Exercising my trunk: running club part deux and other nonsense

It's been a busy week so far, and it's only Tuesday. Holy crap - why do I put myself through all this nonsense? What happened to just going home and sitting on the sofa in my pants watching One Tree Hill? On the other hand, I should really stop complaining because I'm doing some really cool things at the moment.

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Monday evening I met up with the lovely Jo for a movie and dinner. And what special effects-laden blockbuster did we catch? Erm, none - we saw the 1955 film East of Eden starring James Dean. Now, I bought the book on which this movie was based only a few weeks ago, but I haven't actually started reading it. I wanted to catch the film, though, because it was a one-off screening as part of a 'movies that matter' season, it only cost a fiver, and I figured it would be cool to see such a big epic film in the way it was supposed to be seen. 

And what did I think? I loved it. It was definitely one of those films that I thought was good while watching it, but I can tell it had real depth to it because I've thought about it pretty constantly since. I can't wait to see how it compares to the book - particularly as the film apparently only covers the final third or so of Steinbeck's novel. And, as a bonus the cinema was not full of old ladies smelling of cabbage and having flashbacks to their teenage lust over James Dean.

Post film I had the fattest Nandos known to man. Jo's eyes almost shot out on stalks when she saw how much food I'd ordered, and she bet I couldn't eat it all. I totally did though. What? Don't judge me - I was so hungry I could've eaten the arse off a donkey!

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I bought a copy of The Times today - not because I wanted to look more dapper than usual while strolling down the street with it under my arm, but because it had a free copy of Freakonomics in it, which I've been meaning to buy for ages, and simply couldn't turn down for the price of 70 of the Queen's pence. The Times is actually doing a free book every day this week; yesterday was Everything is Illuminated, but that didn't really appeal to me. I don't know what's coming tomorrow, Thursday, or Friday, but if they look good I'm definitely going to pick them up. Damn – my book stack is increasing once again!

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I think I've found something to spend some money on: a freakin' huge canvas! I found these on Amazon, and there's loads that I like. Because they're so big, though, I'm going to limit myself to just one. I like this one, but I think I'm going to go for this one. And I think T-Bird should totally get this one.

I still want those jeans though.

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I went to running club again tonight accompanied by - and regular readers might want to sit down for this - Sweatband! After skipping out last week and then saying she couldn't make it this week she actually did turn up. On the other hand, though, she lumped me in with a speedy group before deciding to align herself with what I'll delicately call the 'older ladies' group. So while she headed out for a gentle jog and a bit of a gossip with the ladies, I found myself running into Richmond Park with some proper good runners. 

We started off with some warm-up exercises that consisted of jogging on the spot, skipping with fictional ropes, and sashaying from side-to-side while wiggling our hips. One of the ladies smiled at me as I did this and shouted out "you've done that before, haven't you Tim?"

F**k. Was it that evident that I paid such close attention to the last series of Strictly Come Dancing?

After the sashaying we were then instructed to lie on the ground in order to exercise our 'trunks.' My first thoughts were that I was either a) unaware that we should've come prepared to do some swimming, or b) a bit concerned that I was being recruited into Puppetry of the Penis. Fortunately it turned out that our trunks are basically our abs, and I'm all for working those bad boys, so I laid face down, careful not to rest myself on any deer poo (of which there is much in Richmond Park).

The exercise, which is called 'the plank,' basically consisted of supporting yourself on your forearms and tip-toes for about a minute. It sounds easy, but it's not. On the plus side, if you do this once a day you'll eventually end up with awesome abs. I'm going to try it, and if it works I'm totally going to scan them in and stick them up on here.

After that we hit the track for some interval training. This consisted of four sections, each lasting six minutes and featuring a jogging/sprint combo like this:

1. 5:30 mins jogging/30 sec sprint

2. 5:00 mins jogging/1 minute sprint

3. 4:30 mins jogging/1:30 sprint

4. 4 mis jogging/2 mins sprint

And let me tell you: it freakin' hurt. To add insult to injury, it's been a hot day, there was no breeze, and literally thousands of big flying ants were zipping around and bashing into my head. If they persist in doing that, I might have to go for a full body wax so they're just deflected right off me.

But I'm really glad I did it, and I feel totally awesome now. I think I might be on some kind of endorphin high or something, because I just want to keep writing 'awesome' (even more than usual). Rather than do that, though, I really think I should just have another drink then go shower. Awesome.