I have been guilty obviously of not updating this in a week, which is bad I know, so I am sorry for that. In the meantime I have been stupidly busy at work and also sick for a couple of days. I think they call what I was suffering from “man flu” – anyway it did me in to the extent that I felt about as bad as  have for an awful long time, but I think I am on the mend. One of my first thoughts was that I really really hope that I don’t get to feel like that in February. I actually felt so bad one morning that I didn’t buy a chocolate croissant on the way to work, and that I can tell you is serious!

So also in the 7 days since I last posted there have been a few other things going on in my life, and here is not the place to mention them. Suffice to say that I am sad currently, and I’ll let that be that. Maybe another time it will get aired, and maybe it won’t….

Moving on then, I have been to the gym three times in the last week. Wow! When you consider that those three times actually eclipse by a factor of three the total number of times I have been to a gym in over twenty years that is a HUGE thing! I have Nordic-climbed, biked, treadmilled, leg bench-pressed, done the plank (am over 30 seconds now:)), oblique-crunched and what have you rather a lot. Am feeling better for it too, apart from the man-flu thing of course. Oh and I nearly had a treadmill accident, which was rather embarrassing.

You see I am just not used to treadmills. In fact I have been on a treadmill four times in my life, and each of those occasions were in the last two weeks, and I can and do suffer from momentary lapses in concentration from time to time. So here I am merrily trundling along at a sort of jogging pace, when I drop my pen. You see, I have my fitness programme sheet in my hand, and instead of setting it down by the side of the machine before I begin, I just had it my hand when the treadmill sort of started before I wanted it to, and here I am, somewhat Mr Bean-like, running away with my pen and paper in my hand. Anyway, after about a minute of trying to look as if I am absolutely the most composed runner in the universe, if not the gym (and perhaps not doing very well), so when I drop my pen my natural reaction is just to bend down and pick it up.

Oh dear! So as my left leg seems to wrap itself around my neck, and I am sort of shot up in the air with my head heading towards the gym floor, I somehow seem to land on the very back of the machine on my right knee, and sort of bounce back onto what seems to be a surface that isn’t moving. I think I am on my knees, and stand up, make sure that I am OK, and then hope that no-one was watching (it is 6.30pm and the gym is packed unfortunately so I have no chance). I also seem to have all of my fingers and toes still. I then jump straight onto the back of the treadmill at apparently the wrong pace, and am immediately shot off back onto the floor. What an idiot!

When eventually back on the treadmill, after another minute or so of my seriously frenetic (or sweaty and laboured anyway) jogging, I see in the mirror in front of me one of the gym trainers walk past and pick up my pen. My instinct is to turn round and call out “hey that is my pen!”, but it is too late, and as I turn I am off again. I am really lucky that I do not break something or someone this time, and decide to call the treadmill off for the day. One of me or it had a lucky escape that is for sure. I dust myself down, or “towel off” as I think they do in these places.

Oh and also this week I met a really really nice guy from the UKclimbingforums, who has done Kilimanjaro about three times, and also (I’m jealous) the “Seven Summits” (for the uninitiated, and I was until recently, that is each of the highest peaks on each of the seven continents, including Mount Everest). I will tell you about that meeting in the next post……..

Need to count up my miles, but I certainly have some, and all I need now is to learn some treadmill concentration. Wish me luck!