month now, we have been following the so-called "Paleo Diet". On the whole it has been very successful, so I thought I'd jot down some notes on the subject. Therefore, here's a quick introduction to what it is, together with a few recipes and ideas we've had that have made our lives easier.
The story so far: Colin, pianist with "Two Flutes and a Flirt", managed to get the group a slot at the Phoenix Artist Club's "Christmas Spectacular". A few rehearsals, and a few more bottles of wine, and we were ready to give it our best shot. With the...
On Thursday morning we had a family outing to the vet's to give our new kitten - provisionally named Florence - the once-over. We registered her details with the receptionist, and took her in to be seen. Our vet picked her up and started the usual prodding and...
I'm just putting this out there now since, based on the way I'm feeling, there's not much else I'll be doing!
There is a local outdoor training bootcamp-type group I train with during the week. It is called FFS - standing for Faster, Fitter, Stronger, of course! Given the normal weekly business associated with having three kids and a...
We made a pilgrimage up to see my parents-in-law today, who live fairly near Cambridge. Knowing there would be scant chance for a decent Juneathon performance while I was up there, I went for an early stint to get it out the way. First off came a 45-minute weights session. Short and sharp was how I was thinking: squats (maxing...
Today has been splendid. I've walked a fair old way (just over 14,000 steps right now), partly because I managed to work somewhere a decent walking distance from home, and had a quick lunch outing. Heading down, the sun was out, the sky was blue with just a spotting of clouds,...
We were invited to a rather splendid barbecue today. I ate more than was probably good for me, and it was all delicious. The hosts and guests were all good company too, making it a very enjoyable day overall.
After heaving ourselves into the car and getting home, Junethon was...
What a lovely, warm evening for a gentle run from the cricket pitch near Old Amersham through to Little Missenden. Some kind of children's cricket activity was going on as we left, with plenty of players and parents in attendance. Further on, it was the ducks and geese who were...
What with it being dry and everything, a bit of a walk around Rickmansworth seemed just the ticket for this lunchtime. So out I headed, for a brisk circuit touching the river and town. A great way to clear my head of work! Adding in the walk to and from work, I'm standing at about 12,000 steps right now.
Family commitments have rather taken their toll on today. I've spent more than 3 hours driving, and eaten quite a lot of cake and lasagne, if that counts. In Janathon terms, all I can really claim is just over 9,000 steps plus a token 25 press-ups. That's consistently something, right?
My plans for a lunchtime workout might have failed due to a work deadline, but I still managed my evening yoga session thankfully. It may have been very cold outside, but the yoga was distinctly warming, with some pretty serious squats, planks and balances to challenge my body and distract my mind. Brilliant!
Sunday was a catastrophic fail. We were out a fair chunk of the day, and I wanted to get an early night to get my mood and eating back on top. So "rest day" it was - but the night certainly wasn't! Our burglar alarm took the opportunity to develop a fault and go off 5 times between 4 and...
But not the kind of lifting I ought to have been doing, mostly. Friday started alright with pairs PT activity - boxing training followed by quite a lot of assorted weights, which I enjoyed. Overall I did just over 12,000 steps too. It all went a bit downhill from there, though...
Another day, another Metafit class in Rickmansworth at lunch. For some reason, this one was heaving; before today, the largest class I have attended stood at about 5 people ish, but today there were a full 10 of us. The weather was good, the exercise gruelling but only about 30 minutes,...
I avoided running today because my knee is feeling just a bit sore. So instead, my friend kindly let me have a go on his Concept 2 rowing machine. I realised, as I was rowing, that I hadn't actually picked the most knee-friendly option, but all worked out in the end! I managed to bash out a 3km row in...
A successful start to Janathon! My wife and I took an opportunity around lunch time to head out for a quick run around Amersham, clocking up around 3.5 miles. It was cold but at least the rain held off; can't complain about that!
It was interesting how relatively straightforward it went, as I'm currently also experimenting with...
Friday is pairs PT day, which conveniently ticked off my Juneathon requirements by 8:05 this morning, featuring some pretty comprehensive arm work, mainly. After that, I hared it back to our place and got changed, then we took the kids to school and went over to ...
Danesfield House, local spa venue as featured in a recent Amazon Local voucher!...
A couple of weeks ago, I attempted an introductory ride with the Amersham Road Cycling Club. Unfortunately, my plans were thwarted very early, when about 10 minutes in to the ride my chain snapped spectacularly, knocking out my rear gears. Today I managed my first proper ride, though, and it was really good fun!
We have three kids between 7 and 13, and they each do different activities on a Friday. It can get rather complicated! Despite not formally "doing some exercise" today, I've still managed to walk just under 13,000 steps / 6 miles (mostly dashing to swimming, or round the shops, or whatever). Then we had friends round for...
I had planned for today to be an "exercise sandwich".
The base piece of bread was this morning's pretty intensive hour of personal training with my good friend Holger and our trainer Darrell; today's session concentrated on strength, involving plenty (too much, some may say) of squatting, bench presses and so on. A mighty fine session, to be sure! I...
Well, that was fun! I just had a trip into Town to meet up with an old friend from university. We had been trying to organise such a gathering for absolutely ages, but I'm always hard to pin down because of everything going on with the kids, orchestra etc, and he works in TV so finds himself disappearing for months...
Today has been pretty frantic, in a good way, and right now I am buying drinks at a Wild Training social event, so all I've managed is 20 TRX press-ups.
(Written later) That was quite an evening! There's a lovely group of people doing Wild Training, and we had a brilliant night out at the Boot and Slipper, hence...
Something I've done over the last few days has made my left leg hurt, so running is off the cards for a few days to give it a chance to recover. What with today being so busy, and my orchestra rehearsal this evening (I play flute, and we have a next weekend), I haven't had time for much exercise today....
Words like "write-off" spring to mind when I think about today; with Mrs H out from 6:40AM until 10:30PM, and a not-yet-housetrained Sam the Cockapoo around, there hasn't been a good deal of chance to get out for some decent Juneathon-ing! So, again, all I've managed is a token 1:40 plank to keep my record clean.
I have two conflicting views about today. On the one hand, I'm delighted that I managed my longest run since my calves started giving me agro (4.37 miles in 44:31) and they stood up fine. This was done during my "piano slot" (when the kids have lessons and I have an hour), and was lovely! And I had even...
Okay, it's late and we have an early start in the morning, so let's hit hard and fast! Saturday, with an action-packed oasis of activity in the desert of calf woes: I salute you!
The day started well, with a Wild Training session. That was an hour of tabata, alternating between rip training and various kinds of jump lunges and...
Thursday is orchestra evening - the Misbourne Symphony Orchestra, rehearsing in Amersham. It doesn't leave a lot of time for exercise, so I thought I'd fit in a walk at lunch, as a calf-recovery-friendly option. I had a very pleasant wonder around Rickmansworth, managing 3.18 miles in just over an hour. What beautiful weather...
Thursday evening is orchestra practice for me - I play flute in a local orchestra, the Misbourne Symphony Orchestra. (We have a concert soon, that you might like to come along to!) So doing exercise this evening just isn't going to happen. Instead, I thought I would slip in a quick run at lunchtime.
For slightly over a month now, we have been following the so-called "Paleo Diet". On the whole it has been very successful, so I thought I'd jot down some notes on the subject. Therefore, here's a quick introduction to what it is, together with a few recipes and ideas we've had that have made our lives easier.
Hello, world! This blog has been set up as an experiment. I find it very easy to put things off, especially if they feel large and intimidating. However, I have been keen to get a daily blogging practice going for a long time. The answer I’ve come up with is this blog: one post per day, written in no more...
On the way in to work this morning, I was listening to an episode of the Huberman Podcast, which is often thought-provoking. The subject of ultradian cycles came up - I hadn’t heard of them before, but apparently our bodies have 90-minute cycles that happen during the night / day. If you pay attention to how you are feeling,...
On the way in to work this morning, I was listening to an episode of the Huberman Podcast, which is often thought-provoking. The subject of ultradian cycles came up - I hadn’t heard of them before, but apparently our bodies have 90-minute cycles that happen during the night / day. If you pay attention to how you are feeling,...
This evening was the final orchestra rehearsal of the year. We spent the first hour playing through some repertoire - basically sight-reading our way through some nice music for fun. Today’s choice was Mozart’s symphony No 41 in C Major. Then the second half was more of a “social”, with some mulled wine and mince pies etc.
Today has been rather dominated by the concert I played in this evening. I’m a member of a local orchestra (the Misbourne Symphony Orchestra), and we were performing this evening at St Mary’s Church in Chesham.
Today I’m going off on a different tack. Last night, looking at diaries etc, I realised that my upcoming flute solo with my local orchestra is an awful lot sooner than I had been thinking. This subject is now occupying quite some mind space!
On the way in to work this morning, I was listening to an episode of the Huberman Podcast, which is often thought-provoking. The subject of ultradian cycles came up - I hadn’t heard of them before, but apparently our bodies have 90-minute cycles that happen during the night / day. If you pay attention to how you are feeling,...
These days I have a bit of a mix of physical activities, each which I enjoy in different ways. Today I’m going to tell you a bit about my experience of yoga.
On the way in to work this morning, I was listening to an episode of the Huberman Podcast, which is often thought-provoking. The subject of ultradian cycles came up - I hadn’t heard of them before, but apparently our bodies have 90-minute cycles that happen during the night / day. If you pay attention to how you are feeling,...
My approach in setting up this blog was to try to follow the adage: slow and steady wins the race. My natural tendency is to launch into things with gusto, and then lose enthusiasm and focus. I’ve come to learn that mindset is really important, and that keeping on doing something is far more important than getting caught up on...
These days I have a bit of a mix of physical activities, each which I enjoy in different ways. Today I’m going to tell you a bit about my experience of yoga.
Top of my mind at the moment is the subject of learning. I changed jobs a few months ago. My new employer, and the team and management I work with, I hold in very high regard; it has been a very positive move. However, the change has been a major shift for me. First, the company size has gone from...
Today hasn’t been a great day, which on reflection is probably because the last two days didn’t feature enough sleep. So I’m going to keep this post short, get home soon, do my flute early and then tuck myself up in preparation for for a good night.
Today hasn’t been a great day, which on reflection is probably because the last two days didn’t feature enough sleep. So I’m going to keep this post short, get home soon, do my flute early and then tuck myself up in preparation for for a good night.
I worked in the office in London today. Honestly I quite enjoy the travel there and back on the train. I went in with Ellie for a change, which was entertaining (and we managed Wordle in two attempts). The office was fairly quiet, but the people who did come in were talking about our work Christmas social tomorrow - we...
I haven’t really decided where this blog stands on the well-thought-out-article vs daily-journal-diary spectrum. Having covered a particular topic each day until now, I think today I’ll see how it feels taking the other side of the balance.
This evening was the final orchestra rehearsal of the year. We spent the first hour playing through some repertoire - basically sight-reading our way through some nice music for fun. Today’s choice was Mozart’s symphony No 41 in C Major. Then the second half was more of a “social”, with some mulled wine and mince pies etc.
Today I’m going off on a different tack. Last night, looking at diaries etc, I realised that my upcoming flute solo with my local orchestra is an awful lot sooner than I had been thinking. This subject is now occupying quite some mind space!
I haven’t really decided where this blog stands on the well-thought-out-article vs daily-journal-diary spectrum. Having covered a particular topic each day until now, I think today I’ll see how it feels taking the other side of the balance.
Today’s work disruption went to plan nicely. I managed a very early start, and had got the bulk of what I needed to get done out of the way in time for my boot camp at 6:30am. Then after I got back I continued the process.
I’ve been looking back at what I’ve written since starting this blog, and thinking about when in the day I have written it. I can see I have a persistent problem with trying to do things right at the end of the time available. Honestly, this has been a problem for me for as long as I can remember.
Yesterday’s blog post set me thinking about how I want things to be, as compared to how they are. There are some areas I want to work to improve, particularly:
Yesterday’s blog post set me thinking about how I want things to be, as compared to how they are. There are some areas I want to work to improve, particularly:
Less words, more code today. I’ve been playing with getting search working on this site, and have made a bit more progress. There is now a behind-the-scenes function that can perform a search on the site and return a list of matching pages, complete with a snippet of what has been found.
Today, I’m going to go into some more detail on how this blog works. Given time constraints, this is going to be more of a how-to than a detailed explanation of what’s going on!
My original plan for today was to describe in some detail how I set this blog up - it was pretty easy, and free. However time is short, so I think this is going to be more of a “part 1”, describing the context and giving a few initial pointers, before following up tomorrow/soon with the full, gory detail.
My original plan for today was to describe in some detail how I set this blog up - it was pretty easy, and free. However time is short, so I think this is going to be more of a “part 1”, describing the context and giving a few initial pointers, before following up tomorrow/soon with the full, gory detail.
The approach I’ve set up for this website has been working really very well indeed. Now obviously I’m a developer-type, slightly techy kind of person so I would say this. But, adding a new blog post as I’m doing now is pretty straightforward. I open a text editor, add some dull boilerplate at the top with titles etc, then just...
Today, I’m going to go into some more detail on how this blog works. Given time constraints, this is going to be more of a how-to than a detailed explanation of what’s going on!
My original plan for today was to describe in some detail how I set this blog up - it was pretty easy, and free. However time is short, so I think this is going to be more of a “part 1”, describing the context and giving a few initial pointers, before following up tomorrow/soon with the full, gory detail.
Today, I’m going to go into some more detail on how this blog works. Given time constraints, this is going to be more of a how-to than a detailed explanation of what’s going on!
Today, I’m going to go into some more detail on how this blog works. Given time constraints, this is going to be more of a how-to than a detailed explanation of what’s going on!
The approach I’ve set up for this website has been working really very well indeed. Now obviously I’m a developer-type, slightly techy kind of person so I would say this. But, adding a new blog post as I’m doing now is pretty straightforward. I open a text editor, add some dull boilerplate at the top with titles etc, then just...
Less words, more code today. I’ve been playing with getting search working on this site, and have made a bit more progress. There is now a behind-the-scenes function that can perform a search on the site and return a list of matching pages, complete with a snippet of what has been found.
Today, I’m going to go into some more detail on how this blog works. Given time constraints, this is going to be more of a how-to than a detailed explanation of what’s going on!
The header image is not a photo of my gym. One obvious difference is that it looks empty, whereas mine was comparatively heaving when I got there this morning. I had actually intended to go to my early bootcamp this morning, but after a disturbed night’s sleep I thought better of that idea; instead I went for plan B.
Only a short post today, due to a change of plans. At work I received one of those “good news / bad news” messages. The bad news was that: a problem came up at work today that means something needs to be done tomorrow; the person who would have done it is on holiday; and my name is next on...
Today I’m going off on a different tack. Last night, looking at diaries etc, I realised that my upcoming flute solo with my local orchestra is an awful lot sooner than I had been thinking. This subject is now occupying quite some mind space!
Today hasn’t been a great day, which on reflection is probably because the last two days didn’t feature enough sleep. So I’m going to keep this post short, get home soon, do my flute early and then tuck myself up in preparation for for a good night.
Top of my mind at the moment is the subject of learning. I changed jobs a few months ago. My new employer, and the team and management I work with, I hold in very high regard; it has been a very positive move. However, the change has been a major shift for me. First, the company size has gone from...
Top of my mind at the moment is the subject of learning. I changed jobs a few months ago. My new employer, and the team and management I work with, I hold in very high regard; it has been a very positive move. However, the change has been a major shift for me. First, the company size has gone from...
A brief post today, as I’ve been working rather long hours. I have things on my list that need to be no longer on it - and as of now, I think I’ve knocked them off. Phew!
Today was the office Christmas social, which was fun! It was a whole-day event; in the morning we went to volunteer at Core Arts. They have a new plot of land they are turning in to a garden to support mental health. We basically dug, moved earth, put up fences, assembled furniture and generally helped them get the project...
I worked in the office in London today. Honestly I quite enjoy the travel there and back on the train. I went in with Ellie for a change, which was entertaining (and we managed Wordle in two attempts). The office was fairly quiet, but the people who did come in were talking about our work Christmas social tomorrow - we...
Today’s work disruption went to plan nicely. I managed a very early start, and had got the bulk of what I needed to get done out of the way in time for my boot camp at 6:30am. Then after I got back I continued the process.
Only a short post today, due to a change of plans. At work I received one of those “good news / bad news” messages. The bad news was that: a problem came up at work today that means something needs to be done tomorrow; the person who would have done it is on holiday; and my name is next on...
As it turned out, yesterday was pretty well the peak experience as far as climbing the learning curve is concerned. I feel like I have been wrestling with a problem for absolutely ages, and then after a re-think on my approach - and learning some techniques I needed - the whole thing then kind of splurged out.
As it turned out, yesterday was pretty well the peak experience as far as climbing the learning curve is concerned. I feel like I have been wrestling with a problem for absolutely ages, and then after a re-think on my approach - and learning some techniques I needed - the whole thing then kind of splurged out.
As it turned out, yesterday was pretty well the peak experience as far as climbing the learning curve is concerned. I feel like I have been wrestling with a problem for absolutely ages, and then after a re-think on my approach - and learning some techniques I needed - the whole thing then kind of splurged out.
As it turned out, yesterday was pretty well the peak experience as far as climbing the learning curve is concerned. I feel like I have been wrestling with a problem for absolutely ages, and then after a re-think on my approach - and learning some techniques I needed - the whole thing then kind of splurged out.
Since about late 2019 when I started participating, Saturdays have been parkrun days. Obviously it hasn’t always worked out that way (I’m looking at you, pandemic and injury). But it’s a great thing do to, and here’s why.
Since about late 2019 when I started participating, Saturdays have been parkrun days. Obviously it hasn’t always worked out that way (I’m looking at you, pandemic and injury). But it’s a great thing do to, and here’s why.
Since about late 2019 when I started participating, Saturdays have been parkrun days. Obviously it hasn’t always worked out that way (I’m looking at you, pandemic and injury). But it’s a great thing do to, and here’s why.
This is your friendly reminder that you don’t need to aim for the stars for every single thing you do. If you set up a book shop, you don’t need a plan for world domination of the book trade; it’s okay just to sell books, and make some friends along the way. Enjoy playing music, starting a band? Go for...
This is your friendly reminder that you don’t need to aim for the stars for every single thing you do. If you set up a book shop, you don’t need a plan for world domination of the book trade; it’s okay just to sell books, and make some friends along the way. Enjoy playing music, starting a band? Go for...
This is your friendly reminder that you don’t need to aim for the stars for every single thing you do. If you set up a book shop, you don’t need a plan for world domination of the book trade; it’s okay just to sell books, and make some friends along the way. Enjoy playing music, starting a band? Go for...
I have just ordered a dehumidifier. Our house was built around 1930, at a point where cavity walls weren’t considered worth the effort. As a result, and now that the weather is so cold, the building is cold and damp. The direction of motion has been pretty clear too - showers, cooking, laundry, breathing … it all adds to the...
Mrs H was talking to her parents earlier, and was told a family story that she hadn’t heard before. She replied that they really ought to write these stories down, as otherwise they’ll fall out of family folklore. This reminded me of something (I thought was) funny that happened when I was young. Pull up a chair - here’s the...
Mrs H was talking to her parents earlier, and was told a family story that she hadn’t heard before. She replied that they really ought to write these stories down, as otherwise they’ll fall out of family folklore. This reminded me of something (I thought was) funny that happened when I was young. Pull up a chair - here’s the...
I’ve been looking back at what I’ve written since starting this blog, and thinking about when in the day I have written it. I can see I have a persistent problem with trying to do things right at the end of the time available. Honestly, this has been a problem for me for as long as I can remember.
As I continue along the process of getting the shape of my life in order, I find myself thinking about habits and how they work. So it was rather timely that Tim Ferriss released his most recent podcast with guest James Clear - the author of the top-selling book Atomic Habits. The episode is long, but interesting.
I’ve been looking back at what I’ve written since starting this blog, and thinking about when in the day I have written it. I can see I have a persistent problem with trying to do things right at the end of the time available. Honestly, this has been a problem for me for as long as I can remember.
Today has been a rare relaxing family day. All my children are home, and my brother and his family came round to visit in the afternoon. During the day my wife and I managed to get out for a short, easy run, which felt good and we didn’t get soaked. We also fitted in a quick visit to the local...
I’ve been in York for the last few days, visiting my daughter at university. We decided to get the train up rather than driving this time, which has made the whole experience easier (I started writing this post on the train heading back down).
It has really struck me today, looking at my children and the stages they have reached in their lives, that some sort of generational milestone has been passed. Specifically, I can see that my children are now hitting the exact point that I was at when I launched into what I would now refer to as my adult life.
Today has been a rare relaxing family day. All my children are home, and my brother and his family came round to visit in the afternoon. During the day my wife and I managed to get out for a short, easy run, which felt good and we didn’t get soaked. We also fitted in a quick visit to the local...
Today has been a rare relaxing family day. All my children are home, and my brother and his family came round to visit in the afternoon. During the day my wife and I managed to get out for a short, easy run, which felt good and we didn’t get soaked. We also fitted in a quick visit to the local...
These days I have a bit of a mix of physical activities, each which I enjoy in different ways. Today I’m going to tell you a bit about my experience of yoga.
It has really struck me today, looking at my children and the stages they have reached in their lives, that some sort of generational milestone has been passed. Specifically, I can see that my children are now hitting the exact point that I was at when I launched into what I would now refer to as my adult life.
Our household energy status is in something of a limbo right now. We changed supplier a couple of days ago, but our smart meter doesn’t seem to have caught up yet. Or at least that’s my assumption, as I can’t think of any other reason why our gas would be showing up as being free.
Our house was built around 1930, at a time when investing in cavity walls sounded like crazy talk. With some foresight the builders might have realised that the real madness heading our way could take the form of fuel bills for heating said house. But no, this was a problem left to later owners, such as us. So when we...
Our house was built around 1930, at a time when investing in cavity walls sounded like crazy talk. With some foresight the builders might have realised that the real madness heading our way could take the form of fuel bills for heating said house. But no, this was a problem left to later owners, such as us. So when we...
Today was the office Christmas social, which was fun! It was a whole-day event; in the morning we went to volunteer at Core Arts. They have a new plot of land they are turning in to a garden to support mental health. We basically dug, moved earth, put up fences, assembled furniture and generally helped them get the project...
A short post today. I’m very tired, I think I’ve accumulated a few nights of insufficient sleep and now it’s really hitting me. We’re all still shattered by the news of our friend passing away, and that’s pretty exhausting too. So - time to sleep.
The header image is not a photo of my gym. One obvious difference is that it looks empty, whereas mine was comparatively heaving when I got there this morning. I had actually intended to go to my early bootcamp this morning, but after a disturbed night’s sleep I thought better of that idea; instead I went for plan B.
Our household energy status is in something of a limbo right now. We changed supplier a couple of days ago, but our smart meter doesn’t seem to have caught up yet. Or at least that’s my assumption, as I can’t think of any other reason why our gas would be showing up as being free.
Now that we are all at home, today has mainly been a day of jobs. Nothing earth-shattering, mostly things like getting some of our decorative LED lights working, fixing a daughter’s window, posting letters and so on. The most involved one was assembling a bed - which was, in fairness, quite involved.
For a while now I’ve had some issues with my Achilles tendon. It started a few years ago, at a time when I was upping my running in preparation for a half-marathon. Since then, it’s been somewhat “on and off”.
Another really chilly day here, and the forecast is for snow in the morning. I’m currently deciding whether to go to boot camp at 6:30 tomorrow morning, but I’m thinking it could well be cancelled and I could probably do with the sleep.
We caught up with some friends this morning, ambling around the lovely Rickmansworth Aquadrome in the sun. There was also coffee. Later, we popped over to see my in-laws, and managed to catch up a bit on the family support line backlog.
I’ve been in York for the last few days, visiting my daughter at university. We decided to get the train up rather than driving this time, which has made the whole experience easier (I started writing this post on the train heading back down).
For various unfortunate reasons, I ended up working quite late last night. The not-too-long version is that we had a Tesco food delivery booked for 10-11pm, and I was doing some work while waiting for the delivery. At around midnight I thought I should check what was going on, and then found an email from a few hours earlier saying...
The approach I’ve set up for this website has been working really very well indeed. Now obviously I’m a developer-type, slightly techy kind of person so I would say this. But, adding a new blog post as I’m doing now is pretty straightforward. I open a text editor, add some dull boilerplate at the top with titles etc, then just...
Today is a story in two parts. It kicked off with some outdoor circuits followed by a quick gym stint to get some rowing in (1km in 3:55) and weighted heel drops for Achilles reasons.
This has been a very busy week. Work has been really enjoyable; it’s been around eight months since I started this job, and finally I’m starting to feel a bit like I’m “cooking on gas” a bit. Enough of the pieces of the puzzle are fitting together that I am able to make a bit more timely progress.
Woo hoo, it’s my last day of Janathon today. I did an hour of yoga this evening. Yesterday’s blog post was out the window on the basis that I was working until cough AM and just couldn’t face it. So you are all probably desperate to know what my activity was then - circuits and yoga, in a nutshell.
A day in two parts. The easy bit was at the start, with a bit of rowing and weights (pulled something doing squats, really annoying) then a quick stint in the spa.
At circuits this morning I really got a sense that my Janathon efforts have started to pay off. I feel like I can maintain a level of intensity that I wouldn’t have managed a month ago, and my legs are feeling particularly strong. This is despite not yet being back on the running - and even there I believe my...
Another busy day, good fun! Lots happening at work, definitely keeping me interested. Then this evening orchestra resumed after the Christmas break. This was the first rehearsal for the concert I’m playing a solo in, but thankfully we didn’t play that piece.
One of my least favourite sleep-related events is the kind when for some reason I end up going to bed really late, but console myself with the idea that I’ll have a bit of a lie-in to compensate, only to find that the universe has other plans. This happened last weekend when my late-night sleep deprivation was exacerbated by a...
It’s been a busy day today, which I like. Also a pretty cold one, which honestly I’m not quite so keen on. It started with my early-morning training bootcamp thing, which was really mighty cold (something like -6C apparently). There was a certain amount of lying down to do core exercises, too, which thankfully got replaced second time round -...
What do we hate? HMRC. Why do we hate them? Because they make us go through a hellish process every year, which is bad news for someone with a tendency to leave things to the last minute.
I decided to have a go at forming a daily blogging habit about two and a half months ago. Since then, the habit does seem to have formed fairly strongly; apart from when I’ve been ill, I have written a blog post every day since then. It’s been fun, too.
If you’ve ever wanted to use an app to track your training, and you have an Android phone, I have a recommendation for you. The app is called FitNotes, and it is excellent. It does a single thing - tracking training - and does it very well. It’s also free (but you can become a supporter, which I ended...
Every day at the moment seems to be overly busy, without enough time to do the things I feel like I need to. I have a horribly long (and growing) list of things at home and work that need to be done by January 31. Clearly something is going wrong here.
Today has been pretty busy. The work that I couldn’t face doing last night ended up taking quite a long time today. After getting back, I managed a quick yoga class, then some boring admin stuff around a daughter’s university accommodation. And now it is time for bed, so there’s not going to be much more here today!
I’m sitting here with a pile of work I need to complete. But I’m thinking about having done exactly that at the same stage last week, and know what the consequences were. So instead I’m going to take the alternative approach and just go straight to bed. Fingers crossed I’ll be fresh as a daisy in the morning!
I noticed recently that I was approaching what I call my Wordleversary - and I have been celebrating it today. This is to say, I have completed 365 Wordles. I can’t remember the exact day I started, but it would have been just over a year ago as I have missed just...
Today has not gone to plan. Early signs were a bit worrying - today’s Wordle was a nightmare (more of that tomorrow). And then, while stuck on the last chance to guess the words with only a few letters known, an email arrived which made it clear that someone had just succeeded in hacking in to Ellie’s Instagram account.
Wednesday had been going pretty well, on the whole. I’d slept in a bit, and had a reasonable day at work. I did a short gym session in the evening (2km rowing and some weights), some minor errands … and then things went somewhat off-piste.
If you need confirmation that things don’t go the best when you’ve had insufficient sleep, just look at today. On the plus side, I did manage to finish the work last night, and that was somewhat important. And I also got quite a lot done at work today.
Working rather late tonight, so just a quick entry. The day has been pretty action-packed, all told. I kicked off with kettlebell circuits, worked all day, did an hour’s yoga and then did a few more hours of work.
According to my watch, I had more than nine hours of sleep last night. I’m not sure whether it’s just me, but often when I get some decent rest after a few days of insufficient, I find myself feeling kind of subdued. Today falls into that category.
The view at my boot camp this morning was pretty special. It was a 6:30 start, so still very dark. However, there was a pretty clear sky, with a full moon hovering over the trees. Kind of like the header photo … but not. A busy hour.
As I continue along the process of getting the shape of my life in order, I find myself thinking about habits and how they work. So it was rather timely that Tim Ferriss released his most recent podcast with guest James Clear - the author of the top-selling book Atomic Habits. The episode is long, but interesting.
The header image is not a photo of my gym. One obvious difference is that it looks empty, whereas mine was comparatively heaving when I got there this morning. I had actually intended to go to my early bootcamp this morning, but after a disturbed night’s sleep I thought better of that idea; instead I went for plan B.
Back to work! It was a fairly eventful day there, in that a number of things went wrong due to problems coming up around holidays and missing data. I learned a few things on the way, though, and am now fairly clear on what needs to be done tomorrow.
Today has been my last day of holiday before returning to work. This is neither good nor bad, really - I’ve enjoyed the holiday, and I’m looking forward to work too, so no complaints from this end.
Goodbye 2022. It’s been something of a mixed year. There were some good high points - changing jobs being one of them, and having all the kids being healthy and happy another. But my memory of it will be rather tainted by the awful ending with Tom passing away.
Tom’s funeral is today. It’s something that we’ve all been dreading yet needing to happen. We have no idea how many people will be coming to Amersham Cemetery, but I’m guessing it will be a very large number: Tom was a lovely lad, full of life and loved by everyone who met him.
I’m trying to get my daily pattern back on track, with a certain amount of success. This has been day two of not eating badly, and I usually find that’s around the point where it starts to get a bit easier. I do hope so. While I didn’t get quite as much sleep as I would have liked, it wasn’t...
Boxing Day morning was a leisurely affair, after a busy Christmas. The weather was beautiful so after some breakfast we popped down to Amersham Old Town for a short run. Beautiful, but did I mention it was cold?
Today has mostly been a day of preparation for Christmas. I’ve managed to cross off some of the more persistent entries of my Amazing Marvin task management app … a fact only slightly offset by the observation that I’ve added even more items to the end.
Today was my last day at work this year (apart from a bit of twiddling with admin etc). Not my finest day - I am continuing to feel a bit poorly, and this didn’t help. Nevertheless I did manage to round a few things off. So obviously it’s a great time to head home, have a nice early night and...
Today has been more of a “doing” than a “thinking” day. Probably too much so. For that reason, this is going to read a bit more like a journal than anything.
Today has been a rather in-between kind of day. After feeling a bit better last night, I woke up feeling not so great this morning, so lost a chunk of day that way. It’s also been really miserable, cold and wet, which has put a literal damper on things.
I decided to have a go at forming a daily blogging habit about two and a half months ago. Since then, the habit does seem to have formed fairly strongly; apart from when I’ve been ill, I have written a blog post every day since then. It’s been fun, too.
I’ve had a pretty good stint thus far on blogging daily. Writing a blog entry is on its way to becoming a daily habit, so now I think some thought is required to figure out what it actually is I’m trying to achieve.
Today’s blog time has mainly been spent working on some of the technology stack for this blog: I’d like to get search going. As of now, the first bit of this is done. Unfortunately that’s the invisible bit: watch this space for updates over the next few days. I’m planning to use the lunr library for this, as it...
If you’ve ever wanted to use an app to track your training, and you have an Android phone, I have a recommendation for you. The app is called FitNotes, and it is excellent. It does a single thing - tracking training - and does it very well. It’s also free (but you can become a supporter, which I ended...
I’m trying to get my daily pattern back on track, with a certain amount of success. This has been day two of not eating badly, and I usually find that’s around the point where it starts to get a bit easier. I do hope so. While I didn’t get quite as much sleep as I would have liked, it wasn’t...
I’m trying to get my daily pattern back on track, with a certain amount of success. This has been day two of not eating badly, and I usually find that’s around the point where it starts to get a bit easier. I do hope so. While I didn’t get quite as much sleep as I would have liked, it wasn’t...
Tom’s funeral is today. It’s something that we’ve all been dreading yet needing to happen. We have no idea how many people will be coming to Amersham Cemetery, but I’m guessing it will be a very large number: Tom was a lovely lad, full of life and loved by everyone who met him.
A day in two parts. The easy bit was at the start, with a bit of rowing and weights (pulled something doing squats, really annoying) then a quick stint in the spa.
At circuits this morning I really got a sense that my Janathon efforts have started to pay off. I feel like I can maintain a level of intensity that I wouldn’t have managed a month ago, and my legs are feeling particularly strong. This is despite not yet being back on the running - and even there I believe my...
Another busy day, good fun! Lots happening at work, definitely keeping me interested. Then this evening orchestra resumed after the Christmas break. This was the first rehearsal for the concert I’m playing a solo in, but thankfully we didn’t play that piece.
One of my least favourite sleep-related events is the kind when for some reason I end up going to bed really late, but console myself with the idea that I’ll have a bit of a lie-in to compensate, only to find that the universe has other plans. This happened last weekend when my late-night sleep deprivation was exacerbated by a...
It’s been a busy day today, which I like. Also a pretty cold one, which honestly I’m not quite so keen on. It started with my early-morning training bootcamp thing, which was really mighty cold (something like -6C apparently). There was a certain amount of lying down to do core exercises, too, which thankfully got replaced second time round -...
What do we hate? HMRC. Why do we hate them? Because they make us go through a hellish process every year, which is bad news for someone with a tendency to leave things to the last minute.
I decided to have a go at forming a daily blogging habit about two and a half months ago. Since then, the habit does seem to have formed fairly strongly; apart from when I’ve been ill, I have written a blog post every day since then. It’s been fun, too.
If you’ve ever wanted to use an app to track your training, and you have an Android phone, I have a recommendation for you. The app is called FitNotes, and it is excellent. It does a single thing - tracking training - and does it very well. It’s also free (but you can become a supporter, which I ended...
Every day at the moment seems to be overly busy, without enough time to do the things I feel like I need to. I have a horribly long (and growing) list of things at home and work that need to be done by January 31. Clearly something is going wrong here.
Today has been pretty busy. The work that I couldn’t face doing last night ended up taking quite a long time today. After getting back, I managed a quick yoga class, then some boring admin stuff around a daughter’s university accommodation. And now it is time for bed, so there’s not going to be much more here today!
I’m sitting here with a pile of work I need to complete. But I’m thinking about having done exactly that at the same stage last week, and know what the consequences were. So instead I’m going to take the alternative approach and just go straight to bed. Fingers crossed I’ll be fresh as a daisy in the morning!
I noticed recently that I was approaching what I call my Wordleversary - and I have been celebrating it today. This is to say, I have completed 365 Wordles. I can’t remember the exact day I started, but it would have been just over a year ago as I have missed just...
Today has not gone to plan. Early signs were a bit worrying - today’s Wordle was a nightmare (more of that tomorrow). And then, while stuck on the last chance to guess the words with only a few letters known, an email arrived which made it clear that someone had just succeeded in hacking in to Ellie’s Instagram account.
Wednesday had been going pretty well, on the whole. I’d slept in a bit, and had a reasonable day at work. I did a short gym session in the evening (2km rowing and some weights), some minor errands … and then things went somewhat off-piste.
If you need confirmation that things don’t go the best when you’ve had insufficient sleep, just look at today. On the plus side, I did manage to finish the work last night, and that was somewhat important. And I also got quite a lot done at work today.
Working rather late tonight, so just a quick entry. The day has been pretty action-packed, all told. I kicked off with kettlebell circuits, worked all day, did an hour’s yoga and then did a few more hours of work.
According to my watch, I had more than nine hours of sleep last night. I’m not sure whether it’s just me, but often when I get some decent rest after a few days of insufficient, I find myself feeling kind of subdued. Today falls into that category.
The view at my boot camp this morning was pretty special. It was a 6:30 start, so still very dark. However, there was a pretty clear sky, with a full moon hovering over the trees. Kind of like the header photo … but not. A busy hour.
As I continue along the process of getting the shape of my life in order, I find myself thinking about habits and how they work. So it was rather timely that Tim Ferriss released his most recent podcast with guest James Clear - the author of the top-selling book Atomic Habits. The episode is long, but interesting.
The header image is not a photo of my gym. One obvious difference is that it looks empty, whereas mine was comparatively heaving when I got there this morning. I had actually intended to go to my early bootcamp this morning, but after a disturbed night’s sleep I thought better of that idea; instead I went for plan B.
Back to work! It was a fairly eventful day there, in that a number of things went wrong due to problems coming up around holidays and missing data. I learned a few things on the way, though, and am now fairly clear on what needs to be done tomorrow.
Today has been my last day of holiday before returning to work. This is neither good nor bad, really - I’ve enjoyed the holiday, and I’m looking forward to work too, so no complaints from this end.
According to my watch, I had more than nine hours of sleep last night. I’m not sure whether it’s just me, but often when I get some decent rest after a few days of insufficient, I find myself feeling kind of subdued. Today falls into that category.
Today has not gone to plan. Early signs were a bit worrying - today’s Wordle was a nightmare (more of that tomorrow). And then, while stuck on the last chance to guess the words with only a few letters known, an email arrived which made it clear that someone had just succeeded in hacking in to Ellie’s Instagram account.
I noticed recently that I was approaching what I call my Wordleversary - and I have been celebrating it today. This is to say, I have completed 365 Wordles. I can’t remember the exact day I started, but it would have been just over a year ago as I have missed just...
What do we hate? HMRC. Why do we hate them? Because they make us go through a hellish process every year, which is bad news for someone with a tendency to leave things to the last minute.
Here’s a bullet-point action list I wrote a while ago about specifically how to improve your Google rankings. Note: it takes a certain amount of time and work, there is no quick fix. Here goes:
Here’s a bullet-point action list I wrote a while ago about specifically how to improve your Google rankings. Note: it takes a certain amount of time and work, there is no quick fix. Here goes:
Today didn’t get off to the best of starts. Due to a confusion with laundry, I discovered that my wallet and car keys were swooshing round the washing machine. Sorting this out delayed my trip to the gym, some present-buying and then our leaving to head into London for … a restorative yoga session.
It’s going to take some time to get back into the headspace of writing daily, I can sense. This is mainly because my head is jumping around between different subjects, and needs a bit of reining in. In no particular order, here are some of the things in my head:
It’s been a busy work / other things today. Today’s blog post is really an article I put up on my site about SEO, but I might as well just explain that it was my first day in London of the year, which I really enjoyed. I enjoy commuting (Endor is good!), I like my work colleagues and yoga...
Today is a story in two parts. It kicked off with some outdoor circuits followed by a quick gym stint to get some rowing in (1km in 3:55) and weighted heel drops for Achilles reasons.
I’ve been in York for the last few days, visiting my daughter at university. We decided to get the train up rather than driving this time, which has made the whole experience easier (I started writing this post on the train heading back down).
Well, the exercise bit went alright, which is something. A quick weights session in the morning, ran down to the Old Town for some coffee and then took our 10yo out for a little bike ride. Nothing earth-shattering, but just about hit the spot. The picture is of the weights breakdown.
Today's Janathon contribution took the form of a circuits class this evening at Hervines Park in Amersham. It was cold and extremely vigorous, involving kettle bells and barbells, with various combinations of lunges, swings and the like. As usual, there was a good selection of...
Not my usual subject on this blog, but I'm just SO EXCITED! For the last year or more I've been relying on a nasty hack to make SQL Developer bearable on a linux HiDPI display. With a few simple updates, I can now get something genuinely usable!!
We have three kids between 7 and 13, and they each do different activities on a Friday. It can get rather complicated! Despite not formally "doing some exercise" today, I've still managed to walk just under 13,000 steps / 6 miles (mostly dashing to swimming, or round the shops, or whatever). Then we had friends round for...
Well, it was Regent's Park again today, then a walk down to town to pick up the car we left there last night. Total: just over 16,000 steps, which I'm guessing is about 7 miles perhaps? (Oh, and a nice dog we saw while there). I had hoped to get a run...
I managed to fit in a sneaky 10K run this lunchtime, round Rickmansworth. Pretty muddy, hillier than I remembered, and worst of all - too much of a queue in the coffee shop when I got back. Boo!
A late entry for Saturday (we went out on Saturday night and I was too tired to get this post done). The day split up neatly, starting with Parkrun over in Rickmansworth.
Friday: circuits, the same as on Monday. Challenge week with the folks at FFS. I pushed as hard as I could under the circumstances, and managed to get a little bit further than Monday (just over 7 times round the circuit this time). Turns out the whole period was captured...
Yesterday's proposed early-morning run went ahead; my friend and I met up at 6:30am and headed off for a run. Long story short, we started a bit quicker than expected, such that timings meant we could just about hit 10K. So we did.
I had hoped to fit in a bit of weights today, inspired by this picture of a massive crane lifting part of a new bridge at our local station in to place. However, it was not to be.
Rickmansworth Parkrun was the host for Saturday's Janathon activity. In fact, not just for me but also for the other 691 people who had the same idea. Wow! I took a selfie to try to give some idea of how big the crowd was, but it doesn't really quite capture the scale.
Parkrun has become something of a regular outing. What they say on their blog is quite right: it's a really inclusive kind of event, with all sorts of people doing it in their own way. (No Frosty the snowmen today, though - that I noticed, at least.) As I presume is usually...
After a surprisingly early night/good sleep, the idea of doing Ricky parkrun was pretty appealing. It was really very chilly, and I felt a bit under-dressed in comparison to some people there, e.g. the snowman on the right!
So while proper training didn't happen, I did at least manage about 10,000 steps, partly walking round the...
Today has been splendid. I've walked a fair old way (just over 14,000 steps right now), partly because I managed to work somewhere a decent walking distance from home, and had a quick lunch outing. Heading down, the sun was out, the sky was blue with just a spotting of clouds,...
One unexpected...
I felt pretty good after yesterday's triathlon, all things considered. However, I realised my legs are still sore, so thought I'd better give them a break! The obvious answer: some upper body weights.
Another day, another Metafit class in Rickmansworth at lunch. For some reason, this one was heaving; before today, the largest class I have attended stood at about 5 people ish, but today there were a full 10 of us. The weather was good, the exercise gruelling but only about 30 minutes,...
The big day arrived! After a hideously early start (setting off at 5:15), and heavy triathlon traffic at the other end, we were there and ready to go. Time was a bit short, so it wasn't all that long before Karen was jumping in the Thames to get the ball rolling. Once she had set off, Holger...
However, if you include a walking outing at...
My grand plan for the day featured a run in the evening. Reality set in, though, when at 11PM I realised I still needed to do a sprint round Tesco. Revising my thinking, I ended up with:
We...
A fairly varied day, really. This morning, I took the girls to see Mrs H doing the "Color Obstacle Rush" at Dorney Lake. Timing meant that we were in a bit of a rush ourselves (getting packed is always a challenge) so had to leg it to see them set off! The day was then rather...
An hour of flies,...
Rest days are on my mind. I noticed chat about this in some of the other Juneathon blogs I follow, and feel similarly, that it is important to incorporate some level of rest into the week. So I had a very pleasant stroll round the canals of Rickmansworth over lunch, getting quite a few...
Work has been a bit manic, so I'm doing a short and sharp catch-up of the last two days. My Juneathon activities for Monday were:
What a lovely day! Our local exercise group had fielded a team of 7 to have a go at Wolf Run. In case you haven't come across this before, it is a 10k challenge which entails crossing various kinds of obstacles and traversing lots of muddy terrain. There are an increasing number of...
Today's Juneathon activity started pretty early; soon after 6:30am, me and my friend Karen were in a car heading over to near Egham for some open water swimming in Heron Lake. It was a lovely sunny morning, if a bit nippy. When we got there, it...
Wild Training in the snow
Darrell, snow-swept
I'm going to have a good shot at #janathon - running (or some kind of exercise), and blogging about it, every day in January.
We had a lovely family outing on Saturday, to see the Women's Olympic Triathlon at Hyde Park. It seemed like a natural choice, after all the work that went into training for the Blenheim Triathlon, earlier in the year. Then, having got a taste for...
On Thursday morning we had a family outing to the vet's to give our new kitten - provisionally named Florence - the once-over. We registered her details with the receptionist, and took her in to be seen. Our vet picked her up and started the usual prodding and...
I noticed recently that I was approaching what I call my Wordleversary - and I have been celebrating it today. This is to say, I have completed 365 Wordles. I can’t remember the exact day I started, but it would have been just over a year ago as I have missed just...