Stoned!

With a little more flex in my schedule last week and rain forecast for Saturday and Sunday, I chose to spend a few sunny hours here and there working in the garden as a trainee stonemason in exchange for a few rainy hours working over the weekend.

This meant that that the stone garden and path has progressed well, to the point where I can now focus on other things.

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Next on the schedule is a final version of the hastily thrown-together prototype panel that has been standing firm against the elements for a couple of weeks, and a hidden store to clear out the shed part of the tea-house.

The latter is to facilitate the latest idea, which is to create a frame in the tea-house to take a futon mattress… moving it closer to the original relaxation/contemplation purpose that I had in mind when I designed it five years ago.

I was up good and early this morning, making good use of the tea-house (and coffee) doing the readings that I had set for my students tomorrow.  Fascinating stuff and all about self development and happiness.

Around half-ten I jumped on the machine, positively reinforcing the habit that I’ve created over the last few weeks.

I warmed up for a mile at 7mph and then started to increase the speed as per last week.

It seemed easier, so I pushed a little harder towards the end and completed 3.74 miles in the 30 minutes… a shade under 7.5mph average compared to 7.3mph last week.

I still don’t think I’ll be completing the marathon distance pier to pier run next month, but at least I’m running enough to have overcome the feeling of slothfulness!  Although that could also be something to do with moving the pieces of a one-tonne stone jigsaw around!

Project Man digs in

Last week was somehow more frenetic than any of the nine weeks that preceded it, despite generally not working the 11+ hour days that had typified the Cambridge project.  Thus, when Saturday morning emerged, I was ready for a rest.

Hmmm… well, they say that a change is as good as a rest and since I’m not really one for sitting around, I opted for the former.

Kim and I had been looking for stone with which to progress the garden project and with a little desk research we found it… right on our doorstep!

I had been wanting to visit the local reclamation company Dorton for years, but it doesn’t have a particularly consumer friendly exterior.  However, once inside there are friendly staff making sure that you can find what you’re looking for in this capacious Aladdin’s cave.

We found a metric tonne of rock… as you do.

With the rock ordered and the likelihood of dry days fading as autumn blows in, we seized the sunny day to prepare the ground.

Whilst I stripped the turf, Kim laid it back down in the new ‘working garden’ area behind the deck panel.  It was back-breaking work for both of us, but by evening we had completed our task.

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Fast forward to today and I was fully expecting to feel wrecked after all that hard work.  But with the rain tipping down outside, all I could feel was really pleased that we had grabbed the moment.

I’ve been preparing for my Monday workshops on and off across the weekend and I finally reached an interesting inflexion point at a confluence of thought between the following two ideas… in the context of creating high performance teams:

I could see that there was a really important link, but I couldn’t quite grasp what it was… it was clearly a good moment for a run!

I hopped on the machine and set myself a 30 minute challenge like last week, this time donning trainers to protect my feet from the heat.  I set the warm-up speed to 7mph and then increased it slowly after the first mile until I finally reached 8mph.

The run was harder work than last week, but the result was a little better too: 3.66 miles in 30 minutes, 7.3 mph average.

As I’ve noted before, I find it difficult to think clearly around 7 mph or faster, so it was actually a really great break from my cognitive challenge.  Better still, Kim (a qualified CBT practitioner) quickly pointed out the connection afterwards… rather obviously, I guess, it’s simply belief.

I believe that we’ve had a fantastic weekend and that I’m now ready for another frenetic week!  Have a great one!

Lightly toasted feet

It was a sublimely glorious morning and I wandered outside into the sunlit garden with my quadspresso.  The chairs were wet with dew so I sat in the tea-house and let my mind relax, a sensible thing to do having completed an intense nine-week project in Cambridge.

As I sat and looked, so thoughts from my subconscious bubbled to the surface in the form of new ideas about the garden.  A second quadspresso helped!  Kim was looking out at me from her office and could tell that light-bulbs were flashing from the way I was standing and staring.

In my mind I designed a hidden shed to free up the tea-house to relaxation and a new partition to create a Japanese stone garden… both were seeds (or subtle challenges) that Kim had planted a few weeks ago.

Sated, I capitalised on the reversal from this deeply thoughtful mode by stripping off and jumping on the running machine.  I decided to run for 30 minutes and slowly ramped the speed up above 7mph.

The run was as perfect as the day outside and I swept along almost effortlessly, the only mild discomfort being the slowly rising temperature of my feet as they were toasted on the belt of the machine.  I’m not really sure whether this is the belt heating up or the friction of my feet on the grippy surface but either way it was a little like walking on hot coals… I imagine!

After 30 minutes I had covered 3.55 miles (7.1 mph average) and still felt great… apart from my lightly grilled feet!

I stretched outside, showered, had breakfast and then got into prototype mode to explain to Kim what I had in mind.

Looking outside, as I sit here typing, the prototype is complete, whilst Kim is researching deliveries of stone and the prospect of two new stages to the autumn garden project is very exciting!

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Token gesture

My students and clients will attest to the fact that I’m forever encouraging them to spend ten minutes a day pushing their understanding through reading, or doing something they love but otherwise can’t find time to do.

It’s how I’ve managed to improve my guitar playing over the last three and a half years, compared to the previously lacklustre 35 years.

Today, despite not feeling like a run, I pushed myself to do just ten minutes… it might be a token gesture, but better to find time to do something, rather than continue to do nothing.

The weekend had a slow start.  In fact is was a repeat of my nightmare journey back from Cambridge three weeks ago, except this time it was the M11 that was shut.

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When I finally got free of it, after about six hours, I found myself stationary again on the M25, in almost exactly the same place that I got stuck before.  Fortunately this time it was only for an hour or so!

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When I finally got home, even I was surprised that the journey had actually taken a nightmarish 9 hours, 45 minutes… longer even than three weeks ago!

Yesterday was spent cutting grass and soothing the furrowed brow of my poor car (or ‘heated onezy’, if you’re reading this Grant), whilst most of today was spent relaxing (aka sleeping) in the garden!

My token run was ten minutes, 1.1 miles and 6.6mph… at which rate it would have only taken 17 hours to get home Friday.  Worthy of consideration for the future!

Comedy of errors

We had such a fun evening yesterday that I felt compelled to run in order that I could write about it.

My run of 2.5 miles on the machine was completed in 20 minutes and 40 seconds, an average of 7.2 mph.  The only thing of note about it was that rather than my normal lollop, I tried to run with my body relaxed and my head as level as possible, which meant that my legs needed to work a little harder.

But last night…

Our friends (who might well wish to remain anonymous) and their two children were house-sitting in a rambling old pile in the country and the intention, having finished aperitifs, was to wander down to the cosy pool house and cook at the table on a French raclette hotplate.

The sitting room had lazy chairs and sofas perfect for aperitifs, but Kim, famous for her ability to dial up her younger self, sat on a thick rug on the floor and instantly connected with the other eight-year old children.

Three dogs and a cat ambled through this set from time to time, occasionally demanding attention or surreptitiously trying to relax into one of the chairs, as if they too were owed a G&T… only to be spotted, told off and sent out.

Having relaxed into the evening, we locked the house and set off like Sherpas through the drizzle or the pool house, where the table was set and the hotplate was ready to go.  Seats were taken, drinks poured and the hotplate brought up to temperature.

At which point the power inconveniently went off.

The pool house fuse board, when we eventually located it, was of the old variety and before we set about trying to figure out whether one had actually blown (or searching for a stash of fuse wire), we sensibly checked the board in the house.  This had circuit breakers and there was a cheer when the lights came on again, truncated abruptly when they went straight back off.

We tried several times, with and without an ageing extension-lead and in to different sockets, before we reluctantly acquiesced and turned to the barbecue sitting outside by the pool.

This was lit and almost up to temperature, in the damp, fading light, when it promptly ran out of gas.  Undaunted, a replacement bottle was located and, having eventually figured out that the thread is reversed, was ready to be connected.

Apart from a plastic security cap, which we were unable to remove.

Fortunately there was a second replacement bottle and the barbecue quickly sizzling with chicken goujons, steak strips and halloumi cheese.  About this time the sky faded to black amid the odd drop of rain and a runner was dispatched to turn on the garden & pool lights… at which point all the pool house lights went out again.

We then realised the halloumi, overlooked in the conversation and commotion, had become charred on one side.  Sacré bleu!

We reset the circuit breaker and resigned ourselves to lighting the barbecue proceedings with a torch, which worked pretty well until the torch suddenly faded from bright to dim and quickly expired to a collective groan.

My iPhone was not really up to the job, but it at least provided a glow by which we could locate the final strips and we beat a hasty retreat to the pool house.

For the duration of this episode, Kim was totally absorbed in a strange board game with one of the other eight year olds, the low murmur of dialogue between them occasionally punctuated with a defensive shout: a claim that one or other of them had cheated, generally followed by a vociferous denial!

The feast (served around ten from a six o’clock start) was magnificent, with baked potatoes covered in raclette cheese (heated on the stove in the pool house), the saltly charred halloumi, barbecued meats and a delicious salad… surrounded by the bubbling conversation of old friends.

The only slight tension amid the hilarity was when we realised that one of the dogs had uncharacteristically disappeared from the proceedings.  The children went off in search but came back empty-handed, although at least we knew that the front gates to the grounds were shut.

While fresh coffee was brewed and perfectly made meringues and tasty berries were wheeled out to be united with extra thick double cream, a search party finally located the dog.  He had sneaked into the sitting room, probably when the circuit breakers were being reset.

One imagines that he was relaxing comfortably into a deep chair, listening to Rachmaninov and supping on a heavy glass tumbler of single malt.

Thank you to our great friends for a truly memorable evening!

Hot foot

After a really fun 60+hour working week, it was lovely to relax over the weekend.

In consequence I wasn’t in a hurry to do a long run and opted instead for another short dash on the machine.

2.5 miles in a little over 20 minutes left my feet burning from the hot conveyor belt… on account of my not wearing shoes again.

Have a great week peops!

Two and a half bare feet

I had been lost in creative mode this morning, supping on a couple of quadspressos and time had flown by.  It was past ten o’clock and already a hot summer’s day, so rather than miss a(nother) Sunday run, I stripped down to my boxers and jumped barefoot onto the running machine… it’s one of the real benefits of having one in-house!

After a brief warm-up I increased the speed to 7.5mph and ran along with my mind on other stuff.  The run was a token gesture, 2.5 miles in 21 minutes, but something trumps nothing and I felt all the better for it.

Playing catchup

Lethargic Foster

As many students will have heard me say over the last few years, the one thing that you can guarantee about habits is that they lapse.  The key thing to remember is that when you realise that a habit has lapsed, you just pick up where you left off… with no emotion.

So although I’ve not blogged for six weeks, here I am back at the keyboard picking up where I left off.

Although I’ve not blogged, I have at least completed a few short miles: On the 12th May 5.02 miles in 40 minutes; on the 3rd June 2 miles in 18.31; and on the 4th June 2 miles in 18 minutes.  All on the machine.

The lack of running and blogging was initially due to a busy few weeks, with conferences, a ten year reunion at LBS and the marking of 100 strategy papers for a friend at UCL.  Then I just didn’t feel like it and found other things to do, like gardening, barbecues, researching or relaxing.  Then, when I did do a couple of shorter, faster runs, I didn’t run because I could hardly walk for a week with a pair of wooden calves.  [Memo to self, stretch after running!]

Eventually it was due to lethargy, which reminded me why I created this running/writing habit in the first place, way back in 2007.

It wasn’t just about keeping fit and slowly improving my ability to write: it was as an antidote to the tiresome physical and mental lethargy I feel when I don’t exercise.

So three runs in six weeks, totalling 9 miles in 78.5 minutes, average speed 6.88mph and a lapsed habit finally restarted.

Cookin’

A chance comment by a seasoned guitarist at a packed 50th party on Friday night led me to spend Saturday morning and this morning trying to replay the two Jazz standards I have been learning… but with the correct timing!

IMG_0050The entertainment... with birthday boy (other) Andy to the right

I have been learning and practising the two pieces (total length just 3 minutes!) at least every morning for a year now.

Initially it was impossible to even play many of the chords, let alone string them together to form a tune, but during a recent Music Theory lesson Lucas Cook commented that I seemed to know the chord progressions well enough to learn how to assemble them properly.

Andy’s comment reiterated that message and provoked action.

Unfortunately the correct timing requires me to play parts of the music way more than a tad faster, so I have a few more weeks of effort ahead.

We spent yesterday with Kim’s family which, with only 12 of us, was a marginally more serene affair,

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Energised by lots of great people interaction I took to the machine this morning with a gusto… it STILL being cold and grey outside.

Working from a base of 7 mph, I increased the speed for 1-2 minutes every five minutes… initially 7.6, then 8.1, 8.6 and after about the halfway mark 9.1 mph.  Because of the frequent changes in tempo I focused on very little apart from the running.

7.37 miles in 60 minutes.

After a shower, breakfast and a snooze (speak to Kim about her album of photos!) we set about cooking dinner for the next few days… a big colourful stew!

Ready, steady... stew!

It’s now ready to eat, so… BYEeeee!

P.S. Very Happy Birthdays to Debbie & Evrim today!

A lesson in futility

It was a great week, during which I worked with two different groups of inquisitive mature students, caught up with lovely old schoolmates at a birthday party and separately managed to reconnect with a treasured long-lost friend!

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In a reflective mood on Saturday I had picked up Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers to reread and by Sunday morning I found myself looking at a page with the following puzzle to solve:

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It’s a sample question from Raven’s Progressive Matrices, which apparently gives a measure of abstract reasoning skills.

Let me pose you a different question:

Guessing that it was a near-impossible problem, did I:

1. Solve it easily and prove that my intellect is in the top 0.1% of humanity?

2. Read on to the answer (which was in the sentence which followed) straight away, to maximise my (still-winter) Sunday reading time?

3. Challenge myself to solve it and still be trying to figure out the answer four-hours later?

Thank you to anyone who instantly knew the answer was No. 1… I truly value your (clearly misguided) views of me!

No. 2. would have been the most efficient answer but the answer was actually closest to No. 3, although four hours is a little out… fully eight hours elapsed before I gave in, although I did pause to run, eat lunch and cook dinner in between.

I will keep the answer to myself in case anyone else wants to have a go at it, but be warned that even when I knew what the answer was, I still couldn’t understand why!

Nor could Malcolm Gladwell, to be fair.

It being cold and miserable outside and with my mind trying to bend itself around an insurmountable challenge, I took to the running machine and stared at the wall for an hour.

Not much to report there then, other than to say that I ramped up the speed by 0.1 mph every mile and increased it more sharply in the last five minutes to complete 7.34 miles.

With chances of heavy snow in the South towards the back end of this week and with the winter weather set to stay with us probably into the middle of April, according to the BBC, expecting Spring to arrive anytime soon really is a lesson in futility.

Stay warm and upbeat peops!