Non-zero

Thursday, and the rain hammers down.  The initial flush of energy seems to have disappeared, and up ahead is what seems like a long haul to get fit.  That disappointment sets in when you realise the flab hasn't disappeared in just 10 days, and you really are going to have to put some work in and stay off the pies.

To be fair, it's been an interesting week, buying a new house, which has directed attention away from such trivial matters as a bit of running, and into those important, grown-up things like arranging a mortgage, and considering whether your telly will be big enough in the new lounge.  To add insult to injury, the news that we've won a sealed bid against 3 other people brings cause for a few glasses of wine on Wednesday night, and those alcoholic endorphins start flowing again like the good 'ole days of 2013.

Still, though, I plough on with training.  On Wednesday, a damp lunchtime run is hard work.  I try to do something akin to intervals - accelerating for periods of time.  I work up to the big push, then run as fast as I can.  Sadly, as fast as I can is not very fast, and it's all I can do to stop myself tumbling arse-over-tit.  Even running as-not-very-fast-as-I-can, I can only sustain it for about 15 seconds before I come to a wheezing halt.  I trust it'll improve in the coming weeks, but by the time I arrive back at the office I'm hurting all over and begging for it to be over.  On the plus side, I've done 1.6 miles in just over 14 minutes, about 8:50/mi pace.  On the down side, running has replaced the swimming as my least favourite tri sport.

Today, training goes out the window a little bit.  Too wet for a run, not enough time for a swim, and some exceedingly poor maintenance on my part means my bike is making some rather alarming grinding noises, so is far from suitable for anything other than limping to and from the train station, until such time as I fix it.  But I'm helped by random internet advice that has stuck with me - no more zero days.  It's ostensibly about depression, but I think it's just sound advice for life.  A non-zero day is one in which you do something, anything.  Anything that isn't what you would have done if someone hadn't told you to have a non-zero day.  Read one page of a book, do one pushup, go outside for one minute.  It doesn't matter, as long as it's not nothing.

I slip the Just Dance disc into the Wii U again.  Let us not speak of what happened next, for it involves slightly suggestive moves in time to Carly Rae Jepsen, but it all counts.