Wherever You Go, Go With All Your Heart

100 Miles in 30 Days

2010-03-28T10:37:00.000-07:00

Day 21: 102% Complete

After a gruelling 195 minute session on my bike I have succesfully travelled 102 miles in the last three weeks.

I have simultaneously seen the best and worst sight in Yorkshire today. The best being a feat of civil engineering which produced a bridge over a magnificent waterfall and is perhaps the most peaceful place I have ever come across. The worst was definitely the hill leading up to Harewood after I took a wrong turn. I miscalculated - who would have thought a woman with a map would ever get lost?

I may give my limbs a rest for a few days and let the snow come then pick up when it's actually summer!

100 Miles in 30 Days

2010-03-28T05:27:00.000-07:00

Day 21: 84% Complete

Leisurely cycle with my housemate yesterday added another 7 miles to my total.

9 days remaining. I feel confident I will easily complete the challenge, that is until I read the weather report for the week. Heavy snow is predicted for Wednesday.

One can only assume the BBC have messed it up and the clocks going forward today does actually mean the start of summer rather than a pointless waste of an hour.

I can't help but feel a surge of guilt every time I go out drinking, it's almost like it is defeating the whole point of this exercise and hard work. Louisa kindly pointed out that this is exactly the reason she does the exercise so that she *can* drink/eat what she likes... clever girl!

Spring Time Wind & Rain

2010-03-25T19:12:00.000-07:00

Wind tears apart the leaves
on trees almost blossoming,
Scattering like dust

The birds don't sing now.
At dawn the chorus is alive
in all its glory.

The sun rises east,
rays magnificent throughout
it's journey back west.

The World will look up
and say "be back again soon"
Until then, the moon.

100 Miles in 30 Days

2010-03-22T15:06:00.000-07:00

Day 15: 72% Complete

I trundled through most of today today figuring I would do no exercise - given the strenuity of the excursion yesterday. However, there is nothing like a bit of minor vexation to get the blood boiling. Broken promises do not bode well and knowing me, quite well I might add, I would not have slept with said chagrin rolling around my cerebrum.

Thus I ran onto the dark streets of Leeds, uncertain what I may find. It is now apparent there is a sort of late night running elite, so to speak, who are terribly friendly and go out of their way to ensure you are aware that they have 'got your back'. It is quite marvellous how lovely everyone becomes when there is simply no one else around.

I cantered, briskly, down Street Lane and back. Twas the only well lit street in the vicinity with cars still regularly hurtling down it. Altogether safe for a young lady I expect.

Although only two miles I feel thoroughly worn out and will sleep well tonight knowing that I, Josephine Marsh, am the better person after all.

100 Miles in 30 Days

2010-03-21T07:26:00.000-07:00

Day 14: 70% Complete

Today was a gruelling 2.5 hour cycle to Otley and back. It took me three hours in total but I did stop to have a sandwich by the river and also stopped in Chevin Cycles on the way back to get some cycling shorts and a new base layer in a more summery colour. Black is far too warm when the sun is out.

Trying my cycling shorts on for the first time led me to the question: However did I manage without them? They are so comfortable and if it was socially acceptable to wear them all the time you can be sure that I would.

Only 30 miles left in the challenge and I've got 16 days to do it in. At less than 2 miles a day there is the danger of becoming complacent so I may aim for 120 miles just to balance it back out to 3 miles a day!

100 Miles in 30 Days

2010-03-18T10:44:00.000-07:00

Day 11: 49% Complete

Today I cycled to work and back and braved Scott Hall Road which I have never done before. Albeit I had to push my bike up half of the hill as it was truly awful, but I gave it my best shot and one can only assume if I am mad enough to brave it again I will be able to cycle up two thirds of it. Cycling on the road there is simply too dangerous so I had to mount the pavement and deal with all the potholes instead.

I cannot begin to convey the sense of joy I felt as I came down the hill on the other side, it was glorious. A moment of sheer beauty... until I had to go uphill again! By that point I was almost home anyway so the thought of being home and drying off kept me going.

Soaking wet, too hot, sore bottom. Great, or at least I thought so until mapmyride told me I'd only burnt off 238 calories doing it! Probably shouldn't have had that chocolate covered flapjack at lunchtime, but it did have fruit in it...

100 Miles in 30 Days

2010-03-17T15:12:00.000-07:00

Day 10: 39% Complete

Today I decided to take myself on a run around Roundhay Park in the lovely city of Leeds. It is a picturesque, man made, lake which was built after a war to give the soldiers something to do... or something along those lines.

Running outside isn't something I do often due to the delights which are shin splints. I endeavour to get myself out, on occasion, as the air conditioning at the gym is more akin to heating.

There were some rather strange folk cavorting around the lake, when I have my headphones in I tend to imagine what sort of conversations they might be having. There were two teenagers with babies who were definitely advocating the use of Durex and then there was a woman who still had her work neckpass on who looked like she would definitely rather still be at work than feeding the greedy Canadian geese with her two unruly, but angelic, children.

There was a boy who drowned in the lake a couple of years ago and it appears to have been his birthday recently as there were some flowers and cards left by the memorial stones, it always makes me sad to think someone drowned in a lake that has no visible current or depth.

Anyway, day 10 of exercise and I'm seeing no signs of change just yet but I shall be cycling to and from work tomorrow which will be a 10 mile journey, plus some walking at lunchtime and sushi to eat for lunch. Excellent.

100 Miles in 30 Days

2010-03-15T12:06:00.000-07:00

Day 8: 32% Complete

Okay, so the challenge is to move myself 100 miles in 30 days in whichever form of exercise I can manage. Be this cycling, running or walking - I might as well scratch off all other forms as that is all I ever do.

In the past 8 days I have cycled to work, gone running on my lunch hour, gone running on the treadmill after work and cycled in the forest.

Cycling in Sherwood Pines was by far the most challenging thing I have ever put my body and mind through simultaneously. I figured 13 kilometres would be a doddle but what I hadn't bargained for was that the track snaked through the forest dangerously and was only a foot wide. Not quite the fire tracks that I have been used to when navigating the woods in the past. Especially not on my own.

The rain had created some rather large water logged areas that meant my tyres, which are mostly road tyres, kept slipping and sliding at every given moment. The key was to continue 'momemtum' which is easier said than done. When you are potentially going to faceplant a 100 year old pine tree going faster is not really what your brain is programmed to want to do. Regardless, I manned up and did indeed go faster and got through it all.

After about 3 kilometres I was slightly perplexed by which way the arrow was pointing. Did I continue on the fire track or did I head down the path which was bombarded with roots and fallen branches? It was a Beauty and the Beast moment where Phillipe the horse is bucking away to stop Belle veering down the eerie path. I looked behind me and there was a man ploughing through the mud heading my way, I asked him which way it was and lo and behold it was the eerie path. I braced myself for a bumpy ride and continued on my way. At the next crossroads he was catching his breath and pointed me in the right direction.

At the next confusing section he cycled up behind me as I was catching my breath, he thought that I was lost again so kindly offered to guide me around the rest of the track. Terribly sweet, I thought, but in the back of my mind I was worried he may well be one of these elusive axe murderers. Fortunately he was not. Woodland folk are all rather friendly and seem to look out for each other. I am now part of this elite group and feel rather excited about it all.

At one point on our journey we got to a section where there was a choice of continuing on or doing an extra kilometre and after he asked me what I wanted to do I thought 'why the hell not', so off we went again on another bendy, twisty, section of track that brought us out exactly where we'd started. It was an easy kilometre though so no harm done.

Next came the 'jumps' section which I had been a little bit apprehensive about. Anthony had been pepping me up for it for the last hour or so and it was not easing my mind at all. The thought of hurtling myself, and my bike, off a rock into the unknown was somewhat beyond my capabilities, for the best past of the last three months I've mostly been cycling the streets of North Leeds...

Anyway, we got to that bit and it was possibly the most fun I have ever had! I had to put a lot of trust into my bike and constantly reminding myself that thousands of people have cycled this track before and if it was that dangerous it would have been changed. God bless the car park fee.

Two and a half hours later we made it back to the car park. Unscathed, completely worn out and, surprisingly, only slightly tarnished with mud. I have never been so happy to see Go Ape in all my life.

Bring it all on again next Sunday.

2010-03-14T16:18:00.000-07:00

Mothering Sunday,
not a good day for mourners
whose mother just died.

A single snowdrop
marks the end of the winter
But summer is late...

It comes slowly now,
whispering gently in ears
marking passing time.

As my posts always seem to be rants...

2010-03-03T14:33:00.000-08:00

There was an old maiden named Marian,
She wasn't much of a disciplinarian.
She let us run wild,
And lived like a child.
Until her bones were wrought with osteoporosis.

She sometimes lied about her ailments,
But was truthful about her derailments.
Her eyes were always caring,
Her fresh baking made for sharing.
But her lungs did struggle from tuberculosis.

When she played the piano they all loved her,
Because her fingers would whizz in a blur.
She could paint and she could sing,
She could fix any kind of thing.
But not her acute asbestosis.

Now dear old Marian is in rehab today,
Her legs have given up leading the way.
She is getting fitter all the time,
And is still quite sublime.
She has even fixed her diagnosis.

Wisdom Teeth

2010-02-22T03:22:00.000-08:00

So, a couple of years ago my dentist informed me that my mouth was more than capable of housing my two lower wisdom teeth.
Great, I thought. Slightly miffed that I had a big mouth, at least they won't hurt me.

I remember when I was little, my mum was crying at the dinner table because hers hurt her so much and I could never understand it. They are only teeth that are already there, surely they can't hurt you that badly? Wrong answer.

There are few real pleasures in life, and those are predominantly eating and sleeping. Sleeping is ok until the paracetemol wears off but eating has become a nightmare. The upside is that I have been promised milkshake on demand if I get it removed...

The pain is ubiquitous, it isn't so bad that I feel the need to rob a doctor and inject myself with morphine but it is bad enough that I can't quite concentrate fully on anything.

Lucky then that I now have to pick up my car. Brilliant, a nice walk in the freezing cold to then drive precariously back home.

To a Hero Dying Young

2010-02-18T14:35:00.001-08:00

You used your hands to look for them,
To save us from their failing.
Your head was high upon your shoulder,
With no rifle for surveilling.

You thought that you weren't valued,
Guy, we know this wasn't true.
Your friends have cried openly,
Whilst the grief inside them grew.

Today we've brought home a son,
A friend and also a brother.
Now you're laying calmly to rest,
A hero unlike any other.

Rest In Peace Guy x

Tracing

2010-02-07T09:13:00.000-08:00

"And if you want to know the moment I knew that I was still alone, I found I'd never learned your number I only stored it in my phone. You'd think by now I'd know the shape of calling home."

How many of us rely on our mobile phones to remember all the important details? Birthdays, addresses, sometimes even names when alcohol is involved.

Once upon a time I knew all my best friends phone numbers by heart, now I can remember my mothers and one of my friends, but that's only because of the shape her number makes when you type it in, it becomes a square, how charming.

I often wonder if our lives would all be fuller without the ability to communicate so easily. Being flaky wasn't an option 10 years ago, or rather, being flaky twice wasn't an option.

Texting is so overrated. I would much rather pick up the phone and have a ten minute conversation than a 6 hour text-athon. It's just boring, I don't understand why other people my age can't see that? Hearing a voice makes everything that little bit more real to me than black and white monotone text.

This appears to have become a bit of a rant so I shall sign off here.

2:47 am Saturday. Uh Oh.

2010-01-30T18:46:00.000-08:00

Tonight I became the 'mother' of the group. Everybody was just horrendously lashed and it was left up to me to ensure nobody got beaten up/kicked out/left behind.

I'm really not the sort of person who handles that kind of responsibility well when all the people in question are between 6 and 11 years older than me!

Tonight started out well, I think/hope I looked good, I was wearing massively high heels which have left my feet slightly impaired for tomorrow's planned run but alas I will strive to continue on my fitness drive. A day without exercise is a day with guilt at the moment, odd feeling.

I managed to get a cheeky bike ride in today, instead of getting the bus into town I cycled to pick up my car. It would have been excellent if my quick release wheels had done what they said on the tin instead of jamming up so I had to cut my hands ramming my bike into my tiny car. Nevermind, I am home in one piece and my bike remains unscratched!

Goodnight World. I am done.

Brothers

2010-01-28T15:29:00.000-08:00

Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,
Who bidd'st the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea

O Christ whose voice the waters heard
And hushed their raging at Thy word,
Who walked'st on the foaming deep,
And calm amidst its rage didst sleep;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea.

Get fit or die trying.

2010-01-27T11:34:00.000-08:00

It appears my fitness drive is officially on. After a laborous 90 minutes in the gym I can safely say the only part of me that isn't hurting is my fingers, but it feels great.

Going to the gym with your best friend is so much more appealing than running on your own, who knew you could actually have (dare I say it?) fun at the gym?! It would be handy if the air conditioning worked in the cardio section so it doesn't feel like you've got a septal defect or maybe that's just me. There was a girl today who was running so effortlessly in Reebok Classics, they are really not running shoes yet she was going at it for ages with an amazing rhythm - I am definitely just jealous.

Working from feedback received I have slowed my pace down to 9km/h. I was able to keep going for much longer, kept it up for 23 minutes which is probably by far the longest I have ever managed. Especially in such ridiculous heat. And I even managed a 12.5km/h minute which for me and my little legs was very tiring at the end.

I'm really looking forward to doing it all over again on Friday after work.

You know you need a man when...

2010-01-25T11:38:00.000-08:00

...Your clutch cable snaps whilst on a busy main road and you have to coast to the side of the road nearest to you, which just so happens to be a fast lane, when you are in thin clothes and the temperature outside is akin to that of the Arctic...

Then when you phone your breakdown service you get the extremely polite lady informing you that "Our offices are currently closed, please call back later"... thank you for informing me so charmingly however that does not resolve my problem.

"Please redial 08000285904 if it is an emergency". OK great! I thought, I am indeed in the middle of an emergency, therefore I shall redial said number, hang on one moment, how on Earth do you dial a freephone number from a mobile phone? I looked around, stricken, for the familiar red phone box but alas there were none. I then had a stroke of genius when I remembered you just remove the first '0'. "Aha" I shrieked. I shall not be foiled by technology this time!

I finally got through to a delightful lady named Saleema but quickly realised I simply had no idea which road it was that I was blocking. Thankfully I could point out a few landmarks and within an hour (as promised) my hero in a big green tow truck came to rescue me and bundled me into his deliriously warm cabin. It was as if he'd done it before...

Two and a half hours after setting off I made it the 5 miles into work. Phew.

Into The Abyss...

2010-01-22T19:44:00.000-08:00

Whilst driving, I was strikingly aware just how fragile life is. The fog had closed in on my little silver car akin to a shroud of caliginosity. The continual darkness was only marginally tamed by the tiny beams of light which were meekly, and mostly uselessly, pouring out of the motorway lights.

It reminded me of a book by Dean Koontz where all plant life comes alive, pulsating and changing and reshaping until unrecognisable. The plants and fog and mist take on a life of their own until they are all encompassing and envelope and destroy everything around them.

Perhaps Saddleworth Moor has more to answer for than we initially thought...

Or perhaps the fog only serves to remind us that we are vulnerable, that we should appreciate when life is just that little bit easier. The sweet isn't as sweet without the sour so they say, and they are right.

"He who fights monsters must take care lest he become a monster. When you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss gazes into you."

31:23 Hurrah!!

2010-01-20T09:22:00.001-08:00

Ran again today, minus sideways rain and wind, and managed it in 31:23. Another 2 minutes quicker than Monday. 28 minutes is my target for 3 miles, once I hit that I'll start going further...

10 Things I Hate About You

2010-01-19T09:19:00.000-08:00

Slightly plagiarised, but none the less:

I hate it when you put me down,
I hate how you don't seem to care.
I hate how great you think you are,
With your stupid curly hair.
I hate your condescending look,
and the way you read my mind.
I hate you for making me feel bad,
Then asking if i'm fine.
I hate the way you're never wrong,
I hate that i'm never right.
I hate it when you let me leave,
And don't even put up a fight.
I hate it when you're ego inflates,
When you make me look so small.
But mostly I hate the way I don't hate you,
Not even a little bit,
Not even close,
Not at all.

Jog On

2010-01-18T05:38:00.000-08:00

Today I went for a 3 mile run, exactly the same as I did yesterday. I don't really know where this desire to improve myself has come from but I like it and hope it stays around a little while longer...

Sideways rain and having to run into the wind is generally counterproductive to beating your PB, but beat it I did. Yesterday I ran the route in 36:47. Today I did it in 33:20 which is definitely a major improvement, I am almost pleased.

Whilst I was out negotiating the treacherous icy patches, looking less than glamorous, a passing Citroen decided to give me a little toot of his horn. Encouragement? Possibly. Pervert? Doubtful, given my stertorous state. So what else could it have been? Answers on a postcard please.

Men are strange creatures in my experience, they say what they mean which would be great if us women were not elementally programmed to ignore what men say and turn it into whatever we, infact, want it to be. If there is a God he's got to be the Universe's greatest comedian. Jog on Jimmy Carr...

Everybody Hurts

2010-01-15T01:28:00.000-08:00

2,409 years later and this is still one of the wisest things man has ever said...

If all misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be contented to take their own and depart.

Help The Haitians

2010-01-14T02:52:00.000-08:00

One of my friends once told me that I was the only person who had ever really challenged him. I would love to know how I can show other people this side.

What is it that makes me hide it? I certainly don't do it deliberately. It is probably an innate and unbearably acute desire to please others rather than myself, or perhaps this reasoning is a further desire to make myself appear more selfless than I really am. I'm the sort of girl who will always give you the bigger half if/when you own any part of my heart.

Earlier I was looking through a prospectus, fairly straightforward one would assume. However, I appear to be at a bit of a crossroads. Do I choose the potential to earn and accomplish like a normal, structured, adult or struggle along from pillar to post (which, incidentally, is a saying derived from Real Tennis - thank you Eggheads) as a failing artist?

Life doesn't appear to be cut out for those of us who are capable of achieving great things academically but mostly, well, choose not to. It's not out of laziness, or at least I hope that it's not. I really do want to achieve something but I'm not wholly sure what it is that I would feel most proud of achieving.

Leaving behind some things is simply too hard sometimes. It isn't that I'm scared of change or having to make new friends/relationships/failures. My biggest problem is having to find the courage to remove myself from the only place that's ever felt like home.

I'm not ready to leave but I'm not happy staying either. Bummer. Please forward all suggestions and/or condolences to recurrent_whiner@a-crossroads.co.uk.

On the other hand, if you'd rather help people who really need it instead of a confused, naive, little girl like me you could donate to the Haiti fund where I have been reliably informed your card will then be cancelled by the bank. Because, in reality, the first thing you would do after nicking off with Mrs Rose Smith Age:87's bank card would be to find your moral sensibilities and help the Haitians... although this has a nice ring to it, maybe it'll catch on.

Could it be the weather?

2010-01-13T09:42:00.000-08:00

Today I haven't ventured outside at all, more to do with the fact it is the end of my financial month than anything else. Especially not SAD although the thought has crossed my mind at one point or another in the last month. Why is it that so many people who claim to be yearly afflicted with SAD continue to reside in this country? Get yourselves to Spain and be done with it.

This years bleak winter has been somewhat testing. The most enjoyable part for me was definitely hurtling myself down a snow covered hill in Roundhay Park on a deflated double airbed, walking back up the hill was the low point but exercising isn't all bad right?

Hill running has been a new experience for me too, I suspect it may be easier without the nuisance which is uncompacted snow, or compacted snow for that matter, but still fear I may not enjoy it for many months to come. Chin up Princess.

Lest nos alieno...

2010-01-13T07:07:00.000-08:00

You left us on a Wednesday
You never said goodbye
You took off in your aircraft
And soared up in the sky

You gave up what you loved
You gave up what you knew
You soldiered on eternal
In the small plane that you flew

Your friends, they all loved you
Your family miss you dearly
The report said the aircraft
Wasn’t made for seeing clearly

Because of this we’re left without
The one who ruled above
You’ll keep on flying in my mind
For that is what you loved.

The Joy of Recycling

2010-01-13T04:21:00.000-08:00

Leeds. Some may say the cultural, financial and commercial heart of the wider West Yorkshire Urban Area. Others (wrongly) think that this could be Halifax.

Others remember it for its shopping, its glorious parks on a summer's day, or possibly the heckling students throwing waterbombs at unsuspecting bypassers who have no access to a hairdryer before their impending interview.

Or perhaps more so for the ill-ease which is felt every time a plastic is recycled without prior checking of the plastic number which is so significant for the Leeds City Council to provide a proper service to us faithful Council Tax payers.

Obviously this isn't taking into account the three months that the streets of Leeds were parralleling London in 1665, and what a year that was.

To make it easier for the poor folk of Leeds I thought I would take it upon myself to clearly state what can and cannot be put into your green bin. 1, 2 and 4 are OK, and are mostly welcomed however 3 & 5 must not, under any circumstances (being hungover is not an excuse), be put in for recycling or the whole of Leeds will come to a grinding halt. See below for what is unacceptable in this beautiful city that we reside in:

3 - PVC - Polyvinyl Chloride
This stuff is everywhere (handy that, for Leodensians) - pipes, toys, furniture, packaging. Difficult to recycle and PVC is a major environmental and health threat. Fortunately, people into BDSM probably won't be recycling their wares often. Phew.

5 - PP - Polypropylene
Clothing, bottles, tubs and ropes. It can also be used to make sledges, perhaps if LCC had cottoned onto this some time ago there wouldn't be such a dreadful shortage of them. Sledge envy can lead to terrible things...

Over and out.