It's Monday...

I've not been terribly good at updating my blog over the past couple of weeks. I guess it's a combination of the day-to-day grind and perhaps a reduction in focus now that the marathon is past.

I think a weekly update is as much as I can manage for the time being, especially after taking up the post of chairman of Motherwell AC.

On the subject of running, I've seen an orthopaedic surgeon about my knee and he says there are "no red flags" which would suggest anything major.

I did an 8.3 miles run on Sunday morning and found the going tough, less to do with any great amount of discomfort from my knee and more about just being knackered!

Anyway, more as and when.

A small rabbit hutch

A small rabbit hutch
Originally uploaded by Sparks57.

Why the silence? Because we spent an incredibly drink sodden weekend in and around London.

It started on Friday night with a BBC leaving do in Glasgow then we hopped on the sleeper to London at 11.45pm. I slept a fair bit on the way down, Fiona didn't. No surprise there then.

The cabin wasn't particularly spacious and I'd hate to have had to share it with a complete stranger. That can't be much fun.

We had a top laugh with the Cliftons, complete with Pete's trumpet playing exploits at 1.30am on Sunday.

The hardest part of the journey back was trying to get a taxi from Motherwell railway station to home.

I managed to get on the bike down to Strathclyde Park then did the bird sanctuary run although it gave me a load of jip in my right knee.

Physio again on Thursday, hopefully I'll make some progress but I'm starting to think I might need a scan of some sort to see what's going on.

Knee jip

So, I appear to have a "Baker's Cyst" which has been causing me the problem in my right knee.

This condition occurs when an excess of synovial fluid is produced in the joint and it fills a sac called a bursa. The example in the picture is a lot more dramatic than my knee - I don't have that bulge on the surface but I can certainly feel it within my knee.

The BBC website explains the condition here.

That then causes stiffness and possibly pain in the joint, which is exactly the symptoms I've been experiencing.

The good news, according to Alastair the physio at Hampden, is that it's a soft tissue problem and should be straightforward to sort out.

He did ultrasound on it and this, combined with the massage at the hands of Suzy "steel fingers" at Next Generation this afternoon, has made it feel a lot looser this evening.

I'm really keen to go for a run tomorrow morning before work but I'll see how it goes.

London

Image008.jpg
Originally uploaded by Sparks57.

Monday and Tuesday this week were London days, the first time for a while I've been away overnight.

Home for the night was the Kensington Hilton, not a patch on my own bed but comfortable enough all the same.

I still find it odd when outside Scotland to see people smoking in pubs, restaurants and other enclosed spaces.

I had the urge to tell a Japanese man in the hotel foyer he was breaking the law but reminded myself I was in England, not Scotland.

When I went out for something to eat, I went into an All Bar One and left rapidly because it was so smoky. An unpleasant reminder of the past.

Work-wise, I've been focusing more on getting our BBC Scotland News Weekly up and running.

There's an edited version on You Tube here in the hope of hearing some external reaction.

No more running beyond Sunday morning's outing. My knee's still giving me jip so I've booked an appointment at Hampden for Thursday evening to see what the phsyio thinks.

Through the red B

through the red B
Originally uploaded by bobthelomond.

I really like this picture, taken by one of my BBC colleagues at our new Pacific Quay building.

A top shot!

First run

I promised it would be two weeks and two weeks it was... to the day.

This morning I ventured out again and did 5.6 miles with a few others doing the 9am club run.

It's funny but I felt very nervous, perhaps because I've still got a fair amount of stiffness in my right knee.

I was hoping I could run some of it off and although I felt it throughout, it never gave me any real pain as such.

I think physios refer to it as "awareness" rather than pain.

Anyway, it was really enjoyable apart from a few very bad jokes from one of our number.

I'd forgotten how it felt to do runs like this without having a target time or distance in mind.

Thursday

It's been one of those non-descript type of weeks so far. Not a huge amount of any note anywhere.

At work there's been a fair bit of positive movement on one of my projects, which is called BBC Scotland News Weekly.

It's a digest of video stories from the week, pulled together into a "programme" of about 12 minutes' duration.

We're planning to launch it on the first Friday of November and I'm hoping to put a cut-down version on YouTube before then(YouTube can only accept 10 minutes of video per item).

Sophie's off to Boston tomorrow :-(

I'm having a wee swally tomorrow night and hoping to get out for a run on Sunday morning.

I had a massage today, courtesy of Suzy "steel fingers". Very tight IT bands, she said.

Now there's a surprise!!!!

Phone tap?

Phone tap?
Originally uploaded by Sparks57.

This is a scene near my work in Glasgow. It's in an area heavily populated by students and is near the university, which may explain why the shoes have been thrown up round the telephone line.

However, it's a practice I've noticed elsewhere in Glasgow as well and it prompts the question: "Why?".

Is it a particularly Glaswegian thing to do?

Bear in mind that I'm an Aberdonian so the idea of wasting a pair of shoes by flinging them over a phone line makes me shudder :-)))

As an aside, I think the picture came out quite well. There are a few more on flickr.

Blue do

I think maybe some of what's known as "Post-Marathon Blues" are now kicking in.

I feel quite flat and not really motivated at the moment. I'm not really surprised about this, after all I'd read plenty about it in the run-up to the race.

I am trying to focus some thoughts on other things coming up in the near future, such as going to London for the weekend in a couple of weeks' time.

Also, we're booked up to go to Venice for three days in November, really by way of a thank you to Fiona for her patience while I spent so much time training.

The weekend was fun though. We went to the McAndrew Road Relays in the west end of Glasgow. Pictures here.

I'd love to have taken part but it was too early. I'm still getting an ache from the back of my right knee. It's particularly acute when I kneel down and feels like there's a lump inside the back of my knee when I'm in that position.

I'd like to take part in the Lanarkshire AAA Road Relays at Drumpellier on October 21 though. We'll see how things go.

The subject of Christmas is now turning up in conversations. I'm looking forward to it with unmitigated joy.

So little time...

And so much to do. It's bedtime and I'd planned to write an update.

It'll have to wait until tomorrow night.

Friday

The postman brought a fantastic surprise today - an invitation to the Leonard Cheshire Leadership Dinner in London on November 15.

Better still, the invite is to me and partner so Fiona can come too. The guest speakers are General Sir Mike Jackson (that's him), the recently retired chief of the general staff, and Gill Hicks, who lost part of her legs in the London bombings.

I think they'll be inspirational to listen to.

I really want to do more with Leonard Cheshire. I'm not sure what I have to offer but I want to offer it.

By way of a thank you for Fiona's infinite patience, we're going to Venice for three days next month. It's somewhere she's always wanted to go.

Yesterday's jaunt to London made for a long day. Again.

I finally got home at 11pm or so, just in time to have a wee sip of wine then bed.

Tomorrow should be fun - the McAndrew Road Relays in Jordanhill then the Scotland v France game.

I aim to break some sweat on Sunday. This not running thing is bugging me. My knee is a bit sore, but easing.

It's an odd thing - it's right in the back of my right knee but feels like it's inside, rather than a muscle or tendon on the outside.

Enough for the moment.

Loch Ness to Gobi Desert?

I've been doing a passable impersonation of John Wayne after a vasectomy over the last day or so but thankfully my legs eased up a lot today.

I'm starting to feel like I want to get out for a very easy couple of miles but I know that's not the right thing to do.

I'm going to have to get to the gym in the next few days though, just to stretch off properly and do some time on the bike and stepper.

I saw the physio at Hampden late this afternoon for an appointment I made a couple of weeks ago. He had a poke and a prod around my right knee and remained of the view that the pain was the result of high mileage and will ease off.

Someone's sent me details of the Gobi Desert Challenge 2007.

I'll say no more about it at the moment other than it looks interesting.

Loch Ness Marathon part two

Loch Ness Marathon
Originally uploaded by Sparks57.

This morning I received two pictures from Jo at Leonard Cheshire, both taken by Jill McNally. This is one of them. Thank you so much for capturing these moments.

I've referred to them in my final article on the BBC News website
here.

My official time was 4.23.24. I'm happy with that.

Yesterday was a day of R&R. A swim and sauna at the Strathclyde Hilton followed by lunch (and wine).

Home, lolling about the house, writing emails, updating the club website, generally taking it easy.

My legs are still quite sore this morning and I've stuck an elastic bandage on my right knee to give it a bit more support.

I'm hoping to go for another swim this evening to try to keep as loose as possible.

Loch Ness Marathon

Loch Ness Marathon
Originally uploaded by Sparks57.

It's very very difficult to know what exactly to write so I'm not going to spend ages doing it at the moment.

It's enough to say that yesterday was one of the most awesome experiences of my life.

Running a marathon was everything I'd been told about and a million times more.

My time was something around 4hrs 20mins but more importantly I raised £1,038 for Leonard Cheshire.

Fiona, Sophie and Maggie played their part on the day by helping out as marshalls.

More later.