Okay, so when I mentioned in Fresh Starts about how I was aiming to break the hour barrier in the 10Ks in the next couple of months I didn't expect to do it straight away. That was exactly the thought that ran through my head as I tramped round the Glasgow 10K course last weekend. The closer I got to the end, the more I started thinking it might actually happen until I ran through the arch of Glasgow Green and realised that not only was the finish was much closer than I expected but I was going to break the hour in style. The official chipped time was 58 mins 49 seconds.

So now I find myself needing a new challenge and I have 2: get under 50 mins (next season) and do Stranraer 10K in an hour. The latter sounds like it'd be easy except that there's a steep hill that starts at 3K and runs to just before 4K. I've not only got to beat the hour but I've also got to beat that hill. There's no other way to put this than it's personal and it's between me and the hill!

Incidently I believe the reason I've got faster this year is down to the stone I've lost in weight. It's easy to run fast when there's less of you to carry around the course. If I drop some more weight before Stranraer then that should help!

The running started as a result of a challenge at Kingdom FM back in January 2006. We decided that we (the KFM team) should run the Glenrothes 10K that summer and so the addiction began. I took the challenge and so began the addiction which has seen the following races:

2006

Jun - Glenrothes 10K

Sep - Glasgow 10K

Oct - Strathcarron Hospice 10K

2007

Jun - Glenrothes 10K

Jun - Black Rock 5 (5 miles)

Sep - Stirling 10K

Oct - Strathcarron Hospice 10K

Nov - Stranraer 10K

2008

Injured my knee early on ruling out early season races

Nov - Stranraer 10K

2009

April (?) - Kippen 5K

May - Black Rock 5 (5 miles)

Jun - Jog Scotland Edinburgh 5K

Sep - Glasgow 10K

Still to come this year (I've entered them so I'd better do them)

Sep - Stirling 10K

Oct - Denny 10K

Oct - BMF 10K (with obstacles)

Nov - Stranraer 10K

Originally posted on niceguyali.vox.com

Change doesn't happen overnight, at least it doesn't when you're trying to change habits that have been cultivated over years. If you've ever tried to help someone change their bad habits you'll be aware that if you try to change too much at once then they'll quite often fail, get disillousioned and give up. For me, I find I need to understand why the change is necessary and then make small steps. Over the past couple of years I've been making small steps to change for the better: I've all but cut out alcohol from my life, I've got my debt under control, I took up occasional 10Ks and have been trying to get the weight sorted.

Of the changes I've been making the weight has been a difficult one because it's required action on two fronts: exercise and better diet. I think I might have made the final change to help this. Over the past 6 months I've finally got my head around sensible eating and while there's a bit more work to do there it's pretty positive. The exercise has been a bit more of a challenge though. As much as I enjoy doing the 10Ks I've been hampered by low motivation for training in the gym or going running of an evening. It's far too easy to work a bit later and then come up with excuses for not working out.

It took a conversation on holiday to convince me that there was hope and that hope is in the form of BMF. I'll no doubt blog more about that soon but suffice to say it's a pretty intensive class that takes an hour and is out doors whatever the weather. The part of the conversation that convinced me was the reminder that I had made progress a few years back and had dropped a lot of weight. Plus it was pointed out the results that current BMF-ers had achieved in the past few months.

The final part of the fresh start (and this is going to take a bit more work) is to sort out the issues at work that are stressing me and to cut out the dead wood from my life. The latter should've been done years ago. As a result I've got rid of a load of phone numbers and people from MSN & facebook that should've been deleted a long time ago. You can't move on while you're still living in the past!   

I'm quite excited about the next couple of months. I'm going to get fitter, I'm going to do a 10K in under 1 hour, I'm going to be lighter, I'm going to meet new people and I'm going to stop letting work get on top of me. In addition I'm going to spend more time being a better friend to those whose friendship I appreciate.

Originally posted on niceguyali.vox.com

Testing the edit date thingy to see if I can write now, post later.

Originally posted on niceguyali.vox.com

I have a few friends who believe they are psychic. One in particular, a very wise woman, is also adept at palmistry and interested in tarot. Personally I'm not convinced by the whole thing. I'd like to believe that those who have passed on are watching over us especially since I believe they'd be proud of what I've become. However I suspect that it's more of a "want to believe because it makes it all worthwhile" rather than any rational understanding.

If it is all true then I will get married, have 2 kids (1 of each), live a long healthy life and become rich due to work rather than winning money. Of course if this is true they I'm going to have to get the proverbial finger out because I'm 'getting on a bit' apparently. That sentence is guaranteed to frighten off 99% of the women I'm likely to meet over the next year. The flip side of that argument is that if it's meant to happen then there's no sense in worrying about.

All joking aside there have been a few more 'getting closer to 40' comments over the past year and as much as I laugh them off they've obviously been niggling away at me. I've been contemplating this and my continuing single status while out on long walks or runs recently and starting to (over) analyse the situation. I can't contemplate where Ms Right is going to appear from or where/how I'm going to meet them. That said I'm pretty sure this has been true before the last few relationships. Would you expect to end up dating the person who made you drive a pink car? Would you assume that the long lost friend that you find again online on a night you're ill and watching the Eurovision will become the person you'll enjoy the next 11 months with?

One of the thoughts that runs through my head is what if I already met the person I was meant to be with and either never took my opportunity or worse, let them go? You can't get hung up on 'what if' but it's always worth contemplating because I think you learn nuggets about yourself in the process.

The only conclusions I've come to are that I'll not find the person I'm meant to be with sitting at home and I'll not find them by looking. The one consistent theme running through all my previous relationships is that they've happened at times that I've felt comfortable with who I am. And given that, I must be due to meet someone pretty soon.

Originally posted on niceguyali.vox.com

Following on from my last post about it being a good day, these occurences seem to be joining up into weeks which is rather nice. I suspect that this is being aided by my current decision to charge headlong into life and make the most of my current situation. It appears to be working!

Anyway back to todays post and it's brought to you via the Cloud or something similar from Stansted Airport. I'm currently trying to keep myself awake while waiting for my flight back up the road. This has been day two of this weeks roadtrip which started in Newcastle and ends tomorrow in Fife. I'm back down here on Tuesday for the day and, rather worryingly, I've already read this months Easyjet magazine from cover to cover. Must remember a magazine on Tuesday although I'll be flying with Chris from work and he can talk so perhaps there's not a problem.

I write using a laptop powered by Vista and I must confess that this is the first time using that particular operating system. I'm rather ashamed to admit that I quite like it even though I've been reluctant to use it thus far. I suspect that there are still enough reasons, such as this amount of 'Are you sure?' boxes, to deter me from upgrading my home PC from XP. It's more likely that I'll await Windows 7 before making radical changes.

Update: It's taken a few days to get this blog online and as I type this the screen suddenly went blank and the laptop froze for 30 secs. Apparently Vista doesn't like being slagged.

Originally posted on niceguyali.vox.com

I watched Notting Hill tonight and it features the line "Today's been a good day". Strangely enough it's a phrase I've been saying more recently and, tonight, I realised there was a pattern to its occurence. I've been using it at the end of days where I've been social.

That probably sounds a bit weird. Surely a social animal like myself is always out or spending time with his mates but the truth is that last year I hid from the world. In retrospect it was completely unnecessary but that didn't seem to matter. There were plenty of excuses: working lates on Tay at the weekend, heavy workload, no money, the summer time job shenanigans, etc, etc. I was just sad really. I was wallowing in self-pity and instead of dealing with it I stayed wrapped up in my cocoon hoping that the end of the year would come quickly.

Changed days though and I've been spending more time just going out for the odd beer or, as tonight, to the cinema or spending time with other humans (and less time in the office). It's great! I'd recommend it to anyone.

Originally posted on niceguyali.vox.com

I will blog about the other thing, I promise, but for now I've other things on my mind.

In January Darrren and Barry from Kingdom decided that they should get some use out of the last months of their gym memberships and created the Wednesday Weigh In. Each week on Wednesday they get weighed live on air to see if they're making progress. I decided that I wanted to get involved but as I'm not in Fife during the week I created the Wednesday Weigh In at the Weekend (WW@W).

So far it's been distinctly average and I'm hovering around 15st but that's without taking any major exercise. In fact it's without taking any exercise at all. The problem has been the lack of a goal other than losing a bit of weight. Good news is, I've found a goal and I've named it 40K in 4 weeks (in reality it's just under 40K but let's not tell anyone).

The 40(ish)K starts with the Black Rock 5 on the 22nd May, is followed by my first half marathon in Stranraer at the start of June and culminates in the Glenrothes 10K a fortnight later. At time of writing there are 88 days until the first race and today I started the first part of the training with a 60 min walk. Probably doesn't sound much but it was enough to get the blood pumping and the legs feeling like they did a bit of work.

I'll try to remember to post my progress on here but you'll be able to follow on twitter.

Originally posted on niceguyali.vox.com

I seemed to spend a lot of 2008 using that line anytime I was unable or unwilling to explain why I was acting in an unusual or out of character manner. As much as I hoped that I would it has only been the past week that I've realised that I should and that it might be vaguely interesting.

There's one week left until I finally 'win', finally get past a really difficult period in my life. I suspect that as I blog what happened and why last years events occurred it will generate a number of comments such as "Why didn't you say?", "You could've talked to me, I could've helped", etc. Hopefully though most people will understand what it was all about.

It's my intention to start (and possibly finish) blogging about it from next month (Feb).

In other news, did you know that you can follow me on twitter? It's my latest fad and I'm enjoying both adding what I'm up to as well as following selected others. To follow me go to http://twitter.com/niceguyali

Originally posted on niceguyali.vox.com

Couldn't resist a small Smashie and Nicie reference as the title of this post. Actually I don't do a lot of work for charity other than a couple of things in the past for Kingdom Kids and compering a few fashion shows for Breast Cancer Research. Recently when I've spoken of the 10Ks I've been asked if I'm looking for sponsors and I never am. I do these things for myself to prove that I can and to keep healthy.

The more astute will have guessed where this is going. I'm doing a Reindeer Run on 30th Nov '08 which is a 10K run around the campus at Stirling Uni where I studied. It's one of a bunch of races being organised by the RNLI to raise funds and while they've got money from me already as part of the entrance fee, I feel like I want to raise money this time.

I've spent a bit of time with the guys from Anstruther RNLI through being part of the annual lifeboat gala and I've come to understand the amazing job these volunteers undertake. I feel that we are most often being asked to donate to other charities and that the RNLI gets left out. I may be wrong in that but I've yet to be stopped by one of these agressive collectors in the street and asked for my bank details to support the lifeboats. I also can't remember, Blue Peter in the 80s not withstanding, when I last saw a TV appeal for them.

For these reasons I'm collecting for them and want to raise £500 by doing the run. There are lots of demands on cash but please help by donating through my Just Giving page. This allows donations by card and if you are a UK citizen remember to tick the Gift Aid box so that we get a donation from the government as well. With gift aid a donation of £10 becomes closer to £12. You can either click this link or the link on the right hand side of this page (Vox only) which shows my fundraising progress.

Thanks.

Originally posted on niceguyali.vox.com

I've planned a lot of blog posts this year which have never made it online this year for one reason or another. For instance I haven't blogged about knackering my knee back in the spring which stopped my training. I haven't blogged about the plan to run 100K before Christmas (in anger/as a series of races) which was stopped by the knee.

Regardless, the knee seems to be better so I've started the training again. There are 2 races that I want to do; Strathcarron Hospice 10K and Stranraer 10K both of which I've run before. This'll be the 3rd year of running the Strathcarron race and I know the course well so it should be possible to be ready for that one. The Stranraer 10K is the race that I though was going to kill me last year thanks to a steep hill at the 3K mark. I'm determined the hill won't beat me!

It's funny how these things happen but I had worried about how I'd fit in these races around my Love Doctoring. I guess it's not a problem anymore.

Incidently it was a trip to Boots that focused my mind on getting fit enough to race again. They have a machine that measures stuff there and as a result I know that (when clothed) the following are my scary stats:

Height 5' 9" - 1.75m, Weight 15st 2lb - 96.3kg

BMI: 31.4 (Overweight), Body Fat (%) - 28.1 (somewhere between Average and Poor)

Originally posted on niceguyali.vox.com

It's been a trying summer for many reasons and the icing on the cake came with the announcement during August that the Bauer Media FM stations in Scotland were to introduce networked programmes at certain times. The upshot as reported in the newspapers is job losses for some and I'm one of them. While I'm naturally upset at friends losing their main source of income I'm actually okay about my own position.

For those who haven't kept up with the story, I moved from Kingdom FM to Tay FM in Dundee back in November to host the Saturday Night Love Songs between 10pm and 2am. At the time I was dating someone who lived close by which helped make the 2am finish slightly better however the past four or five months where I've been driving back to Glasgow on a Saturday have been tough. During the summer months I was getting home at 4am and it was light. That doesn't make sleeping easy nor does it lend it self to a relaxing weekend.

Ironically the first part of networking started a few weeks back with live overnights from Clyde which start at 1am. It's amazing how getting home at 3am is so much better than 4am. The overnight is very well done too with local branding and an engaging presenter. There's been a lot of talk about whether a presenter in Glasgow can relate to listeners in Dundee, Edinburgh or Aberdeen. I personally think they can and certainly I've spent 7 years living outside of the are that I broadcast to without it being an issue.

So this weekend sees the last outing for the Love Doctor (I still can't believe people write letters addressed to the Love Doctor) before he's struck off. As I say I'm basically fine about it but I can't help but feel slightly cheated mainly because I'm out of radio at someone elses decision. I always believed that if you were good then there'd be a job for you. My ego won't let me believe that I'm rubbish (apart from those two rubbish show at the end of August).

So, if this is the end then it's been a laugh and I enjoyed being the guy off the radio. Don't ever under-estimate the icebreaking powers of having this job as a hobby. Somehow though, I suspect I'll be back sooner than later.

Originally posted on niceguyali.vox.com

Much strangeness at Tay Towers on Saturday Night. During my show on Saturday night a movement on one of the security cameras caught my eye. As I looked closer I noticed a woman walking towards the bottom of the stairs to reception. At the weekend and at night they are chained off but this didnot seem to deter her as she chose to try to go under the chain. She appeared to fall up the stairs in the process of doing this but she picked herself up and carried on. 

Originally posted on niceguyali.vox.com

Having a bit of free time recently I decided I should download IE8 beta 2 and see whether it was an improvement on the current version. It's not. In fact it's very like Firefox 3 which I haven't really taken to either. However the thing that really worries me is that it breaks some of the sites that I work on professionally. Okay so there's an IE7 compatibility button  but I'm not sure that the majority of the people that use the sites I work on will understand what that does. 

Originally posted on niceguyali.vox.com

Melanie questioned why I had to leave Glasgow for Dundee at 7pm on a Saturday night. The answer is that I don't but it's always seemed sensible just in case something happens on the way like an accident or a breakdown. In 9 months this has never happened but it's always good to be prepared.

As it happened I was ready to leave by quarter to seven which is the point I realised that my car keys weren't in the house. My keys were sitting in my bag which was sitting beside my desk in the office. It takes a good 40 mins to get to the office and back from the house.

Funnily enough when I left the office yesterday I left the bag as I was going to Edinburgh thinking that I'd pick it up on the way back. I nearly decided to leave the office keys as I didn't think I'd need them or the bag this weekend!

Thankfully keys and bag were retrieved and I was able to leave Glasgow just before 8. The drive only take an hour and 40 mins door to door but I now understand why I leave so early!

Originally posted on niceguyali.vox.com

Wow, it's been a month since the last post and there's been a heck of a lot going on but not a lot that I can really blog about. There are a couple of topics that I won't normally post about and they've been the interesting ones of late. For those of you who haven't been bored by these subjects before, I don't post about the day job other than mentioning when I've been travelling and there is another subject in my personal life which I will one day discuss but at the moment I don't feel ready to. I've probably made that sound more interesting than it actually is!

What I can talk about is that I've become a plurker of late. If you haven't found plurk yet it's a micro-blogging type of site much like twitter. Having been a plurker for a few weeks now I can honestly state that it reminds me of instant messaging back when I used to use that more and would have 5 or 6 conversations on the go at any one time. It's good for posting a few lines about what you're up to at any given time but other than that I can't decide what the point of it is longer term. You get a karma score based on things like the amount you post and interact and that seems to help keep people posting more. If you decide to give it a try, do so via this link because it'll help my karma.

In other news, tomorrow I should be taking part in a 12 mile walk for Tay FMs Cash for Kids charity but I've had to pull out because of this knee problem that keeps rearing its head. Could be time for a trip to the doctors to get this sorted. To make up for pulling out I'm planning on doing something later in the year so get your wallets/purses ready. I'll be round looking for your cash.

Originally posted on niceguyali.vox.com

I started watching West Wing from Series 1 again recently as I've mentioned before. After having a break from it for a few weeks while other tasks commanded my time, I returned to watching Series 3 where I discovered one of my favourite episodes; the one where Toby has a crush on a poet, and another episode that I feel sounds familiar.

The episode starts with President Bartlett being interviewed on the US Morning shows. After each interview he exchanges a few words with each interviewer. While 'live' there is a red light on the camera which becomes green when they are no longer recording. During one of the post interview exchanges the President makes a comment about his opponent that questions his intelligence. I apologise to those who don't want to hear the outcome of the episode but basically C.J. eventually confronts the President with the notion that he knew the red light was still on when he made the comment.

I feel this sounds familiar because this week a government minister walked into No 10 this week with a memo 'accidently' on display for the waiting reporters. Is it just me who thinks that this was planned as a way of leaking the news without making an official unpopular statement?

Originally posted on niceguyali.vox.com

...and all he brought back was these lousy photos.

I had a bit of spare time while in London on business and as it was a nice day I decided to have a bit of a wander. Over the course of 20,000 steps I took a bunch of photos and the full set is on Flickr. However here are a few of my favourites.

1. There's quite a few buildings that are currently facades while they build a new body.

2. My first time across the Millenium Bridge and they first time I realised that St Pauls imposes the skyline as you look northwards. I love the juxtaposition of the ancient with the new.

3. The revelation that cheese never sleeps. This shop is just round the corner from London Bridge station and alongside the big market.

4. Drake's ship. The worlds first martitime museum and what strikes me about this is how small it is. I can't imagine travelling the world with a boatload of men in such a small space.

Originally posted on niceguyali.vox.com

... are the ones that tend to get lost and the things you want to get lost are the ones that you can never seem to lose. Okay that's probably not the case but it sums up my discovery this week.

I've been following a blog/work of faction about a breakfast dj on a fictional radio station. The story ended recently and all bar the final two posts were removed at that time. Now I started reading half way through and was planning on reading from the start at one point and so was a bit sad that I wasn't going to get the chance. That was until I discovered that Google Reader saves all the posts from the blogs that you subscribe to. Cool for me, perhaps not so cool for the writer of the blog who is, I assume, trying to get a publishing deal just now.

It makes you realise that it's even more important to be careful about what you post online. A fellow blogger had, in the past, posted a few things that obviously reflected their anger about a situation and I'm sure it was a cathartic experience. It worried me though that it could, in the wrong hands, be used to cause trouble for the original poster. They've recently removed the posts but in light of my new discovery I'm questioning whether it's really possible to erase these things at all.  

... now someone go and implement it.

Brindy has started 'twittering' to his lj recently which mean that anything he posts on twitter is collated and posted as a blog entry at the end of the day. Now this is a great idea if you use twitter but I don't, nor would I have any plans to.

Instead I want a similar thing that would work with my pedometer. It's a bit 'Bridget Jones' but I like the idea that I could just wear my pedometer and it would send my daily total to my PC or to a piece of software that would write to my blog. If it's happening already then I want to know about it, otherwise feel free to take my idea and implement it. Just remember to send me a free one - for testing obviously.

Originally posted on niceguyali.vox.com

We had an hour less on the show this week but that just meant it was less of my choice and all about the listener.

If you've no idea what this is about these are the songs that the listeners choose on Ali McLaren's Saturday Night Love on Tay FM. It's basically 4 hours of the best love songs and slow jams. Why not listen online one Saturday Night. You'll find the link on the Tay FM website.

10.30pm
Westlife - Home
Seal - Kiss From A Rose
Take That - A Millioin Love Songs
Natasha Beddingfield - These Words
Lonestar - Amazed

11pm
Frankie Miller - Caledonia
Bon Jovi - Always
LeAnn Rimes - How Do I Live
Jack Johnson - Better Together
U2 - With or Without You
Elvis Presley - Suspicious Minds
Aerosmith - Don't Want To Miss A Thing
Savage Garden - Moon and Back
Starship - Nothing's Gonna  Stop Us Now
Meatloaf - 2 Out Of 3 Ain't Bad

12 midnight
Alannah Myles - Black Velvet
Chicago - If You Leave Me Now
Tracy Chapman - Fast Car
R Kelly - If I Could Turn Back The Hands Of Time
Celine Dion - My Heart Will Go On
Richard Marx - Right Here Waiting
Eric Clapton - Wonderful Tonight
Wet Wet Wet - Goodnight Girl
Oasis - Stop Crying Your Heart Out
Oleta Adams - Get Here

Originally posted on niceguyali.vox.com