Atavism Blog  -

It's bloody painful!  Had to miss my Tao Yoga class this Tuesday, (which I love because the movements are slow, low-impact stretches) as I was representing a client at a housing arbitration.  And sadly, instead of going to our ballroom dancing class last night, Will and I proceeded immediately to dinner to eat tapas and drink red wine.  However, I did try to go for a run today but had to stop because my shins were killing me.  The Learn to Run class was warned that we may get shin splints as walking time decreased and running time increased, but I hadn't quite appreciated just how painful the damn things are.

Got up early today, put on all the spangly running kit then joined the back of a queue of 50,000 people to do the Vancouver Sun Run.  Luckily my pee stop was a little less public than Paula Radcliffe's in the London Marathon.  Also luckily, the distance wasn't as far as the marathon - only 10k, and we walked rather than ran most of it.  Glad we did it, though, and next year Radcliffe had better look to her 10k world record of 30.21 minutes - I'm going to be within at least 25 seconds of that.  All right, within at least 25 minutes of that, but I'm not built like a bloody greyhound, am I, and my head only nods when someone says, "Would you like dessert?"

Results update!  Will came in 33,626th!  I de winner!  I triumphed in 33,623rd place!  Must have just got my foot over the line a millionth of a second faster.

"There," said the make-up saleswoman, handing me a mirror. "Don't you look pretty?"
"Phoof. Groo. Eeep," I replied in shock, or rather Alice Cooper did, my makeover not having turned out quite as well as the optimistic make-up artist seemed to imagine.

What's the best way to get fit without feeling the pain too much?  Get outside, get a few gadgets and get out some horrific old tunes...

My reaction to hearing of the notorious cases in Saskatoon, where native youths froze to death after being driven to the outskirts of town by police, can best be described as moral outrage.  For some reason I also believed that such things didn't occur in the UK, due to differences in geographical scale and the more accountable system of policing in Britain, particularly since the Stephen Lawrence case.  Silly me.

Curses. Fizzy nose, rotten headache, achey legs and blocked sinuses.  I have a cold and will be doing well if I manage to run for the lift in the next couple of days. Consider my bid to be the next Paula Radcliffe on hold for the time being.  (The nodding head bit is too painful and I've never looked good in knee socks.) I did manage a Tao Yoga (Qi Gong) class this morning, however, and really enjoyed it.  Horses for courses and all that.  Walk before you run.  Wax on, wax off.