Monday
I had forgotten to turn off my work alarm. My phone woke me up at 6:10am. It took me ages to find it in the tangle of clothes next to my bed. By the time I'd found it, I was wide awake so I gave up trying to snooze and went dowsnstairs for an early breakfast.
Today, I had to continue with the tree surgery. I had to force myself way out of my comfort zone and clamber up the ladders to the top of the tree. The reciprocating saw is too heavy for me to use it with one hand, so I decided to use a hand saw for a lot of the work today. It felt better being able to hold on to the ladder or tree with my other hand. However, trying to lower the big lumps of wood down and then drop them safely almost proved too much for my back and arm. By the time I had finished, both were aching rather painfully.
Eventually, I brought the tree down to about 7 feet. Jonnie can handle the rest with his chainsaw!
Today's exercise was 15 miles on the bike. I set off full of beans and got my average speed up to around 15mph as I hurtled towards Lowsonford. However, yesterday's cycle ride and today's efforts on the ladder soon took their toll (not to mention last night's beer!) and the average speed plummeted on the way back home. I got back after 15.7 miles at an average speed of 14.0mph.
I had a huge lunch of leftover sausage casserole and then went back to the garden to start cutting up lumps of tree for firewood. By now, my back and arm were aching so much that I struggled to lift the recipro saw at all! I did a lot of the work with a handsaw.
I was glad to eventually run out of storage room, and came back in for a coffee and to mark some mock GCSE English papers.
Tonight, I made dinner for myself and Lucy and then sat on the couch while my back ached mightily. I surprised myself by drinking water instead of beer with my dinner.
No, I did not achieve my weight loss target last week.
No alcohol, no junkfood, cycling
Tuesday
With Lucy out and about, I jumped on the bicycle and headed in to college. I got all of my lessons planned for next week AND most of my lessons planned for the following week! I cycled home after a productive few hours.
Tonight's Karate session was rather challenging! I was partnered with young men who were either brown belts working towards their black belts or had achieved a dan grade already. Quite rightly, they like to go fast and hard in the dojo. By the end of it I had suffered my fingers being wrenched back, a low kick to the knee, and a spectacular elbow to my attacking kick which created an instant bruise and swelling on my foot. Like there was an egg growing out of it.
I got home to eat chicken and rice and drink water.
No alcohol, no junkfood, Karate
Wednesday
When I got up for a wee at 3am, as us old men do, I realised that it was far too painful to stand on my injured foot. I had to do a wee standing on one leg. Like I'm in Jethro Tull. Playing my flute.
In the monring, I swallowed painkillers, hobbled into the shower, and then packed a book ready for several hours of waiting in A&E. Before I left, I decided to speak with NHS 111 to see if I could get an appointment in an Urgent Treatment Centre. Happily, the chap on the other end of the line assured me that the foot wasn't broken. I could walk more than four steps and the painkillers were taking effect - thus, not broken! Fantastic! I felt like I had been given my Wednesday back.
So: a morning of marking and ironing, and then Jonnie came round in the afternoon armed with his chainsaw. He made quick work of what remained of the tree, leaving a bit of a stump for me to get out with the axe. After Jonnie had left, I started in on the stump with Roger's axe. I realised that it was going to be an enormous job!
After two hours of swinging and hacking, my elbows were aching, my back was sore and my left hand was stiff and throbbing. I felt like an old man in a Radox advert...
In the evening, I made dinner for the family while enjoying a few ales.
Booze, no junkfood, no exercise
Thursday
More hacking at the stump with the axe, more marking, more ironing and more beer!
Booze, no junkfood, no exercise
Friday
Again, the day was centred around marking and attacking the tree stump and roots.
The evening, however, was all about Halloween! I love to dress up a bit and dish out sweets to the local kids. There were loads this year too! Word must get around that Lucy and I like the Trick or Treaters and always have some sweets ready!
I also drank some beers and watched some great (and not so great) music on BBC Four!
Booze, no junkfood, no exercise.
Saturday
I woke up with a plan: I was never going to get all of the tree stump and roots out of the ground. It was a massive job and my body was taking a pounding. So I was going to concrete the hole instead! Lucy and I dashed off to B&Q to get the necessary stuff and then I set about hacking the stump to bits as much as I could in the time I had left before I had to start mixing the concrete.
I managed to hack it down to about 12cm below the surface. After this, I built the area back up with soil until it was a reasonably compacted flat space 7cm deep. I then filled this with wet concrete and did my best to level it off. I used a flat plank of wood which I screwed a handle onto. It seemed to work. After this, I covered it with plastic sheets, cleaned my tools and went along to the dojo.
Today, at my Dickens Heath dojo, it was our Halloween party! Sensei Gary was in charge of the party with all the young people, and I was happy to teach kata to those who were there to train. It was a great success with fancy dress, sweets, stickers and lots of Karate too!
Back at home, Mouse had invited the Rangers in the their fancy dress outfits over to our house to drink vodka and eat loads of sugar. Dodgy Debbie came over too. I made sure my sensible head was screwed on, had a couple of drinks, watched Strictly, and went to bed at 10!
Beers, no junkfood, Karate
Sunday
Up at 7 to meet with the boys at 9. Unfortunately, Roger couldn't join us today. Mark, Jonnie, James and I headed off on our Purity Temple route. The pace was relaxed but I was struggling at the back due to the wet roads. It's been a long time since I was riding on a wet surface and I was finding it challenging to commit to descents and corners. Another issue I was having was with my various aches and pains from the hours spent swinging the axe this week. My back was very sore and it did cross my mind that it would be more beneficial to my health and wellbeing to head home and spend the day lying down in the warm.
Nah, forget that! So I rode up hills with my back aching and I was pleased to find that, by the time I rolled into Wilmcote, I was feeling much better.
The cake was indeed fantastic. I had two slices of homemade carrot cake. Fantastic. I wished I could have taken some home in my pocket! I forgot to ask Jane to give some to Lucy for me for later.
The lads were kind enough to take a direct route home: I wanted to attend a two-hour Karate training session later, and needed to be home for a spot of lunch and a shower.
Mark and I set the pace a bit too high on the way home and had to relax the pace a little so that we could all ride together. James, Mark and I contested the sprint to Lamppost 13 and it was good fun.
Later, at the dojo: I had now attended two sessions led by Sensei John Johnston 8th dan, this being the second. This session was inspiring. I like the way Sensei makes me think about my karate, particularly kata, in a new way. We started with pad work. Sensei Johnston made it clear that he doesn't see the point in stretching! I must admit, almost everything I've read about physical exercise indicates that stretching is important at the end of a session, not the start.
After pads, the bulk of the session was partner work. Using our kihon basic techniques in potentially realistic situations. I was surprised how many of them work at close quarters. I was working with a fellow black belt but he was bigger and stronger than me. I ended up taking some knocks. Plus Sensei Johnston enjoyed using me to demonstrate certain techniques, including kneeling on my head! |
| This is me in conversation with Sensei John Johnston. (I'm the one with the bald head.) |
My favourite part of the 2 hours was when we dedicated 20 minutes to working through Tekki Shodan focusing on fighting applications. It was both an eye-opener and plain common sense! Sensei demonstrated a corkscrew punch on my face which left me with a bit of a headache, but also with a lesson I won't forget!
After photos, Sensei Gary went off to the Tudor Grange dojo and I sneaked off home to put my feet up and eat Toblerone! I drank pop instead of beer tonight.
No alcohol, junkfood, 37 miles of Cycling and 2 hours of Karate
In summary, another disastrous week as far as weight loss training is concerned: I only exercised for 4 of the 7 days, and I was only sober for 3...
