…and I’d forgotten how long midweek runs need to be, even right at the start of the training period! I did four miles today and will be doing seven on Sunday. In the very unlikely event that the London Marathon don’t announce a re-postponement in their next update on Monday, I’ll be doing the same next week.
I then spent the afternoon working on my game. It was great to be able to set aside a day for doing that, although the code is starting to swim in front of my eyes a bit now! I’ll be spending tonight getting on with a bit of evening admin.
I’m driving Geth to his office tomorrow morning so we can pick up his books, but after that I’ll be settling in with my game for the weekend!
I absolutely love the colours on my new running shorts. Hope the weather warms up again soon so I can try them out! Appreciate the wee handwritten note too.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Michael Land, Peter McConnell and Clint Bajakian – ‘Monte Carlo’
…as I woke up with a slightly sore shoulder (I had planned to do closer to two miles today but decided to keep it short and gentle again).
I’m still not sleeping well, and I don’t feel productive at all this week – I’m a bit slow to get going with everything. Still, I’m managing to get a bit of work on my current writing project done every day, which is great.
Despite the uncertainty about absolutely everything at the moment, I am 100% certain that two things will be the case by the end of 2020:
I will have made a significant dent in my videogame backlog. There’s no way I’ll have cleared it completely, but there will at least be light at the end of the tunnel…
I will own enough leggings to last me for the rest of my life, and yet I will still want more. So many shiny patterns!
Everyone needs a hobby, or twenty in my case. Especially at the moment.
Videogaming tonight, running in the morning, writing during the day, rinse and repeat.
I’m running out of pictures that I can take during lockdown, as my world is obviously a bit samey right now. As such, I’ve been going through the family archives for old computer pictures. I love this one from 1980.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Billy Idol – ‘Rebel Yell’ Revo – ‘Ship Upon The Open Skies’ Thought Beings – ‘Shakedown’
…as I wanted a relaxed bank holiday Friday after a busy week. Longer runs planned for tomorrow and Sunday.
There are a few synthwave livestreams to which I’m looking forward tonight, so I’ve spent the afternoon with my favourite synthwave playlist on in the background in order to get in the mood. Watching and listening to DJ livestreams from my sofa is the kind of clubbing I appreciate in my older sober hermit days! It’s a beautiful day, so Geth has gone out for a walk to Sainsbury’s to get us some more liquid supplies (that bottle of alcohol-free fizzy went down a treat last night, so I’m looking forward to having another one).
The lovely weather has also meant that Geth has been able to go out and do his regular garden maintenance. I have meanwhile spread out the new gravel to try and cover the exposed areas of the webbing in the back garden. It seems we could do with another couple of bags, so I reckon a return trip to B&Q is in our near future.
I’ll be doing my usual review posts and running vlogs over the weekend, so the next life update will be Monday. I’m fairly sure nothing out of the ordinary will have happened by then, but you never know 🙂
I have found this year that running every day has required a lot of new running gear due to (a) the laundry turnover and (b) the fact that things wear out a lot quicker!
Today’s earworm playlist:
Peter Cetera – ‘Glory Of Love’ Nobuo Uematsu – ‘Zanarkand’ Vera Lynn – ‘We’ll Meet Again’ Sesame Street – ‘Sesame Street Theme’
…because I was still being careful regarding my shoulder. It feels a lot better now though, and I also managed a fifty-minute YouTube yoga session at lunchtime, so I think I should be able to go for a longer run tomorrow.
I’ve spent the rest of the day editing, writing, and getting on with admin stuff. Sometimes I feel like I’m making progress with my lists upon lists of things to do, but most of the time – even in these quieter lockdown days – it seems as though I get one thing done and then several more get added to the other end of the list! At least I’m never bored…
Looking forward to another good few hours of videogaming this evening. Geth has finished work early so has started his XCOM session already!
Geth was rather taken with the colourful-ness of the washing line yesterday and asked me to take a picture. To be fair, I am amassing an extremely good collection of funky-patterned running tights.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Nobuo Uematsu – ‘Main Theme’ Ben Haenow – ‘Something I Need’ Lucy Spraggan – ‘Lighthouse’ The Wonder Stuff – ‘Don’t Let Me Down, Gently’
Instead of my planned supermarket run, I just went for a mile today…
…because I’m really trying to make weekdays feel like weekdays and weekends feel like weekends at the moment, rather than all blurring into one. As such, I just did a short run as soon as I got up today so that I could get on with some work in a timely manner (I’ve found over the last few weeks that a combination of waking up late and being slow to get out for my run has meant that I don’t end up at my ‘desk’ until early afternoon). I feel a lot better for it and am hoping to do the same tomorrow, though I will do a slightly longer run so that I can finally get to the supermarket.
It’s just the usual otherwise today – working on my game, doing a bit of yoga, chilling out with my 3DS. I’ve also moved on to the last book in Rick Riordan’s Heroes of Olympus series, and am reading a couple of chapters before bed every night. I’ve been meaning to finish that series for ages!
Also OMG WE GOT POST TODAY. We’ve not had post for a week – I presume because the posties round here are a bit stretched in the current circumstances. Things that arrived for me in the post:
Layton’s Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires’ Conspiracy (Deluxe Edition), a new Nintendo Switch game that I will be playing as soon as I complete all my remaining Layton games on the 3DS (so it’ll be some time, even under lockdown!).
Two pairs of Tikiboo capri running tights for the warmer spring weather – one in my favourite ’80s-esque print, and one in the specially designed London 2020 print for anyone doing a London race this year. There are lots of companies doing to-die-for legging designs these days, but Tikiboo are the absolute best as far as I’m concerned.
A reminder from DVLA to update my vehicle tax. Exciting times!
Getting post was so exciting that I’m tempted to spend all my money on MORE STUFF THAT WILL ARRIVE IN THE POST. I will resist until there’s something I actually need.
Postal haul! Car tax reminder letter not shown.
Today’s earworm playlist:
The Dubliners – ‘Rocky Road To Dublin’ Sting – ‘Englishman In New York’ Avicii and Nicky Romero – ‘I Could Be The One’
…and then Geth and I went shopping in town. Geth bought some new Keyforge decks to celebrate having completed his 100th parkrun, and I am now the proud owner of a new pair of running shoes. My old ones were not coping well with my newfound daily running habit and had worn down to the foam! I will be getting a few new pairs over the course of the next few months, as rotating the shoes means that they don’t wear down as fast (apparently the shoes need forty-eight hours to ‘recover’ in between runs!).
We then went for a meal with Mum and Dad for pre-race carb-loading. I think I’m as ready as I can be for tomorrow – just a good night’s sleep needed now.
The pop-up sign is a bit broken and sad-looking (I think it’s probably suffered the ill effects of some strong winds in recent months), but Whin Park is such a beautiful location for a parkrun!
Today’s earworm playlist:
Peabo Bryson and Roberta Flack – ‘Tonight I Celebrate My Love For You’ Culture Club – ‘Victims’ Toto – ‘Africa’ Vera van Heeringen – ‘Riverside House’ Status Quo – ‘The Wanderer’ Duran Duran – ‘Shadows On Your Side’
I had a go at something different for my run this morning…
…then, after another positive counselling session, spent the afternoon doing day job work. Going to try and get a relatively early night before parkrun tomorrow!
Some running goodies that I ordered have arrived in the post today. Lots of colourful patterns to cheer me up for the rest of winter! The yellow card on top is the progress card for the social run group I went to this morning (more runs with them = free stuff, which is top quality running motivation).
Today’s earworm playlist:
Justin Bieber – ‘Sorry’ The Rolling Stones – ‘Paint It Black’ Belouis Some – ‘Imagination’ Levellers – ‘Belarus’ FM-84 and Ollie Wride – ‘Wild Ones’ Justin Bieber – ‘Love Yourself’ Normani – ‘Motivation’
Geth and I are back in Newcastle after a few days in Lancashire with the in-laws. The drive back was fairly ‘interesting’ – ice, fog, snow and low sunlight all featured en route! Got to love winter driving.
Since we got back I’ve been wrapping presents. I love the paper we’ve bought this year, but there’s been some fairly big gifts to wrap and so I’ve already run out of it! Will be going out to pick up some more tomorrow.
Might see about getting some more winter supplies for the car while I’m out there…
Not an OOTD: so many glittery stars! Will try and find some equally pretty paper tomorrow.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Tim Minchin – ‘White Wine In The Sun’
And a bonus track that Geth was humming earlier:
Perry Como – ‘It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas’
My long-awaited lazy day arrived today and I have thoroughly enjoyed it! Geth was out at a Keyforge tournament, so I just spent the day online playing with various running apps and websites that give you achievement badges. Always good for motivation when there are no races coming up in the immediate future!
I feel nice and refreshed now for getting back to work tomorrow.
Not an OOTD: my achievement badges (so far – still need to log a lot of my running history) on Fetch Everyone. I certainly earned that ‘running in France’ badge – I didn’t have any GPS files for the runs I did in the Cévennes in July 2015, so I had to create one manually!
Today’s earworm playlist:
Michael Land – The Scumm Bar (MI1) Traditional – Sospan Bach Trevor Something – Miami Nights Altered Images – Don’t Talk To Me About Love Jackson Browne – Rosie Howard Jones – I’d Like To Get To Know You Well Michael Land – Planet Threepwood Gunship – Dark All Day USA For Africa – We Are The World Madness – One Step Beyond Ed Sheeran and Stormzy – Take Me Back To London Slade – Cum On Feel The Noize
I went to Leazes parkrun this morning (it’s a new parkrun in central Newcastle – tourism post to follow), and didn’t do too badly considering that I ran twelve miles yesterday. Definitely need to rest the legs for a few days now though! Fifteen days left till the GNR – getting close…
Have spent the rest of the day chilling out, like a proper Saturday!
Not an OOTD: I look a bit worse for wear after two days of running so I think I’ll just show off my new running watch instead.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Gunship – The Mountain Arcadia – The Flame FM-84 and Ollie Wride – Running In The Night
