Started today off with a lovely run with the social group, which is becoming something I’m really enjoying on Friday mornings. Volunteering at parkrun tomorrow so will do a very gentle run back, and then hopefully I’ll be able to manage my twelve miles on Sunday!
I’ve been making a bit more time for reading and gaming this week, which has been so beneficial (I’m usually non-stop with day job stuff, writing, running and other ‘busy’ pursuits). Going to try and continue this.
Not running adventures. Though there are always a few of those going on as well!
Since finishing reading an academic work on text adventure games last week (Twisty Little Passages – I won a signed copy from the author as a prize for winning PunyJam #2 last year), I’ve been drawn towards lighter bedtime reading and have pulled out my old childhood gamebook collection again. I’ve got a few Choose Your Own Adventure books and various other series to revisit (some with dice. I like dice).
There may be a return to Gamebook Wednesday posts soon as a result, but not today.
Geth and I did do a New Year’s Day parkrun this morning but I’ll save my regularly scheduled parkrunday post for tomorrow. Lots of 2022 stuff to discuss today!
This year’s non-binding New Year Resolutions:
It’ll be interesting, as ever, to come back to this post in a year’s time! I didn’t make any resolutions last year except the house-sorting one, which was kind of a fail… let’s hope there’ll be more hits than misses in 2022.
P.S. Happy birthday blog! Four years today since I started my daily rambles.
Following my usual mile run in the morning, I did another full afternoon of de-hoarding. I’ll be doing the same tomorrow and can see light at the end of the tunnel now. I’m hoping that I can get the project finished tomorrow, but if not, it should be done by Friday at least. I’m really looking forward to the end result.
A bit too tired to do anything else, so I’ll just be reading tonight I think!
Today’s earworm playlist:
The Weeknd – ‘Blinding Lights’
Steps – ‘One For Sorrow’
Steve Winwood – ‘Valerie’
will.i.am – ‘Bang Bang’
A two-mile run today…
…which was later followed by a four-mile walk and a 25-minute yoga session. I’m doing a lot of extra cross-training this week, as I mentioned yesterday, to try and help with my fitness in the lead-up to my autumn challenges. The walking is being helped along by an online game I’m playing where you need to collect items en route!
I also got a bit of day job work done for a client, and caught up with some admin. Looking forward to a quiet night reading now!
Today’s earworm playlist:
3 Daft Monkeys – ‘Paranoid Big Brother’
Rizzle Kicks – ‘Down With The Trumpets’
Just a recovery mile this morning…
…but I’m also going to be doing a lot more cross-training this week as I want to get a few more active hours in the plan in preparation for my autumn challenges. Monday, as usual, is a day off for me, but I will be doing a bit of gentle yoga this afternoon.
Other than that, I will be getting back into my videogames for the rest of the day. Back to work tomorrow!
Today’s earworm playlist:
Bill Conti – ‘Gonna Fly Now’
Just a mile for this morning’s run…
…as I had various other things to do. Looking forward to some longer runs later in the week.
It was a bit of an odd weekend as I was trying to keep myself from feeling too down about the fact that if not for the coronavirus situation, I would have been in London running the marathon. By and large, I managed to distract myself with videogames, and I did a couple of short, fast runs to test out my pace a bit. I also spent most of yesterday trying to solve technical issues, as our SteamLink box was playing up again. I’ve told Geth that we have to keep an eye on it by turning it on every day, which provides lots of excuses for videogaming this week!
I’ve also managed to get a really good clean of the house done. I’d been neglecting it a bit, because I usually base my cleaning schedule around when we’re expecting company… and obviously we’ve not had any recently. However, I’ve spent the last couple of days getting on with it, and the house feels a lot nicer now.
I’ve got a small amount of day job work lined up for this week, which is great, and I’ve got several more housework-type tasks to get on with as well. I also want to finish my graphics for my next adventure game before the end of Camp NaNo on Thursday, so I’ve got plenty things to be getting on with! It’s nice, though, because it provides a bit of structure to the day. I’d obviously love it if I could just sit and play videogames the whole time, but I think I’d probably lose track of days and nights as a result! Oh, for those student summers when I’d regularly be playing until 7am and it didn’t matter…
I’m still getting a good few hours in every evening though, and I find I’ve got time for lots of reading and TV-watching too, so if I ignore the general world situation, life is quite relaxed at the moment!
Today’s earworm playlist:
Tomohito Nishiura – ‘Froenborg’
Yasunori Mitsuda – ‘Elysium, In The Blue Sky’
Abba – ‘I Have A Dream’
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:
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.
Today’s earworm playlist:
The Dubliners – ‘Rocky Road To Dublin’
Sting – ‘Englishman In New York’
Avicii and Nicky Romero – ‘I Could Be The One’
A very blustery run this morning…
…which I was a little surprised by, as I’d hoped we’d be done with the strong winds by now (the nice spring weather we’ve been lucky enough to have for the last couple of weeks has been a real silver lining for me, as it really helps to lift my mood when I get out for my run in the morning). It certainly made the run a bit more of a challenge! Hopefully it’ll be calmer again tomorrow.
I slept a lot better last night. I think the secondary evening workout is helping (I tried some YouTube yoga last night – it’s basically very similar to Pilates with lots of hippy talk thrown in. It was a nice workout though so I will persevere), and before bed I also did a bit of reading – I picked up the book I’d abandoned last autumn, on Mum’s suggestion. Fingers crossed that will be my pattern sorted again now.
I’ve done a bit of day job work this afternoon, and am now going to crack on with my text adventure/Camp NaNo project. The first game (a prequel to the main project) is nearly ready to playtest!
On the whole, I’m settling into my ‘new normal’ daily routine now, and I find I’m striking a good balance between work and me-time.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Revo – ‘Battle Normal 1 [Bravely Default II Soundtrack]’
Duran Duran – ‘Violence Of Summer (Love’s Taking Over)’
Endor – ‘Pump It Up’
The Beatles – ‘Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’
The Beatles – ‘She Loves You’
Fountains Of Wayne – ‘Stacy’s Mom’*
Cast of Aladdin – ‘Prince Ali’
*RIP Adam Schlesinger.
It’s been a while since I volunteered at parkrun, so it was good to get out and marshal at Jesmond Dene this morning, a parkrun course that I really enjoyed running during the autumn. I jogged there and back so as to get my run in, but made sure I had plenty layers on for the ninety minutes I was standing at my marshal point! There was a bitter wind blowing through the Dene today, so they were very much needed.
Geth is away at a Keyforge tournament so I’ve had a really relaxed afternoon reading. I’ve got another long run to do tomorrow and I’m hoping to be well rested.
Weekends are a bit of a write-off at the moment due to all the running, but that’s sort of the way it goes during marathon training.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Jackson Browne – ‘Rosie’
Vangelis – ‘Chariots Of Fire’
Soft Cell – ‘Where Did Our Love Go?’
Belinda Carlisle – ‘Leave A Light On’