Chris Worfolk's Blog

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…

Betfair is running a market on this. Seems a bit distasteful to bet on whether someone gets the death penalty or not.

Today I finished all the lecture material for my new course. All the lectures are now exported as MP3s and I have encoded the final video, too. Just need to make the course and the video trailer now.

I’ve also done quite a bit of work on my new book. I have four chapters to finish off and then the writing is done.

My course, the IT Contracting Master Class, is now available in book form. Should you buy it? Probably not. It’s slightly cheaper than the course. Except that Udemy is usually discounting the course, making the book more expensive.

But, if you really hate the idea of getting the video lectures (which includes the eBook version of this book), you can buy the book stand alone on Amazon.

So, I made it to day three before I started to think that this is a terrible idea. University studying mounts, I had to take a break this afternoon because I felt ill (it lasted exactly the length of a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, what a coincidence) and it was health visitor day.

Still, no excuses.

Today I fixed the audio on the introductory lecture of my Get More Restaurant Customers course. I also recorded a new trailer for it and both of those videos are now live on Udemy.

One of the lectures I recorded yesterday was unusable so today I re-wrote it as a slide deck and also recorded the presentation so that video should be ready to go now.

I scheduled the release of week 6 of my Running For Anxiety course.

Today I:

Recorded all of the audio for my new course Mindfulness for Social Anxiety. I’ve also edited together all of the videos for these, though there is still some work to do done in the editing.

Went up to Calverley and filmed all the video segments for the course by the canal. Unfortunately, the sun came out towards the end and ruined my exposure settings for one of the videos. But the rest are usable.

I’ve finished the book version of the IT Contracting Master Class, both the eBook and the paperback edition, and submitted them for publication.

I’ve done some writing and editing work on my new book, and produced a list of sections that need work.

I’ve outlined the article structure for a new guest post.

Yesterday marked the start of NaNoWirMo, the annual challenge to write a novel in a month. Which got me thinking: what else you could achieve in 30 days?

I took part in 2015 and knocked out this. And I thought about participating this year. But I have more pressing issues to attend to, like my business. And it feels like that hasn’t been making enough progress recently.

The heart has been there. And stuff is getting done. Worfolk Anxiety recently added two new tests and a bunch of other features, for example. But a lot of it feels like it isn’t that focused or is being slowed down by a lack of actionable tasks.

So, in November, I’m taking 30 days of action. And I’ll be using my blog for accountability, reporting back on everything I have done.

Day 1 report

Yesterday I wrote all of the scripts for the exercises and video sections in my new course Mindfulness for Social Anxiety.

I met with my course director to discuss how I could use my dissertation as a prototype for a future business venture.

I pitched guest posts to The Mighty, Maven Circle and Families.media.

I cancelled my membership to one of the business communities I belong to. I’m withholding it from myself until I use it more and take action on what I learn.

I completed my article on metacognitive therapy and scheduled it for publication.