Doctors and phone books
I spent two hours today delivering phone books. It’s the major fundraiser for Suttontown Primary School that families deliver the local phone book for Sensis.
Our designated area included parts of the central business district, which Juliet had to do by herself in warm weather on working days.
The big kids disappointingly didn’t want to help us. Teenagers! (more…)
Two-week diet
I don’t normally go on diets. If my weight climbs it is because I’m not exercising enough. That’s true at the moment, and I will do something about it, but to get started I’m going to diet for two weeks.
Nothing complicated. I will restrict myself to cereal, seafood, soup, fruit and vegetables for 14 days. I aim to lose 10 pounds.
The reason for writing it here is that I will be accountable to myself.
Beaten in the fun run
I wrote a few weeks ago that Michael Jnr, aged 11, was starting to get the better of me, aged 40, in sporting events.
In the earlier article I described how Michael beat me over 25 metres in the pool and I bravely stated that “I would expect to hold the upper hand in athletic and cycling events for the time being”.
Well, today that theory came unstuck when he finished ahead of me in the GMF Health Fun Run. Results haven’t been posted yet, but Michael thinks he covered the 4km distance in about 18 minutes and I’m tipping 21 minutes for myself.
Last year I came sixth in the event with a time of about 19:30. There were a lot more competitors this year and I’m not as fit.
Young Michael had never run over that distance before (school cross countries are 2km for him at the moment) and had plenty of energy to spare at the finish. Next year he should complete the event in about 16 minutes, is my guess.
First fun run
I ran a fun run today for the first time. The words “fun” and “run” are really contradictory, especially in an organised context, however I did enjoy the overall experience.
I ran 4km in the GMF Health event. The 10km event seemed a little intimidating given my current fitness and the warmth of the weather.
I still don’t know my time, but I feel that I pushed myself more than the speed for my 5km morning runs several times a week. I was tending to cramp after the event.
Feeling sore
I went to hockey training last night and felt pretty sore afterwards. I’m reasonably fit at the moment, but sprints and sudden turns haven’t been part of my exercise regime for a long time.
I last played hockey about 16 years ago on grass as a goalie, so fitness wasn’t critical. I decided to have a run in the field this year for general fitness and Kalgoorlie is fortunate to have a synthetic pitch, which is much faster than grass.
My skills are pretty ordinary compared with the mostly younger blokes in the team and I doubt I’ll last a full 70 minutes when the season starts, but running around for a half or so should be good fun.
New bicycle
I bought a new bike today. I’m not exactly flush with cash, so it’s something of a luxury, but my old bike is just about ready for the scrapheap.
The retired model is an old Repco, which Juliet bought secondhand several years ago when she thought I should work on my fitness.
It took me a couple more years before I embraced that challenge and I’ve worked the bike pretty hard since. (more…)
Buffalo bike ride
I had some time off today and went up Mount Buffalo. I drove to the park office and cycled from there to The Horn carpark. It was nine kilometres mostly uphill. I actually walked much of the last three kilometres on soft gravel.
I’m not very accomplished at uphill riding and it’s a reminder that my fitness is limited. Still, it was good exercise. From the carpark I walked up to the summit and enjoyed the view.
The temperature was two or three degrees, but it didn’t feel cold as there wasn’t much wind. There was snow above 1500 metres. The ride back down was exhilarating.
