Have been tapering so lots of Walking The Dog and Cycling to Town.
Actually did the HM today and fastest I’ve covered the distance in years – not fast AT ALL, don’t get me wrong! – but a combination of parents dying and lockdown and PF and weight gain and a crumbling knee have had exactly the effect you’d expect.
I’ve been doing strength and circuits classes and losing weight and actual training (as much as I can stand) and rested up before this event and had gels and (1 set) paracetamol during, and managed to run all the way and to speed up at the end. This may well have been my last half but at least I’m happy that it wasn’t a complete mess and I made a decent workmanlike effort on the day.

Had a “funny turn” later that afternoon but that was just a post-race BP drop and a spell of head-between-knees and then brisk walking about sorted that. Very common and this is why the ends of big races are like being the ball in a pinball machine, to keep people moving – I had been moving all day, and then I sat down for lunch and five minutes later …

Reply saying that you’ve had a lot of problems with scammers and cloned accounts, so just to verify that he’s who he says he is, he just needs to confirm how he replied to the invitation to your 40th birthday party… 😈

Monkey are you eating as many bananas and oranges as usual? I’ve had odd calf stuff when deprived of my usual daily banana. Otherwise ???? try ten mins yoga a day to see if the legs just get the hint?

Weights class tonight. Very first world problem, OH has been blithely ignoring the “your key battery needs changing” alerts… only upon arriving at the gym it was flat and we couldn’t lock the car (too new to have actual keyholes on the outside). Cue a frantic return home to pick up my key which –FX smug FX– was NOT flat, while I stayed and enjoyed the legs section ;)

Monday was a cycle into town and back plus a couple of exercise classes.
Yesterday, running club.
Need to sort out my sleep – I may have to harden my heart and boot the dog off the bed at nights :(

Super pics nobeer!
Parkrun in the fog with the dog yesterday.
Group ride today, flat but (by my superslack standards) brisk – had cake because I could see the return journey being v tiring and tiresome otherwise.

On the Oxford canal yesterday – Wolvercote down to where the canal finishes in the city centre – really enjoying the kayaking, it has the meditative rhythmic motion that walking does but without the sore feet or tripping over.

Parkrun this morning in the dog with the dog.

Ten mile jog today, mainly along the riverbank so as to be off-road – knees still complained and it took that to make any progress on the chub club weigh in.

You have my sympathy OP, went with the OH to a bike shop today as his work is sprinkling “wellness payments” down on him & colleagues, which can, apparently, be spent on a bicycle.
He has a 36″ inside leg and the world’s tightest hamstrings.
It was not a happy visit, but the LBS *did* recommend a local bike fit consultant.
It’s very discouraging when you’re not an average size and shape.

Busy day today, walked the dog, cycled nigh on 30 miles, then went to back-to-back fitness & weights classes.
I do think I’m getting fitter, I could do bicep curls with the next weight up and when I started the final class I was more mentally tired than physically.
This is REALLY welcome as recently I’ve been feeling that age has come got me and that training just slows the decline rather than triggering some actual improvement. Apparently all is not lost!

Reader, I got through that tree!

A few hours pootling about on the canal in my new inflatable kayak. I am still managing to get in and out and portage, though it’s not pretty – often I end up lying prone on the bank, but “not in canal” is always a win!

club run this evening

Lovely flat ride out with the moderately paced cycling group on Sunday.
This morning I headed off with some of them (today’s group = 3 x retirees + 1 x day-off) up to Islip to see the women’s tour go through.
The hill we were all granny-gear-ing it up? They just belted up without a second thought!
Couple of half-hour circuits-tyoe classes this evening. Probably ~30 miles of cycling today.

Why does it have to be a mini printer? I mean there may be a reason but the paper is super super expensive.

Does your firm have an EAP who might have someone you could talk this through with?

Though, having identified the problem, you can probably unpick it yourself now.

I have some sympathy – I had a backroom job and for years found it very stressful if I was contacted at home – like most people I needed my free time to catch up on necessary chores and unwind.

I got a bit better in the last few years when I realized that contacting me out of hours was a good indicator that the whole issue was BS and once the sunlight of normal process was cast upon the problem, it would magically evaporate.

So all I had to do was sound professional and sympathetic and as senior as possible when the beleaguered customer was in on the call, say things like “ah yes, well if you can get XYZ data to me I can crack on at once with this!” *knowing* that 19/20 times, the coalface person gathering data X would screech to a halt, go “wait a minute we just need to…” and I would never hear about it again.

Have you tried the hoary old technique of writing down stuff on a bit of paper “I HATE THIS WHY CAN PEOPLE NOT STICK TO NORMAL BUSINESS HOURS AND FOLLOW CHANNELS” and then burn or shred it?

Also round here the lead time for bathroom installers is about 6 months!

5 miles shuffle this morning including parkrun – now back in bed because it’s cold and wet and Saturday!

As someone who drives too, in an area with a decent number of cyclists, I can absolutely believe this, based just on how well I notice people on bikes depending on what they’re wearing.
As a side note I saw someone with a mirror finish helmet and it stood out so much that I ordered myself one that week.

Managed to knock off another pound by dint of the morning-run-and-call-of-nature technique.
Have bought some cabbages and beetroot for a shedload of filling soups – there was a recipe with olives and gerkins which I came across last year which is really fun!

Morning cycle along the river with my Friday cycling buddy who’s been AWOL due to work pressure, great to catch up.

Got the “long” (10mi) run done today. Luckily the dog has had some teeth out and so won’t be wanting much of a walk… (Poor boy, but gum infections are hell on an old dog’s kidneys, so it’s for the best).

Took the new kayak (Gumotex as recommended on another thread here) out on the canal for its maiden voyage and saw a water rat (vole?) swimming across with a leaf in its mouth. Was out for a couple of hours and then back home as was booked in for a fitness class and a weights class (30″ each).
Didn’t take the phone out to take pretty canal pics as was paranoid I’d drop it in ;)

Club run today in the pouring rain, good thing about running is that as long as the footing is OK you can carry on…

Cycled into town for lunch with friends, back along the river, that there boat has sunk again…
Cheaped out the dog with a totter to the corner (will make it up to him tomorrow) and then headed off to the gym for back to back half hour circuits type classes.
This week and next are the hard training weeks for the upcoming half marathon. I say hard. In the old days I would have counted them as ridiculously light, but I don’t have that body any more!

The “short, gentle” ride today was more “up all the hills” but one of the group is in his 80s so he often walks up the hills and today I joined him. Have started taking the spatone and hopefully that will gee me up a bit.

Yoga on Thurs with a new and somewhat different teacher. Ran yesterday and today. Generally feel very drained – someone taser me to life!

0.5kg off (after forcing myself out for the world’s most reluctant run and a second visit to the bog!).
Need to spend more time active though!

Anyone who has dogs for any length of time ends up catching other people’s mutts who are enjoying unsanctioned freedom, and based on my experiences from the past 25 years I would say

PUT THE ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBER (MOBILE AND LANDLINE) ON A LARGE STURDY BRASS TAG

It’s daft to have to take the loose dog home with you because you have no idea that it lives two doors away from where you found it (!), nor does it speed things up to be ringing a phone that nobody answers because, say, they’re out looking for the dog!

Ideally a dog would have *both* a house-collar with a tag – so if they sneak out from home they’re covered – *and* a harness with the tag somewhere easy like the shoulder blades (if you’ve tried to read the collar tag of a wriggling, possibly nipping, strange dog, you’ll understand).

Chips are a great backup option, but address & phone tags are what make the difference between getting your dog back asap so you can get on with your day, and worrying like hell for ages until you get a call from someone with a scanner, … assuming you kept the address in the chip database up to date. And of course if you’re on holiday, you can put a temp tag on.

Reading this with interest as I now know EV owners distributed between
– v well off, Tesla, frankly slumming it a bit
– not at all well off, Tesla, just very poor with money
– not at all well off, 2nd hand Zoe with limited range, uses free charging stations and potters around happily & economically
– well off, Zoe as a second car, has learned to plan any long journeys with great care!
– well off, big EV, just acquired so we shall see how it goes…

Looking at #3 you don’t have to be super rich if there’s a use case that works for you.
We only have room for one car and we do use the estate bit of it quite a lot, but I deffo have EV envy and can’t wait to have an EV estate or even better, van, with decent range.
Sadly I’ll have to!

2 back-to-back 30″ fitness/weights classes today. I think I’m fitter but I could just be better rested or a more accomplished slacker!
Started doing a plank a day a few weeks back and THAT definitely made a difference, no more bum-in-the-air now!

PS he’s mid/late 50s and fit and healthy by normal standards (runs 5ks & 10ks, if not very fast) but v laid back, won’t be a MAMIL type !

A friend in a chilly 70s block of flats uses Ikea summer duvets as curtains – up until now I have had fleece with slits cut in the top as thermal curtain add-ons (window side) but if I get time I may follow suit – staple or stitch the duvet inside its cover and punch eyelets into one edge of the cover, job done.

6k jog today, fortunately even in my young fit days this would have been over 30 mins!
A month left to the half marathon, fingers crossed actual training may help.

Did a couple of exercise classes tis evening which add up to about an hour.

Still have spaghetti arms, perhaps should do daily press UPS and tricep dips as the 1 min plank every day has paid off.

The “official” exercise was an hour of cycling with a local group before peeling off as I had to be somewhere and it was starting to rain quite a bit. Also went for a couple of walks.

Exercise classes booked for tomorrow. I got DOMS from all the abs stuff on Weds but should be OK now!

Done my 9 mile long run this morning with the last 3 miles at parkrun. 5-10 years ago 9 miles would have been nothing, but these days I’m just pleased to be able to keep going!

It’s made a huge difference, retiring last year, because I could get as much daylight as I could eat. Before that I had a Lumie daylight lamp and would eat my breakfast sat a foot away from one each morning, which I recommend if you have to be indoors during the day.

I was looking out for this but it appeared on the bike forum rather than chat like before!
I’m in – 50″ ‘tempo’ (har de har har) run yesterday. A mix of dog walk, gardening and yoga for today then a long run (shuffle) tomorrow…

Have made a good start, feeling determined. Hope I can keep it up until Xmas.

FWIW an elderly relative came over from the States a couple of weeks ago, and did an on-site test in a Heathrow carpark for just under £70 – collinsongroup dot com.
Less than two hours after wheels down it was all done and dusted and we were driving away.

Back from holiday and have put weight on and the photos… well things have been heading south. The target may be slightly optimistic but if I can lose a lb or two each week… it’s not infeasible.

About cancer drugs –
“Abiraterone is routinely available on the NHS in Scotland as a first treatment for advanced prostate cancer” says Prostate Cancer UK (…but not England /Wales)

– I know a chap who is in England but managed to get Abiraterone (as a 1st line treatment) through his private insurance, and he credits that partly for why he’s still here, 4 years on from the discovery of prostate cancer mets in his bones.

So it is an issue sometimes. I’d agree with you that it’s probably rare though.