I’ve been really good with the running – at least twice a week since I moved apart from that time when I was really creamed in the knee department.

I’ve supplemented my running with swimming to improve my CV capacity, and I’m now up to 1000m crawl in half an hour three times a week. This might be pish if you’re Duncan Goodhew but I’m quite pleased with that for about 5 weeks’ training.

I bought funky new shoes and a bra that fits and stops my (ample) boobs jiggling.

Can someone out there please tell me why I’m still struggling with the running? Surely I should be able to do my regular short route fairly easily by now. Surely I should at least be able to get all the way around without having to stop or slow down even for the tiny bit up the steps from the beach; and make it to the end without collapsing into a quivering, panting heap.

For me that 2.6 mile run is still harder than 1000m swimming or the 17 mile sprint circuit on the bike I try to fit in during the rest of the week. I come out of the pool and I could go the same distance again if I had the time, probably at the same pace. I get off the bike and heart rate is back to normal inside 5 minutes. I get back from the run and I have to lie on the floor and drip for 3 minutes before I can think about stretching.

I must be doing something wrong, surely.

I could justify the purchase of one of these. It’s not the cost — it’s that feeling of being over-equipped. Like when I bought the Pinarello. I had some instances of thinking I didn’t deserve to own a bike like that because it’s not as if I race or TT or anything like that. Wouldn’t part with it though: it puts a grin on my face the size of Manhattan.

I just like the look of those suits. Maybe it’s the whole wobbly thighs thing (I don’t like the upper portions of my legs and can’t get over the idea that I have a fat arse). Plus it’s graphite and silver and just well cool.

Is it okay to spend 50 nauseous arthropods on a posh suit just cos it looks funky?

Just making a note of this route from the Bridge to Market St — looks like Frood and I are going to have to ride over from Inverkeithing. So we may have done 26 miles just getting to the start (we have to ride to Kirkcaldy to get the train). Then another 15 – 20 on the way home, depending on the route we take.

Hmmmm. This 67 mile ride is turning out to be quite a lot longer.

I have a new pet hate.

I have a long list of things I find irritating. I have a much shorter list of things I dislike intensely — my hate list.

I am not one of those eternal white-light do-gooders who proclaim hate as a negative emotion that stifles and chokes and leads only to badness and evil, all the while weaving daisy chains through their hair and singing to the crystal dolphins from the Pleiades. I’m with Honda on this.

Hate somethin’. Change somethin’. Hate somethin’ change somethin’ hate somethin’ bett-eeeer.

Cue whistling.

Things I hate include inconsiderate motorists. This led to a rant that was passed around several petrolhead fora and was reasonably well received, given the audience. It also led to me becoming an activist with the CTC.

Hate is just fine as long as it provokes purpose. It’s the hate we allow to fester and spoil that should be avoided.

So anyway. Today I learned a new pet hate. Today I learned to hate:

People who wear strong perfume into the swimming pool.

I like scent, don’t get me wrong. I bought two of Chris Brosius‘s perfumes in the end. But they are subtle as well as distinctive. You won’t smell them unless you get right up close. Plus I have a shower before going into the pool.

Whoever had drenched herself in Poison to the point where it formed a film on top of the water in the shallow end should be locked inside a box with a smashed bottle of the concentrated parfum and made to run on a treadmill for three hours. See how she likes it.

Needless to say I was very vociferous in my complaining to the staff, while making it absolutely clear that it wasn’t their fault. If I could identify the woman reponsible, which was impossible after it had come off and was coating everything like the red weed, I’d have had a go at her in person.

Had to look up the website of the Carmelite Nuns of Dysart for a work-related thing (no really). There’s a nice quote on their photos page regarding St Teresa of Avila:

This is a statue of the foundress of the Discalced Carmelite Nuns and Friars. Her spiritual teaching is followed by many people all over the world. She defined prayer as :

“A loving conversation with a friend who understands us.”

I quite like that definition.

Snaffled from Sciolist. You see, I’m a well-adjusted sociopath.

You Are 80% Sociopath

The good news is that you’re devastatingly charming. The bad news? You mostly use those charms for evil!

Not sure about the five values. That strikes me as being so much popcorn. After all, my ego is so huge it could blot out the sun. I’ve been told this by a reliable source and I can’t disagree. Not without snickering behind my hand as I do so, anyway.

Your Values Profile

Loyalty: You don’t really value loyalty. In your opinion, friendship should be earned. If you don’t agree with someone, it doesn’t matter how close you are. You’ll let them (and everyone else know) exactly what you think. Honesty: You value honesty a fair amount. You’re honest when you can be, but you aren’t a stickler for it. If a little white lie will make a situation more comfortable, you’ll go for it. In the end, you mostly care about “situational integrity.” Generosity: You value generosity a fair amount. You are all about giving, as long as there’s some give and take. Supportive and kind, you don’t mind helping out a friend in need. But you know when you’ve given too much. You have no problem saying “no”! Humility: You value humility a fair amount. You tend to be an easy going, humble person. But occasionally your ego takes over. You have a slight competitive streak – and the need to be the best. Tolerance: You value tolerance highly. Not only do you enjoy the company of those very different from you… You do all that you can to seek it out interesting and unique friends. You think there are many truths in life, and you’re open to many of them.

Nicholas Cage as Ghost Rider? That could work. That could just work.

Volume VIII Episode 9 is now under way. it’ll take me a while to complete this one as I’m rushed off my feet.

We need to make a decision, really. It can go two ways after the end of this Volume: either I carry on and make a concerted effort to do at least one a month, which I’ll do if I think I have a continuing audience, although I’ll have to cut the cast list down and change the rules slightly for reasons I shall explain presently; or we call this the last one. The League has suffered from falling attendance recently, with a scant few loyal regulars sticking it out with the kernel of those who made the migration in the first place. It’s a bit of a shame, really, but there you go. It makes it very difficult to keep up and therefore work out the plot.

While I can just about keep up to date with Cycling Plus, the rather oppressive dictatorship of Asteroid M puts me off going over there even if I didn’t think I’d be arrested for potential incitement just by crossing the border, especially after being told about this.

A bad pun, I know. We’ve I’ve decided to organise the Scottish Dun Run for around summer Solstice next year (2007) as this gives plenty of time to get things sorted. If you check the thread over at the Clubhouse you’ll see a potential route I just hashed together using my big Phillips Road atlas. According to the the AA routeplanner it should be around 110 miles, and we should avoid any major hills by following the Enrick Water valley between the Fintry Hills and Campsie Fells.

As the Forth Bridge services are 24 hours (I think!) that solves the problem of where to stop. I’ll check that though. There’s a big Tescos at South Queensferry I think is 24 hours.

What I’m really looking forward to is crossing the Forth Road Bridge in the very early morning. If it’s quiet we could even go on the road, although for once the cycle path has an advantage — the views are better. How cool would that be?

Not sure about where we could go for breakfast in St Andrews, but if we leave it until June next year than that gives me plenty of time to try to persuade the Aquarium to open early so we can poke the seals.

While I appreciate that the desperate urges of the vast seething biomass to keep up with the world’s most important event of the decade — the World Cup — has meant an overload on the company servers; and that the various IT monkeys have a system to maintain; and that people with business needs might well be narked if they can’t get onto the internet because of all the football-obsessives trying to keep up with every twitch of every blade of grass on every pitch: is it really necessary to block every single vaguely sports-related site?

I just wanted to look at a Mavic Ellipse lockring. Just out of interest. AlexB supplied the link. But I can’t go there because it’s blocked as part of my employer’s response to World Cup fever.

Another good reason to hate fupball. Chiz chiz.