OK Go...

An interesting week....apart from the most challenging week at work for years, I had an appointment with my physio on Wednesday. The great news is that I'm free to resume doing what the heck I like on the sporting front. (Without boring you with the detail, my two conditions can, we concluded, continue to be managed, just as I've got them both under control, through a strict and unending regime of exercises, and care with the diet, in terms of both inclusions and exclusions [ok, next level of detail; the inclusions are salmon, turmeric, green tea and ginger; the exclusions are non-organic dairy products as far as possible, red meat more than once a week, refined sugar]).

My first reaction, apart from massive relief of course, was that I should resurrect plans from earlier in the year to join Mendi Prouleur in the Pyrenees at the end of August. Then I realised that was madness - not only have I done no riding of note this year; not only do I not have access to a bike during the week at the moment (and for the foreseeable future), but I've also got plans for many of the weekends over the next couple of months. Weekends in Paris and the Shropshire hills with each of my two eldest kids, sister-in-law's wedding in Plymouth, another Brittany visit, and a posh and free weekend in London, all mean that I have no time to do the kind of extended rides needed to equip you for a week in the high hills. So, things must stay as they are, more's the pity.

I was bemoaning the fact last time that 2012 is a bit boring compared to previous years. Well, there might not be many landmark events, but there are plenty of smaller ones. This weekend was an example of that - it was 'Barnaby' weekend in Macclesfield, a 3 day festival that celebrates the olden days, when all the silk mill workers and their families decamped to Blackpool for the week. And what a fantastic amount of effort had gone into organising a multitude of events. Mrs M did loads, including a 2 hour paleocalligraphy course, otherwise known as how to read 15/16th century handwriting. I accompanied her to an evening of ludicrous cabaret-type magic on Saturday night, which was bonkers, enjoyable, and the filling in a half-marathon sandwich.

Yup, I managed 13 miles on both Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning in the hills, so 2000 feet of climbing each time as well as the distance. That's nothing on a bike, but it got the ticker going when I was trying to run, I can tell you. And there's going to be a whole load more of it...it fits in with the new work-dictated lifestyle, and I have to say, I enjoy it. Time to go and look up the marathon calendar for the rest of 2012....