In which our hero struggles a bit, and moans about it.
A boring title this week, because umm...I can't think of a better one. And at least it's to the point. If you'd rather not hear me moan about trains and software going wrong, skip the next 3 paragraphs and you'll be fine.
I thought about doing a day-by-day diary type thing for this week but decided not to because on some days nothing interesting enough happens to put in the blog, and that makes me look boring. (Of course I am boring, but there's no need to advertise it to anybody that reads this). I could list all the things I do at work, but "wrote a SQL case statement to flag bad email addresses" doesn't make good reading.
So this week. It's been a bit of a struggle, to be honest. Monday mornings are always a bit of a pain right now, since I have to get up at 4:30AM to catch a train, but I usually cope with it OK; and I did this week, but the journey was pretty horrendous. Delayed by 45 minutes on one train by a broken level crossing, then on the next (which I shouldn't really have been on since it was a peak time train and I had an off peak ticket, but no guards checked - phew!) there was a problem with the points at Reading. I felt a bit sorry for anybody that was actually going to change at Reading as they were just thrown off at Reading West and told "transport will be arranged to Reading", but that was as much info as they got before having to get off the train.
All in all, not a perfect start to the week; I got to work about an hour and a half after I usually do. The day didn't really get much better either; a piece of software had gone wrong a little while before and it turned out it wasn't totally fixed, so I was still at work at 7pm fixing some of the consequences of that, but at least I'd made up the time I'd lost in the morning so I didn't have to go in super-early for the rest of the week.
Having checked in at the guesthouse I decided a bit of a run was in order; it was raining a bit, but not enough to stop me going out. I decided to try the route that I'd tried a couple of times the previous week, but in reverse; it takes me down past the office where I work and then back to the guesthouse in a big circle. I was really pleased to find that I could quite easily run (at a steady pace) to the office, but not so pleased when the sky decided that my new yellow running top was offensively bright and started to hurl rain at me. I got soaked, but I felt good - I made it all the way around a circuit that I couldn't run 1/4 of the way around 2 weeks ago, and I only had to stop to clean my glasses so I could see where I was going (one of the lesser advertised perils of running in the rain - in the words of Blackadder, "so, some sort of hat is probably in order.").
On Tuesday I had another minor triumph - I went out for a 5.5k circuit after work with some folks from work, and shaved 3 or 4 minutes off the previous week's time (we weren't exactly keeping accurate time but it was a bit less and I only had to stop once to walk for a bit - 50% better than the previous week!). I also bought some mouthwash that had the legend "avoid contact with any plastics" printed on the label, which was affixed to the bottle that the mouthwash came in. Which was made of plastic. Um.
Actually, on the subject of labels they've changed the sandwich supplier at work. All of the Chicken/Beef/Ham sandwiches (which are labelled very clearly as beef/ham/chicken) now bear the legend "not suitable for vegetarians" on them. You have to wonder what sort of vegetarian could buy a "Tandoori Chicken Sandwich" and think it was suitable for them. (I know, I know, it's probably some sort of food rule thing, it just made me laugh).
Wednesday was a slightly odd day. After work I made my usual call to my wife, who was having issues with printing something off the computer; she's usually very patient (she works with kids so she has to be) but non-working computers turn her into a frothing lunatic with the patience of a rabid mongoose. It didn't help that this was the week the kids went back to school, and therefore also the week that she went back to work; and I hate the helpless feeling I get when I'm hundreds of miles away and can't help (it was out of colour ink, in case you're wondering, but it wasn't easy to tell). We didn't exactly have a row, but we were clearly getting on each other's nerves - just one of the hazards of working away from home I guess.
Anyway, after that I went for a run, but after about 1 and a half miles my legs started to protest, so I slowed to a walk. At which point they started to ache really badly, until I ran again; they didn't hurt too much while I was running but they did feel really tired; so I would stop, and then they'd ache again. I think this was their revenge for me making them do all that exercise when they've had 30 odd years of walking around perfectly happily without doing anything more strenuous than a brisk walk.
Since I was still a bit grumpy (and when I'm grumpy/upset/happy/sad I eat) from the aforementioned phone call I had chips from the chip shop for dinner. But I did skip the full English breakfast at the guesthouse the next day, so that probably helped make up for it.
I skipped the running on Thursday; I'm going to try to do slightly longer distances but every other day next week (apparently you shouldn't increase it by more than about 10% a week), with maybe some low-impact stuff on one of the other nights (apparently Spinning is good). I did wander into Basingstoke on the train, but I couldn't find any whizzy gadgets that I wanted to buy. I was going to go to Nando's for dinner but it was heaving, so I ended up with my usual healthy stuf from Tesco (fruit, smoothie, low fat sandwich). It's probably good for me, or something. Actually it's not much of a penance since I really like fruit.
I think the less said about Friday's trip home the better. On the Cross Country train from Basingstoke - Wolverhampton (part of the Bournemouth - Manchester route), I felt like they were trying to compress us into a neutron star or something. Maybe Cross Country have some sort of game they play where they bet how many people they can actually fit onto a train?
The train is always bad seat-wise (and reservations are rarely forthcoming), but this week it was just appalling - I counted 15 people in the vestibule at the end of the carriage, and just as many in the adjoining one. It's not usually that bad, but I suspect it's because it was the first week people were back at work etc.
Anyway, I ran again today, felt a bit tired thanks to my trip home and having to stand still for 2 hours last night on the train so didn't do as well as I'd have liked; I think Saturdays are going to be a no-go for running just due to the tiredness.
And there we go - after saying I wouldn't I have ended up doing a day-by-day thing, and it probably was quite boring. I shall try harder to think of funny stuff next week, honest.
