Good intentions

Here we are again.

It’s usually with a sigh that I consider New Year resolutions, but this time around I feel strangely relieved. I need to break the downward Dolcelatte and Barolo spiral, and the appalling chaos and depravity it produces in a small community like, well, my apartment. The approach of 2012 is as good an impetus as I’ll get for a while.

So resolution number one is to avert my eyes as I pass the bulging Käse counters in Migros and the Coop. Cheese, as I’m sure someone must have opined, is a good servant but a bad master. To my shame, I’ve shown I can’t be trusted to handle the substance responsibly.

Alongside cheese on the naughty shelf goes its devious partner. The dark rumours were true. Et tu, vino? Just as cheese consumption is almost impossible without a glass of decent red wine, so a glass of decent red wine seems impossible without a lump of cheese to nibble at. And while this cycle of interdependency trundles on, leaving me having eaten and drunk far more of these ambrosial commodities than I deserve, or intended, someone has to take control. And I guess I’m the most conveniently placed bloke.

So I’m taking a break from wine for a while. How long? One month at a time. The end of January is that notorious boozefest, Almeria. Let’s wait and see…

Among several reasons for making this change is that I have no chance of getting back into running if I don’t. There have been a few false restarts, but the last few weeks have offered more genuine hope than I’ve had in two years that the show could be dragged back on the road. To help drive home that possibility I need to shed some serious blubber again. Apart from making running less painful, it will take some stress off the calf, which remains the biggest threat to doing some reasonable distances again.

To help this new campaign I’ve been back to the posh gym on the lake, and taken the plunge. It’s pricey, even by Swiss standards, but it’s by far the most salubrious gym (er, sorry, I mean “health club and fitness studio”) I’ve looked at here — and perhaps anywhere. The sort of place that provides towels and freshly squeezed fruit juice. I’d always regarded the cost as a barrier, but have realised that it can also be used in the opposite way — as an incentive. If I’m paying all this money (goes the argument) then I have to go regularly to get my money’s worth. And if it’s a pleasant place to be, I’m more likely to go. That’s resolution number three.

On the running front, things may become clearer tomorrow, New Year’s Day, when I’m planning to re-engage with the Hyde Park 10K. This was the last proper race I took part in, and finished, in 2010. It was also the race that first revealed the calf trouble that has hardly let go of me since. I need to see if I can fare any better this time around. I can state with certainty that I won’t get round any less slowly than last time. Last night I plodded just over five miles through the rainy residential streets of Crawley, taking the same time that I used to comfortably jog for 6 miles. So the target tomorrow is simply to do the distance, regardless of time. If I finish at all, I may well be last, but that doesn’t matter this time around. It’s extending the distance that’s important. After last night’s plod I was delighted that the previously troublesome left calf stayed silent. But annoyingly, a strong twinge did appear in the other one during the final mile, so my concern has now shifted rightwards.

Where is all this heading? What if I do get through tomorrow, and find myself capable of “doing some reasonable distances again”? Well, first up is the Almeria Half Marathon at the end of January. Flight and hotel are booked. The final detail is the race itself. Last time, I barely got to the second mile before the injury flared up, and I had to pull out. If I get to the finish line intact this time around, I’ll aim to push on for the Zurich Marathon on April 22. But it’s too early to say more than that at this stage. Tomorrow is the first big test.  Running isn’t a resolution; it’s the outcome if these three succeed.

The penultimate resolution is to write shorter blog posts. It’s time to return to the original format of brief updates, with longer entries reserved for races  and the death of the monarch. Too much creative energy, anxiety and time is expended here when I should be wasting these things on the fifth good intention.

A Happy New Year (again) to all friends — new and old, near and far. If I have pissed you off during 2011, as is likely, I am sorry. I will be much better behaved in 2012.

Ha ha!