Up yours, Mr Lloyd

I know she has her critics, but I think the whole Jade Goody cancer issue is very sad.

I can’t begin to imagine what it must feel like to be told you have an incurable disease from which you WILL die within months, maybe weeks. And I know there are people who feel she shouldn't publicise her plight, but I can’t see any harm in it; moreover, it is reported that the number of cervical smear tests being carried out since her contracting cancer has increased substantially, and if this is in part due to the publicity from Jade then surely that can only be good, cant it?

The big C word struck a couple of colleagues of mine with fatal consequences about 7 years ago now. David Graham and Colin Pilgrem, two very strong and successful businessmen who I worked with, were both struck with liver cancer around the same time as each other. Neither survived 6 weeks after diagnosis. Their deaths were very shocking and I often think about them.

Colin Pilgrem was an accountant for whom I carried out tax consultancy. The day he was diagnosed with cancer he called me into his office to ask that I take over his clients. Of course I agreed, but that was the last time I ever saw him. I kept in touch with his family, but eventually they moved away from the area and we haven’t spoken much for a year or so.

This weekend I have been clearing out my garage of all the papers and general household rubbish which has accumulated over the years. Amongst the papers were some out-of-date documents for Colin’s clients (when I say out of date I mean papers which are older than 6 years). I found myself sitting down with these and reading through them (nothing like a bit of light reading about the tax consequences of offshore trusts to brighten the day!). This took me back to the days when Colin and I were working together, and it all seemed like it all happened yesterday. The big C is a nasty, nasty thing.

On a lighter note, I also found papers which really, REALLY, took me back. There’s a letter I found from a girl from college named Sally (that’s the feature photo this week). I can’t remember who she is, but she obviously wasn't my girlfriend because she's going on about some boy she's met. There’s my Best Man’s speech notes from my brother’s wedding when I was a nervous 18 year old. I certainly DO remember that day. Then there's some pictures of a day I spent at Silverstone when I was an avid MG owner. Here’s me and my lovely MG Midget (circa 1987) ready for the off on the driveway at home...



It was a hard job throwing out papers which hold so many happy memories, so I ended up keeping most and hiding them away in a couple of filing cabinets. No doubt they will resurface in another 20 years or so to treat me once again to all those fantastic memories.

Garage cleared, and now it's full of gym equipment - treadmill (courtesy of Maurice from my tri club), weights bench (courtesy of Maurice from my tri club), spin bike (courtesy of Towell from tri talk), rowing machine, turbo trainer, TV, DVD, blah blah blah. All this in response to my resignation from the USELESS DAVID LLOYD GYM IN LUTON. Today I took the kids for a crash (not literally) course around it and they loved it. Maybe triathletes of the future? I should take a photo of them and file it away to uncover it in years to come to remind me of how they looked as young teenagers back in the year 2009! Now that would be worth waiting for, for sure.

Did a bit of training this week, but was still recovering from last week’s cold, so training was on a 'when I feel Ok' basis. Here you go.....

Monday – run - hill repeats - hopping, 50 press-ups and 30 sit-ups
Tuesday – rest, 50 press-ups and 31 sit-ups (can you see a pattern developing?!?!)
Wednesday – bike - gym spin (fixed wheel), run - treadmill - easy 45 minutes at 1.5 gradient
Thursday – rest, 50 press-ups and 32 sit-ups
Friday - rest, 50 press-ups and 33 sit-ups
Saturday – run - hill repeats - hopping
Sunday – run - 800 metre intervals, 50 press-ups and 34 sit-ups

Next week I am determined to make use of the gym in the garage, and also get back on track with the running plan.

In the meantime, here’s this week’s *WEBSITE OF THE WEEK* (see side bar for websites from previous weeks) - http://www.podrunner.com/. It’s a site full of House and Dance music which you can run to at specific stride rates. Downloadable to your computer or your ipod. I am trying to develop a run stride rate pattern of 180 strides per minute and so podrunner has become a valuable resource of music to me. I have a secret passion for House music, and also love running to music, so it's a bit of a double whammy for me. Try it out for yourself. Fantastic, inspirational stuff.

Until next week, happy training.

Cheers.

C