The Headmaster's Son programme est arrive. It's an exciting day when the boxes arrive at my house and I get to hold the finished product in my hands. I think it's the best one yet. I probably won't get round to sending them out to the people who have paid to get their names in until I am in Edinburgh as things are a bit busy, but you never know. Remember to email me your snail mail address if you donated. If you come to any of the Headmaster's Son previews you will be amongst the first to receive this free item. It's full of embarrassments!
I also tried out my new toy
The Garmin Forerunner 205, a sat nave style watch for runners and cyclists, which lets you know how far you have gone, how fast and how many calories you have burned up. Then you can transfer that data into your computer (ignore the write up Mac fans, it is OS compatible) and even see a little map of where you have just been. I was ridiculously excited by this, and hopefully having this device will encourage to do more running outdoors. But I love a gadget, even if I get bored of it quite quickly and move on to the next one.
The forerunner is worn on the wrist, but whilst not being as small as a watch is still amazingly compact for what it is capable of. When I ran the marathon I bought a
Timex Ironman watch which did a similar job, but with far fewer features, less reliably and involved strapping a large receiver to one's arm. Comparatively it was like lugging round one of those early main frame computers on a little trolley as you ran. It's incredible to see how far things have moved on in such a short time. Surely we are just years away from having a chip installed in our brains that will turn us into half man/half machine. But I still felt like a cyborg jogging and (mainly) walking around the streets of West London, traveling 4.49 miles and burning up 491 calories. I'd recommend it to any jogger/gadget freaks, though doubtless in four years time I will be mocking it for being cumbersome and unwieldy. For the moment I am very happy to have my life and everything I do monitored by computer. I want to live in a 1984 style state where everything is monitored, right down to my heartbeat (though that is not available on the model of Forerunner I chose).
It's not infallible, as you can see it seems to think that I suddenly accelerated to 72 miles an hour at one point, which I definitely didn't. But if you look closely you will see the point where my walk was interrupted by a phone call telling me that the man delivering my programmes had arrived earlier than arranged and I then jogged back home to get them. Before then setting off on my way again.
I also have a pedometer now, as I am making a concerted effort to get as much exercise in as possible and shift the stubborn weight and fat that seems reluctant to leave the party that (as I am in my 40s) is now definitely over. It's definitely encouraging me to walk more, but doubtless again I will tire of it soon enough. I am a pedophile. I just love walking. And feet. But not children's feet, so there's no need to daub my home with graffiti.
I am really pushing things I have to say. I even went for a swim today and knocked a further 90 seconds off my 50 length record (down to an unbelievable 27 minutes 27 seconds). Surely this level of effort has to pay off soon! I am definitely feeling fitter, so nothing else really matters, but would dearly like to get down to the 12 stone I was when I was doing Ra Ra Rasputin back in 1993 (though I probably was quite a bit heavier than that at the end of the Fringe that year). I am a good 10 pounds away from that goal which theoretically means if I lose 2 pounds a week I could start the Fringe 2008 at the same weight as I was 15 years ago.
Blimey was it really 15 years?
Theory is all well and good, but I think it is highly unlikely that I will lose much weight at all and secretly I am delighted to have got below 13 stone and maintained that mini-triumph for so long. Again I think my weight at the end of the Fringe might be the most pertinent thing. But if I keep up the pedophilia in Edinburgh (I am also an Edophile), with its many hills, then maybe I will manage it.
I've got half way through the year without putting any weight back on and mainly maintaining this impressive new life style and I hope I can get through to the end of the year being a shadow of my former self.
