I’m not sure if there’s ever a perfect time to admit to someone that you absolutely adore spreadsheets. Telling someone you love spreadsheets is harder than telling someone you love them for the first time. Like telling someone you love them, telling that special person about your love for spreadsheets can go many different ways. Worst case scenario, they laugh in your face, throw up a little, and then tell all their friends what a weirdo you are. This can happen with normal love as well. Best case scenario, they say it right back, and the two of you have an in depth discussion about conditional formatting and the appropriate amount of sheets in one excel document. This happens less often with normal love. Another reaction is that they send you a pie-chart detailing the various importance of all their feelings on what you’ve just revealed. This scenario almost always leads to a hasty marriage followed by a quicker divorce. It hardly ever happens with normal love.
The reason I’m babbling on about spreadsheets is because they, for me, are fantastic. I use them for budgeting, I use them for trip planning, and I use them for exercise. My current exercise spreadsheet is a twelve week plan consisting of yoga and running workouts that is stuck to my bedroom wall, covered in green highlights where things have been completed. I love it. It’s my favourite spreadsheet.
The only issue is, the two most recent workouts on there haven’t been given the green highlight of achievement. This is because of the bane of every spreadsheeters life, injury. You can set out the perfect 12 week plan, you can have an abundance of highlighters at the ready, you can follow the programme to a tee, but injury doesn’t care for your printouts.
Unfortunately I’ve somehow managed to twist both my knee and hips this week, which has left me hobbling somewhat. Now I can tell it’s not a major injury, I can still walk around the house, albeit in some pain, but knowing my body like I do I am assuming it will need at least a weeks rest to recover. Now because there’s always a spreadsheet ready for when the current one ends, this means that not only have all the goals for the next twelve weeks been changed, but for the weeks following that as well.
Now as a spreadsheeter, I’m always happy when I get the opportunity to make new spreadsheets, even if it comes under less than happy circumstances, but as a fan of setting goals, having to move them back a couple of weeks isn’t ideal. Despite this, I have really been enjoying running again, so I still have the same determination to meet my goals by their new allotted dates.
But what are these goals? Well, they’re pretty simple because I’ve been taking things slowly to avoid injuries (I know). The first goal, which was due to be completed today, was to run a 5K straight through for the first time since 2019. The second goal was to run 15K in a week (from three runs). The fourth goal was to run 10K straight through for the first time in my life. This goal wasn’t even on the initial 12 week spreadsheet, but sat, with its ‘before Christmas’ aim, on a future spreadsheet, ready to make its debut when the current one ended.
The good news is that the goals haven’t changed, they have merely been delayed by a couple of weeks. In the past a setback like this minor injury would have made me rip up all the plans and concentrate instead on something else, usually involving eating ice cream and hiding my running shoes. This time though it’s made me even more sure that I want to hit all my targets. I can’t wait to get my leg back to its best and use it to run, and jump, and do some awesome air kicks again. I’ve never done an awesome air kick in my life, but now I’m going to the second I get the chance.
All My Worst Work 