Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness

Today I can hardly walk. Perhaps that's not surprising; I did run over 17 km yesterday after sitting in a chair all day. But it's not the furthest I've run, and although I've been wobbly after running before, not to this degree for a very long time.

Toasted

I've been struggling. After the competition my brain was all worn out; I should have noticed on my run this morning when I couldn't think hard enough to make myself run quickly. I should have noticed when I spent the day incompetently clicking on icons on my computer, unable to do anything productive. I should have noticed when I didn't notice it was Tuesday today.

Up your nose

I've been getting lots of spots lately, which I blame on the humid weather, or my poor diet, or stress, or not washing my face properly. To sort this out, I got some very expensive unguent and spread it over my face.

Then I made the mistake of breathing. Why do I always do that?

Suffering

There was a massive storm last night, which kicked off about midnight right overhead, the lightning bleaching our apartment white again, the thunder echoing round my empty head, and the wind blowing dust and grime in over the floor I'd only swept clean yesterday. So instead of waking rested and ready to run, my stomach full of $80 asparagus from last night's unfeasibly expensive Chinese meal, I overslept and crawled out of bed three hours late, then lost another hour and a half wasting time on the xbox.

Hurting

Last night I couldn't sleep: the pain from my stiff neck was too much. Luckily, I had an appointment with the physio booked for this morning, but a combination of painkillers, pain and fatigue meant I could harddly keep my eyes focussed, even when I could keep them open.

Crashing in Chiang Mai

There's certain things that stick with me from today's riding. The quiet ting-ting of brake discs cooling as we stopped between runs. The skittering boulders bouncing past you as you skidded down a gulley. Warm wind blowing in my face rolling down the road between runs. And the ground shooting up towards me half way through the last run today down the Bamboo Trail.

Foreign objects

For lunch today I went and bought a salad with lots of A's in it; arugala, asparagus, avocado. They didn't have any artichoke, but they made up for this omission by including a hair.

Chilli

I was in tears last night, following my latest experiment with dried chilli peppers.

Terrified of Luke Haines / Eleven Minutes Late

I'm sat alone in my flat, ruddy petrified at the noise coming from my television, yet finding it laughable at the same time. Or perhaps it's just the onset of hysteria. Yes, I'm listening to Luke Haines' The Great Brain Robbery again, from his 21st Century Man album, and the combination of Haines' intimidating, hate-spitting voice and the constant buzz of the electricity transformer that he's recruited as a musical instrument, makes me feel like my head is trapped in a box of pure evil vitriol. And 1990s Brit-art. And the fact that I could turn it off whenever I like, but don't, adds a delicious absurdity to it all.

It's rather like when you listen to Slayer's Decade of Aggression live album, and the CD comes to an end, and you suddenly find yourself relaxing now that the horrible, horrible noise has stopped.

Or, more prosaically, like the great feeling you get when you stop hitting yourself on the head with a hammer. But, er, in a good way.

Ouch

I was just about to eat some toast when there was a loud crash and a sound of pain from behind me, and I turned to see my girlfriend on the floor.

I never touched her, honest.

Cheer up, you won't feel a thing

I do have some things to be cheerful about.