I organised a track day for the club. Unfortunately, even for what as been a pretty miserable winter, the weather was miserable. My Stolen Goat jacket promised it was “practically waterproof” and really needed to be heavy rain to get through the untaped seems. But I had massage wet patches on my shoulders by the time I got home. Thanks Ally for for turning up!
After 11 years at the Detriot Lions, Matthew Stafford moves to Los Angeles and wins a Super Bowl. Here’s a meme about it:
The Grim Leodis is a It’s Grim Up North event with both a marathon and half marathon distance. As I am now allowed to run on my ankle yet I set out to walk the half.
It turns out walking is hard. I managed to maintain a pace of close to 8:00 per kilometre and, despite starting at the back, overtook six people. But because the muscles used for walking are different to that of running I was pretty sore on the Sunday! I managed to complete the course in:
2:53:24
It’s a nice route. The first six kilometres are towpath but it then switches onto trail all the way up to Apperley Bridge and then comes back along the Leeds Country Way before rejoining the canal.
Congratulations to Indi who took the prize for Hyde Park Harriers as first lady.
Leeds Anxiety Clinic has launched its YouTube channel! Join us over on YouTube to learn more about anxiety and OCD.
I haven’t blogged all month which leads to the idea that nothing has happened in my life. This is partially true. I’ve been working and parenting and those things between them take a lot of time. But lots of exciting things are in progress, too:
I’ve taken my Bookkeeping Controls and Elements of Costings exams. A mere 95% on the BKCL but costing may be more in my future as I finally achieved a perfect score.
I’ve completed the first draft of my new book Triathlon For Beginners which will be out later this year.
I have been rehabbing my broken ankle. The boot came off in the middle of January and I can start running again in February.
I am doing some training with British Triathlon to progress to level 2 certification. That will be completed around March all things being well.
So, it’s been a fairly busy month, even if there has been very little to report.
We started the year in the depths of the pandemic and saw out the new year and welcomed in January with a Zoom-based NYE party. I accidentally set a marathon PB of 3:55:33 when I realised three hours in that I was ahead of my previous PB pace. The vaccination programme build some momentum as my gran received her first jab. I completed my IRONMAN Coach certification and restorative yoga certification. The Humanist Chaplaincy Network launched its new Level 1 qualification.
I tried trail running in February and finally finished my 3,670 km cycle along Route 66. I launched my person-centred counselling course. Tom Brady won his 7th Super Bowl, giving him more titles than any other team, let alone any other player.
It was a work-heavy month in March as I launched two new courses. The first being Metacognitive Therapy and the second being Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy. I also published my Running For Beginners book.
We got back to racing in April with the Yorkshire Duathlon (41:41 10k you say?!?) and the Wuthering Heights Wander trail race. I also completed some virtual challenges: running the Cabot Trail and cycling Iceland’s Ring Road. I also launched my Cognitive Behavioural Therapy course which is now one of my biggest sellers.
The start of May was a blur as I finished the 7in7 challenge (7 triathlons in 7 days). May also saw my first TT race and the first triathlon of the year in Tadcaster (fastest HPH run split you say?). I completed the English Channel virtual swim and Bogdan and I took on the Daffodils sportive. I finished the month by completing my third iron-distance race at the Evolve Truo. We partied for Eurovision and I launched my couples counselling course.
June was filled with sport, too. Jay and I took on the Evolve Sprint and we gathered as a club for World Triathlon Leeds which took place entirely in Roundhay Park. My mum, dad and sister also raced! I finished my level 3 in counselling and launched my life coaching course.
Venla “graduated” from daycare in July. I ran my first mile race at the Summer Mile, took on the White Rose Classic, completed my first adventure race and learnt to stand-up paddleboard. parkrun returned! I took 1:45 off my full distance triathlon time at Outlaw and launched my acceptance and commitment course. England reached the final of Euro 2020.
The long-awaited Tokyo Olympics took place in August and Team GB took the first ever mixed-team relay triathlon gold. Harriers also took five teams to the Evolve mixed team relay. But far more importantly, Katie & Simon’s long-awaited wedding took place, too! Toby organised the club’s first backyard ultra, I did the Evolve quarter and my third full distance triathlon in the year at Dalesman. I wasn’t the only one sporting: Venla completed her first junior parkrun. Chevin parkrun launched. The annual Finnish picnic returned and I launched my DBT course.
We took a family trip to Stonehenge in September so that I could take in another adventure race. Venla started school. I completed a few more virtual challenges including running the Camino de Santiago and swimming Mount Fuji. There was some canoeing at Leeds Dock and we broke the world record for most people doing a 5k in 24 hours. We raced at Ilkey Triathlon and Outlaw X where I went sub-6 at middle distance. I completed my longest ever swim (9k) at The Amphibian and launched my cognitive psychology course.
After an eighteen month wait I completed my 250th parkrun in October and finished cycling the Appalachian Trail virtual challenge. It was a family affair at Goole Triathlon and I completed my Leadership in Running Fitness with British Athletics. We celebrated Venla’s birthday at Yorkshire Wildlife Park and Dobbo’s stag do at Magic Rock. I teamed up with my friends Peter and Tracey to launch our interview skills course.
My dad was hot on my heels in November, completing his 250th parkrun. Luckily my new sub-20 PB should help me stay ahead. I also set a PB at the Hubble Bubble half marathon where I came third. We went climbing, F1 legend Frank Williams passed away and we launched our conducting interviews course. I completed my level 1 with Swim England.
Finally, in December, I saw The Offspring live at The Wardrobe. I came second at the Christmas Cracker 16k. That was it for running as I then fractured my ankle. I launched my Solution-Focused Brief Therapy.We wrapped up 2021 by celebrating with family and friends.
Apple Time Machine is the built-in backup system for macOS. The problem is that it’s not very good. Having used it for ten years, it consistently fails to verify its own backups. So, the idea that you have this rich history of incremental backups is often not true as it fails and has to start again.
It also takes up a ridiculous amount of disk space. Given that Apple only ship their Macs with 512 GB of SSD, taking up most of that to run a backup is not ideal.
Maybe it could use a different disk. But then it goes confused about how much storage is available. It thinks there is less than 100 GB available:
But I actually had 4 TB available:
I hope Apple sort all of this out at some stage.
Despite the tragic end to my running this month, 2021 has been kind to me. I’ve smashed all of my PBs and I don’t think I could really ask for anything more.
1 mile: 5:38 at the Summer Mile. I’ve never done a one-mile race before so it was a guaranteed PB.
5k: 19:38 at Woodhouse Moor parkrun. With parkrun closed for so long it was bound to happen when it restarted, and it did in August before achieving the dream of a sub-2 in November.
10k: 41:41 at the Yorkshire Duathlon. Not sure how accurate they measure in multisport but I’m taking it.
10 mile: 1:10:31 at the Christmas Cracker. It was a trail run (on the towpath) so again, might not be 100% accurate. And I haven’t run a 10-mile in four years so this was inevitable. But coming second was awesome.
Half marathon: 1:35:36 at Hubble Bubble. Another Grim Up North towpath run. I came third at this one.
Marathon: 3:55:33 at a self-supported replacement for the Sir Titus Trot. This was an accidental PB as I was chilling out and taking selfies early on (with the timer running) and only realised at 30k I was on a PB pace.
Sprint: 1:04:20 at Tadcaster Triathlon. What is a PB given the courses are so different? For example, Tadcaster uses a 14k bike course. But I did take the fastest run split for the club, so I was very happy with that. I also PBed on the Evolve sprint course.
Standard: 2:42:52 at World Triathlon Leeds. That swim is coming along nicely. I also PBed at the Evolve quarter course.
Middle: 5:46:47 at Outlaw X. Very pleased to get a sub-6. In fact, it had been so long since I Had run a half marathon (this was pre-Hubble Bubble) that I set a half marathon PB at the race as well.
Full: 12:50:05 at Outlaw. It’s difficult to compare full distance courses but the closest is probably my first, the Yorkshireman, which I beat by 1:45:07.
