Showing posts with label my Life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label my Life. Show all posts

Wednesday, 1 April 2015

I am a runner ...

I am still running.  Had a few weeks off while I recovered from chesty coughs and had to repeat a few weeks to regain fitness after the cough BUT.

I am a runner!

I know as Laura (the 'voice' of the NHS Couch to 5K podcasts) said I was.  She gives you this reward at the end of the last run of week 6 (25 mins of continuous running)  and it brings such a wave of emotion.  6 (or in my case a few more) weeks of hard physical exercise and mental fortitude to keep going finally pays off.  I am a runner.  I can run.  

I still have my goal of a 30 min 5K to achieve and I know to do that I have to build more pace and more stamina into each run.  However I have another 9 runs to do that in and it all feels achievable.  

Earlier in the course there are certain runs that fill you with horror as the length of time spent running is cruely ramped up.  The 3 min run in week 3, The 5 min run in week 4 and the largest of them all the first 20 min run at the end of week 5.  But I have conquered them and there are no more left, just a gentle increase in duration till we hit 30 mins.  Feel a little like Frodo after throwing the ring into mount doom.  The main obstacles have been completed.  Sure it is still a long way home to the Shire.  But I've got this far, I can keep going to the end.

I have also found out that sharing my progress has inspired two others to start running.  One is about to start week 4 and the other week 1.  I never EVER thought that me doing exercise would inspire someone else.  I was always the one that needed the inspiration to do anything physical.  

I've lost weight, my belts are all on the last hole and I need new trousers.  My shirts fasten around the collar and suit jackets are no longer straining the buttons.  This feels terrific.

If I ever meet Laura I owe her a drink.  The podcasts have tangibly changed my life and made me healthier where gyms and diets have failed.

Just need to keep running and finish what I started and do a sub 30min 5 K run.  But this is no longer a pipe dream.  It is realistic, the hard work is over I just need to keep going
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Sunday, 4 January 2015

1st run of the year

After my new years resolutions I had to commit and actually run.  Naturally being a nerd this activity required tracking and monitoring. I spent quite a bit of time working out how to track my run, what I was going to listen to and where I was going to run.

Tracking my run.
I have started using run keeper on my phone for this task.  It tracks my run via built in GPS, gives me details of my progress every 5 mins and then saves all the stats of my run to the cloud.  I did consider a fitbit or jawbone device but this app was free and seems to do a fine job.  The app also allowed me to design routes online and then view them on my phone.  Quite handy to see where I was going to be running and how far that was in advance rather than just be running aimlessly.

What to listen to.
Instead of just picking a random running album I decided to use the NHS free couch to 5km podcasts.  Each one uses intervals of running and walking to build up stamina over a period of 9 weeks where hopefully I should be able to run 5km.  I transferred the podcasts to google play and then stream them to my phone.  Having someone tell you when to run and when to walk was quite helpful

Gear
So no need for any new toys.  Amy had already bought me some trainers and I have clothes that I can run in.  However since my phone was going to be my tracker and music player I invested in a karrimor arm band to house my phone and a pair of runners headphones.  Both were half price.  The headphone were very comfy and the arm band although too tight to fit on my upper arm kept my phone safe on my lower arm.

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Location: Portsmouth, Portsmouth

Wednesday, 31 December 2014

New years rulins

So it is another new year and as is customary I wanted to make some resolutions.  Reading my news feed on Twitter I saw a re-tweet from Lisa Crispin @lisacrispin pointing me toward this page http://www.listsofnote.com/2011/12/new-years-rulins.html?m=1 which is a list of new years rulins from a musician called Woody Guthrie.  I have never heard of him before, but I liked his list and how through reading it I started to see a part of his life. So taking his lead (and his list) I have made my own heavily based on his, but adding my own thoughts and removing some of his less transferable entries.  I doubt this will be a year that unlike all others I keep to them all. But at least I can try.

Wishing everyone a happy and fulfilling 2015

NEW YEAR'S RULIN'S

1. WORK MORE AND BETTER
2. WORK BY A SCHEDULE
3. WASH TEETH IF ANY
4. SHAVE
5. TAKE BATH
6. EAT GOOD - FRUIT - VEGETABLES - MILK
7. DRINK VERY SCANT IF ANY
8. LOSE WEIGHT
9. WEAR CLEAN CLOTHES - LOOK GOOD
10. START RUNNING
11. CHANGE SOCKS
12. CHANGE BED CLOTHES OFTEN
13. READ LOTS GOOD BOOKS
14. LISTEN TO RADIO A LOT
15. LEARN PEOPLE BETTER
16. ALWAYS KEEP LEARNING
17. DON’T GET LONESOME
18. STAY GLAD
19. KEEP FINDING BETTER WAYS TO FIND BETTER DEFECTS
20. DREAM GOOD
21. BANK ALL EXTRA MONEY
22. SAVE DOUGH
23. HAVE COMPANY BUT DON’T WASTE TIME
24. YOU DON'T HAVE TO AGREE, BUT YOU MUST HAVE RESPECT
25. LOVE EVERYBODY
26. MAKE UP YOUR MIND
27. WAKE UP AND FIGHT
28. SPEAK AND LISTEN TO GOD

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Saturday, 25 January 2014

Playing with the scammers

Got a friend invite on facebook this morning from a Kelly Anderson.  Name was a bit familiar so I accepted the friend request and thought no more of it.  Later that evening I received a message from him on facebook messenger.  What follows is the conversation that we had with some contextual information from me.
  • Conversation started today
  • Kelly Anderson
    18:31
  • William Yates
    18:32
    William Yates
    Hey. I got a friend request from you. Trying to figure out how I know you. Sorry I know that can sound rude
  • Kelly Anderson
    18:34
    Kelly Anderson
    i don't really know you but i got through your profile in search of my old friend
    my name is General Kelly Anderson, i am from United State
    i lost my wife 6 years ago.. i have a son i just want you to know me much better as a friend
    its my pleasure to know you
  • Kelly Anderson
    18:48
    Kelly Anderson
    i have a proposal for you
    i dont really know if i can trust you
    write to me pls its important
  • William Yates
    18:51
    William Yates
    Sure what's up
  • Kelly Anderson
    18:52
    Kelly Anderson
    i have been in Afghanistan 6 months now for peacekeeping
    and i have a son 11 years old in United State
    that is the only family i have
    we went for a mission some weeks back
    we found some cash which me and some four Generals shared
    but i have been looking for someone to trust
  • William Yates
    18:54
    William Yates
    And you want to transfer it to my bank to get it back to the us
  • Kelly Anderson
    18:55
    Kelly Anderson
    that is why i was searching for my old friend on facebook before i came across you
    yes i would love to do that
  • William Yates
    18:57
    William Yates
    Shouldn't that money be given to the government or the UN not kept by 4 generals. It sounds very inappropriate
  • Kelly Anderson
    19:00
    Kelly Anderson
    yes that is true.. but the money was found and shared in Syria after the mission was over, so i brought mine back to Afghanistan
    now i am looking for a trusted friend which i can send the money to because the money is not safe in Afghanistan here with me
 At this point we were just about to meet friends for dinner.  I only had my mobile on me so couldn't do the background searches I wanted to do but was absolutely sure that this was a scam.  I wanted to wind this guy up.  So I quickly unfriended him on facebook and carried on talking to him.  Thought I would give him a chance to confess about the true nature of his request.

I gave him his chance.  So lets help this man get some money to his son.

  • William Yates
    So how do we get this cash to your son?
  • Kelly Anderson
    19:07
    Kelly Anderson
    the bank cant accept such cash so i am using a company to send it direct to you.. i am gonna pay all the charges
    all you have to do is receive it
  • William Yates
    19:08
    William Yates
    What makes you think you can trust me
  • Kelly Anderson
    19:09
    Kelly Anderson
    i dont really know for now, all i need is your word and i will believe you
    that is why i wrote to you that somebody i can trust
  • William Yates
    19:10
    William Yates
    Would I get into trouble for doing this? Its just that last time with the Nigerians there was a lot of problems
  • Kelly Anderson
    19:11
    Kelly Anderson
    no its not going to get you into problems
  • William Yates
    19:12
    William Yates
    Ok cool
    So what information do you need
  • Kelly Anderson
    19:13
    Kelly Anderson
    your full name, home address, email, and mobile number
    and a scan copy of your id
  • William Yates
    19:14
    William Yates
    And my bank details I presume
  • Kelly Anderson
    19:14
    Kelly Anderson
    that is what the company needs before the money can be sent, they have to know the receiver
    so they will not be any mistakes
  • William Yates
    19:15
    William Yates
    The company I thought you were sending it direct
  • Kelly Anderson
    19:16
    Kelly Anderson
    the money will be deliver to you in your home
  • William Yates
    19:17
    William Yates
    What in cash?
  • Kelly Anderson
    19:17
    Kelly Anderson
    the company will be sending a diploma down
  • William Yates
    19:17
    William Yates
    A diploma down. Isn't that an educational certificate
  • Kelly Anderson
    19:18
    Kelly Anderson
    its a united nation diploma
    and the photocopy of his id will be giving to you also
    that is how things work here in Afghanistan presently
    and the company name is Skynet company, it is all over the world
  • William Yates
    19:21
    William Yates
    If I doing this for you can you do something for me in return?
    Skynet have you seen the terminator films
  • Kelly Anderson
    19:22
    Kelly Anderson
    they have assured me there would be no difficulty
    yes i have
    i will be giving you 20 percent from the money
    just let me believe in you

OK he isn't getting my address, ID card, email address or anything.  But I'm not too keen on 20% plus lets throw some other words in there to see if we can throw Kelly off his script:

The address I gave was for the US Embassy in london, the phone number and email are fake.  Also dinner was nearly over so I left and then did some research when I got home.  A google image search for Kelly gave me lots of hits to scam warning websites and lots of other names for 'Kelly'

  • Kelly Anderson
    20:35
    Kelly Anderson
    fuck of me now
    i am a citizen of US
    you can only report me when my money is in your hands
  • William Yates
    22:46
    William Yates
    Hi Aaron Ramos
    that picture has been re-used by so many other scammers
    get a new fake picture dude
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