Two good days at work in a row !

Today was our Christmas canteen lunch. In respect of the GFC it was a slightly reduced scale than usual, that is a barbeque style lunch rather than the full Christmas lunch thing – and the management team (yours truly included) was recruited to serve everyone. In my opinion it was actually much more enjoyable, and nicer food than previous years – so a real success – hope we continue this way in future years. It is also the day when a lot of retirees come back for lunch, so really nice to see a few old faces too. I was a bit naughty in that I kept partaking of the many boxes of chocolates that were at various places in the office!

I took Kate to the shops after work to do a little Christmas shopping – this was her first real outing out of the house since her operation (other than the surgeon) and I think she was glad to get out.

Just a one hour home workout tonight – but it was a nice hard, sweaty one!

A good day at work …

A good day at work today, largely due to a nice team lunch (although we did wait for an hour for our meals, and even then they didn’t come out together), and a visit from, and great chat with my old boss who retired last year. It was great to see Neil again, he really was such a good friend to me over all of the 30 years I’ve worked and I really do miss being able to talk to him every day.

My brother went down to Geelong today. Dad was doing okay, but still no news on his diagnosis or any idea how long he’ll be in hospital. We’re hoping they’ll let us take him out for the day on Christmas Day if he is still in there then.

Another good 26km on the bike tonight, a different route to last night, going down to Strathmore and back.

I finalised my 2010 goals today, adding one more “To cycle 5,000km in 2010″ – this will require me to add about 800km to what I’ve done in 2009.

Some good news …

At last, some good news, in the form of Kate’s first surgeon’s check-up for her knee reconstruction. He was pleased with how everything was progressing, told Kate to ditch the splint (about which she was very happy) and told her she could get up and walk around a lot more with or without the crutches. A physio appointment on Thursday will be the start of the rehabilitation program proper.

A 26km ride on the bike before dinner tonight, just loops around the local streets, average speed 26.6 km/hr.

Psychiatric ward …

Started off the day with a great bike ride with Herb, from our place in Greenvale to Puckle St, Moonee Ponds for a coffee and return. Just under 45km.

Then Chris and I went down to Geelong to see Dad. He has been moved into the Swanston Centre, the psychiatric section of Geelong Hospital. It is a lot nicer place, but still a very depressing place. Dad was reasonable today, but still no real diagnosis or plan of attack as far as I can tell.

I’ve modified my 2010 goals after Jo and Canute’s comments and have replaced the marathon goal with “to get back into some longer runs” and to do Run For The Kids and a Half Marathon. After successfully completing those, we’ll see about the marathon.

8 week losing streak …

At weigh-in this morning I again recorded another very small loss, only 100g, down to 71.5kg, taking the losing streak to 8 weeks. Given that the next weekly weigh-in is Boxing Day, and my calf is going to restrict my running, I’m confident the streak won’t get to nine weeks.

A shopping trip to the Victoria Market started the day, then the next errand was a trip down to South Melbourne to pick up my Amy’s Ride kit. I like the jersey. For those that don’t know, the Amy Gillett Foundation was formed “to reduce the incidence of death and injury caused by the interaction between cyclists and motorists”, and the slogan on the jersey is “A metre matters”, that is asking drivers to give cyclists at least a metre of space when they pass them. Also, Continental are obviously the jersey sponsor and their Gatorskins are the tyres I have on my bike and they’re great!

I tried to get a bit of preparation done on the last stretch of eaves I have to paint this afternoon but it was just too windy. Not only did it feel a little bit unsafe up the ladder, but all the flaking paint I was removing was flying everywhere including in my eyes, all over our cars and all over next doors driveway. Consequently this didn’t get finished.

An easy-medium ride (24 km/hr) after tea, the Greenvale-Strathmore-Greenvale loop, just under 25km. Fortunately riding doesn’t seem to aggravate the calf any.

Bloody calf muscle …

Damn it, I seem to have done my right calf muscle again on my run tonight. My planned 8km run turned into a 6km run at 5:10 min/km pace, followed by a 2km walk home.

It feels very similar to the last time I did it (early November) which necessitated a week or so off running. I think I might rest it completely tomorrow and spend some more time on the bike next week.

Happy Birthday Chris!

Today is Chris’s 23rd birthday, and a day to celebrate the fact that your son is grown into a beautiful young man!

Last night we had a family birthday tea for Chris with his girlfriend Carly and her family. It was a good night, the only one who was a little bit unhappy was Jackie because Carly brought her new Border Collie puppy Lily. Lily is a beautiful little thing who just wanted to play, but I think Jackie felt her territory was being threatened and wasn’t best pleased! I did overeat a bit I have to admit as there were two desserts as well as pattie cakes and a chocolate birthday cake!

Back at work today, welcomed by over 300 emails, still quite a few unread due to a long team lunch (and another one tomorrow as I have two teams reporting to me and in order not to show favouritism I need to go to both lunches don’t I).

Traffic was absolute crap again tonight, 45 minutes to drive the 10km home – tonight though I wasn’t wishing I was on my bike due to the rather inclement weather.

Dad’s taken a slight turn for the worse today, I’m thinking he won’t be home for Christmas

A one hour home workout tonight – really felt like a run, but thought better of it – in my current slightly run-down state I’d probably end up catching cold if I went running in the rain.

A great sub-5 run

Like Monday, even though I had a day off today, I headed into work early for my usual run with Deb. It was warm already (about 23-24 celcius I think). We’d decided to try and go a bit harder today, and it was obvious straight away that we were, as there was a lot more heavy breathing and a lot less chit-chat.

We completed the hilly 8km (just over) circuit in just over 40 minutes, averaging 4:58 min/km, the first time we’ve ever gone sub-5 on that circuit. This was over three and a half minutes faster than Mondays run over the same circuit. We were both quietly pleased with ourselves I think.

Then I raced home and had a shower and drove down to Geelong, the plan being to get mum in to see dad and home again before it got too hot. Dad was okay, not quite himself still, and still no clue as to the underlying cause. It appears he will be in hospital for a few more days yet.

Back home in time to get lunch for Kate and look after her as Adrienne was going out for lunch.

Another day off …

Kate is doing okay with her knee, still in the rest and relax (with certain exercises) mode, first surgeon follow-up appointment next week. I’ve been pleasantly surprised with how well she’s managing the pain of the knee reconstruction. Dad, unfortunately has seemed to go backwards a little bit today, and still no news on the cause of his condition.

A 26.5km ride tonight after tea.

Jo and Canute, thanks so much for your thoughts on my goal to run another marathon. Jo, I appreciate your openness, especially as I know you are saying it for my own good. The same thoughts you made have been going around in my head too, and I’m not going to risk my long term future for this one goal. My plan is very much like Canute suggests; it is to start in the new year and build up to try and run a decent RunForTheKids in March (with you Jo), then if that goes okay build up to maybe a half marathon in June (maybe RunMelbourne), and if that goes okay try for the marathon at Melbourne Marathon in October.

My current worry though is the lack of long rides with Amy’s Ride (120km) approaching very fast (Jan 3rd).

A day off …

First of my three days off this week. Although it was a day off, I still went in to work first thing to go for my run with Deb. It is so much better running with someone I reckon, I think if I hadn’t been meeting Deb, I probably would have just slept in. We did our usual 8km hilly loop at 5:28 min/km.

Then it was home to look after Kate while Adrienne went to a few appointments. This proved pretty easy as Kate decided to sleep in pretty late so I took the opportunity to do a home workout. This has proved difficult the last few days as my usual “work out room” has been taken over by Kate since she’s come home from hospital.

I did a few jobs, and even managed to fit in a bit of painting until tea time. After tea I went for a quick 23km ride on the bike which was very enjoyable.