2008 - Autumn

[El Gordo]

Some of us cling to that desperate hope old bean

Have to agree with your observations on Finnish chaps. I have a few customers from that region and they are to a man dour in the extreme. Must be something to do with lack of sunlight. Or perhaps that their national identity is associated, in the English-speaking world at least, with The End.

Well done on the running/ gym commitment and the alcoholic abstinance. There's a positive vein in your writing that suggests this is the real deal. Weight dropping off seems to be the preserve of youth doesn't it? I've been plodding steadily pretty much throughout the year yet remain stubbornly over weight. I guess it's a case of living with what you have and getting fit around that. Literally in our case.

Ta. Yes, I am feeling more positive now than I have done for some time. I'm starting to think crazy things which I'm too embarrassed to admit just yet. Getting the all-clear on the knee has helped a lot. Even though it's likely to trouble me again, I've been assured that there is no deep underlying problem that I'll aggravate if I continue, so I can try to run through it.

The weight is coming off, but very slowly -- which is perhaps the best way. I'm sure it all happened a lot quicker in previous years though. I appreciate the encouragment but I don't think I can 'live with what I have' because it's way too high in my case. I'm two stone heavier than I was when I did the Zurich marathon, for instance. I need to get down there again -- and if I want to actually push on from that, I need to get even lower. It's almost certainly wishful thinking but I'd love to be where I was for nearly all my adult life (before I stopped smoking) -- around 13.5 stone or 187 pounds. If I could wither down to that level, which wasn't slim, I'd be like the proverbial dog doubly endowed. At the moment I'm trying to lose just around 1.5 - 2 pounds a week which should be possible. I'm on track after 3 weeks, and need to keep doing what I'm doing.

The plan is to do more gym cardio-vascular than running for a while, to try to get a bit more weight off, before hammering my knee on the hard surfaces. But even after I get back to regular outside running, I hope to keep going with the gym visits. I've been reading about the benefits, and it makes sense. On long runs and in marathons, I suffer badly with neck and shoulder pains, so it will help to do a bit of upper-body stuff. And the CV machines can really help with general leg strengthening. I guess I'm talking about the benefits of cross-training in general, which is something that few of us here seem to bother with. I hope to go in that direction, especially as I have a gym in walking distance, and relatively cheap.

Wonder how long it will be before I'm reading that back and feeling slightly embarrassed...?

:o