2012 in Cold Summary.

At least the year ended well on a personal note with the birth of our first child Murty. 

Up to that it was a tough year.  We entered 2012 shortly after losing our niece to a long and rare illness. Throughout the year two good friends would also pass away - one of them after a long battle with cancer and another who fell suddenly and unexpectedly at an early age from a brain tumour. 

On the economic front -jobs are being lost, wages and services are being cut, people are emmigrating in their thousands.  TV and radio is just one depressing conversation after another.  God almighty, when did we allow money to have such power?

Last year I set myself a goal of clearing my mortgage in one foul swoop.  What a joke!  I did take about 10k extra off it however and the year of entrepeneurial ideas has actually set me on course to set up a little business that I'll be announcing shortly, so maybe the crackpot scheme was worth putting out there afterall!

Running-wise, this was a disappointing year.  After having run a race a month in 2011 I managed to only run three races in the entire year so far (though I did set a 10k PB).  I also slacked off considerably with my blogging (only 45 posts so far this year as opposed to 100+ in all years previous).  For the past few months especially I have struggled to keep my fitness levels going.  I've plodded away with three milers (and an unposted threadmill 5miler last Sunday), but it has really been a bad effort.

So what's in store for 2013?

For starters, a bit more discipline in the health department:  I'm going to go around the year in 24pints again (though this time I'm also going to add 24 glasses of wine and 24different whiskies! - okay it's more like a party, but it's a disciplined party!).  Secondly, I'm going to do a run a month once again... (and who knows, maybe a marathon?), and thirdly, keep posted for my new business... it will be exciting to see how a new venture does in this recession!

To all my blogging friends - have a happy Christmas and New Year full of running.

Mince Pie on the Stove... it's beginning to look a lot like...

Right, I'm usually the one that says 'what the hell are those Christmas ads doing on telly in November!'. However, we are 10 days into December, plus I've discovered that a great way to disguise an unhealthy liking for mince pies is to fake Christmas-itus!  So, from now on I'm whistling 'White Christmas', donning a Santy hat and buying mince pies by the dozen.  

I've also discovered that our brand new stove (range) is ideal for heating those little parcels of flavour (of course I could use the microwave, but it wouldn't quite give the same pinch of anticipation while eating dinner!).

Anyway, enough of the mince pie talk... after all, this is a 'running blog'!  I managed another threadmill three miler today and felt a bit better than the last time out.  I'm figuring on one more of these boring old  internal runs and then it's out into the wonderful wild for a proper long run this weekend.  

I'll be fit for Santy!

Three Miles...

It's nearly time for me to give up on the last bits of 2012 and to start concentrating on what I can and will achieve in 2013 on the running front.  For starters, I'll do better than leave it three weeks between runs!  Today I got up on to the threadmill to do another three miler.  I barely got through it, but that's hardly surprising considering I've not run a yard since mid November.  And back then I had hardly run a yard since October.  Not good enough... and I refuse to blame our mild mannered young baby, buck stops here.  No, come January I'll become a real runner again and my only job from now until then will be to get a few miles done regularly.  And I will...