Lovely Christmas pressies

Lots of goodies received to help me with my exercise regime: iPod armband case from baby sister, fab new pair of gym pants and a huge mountain biking tome from middle sister. Hi vis vest from In Laws to prevent further car door/fat bird interface incidents plus a lovely new base layer top for cycling. The most recently appreciated gift though was from my folks to Husband - very easy to set-up & change radio alarm clock! Husband seemed to like the heap of Decathlon biking stuff I got him - and was excited about getting a wiggle voucher.
Anyhow, if any of the generous donors are reading this blog, thanks very much indeed for our gifts!

Brilliant Views – shame about the speed

I’ve been looking forward to my Christmas jog for weeks – to the extent that I was terrified that the cold I’d developed on the 22nd was going to stop play. But as it was still a head cold by the 25th, I decided to go ahead.
Loved the route – from the house over to the cliff at Babbacombe, along the road to Ansteys Cove, along Torbay’s millionaire’s row to get to the beach hut for a fried breakfast. The waves were crashing on the beach. Lots of cormorants out fishing for their breakfast too!
Shame about my speed – I averaged a dawdling 8kph but I was keeping my heartrate low-ish in deference to not being well. Just pleased that I did it.
My cold caught up with me later though & I was in bed by 9pm… Still not 100% so will skip the gym today. Will prob go tomorrow though & do a gentle routine.

Not much else in the way of exercise – Husband had the cold too but it was on his chest & causing him much more discomfort. We introduced Husband’s parents to the joys of geocaching on Christmas Eve, finding 2 micro caches in Babbacombe. They seem very keen to find more, perhaps with the grandchildren on their next visit. At least it’s motivation to get more au fait with their GPS unit!

Walk from Home

I'm trying to pretend that my sore throat, headache & sense of being bunged up is not Husband's martian death flu - but I didn't feel up to running today. We were let home earley due to Christmas & it was a beautiful afternoon, so instead of jogging or gym, I went for a walk. It was a good opportunity to experiment with my new toy - etrex vista.

So I can say with confidence that I walked 9.75km and was moving for 90 mins. The route I took was through woods and fields close to home - got v.muddy partially beacuse of the paths & partially due to a very friendly greyhound!

Very pleased with the photo I took in the woods. The fog returned about 20 minutes after I took this.

Playing Catch Up

Weekend in Northumberland with family - very impressed that J&P went running both mornings, but we restricted ourselves to a couple of short walks - into the village & back on Saturday, then a wander with the children on Sunday - I enjoyed racing D's buggy against P!

Skating on Tuesday as a pre-pub thing. I thoroughly enjoyed it (again!) but I seemed to be the only one who did. Husband had a very odd technique - threw himself as fast as he could & then crashed into the safety barrier! Kind of human curling without a broom....

I did go to Body Combat on Wed: 3 tracks from new routine - including the Killer's "Somebody Told Me" - it was tough singing whilst learning new moves.... Then Juliana put in some oldies inlcuding YMCA - very happy!

Today, went geocaching in the New Forest as a work team thing - good fun and my team won. Geocaching is hunting for tupperware boxes hidden at locations you can find through www.geocaching.com - it maybe as simple as going to the co-ordinates posted for a geocache or there maybe puzzles to solve. Exercise wise, probably not bad - we drove between the points but each involved a walk of up to half a mile once parked.

Very foggy - which made it seem very atmospheric - our voices seemed to echo & there was an odd sense of isolation. Walking in the Forest definitely beats glaring at my laptop as an entertaining thing to do on a Thursday afternoon.

Struggle tonight

I can't decide whether it was my hangover, feeling sniffy or having driven over 300 miles today making me less than stunning in the gym tonight - or maybe it was just an off day. Still did everything - same treadmill routine as last time - but it was much more tiring. Ah well! At least I went...

My mammoth drive did enable me to buy some goodies from Decathlon - another pair of warm cycling tights and a couple of t-shirts. Also bought some dinky little lights for my bike & the SNB so that if we ever find ourselves in low light like on Sunday, we'll be a bit more prepared.

First sub 35 minute 5K

34:16 to do the 5K route from my house - compared to 36:20 last time - I can't believe it! I was so nervous about not doing as well as last time that I've been putting off jogging outside - it's nice to be wrong sometimes! It felt good going round - my legs seemed to be striding out a bit more than before. So chuffed!

Forerunner and iPod both behaved impeccably.

Raindrops kept falling on our heads

Apart from my puncture & dodgy brakes, Sunday's ride was fun - even though it was raining most of the way. Just over 15 easy miles in the New Forest, mostly off road.

Very grateful to M for sorting out my bike problems! And to the other M (as in C&M as opposed to Mr Kitty) for ensuring that A & I didn't lose the guys in the dark on the way back. Impressed that A came with us as I know she'd been unwell for a few days. Biggest thanks goes to Husband though for letting me get inside & into a hot shower whilst he sorted out the bikes afterwards!

I think the attached photo of A summarises the state of us all afterwards pretty well. Our kit is now coated in silty gravel - I was even sneezing grit!

Sk8er Girls

Went skating with G yesterday morning at the rink set up in Winchester Cathedral's close - and loved it! Spent the first 5 miniutes grimly clinging to the side but after that, I was OK. Nothing fancy, but managed:

• Not to fall over


• To avoid the small children, both prone on the ice & still standing

Atmosphere helped too - beautiful setting & a brass band were playing Christmas Classics like Sleighride & Lieutenant Kije.

G is really good - looks confident & cool on the ice. She can balance on 1 skate & showed me a mini jump. We're planning to do skating lessons in Jan.

Gym

Gym tonight after a couple of nights off. Same as Monday but used different weight machines - all good.

A change will do me good

I've been feeling a bit achey today - at the gym last night, I tried new approach to weights (3 sets of 10 reps, aiming to fail the 3rd set) and my arms & back are feeling a bit tired as a result. On the treadmill, I did my first 10 mins at the same rate as last time (2 min intervals, slow at 8kph, fast at 10kph) but bumped up the speeds for the second 10 mins ( 8.5 & 10.5), finishing up at 11 for the final 2 mins - so an average of over 9kph. Very pleased I did this - I'm more convinced that 5k in 30mins could be possible by next summer - but it's made my legs ache today.

No walk/jog with A as she has a migraine - poor thing. However, tried something new tonight - a Cardio Kickboxing class with my colleague V at a gym near Southampton. Didn't enjoy it as much as Body Combat - shouty instructor & very uninspiring choreography. But a change is good!

Sunday was different too - no bike ride as it was too windy so we had a lie in & pootled over to the gym for a swim instead. Disturbed to realise that there were many un & under supervised young kids in the pool and no lifeguard. Esporta couldn't even find a leisure assistant to put the lane ropes across for the session - but still found time to spend with potential new suckers - sorry members - touring the club. Prioritising drumming up new business over safety of children - hmmmmm.

Husband had his gym induction on Sunday evening - he seemed to enjoy it. Due to his rubbish ankles, it's exercise bike, rowing machine & freee weights for him.

39 seconds off my time

36:20 to do the 5k route from home - 39 seconds faster than on Monday! I mustn't expect to improve this much everytime though - one of the nice things about starting from a low level of fitness seems to be that big improvements are possible initially.

Forerunner worked beautifully & I have been assured that the calorie count glitch is work-in-progress. iPod however decded to crash half way around - it's behaving now following restoring factory settings. Forerunner does highlight that my heart rate remains constant when jogging - even on a hilly route. I seem to compensate with increased speed on the downhill bits & work equally hard (but slower) to get up hills.

Incident with bloke getting out of his car & knocking me with the door has highlighted that although my black kit does have reflective bits, perhaps I should add a high vis reflective vest to my Christmas list!

New Running Book

I've been dipping into a new running book - it seems very much designed for dipping in and out of as much of it is top tips. I like that it's written by 2 runners - a tortoise and a hare to borrow their metaphor - which takes it into slightly different territory to other running books which seem to focus exclusively into turning readers in to the next Paula Radcliffe....
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Running-Made-Easy-Susie-Whalley/dp/1861057032/sr=8-1/qid=1164842018/ref=pd_ka_1/026-2973961-9931635?ie=UTF8&s=books

Body Combat

Whoa Hoe, Livin' on a Pray-yeah..... old ones were played tonight as promised. Slightly disappointed that there was no YMCA but hey, still good 'n' tacky.

Walking & Jogging with A

Sad geeky bit:
Distance: 5.63km
Time: 53.3 mins
Average Speed: 6.3kph (power walked with a few bursts of jogging)
Top Speed: 9.8kph
Average Heart Rate: 142bpm

I've given up on even looking at the calories bit on the Forerunner having discovered that it doesn't use heart rate in the calculation - just distance, elevation & weight - so no adjustment for efficiency. As a keen off road cyclist (which should - but isn't - be treated as a different efficiency depending on terrain to road cycling) who counts calories, this is a very bad thing! Can't even get my head around how it calculates the calories for running - seems to be arbitrary. All I can think is that it was developed with serious athletic types in mind who don't obsess about calories....

Champagne & dented cars

Saturday did incorporate walking - probably around 45 mins - making our way from Waterloo to Chelsea for a wedding, walking to a venue off Sloane St for the reception, to the pub & then back to Waterloo. The other major exercise was lifting champagne glass. Lots. Repeatedly! Anyhow, congrats to P & A - hope you enjoy marriage at least as much as I seem to be doing - sad, but I can still gush about liking being married to Husband. Especially as martian death flu seemed to have abated by the time I got home on Friday!

15 mile bike ride in the forest yesterday from Fritham with Husband & C. The SNB (Husband's bike) fell off bike rack, bashing the car on the way down - car was dented, not a mark on the SNB. We think that the clamp wasn't done up properly & not locked - the mitigating factor was that we were putting the bikes on the car on torrential rain. Good ride though - very entertaining cycling up paths that had turned into streams & through fords that wouldn't have been there before. Cute pigs at the end, rootling in the forest for acorns.

Luck wasn't on our side on Sunday - we then went to the gym for Husband's induciton - but it was postponed due to double booking - Esporta, I like your club but your admin is not great! 20 mins of interval training and 20 on the X trainer.

Jog today - 36:59 to do exactly 5km. I was faster than last time - went past home on lap 3 at 34:30 compared to 35:00 last week. Forerunner was working well - fo a change! I had my ipod for company which made a difference to my boredom level. Nice blister on my instep - never mind.

Mozart's Balls

I've spent 2 hours wandering around Munich - bit of sightseeing (a little limited in the dark!) and bit of shopping. And I feel as if I've spent lots of time on my feet today - traipsing around electrical & other retailers in Munich & Salzburg. Feeling very pleased with myself at resisting buying yet more kit in a fab Intersports store.....
Anyhow, bought Husband some Mozart balls & was really looking forward to telling him about them - and seeing how long I can go before revealing that they are chocolate - but just called & he is too far gone with martian death flu (a cold to a woman) to even talk to me. Ah well. At least I have 24 hours to build up some sympathy for the poor soul (sympathy 4 man flu is not my strong suit).

Technology fails

Tuesday's walk & jog today with A - good apart from our technology!
My Forerunner failed miserably to find a satellite - and I failed miserably to remember the heart rate monitor strap. And A's HR monitor was playing up too. More techy issues when I got home - lost my camera charger which I need 4 tomorrow's business trip - A saved me though.

On a more positive techy note, collected my sexy new Ipod video - and it works! Planning a Christmas list of gadgets & gizmos to keep it company now - really want an arm strap case so I can jog with it. Perhaps the god of techy stuff does love me after all.....

Feeling pleagh

I don't think I do this very often (at least I hope I don't!) but I'm feeling decidedly pleagh. Might be going down with a cold, the squash I had for tea tonight is sitting in my stomach like its morphed back into a whole butternut squash & is going to remain there forever, I was rubbish at the gym tonight, my head hurts & I keep on sneezing.
Pleagh pleagh pleagh pleagh pleagh pleagh pleagh pleagh pleagh.

What a difference a bit of rain makes

Tiring Bike ride today - 19 miles from Cheesefoot Head using a route we've done twice before:
http://www.hants.gov.uk/pdf/cycling/Cheesefoot%20Head.pdf

But this is the first time in winter & just after some torrential rain - and that made a huge difference. Claggy mud made it tricky to get traction in places - and tricky to stay on the bike in others. Thinking about the myth that the Inuit have umteen words for snow, I reckon that mountain bikers should have many many words for mud! The route took longer than I expected despite virtually no breaks.

S & X joined me & Husband - really good to see them both after a couple of months. S & I were both playing with heart rate monitors. X was amazing - she has back problems which make going uphill painful - you could see on her face that she was in pain but she just carried on. However, I will ensure that the next rid we do with X involves fewer countour lines crammed together.

There was a strong smell of crab apples in places - so many over the track. Beautiful day.

Saturday - went to the gym to offset party attendance later on! X trainer, interval jogging on the treadmill & finished with the incline press.

Rest day on Friday as we went to G's for very tasty dinner - excellent veggie curry!

Hopes of YMCA

Body Combat on Wednesday went well. The Instructor was singing alot into her mike - kind of endearing & added to the not-too-serious atmosphere. At the end, she mentioned that she's going to resurrect some older tracks next week for a bit of variety - I got very excited when somebody suggested she dig out 2005's superb YMCA routine. Now I have to go next week!

Gym tonight - X trainer, interval training on the treadmill & the incline press for a bit of weight work. I ramped up the interval training a tad - by 0.5 kph for both fast & slow speeds - so now at 8 & 10 kph. It was tiring at the time - but it's now well past midnight & I can't sleep so I don't think I pushed myself too much!