araqnid

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    London's been baked today... we've been wilting away in the heat at work and there's only so much ice cream can do to ward away the sleepies!

    Last night we went for a run in Battersea Park (along with a bunch of other companies)- which was good, in that I haven't been in a running race for ages; but man I'm so unfit these days :( Did what worked out to be about a 31-minute 5K... at least I wasn't the slowest on the team though :p

    Supposedly trying to get up tomorrow morning to run to Finsbury Park or something. We'll see how that goes, hrmph.

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    July 9th, 2010

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    Still here... just not been remembering to update. The last couple of months have been a bit lethargic-- two months ago I was running a marathon, and now I can't run for more than 15 minutes or so... aiee! Have acquired an extra 6Kg or so that I need to divest myself of, too.

    Planning on doing the Duathlon in Richmond Park this Sept- just the "fun" distance, but it'll give me something to shoot for. And Richmond Park is one of the nicest spots in London- you can almost feel away from it all, if you get away from the road and the car parks... and there's a lot of park to get away from it all in!

    I was thinking aloud about an idea for a summer expedition while at a party over the weekend (at which I met the cat in the photo). If I got the bike on a ferry to the top of the Adriatic, it should be possible to ride northwards up to about Gdansk, and get a ferry home via the Baltic. Turns out that there *is* an EU initiative to have long-distance cycle routes, and in fact one of those *is* Trieste to Gdansk! Although I'd like to modify it a bit to loop around to Venice, too... The routes are in their infancy and apparently may not even exist in places, never mind be signposted, but it could be really cool. Although it's about 2000Km, so I figure three or four weeks. So maybe next summer is a bit optimistic there?

    Still, you gotta have dreams. They've also agreed in principle to an "Iron Curtain Trail", which appeals to my (perhaps rather warped) tastes. There are also insanely long routes going from North Cape (i.e. northern tip of Norway) all the way down to Malta or Athens. I just don't have enough hardcore for that. I would still like to do a cross-country triathlon at some point, but there don't seem to be any of those in the UK, so I guess that's something else to go abroad for... well, time to start saving the pennies I guess ;)

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    July 5th, 2010

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    All done! And wow, it hurt... last night I was barely walking: today I'm a bit better, it just takes 30 seconds or so for my muscles to unstiffen after sitting down.

    It was actually a fun day, if you can ignore the pain and feeling sick and constant feeling of "*how* much further?" Loads and loads of crowds throughout the course, even for those of us who were taking six hours to complete it! Towards the end, it was almost getting too noisy, I think I was getting crabby from exhaustion :p

    Saw some mad costumes: one guy for the Royal British Legion running with a fridge on his back! One guy with a scale model of the Angel Of The North--- above 15 feet high! As I went past he was muttering about it being windy :)

    Now a couple of weeks of rest before deciding what mad thing to do next :D

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    April 26th, 2010

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    London Marathon tomorrow! Off up in the morning and get the train down to Greenwich and then suffer for a few hours :) Picture is the contents of the goody bag after I picked up my number and stuff this afternoon. Hopefully the next pic will feature a finisher's medal :D

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    April 24th, 2010

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    We've had an almost summery weekend. Clear sky- no planes to be seen for days- and outside temperature snuggling up to 20 degrees.... that's warm for us, ok!

    Went for a walk with a bunch of friends from Finsbury Park along a disused railway to Highgate (and a pub) and then through the woods and along to Alexandra Palace (and another pub). I misestimated the weather completely when I set off (I'd got home at 5.30am the night before, that's my excuse) and hauled along a hoodie and a leather jacket... came back with sunburn. Arghfl.

    Yesterday went for a run along some of the same route and then went to refuel and rehydrate sitting outside the Landseer. All the good things of summer and it's too early to have hay fever :) (Although we did get tree bukkake in our drinks)

    Feeling all stiff-legged today at work... can see it being a struggle to stay awake all day...

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    April 19th, 2010

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    I have tickets to see Front Line Assembly this July! Yay! Missed out on seeing them before: I remember not being able to go when I was a student because I didn't have any money to get a ticket plus transport to where they were playing... pity, i think Cubanate were supporting them back then.

    My two FLA t-shirts (bought at Infest some time, not on tour) have seen lots of use and are well faded now! Still confounding co-workers and producing lots of "*squint* ... what's he got on his arm?" responses :p

    Went for a run round Finsbury Park and up the old railway track in the sunshine this morning: everyone was out, it was great :) Two weeks tomorrow is the marathon!

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    April 10th, 2010

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    Long weekend... I wish it could be every weekend, but then it wouldn't really feel "long", I guess.

    Went for the last long run before the marathon yesterday morning; got to the river not quite in time to avoid the tourists :| it was nice to be along there in daylight again though! Legs are still stiff today, so just a bit of a wander up to Hampstead and back for breakfast (at 3pm) :)

    Did go to a DM party on Saturday night, which arguably wasn't the best preparation for doing a long run the next day! Wasn't planning on staying long, ended up there until 3am :o Well, at least it was just a quick walk home...

    I think I've become addicted to Sharwood's biryani-in-a-jar sauces. I'm not sure how this can be but... they're just so tempting. Of course it's impossible for me to just eat half and save the rest for the next day because I'm an addict, aiee.

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    April 5th, 2010

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    Feeling manky, so uploading an old photo. Cheating, yeah :p

    Got an email from someone I haven't seen in years the other day- completely out of the blue! It's great to re-establish connections, though :)

    Went out on the train to Greenford and then ran back. Didn't go so well, although I'm feeling better than I did after the race a couple of weeks ago. Still, need to be able to run for longer than this if I'm going to survive next month :( Really regretting not starting training back when I should have!

    Probably doesn't help I was out last night... after Liisa's birthday/Jo's housewarming (double-bill of doom!) on the 1st, that'll have to be it for me drinking until the race is done! Probably be good for me anyway ;)

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    March 20th, 2010

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    Almost end of the week... I've been good this week, avoided pubs and takeaways (apart from lunch...) and managed to get stuff fixed in the flat! That is, got other people to come in and fix stuff rather than fixing it myself... but it's done! Never thought I'd get so excited about being able to get hot water out of a tap...

    Two runs so far this week: Monday about 8.5 miles up around Hampstead, rather late at night (setting off at 11pm!) and the main problem was coming *down* the hill through Hampstead itself on those "quaint" big stone paving slabs. Then last night about 11 miles down to the City and back. Went past Smithfield Market which I'd never actually seen before. Discovered that there is actually a street called "Little Britain". Had to stop quite a bit because my knees hurt :|

    This all kind of comes to an end tomorrow as it's someone's birthday at the Hobgoblin... may try to stick to chemically inoffensive beverages, but that could be tricky... will see how it goes. An extra rest day will be a good thing, legs were stiff and knees were twinging today.

    Long work day... releasing tomorrow and we were finding loads more bugs today. Argh. Next iteration should hopefully be lighter than the last one, and less of a rush to get everything done.

    Also thinking I need either a better webcam or better lighting in here...

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    March 18th, 2010

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    Sunday is a day of rest... but not for me, I had to go into work for a bit :( Although tomorrow might be, someone's supposed to be coming round to fix the hot water and the loo. Handy things to have working. I can generally handle electrics, but avoid anything related to plumbing if I possibly can...

    Walked to work through Regent's Park and actually had to take my jumper off due to being hot! Spring is here?! Well, we had some sun for a bit, but now I've been accused of jinxing it and it will probably snow this week. Can't please some people.

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    March 14th, 2010