And we're off.....

Howdy.

This is getting a bit regular now ain't it? Can only be a good thing I suppose. 

I can proudly and very happily say that at the end of week 6 of the DDTTA 2013/14 season, my team - Upton Village Table Tennis Club "A" - are top of Division 2 by a whole 2 points!

I don't want to get too excited as it is very early on in the season, 13 matches still to play, but I can't help it. I've been playing in this league for the best part of 20 years and this is highest position any team I have played in has been. 

Ever since I started playing in the Junior league, and I do mean right from the start even after I got a supreme thrashing in my first game, those 2 decades ago I have wanted to play in division 1. And it looks like next season I will be able too!

So, I've gym'd twice this week on wed and thurs, and run thrice. I am needless to say, a smidge achey. Defo 1 more run in me this week, prob tomo night on the way home from work. Next gyming won't be till Monday, whether it be morn or eve I don't know yet, but more than likely in the evening. Should give all my other bits time to recover nicely. 

This week has been a good week so far. Next week CAN be better, it remains to be seen how much better I can make it. We shall see. :-)

The re-start

So, I called the gym, my membership doesn't run out till June next year so there's no point stopping now. This is both good and bad. Bad because I could do with the membership fee but good because I can still go! I am going to hammer it, see if I can't do the Iwan Thomas Twitter hashtag thingy #RippedByXmas. Got to give it a bash though hey? First go was this morning, if I'm not too stiff in the morning I shall bash it again (fnar fnar). 

TT this week was pretty ace. We won 8-2 which gave us 5 points and sent us top of div 2. Unfortunately I lost 1 of my singles matches, which was a bit annoying, still ok though. We got a bonus result last night as our nearest challenger for the top spot lost 8-2! That leaves us 3 points clear at the top, and we play that particular team next Thursday. 

We also have the individual tournament next Wednesday. Not going to take it too seriously though, just use it to get my eye in for the match the next night. 

I have also decided to cut down on using my bike, mainly because the bloody thing is breaking bit by bit and I can't afford to replace the damned parts. Sooo, running shoes and Garmin at the ready then. 

Let's go!

NEEED to sort it out!

Wotcha. 

Ain't been here for a while, and I know I should do. 

TT has started again, we're 4 matches into the season now with 3 wins & 1 loss,  & I'm still pissed that we lost. I know I should just forget it and move on ready for the next match but it irritates me. Ah well, I suppose I'll get over it soon, the best way would be with a damned good thrashing of RAL in our next match on Monday night. We shall see. 

I haven't run much. 

Back in April I set myself a extremely unrealistic goal of completing MK marathon in under 3 hours. Bearing in mind the furthest I have ever run is 18 miles in 2.5 hours, it wasn't a very good thing to attempt. Needless to say there is no chance of me doing it as I've not even entered MK for 2014. I still like the idea of a sub 3 hour marathon though so ANY running I do will be targeted towards that achievement and all my running related tweets will have the #sub3 thing going on. 

Because of work and home life, I've not been able to hit the gym as much as I'd like. I fear I my have to cancel my membership and put the fee towards something else as I'm defo not getting my monies worth. I will try and nail it though in the lead up to Xmas and perhaps get myself a multigym to use at home outside. I shall be having words with my work colleagues to see if they can assist me with this, ie they come in at 6.30 in the evening if I can get my lazy carcas in at 6.30 in the morning. Me getting in is the tricky part as I am a lazy lazy snecker. 

I do have another reason for nailing the gym and getting my arse out running again, well 2 actually. 1, I want to get myself in some sort ripped shape for mrs wifey, and 2, I have just taken delivery of new uniform for work and the trousers have a 30 inch waist. I, do not have such a waist, not far off it mind but they're still a bit on the snugg side. 

I will come back sometime soon and let you know how goes it. 

Week 2

And lo, so beginneth week 2 of 2013's Juneathon (not to be confused with the group of a similar name on Running Free *spit*) with the same run I have done every day of the 1st week.
I was hoping to up the distance by at least a couple of miles, but being the lazy gobshite that I am, I got out of bed a bit late.
So instead of doing a 10k+ run I had to opt for the short run to work, but gave it some oomph.
The splits made for some nice reading, for myself anyway. I will add the link later as I'm unable to at the mo, I can tell you I covered the 3.75 miles in 27.30 and each mile split was faster than the previous. Mile 1 was roughly 8 mins, 2 - 7.30, 3 - 7.05 with the last 0.75 mile at 6.45 ish.
I'm hoping to get out and Parkrun next Sat morning and would like to go sub 21 if poss, though I shaln't be too miffed if I don't get it, but I will of course smash myself to snot trying.

That's me all caught up with bloggage and stuff, I seem to have covered 30 miles or so so far. Quite happy with that I most defo are.

Whoop.

Super Sparrow!

Nice short bloggy today after my epic yesterday, plus I have another to write today, just to get me up to date.

It is really just an update on the status of the feather-ed cat escaper, and of course to provide evidence of Juneathon Day 7, which was a nice and steady bimble home, just to try and let the legs have a bit of a rest before the mileage/effort gets hoofed up a notch.

Once I had got home, I was already aware I would have to go a-hunt'n for yon birdie. I was informed by the nearest that it had yet again escaped the clutches of all 5 of our cats several times throughout the day. It had taken refuge in our bedroom, then the kitchen which it was discovered to be lurking in the bin bag on the floor. It then appeared in the bedroom again, which was the last place it was heard. All the other doors were shut ready for my attempts at raptor capture.
Into the bedroom I went, pulled the bed out, had a shufftee behind and under all the cupboards and wardrobe as well as all the crap on the floor. Not, as they say, a dickie bird. Bastard thing!
Bugger it, says I, I'm off for a piddle.......*opens bathroom door*............
"Err, chelle?"
"Yes?"
"I've found the birdie!"
*Wife enters, stage right looking pensive and twitchy* "Where is it?"
"The little effer is sitting in the bath!"

And lo, there it was perched upon the boys' bath toys, not in the best of shape, which is not surprising really when you think what it's been through in the last 36 hours.
I didn't like to cause it anymore stress, I didn't look like it was going to last much longer anyway so I just put a large jug over the top of it and what it was sitting on and took it outside as far away from the cats as I could and set it down amonst the long grass and bushes. I hope it survives but I seriously doubt it made through the night.

So, that's it from me, for a couple of hours anyway. See thee soon.

The Inferiority of Man.

Don't go reading this if you're expecting some sort of deep meaningful insight into anything, I'm talking about my own inferiority. I just thought a catchy title would be good.
I am also incredibly tired at the mo so I won't be dragging this out too long.

Last night, I returned home from my usual boring day at work, which contained the day's Juneathon effort by way of bi-pedal motion carried forth at a greater velocity than that of the brisk ambulation on the way to the above mentioned "work", so I hope that's all clear.

The day was livened massively with the aid of one of the cats.
I was informed by mrs Ninjabread that one of the cats (prob. Marlin) had brought in a bird earlier in the day. Despite there being a few feathers on the floor, there was no sign of the birdie.
A tiny tickle later, Marlin jumped onto the arm of the sofa and was sniffing and peering down the little gap between the sofa and the wall, there then followed some sort of strange squelching noise coming from behind the sofa along with a fluttering sound. The bird was still alive and kicking.
At this point, wifey did scuttlings out of the room - she does not like little birdies, or even big ones - taking Marlin with her. This was a mistake.
I hoofed the couch away from the wall, and behold, there stoodst' a wee feather-ed beastie - a Sparrow I think - staring up at me. There then followed poss. 20 mins of me flapping, chasing and swearing at this little winged git around the living room, out from behind cupboards and underneath dining chairs, with no luck.
It was at this point that I realised how rubbish Humans, especially this one, are compared to wild animals.
It dawned on me that I was unable to catch a small bird with only one wing and probably a broken leg too! It couldn't fly properly, just flap it's way out of trouble, all it could really do was hop. They move surprisingly fast when they have to.
It was at this point I opened the door and decided to let the cats back in to finish the blighter off, it had squeezed itself under the couch this time and hid in there. 2 of the cats (Marlin and Nemo) went straight under there too, I was holding it up in case you were wondering, to try and fetch it out.
Bloody cats! Useless. Not a thing. I propped the sofa up on my bike helmet so that the cats could go in and out whenever they liked, in the hope that one of them would catch the bird and take it back outside, but nooo. It was still alive and hopping around earlier today and will require more attemps to catch it later.

There is no moral (or even point, that I can see), all there is is the fact that people are shit and wild animals rock, even the piddlingly small one's that seem pointless. 

Boring day of nothingness.

Yep, fraid so.
Juneathon 5 consisted of nothing but my run home from work, stuffing my face with cake at said work and a prolonged visit to the toilet once at home. Details will not be supplied apart from that I think it was a result of having a dicky tum for roughly 3 days last week.

The cake at work was yummy though, Eccles cake followed by Millionaires Shortbread followed by some sort of appley pastry thing, not all one after the other I hasten to add, though I did still feel very naughty for scoffing them all.

The run was pleasant enough, but again it was just the short 3 & 3/4 mile trip from work to home. I was very happy to discover that I could shove the details of the run straight onto RunningFree from my Garmin, though I have to go through Chrome to do it as for some strange and unknown reason (unknown to me anyway) Safari hates Garmin and tries to shut down when I use it. I shall do this more often.

Juneathon Day 5

The day was ended on a high thanks to my lovely wifey who popped off to the shop earlier and came back bearing Strongbow Pear Cider. This is always welcome.

Hopefully at some point I will have something more interesting v soon, but until then you'll have put up with this dirge. Sozzers. Laters. Innit.

Getting lazy already!

Yes I know it's hard to believe but it's true!
Juneathon day 4 was especially boring, content wise, consisting only of a short run to work, 12 hours sitting at work doing not a great deal, cycling back to Harwell, fetching Number 1 from Beavers then going home, trying to get the boys to bed, eating food then going to bed myself.
So why the chuff has it taken so long to write a blog post about nothing of import?
It's BECAUSE nothing happened that's why. It's easy to write stuff about stuff that has happened and not so easy to write stuff about not a lot of stuff that has happened.

To the run!
The usual bimble into work I'm afraid, legs felt a bit tight but that's not surprising, the good thing is I have plenty of time for them to get better before the next run, which is very welcome.
Juneathon Day 4 run and stats.

Day 5 is the return trip home from work again. Will up the mileage a smidge on Sat morning, just to vary the maps a touch.

T.T.F.N.

Spider legs!

It's weird the things that stick in your mind isn't it? I mean, it's never the important stuff like birthdays and anniversaries *ahem* and such like. It's most usually the randomly stupid stuff that actually doesn't matter in the slightest. Example -
Whilst in the gym, I was doing reps of bicep curls in front of the massive mirror on the wall. This wasn't for the sake of vanity (well, not completely anyway) but simply because that is where the dumbell rack is, when I noticed something a bit, well not nice looking. It was my armpit hair sticking out!
"This is not so bad Walker, why the fuss?" I hear some of you think. Well, no, it's not so bad, but it still made me cringe a bit. I don't have especially dark hair and I don't particularly have lots of it, which for some reason (for me anyway) makes it a damned sight worse seeing the wee beasties making a bid for freedom in public.
I have therefore decided that the only course of action to be taken is get the clippers out and trim they little blighters right down.

Ooh, nearly forgot, Juneathon!!!!
Ooh ooh ooh, MY GARMIN ARRIVED WOOOOO!!!
I am especially excited as a Garmin was the whole reason I started 'athoning and blogging in the first place.
I will review it at a later date as I will need to clock some extra miles through first in all types of weather over different terrain and stuff, so in the mean time I shall supply the link to the Garmin Connect page for yesterdays run. Juneathon Day 3 with added statistical geekery.
Hurrah, it worked!

There you go then, what an exciting day that was. See you again soon.

Ooh dear, that's not a good sign!

Running is going ok though, yaaay.

Fear not merry gentle folk, I meant my ability to think mildly amusing blog titles.

Meh, and so to day 2.
Twas a pleasant outing again, which is a nice start to Juneathon I think you may agree. As day 1 was a run home from work last night, and as much as I hate to do it tomorrow, I must return there in the morning. On my way there I intend to go to the gym where I will attempt to burn some fat and double my 1-pack.. But for this I need my bicycle. Guess where the little beggar is? Yup, it be at work, so, as they say in the famous song, hi-ho hi-ho it's off to National Grid Stores I go.
That was my run today, back into work to pick up my bike, in a slightly quicker time than yesterday, which was nice, followed by a little bike ride back home.

Tomorrows run will again be on my way back from work, but this time armed with a Garmin FR110! Yaay me for finally getting one woo woo.
So, till then my athletical type chums, pip pip.

Juneathonagain day 1again.

Hello!

I'm still here. Sorry.
And so is Juneathon, the vicious bastard. Only kidding fellow 'athoners, it's not vicious.

Well, stuff has happened since last I infected the web with my drivel, it'd be a pretty boring place if it hadn't really wouldn't it. But I may well go into that at a later date.

And so, to the important stuff - Juneathon.
I'm going to take it easy this year in a probably vain attempt not to smash my legs off, and by easy I mean not running 10 miles twice in 24 hours like I did last time, stupid boy. Mostly I will be running to and from work (3.65 miles) to start with, with a club run slung in there hither and thither for the first couple of weeks before I up the distance at all.
So that is where we start this years attempt, with a 3.65 mile run home from work at 9pm last night, hence the next-day bloggage. It wasn't a very exciting run apart from having to stop suddenly to avoid being squishedby a car, but it was quite a pleasant evening, so that was nice.
That is the end of that'n, I shall return later however with more "exciting" adventures. Till then, ta taa.