Cats are ok. But.... why is it that when the kids are asleep, you have a moment of quiet, then, and only then, they decide to show up looking for attention? Such as 4 fucking AM? Don’t they realize I get up this early because it’s the only time I have alone? 

Anyway, I feel pretty good for the most part. Still a lingering cough and sore throat. Warmer temps have helped my mental state however it’s still near freezing and dark in the morning.

Race plans are up in the air still. Tomorrow I’ll hopefully find out if I got picked for the Tor des Geants. I’m nervous, not just because it’s a crazy ass race (200 miles and nearly 90,000 feet of climbing) but because I need to tell the wife I need 6 days in Italy for a race! We’ll see. She’s normally supportive of my crazy endeavors. Back up plans are looking fun though too! 

Hooray  sinuses are no longer plugged up! Still can’t hear though. Supposedly it’s an after effect of viruses called Eustachian tube dysfunction. It can supposedly last 8-10 weeks. Thanks for nothing.

Anyway I still have  a sore throat but I’m motivating to run again. Race plans are all over the place so I’m not going to talk about them. They involve a few iterations of Thames Path 100, South Wales 100, Tor des Geants, and Cotswold Century. Mainly focusing on UTMB points and a big what if when it comes to the Tor. I’m overall tired likely due to attempting to get back to a routine and my knee has been bothering me which has me a bit worried. Mostly worried about early season races, Thames Path and the Paddy Buckley Round recce

The wife’s been running at the gym lately. Too much too soon of course, I’m expecting an injury. She’s also had a migraine type eye thing going on once afterwards. Likely low blood sugar from high heart rate and not eating before or soon enough after. So despite my recommendations of go slower, walk more or you’ll get injured, eat before and after, and describing the odd migraine sensations as a normal thing when you push your body of course I’m wrong Dr. Google is right. And of course her sister claiming to have passed out at the gym doesn’t help. If she’s indeed passed out at a gym she’d have been taken to the hospital for liability reasons. Liar.

But what do I know?!  I experience this migraine sensation over and over again in a 100 miler, I eat, it goes away I move on. I talk to people about running 6 days a week strongly recommending starting easy to avoid injury. Just another example of why I rarely help people with running who I’m close to. They don’t listen or follow what I tell them. It’s my wife, of course I will help her, I opened up a bit to try, to see if she’d listen but like everyone else in the world they want a short cut, the easy way to their goals, if they have any at all.

Hot tip, there is no easy short cut!

When I help they expect results but those results don’t come unlesss they listen and follow. When they fail or do not get the outcome they want it’s then my fault. I don’t want to be in that position so I avoid going there. Let Dr. Google and the dumb shits at RunnersWorld help you.

Still holding on to a sore throat, extremely plugged ears, losing my voice throughout the day, and a mild cough. Seems to be improving, I guess that’s a start.

Considering adding the South Wales 100 to the summer plans. It seems to line up well with other plans and the key component, it’s worth 6 point towards UTMB. If I’m successful at Thames Path and SW100 I can enter the UTMB lottery for 2020. Another thing to note is I’m in the Tor des Geants lottery. Oh, and I’m hunting down -40 sleeping bags on eBay. What’s that mean? Aspirations of Arrowhead 135.

Now I just need to start running again!

So since my last post it happens I've acquired this 4 week cough from hell again, I was too positive thinking it was just a cold. As it was going the week before my birthday it arrived again. So everything is on hold again. I'm hardly running and reconsidering the Thames Path 100. Winter training here is a bitch. It's dark. I'm sick. It sucks. I've pulled out of this race the previous two years, an obvious trend. So I'm looking at North Downs Way 100 in August maybe but it's nearly full. Also the entry period for the Tor des Geants is open and considering there's no obligation if I'm chosen in their lottery it's possibly worth a try.  

Having little time sucks but is manageable as I've found, always riding the line of too much. But add in being sick for weeks on end and it's not even an excuse, but necessary, to hit the off switch for a while.

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.