Slept ok last night for about 4-5 hours then was up about every hour with a dry throat. Can't wait for this to go! While up last night I was thinking about the Paddy Buckley. So this morning I pulled the map, which I'm extremely unfamiliar with, and looked at it a bit to orient myself. 

Despite not being able to do the entire Paddy Buckley Round, the recce weekend I'll be going to it looks like we may do the entire route. They've got a few nights planned at a hostel and two options planned, either do the route in two or three days. A lot depends on weather too as it can be really bad, reason why they've got it layed out as a four day weekend. It's likely I can't stay that long but at least 2 maybe three days. I'm excited about this. 

As it would be awesome to officially do the entire thing under 24 hours just having an opportunity to see most, if not all, will be a super fun weekend in itself. Finding some positive stuff always kills the negativity. 

It's the end of January and just as soon as I start to feel better I get a cold. So you could say I've been sick now for at least 31 days. My hopes to run the Worcestershire Way went away when I told my wife it'd be fine if she went away for the weekend. Nothing ever really happens on my birthday anyway so I honestly didn't mind. Downside was this fucking cold stuffed my sinuses up and made me feel miserable and likely why I feel a bit down about my birthday. Even if the wife was here it wouldn't have been much different. On a positive note I did get all the laundry done, a bunch of cleaning, and some random jobs I haven't had time to do! 

In other bad news the Paddy Buckley Round won't happen. When the dates were finalized they unfortunately settled on the weekend we're in Scotland. Really bummed about this one as the opportunity won't ever come again. Scotland is fun but it's also becoming boring. There's lots to do, but only if I'm alone, and where we stay is fairly secluded and I've worn out the options in that area. If I'm lucky I get a day out alone but it's just that, alone. 

In other travels an opportunity to ski in Chamonix came up, I was really excited, even though a bit hesitant. I haven't skied in probably 9 years and was unsure of my abilities. It ends up that weekend I had to work and there's no way I can get out of it. 

So anything exciting has been scratched. I guess the Thames Path 100 is still a go but I need to get off this cycle of sickness to remotivate. Winter sucks here, there's probably nowhere worse, and it's damn hard to get my mind straight and charge forth with solid training once I lose the drive. We'll see, so many times I think about all this running etc. I do and wonder what the point is. No one here has any interest in it, it's just me, myself, and I. 

At the martial arts academy the Jeet Kune Do guys have been invited to the inter academy sparring competition. We would only kickbox, which is fine, but it has intrigued me a bit. It's very intimidating and scares me, both reasons to maybe give it a try. Contact is light supposedly but it can get a bit heavier and I'd hate to get injured. We don't spar much due to time and the JKD class has a huge variety of abilities, however they're adding more in which is great. It's such great practice. We're also invited to come to the Friday sparring class, previously it was mainly tae kwon do, kickboxing, and mma people I believe. I'd love to go to that once a week, it'd be super beneficial but family time restraints capped that. The escrima guys keep trying to get me to show up but once again time is limited. I regret not doing escrima when I started JKD. It's a lot of stick work, which I love in JKD, but different angles and protocols compared to the Kali we do. 

So here I sit typing away counting the minutes until the constant drone of "daddy" "daddy" ends, iPads are shut off, and it's finally quiet for the night. I'm exhausted and feel like crap but feel like I should stay up and watch a movie I want to watch for a change! Happy Birthday to me. 

Moving forward slowly

Well I've had this shit ass virus for 18 days now. Initially it totally shut me down, then as the fever went I've had headaches, sinus blockage, and a really annoying dry cough that inhibits sleep. In an effort to make it better I shut down all exercise initially and now am finally creeping back to normal. I had this a few years ago and the cough finally went after 4 weeks dead on so I'm anxiously counting the days! Currently I am slowly feeling better and motivation and drive is returning.

old train tunnel not even a mile from my house! 

This past week I run commuted as I do most days, 3 miles to and from work, in order to at least start. The second run of the day was tough, filled with coughing, farmer blows, and general not feeling well until I took an ibuprofen to ease the head pressure. I also attempted some calisthenics which proved to be difficult and uncomfortable but at least I did them even if the quality was lower than normal. I made it to one JKD class which despite being fun was filled with dry coughs and a clouded mind. 

So all I have on the horizon is building back up to where I was before the hammer fell. Then I would absolutely love to run the Worcestershire Way on my birthday, around 35 miles from Bewdley to Great Malvern. Add in a few miles on each end getting to Bewdley from my house and to the train station from the Worcestershire Beacon and I'd hope to hit 42 miles on my 42nd birthday. That's the plan at least!

testing the Saucony Koa ST trail shoe

Other goals and habits I'm hoping to set are more calisthenics and strength work and also more JKD practice at home. I've been messing around with nunchucks a fair amount to add variety to my JKD which helps instill the habit. A little here every day soon adds up and also increases each time you do it. Same with the calisthenics. None of this is due to the "new year," they're things that I've been meaning to do for a while but with Christmas and this virus the build up got shut down.

sunny and cold run commute to work

Life got pretty crazy over Christmas with family issues, illnesses, stress, etc. and I'm damn glad it's over. Christmas is officially on the shit list. Things have calmed down significantly and I'm ready to get back to a normal routine.

A few photos from an easy trail run pre-Christmas testing out some aggressive trail shoes, I had been anxiously awaiting the right conditions. I heard about the train tunnel and figured out on the map approximately where it was and found it! Pretty cool find. Unreal it's probably not even a mile from my house! Sounds like the locals have always known about it, back home this would've been a popular campfire and party spot, here, not so much. At the end a view of the River Severn from the Diglis footbridge looking upstream. You can see Worcester Cathedral in the distance.