Tag: life

Furlough

~ e.v. ~ 3 Comments

I haven’t been furloughed, but I had an email today from the managing director saying that the company will be applying for the government furlough scheme and some of my colleagues will be furloughed, though my role is deemed to be safe.

When I spoke to my manager this morning he seemed quite grumpy at the start of the call, which is unusual, and I guess that’s why. I don’t know who is getting furloughed yet, but I could take a few guesses…

I’m a bit upset though. It’s worrying. I don’t know why though. The practical reality if I was furloughed is that I’d probably enjoy relaxing. The reduction of income would be mildly annoying but would have no material effect on my life. So it shouldn’t worry me really. But it does.

Halves

~ e.v. ~ 7 Comments

Today would have been the Stratford Half Marathon, if it wasn’t for the fact that nothing is happening at the moment. I decided to run the distance this morning anyway, just because.

It was absolutely dreadful and I have no idea what I was thinking. Obviously it’s not comparable to an actual race because you’re not doing it on closed roads, and, more importantly, there’s no excitement and adrenaline from running with people and having spectators cheering you on. But it was both my slowest half marathon and one of the hardest runs I’ve ever done. The weather when I left was supposedly a cool 7 degrees, but it was a clear sky and bright sunlight so it was really a lot hotter.

The first 10k were fine and I was sticking to a 5 minute per kilometre pace pretty evenly, but by about 15k I’d had enough and I slowed down. I didn’t have a route planned, so I ended up going onto the nearby cycle track and doing kilometres 19 and 20 running around in circles. It seemed like the kilometres were getting longer and longer and I was slightly worried the GPS on my watch was under-measuring the distance in a circle, but it also said I was getting faster so it was probably just my perception of time. There were a few people around on the cycle track, which was energising and I was able to pick up the pace a bit.

In the end, I averaged 5:12 per km and finished in just under 1 hour 50 minutes. This is approximately 18 minutes slower than I was in October (almost 1 minute per kilometre!), which is OK because I certainly wasn’t aiming to beat that, but it wasn’t OK because I felt fine at the end of it in October, whereas today I lied on my living room floor in a sweaty mess and had to stuff two bananas, two croissants and two cups of tea into my mouth and have and a cold shower before I started feeling normal again. Only a week earlier I’d done 17k at only a slightly slower pace and barely felt like I’d broken a sweat, but it was cold and wet that day. The weather makes a big difference. I wish I’d weighed myself before and after to see just how much sweat I lost.

Overall it was great, 10/10, would do again. But maybe not for a while. I think tomorrow will be a rest day.

More dreams

~ e.v. ~ 7 Comments

The other night I woke up at the dreaded four o clock after having a dream about work. Except, it wasn’t my work. I’ve been watching Star Trek Picard, and the blonde robotics doctor Agnes Jurati was my coworker. But she didn’t like me much and was quite mean to me so one day I walked out. I woke up really stressed about a job I don’t even have.

Later, I went back to sleep and I was on the bus going home from work (I don’t even travel by bus). Part way home I decided I should go back to work, so I got off the bus and walked back to work with a man who for some reason I met along the way. When I got back to work, they’d decided to close the office early, which also meant I couldn’t work my hours. One of my co-workers (real co-worker, blonde, coincidence?)) was there and she was looking at my timesheet (we don’t even record timesheets) saying things like “well, it’s whether you think you can explain to your manager why your hours aren’t complete…”, which stressed me when I woke up.

I have more stress in my life from imagined jobs than I do from my real job. 🤨

Lockdown life

~ e.v. ~ 3 Comments

The lockdown has been pretty great for me if I’m honest because it finally gave me the time to sort out my plants. I am actually getting towards the end of my plant todo list, which is amazing, really. Were it not for the lockdown, I’d be spending my weekend afternoons wandering around parks and sitting in coffee shops and not doing anything at home. It’s been a nice change of pace.

I haven’t sacrificed my running at all though. When I was in good shape last year, I’d do Parkrun on a Saturday and intervals on a Wednesday. I’d be running every other day too, but those two days would be speed work. Without having done any speed work for months and months, I’ve been feeling slow lately. So last week I started back with interval Wednesdays. Intervals are a fun way to experience the joy of starting running all over again, in as much as by the end of the 5th interval you just try to avoid collapsing on the ground while thinking “oh my god, why am I doing this to myself?” as psople walk past you with a mild expression of concern on their face. No it’s alright, I’m doing this on purpose, you see. It’s hard to pace intervals.

This week I also added some 1km intervals onto the end of my Saturday long run. When Parkrun starts up again I want to be in PB shape. We’ll see. I have some pretty sensitive shin splints this evening though but they usually settle down as quickly as they appear, so hopefully they will do that again this time.

I was supposed to be doing a half marathon next Sunday, which obviously isn’t happening now, but I’m planning to run the distance just because. I won’t do it fast because for me the recovery from a race pace half is significant (unlike a 10k), but I just want to say I did it.

I’ve also been trying to get back into some strength work for running which at the moment just involves a few sets of squats. I think squats are an efficient way to hit your legs and hips and abs at once and hopefully even out any imbalances. Last week I fit them in before starting work (thanks to working from home and not having to commute). That’s another way the lockdown is a positive thing for me.

Actually I’m finding the lockdown quite relaxing. I see a lot of attention now in the media towards paying attention to one’s mental health in these stressful times, but for me at least, it’s been quite nice.

Plants 🌱

~ e.v. ~ 3 Comments

Good Friday is a holiday here in the UK and the weather has been uncharacteristically lovely, so I spent some time with the plants and setting them up a home for the summer.

Day ????

~ e.v. ~ 1 Comment

I stopped counting the days because I’ve been feeling a lot better…

So anyway, yesterday was the first time since I got sick almost 3 weeks ago that I woke up and my throat did not hurt. It’s one of those things where instead of being grateful that a minor but incredibly annoying inconvenience has been lifted, you just think “cool” and go about your life and forget it was ever an issue.

Today I woke up with a sore throat. In fact, it’s been worse today than it has all week. It got quite painful later on in the day. I regret wasting my day yesterday. I had a whole day without a sore throat. I should have spent all day thinking about how amazing it is not to have a sore throat. I should have spent every waking minute feeling grateful. I should have swallowed extra frequently just to appreciate the ability to do so comfortably. But no. I wasted it.

Strange times

~ e.v. ~ 10 Comments

I heard from a friend from my previous job today. Apparently they’ve lost a lot of work and they’re struggling to keep the business afloat. I can’t say I’m surprised by that. I wonder how I would feel if the company went under. Sad for some of my ex colleagues but definitely not sad for my ex boss. Hmm. We’ll see.

Life is really bizarre at the moment. Working from home has all the days running into one. On Wednesday I thought it was Tuesday. I’ve kept my hours strictly the same and I’ve also kept my lunch time runs as a constant. The running has been a bit difficult to get back into since I was ill. I spent a couple of days with quite painful shin splints, which magically resolved as quickly as they appeared, but now my hamstring is feeling very tight. I think that’s the effect of lying in bed for a week and then a few days later trying to do long runs again. I’m not doing any walking either, which probably doesn’t help. I’ve started doing weights at home (squats) too, to try to even my muscles out a bit. Maybe I will start sneaking out for a walk as well as my run…

It’s lovely and quiet outside though. It’s lovely to get to the main road and just go straight across it without having to wait for a gap in the traffic. I ran over the motorway bridge on Sunday and the motorway was pretty much empty.

Overall though I seem to be handling the sudden change in lifestyle just fine. I feel content working from home and the lack of going into the office every day hasn’t really affected my mental health, even though I thought it might.

People

~ e.v. ~ 2 Comments

I was out running at lunch time in my almost deserted local park. In front of me there was a girl in her early 20s who was probably in the (surprisingly large) contingent of people who have just taken up running in the last couple of weeks.

She was on the right edge of the path, and coming the opposite way were an older couple (70s) who were on the left. This is a wide path, there’s ample room for people to pass in single file while maintaining ‘social distance’. So, did the couple move over onto the left? The (presumably) wife did, but the man had other ideas. He veered over to the right towards the running girl and said something aggressively to her which I didn’t quite catch, but the end of it sounded like “get over, bloody fiend”, while making a kind of swatting gesture in her face by swinging his arm as if to push her away. I presumed the context in his head was that he felt she was violating his “social distance”, though she really wasn’t.

By this time I was probably 10 metres behind her. She completely ignored him and just kept going (good choice). I was expecting something similar and as I was full of adrenaline I would have told him exactly what I thought. But then he probably guessed that from looking at me, and didn’t try anything with me. Which makes him a bully, only picking on people he doesn’t expect to retaliate.

A few seconds later the path forked, she went left and I went right and that was that. These things just happen so quickly, you don’t really process it at the time. I probably should have asked if she was OK but she might not have appreciated it.

I hope she’s not put off running again.

Working from home

~ e.v. ~ 2 Comments

So for the first time in my life I’ve spent a full week working from home. I did the odd day or two semi-frequently in my previous job, but to be honest I only really did it towards the end of my time there and it was because I wanted any excuse to not go there.

It’s been weird and also not weird. My manager and I have had daily video calls. We seem to have adapted. The work itself hasn’t changed at all. It’s been nice to potter around the garden before starting work.

I don’t think my new employer’s business will be affected much if at all by the country shutting down. Most of our clients are public sector (councils and hospitals) and should continue to function, and some of our funding is from government R&D grants. Probably the biggest risk is that the Managing Director is about 70.

I wonder how things would be different had I still been at my old job.

I don’t think the same is true of my previous employer at all. Their customers are mostly small businesses or individual entrepreneurs who’ve secured a chunk of money. I can see investment for those types of projects drying up pretty quickly. My ex-employer also has the disadvantage that they won’t be able to use the government’s scheme for helping with 80% of their salary bill should they have to suspend or cut back on operations, because a large percentage of their workers aren’t salaried due to being contractors in Russia. I might be experiencing a certain amount of schadenfreude with that. I always got the impression that their profit margins were quite small as well.

Overall I’m glad to not be there anymore.

Days 11 and 12

~ e.v. ~ 3 Comments

Good: The cough has eased off, which has made sleeping a lot easier. I went for a walk at lunch time yesterday and survived (first time leaving the house for a week and a half!), and today I did a 5k run. It wasn’t the best run but it also wasn’t the worst. My lungs seem to be fine, I’m just tired.

Bad: My throat is still sore and my resting heart rate is still sitting a good 5bpm higher than it was a few weeks ago. I’m much improved but I’m not 100%.

But overall I’m feeling pretty good again.