This year I do not have a table load of targets to hit. It is much simpler. Get fitter, and be happier. For me one definitely leads to the other.

Ever since a kid was born that I was responsible for it was impossible for me to find the time. My health, both mental and physical, clearly took a lot of dents since. I have periodically gotten back to exercise and always felt way way better. But… Then I had a run of bad health which kept knocking me back by immobilising me for weeks and months at a time. These were not training injuries, just things that happened.

Progress is not a straight line. I tell myself that a lot now. Before we could all walk we fell a million times. So now I just tell myself that each attempt is the direction of travel. Travel always has delays :D.

The thing holding me back in 2021 from doing the same thing was an injury around March. I really did not want to risk injuring it further because I had been immobilised a few times in the previous years. That really, really, really sucked. So I rested it and went to the GP when the pain hadn’t gone after a few months.

I have seen a physio in December 2021 who set me right. I have slowly worked stretches, bounces, and now jogging back in. By the end of January I have jogged back from dropping kids at school most days for about three weeks. I have to make that journey. I am now making it work for me. It is a much healthier choice.

The result is that I have significantly reduced the pain in my right ankle/foot. I am getting fitter and the endorphins are helping me in literally every area of my life. So here is to feeling like me again. It took a while.

Slight gear shift

A love note to lost friends. My friend Rintu Basu sadly left this mortal plain early in January after a short battle with pancreatic cancer.

He was an absolutely top guy. Smart, caring, kind. Free with actually useful advice that was delivered in a way that you listened and could accept.

I am imagining the joy of him meeting Paul Mason (who we sadly lost over a year ago now) and having a conversation. The two of them were big big characters and into so many overlapping things that I know they would be a riot together. It seems absurd that the two didn’t know each other.

It has reminded me that I we all eventually leave our friends and loved ones some day.

So I am going to get fit not because that’ll mean I live forever. But for certain my time here will be more fun. Living for you lads too.