I'm back!

I'm back!  Very sorry to have neglected talking and rambling here about keeping fit, handling life and staying in good shape.  Lots happening and I did miss sitting down with my laptop each morning and writing a little here.

Nothing dramatic has happened, honest, just the hectic demands of life in being a husband, a father and earning the daily crust.  Here's a few specific things:

Cycling

I've made sure I've cycled as much as I can lately: the odd hour or two, here and there.  This is because I've signed up to the Coast to Coast In A Day event in June 2014.  Rachel thinks I'm worse than bonkers for doing this but nevertheless is right behind me.  She knows its the kind of thing I have to do.  Why not pop over to the cycle hub to read a little more.

Running

I had thought of cutting back on running almost completely in favour of cycling but I can't!  I'd miss it so much!  There is something about running which I have found to be so compelling and almost addictive.  I'll tell you more soon about running in Stevenage after work (yep, that's where I work these days) and the latest gear.

Handling stress

Amazingly people are talking to me about stress and ways of getting through it and over it.  This is extraordinary.  Having experienced periods of stress in the work place (in 2003 I had a month of sick leave) I know exactly how it feels and have developed ways of dealing with it.

I still work in the same field and I see those stresses and strains bubbling up in my colleagues around me, so it remains real.  I'm human too, I have to deal with tricky things at work so it never completely goes away but I know more about handling it these days.  

Please get in touch if via ramblingsofdoug@gmail.com you'd like to talk about helping you out - me coming to your workplace, group etc.  If it simply helps to chat via email, that's fine: I'm happy to talk on email if that would help you individually.

Reviews

One of the nice things in blogging is being asked to review products from time to time.  Right now we are trying out Trek and Nakd cereal bars for The Cycle Hub.  I will do a summary here sometime.  I have been trying Aldi's cycling gear and have agreed to test their 2014 range a little later on.  

I've also written a few articles appearing elsewhere which I also immensely enjoy.  That's the thing isn't it - when you write about something you're passionate about - it's so enjoyable!

Page views

I can't believe how this has dropped through the floor over the last two months.  A few months ago I was getting over 15,000 page views a month.  Now it's about 1,000 - wow that's quite a drop and all because I've had a blogging holiday.  So I hope this will spring back quickly now.