It's been over a month...

It's been over a month, almost two in fact since I last posted and I don't know where the time has gone. When I started up this blog I had every intention of posting onto it regularly, I mean, at least weekly but, just lately, time just seems to be slipping past me and, to be honest, I don't really have a great deal to show for it! 

Let's see, since I last posted, what's been going on with me? My wife and I took a trip up to Leeds to visit her Uni friends for a couple of days, that was nice and on the way back we stopped off in the Midlands and stayed a night with my mum and while we were there visited my sister and oldest friend, Angie and her partner. 

It's always nice catching up with old friends, isn't it? I've known Ange since we were about two-ish I guess, since pre-school certainly. I don't remember our first meeting, we've just always known each other, well, it feels like there was never a time when we didn't know one another. 

We haven't always seen eye to eye, in fact during high school I have distinct memories of us having 'falling outs' but never for long and as far as I remember most of those 'falling outs' were mainly due to external influences. But, despite those silly teenage blips, and, Ange pulling a science stool from underneath me as I was about to sit down on it (I still struggle to see the funny side of this, even though you assured me that I would 'one day'), we've always managed to remain good friends and now Ange is my oldest friend (not in age she'll be pleased to hear me say). Since moving down to Essex we don't see one another quite so often as we used to. As adults, and when I lived in Staffordshire, we used to see each other at least once a week and, during certain time periods, daily but that's not really possible any more so we just catch up when either one of us visits the other. So it was nice to have a good old chin-wag when we saw them last month, if not a little brief. 

Anyway, I digress. 

What else have I been up to? Honestly, not a great deal. I've been trying to get a bit fitter. I struggle with a back problem that sometimes means I find it difficult to get around (in part, but not entirely, due to the science stool incident!) and so I've been trying to build up my fitness levels on the treadmill at home over the last month. As a kid I used to be a keen runner. Never very fast but quite good at cross-country. Sadly, my fitness levels have declined quite considerably, especially during the last few years. You know what it's like, get into a relationship, get all comfortable, eat out far too much and before you know it you've put on sooooooo much weight! So, I started running on the treadmill. It's hideous and I hate every second of it! When I first started I could only run for about 30 seconds before I had to stop and get my breath back for about 2 minutes and then have another little run for another 30 seconds, ridiculously unfit! Anyway, I persevered and I'm now running, after a month of running at least every couple of days, for 10 minutes continuously! Doesn't sound like a lot but believe me during the last few weeks I never once thought I'd get to this point so I'm very proud of myself and am almost confident enough to leave the house and run around the block.....one day, soon, maybe! 

I have to give some thanks for getting to this point to a friend of mine, Lisa Holmes. I met Lisa at Essex Boot Camp (EBC) last year. My wife and I bought a voucher for 10 sessions each and, well, I only managed to go to 3 of the 10 before I had shin splints in both legs and could barely walk and on top of this was diagnosed with a nasty case of EBC Tourettes, mostly brought on from attending a session with Lisa! Needless to say, I called her pretty much every name under the sun and never went back again! All entirely unprovoked and not her fault, I should add, just doing her job, but, it was hideous. Being unable to walk with shin-splints was exactly what I didn't want to achieve! However, I did take away one thing from that session and that was one of the things that she said to me whilst trying her hardest to motivate my sorry ass; 

'Your mind is going to tell you to give up 100 times sooner than your body needs to so just keep going'. 

Lisa, I hear you saying this to me, in my mind, over and over again while I'm on that treadmill and, to say I'm sick of the sound of your voice is an understatement! Teehee. Only Kidding. Without that one little bit of encouragement I don't think I'd have got this far and still be plodding on and, I know that it's not far considering some of the distances I see other people running, but it's my far and it's a step in the right direction. So, thank you Lisa, you tyrant, you. Even without seeing you, you still made a difference.

So, that's what I've been doing. It's all a bit of a mish mash really. Not the usual focussed blog I've been trying post on here, but, well, I didn't really know where I was going to end up when I started this one! Must try harder!