squatty Tuesday

I have been neglecting the running just lately.
Today I did 140 squats to keep the old legs in shape.

It is quite cold here, our house seems badly placed to take much advantage of sun shine.
While we ate tea, the front room showed 13 degrees on the electricity monitor.

I have been playing with the mended e-reader a bit today.
I put two books and a PDF file on it and they all read fine.
The transfer was easy,I can either drag books to it just by looking at it in the windows environment or I can open it in the reader program that it installs when you first run it, and put books on it using that.
It can play MP3 too although I most likely wont bother with that as I have a few MP3 players that can play them already.

Next I will make it a cover.
I'm going to hunt around for a hardback with a cover I like and use that.
We have loads of books so I am almost guaranteed to find one in the house, that no one cares about.

DS still hasn't passed his driving test.
He has another go next week.
I am disappointed for him because he is quite careful when he drives and it is just little things that are getting in the way.
Hopefully once he has his full license, he can find a job more easily,at present everything he has applied for has asked for a full license.

Today I was able to request payment on 2 sites!
One is the shop and scan site and the other was valued opinions.
Each one gave an instant link to the £10 voucher I had requested.
I don't need to get anyone presents now so they will be saved for May most likely when my daughter has a birthday unless there is anything we particularly need and Amazon sell in which case, they would go on that.

We have just had the new amount for our insurance on the car and it is quite steep (over £500)so I might try looking for cheaper alternatives or more likely suggest it to OH.

Bookish Monday rolls round again

I have been immersed in Terry Pratchet!
The book I have just finished was called Guards Guards and is very funny.
I especially like the Grim reaper who comes and waits for the deadies to realise they are dead !
Some hilarious Clichéd quoting too from Clint Eastward films.


If you have read and enjoyed any of the Red Dwarf books ,you will find these are at east equal in humour.
I think they are better but that is maybe just me.

Pull ups


I have been keeping up with the pull ups. I can manage about 14 in one go .



I'm afraid I have been slacking off on the running lately because it is cold and damp out and I am a wimp.


Presents



Presents are now all bought and paid for. I always buy them from my Internet survey vouchers if I possibly can.

This year I successfully managed to incorporate everything within that criteria . Just as well as the self employment was going nowhere.


OH has a couple of new things and the afformentioned vouchers and cover.
DS has something he will find handy(he mentioned how good they are and I took note without hopefully letting on that I was doing so ). 
DD has her reader dubries.
We don't go overboard on relatives.
OH has bought a few bits for his nephew and 3 nieces .
I haven't any on my side and all my aunts and uncles are dead .


For those of you who think Christmas us humbug, I don't disagree, I do think it is a great excuse though, when your kids are little and want everything.
I always used to say  'yes it is nice but that is the sort of thing you only get for Christmas or a Birthday present'.
It worked really well over the years and I still stick by it.
So for me anyway, it is an excuse to buy someone something when I avoid doing so at every other time of year.

Stiff legs

Ooch , I had stiff legs on Saturday morning.
We ran about 3 miles on Friday night ,having wimped out Thursday due to the rain.

BUT

it is Our postie who is responsible for my stiff legs!

He knocked on the door and handed me an envelope saying;
'back in a minute with a couple of parcels'.
'OK' I said and because it was cold ,pushed the door to as he had walked back up the path to the pavement.
I thought 'I will just keep warm while I am waiting' and grabbed my skipping rope.
It was more than 10 minutes before he came back with the parcels LOL

I think he must have mistakenly thought they were in his trolley only to find he had to finish the road and then get back to his van to fetch them.

Trotting along as usual

We ran yesterday evening.
It was cold and I had 3 top layers on and a thin jacket plus my ronhill trackies and a beanie hat I made from a jersey that had shrunk and felted ,plus gloves.

The hat being pure wool was far more comfortable than my usual acrylic and thinsulate hat because the wool was warm and the natural fibers allow my skin to breath.
It isn't as big either so I am not pulling on the cuff to get it out of my eyes when it slumps down.

The run was okay. I haven't done any skipping for about a month and we only ran once last week so I wasn't expecting to be fast but we still managed the full run without needing to stop.

Thursdays scuttle

Thursdays Garmin induced run was faster than the plod of Tuesday.
We fair scampered along and managed a whole minute off of Tuesdays dismal time.
The boy did not accompany us.
We were spotted by my neighbour as we left the house ,it made us feel very furtive.

Pull ups have reached an all time high with  a new score of 60.
That isn't all at once but throughout the day.
10 is still the highest at once.

Keeping up with the exercise

Yesterday I did about 44 pull ups.
I do them whenever I am downstairs and remember to do it.
I think I did one 10 and the rest lesser amounts.

I also did 3 X 8 pistol squats each leg.
I go quite carefully with them because it is easy to hurt your knees if you don't get the angle of your knee right.
It can be quite stretching for the Achilles tendons too.
I can do them without holding something for balance now.

We ran yesterday evening.
2.89 miles.
It took 30 minutes which seemed quite slow but was only a little bit slower than usual once I uploaded the Garmin results.
I have been leaving my Garmin at home a few times just so it doesn't get too obsessive.
I think there was a wind blowing against us on the way back but I didn't notice it behind us on the way out.

Mending and making do

We inherited a Dremmel from a relative. Just the main unit ,no attachments.
It is one of those rotary tools where you fit little saw blades and drills and grinding ends into a shaft and then you can work on small projects.
We already have a cheap rotary tool but this is much heavier duty.

After much pulling and puffing,I managed to get the tool that was jammed in it, out.
It needed pliers and a lot of twisting and tugging.
The chuck is perfectly okay though so I will have a go at making some tools for it sometime this week.
Instructables has some interesting home made bits for them so I must do some research.

Running in the dark...

Yes we ran in the dark again.
It was much cooler this evening!
I had my wool hat,gloves.leggings and long sleeves with a light jacket .
OH had his jacket and hat over shorts and shirt.
We chatted all the way along so it wasn't the fastest ever run but at least we got out and did it!

My son decided he would stay home in the warm :P

My poor legs are aching . The pull ups work most of my body,not just arms or shoulders and I find it actually works even muscles in my stomach and hips.

Thurs and fri in the garden

The garden was screaming for attention LOL
So for the last 2 days, I have been out there digging and hoeing for a couple of hours each.

Last evening,we ran as usual and it being a nice night,we managed a nearly 3 miler without too much gasping.

Today I walked into town to buy Onion sets and paint.
The onions will go in the garden when I have cleared sufficient weeds out of the way.
Onion sets were £2 each pack and I bought 3 packs of 50.That sounds pricey until you realise that 3 full sized onions in Asda is about  £1 . I will buy a bulb of garlic next time I am there as I'm not paying £2 for garlic if I can get it for less.
The paint is for the gate as my son wants to paint it to save it rotting away after he went to the effort of making it.
Also as it was only the worst half that was replaced, it has been a two coloured pair of gates for a few weeks which does stick out like a sore thumb.
Now it is half dark grey undercoat and half old blue paint and if it doesn't rain, it will be all blue tomorrow.

I have had to rethink my self employment.
After not really having any significant work for some months, I decided it was better to give it up than to sit on my behind and look hopefully in the direction of the company that had been sending me work last year.
With the economy up the spout just about everywhere, there isn't the demand for retouching ,especially when people are quite willing to have a go themselves or put up with a few spots and scratches on their prints.

While I am disappointed that things didn't really pan out with it, it is sort of liberating to have made the decision.

The pull ups have been going surprisingly well.
On Thursday,I didn't do even one because I am trying to be sensible and let the muscles rest between attempts.
Today I did 5 in a row twice and 4 once so far.
That is such a quick improvement.
It seems that once I got past two in a row, it is just a question of building from there because Wednesday was the first day I managed 4 and I think Monday was the first day I managed 3 .

The gardening has been quite an arm workout on its own but I am finding that using the tools is so much easier since my push ups,pull ups and dips have improved so drastically.

Tuesdays run

We ran in the dark again.
It seems to be a bit of a habit.
OH wanted to get back for a telephone call so we only did 1.75 miles.
The garmin worked perfectly this time and said we had run at 10.01 pace.
It felt reasonable but not fast which it turned out, it wasn't.

I held off on the pull ups all day so as not to over train but it is quite addictive to do pull ups once they come in multiples greater than one.

This morning Wednesday,I managed 4 in a row,then 3 chin ups in a row and 3 wide grip pull ups which I have never managed to do before.
I did that sequence twice.
Then I did weighted leg raises ,concentrating on getting a good crunch rather than numbers.
Lastly 12 assisted pull ups which seemed hard but I managed.
I have added a couple more 4 and 3 reps as I have walked past the pull up bar during the day.

In the afternoon, I did a laptop workout (virtual gym) which was Core focused.
Although I hadn't done one since last week, the core part of the workout seemed very easy.

The water board was back outside hunting for leaks as usual.
They actually discovered our stop-cock which is on a drive about 50 meters up the road. Not our drive but the drive to the house that is 4 away from us!

Good news! Our son has passed the theory part of the driving test.
We said we would buy him some lessons with a driving school once he had got that part under his belt.
He has had quite a lot of practice driving our car but needs a bit more specific advice on some aspects so a fresh pair of eyes will see what OH is missing.

Dark running

It was way past sun down by the time we ran last night.
My Garmin wasn't interested. I think it was too cloudy plus we started to run the minute we were outside which left it no time to catch the satellites.
We were bombing it .
I think it was about a 22 minute run all together.
A cup of tea and a banana refueled the fires once we were home.
OH had his dinner as well.

I was using the pull up bar on and off all day yesterday in an effort to improve my consecutive pull up count.
Sometimes I was managing 3,sometimes 2 1/2,sometimes only 1.
I realised that the challenge I have been following ,expects the counting to start from feet leaving the floor,till returning to floor which in my case has been 1,so although I have managed a maximum of 10,really it is only 10 X 1.
That isn't a bad thing because to begin with I couldn't do one and could only lower myself down off a chair.
I do want to progress now that I can do >1 though, so I need to push myself .

I have a couple of hard drives to reformat today.
They are surplus stock from OH's work but we were allowed to have them as they are just gathering dust in storage.
I will try GParted on them as that is a terrific program considering it is free. It can do pretty much everything partition magic can do and I always feel confident using it which I rarely do with P.M.

There is another crop of lettuce to harvest in the g house.
I sewed it as a cut and come again crop.
The lettuce seeds are sown in pots and then cut while quite small still. Only the largest leaves each time.
This crop is the one I first sewed a few months back.
Providing you keep harvesting,they keep producing.
Same with spinach.
You can get a good bunch of salad from the two plants every week when treated that way.

Pull ups again

The 3 rep sets are getting more frequent I think.
I did about 4 sets this morning .
Then the leg raises with weight.
4 leg raises without weight but more crunched as it is supposedly more effective.
12 assisted pull ups using the inner tube band.
A couple of chin ups.

I will get in some more pull ups during the day.
I moved the bar to my daughters bedroom after all as OH wont be using the room for a couple of weeks and it is the least in the way spot. It can go back on the living room door after that.

New pull up scheme

After last times success with 3 pull ups in succession without a foot landing, I decided that I would change the routine a bit.
This morning I did 3,3,3,2,3,1,2,2
all being consecutive pull ups but smaller sets.
I think this is the way to improve because all the time I do single pull ups, I am getting more endurance overall but not very quick progress with increasing the time between foot landings.
After that,I did 6 singles,7 singles,8 singles and 2 consecutive.
Then
6 chin ups(singles)
12 leg raises
12x2 weighted leg raises
12 band assisted pull ups
My shoulders and arms feel very pumped and powerful.

I hung the pull up bar on a different door so that I could leave it there for the odd pull up throughout the day.
We really don't have a lot of doors where it will fit(3 in the whole house).
The usual door is right by the front door so the bar cant stay there else no one can get out or into the house.
The 2nd door is my daughters bedroom but also doubles as OH's study room and his exam room when the time comes, so would be a bit cheeky to hang it there , a bit too 'I'm in possession now'.
The only other door with a suitable frame, is the door of my workroom(former dining room) which has the sofa right up against it on the other side but as it wont be permanent,I have it there for now.

The usual scuttle
We ran our almost 3 miler last night. I didn't really feel like it as it was dark and cold but with a long sleeved top and track suit leggings,it was quite warm and I had my light jacket over it for visibility which left me feeling very steamy. I didn't take the garmin this time.I don't want to rely on it always .It can become a bit obsessive to always be fretting over a time when what I really got it for was the gps mapping and the heart rate .
We didn't have an audience last night and no dogs showed an interest.

Cat calls en route

We ran last night.It was the almost 3 miler.
This route is the one where we run along by the river for about 1/3rd of the time.
There are often people sitting on benches at the sides ,mostly youths.
As we bounded past,they shouted Helloo in mock Queens English so OH hollered back (his accent is clipped anyway so no need to pretend).
Then on the return,they did it again so we all 3 warbled in response.
It was better than the sometime squawking  that greets us from cars,usually by young people who wish they had the bottle to get out and run themselves. This time there was a fun element and no rudeness.

The run went quite well. I had to keep speeding up to keep with the men and my glutes were feeling the ladder workout from earlier but we did it in about 29 minutes and were back in time to watch Torchwood.

Running without seeing

Last night we ran in the dark again.
It was a 3 miler along parts of the river bank and some pavement.
The pavement was more precarious than the river, there are trees along the edge for quite a long way and the windy conditions of the last day or two have brought down some branches, which in the dark, we discovered by running into them.
Luckily they were all small bits and so no harm done but I had forgotten about the hazards of running along the unlit or poorly lit bits of that route.
The run itself went well. We ran at 9 minutes 40 per mile pace.
OH had his weighted vest on. It is an old stab vest complete with pockets which he can fill.
He had a dumbell and an ankle weight in each pocket and all the way up the river, we could hear one of the dumbells clanking as we strode, it was like having robotic joints.
He had to stop at the half way point and rearrange the weight .
He almost left the front door key behind as we set off but just noticed it lying on the path in time.
Although it had rained a lot during the day,the puddles were not too bad.

At home I had a bowl of yoghurt,1 weetabix and banana with jam to refuel. Usually I only have a banana but today I was ravenous.
Earlier ,I had done a 10 minute skip..
2 minutes regular speed,1 minute high knees (more like a run than a skip) ,repeated till the 10 mins was up.
It had rained and rained so I wasn't expecting to get a run later.
A 3 minute plank was added in a while after.

This morning (Wednesday), I dragged my weary carcass to the pull up bar and did the pull up challenge workout.
Today was 5 sets;
5,6,7,8,9
Then 6 chin ups
10 unweighted leg raises
2 X 10 weighted leg raises (the leg raises are for stomach muscle strength,not arms)
12 band assisted pull ups and
The Hydrant leg routine(performed on the floor mat)

My pull ups are better than they were but I still cannot do more than one at a time. I can do them straight after each other without a rest but I must start each one with my feet on the floor.OH admitted that he has trouble with the pull up hand position and prefers to do  chin ups.

Anyway,after the pull up session, I put the bench up and attempted some dragon flags.
They are performed lying on your back ,holding the handles on the end of the bench.
 You are supposed to lift your body up all the way from shoulders to feet in as straight a line as possible,then lower and lift in that same straight line.
I managed 3 but not particularly straight.