Upping the running

Been busy trying to increase the amount of running I've been doing and have moved to four days a week with two days playing football.  Feel tired at night after the third run but I am experiencing massive upsurges in motivation.  Lots of energy to focus on small projects I have been putting off for ages and tackling a mountain of paperwork.

Been using the endomondo app for my HTC wildfire S to track my runs and although the endomondo system is excellent the phone seems to lose my running track around half way around the route which is frustrating.

Reading has been put off for now and have some overdue library books to take back (another small job). All the reading means I have been going to bed exhausted so as soon as my head hits the pillow I'm asleep.  I also guess that A passage to India hasn't gripped me yet.

Been working on some more WCF applications at work and learning all about SQL server, stored procedures and all kinds of WinForms technology.  Really impressed so far and things are fairly quick to develop. Its my first venture into managed code after years of C++.  Working on some interesting designs for a generic rules engine.  Going OK at the moment and the design seems scalable but will be soon adding some complex rules to test the design is robust.

Rain interupts play

Not been very active since the rain has arrived. Managed to go out for a quick game of Footy at lunch but didn't push it too hard.

Been getting into wcf all day and wrestling with delegation and impersonation

Reading break

Struggling to keep interest in my current book. I've been so tired at night due to all the running that its a real struggle to keep.my eyes open when I get into bed.

Completed 4 mile run today and really went for it. 35.58 was better than yesterday but still no where near sub 8 min mile Target. Getting fitter everyday and set a Target of losing 11 pounds to reach an ideal bmi. Football tomorrow.

Being the best man

Yesterday I was best man at my best friends wedding so I've been busy all week writing and practicing my speech. I think that I was more nervous about being best man than I was about being the groom! The speech went well and got a few laughs which was good considering my friend did not give me much ammunition. It was a great day and everyone had a great day.

Started tracking my runs using the endomondo app for Android. It's a great app and records and publishes all my running giving breakdowns and analysis on each run. Went out Thursday for a four mile run and played football Friday. A bit hungover and tired today so will rest and then hit four miles on Monday to clear a few cobwebs!

Adventures in Smart world

Picked up my first smart phone yesterday and can't believe I waited this long.  I'm not a prolific phone user and rarely use my phone for calls and texts so have always maintained that a key feature for any of my phones is battery life as I keep forgetting to charge it.  I have been really impressed by the HTC Wildfire S as there seems to be almost limitless potential as the app store is enormous.  I have the SDK so might start taking a look at porting some simple AI apps to test it out.  So far I have downloaded apps for facebook, blogger, endomondo, evernote and a few of the other top rated apps. 

It looks great and runs everything really well.  I like the integration with google and facebook so all my contacts are now linked.  The only downside I've found so far is the battery life which was almost empty after I had played with it for about two hours last night.  The trade off is that it comes with a USB charger as well as mains so I can just plug in to my computer whilst at work. 

Completed a 4.4mile run yesterday at lunch so will be taking a rest today as the legs and knees are aching a bit.  Next time I'll be able to take the phone to track the runs!

Another busy weekend

Had a really busy weekend cleaning the house and for some reason was in a "doing mood" so everything got the treatment.  The first to get tackled was the "Man Drawer" containing all sorts of crap that needed to be sorted. Found about £5 in loose change and load of other stuff I had lost long ago.   After the man drawer I was in one so finished most of the downstairs.

Managed to go out Sunday morning for a walk and collected another Geo cache.  Also finished a 6.5m run in the evening which went quite well.  No aches and pains just a bit tired after the weekend.  I'm going out tomorrow at lunch for 4.4m so will see how the legs recover tonight.

My new phone arrives tomorrow so now I should be able to blog from my phone.  My first adventure into smart phones is with the HTC wildfire S.  I have the android SDK so when I get some time I may have a play with that.

Need to finish a best man speech tomorrow so will be busy with that tomorrow evening.

Hot run

Completed a 4.3m run during the hottest part of the day today and I reckon it must have been about 25c without the wind.  It was pretty tough going but I have felt a lot of fitter lately and apart from sweat blinding me I completed it fairly easily.  Looking to complete another 7m run at the weekend but hopefully if the weather holds we'll get to the beach at some point over the weekend.


Getting through "A passage to India" and enjoying the beautiful writing style of E M Forster.  I sometimes struggle with older texts because of the language but this has been fairly good so far.

Also have to write a best mans speech this weekend for next week so will be getting my head down for that.

39 Steps to fitness through football

I completed the 39 steps last night and found out today that the central character Richard Hannay appears in another five novels by Buchan.  I found that the story was really good and reading up on the history of the book it seems to have been used as a sort of blue print for a number of "Hunted man on the run" books and films.  I've started reading E.M.Forsters "A passage to India" and after reading a few novels on India I am really looking forward to it.  Books like White Tiger by Aravind Adiga and Midnights Children by Salman Rushdie really make me want to visit India but I don't think I would be able to convince my wife.

Played football at work for the first time today on the old style AstroTurf that will remove half of your skin if you fall over.  The ball seems to be like a balloon on the surface so control has to be spot on.  I much prefer the third generation  grass with the rubber pellets as it dampens the bounce of the ball and also is much better if you fall over.

Looking forward to watching the advertising task on the apprentice later tonight.