A strange time.  Everything has ground to a halt.  A couple of weeks back I had so many plates spinning I could barely keep up.  Now I’m twiddling my thumbs.

Notably my running has stalled completely.  They’re still expecting me in Edinburgh in three weeks time but the crowds will be disappointed.  I’ve got to make a decision whether or not to travel anyway – I’ve a hotel room booked for three nights.  But running-wise I’ve barely set foot outside the apartment since I trailed forlornly around the Oxfordshire countryside three weeks ago.  This is not good – my running shoes are looking at me accusingly from under the coffee table.  In addition my summer running class I was due to hold via Highlands College was under subscribed.

There’s some salvation as I kick off a work-based Couch to 5k course on Tuesday, my fourth.  At least that will get me out again.  Hopefully the enjoyment will return.  In the meantime I’m trying to eat a greater percentage of protein & veg than I’ve been accustomed to – chicken breast + stir-fry coming up in a sec for example.  Who knows, I might finally hit on a reason for the huge peaks and troughs in my running.

But other things have suddenly stopped as well.  All three writing projects, for example.  My first (enthusiastic and naive) vanity novel is finished and Chris Lake is setting it out for printing/publishing.  With the ludicrous amounts of public holidays recently my second book, a better, well-researched effort, got finished and the first draft is being read through by a work colleague.  And my contribution to Chris’s Jersey Athletics History is complete bar a final proofread.  That should be published quite shortly now, though the initial deadline of February slipped a bit!

I got a rotten mark in a distance learning assignment and may pull out of that particular effort.  Birmingham City are unable to chip out the final point that will save them from relegation.  Nothing is moving forward right now.

Coaching-wise I’m committed to the Minis on a Sunday but very little else.  (I hope they’ve done OK in Guernsey today.)  There are so few juniors involved in athletics right now that I’m really surplus to requirements.  I still grab any likely lads and lasses for throws coaching but it’s nothing like in the past.  The other evening a couple of young ladies commented that there was a big group that night – it was about a dozen.  They laughed in disbelief when I told them that, not so long ago, I sometimes had 40-50 junior girls alone in my group at the height of the track season.  This is not good.

So I’m open to suggestions as to projects to keep me out of trouble.