Chris Worfolk's Blog

Back to the grind today. Development psychology and statistics were on the schedule. I have finally polished off two of the books I have to read, thus reducing my stack to about eight.

Meanwhile, in terms of progress…

Mindfulness for Social Anxiety is now live and available to buy on Udemy! I’ve scheduled an email to go out to my list tomorrow inviting them to join the course.

I’ve finished the first round of editing on my book and done a full spellcheck, too. It’s now been passed to my editing team (Elina) for further review.

And I’ve finished the HTML version of the personalised reports for Worfolk Anxiety. Next up, adding PDF capability.

Today has been a write-off. Venla is not too well, so I had to take her to the doctors. Except that the earliest appointment was 11 am. So, I was stuck with her all morning. And then the doctor was half an hour late.

Still, my degree’s loss is my book’s gain: while I couldn’t study because there was a noisy baby in the room at all times, I was at least able to organise some of the photos for my new book. Most of these are done now.

I also hit the button on Mindfulness for Social Anxiety and sent it for review. I have drafted the announcement email to my mailing list, too, so that is ready to go when the course has been approved.

At 0-9 this year, some would say that things are looking pretty bad for the San Francisco 49ers.

But all hope is not lost. Indeed, there is still a chance we can make the playoffs. Here is how:

1. The 49ers win all of their remaining games, taking them to 7-9. Not a likely result for playoffs, but possible. I think it was always Kyle Shanahan’s plan to build dramatic tension before going on a winning streak, anyway.
2. The LA Rams, currently at 6-3, go on to lose all of their remaining games. This takes them to 6-10.
3. The Seattle Seahawks, currently at 5-3, go on to lose all of their remaining games except for one (they have to beat the Rams). That takes them to 6-10, too.
4. The Arizona Cardinals, currently 4-4, go on to lose all of their remaining games except for two (they have to beat the Rams and the Seahawks), which also takes them to 6-10.

Thus the division ends with San Francisco on top with 7-9, and everyone else below at 6-10.

It’s a fair bit to ask, I’ll admit. First, we need to win all seven games. Then there are another 16 games were not involved in that need to go exactly our way. Which is every other game that everyone else in the division is involved in with no margin for error.

Today was all about my biopsychology exam. It went reasonably well in that I think other people were panicking more than I was afterwards. Between that and another full day of lectures, there hasn’t been a great deal of spare time.

Everything is still making progress, though.

I’ve edited together the trailer for Mindfulness for Social Anxiety and selected the course image.

I’ve started editing my new book and put together a list of photos I need to find and include.

And I’ve done some of the prep work required to add the personalised reports to Worfolk Anxiety.

Do you see that slight reddening on my nose and cheeks? That’s sunburn. November sunburn.

Admittedly, it’s very slight. But I still think it’s impressive that I managed to get sunburnt in November. Though, I am the person who was off work with acute sunburn after returning from Iceland.

It’s thanks to the Abbey Dash being both freezing and sunny.

I was in teaching all of today (9am until 6pm). That went pretty well in itself. The statistics lab session was the hardest yet, looking at factorial ANOVAs, and I only just got it completed in the two hours. But apparently, most people only got 40% of the way through, suggesting I am at least beating the curve.

Also, busy revising for tomorrow’s biopsychology exam. I had Elina test me and that went pretty well, but her questions were restricted to the topics I had written neatly enough to be legible so there could be sampling issues.

So, with those excuses about why I haven’t done anything, here is what I have done:

My new guest post has been published. Unfortunately, they have a network of sites and they decided to publish it on a different one to the one I wanted. I already have a guest post on the other site, so the whole thing has been a complete waste of time. Shame, but life goes on.

I’ve made great process with my new book. I finished all three remaining chapters. Next, I need to go through and add some pictures and then it can move into the editing phase.

I’ve also been looking at adding personalised reports to Worfolk Anxiety. This has been hanging around for a while and I’ve been procrastinating on it. The reason is that there wasn’t a clear set of steps. If in doubt, break it down. So, I have done. And I now have a list of small steps to get it done. I’ve made a start on step one: create a HTML version of the report. Once this is done, I can look at PDF conversion and delivering it to users.

Finally, I’ve written the sales copy for my new course. I’ve also had a meeting with my marketing advisor (Elina) to discuss imagery.

I carry around two bike locks so that I can secure my frame and both of my wheels. But how are you supposed to defend your handlebars or your saddle?

Today, I’m busy revising for my biopsychology exam. Which is a pretty good excuse. But unnecessary, as it has been quite a productive day elsewhere, too.

I’ve finished writing my new guest post on mental health for parents. I’ve also edited it and submitted it for publication.

I finished one of the chapters of my new book. Just three more to go now, for the writing stage anyway.

I’ve uploaded most of the course materials for my new course. I’ve created most of the structure, too, so the only things that remain are the sales copy and promotional images and videos. Once that’s done, I can start scheduling it for launch.

November means the Abbey Dash. Last year I set my personal best over 10k, 56:45, which bested my previous PB of the awesome time of 59:59 set at the Leeds 10k.

This year I had a support time, as Elina and Venla came down to the starting pen. Much welcomed given how cold it was as I could keep my hoodie on until the final 10 minutes before the race.

This year seemed bigger than ever. The announcer said 11,000, though whether that many actually showed up I’m not sure.

My target time was 54 minutes, nearly three minutes ahead of my personal best. It was carefully calculated from the Run Less, Run Faster conversation tables which told me that if I could run a 54-minute 10k, I could do a sub-2 hour half marathon.

However, training has been going really well recently, including taking my Parkrun PB down to 24:37, so I decided to set off fast and slow down when my chest felt like it was going to explode.

As it happens, I managed to avoid this and bring it home in:

49:46

Very chuffed. Well ahead of my target. I had done a sub-50 training run, but it’s always harder on race day because you can never take the perfect line, so you always end up running an additional 100-200 metres with all of the dodging around people and taking corners wide.

I came on to the finishing straight, and Strava told me I had hit 10k with 49:11, giving me 49 seconds to sprint to the actual finish.

Does this mean I can run a sub-2 hour half marathon? Hopefully! It’s not as straightforward as it might seem. The Abbey Dash is very flat while the Leeds Half is almost entirely set on hills. Second, the weather is often very warm in May. But that is certainly the target.

The conversation tables also suggest I can run a sub-4 hour marathon. But I doubt that would be true!

A big shout out to Jane for whom this was her first 10k race. And it was great to grab a beer with Rob, Dr Chris and Elina after the race.

It has been difficult to do much today because I’ve been so busy smashing the Abbey Dash. But, nevertheless, progress has been made.

I have continued to do some work on my new book. The main task I completed today was a literature search on co-sleeping. This is now complete and I can get on with writing an evidence-based review of it.

Second, I continued to work on my new guest post on mental health. I’ve completed four of the eight sections so far.

I think I’ve got a cold. Today’s run would explain the muscle aches, but not the headache or the body temperature fluctuations. Just setting my excuses up for tomorrow…