Caution - Construction Delays Ahead!

So it's been over a year since I last posted, bleh!

Yes I'm lazy, so lazy in fact that I've just run three times this year and all of those have been races, just races - no training or taper sessions or even leg-looseners... I can say I've run in Edinburgh, London and Dublin but really it's been a case of struggling in Edinburgh, London and Dublin.

That age old saying that Oprah loves using about running - 

"Running is the greatest metaphor for life, because you get out of it what you put into it."  

- well I've not been putting much into it and not only does it show, but it damn well feels too!

This past weekend I ran (and walked, which for me is unusual) the Dublin Half Marathon in a dismal time of 2:38:51. It's not that bad for the amount of training I've done, which is zero, but it is a full hour off the pace I should be completing it in. I'm soothing my tortured legs and spirit by placating them with the nonsense that mileage is mileage and it all helps. 

The adage is both true and very poignant, it's only nonsense purely because I currently don't intend to do anything about adding to that mileage before May next year, when I again am heading over to Edinburgh to get my yearly dose of double IT Band strain. If my legs had any brains, they'd kick my arse for me and then kick me in the head for being so stupid.

I guess they have already and I have to resign myself to the notion that I really should get out and go for a run, but like all great procrastinators, I'll leave that for tomorrow...

Oh, and in case you actually read any of this I met a few, fantastic people at the Dublin Half on the weekend, one of which is heading across the Atlantic in November to run in the coveted ING New York Marathon and is a fellow (much more eloquent, funny and regular) Blogger. If you fancy a brilliant read, get on over to Lianne's writings and have a look.

BigFatMarathon

 

Social Media Networks as a utility to ignore everyone

I've been 'about' to write my poor, neglected folks and family an email for the past month. I'd almost be inclined to say that I've been too busy to write, but honestly that would be a lie of magnanimous proportions!

I've gotten sucked into the Social Media Hole, having started up my Twitter account, joined Google+ and synced the aforementioned with my Facebook account, my Gmail account and my mobile...

I'm loathe to admit it, but the more time I spend trying to integrate and 'streamline' my media and social networks circles, the less and less I actually contribute anything meaningful and actually accomplish something.

I have posited in the past that the more and more technologically aware and dependant we get, despite all this technological advancement seemingly bringing the World and the Populous closer together, we're not any closer to one another - if anything we're further removed and hidden behind our 'transparency' of technology. All I have to do to illustrate this is to refer to my not writing to my family, or to mention my Dad (having recently gotten a new Blackberry mobile) having not contacted me in two months, both having my email address, my Facebook profile available, my mobile never being off and everything synced through said mobile. I am just as guilty though...

That being said, and as an aside - not done, I have come up with some varied and interesting thoughts, one of which seemed to be a notion of a new bicycle frame design (that's still up in the air, I'll eventually get round to installing my design software and put the proverbial pen to pixelated paper, one day...) and a realisation that we're all in the service industry. Yes, all of us!

So I draughted this piece, a little long-winded ditty on service and how the various levels of service get the level of notice they get, and how the level of service and it's position in the service level pecking order doesn't correlate to notice it receives. All of this stems from the fact I'm still without gainful employment nearly four months into my stay in the Republic of Ireland. Depressing!

Routine is the key - it entices and incites accomplishment, but that's for another time. Enough waffling.

Yes Dear, You're right, I'm sorry.

The most important two rules about marriage are this:


1. In the event of a disagreement or difference of opinion between husband and wife, the wife is ALWAYS right.


2. In the unlikely instance where the wife is in fact wrong and the husband is in fact right, refer to Rule 1.


So, I got married over this weekend. It starts a completely new and exciting adventure, one which I'm both happy and thankful to have my beautiful wife involved in, because lets be quite honest - without her I probably wouldn't have lasted this long. She is, and hopefully will always be (providing she doesn't wise up and leave my ass), my good luck charm. Why she thinks I'm worthy is completely beyond me (and most of my friends and family's) comprehension, but we all agree that I'm the lucky one!


Thanks need to go out to many, many folk, without whom I would've either had a heart attack or started World War 3. 


So special thanks go out to Linelle, my Hill Billy Lynotherapy fellow sufferer and ever willing running partner, the "20 Min's" a day kept me sane and in some sort of stable mental frame of mind to be able to help out where I could with all the wedding prep.


Another big thank you must go out to my best friends Heather and Jem (my best Best Man), without you both I don't think I would've found my way up to Chapman's Peak to make the ceremony, not to mention all the before and after little things Angela and I didn't even know we were supposed to consider. Heather is an amazing wedding co-ordinator / dominatrix, she should have beaten me more and I'm glad she didn't.


To Jenn, we definitely would not be married now without you! The pre-, during- and post-ceremony and reception was amazing, not to mention your incredible wedding cakes. I'm just a little sore I didn't get to eat more wedding cake on my wedding day, however I'm appeased by the three half-cakes we have yet to wolf down between Angela and myself, though I'll be doing more of the wolfing I'm sure - just because I'm greedy...


To our families for putting up with us while we both seemed to be a little direction-less at times, and at all times overstressed, you're all amazing! Thank you so much for all your support.


There are many more to thank and I will get around to you all personally, but in the meantime thank you all for sharing in our incredible day and the start our journey together, we look forward to sharing our lives with you all as we write new chapters in our Journey Book. Pictures and Thank You notes to follow!

What shall we do with the tired bachelor?

Three days of "Single Life" remain, and I can't wait to start the "Married" part. 


All the stress and worry before and on the day is worth it and it's just amazing from then on, this was the news I got from a good friend who got married himself on the 13th. He's currently, as I write this, on a plane to some exotic destination with his "new" wife for a decent honeymoon. Nice!


I've taken to running twenty minutes every morning now, having been motivated (or should I say guilted?) out of bed to join my running partner, and fellow tortureree Linelle, as she herself is also going through the Lynotherapy motions currently and is restricted to 20mins on fun and stress relief at a time too. 


I can tell you it's frustrating having only 20mins to run a day, but I've decided to use the opportunity to cold turkey it into my Vibram Five Fingers and am solely running in them. As such, the 20mins restriction is a bonus as I am able to slowly build up my feet and my form at a rate which won't hurt my physio-fixing or break my body.


I've been given the nod from Benita to be able to increase either my mileage or time by ten percent a week, so pretty soon I'll be back to running 10km...


Climbing and running have been keeping us sane so far, after the excitement and frantic panic of the wedding is over, I think we'll both sleep a little better and decent training can take the place of all the wedding planning.


Just three days left...

So - A week of catch up, both literally and figuratively.

Well, after the last post I did go out and do something active! Not sure on the precise order, but it had something to do with running with Angie out on the Rondebosch Boys High grounds in our Vibram Five Fingers (VFF) to get used to running in them more often (Angie has taken to wearing them as often as she can, even for jaunts to and from the shops which we both seem to be doing more frequently, both the VFF wearing and shopping) as is understandable with the wedding "looming" just two weeks away.

To be honest, and yes I realise I'm digressing somewhat. I'm really looking forward to the wedding for numerous reasons, and although one of them happens to be so I can get it out of the way and Life can go back to some semblance of normalcy, the main reason is this: I'm looking forward to seeing my beautiful, smiling Bride in her lovely dress and surrounded by friends and family.

Okay, digression out of the way. I then went climbing the following day and outdid my pitiful Tuesday attempt at any route and killed a 17, two 18's and two 19's solidly - all top-roped but without breaks and all in a single block. I have my eyes on a 23 Derek completely blew away on Tuesday that involves lots and lots of stretchy, stretchy moves and some creative foot and handhold maneuvering.

If you have time and are interested in the Five Fingers even a little, check out this site, Pete's writing is brilliant and expansively explanative! http://www.runblogger.com/

That's enough blogging for one day, more to follow soon - possibly with a gym session and a "full" week of climbing and running thrown in for fun, if I can commit and stick to it this time.

Cheers for now.

So - new directions...

After much time spent away from the net, and subsequent experiences earned in real-time life, I've decided to change the focus of this oft-neglected blog... Haha, yes, I intend to post now about what I'm actually doing rather than what's happened or what I plan to happen. So, tonight I'm heading off to CityROCK in Obs for a nice climbing session! I'm in desperate need to release some stress and get some exercise.


Till next time, ciao!

So - this blog thing's supposed to be umm, like regular?

It's been a while since I've blogged, duh! Well, I guess between being blocked at work, finding out I actually have a life and that I can run too - somewhere in the midst of it all I've happened to find love thrown in the mix too, I've been really lazy to just sit down and write.

This has to change if I'm to develop any sort of following - this obviously assumes you are reading my blog and have managed to get to this point already without hitting the back or random blog buttons already (for which I'm eternally grateful, well maybe not eternally but I'm sure you get the idea) and like what I write.

I should take the time to tell you a little of my comings and goings over the last month but I won't bore you, suffice to say that in the course of this week I'll post about my running experience, my first half marathon and how incredibly amazing Knysna is... I will, but just not tonight. I leave you with bated breath.

So till my next post, have fun.

Labour of Love...?

The intricacies of Life are starting to wear me down. A depressing note to start on, but bear with me for a little wallowing - it has, after all, been a long and trying year.

This weekend was filled with relationships, what with repairing, breaking, discarding, ignoring, deliberating, forming and just catching up, it was more than a little eye opening...

Having decided that before the year is finished, I wanted to start the new year with less broken and damaged relationships than I had when this year started, I decided to mend a few that I had a huge part in wrecking - and really being the only one at fault for the mess if I have to be honest. Suffice to say, the drama leading up to the particular "repair" I planned ended up being far more stressful and taxing than the "repair" itself. Go figure!

Having done a lot of soul searching over the last few months since my most recent break-up, I must admit that after everything I don't think it would be worth it to try and form another romantic bond with anyone. Well... that isn't entirely true, sure it would be worth it, but I'm not bothered to schlep through all the hassle and teething required for a new attachment - I just don't think I could do it, even though I want it more than anything else in the world.

The revelation that I'm not the only person who feels this way is even more incredible, discovering more than a few friends of mine have also had enough of the drama and hassle that seems to go hand in hand with relationships these days. I do take heart in a newly wed couple I met on Saturday, very much in love and incredibly inspiring to see, and the very thing I long for... Maybe I should just admit defeat in this area of my life and resign myself to the fact that no matter how amazingly perfect a person I may find, I'm far from perfect - and that is, and always will be, the downfall of every serious relationship I form, me.

So I think I'll just stick to finding incredible friendships and leave the romantic stuff to the pros.

Life's little choices

Finally back again, and writing...

It's been a strange few months to say the least, yet another emotional roller coaster fraught with decisions, opportunities, chances and learned wisdom.

What to say - I've had a great couple of months and in the weeks ahead I'll outline just some of what has gone on. Don't fret though, it's all good!

Well, now that I've told you all this, I'm going to have to follow through and not procrastinate, but I'll do that later.

Life's little surprises!

Funny thing happened this weekend, well not just the one thing - but we'll get there in a bit. So, as I was saying before I interrupted myself, a funny thing happened this weekend: I started thinking (shock, horror, is the world coming to an end? And no, it doesn't hurt!) and questioning things I shouldn't be questioning because it just ends up with me running around in circles like a over-excited kid in an amusement park and then spending the next three weeks in a state of morose agitation and self-doubt which is pretty pointless an exercise.

It so happens that the great source of my consternation can be cleared up in a matter of moments, I just happen to be too lazy or too scared to actually address it - the scale of lazy or scared very much depending on my current caffeine level. So I best bite the bullet (the metaphor in this cliche is slightly more meaningful if you can guess the reason for the consternation), pull myself towards myself and really just address the bloody issue.

One of the other things that happened this weekend is I was able to catch up with some friends I hadn't seen in about six months - this is unacceptable, six months without meeting up, chatting over the phone or even emailing one another lit a fire under my posterior and I have made huge inroads into catching up with a great deal of my friends - and should you be one of them, my humblest apologies for being such a gormless idiot and not getting on this sooner. On the bright side though I was able to see one of my favourite cousins and have a good natter about quite a few things.

I worked pretty much the whole of yesterday, arriving at work at just before eleven in the morning and chipping away at a current project I'm enjoying emensely - leaving at just after ten in the evening to go home, on the way I managed to run out of petrol, and being that time of the month incidentally, no cash either! I ended up pushing my bike for seven kilometres, thought I best try to start it for good measure after the long push - lo and behold, it starts and I'm able to ride the rest of the way home which is approximately five kilometres further - so not out of petrol... Until I arrive fifty metres away from my security gate, this time completely out of petrol. It gave me a lot of time to think, reflect and mince my thoughts - needless to say, having to get up at four in the morning after arriving at quarter to twelve, and the depressing mood I'd endured during the afternoon and evening didn't leave me with warm cuddly notions to fall asleep to.

I seem to have woken up on the right side of the bed this morning, albeit with a few things still weighing heavily on my mind and made my way to work. Facebook first and a cup of coffee, to find out my ex-fiance is now married. This puts a huge smile on my face, knowing that she is happy now is strangely a great comfort. Just one of Life's little surprises I guess.