Pixel Lover

Just because the blog needs a picture :-)

Early up...

Not much sleeping at our house last night - so I got up early to do a pre-work run. It was lightly frosted all over this morning, but not as slippy as last week.

Managed a 4 miler - My iPod was eminem crazy this morning :-P

Better late than never

Guest post from Preston about his Monday lunch time run.

The Jogger Blogger Tour.

• Marvel at the bird-flu ridden geese and mangled shopping trolleys in the dirty pond.
• Be amazed by the dingy grey buildings and boarded up windows.
• Inhale a lung-full of premium Carbon Monoxide and hallucinate wildly as you stagger for miles down the A52.
• Meet the locals as they steal your trainers and stab you with syringes in badly lit underpasses.
• See a lot of people wearing sportswear (but not playing much sport) as they walk through the streets drinking premium lager and abusing their teenage wife.

Take the Jogger Blogger Tour today… you’ll appreciate where you live much, much more.

Cancer update

I haven’t done a cancer update for a while, but wow have we had a great (not) couple of weeks. Firstly he should have gone in for chemo two Fridays ago, but the hospital didn’t have a bed free on Friday so said that they would have one on the Saturday.

Saturday came and went, no bed. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday no bed. I felt really sorry for him as everyday he would get himself mentally prepared to go in for another round of chemo - which is really hurting him now, also the thought of knowing that he is going to be physically unwell for at least 2 weeks after doesn’t help.

Friday came Yah! A bed. I dropped him off at the hospital and waited with him to be admitted - for some reason they wanted him there for 7.30am. At about 9.30am and still no sign of a Doctor I had to make a move. I went back to the hospital that night at 6.00pm and they had just started his treatment, talk about hanging around.

We finally got him home on Sunday - but needed to make a trip back to the hospital to pick up his meds.

Over the last 5 or so months the chemo has effected him more and more, slowly eating away at his recovery rate in between sessions. It has got to the point now where he can’t even eat or drink so relies on his food pump thing that plugs in to his peg and flushing himself with water every hour.

Today I got a phone call at work - he had been rushed in to hospital because he had collapsed and couldn’t be brought around. So I jumped in to the jog mobile and headed down to the hospital. His blood pressure had dropped really low (an effect of the last lot of chemo). At the hospital he was given oxygen and kept under observation as well as having an armful of blood tests.

We have just got him home and fingers crossed he seems to be ok :-P

One more round of chemo to go in two weeks, then that’s it…

Skank run.

Today was quite mild so it didn’t take much arm twisting to get Preston to come for a lunchtime run. I tried to make it a little more interesting so we tried a new route - which I didn’t think was too bad but Mr P hated it (he has threatened to pen a post, but it hasn’t materialised yet).

To be truthful it probably wasn’t the most glamorous of routes, half of the distance was by the side of the dual carriage way and some sections through a drug syringe infested council estate - but soon we were back home safely at work after racking up a quick 4.5 miles.

Here's one I made earlier

We had some polymer clay the other month for the small person - I re-found it and made this :-)

Just a couple of questions...

1 - Why does only my left hand get cold when I run?
2 - Why does everyone call Velma, Thelma?

Speed Test Sunday

Well the drop in wind speed didn’t stay for long - all the snow has disappeared and been replaced with gusts of lung burning wind, joy!

I have had a couple of days off running since I did my 36K on Thursday, so thought that I’d head out for a jog around the village this morning. It was a real struggle :-/ not with my running but my breathing, I think I must be getting a cold or something (everyone at work seems to have them) I haven’t been this wheezy in ages, I sounded like that penguin in Toy Story - hopefully it will go away if I ignore it… Still managed to do 5 miles :-)

The council has put up some new toys for the boy racers to use on the main road - they are signs that show you how fast you are going and display either a thank you or slow down message.

But some fun is to be had with them if your out running… They pick up your speed if there’s no cars around and you are running towards them. COOL!, free speed checks J I had to go back home and get my camera after I finished my run to take a picture of them to show you. So if you want to know how fast you can run, head up north :-D

Brooks "What is life?"

Have you seen this little film? If you haven't go and check it out :-) Thanks Brooks (hope you don't mind the screen grab).

YAH! I did it...

I have just completed my 36K (the longest I've ever ran) - did it in 3 hours 56 min, which I didn't think was too bad :-)

Is it wine o'clock yet? No :-( It will be once I've got through the afternoon at work.

Cheers

Look what Preston got me

Patrick
Originally uploaded by jogger164.

:-)

COOL! I love Patrick.

Midnight running and other stupid ideas...

Well, next time I have a stupid idea like running 36K on my birthday tell me not to be so stupid :-/

Got my ass out the door at 12.00pm to do a 10K - BOY, it was freezing!! (trust me to pick the coldest day/night of the year so far).

With that under my belt I set the alarm clock at 5.15am and got some zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz'SS. Got up de-iced the car, drove to work and did another 20K. Only 6K to go :-)

Garmin equation

Inclement weather conditions. x People staring at you looking at the sky whilst you shuffle around on the spot with your wrist exposed. = Time taken to lock on to a satellite.

It was/is freezing cold at the moment - my trusty Garmin helped keep me cool by taking forever to locate and lock on to it's satellite selection today.

Did a couple of miles on my own.

Bring on the 36K tomorrow! :-P

Shhh…

Don’t tell anyone but I’ve got some exciting news to tell.

In the not too distant future there’s going to be the sound of feet running round the house. Yes you’ve guessed it… I’ve ordered a treadmill :-) YAH!

I can’t wait for the new toy to come, but it’s going to be about 5-7 days L Now instead of running on my own in the cold, wet pitch black I’ll be able to run in the dry warm conservatory.

Speaking of running in the cold - Preston and I went out for a 4 miler this lunchtime. We must be getting fitter because we managed a good time and chatted like to old women all the way round. I’m trying to keep it low key on the running front this week, until mid Thursday as that’s when I’m planning to do put in my 36K - more news nearer the time.

Bag Porn.

Bag
Originally uploaded by jogger164.

Here's a picture of my new backpack :-) it's ace!

Testing, testing, one, two, three

My new backpack came yesterday :-) very cool indeed. Now I can run with a drink, mobile phone and some cash - also I can pick up the newspaper on my weekend runs.

So this morning I pulled it on and took it for a test run, and I must say jogblog thanks for the heads up - it's great.

I put in 5.5miles - my ankle seems to be behaving at the moment, so fingers crossed the couple of days rest during the week has done the trick :-)

Time for a cuppa...

Preston is a genius.

At work we are not allowed to have a kettle in the studio (health and safety issues). But no one wants to cough up 40p every time the urge for a cup of tea arises, epically when we probably drink around 4 a day. The solution is to go up 2 flights of stairs and get a tray of hot waters from the canteen (as hot water is free) and brew our own back in safety of the agency.

The trouble is many of the tea swiggers are always “too busy” to go and get hot water when it’s their turn. Preston put his mind to this little conundrum once before and started “Tea Club“, which was basically a rota for a weeks worth of water fetching - but this fell flat on it’s face after 2 weeks.

But the boy genius has come up with an awesome new solution…

Celebrity Big Brewer
It’s simple- At the start of each day one person is chosen as the host, they send an e-mail to everyone who wants a cuppa listing the names of all the “Big Brewer” tea club contestants. Once everyone has received said e-mail, all that is left to do is to reply with the person who you want to fetch the hot waters.

:-) simple.

The person who gets chosen to get the teas in is automatically immune for the next round of water fetching and is responsible for sending out the next e-mail.

There’s a few simple rules to Big Brewer.

1 - No discussing nominations, if you get caught doing this you have to get the next tray of water.
2 - The water has to fetched with in 3 minutes of the competition closing.
3 - In the event of a tie, the contestants names are re e-mailed until a winner is chosen.
4 - No fixing - cheats never prosper.
5 - No one contestant is allowed to fetch water more than twice in one day.

If you’ve ever argued about fetching the drinks at work, you may want to play.

PS always remember to only reply to the sender of the e-mail (don’t hit reply all by mistake).

pheewwwwwww!!!

Now that has got to be the hardest run I've had in long time. The weather made it soooooo hard!

Winds of 32mph, rain and temperatures of 9C or 48F.

It was a case of one foot forward two sideways.

I managed to do 4 miles

Weather Update
WOW the winds have apparently been up to 100mph, not just a lame 32mph as I first reported.

Ankle of DOOM!

My bloody ankle has started to play up again :-/ Got back from a 3 miler and it's hurting. So I'm going to take a day or two to rest it up (just noticed I've run 4 days on the trot).

It's my birthday soon and I am planning a run to mark the occasion - 1K for each year of my life, that's going to be 66K ;-) So I need to get my ankle sorted asap.

Not really much to report - It's all been down hill in the thrill stakes after last week’s phantom flasher episode.

It's on Monday again!

Weekend went stupidly fast :-/

Went out for a 4 mile run at lunchtime solo because Preston had not packed her running kit. Someone had found the on switch for the wind machine again and switched it to BLOW!

Not much to report apart from some Chav's buzzing along the river path on motorbikes.

Just a quick question to Sorelimbs... hope your ok, whats up with the blog? it takes you to some Movie Download site?

Lazy Weekend

It's been a rather lazy weekend :-) No trips to the hospital (he goes back in next week), No shopping, No work and not too many chores (they all got put on hold - apart from washing the car).

What we have been doing is playing board games, chilling out and watching some movies (Crank, Nacho Libre, spider-Man 2 and Cars)

Crank was a real good laugh :-) I didn't really want to watch it - my wife likes Jason Statham for some reason ;-) but I'm not convinced his movies are that great (apart from the early stuff). This film was 1.5 hours of mindless entertainment... but be warned, the ending is pants.

Nacho Libre was good as was Spider-Man :-) Cars was ok, but even the little person lost interest half way through.

That's enough of the Barry Norman.

Managed to go for another run this morning :-D 7 miles and avoided the rain again. Got back from that and took the small person down to the pool. She is in the local swimming club/team and has drills 2 nights a week and swims with school once a week, so it was nice to go for a swim with her - what a show off. She has got perfect form, I wished that I had been taught to swim properly at an early age :-/

That's my weekend round up :-) oh one last thing - I ordered a back pack from here after JogBlog made me need one.

Morning

I love my iPod Shuffle :-D A while ago my Mother in Law got herself a iPod nano - meaning that I had to rip all her Cds to MP3 for her. Now when I stick my shuffle in for a random list - boy do I get a random list J I must admit it’s pretty cool having tunes that I wouldn’t normally listen to. Here is what I listened to this morning on my 5 miler :-)

Marilyn Manson - The Nobodies
Billy Joel - Piano Man
The Chemical Brothers - Hey Boy Hey Girl
Depeche Mode - Behind The Wheel
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Teat
Eminem - Hailie’s Song
Jay - Z Lucifer
Black Eyed Peas - What’s Goin’ Down
Marilyn Manson - This Is The New Sh*t
Neil Diamond - Mr. Bojangles
Placebo - 36 Degrees

Lunchtime jog take 2

The office was buzzing as I announced the fact that I was heading out for my lunchtime jaunt around skanksville, even the Prestonator broke his "only run once a week" rule to come out with me. Why? because news of the flasher had spread fast, and they all wanted to know if I would have a repeat showing of the phantom knob jockey...

Sorry, we didn't... just 4 miles of running in to the wind. How comes the wind never seems to be behind you but always pushing you backwards as you struggle up hill.

Stats:

Flashers: none
Miles: 4
Preston’s: 1
Wind: 50mph (well roughly)

Anyone for cock?

After being a lazy git and going for a meal yesterday lunch instead of running I forced myself out the door for quick run today.
Before leaving I was joking around with Preston (because he wasn't coming) saying that I hoped nothing would happen to me, as I was out on my own.

It was horrible weather to be out running in, wet and windy for a change (also cold). Most of my run I had a stitch that I struggled to shift - no amount of deep breathing and stretching could get rid of it. Just when it was wearing off I had reached the stretch down by the river. It is very secluded and a decidedly dodgy area to run, but most time the only hassle you get it teenage glue sniffers shouting abuse. Non of them today - it was too cold for them (probably at home playing Xbox). In the distance I could see a young woman I'd say aged about 20 (a right munter at that) and two 40-50 year old chaps walking towards me. Nothing out of the ordinary there you might say - but my jogger senses were tingling. And boys were they right! As I about 50 metres away they spread out to block my path - and one of the twats got his knob out! LOL! What a loser! Well all three of them were losers - but who flashes these days? (and it was freezing out). He just stood there with it out shouting at me. Go GO gadget legs - and I was off like a shot, I didn't fancy a gang session I felt dirty just seeing his grim member dangling in the wind.

Man that was my oddest run ever and by far the weirdest subject the running has given me to blog about. And Preston missed it all :-P

I can't wait until we go out tomorrow! I'll make sure I pack my camera.

PS I did 4 miles (the middle 2 were the fastest).

I Hate Monday

Preston 2007
Originally uploaded by jogger164.

After hardly any sleep last night the alarm clock went off at “stay in bed” o’clock. Looked out the window to be greeted with a miserable minging morning, grey and wet. Packed my running kit and headed out for work. The drive to work was a bl**dy nightmare - some idiots had managed to create a pile up on the motorway meaning it only took 1.5 hours to get in today (I only live 25miles away).

The weather didn’t improve all morning and the lunchtime run looked like it would be rather moist. I did have a laugh though in the form of Preston, he had only brought a thin long sleeve blouse to wear :-D haha! Kids today. We headed out for a lunchtime run, and put in a brisk 4 miles. It was that kind of cold rain that makes your head hurt but gives you an instant face lift.

On a side note - JogBlog said that she was watching Celebrity Big Brother so I gave it another try… Can I please have an hour of life back. It has to be the worse line-up that they have ever had. One question… Jermaine Jackson, or should I say Muhammad Abdul Aziz - what is going on with his hair?

Got up early this morning...

Trampoline
Originally uploaded by jogger164.

Not to go running but to put this trampoline up :-) the little person has been wanting one for ages. So when we saw this one reduced in the sale (and with the help of present money) we bit the bullet and got her one.

Probably not the best of things to put up in the wind and rain (and with the excited helping fingers of a small person) :-/ but we managed it and it even stopped raining long enough for a maiden bounce.

After we finished I headed out for a run. Man it was HARD! the antibiotics seem to work like kryptonite - I'm exhausted. The run hurt from beginning to end - managed a 7 miler.

Now I've got to get on with a list of chores as long as my arm :-P

HEHE!...

Im off work today :-) No running though just some Ice skating action later with the small person.

Mindspill

I've uploaded a few more sketches over at my other blog Mindspill - have look if you like doodles :-)

Guest post via Preston

A Jogging Haiku

By Zen Master Preston

Jogging hurt my feet
I think my toes are bleeding
I need to lie down

Ancient Japanese proverb say:

‘Man who runs in shorts, must live with frozen balls.’

PS - we ran 3.5 miles in the wet and wind

I'm not an aminal, I'm a human being.

I woke up yesterday with a huge lump on my neck...ekk! I couldn't get to see the Dr so the nurse spoke to me over the phone and gave me some antibiotics - I think it's an in growing hair but I look like John Merrick today... hopefully it will go away soon.

The penicillin is making me feel rubbish :-(

Dragged myself out at lunchtime for a run, man is it windy! I ran 3.4 miles and then gave up.

RobinHood...

Good news - You can now pre register for the 2007 Robin Hood half and Full marathon. I'll be doing it, JogBlog says she's going to - the more the merrier :-D

PS - It's time to say good-bye to the snowflakes - hopefully we will get some real snow.

Nice Ink!

Tattoo
Originally uploaded by jogger164.

After watching 2 episodes of Miami Ink the small person has changed career paths... No more wanting to be a pop star vet it's all about tattoos now :-)

Hence the lovely one that I'm now sporting in biro - Everyone at work loves it... even the 2500+ people I don't know here, as I had to walk through the main building after changing for my run.

Speaking of lunch time running - I had to run naked this lunchtime :-/ Well when I say naked, I mean with no iPod on... I busted my headphones...ARGH!! I hate runnnning without any music.

Happy New Year take 2

I uploaded this yesterday to YouTube but was only allowed to link to it today :-(

So a day late - Happy New-year :-)