Running Diary

This post is intended to keep a record of my running.

Week beginning 9th March

• I was somewhat unwell this week, so did not run.

2009/03/05 AM 35 Minutes (Day 6)

• Chose a different (and more interesting) route.
• Got (slightly) lost! Apparently, there are still places within 15 minutes of home that I don’t know very well.

2009/02/26 AM 30 Minutes (Day 5)

• My second run this week!
• About half way in, I really didn’t want to continue, but I kept going anyway. A victory in itself.
• It really didn’t help that I couldn’t find my headphones, so went without music. Apparently, the music matters.

2009/02/24 AM 30 Minutes (Day 4)

• Warmed up by walking quickly to the end of the road.
• Walked / ran alternate lampposts. Pacing was about right.
• I almost stopped hating the whole experience at one point. Definite progress!
• The mornings are getting lighter, so people could actually see me. I may need to buy some proper running gear.
• The better light meant that looming dogs are less likely to be a problem (but looming people still can be).
• 4 more weeks to achieving GOAL 1.

2009/02/19 AM 30 Minutes (Day 3)

• Started slowly – much better than previous effort.
• Avoided park – no problems with dogs.
• About 10 minutes in started walking / running between alternate lampposts. This meant that I did much more running than previous attempts.
• Some method to measure running distance would be useful.
• Did not loathe the experience quite as much as previously.
• Set goal 1.

GOAL 1

Run at least once a week for the next 5 weeks. Daily reward = chocolate. Goal reward = purchase of some running gear.

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Types of Goals

I will develop these categories as my ideas develop. My intention is that they should broadly match my heirarchy for blog entry categories.

Money Saving Success

One of my goals at the moment is to cut my spending without significantly downgrading my lifestyle. I will try to keep this page updated with my success stories.

Annual Savings

£85 (approx) switching to a cheaper breakdown service, AutoAid (Feb 2008).

£120 (£10 / month) approx interest on current account following switch (Aug 2007).

£3412.98 as a result of a job-change (July 2007).

£93 cancelled direct debits for unused services (April 2007).

One-Off Savings

£30 cheque for keeping M:Metrics market research software on my Smartphone (Feb 2008).

£38 on a smart-casual jacket, M&S January sale (January 2008).

£27.49 on jacket, EWM January sale (January 2008).

£10 total discount on 4 turtle-neck shirts, BOGOHP in EWM January sale (January 2008).

£22 on trowsers, M&S January sale (January 2008).

£0.50 on “grommit” shortbread, by buying a broken biscuit rather than a perfect one (January 2008).

£15 postal order for installing M:Metrics market research software on my Smartphone (October 2007).

£2.75 on fuel at Tesco by using a voucher (October 2007).

£30 bank changes avoided by promptly repaying money into old current account when I accidentally overdrew (September 2007).

£50 cash for changing current accounts (September 2007).

£10 compensation from Alliance and Leicester when they failed to transfer my direct debits to my new current account (July 2007).

£4.25 refund on a meal (June 2007).

£12.40 (20%) off a Littlewoods Direct order: Using a voucher (June 2007). [Edit: the voucher was not honoured by Littlewoods]

£367.86 Endowment mis-selling compensation from Prudential (May 2007).

£162 MEAF reclaim against Abbey (May 2007).

Other Benefits

Visual Studio 2008 Standard Edition worth about £200 (April 2008): Free gift at Microsoft product launch event.

Free Thorntons Easter Egg: Promotional Offer (March 2008).

Free small bag jelly beans (Yum, yum!): Promotional offer (Feb 2008)

One free banana (Yum!) : Fairtrade promotional stand (Feb 2008)

Signed up for Quidco (December 2007).

12 free pots of playdough: special offer at ToysRUs (December 2007)

A free Pentel marker : For filling in a freepost enquiry form for a service I’ll never use (July 2007)

A free Financial Review : Offered by our bank, Alliance & Leicester, when we opened a current account. There was a sales pitch, but it was low-key and easily dodged. The adverser was genuinely helpful (June 2007)

Free Braodband : Switching from BT to TalkTalk gives us free broadband for the same monthly spend (May 2007)

Free Sausage and Bean Bake (Yum, Yum!) : Voucher in local paper (May 2007)

Free Wireless ADSL Modem: Asked my Father if I could have the one he was not using. (May 2007).

Borrowed The Money Diet from the library (April 2007).

Started tracking spending in Microsoft Money (March 2007).

Set up a free WordPress blog (Feb 2007).