The Red Mist Masks All

L tells me that yesterday was allegedly National Workaholics Day but she was too busy working to tell me. No idea if that’s true but it’s a good pun. Today, also allegedly, is National Kissing Day. Which I think ought to be celebrated.

I'm in the car again as it’s the final round of the GP series tonight at Colwick Racecourse. For the first time ever the race starts and finishes on the Racecourse itself before doing its usual multiple loops around Colwick Park. L isn't running the race but not to be outdone she runs there, well run-walks as she builds her fitness back up.

This has always been my least favourite of the GP races and I’m really not sure what my tired legs are going to make of it. L assures me that the red mist will mask everything.

The route is a loop of the smaller lake followed by a loop of the whole park, five miles in all, which seems a very long way and it shouldn’t as I’m supposed to be marathon training but then again I was probably going for it a tad too much. I don’t quite recreate the heroics of Tuesday but 36:14 isn’t too bad.

There’s a post-race bar but not one that offers any decent beers, so I pick up my series t-shirt even though I’ve only done half a series and we head to The Dispensary instead. 

(Thursday 6^th July)

Limping Home Together

I’m on the bike this morning but running too late to assist with the dog walking. So I apologise to MD, who I’m sure was pulling his ears off in frustration at the slowness of having Doggo accompanying them.

L is pulling her ears off in frustration at feeling so unexercised even though she did swim this morning but I best make her walk to the pub tonight.

Just as I’m riding across Pride Park on why way home I hear a loud crack and think something has broken on my bike. Although it still appears to be working... hang on, the rear brake is now rubbing... because the wheel is seriously buckled... because I have snapped two spokes and buckled a few others. How did that happen? Must have ran over something. My bike and I limp home together. 

Later we head to the Dispensary and dark ale number 163, Black Iris’s Rise And Shine.

(Thursday 23^rd March)

Graveyard Shift

It’s cold, it’s wet, I’m such a wimp. I decide to stay dry and go to work on the bus.

There is no squash again tonight. Although my opponent is fit the only courts available were at 8.15 or later. That to him is the graveyard shift, for me it would just about be the perfect time. Plenty of time to cycle home, get my breath back, rest the legs a touch and maybe even get something to eat.

Instead, it’s Plan B, which really should be called Plan A, as it’s much more fun. L and MD do their usual walk to the Dispensary where Doggo and I meet them, having driven there. I grab a quickie in the gym first though.

In the Dispensary they have a tasty Milk Stout from the Bristol Beer Factory and something from Watneys... I do find the fashion for resurrecting old defunct breweries rather strange. Surely the use of Watneys which closed in 1979, and is famous for its much maligned Red Barrel and Party 7s, must be one of the most ironic or perhaps not?

(Thursday 2^nd March)

At What Age Does That Happen?

It’s a lively bike ride this morning. A bit windy and a bit wet but still very good.

It was just mulling to L the other day that apparently the average ratio of job interviews to actually job offers is 12:1. Then Daughter rings to say she's got the job she went for in Nottingham yesterday which I think was interview number 12. So there you go, some statistics might actually be right.

I don’t know if she took my advice in not dissing students as that’s rather key component of the job because they offer essays to students which isn’t cheating, obviously. I also told her to say how much she loves Centre Parcs even though she probably doesn’t as they have a get together there every summer. Either way, clearly something clicked.

L says she’ll now be able to straighten her finances out. Really? At what age does that happen? I’m still waiting.

L has her second session out of three at physio. She has already been banned from running and is only allowed to do gentle stuff. Although she protests that everything she does is gentle especially the running.

Instead she keeps her mileage up by taking MD on a long hike. Even though there is no squash we go anyway and I meet up with them at the end of her hike for a few pints in the Dispensary on Trent Bridge which is right next to the squash courts.

(Thursday 2^nd February)