My dad is a mechanical engineer. When I was a kid, it seemed like every weekend we would be standing out the back of our house in the pissing rain (always seemed to be raining) fixing cars. I would pass him spanners while he rolled around under the car. He would try and get me down on the floor with him so he could show me what he was doing. I was not interested in the slightest. It seemed like the worst thing in the world, voluntarily lowering my chest down onto cold, wet, oily tarmac.
I would spend the time wishing I was back in our nice warm house, there were so many useful things I could be doing with my time. Whenever I did finally get released, I would run back inside to do something completely useless like watch TV or play computer games. I would glance out the window as it got dark, feeling slight pangs of guilt, knowing my dad was still out in the rain. I would wonder why on earth he was doing it.
Yesterday, driving back from the gym, I heard a knocking sound in the back, it got worse and worse as I went along till it was quite loud and evident something was wrong. My dad told me it was the rear wheel bearings that needed tightening. So there I was, in the wind and rain, on a Sunday afternoon, rolling around on the floor. I had all the tools I needed, I knew what needed to be done, and I set about doing it. I spent 2hrs with oil and grease all over my hands, soaking wet and cold, and I didn’t even notice, I was engaged. When I took the car for a spin and listened to the perfect silence as the car rolled along, it sounded like Beethoven’s 3rd symphony to me. Although tightening wheel bearings is the simplest of simple tasks, I had fixed the car, so I could drive to work tomorrow, and earn money for my family. At the age of 35, I had finally caught a glimpse of what my dad was doing all those weekends.
(I phoned my dad to congratulate myself on my achievement. I happened to mention I had not bothered to replace the silly little split pins. He informed me they were not silly at all and I needed to go back out right away and replace them or the wheels would fall off)
| 9/1/2017 | AM | PM |
| Monday | REST | 10 tm |
| absolutely ruined AM, thought would have to leave work. Sunday run had hit me. | ||
| Tuesday | REST | 10 tm |
| Wednesday | REST | 7 tm |
| exhausted. Hanging on by fingernails. Sleep 1hr in car before training | ||
| Thursday | 3 tm | 5x1km @ 3min pace (3min rest) |
| Friday | 3 | 10 tm |
| Saturday | 10 | REST |
| Sunday | 18 tm @ 6min pace | REST |
| sposed to do a half marathon in Frodsham. Didn’t. | ||
| TOTAL: | 81 miles. tm = treadmill | |