Back here again ...

Why do people keep a blog? Is it because it is the thing to do? Is it a personal diary kind of thing that we don't mind if others stumble upon?

Some blog professionally and refer to their 'readers' which I must profess to being unlikely to have any. I am my reader and critic.

Anyway, I'll talk to myself as I often do and recall some things and stuff and try to get back to blogging more regularly.

I'll also try to make it more interesting for me as that will mean my life is more interesting, I suppose!

If I maintain this blog regularly it will mean I may have also succeeded in exstrapolating myself from from my seriously bad habit of working at weekends.

I've just started a new contract and quite frankly my so-called 'loyalty' is not at all reflected in the new terms and conditions so its time that my time was my time again!

Next blog, as a reminder to me to look back on in a few years time and chuckle, will be about Kazakh hospitality ...

London & Taiwan

Well, my target is looking distinctly distant as I continue to miss days running in favour of eating and drinking!

Even coming and writing in this blog seems an over-difficult task and therefore I must have forgotten some runs between the last time and now.

Let's say the figure was still 553 before I went to the UK. I only managed a dismal 3 runs there despite the lovely cool air and leafy parks a-beckoning. 11Km in Weston-Super-Mare, 11km in Green Park and probably 12km in Hyde Park leave, er ... 520km.

Now, I got a bit more focussed back in Bangkok and even did a 6, 9, 12 and 18km build up. That's a further 45km off the tally to leave 475km to go before November 23rd.

Only one run in Taiwans lovely Forest Park in the middle of Taipei shaved a further 11km off the total, which leaves 464km.

So .... I will try, try try, to muster up the will-power to do a further 45km before I'm off to Bali in Indonesia for this year's final Connecting Classrooms Contact Seminar. There I must change my attitude and come back fit and a bit brown if there are any occasions to take in any sun! In other words, can I possibly manage to run 119km in 8-9 days?

We shall see!

Setpember 21st

So here we are, nearly into October already and the good news is that Arsenal are top of the Premier League, I've jsut had good results from my latest blood tests and I think I might be on target to have ran 1000km by 23rd November.

If I had 645km to go last time I blogged which was 10 days ago, then I have to deduct 24km from Thursday 11th & Friday 12th then 8km on Saturday 13th followed by 60km last week, which leaves ...

553km.

I am attempting 15km a day from tomorrow which will leave 493km after Thursday then I leave for the UK on Friday. I will then run 15km a day, for 6 days from Sunday 28th to Saturday October 4th, when I might enter a 10km race in Battersea if I feel like I might not be completely embarrased by the rest of the field.

Then we are into October and I'm kind of busy but I've got to somehow run 300km.

We shall see ....

Around and around

The park I go, attempting to get myself fit enough to run 42.125km on the 23rd November.

I think I am under the last blog's target as I only ran 6km on Thursday and zero on Friday due to using the fact that it was raining a lot as a poor excuse to go and drink some nice cans of Singha!

However, with slight hangover on Saturday, I dragged myself out onto the pavement of Ratchadapisek and ran 8km. It hammered down on the way back and I got drenched which is a kind of message that it is the rainy season so no more lame excuses foe not putting in the miles.

15km in the train drivers' park on Sunday, 12km in Jatujak yesterday and another 12km today. Am I back on taggart?


I'll have to add it up. 53km leaving 645km. Ahead of taggert! Brilliant - I am inspired to continue running 12km a day for the rest of the week with another 15km on Friday then rest for 2 days.

Here's what is keeping me from running straight to the nearest 7-11

Unrest in Bangkok

While the well-reported unrest is going on in Bangkok in a typically Thai way - I haven't really noticed any change in atmosphere in the city except a few ids dressed as soldiers guiding the traffic the other morning, I have returned to the Big Mango and am now circumnavigating Jatujak Park with increased regularity at 18:15 every evening.

Well, three evenings this week so far.

I did manage 11km on the treadmill of the Amari Plaza Hotel in Hanoi but no more there. That is now added to 21km I've run in the park which leaves, er, 698km. I keep missing my targets but I aim to do 9km tomorrow and 21km on Saturday. That will take me down to 668km.

I then have 2 and a half weeks till I go to London on business so I aim to bring the total down to 564 by then. The missable target will be:

Tuesday 9th - 6km
Wednesday 10th - 9km
Thursday 11th - 9km
Friday 12th - 12km
Saturday 13th 21km
Tuesday 16th - 6km
Wednesday 17th - 9km
Thursday 18th - 9km
Friday 19th - 12km
Saturday 20th 21km
Tuesday 23rd - 6km

I would then try to run 64km in London and come back needing to do 350km in October - a difficult feat given that I have to be in Taiwan and Indonesia but nothing, they say, is impossible.

Over and out!

Back in Hanoi!

I'm in Hanoi again - seems to be my second home for the past couple of months! This is the third leg of my work here to support Vietnam colleagues work on the project I manage - Connecting Classrooms.

We were in Ho Chi Minh City yesterday from Saturday and before that, Danang in the centre of the country.

I really will add some photos and info and links and stuff and spend a good few hours updating the entries soon (!!) but for now I must go for a run in the hotel gym. It's midday so it is too hot outside and I've got to the stage where I think I need to run every day until November if I'm to crack the 1000km target!

Anyway, up to Danang I was 794.8km - 28km which leaves 766.8km, which is a bloody lot!

In Danang I ran by the river and was joined by a charming young thing called Lan who spoke a bit of English - my first, 'social running' experience!

I guess I probably did about 4.8km then so down to 762km. Then in HCMC I did 5km on the treadmill in the hotel and an estimated 9km from the hotel to the park, around 8 times and back. I also did another 5km in the hotel and I'm just about to do a 10km run here so it will be down to - 731km.

My plan must be to do another 11 tomorrow then 20 on Sunday followed by 300km in September if I am to get anywhere near my target.

I'm going to have to get serious!

A few more kilometres

I have time to Blog but I can't seem to get round to it. I do need somewhere to record my running though and as I've started here, I'll carry on using it.

I'll delete this later and add something more interesting, at least to me!

28 more kilometres to report over the past few weeks - pretty poor but I'm going to try to make amends!