Apologies for the radio silence on the blog – I’ve hit that moment when you realise that there is one month to Christmas and you’ve done no planning whatsoever. And the house is a bit of a mess because we keep doing DIY. You could lose children in our back yard, and not in a fun Narnia way.

So: running. It’s going well. I’m enjoying just doing the short distances, and I’ve started eyeing off the short course options for the Perth Trail Summer Series of runs – Staypuft, Wallygrunta, Swissmurdie, Qi Gong and Snakes ‘n’ Ladders. I have no desire to do Truth and Consequences or Bloated Goat. I am really enjoying running in the burgeoning heat with no race goals.

The muscle in my back that I pulled after a trip to IKEA (see first paragraph) is proving to be a bit of a sod at the physiotherapist. Treatment is a serious icing, and then massage. Unfortunately it’s precisely where I am the most ticklish, and when that kicks in I’m not someone who reacts to tickling with laughter, I tend to react in violence.

I am lying on the treatment bed, under orders to try and relax, but the entire time I am contorted, attempting to refrain from crying out in pain (don’t want to scare the other patients) and trying to stop my arms from swinging a protective punch at the physiotherapist. The first treatment I had for it he gave up and used ultrasound, after he came within millimetres of an elbow to the gut. The problem is ultrasound isn’t as effective as massage. So I suffer and try not to assault the poor man. Oh yes, treatment is going swimmingly.

Pilates is good – I am getting better at isolating muscles and working muscles that I should be working, rather than the muscles that tend to take over – I’d do box bridges and realise I was using my quads and not my glutes and abdominals, that sort of thing. I’m also foam rolling with more diligence, which probably helps. The fat cat is not helping the foam rolling, however – if you’re lying on a foam roller you’re fair game. But that’s par for the course with her.

I have a few posts percolating in my head – I read an excellent book a few weeks ago by Matt Fitzgerald, it’s called Diet Cults. So there’s one in my head about that, but I can’t really work out what I want to say about it. But then again, it’s my blog, and I can write whatever I damn well like.