Things I’m working on right now
This is a very brief update on things that I am working on right now
Knee Injury:
- Since January I have had an injury with my left knee. This has resulted in me doing a lot less sport training and events than I would have liked
- I have had 2 sessions with a chiropractor at Body Limits. The first session really helped a lot, but I didn’t really feel much benefit from the second session (although it was still good). I might try to get another session next week
- I thought that it might be because my road and trail shoes had worn out, so I replaced them – both with the top of the range ASICS road shoes and trail shoes. However this made things worse as they both pairs of shoes gave me really bad blisters behind the ball of my feet after 30 minutes running. After talking to other people, this is a common problem with ASICS – they just don’t suite some people
- 2 weeks ago I went to Runners Need in Oxford Street, London just to buy some new shoes. I didn’t know at the time, but I was served by Claire Linskill, the UK’s Under 23 National Female Triple Jump champion! I spent an hour in the shop and came away with a pair of Addidas road running shoes and Brookes trail shoes. I think both might be a bit too long for me – but I’ll stick with them for now and get new ones later if necessary
- I walked into A&E last week pretending that I had twisted my knee. I hadn’t but I figured it was the quickest way to get an X-ray. The nurses and doctor were all very good and I got an X-ray of my knee. It’s good to know that there was no bone damage, so I think it is tendon damage. I’ll see if I can get an appointment with a GP next week
- Earlier this week I bought a knee brace and have been wearing it overnight and while at work. I don’t think it is helping at all though, but I’ll stick with it for a week or two
Sports:
- I have done far less sport this year than I wanted, mainly due to my knee and bad weather (no fun cycling in the rain). I have only been out on my road bike 3 times and my mountain bike… well about 5 times – not good
- I have done quite a bit of swimming (in a pool and in a lake with a wetsuit) this year, but I am still rubbish at it despite training sessions with Team MK. I need to spend a couple of months dedicated to it – and maybe go on a swimming course
- I won a competition with 19 other people for a half-day Mitchum Masterclass at the Loughborough University High Performance Centre on the 5th September. I am really looking forward to this – just wish I was in better shape with my knee. By the powers of Google, I discovered 1 of the other 20 winners of the competition. Ross blogged about it on his blog Run the Line
- I’m worried that I won’t be able to compete in the Questars 6 hour Adventure Race on the 11th. I’ll decide on Monday. I don’t want to let my team-mate Dave down
I went to boots today and bought some deep heat type stuff (same thing but more expensive) and some pain killers - I shouldn’t really do any sports next week – i.e. the week before a race, but I think I will have to. I will try to keep it long distance (running and cycling) and low heart rate though. Luckily I have all of next week off of work (it’s my birthday on the 8th and I don’t like to work on the week of my birthday!)
Websites:
- Still working on GetMeCooking – we have lots of ideas for it, just not enough time. Kevin is adding lots of new tweaks and features all the time. I have one killer idea that could really benefit the site (and the users) and bring in lots of really quality content
- GetMeCooking application for Android – I am writing an Android based mobile phone application for GetMeCooking
- I have been working long and hard on the Moorespeed website and it is getting good traffic and high praise from the owner (Richard Moore) as well as the Internet community. Just 2 weeks after it went live, he has got some big orders plus interest from a BMW importer in the USA! So Richard is very happy right now!
- Starbase24 – I have scrapped the current site (based on Stack Exchange). Although it was really good, people just didn’t understand the concept so nobody added questions to it. Which is a shame because it really was very good and the static FAQ pages and forum sites that people use were never designed for Q&A purposes, so are really inadequate for the job. Starbase24 will now be a place where I can critique websites
- Baconaholic – I haven’t had time to work on this yet. It is a low priority
- Performit – I want to improve the look of the page and update the content a little
- Techboy – I want to merge it into the WordPress site that http://blog.techboy.co.uk sits on and also modify or replace the WordPress theme
Books:
- These are the books I have read recently
Holidays:
- I went rock climbing in Spain with Dave last March
- I took a week off in July to teach myself day-trading on the stock exchange (mostly USA stocks). Dave came over for half a day and taught me a lot! I have also signed up to Gold membership on Bulls on Wallstreet
- I have a week off next week – I’ll do some more share dealing
- I’m doing a culinary tour of Lebanon (plus a few additional days by myself) 22nd September – 3rd October
- I’m going on a 1 week Jagged Edge mountaineering course with Nathan in February in Scotland
Share Dealing:
- Waiting for my Charles Schwab share trading account to be set up. It is taking ages! The ETA for it to be set up is the 29th September. That plus my Bulls on Wallstreet Gold account should equal profit!