A surprising alternative...

In which I make a decision that gives everybody a shock.  Including me.

About 6 weeks ago I started a new contract at a firm that shall not be named, working as a developer/database design/support monkee using a specialist piece of software that I have a fair amount of experience of.  It's a long way from home (4.5 hours on the train), so I have to stay down there during the week.  

If you're wondering what a support monkee is - we're the guys who tell you to turn it off and turn it back on again (which you've usually already tried, but when we tell you to do it it works.  This is because we have a Secret Button to press that makes it work).

This is hard because I have a wife and 3 kids, but I'm fortunate; the environment is great (no dress code - my line manager said "we might draw the line at a mankini", really relaxed and people trust you to get on with your job), the people are lovely and the money is good (we'll bypass the fact that I had no choice in the matter - it was literally take this contract or go bankrupt).  The guest house I'm staying in is also lovely; clean, comfortable rooms, friendly owners and a superb breakfast (http://www.oakleaguesthouse.co.uk), so that helps a lot too.

However, the big danger with living away from home in the week is eating too much and exercising too little, (and since I never exercise anyway...).  I know this because just after I started my first "proper" job (18 years or so ago) I had to go on a course for 4 weeks, during which all my food was effectively paid for by the company; when I started I was less than 10 stone, probably a bit less than I should have been but fairly slim and healthy; when I finished I was over 13 stone and I don't think I've ever been less than that since.

The problem is the evenings.  What can you do?  I'm working in a little village, where there a lot of very nice places to eat (if you're ever in Hampshire I can recommend http://www.thecrookedbilletpub.co.uk), and I love to eat; there are very few things I love more, in fact.

For the first couple of weeks I was wandering down to the pub at least twice a week, eating a big meal (often with a starter as well) and having a couple of pints.  Ok, the pub was 1.7 miles away from the guesthouse (thank you, Google Maps), but I was eating at least twice as much as a normal meal would be.  The only way this was going to end was with me being the size of a house, or possibly a mansion.

So, an alternative had to be found.  Something that I could do reasonably cheaply in the evenings, that would distract me from going out and eating and having a few pints.

Now, before I write the next sentence, you have to get the sort of person I am.  I have been a software developer for the last 10 years.  I have an extremely sedentary lifestyle, basically moving around slowly and eating large dinners.  I would rather have teeth pulled than take any kind of physical exercise, which I consider to be an evil almost on a par with Marketing executives (who are, in my world, somewhere on the other side of Satan and all his little wizards).

I have signed up to run the Reading Half-Marathon.

Let's just pause a moment to reflect on the enormity of this.  I, who could only be described as "fit as a fiddle" if the fiddle in question had just been run over by an articulated lorry and then dropped off the Empire State Building, have signed up to run 13 miles in not much more than 6 months.  I must be as mad as a badger on speed.

However, there is method in my madness (I hope!) - I'd already started running, just short distances, the week before last and then last week I went out with some of the guys from work and we did 5.5k (in about 40 minutes, which is very slow but they did have me with them to slow them down!).  It was, from my point of view, extremely satisfying; it was great to feel that I could run that far (I only had to slow to a walk twice I think, and that was for breathing rather than bodily pain).

The thing is, I'm really bad at keeping stuff up (fnar fnar) unless I have an objective in sight; the half-marathon effectively gives me a deadline by which I must be fit, and should encourage me to keep the exercise regime up.  Plus it's a choice between getting even fatter (and I don't want to go there) and doing something vaguely constructive with my free evenings.

So I thought I'd pinch a leaf out of my friend Nicki's blog over at skinnyblog, and keep you lot updated on the ups and downs of my attempt to get fit enough to run what seems like a very long way.  Hopefully this will also give the blog a bit more of a focus rather than me posting when something annoys me....time will tell.

I'm not following any diet or particular exercise regime; I'll be trying to eat sensibly, and allowing myself one night out a week plus the rather nice breakfasts in the guest house (which probably contain my entire GDA of fat for the day in any case).  The guys at work are aiming to run 5k at least twice a week to start with as of next week, building it up to 10k by Christmas and then tapering it a bit as the event itself approaches.  I'll try to keep you updated on here as to how I'm doing...if I suddenly stop posting I've either a) died or b) got bored.

Oh, the surprising bit - apart from that I'm doing it at all -  is that so far I've actually enjoyed the exercise.  At least when it's stopped...