Lasers, Moving, Friends, Excess & Stress

Last Updated on Thursday, 23 July 2009 07:44 Written by The Virtual Runner Thursday, 23 July 2009 07:44

Front of the cottage

I’m really sorry that I haven’t written in a while.  Juneathon was going so well for me as well!  Oh well, there is always next year.

I’ve had a lot of things going on lately an my focus just hasn’t been on writing.  I’ve managed to keep running though and if you look at my running log for my virtual run across Canada you’ll see all of my runs there.  Because it’s been so long and so many runs I won’t sit here and type them all out for you because it’s boring reading and boring to type all of it.

Moving

We have moved to our new place and it is one of four cottages owned by nearby farm.  Ours is semi-detached (to the another cottage of course) and that means we only have one neighbor.  The new house is near the motorway but we don’t really mind at all.  We’ve been there since 1st July and we’re loving it!  The outside of the cottage (grass, borders, trees, outbuildings etc) were/are pretty run down but we have done a lot to them already in the couple of weeks we’ve been living there. 

It took a couple of days to mow the whole lawn because the mower was cutting the grass so short the bag kept filling quickly (the mower wouldn’t go any higher – it was a gift from friends).  Unfortunately the mower broke before we could even finish the lawn so we decided to go and buy a new one which finished the lawn nicely.  Now it seems like the grass has all grown back already!  If it is nice this weekend I’ll be out mowing again…

Gate & back garden

It took two days to move into our new house and all of our stuff fit perfectly.  We had a clear-out over the few weeks before moving anyway because we went from a four bedroom detached house to a two bedroom semi-detached cottage.  Thankfully the new house has the outbuildings so we had a place to store all of our crap!  Usually that is what people use their garages for in this country.

We rented a nice big VW van for our move and I was looking forward to putting my little boy’s booster seat in the middle and letting him come with Daddy.  He loved driving in the van so high up. 

I’ve put some photos of our new home on Flickr and you can find them by clicking here or by clicking on one of the photos on this post.

Lasers

“You know, I have one simple request…and that is to have sharks with frickin’ laser beams attached to their heads. Now evidently, my cycloptic colleague informs me that that can’t be done. Ah, can you please remind me what I pay you people for? Honestly, throw me a bone here…what do we have?” – Dr Evil

Garden facing cottage

We recently got a bit of money and my wife has said that I should consider getting laser eye surgery.  So, I went and booked my “free” consultation for Wednesday, 12 August 2009 in Reading.  To tell you the truth, I’m both excited and scared.  I’m excited about begin able to do things without having to wear glasses all the time!  To wear sunglasses!  To be able to see when I come into a warm building from the cold outside!  To be able to run in the rain without feeling like a blind man!  Oh the joy of it all.  However, I’m scared that I won’t be suitable and I’ll have been excited for nothing.  I’m scared something might go wrong (even though statistically this is slim).

I am interested in hearing from people who have had laser eye surgery or know of those who have had it so please feel free to comment or send me an email [jamie (a) thevirtualrunner dot org].  I’m using Optimax so if you have any information or experiences with them in particular I’ll be even more interested to know.

Stress

With a death in the family, my dad going in and out of the hospital and moving house; I’ve been a bit stressed.  I think this (along with my generaly laziness) has contributed to…

Excess

I’ve been over-eating quite a bit lately.  I think it is mostly comfort eating but it’s certainly making me fat(ter).  I haven’t weighed myself in quite a while because I’m afraid it will just confirm what I already feel.

I mowed the lawn too short.

I’ve decided that I need to have a bit more focus when it comes to running/training because I’m just kind of plodding along on some sort of virtual plateau at the moment and I need to boost things.  I’m thinking that maybe I should register for a half marathon in October somewhere so it will give me something to aim for and will give me a bit more focus.  Training for general fitness just isn’t doing it.

I wish I had the common sense and willpower to stop eating so damn much but I just love food… yummy!

Friends

It has been a good few weeks now since my friend Robby (he’s like my brother) finished his trek across the arctic with a team of dogs and I haven’t really heard from him at all.  Thankfully I got to speak to him a couple of weeks ago when he was at my parents place in Canada and I managed to track him down and speak to him again last night.  I’ve really missed the guy and I’ve been stressing about how he is and why I haven’t heard from him.  Turns out it is a perfectly legitimate reason, however it would have been nice if he had kept me in the picture instead of letting me worry.

He’s talking about setting up a blog himself over the next couple of months and it that actually happens I’ll let you know.  For now, I’m just glad he’s safe and sound and taking care of himself.

Wellness Reigns

Last Updated on Saturday, 7 March 2009 06:15 Written by The Virtual Runner Saturday, 7 March 2009 06:11

I’m happy to report that I ran yesterday morning (Friday) and did 10.57km (6.56 miles) in a 05:41 min/km (09:08 min/mile).

The run felt okay, even though I was really congested before I started.  The running helped clear my head and I went to work as well.  Generally I was feeling okay and also in much better spirits because I knew that I had maintained a head cold and it wasn’t going to progress to my chest (relief).

Today I’m feeling good again and still blowing my nose every few minutes.  No running today.  Today it is just me and my son (mummy is at work all day).

My son is currently covered in chocolate and playing with his wooden train set.  Bath tonight I think…

Tomorrow I’ve got my long run and I’m glad that I feel I can do it.  I want to keep up the weekly mileage.

The only thing I’m debating is where to do the run.  The weather currently shows that there will be heavy rain tomorrow (remember, I’m a fair-weather runner) but it looks like it doesn’t arrive until about midday.   What I might do is get up nice and early (I get up at 5:20am weekdays anyway) and see what the weather is like then.  If it looks like it is going to remain clear then I might head up to Dinton Pastures again and run around the two lakes.  Besides, the miles in the great outdoors will certainly be better for my training then miles on a treadmill.

On another note, I was talking to a guy at work (I don’t know his name because he works at the other end of the building and we met in the kitchen) and he was asking about my running (everyone at work knows I run because of previous charity drives).  It turns out he is a runner too and we have even been in a couple of the same events.  Small world.

I’ve also been on Runners World (.co.uk) a lot more lately to see what people are chatting about in the forums and there was one post that caught my eye:-

Is there anyone out there who has the same problem as me and can offer advice/help.

I am overweight and am too embarrassed to wear a vest or t shirt as my man boobs are all over the place when I run. I always wear a lightweight jacket or if the weather is too hot it stops me going running.

I have done a bit of researching and have come across compression vests and am thinking of buying one to wear under my t shirt. Anyone else tried these or know something about them, do the t shirt cling to them etc.

Any advice gratefully receive.

This is how I still feel a lot of the time now.  Even though I have lost quite a lot of weight since I also still suffer with the self-conscious crap from time to time.

Needless to say, he had many responses in the forum and the general consensus was the same from everyone: At least you’re running!  Keep it up!