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Run, run, run, run …

Pic of the week 7/6/20

The year began with me refereeing alot, and running not alot. In January, I didn’t run at all. February saw a few games (that I was due to referee) cancelled and I hit the streets on a few occasions, and this continued into mid-March.

And then lockdown happened.

We were told you could only go outside to exercise once a day, for upto an hour. I was grateful that we could go out – I had worried that lockdown may mean that – lockdown – and we wouldn’t be allowed out at all.  With my spinning and swimming cancelled, and now football being played, running was going to become my only exercise.

I decided that I needed to make the most of my outdoor hour – no good just going for a 6K run for 30 mins, no every run would either be my 9.5 Km run or 10 Km run on a Sunday, taking between 45 and 50 minutes. (I only run the 10K run on a Sunday as the roads are quieter. But, although its shorter, the 9.5K run is possibly more brutal as it has a whacking great hill to climb in the middle. My 10K route is reasonably flat.)

As soon as the (Easter) holiday’s came I began running daily, even when term time restarted, I was able to fit in a run “before” school on either a Monday or Thursday.

April saw me rack up in excess of 200 Km, I did less in May, running 145 Km.   At the time of writing, I’ve run 481 Km, and we are not yet half way through the year. It did dawn on me the other day that I might, just might run 1,000 Km this year, quite some target as that equates to one million metres.

I don’t think I will make that total.  I hope I don’t, I hope we return to enough of a normal that I can go spinning again, swim and referee and not be so totally reliant on running for my exercise.

But I am enjoying my running, and 10 K is not quite a walk in the park, but certainly has become the norm.

Bonus photo:

Yesterday, all four of us went on a “Boris” walk together, somewhat of a rarity.

After a couple of weeks of beautiful weather, it turned on Wednesday and we’ve had some rain and yesterday was cold – with rain and a chill wind. However, I’m pleased to report that today was better that expected and I enjoyed some time in the garden, both reading and pottering.

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Escape to the sea

Pic of the week 31/5/20

Last week I wrote of my existence as medieval man.  This week Becky & I broke the bonds of our local lives and headed to the beach at Kilve.

It was another blisteringly hot day (its been the driest May on record, with high temperatures and sunshine, too) and we set of at about 0830, taking circa 45 mins to arrive at our destination.

We weren’t breaking the lock-down rules – you are now allowed to drive to places, but not stay overnight, and you must still socially distance. (The rules are relaxed further tomorrow, with Primary schools starting back for Reception, Y1 & Y6) Nevertheless, we did feel a little guilty about making the trip and did make sure, on our arrival, that we headed along the cliff top path to avoid others.

It was so worth it. It is a strange beach – the water a muddy brown, no way was I going swimming in that – and the beach a geologist’s delight, with a range of rock formations. It was wonderful to just sit and hear the sea, smell the “ozone” and be somewhere else.

At the start of lock-down all the advice was about the importance of maintaining a routine, and that is good advice. But the routine has become too routine, too monotonous – we were living our very own groundhog day. A change of scene, a broadening of horizons was wonderful.

“School” starts again tomorrow – 4 weeks to plough through. Normally I’d be looking forward to the next few weeks as the timetable inevitably lightens with exam classes leaving, and real sense of accomplishment and “coming to an end” before the long summer holidays. This year, I fear the remaining four weeks are just a chore to be endured, each day much like the last, to be ticked off ready for the summer hols.

But its not too long now until I can head west or south to the coast again.

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Half-term

Pic of the week 24/5/20

And so half term has arrived. But Groundhog day continues.

We remain under lock-down, I’ve concluded that this is how medieval man must have lived – never going further than his feet could take him, and his human contact limited to those in his immediate family.

It could be worse – I have a wonderful family and we live in a beautiful place – but I’ve come to realise that it is the consistency of life that is so crushing. No ups following downs, nothing different to look forward to, just one day seamlessly segueing into the next. Normally one would arrive at summer half term with a sigh of relief, catch your breath, enjoy a rest before the short final sprint to the glittering prize of the long summer hols. This year, I just seemed to have stumbled from working at home on Friday to not working at home on Saturday and Sunday.

(And, unlike medieval man, we can now hop in a car to go somewhere for exercise, which is why we’ve been up the Poldens a few times. The pic above was taken on Saturday when the weather was a bit breezy and cloudy.)

One beneficiary of lock-down has been my running: with all other forms of exercise (swimming, spinning and refereeing) denied to me, I’ve been doing a lot of running. And (at least when lock down began) we were told you could only go out once a day, for up to an hour, for exercise I decided I’d make the most of that time and run either my 9K or 10K routes (taking circa 45-50 mins). As a consequence, I’ve been racking up the miles, and yesterday passed the 400km mark. After today’s run, I’ve notched up 414Km.  Don’t think it will happen, but a though crossed my mind today – could I end up doing 1,000Km in the year? (I hope not, because I hope to have returned to spinning, swimming & refereeing, as well as running.)

Other news – and I mention this just so I have a point of reference when I look back in the future – the news this weekend has been dominated by Dominic Cummings and his refusal to resign, despite having been caught breaking lock down rules.

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Skills!

Pic(s) of the week 17/5/20

Skills!

The lock-down continues, and Becky could take it no longer.

She had to have her hair cut.

(I sympathise)

Fearing for their safety should they do a bad job, the children both refused the task. So it was left to me to step up to the plate.

And I’m rather pleased and proud of my handiwork. It can’t be too bad as I have lived to tell the tale. In fact, I would say as much that Becky’s hair looks much, much better.

In other news, not a lot has changed. Becky & Sam went on a long walk across the Poldens which was good, and today – at last – I went to the tip to dispose of most of my garden waste. Tomorrow night I put out the brown garden waste bin for the first time since mid-March: its the little things that I look forward too!

Toady, I ran my 10K in a new PB for the year in 47 min 22 secs, which also pleased me.

One more week of online teaching before a welcome break of half term.

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Lock-down life

Pic of the week 10/5/20

So, the Groundhog existence that is lock-down continues.

I’ve settled in to some sort of routine, and have sorted out my remote teaching. I’m getting up later – circa 7.15 am everyday, but going to bed later (typically after Newsnight ends at 11.30, and then read for a bit: lights out shortly before midnight)

Our daily Boris walks have been a delight (no doubt enhanced by the wonderful weather we’ve been having – although at lunch time today the temperature plummeted, and its due to be cold this week.)

Since March 24th I’ve worn nothing other than shorts, T-shirt, and sweatshirt if the temperature dictates, and I’ve been enjoying only shaving every other day.

But this week I donned my suit to record a video Year 11 assembly. I do like looking smart, and wearing a suit is not a chore. But my legs have enjoyed being in the open air for the last seven weeks, and that wasn’t going to change, just because I was being filmed from the neck up …

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Glastonbury 10K

Pic of the week 3/5/20

Today was the Glastonbury 10K road race.

But this being lock-down Britain, it didn’t happen.

But that didn’t stop me doing a Sunday morning 10K, and the pic above shows me in last year’s top, and the Tor – that you famously run around on the Glasto 10K – is just about visible in the background.

Annoyingly, my Map my Run recording has been awry both today and yesterday, so I don’t have accurate stats for the run, but I reckon I did it in 48 min 14 secs.

Yesterday evening (& on Friday, sans Becky) Sam, Becky & I went for a walk in the Poldens. We parked in the car park and headed further east than we have been before.  Its beautiful. The trees are in green leaf, and the sunlight glimmer through the gaps was pretty, but I (and I think I was the only one of the three of us to think this) preferred it when we broke out into open space and were welcomed with vast vistas across the levels.

Easy to say, but we must make a commitment to continue to visit the beautiful landscape more regularly.

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Nettles!

Pic of the week 26/4/20

One of the (few) bonuses of lock down has been Boris walks – we are permited to exercise daily – may be a run, a cycle of a walk – and I have begun to join Becky and Sam on their evening perambulations (Sophie rarely leaves the house).

We’ve become more adventurous, ranging further and further from the house and yesterday evening we broke new ground.  We headed down to Pomparles bridge, but crossed the road and followed the Brue to the north.  We’d not been going long before we realised the error of our ways – the path was flanked – swamped – by nettles and I was wearing shorts and, although Becky had leggings on, they didn’t cover her ankles.

We were getting stung. Mercilessly.

Fortunately Sam had had the sense to wear long trousers and so we commanded him to take the lead, and like a land based ice breaker, stomp down all the nettles in our path, to cut a narrow furrow for us to pass through.

We still got stung lots, but we made it through. It turned out to be a beautiful walk, we saw swans and herons and, as we headed home, the sun was setting, a most magnificent ball of red in the sky.  A view worth the pain of a few nettle stings.

During the day on Saturday and Sunday, I spent much time in the garden, swapping the spring bulbs for summer bedding. Much earlier than I normally would – a combination of beautiful weather and a lock-down regime of no Saturday school, and no distractions from beyond our for walls.

The garden is looking much neater, and ready for its summer show. The only downside is that, in lock down, our “green” is not being collected and the tip is shut, so I have an ever increasing pile of clippings and weeds mounting in a corner by the shed.

And two running milestones were met today:

  1. A passed 300 Km for the year
  2. My first sun 48 min 10K – didn’t just creep under, but smashed it. Missed out 47 mins altogether and posted a time of 46 min 48 secs.
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End of the hols …?

Pic of the week 19/4/20

Rog posted the above pic on Facebook today – he was given the photo on the left today, he already had the faded copy on the right.

The two photos are different – although I had forgotten all about this pic, as soon as I saw it I remembered it, but like Rog, I didn’t know two versions existed.  We think it (they) were taken in Farnsfield in the early ’70’s. I’ve always loved this photo, I was a cheeky, smiley, happy little chappy then, and like to think I still am.

In other news, today marks the end of the Easter holidays, but I’m not going back into school tomorrow as we remain under “lock down” so I will start the term teaching remotely. There is now some discussion as to when schools will go back – I can see after half term being a possibility, but I can’t see it being practical. Will be interesting to see how the next few weeks pan out – if I’m honest, it doesn’t seem like the end of the holidays, more that I’ll have a few things I have to do in my week. I think I need to embrace the structure of the working day, even if its a shortened working day, and make sure I have several productive hours each day.

We continue to live in strange times.

 

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Promotion!

Pic of the week 12/4/20

This week it was official – I’ve been promoted by Somerset FA, to a level 6 referee. Due to weather, and then lockdown, I never received my third observation, but given that my first two were above standard expected, and that I’d met all the other criteria – including doing well in excess of my 20 qualifying games – I never really doubted the outcome, but I was pleased to get the letter nonetheless – an achievement!  I know need to decide whether to push on to become a level 5; I must admit at the moment I’m tempted, but not sure when football will start again, so will have to put that decision on hold for a while.

In other news, the weather has been glorious for the last few days and I’ve really enjoyed our family meals – lunch and tea – outside. Lockdown ain’t so bad – we live in a big enough house, have a lovely garden and all (ie the children) are old enough to do their own thing and everyone respects each other’s personal space, but we come together at mealtimes for some lovely family time – its possible that lockdown my be our last pro-longed family time. Perhaps in the years to come we’ll look back, through rose tinted specs, at the “happy times of lockdown”!  The wonderful weather has helped, and Becky having the last three days off has also been a big part in making this a wonderful Easter weekend to remember.

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Lock-down haircut

Pic of the week 5/4/20

Since Christmas, I’ve been experimenting with growing my hair. I was beginning to arrive at the conclusion that long(er) hair was not for me and I was looking forward to the arrival of Di for our monthly haircuts.

But then lock-down came, and she didn’t. My already long(ish) hair was getting longer. I knew I couldn’t cope with an ever more shaggy mane for weeks to come, so a quick “trip” to Amazon, and we had a family set of clippers.

This week, Becky set to work on my locks. Pretty much a buzz-cut, except for a little fringe at the front.

I love it.

Sam had an all over buzz-cut. Perhaps a little less successful, but at least he’s got some time for it to grow back.

Other than hair, I have settled in to holiday lock-down routine. Each morning I’ve been for a run – either 9K or 10K, although I’ve decided that tomorrow I will have a rest day.  The weather has now picked up and promises to get even better this week. I’ve been (slowly) working my way through my list of outside jobs. Each evening, at circa 5 pm, we tune in to the latest government pronouncements on the radio, and then enjoy our family meal together.

Its all a little weird, but weird is quickly becoming normal.