Run, run, run (a great end to the week … or am I being sarcastic?)

Les Lacets de Montvernier that I cycled last year. This year’s alpine cycling trip is looking doomed

A hard day’s manual labouring in the garden on Thursday. After eight straight days with a run or session on the turbo trainer, that turned it into a ‘rest day’ of sorts as I couldn’t face either a run or the bike.

Running with my wife on Friday reminded me of another valuable lesson – the benefit of rest days. We don’t run that fast (although she is now routinely running sub 7 minute kms – bravo to her), but it felt a really good 4 miles with a fair bit of spring in my step.

Of course, it didn’t feel quite as good on Saturday when I really needed it – but almost 14km (over 8.5miles) at just under 6 minute kms. Embarrassingly, I made the rookie error of dressing appropriately for the slightly cool start to the run with no thought to the fact that I was going to be boiling by the time of the rather warm weather finish.

Warm again on Sunday when I ran 6.75km (4.2miles) with my wife.

At the moment we are in another 3 weeks of lockdown – accompanied by a lot of talk about how, and when, to come out of it. With much discussion of how to finish the football season and re-start other sports, we also have the opposite message with the 27th September Berlin Marathon being cancelled (poignant as today would have been the London Marathon).

To be honest, I don’t blame the politicians and medical experts for not knowing the answers – we are in uncharted waters.

That’s it for another action-packed week. Five runs (over 40km in all) and a turbo session. (Say it quietly, but I’ve also stepped up to the croquet challenge in a big way.)

Interesting things in the news this week

1. BBC website: “Tennis pro Clarke benefits from live-in coach“. Britain’s No5 rated male tennis player (currently world No 166, no less) is lucky that he lives with his brother, who is his coach.

A fine example of the desperation of the sports writer when there is no sport to write about.

2. I thought I had a good sense of sarcasm. However, now Pres. Trump has explained that his comments on injecting disinfectant were sarcasm I realise that I have no grasp whatsoever of what sarcasm sounds like.

Also, I now realise that I have no understanding of when sarcasm might be appropriate.

I quite like the advice “When you’re in a hole, stop digging”.

3. A well-meaning cleaner took the opportunity to give a locked-down UK library a thorough clean and replaced all of its books on the shelves – in size order.

An excellent idea. I’ve always found those books which are 8.5 inches tall to be best although, personally, I like to organise them by colour – books in red covers are invariably good.

4. A Syrian national based in Lebanon has been arrested for allegedly putting up a Nigerian maid for sale in Facebook advert. A passport photo of the 30-year-old domestic worker was included in the advert, saying she was for sale for $1,000 (£807).

Hard to believe this can happen in the 21st century.

5. Headline on the BBC News website: Coronavirus: ‘I had to shave off my beard so I could wear a face mask’

That’s getting to the heart of the big issues facing us today.

Confirmed cases of Coronavirus for Oxfordshire: population c. 690,000

14/3 – 22

21/3 – 44 (x2 from previous week)

28/3 – 113 (x2.5)

4/4 – 356 (x3.2)

11/4 – 653 (x1.8)

18/4 – 1070 (x1.6)

25/4 – 1336 (x1.25)