Sunday 3rd July to Saturday 9th July 2011

Saturday 9th July 2011

Bit of a walk/run thing to start the day off. Golf at 12:50. Black tie do at the golf club afterwards which was interesting.

Friday 8th July 2011

Ten days to go on the 2011 cycle2work project. Walked up town and back as I legs are seriously tired from last night's badminton in which I was regularly whooped by the bleedin kids. Such is life. Bit of golf practice that was a bit rubbish.

Thursday 7th July 2011

Ran up town and back, three miles and steady.

Wednesday 6th July 2011

Ran up town and back for first time in a few days. Was okay if a bit slow. Dentists at 9am, hygenist at 9:40am, got to work for 11am. Got told off for it too. Such is life. Final performance tonight and then drums to pack away again.

Cycle2Work Time Again

Am liking the look of this boardman that'll mountain bike or commute. V Nice.

Tuesday 5th July 2011

Got to leave work early so came into work early to make an extra three quarters of an hour before I start.

Monday 4th July 2011

Walk up town and back as toes on left foot hurting. Details. Did the kids musical thing - hills are alive with the sound of music and a bit of drum racket. Did a few holes on the golf course which was better - started doing that thing where you pull your elbows together which improved things quite a bit. Still work to be done but am seeing an improvement - maybe the stress of Wentworth past is helping!

Sunday 3rd July 2011

Not much to report. Did a few holes of golf not bad at all. Got drums down to village hall for kids school musical thing. Got a change of handicap notice from golf club down to 17. Swines.

Sunday 26th June 2011 to Saturday 2nd July 2011

Saturday 2nd July 2011

Got up dead early. Watered the spud field. Went up town got Phil's provisional license application form and did that with him. Went played the medal at the golf club off the yellow tees and came back with a respectable 86 for a nett 68. Which was more than acceptable after the rubbish I did at Wentworth!!

Some Pics from Wentworth Wed 29th June 2011

First Tee

Every hole is treelined - See gps tracked image from Wednesdays' post.

!

Colleague Mike stalking the green like a tiger (without the spitting obviously - note car in background - three or four places where cars cross fairways).

How pretty is this course?

Very briefly (I'd imagine) I was holder of longest drive - only on account of being the only one to hit the fairway up to that point!!!

Mike takes a shot over the drink which he found on his first approach.

View from my hotel window!! Courtesy of Honda UK - finest car company in the world in my opinion!

Friday 1st July 2011

Absolutely cream crackered this morning. Walked/ran up town and back very slow but got back in time to water the spud field and what have you so all good there. Details

Thursday 30th June 2011

Tired - unloaded car, watered the spud field and then up town and back for a run and pick up the papers. Sub 10 minute miles was sort of impressive considering tiredness!! Details Badminton in the evening - somewhat rusty to start off with but played okay later. All good.

Wednesday 29th June 2011

20th Wedding Anniversary and I should be at home however, I'm at Wentworth on a freebie golf day in the most expensive (possibly) golf resort in the UK - £300 odd quid a round for the championship West Course, home of World Matchplay and the PGA events. So not in the best of books regarding that but such is life. Anyway it was a nice 8 mile plus walk with some poor golf thrown in. Managed to par the last with an audience playing an 8-iron over the water to about 6 feet from the hole. Details

Tuesday 28th June 2011

Am now officially panicing about golf has gone really bad. Have put two sets of clubs in car just in case! Might try both sets out at Wentworth. Anyway went up golf course at 5:30 and probably hit it just about as bad as I ever have. Such is life. Details. When got back I regripped the driver as the Karakal one seemed to be coming to pieces - think something to do with the solvent used to activate the adhesive but anyway it's replaced now.

Monday 27th June 2011

Bit of a run to start the week - very knackered. Details Went and did some more cak golf. Details

Sunday 26th June 2011

Walk up golf course, found a couple of balls had a few hits with the NVG2s. Was Ok need to decide what I'm going to be playing with at Wentworth on Wednesday. Details

Sunday 19th June 2011 to Saturday 25th June 2011

Saturday 25th June 2011

No more golf today! Missus gone shopping. Anyway had a walk up the golf course with the old LCGs and it was okay. Details

Friday 24th June 2011

More and more golf!! Went to Bakewell GC as part of a Groupon deal. Me, Dave, John and Doug played 18 holes for £36 and also got a coffee and enormous sausage sambo on arrival. Everyone well pleased and weather stayed dry as well. Can't ask more than that! Ended up taking the money after scoring 35 points - only problem was I can't play the second, for some reason I keep blind-siding myself on the left of the fairway and then bashing the ball into the trees on that side - stupid! anyway - Details

Thursday 23rd June 2011

Absolutely cream crackered this morning hence a very slow run indeed. 11.27 miles which is not good but I'd got nothing in the tank and that's what happens! Details Went to Badminton after work and really enjoyed it, then... went up golf course for nine holes which did in 6-over with a double on 15th after finding bunker and then hitting out of the bunker over the green. More details

Wednesday 22nd June 2011

Watch fully charged - run up town and back. Steady. Details Drains all sorted everyone's happy again.

Tuesday 21st June 2011

Tired, watch out of battery. Ran up town and back all okay but no details!! Bloody drains blocked when got home at 7:30 - marvellous.

Monday 20th June 2011

Tired, tired, tired, stopped up listening to radio 5's coverage of Rory Mcllroy winning the US Open good on the wee fella says I. Anyroad walked up town and ran back. Details. Went for a walk up golf course and got severely rained - found a load of balls though so not all bad.

Sunday 19th June 2011 - Father's Day

Got a cheeky card and a Kindle which is what I wanted! Am going to Nag's Head for lunch which is always nice. Did a few holes of golf in the evening which was nice! Details

Sunday 12th June 2011 to Saturday 18th June 2011

Saturday 18th June 2011

Tired as usual not getting over the hols and Journey very quickly but hey-ho am not as young as I used to be, just like you! Anyway got 14 holes of golf in - as there was no comp on we jumped from the 9th tee to the 13th tee and played to the end that way. For the first nine holes I was 6 over which was okay all things considered - I've been told I'm swaying during my swing so am bracing the back foot a bit more to reduce this and it worked real good - details.

Friday 17th June 2011

Tired, tired, tired, walked up town and then ran back. Details

Thursday 16th June 2011

Couldn't get out of bed, absolutely knackered again need to get some proper sleep as didn't get none in merseyside due to road traffic noise at hotel. Never sleep well in hotels. Had a good badminton session with Lucy though so not a complete blank exercise day. Lost 1.5lb this week as well after putting three on during holiday.

Wednesday 15th June 2011

Visited the Mossley Hill group last night and it was very good indeed apart from a Brazilian Samba drum band thing rehearsing two doors up - talk about noisy. Visited a group in Speke before driving home absolutely knackered when got back at 11:30. Stuff

Tuesday 14th June 2011
Been doing a load of getting ready for a trip to Merseyside for two group visits. Quick run up town and back. V tired due to being up til late watching Lethal Weapon last night which was very good, so a slow time up town and back. Details http://connect.garmin.com/activity/92317732
Am working in Merseyside for next couple of days so no posts til Thursday.

Monday 13th June 2011
Run up town and back steady considering. Details

Did a few holes on the golf course around 7pm. Started on 6th with a par, 7th a bogey, 8th a par, 9th a bogey, 10th a bogey, 11th a double, 12th a bogey, 13th a bogey, 14th a par, 1st a bogey, 2nd a par, 3rd a bogey, 4th a bogey, 5th a double, So 11 over for 13 holes is technically better than handicap – I should have done better really as was striking the ball pretty nicely in the main just some more putting – first putt went off the green on the 13th for example. Never mind greens are nice and quick and have a round at Wentworth on the cards for the end of the month which will be good. Details : http://connect.garmin.com/activity/92317730

Sunday 12th June 2011
Knackered when woke up at 9am. Took some stuff to recycling then it started to rain and didn't stop. We need it though so not going to complain.

Sunday 5th June 2011 to Saturday 11th June 2011

Saturday 10th June 2011

Still knackered!!! Did 13 holes of golf with John - was really slow so we jumped from 9th tee to 14th tee. Details

Friday 9th June 2011

Still shattered from Journey gig and I reckon a bit tired from holiday last week. Did a bit of golf after work but that was it! Details

Thursday 8th June 2011

Knackered after getting back at 1:00, up early and off to a group at Dronfield - it were alreet!

Did a bit of golf practice which was okay. Details

Tuesday 7th June 2011

run up town and back. Legs v. tired and didn't want to get out of bed so struggled a bit - 9m 51s miles; Details. Got back watered spuds and borders then off to work. Out of work at 4pm then off to Manc land for a Journey gig.

Monday 6th June 2011

Been for a 3.5 mile run to start the day off. Details

Back to work. four meetings before 3pm awesome.

Did 8 holes of golf - par, par, birdie, bogie, bogie, bogie, par, par, double bogie for four over. Details Watched the defenders on telly and watered spuds and borders in the ad breaks.

Sunday 5th June 2011

Nothing to report on the exercise front - was up early - - bashed a wooden bench to bits and took it to recycling centre. Washed my car. Cleaned fishing rods. Serviced the abu5500c3 reel which we took to on the Anglesey holiday. Saw me mum and dad when they came over. Went out for lunch. Washed the missus car when it went cooler. Polished it - and made it rain before I'd finished. Typical. Got stuff ready for return to work.

Saturday 30th May 2011 to Saturday 4th June 2011

Was on Hols in Wales

Lots of walking, lots of fishing, lots of drinking. Went to a lot of nice new places.

Fishing at Freshwater Bay - Wed 1st June 2011

Beautiful spot - in distance you can see people on a rocky platform - they climbed down steps to get their - we're going to give it a go next time. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/90562216

Cwymran Bay / RAF Valley

We fished here twice once at low tide (and the tide is seriously strong - be warned) and once from about an hour after high. Just a single wrasse for our efforts but both times were in daylight - next time may go for it at night time.

Sunday 22nd May 2011 to Saturday 28th May 2011

Thursday 26th May 2011
Was up til late last night doing Phil's homework with him. Didn't get up til 6:20 so not on road til 6:30 not good. Slow 2.5 miles up town and back 9m 44s miles could have been better but it is what it is - I was tired so I was.

Wednesday 25th May 2011
missus wanted some bread making for a friend so I couldn't do the bike into work. So ran up town and back - steady 9m 12s miles was okay. Details. Got two multiplier reels off ebay came yesterday. Am going to overhaul them both later but they generally speaking work okay. Had a bit of a thrash on the playing field with the Okuma Magnetix MG20cs. Set it up on a telescopic 12 ft rod with a 4oz lead and was lobbing it out about 70 yards or something - the rod's not ideal so might take out my first Daiwa which is a bit more solid tomorrow night after badmo.

Tuesday 24th May 2011
Up in good time - didn't seem as windy as forecast so made decision I'd bike into work from Belper. Bit more windy than I'd thought. Am hoping wind will be with me on the way back but I bet it isn't! Details. Was really late from work, forgot to pick me coat up from gym changing room - set off and realised this about a mile out so didn't want to turn back. Weather looked a bit iffy so rode harder than normal - hence 15.7mph average. Am going to stick with this biking mullarkey - it'd be cool to see if I could get to a 16mph average over 10 miles. Well cool. Details

Monday 23rd May 2011
Up earlyish considering was watching Tin Cup til nearly midnight . Quick run up town and back. Details. Had a thrash with the sand wedge in the field. Sweet. Goes a good 70 yards when struck well. Went to do a mini-update for the Mona Villas Website last night www.mona-villas.fsnet.co.uk I'm no longer able to upload web changes for the original websites I did as I've not got an orange / wanadoo / freeserve account and made a bigger mistake when I found out I'd changed John's account to BT last year!!! So we had to set up a dial-up account for John just for the purpose of uploading the changes which only added up to about 30K in any case! Anyway it got done and it's off my list now.

Sunday 22nd May 2011
Not much to report. Went to Donington Markat early doors for some bits and bobs for hols. Got missus the new Whitesnake album in a special presentation pack for the princely sum of £3!!! Awesome. Also got latest Total Sea Fishing magazine for £1.50 and some others to keep me busy should it rain!

Bought a Taylormade LCG sand wedge clubhead from Ebay for about a fiver and fitted that to a shaft I had that was on a duff five iron so now have a full set of LCGs going from 2iron through to sand wedge. Excellent. Might give it a go in a day or two.


Went to Stone Cottage to upload their website changes later on. One of the first websites I ever did and it shows a bit. Never mind. www.stone-cottage.fsnet.co.uk Mini bike ride there and back.

Sunday 15th May 2011 to Saturday 21st May 2011

Saturday 21st May 2011

Got up at 8am! That's not happened in a while. Cleaned cars inside and out. Hoovered up. Wheel is now falling off the Dyson which is a worry. Played not bad golf - 87 for a nett 69. Should have been much better but screwed up three holes with poor drives, all three ended up with triple bogies unfortunately. Lot of pars though - five on front nine and four in a row on the back nine just not quite consistant enough yet. Details

Friday 20th May 2011
Tired like nowt on earth this morning so nowt to report. Will have to do something this evening though.

Thursday 19th May 2011
Ride into work again - steady - got stuck in traffic a couple of times which took some of the fun away but am finding am arriving at work nicely refreshed because of the experience. Details

Rode back, steady 15mph average all the way - definitely seem a bit easier going to Belper. Then Badminton with Lucy in the evening. Knackered at the end of it all. Details

Wednesday 18th May 2011
Good stuff, up early. Got stuff ready, spuds watered, papers fetched, bike in a state of readiness on car roof. All good. Then drove to Belper, parked up, rode into work. Averaged 13.6mph with stops at traffic lights etc. Went through Swanwick which seems to be a bit easier from the route I did last time. There's one bit of steepness (excluding the hill up to Pentrich, which I push for a short distance) then the rest is a steady incline which works nicely for me. Details Didn't get out the office until 6pm but rode back to Belper nice and steady until got over took by some whipper snapper on a Cannondale so upped my pace a bit to try and stay with him - which will be around the 7/8 mile mark I think. Details

Tuesday 17th May 2011
Quick run up town and back. Steady if not spectacular as legs were aching bad. Details Then went to see about a website update for Stone Cottage. So went on bike for a mini-spin. Then at 8:30pm no less went to do a bit of golf almost in the dark! Which was okay - am getting to grips with irons again although the driver's gone south for thwe summer it seems.

Monday 16th May 2011
Steady start to the working week - four mile run, sub 10 minute miles. Details. Amber Valley have got back in touch. A three month car parking permit is £78 which means I'd need to use it three times a week to get my money back. Am thinking that I could do this and park close when I need to be home early, further away when I want to be getting in shape! It would certainly be an incentive so I think I'm going to give it a go. Did a bit of golf in the evening about 10 holes - 4 pars and the rest bogies was steady enough for me.

Sunday 15th May 2011
Not a bad start. Did a 20 mile tribute to the party in the park rides of recent weeks. Went up over Kniveton turning left at Knockerdown and across to Bradbourne, then down to Fenny Bentley, right at top of Ashbourne and over to Mappleton before coming back through Okeover Park and back to sunny Cliftonia. 20 miles in an hour and a half or so. Steady if not spectacular 12.5mph average. Baked a cake to take over me mum. Assisted the horror in getting the front lawn done. Yay. All good so far and it's only just lunchtime! Details of ride


Set up a website for Ashbourne Fly Fishing Club which has been interesting so far: http://www.ashbourneflyfishingclub.co.uk/index2.html

Sunday 8th May 2011 to Saturday 14th May 2011

Friday 13th May 2011

Perhaps a daft day to do it but thought I'd get some cycling in. Parked at Belper then cycled 10 miles into Work and back. Okay apart from getting drenched on way back.

Thursday 12th May 2011

Quiet - dead tired - got up late - no run - badminton at night

Wednesday 11th May 2011
Same run up town again with a little bit added. Around 9:55 pace I think, not had time to upload as am going London Town to an InternetWorld exhibition thang. Details.

Tuesday 10th May 2011
Another run up town and back. Steady enough and a bit quicker than yesterday. Details Me any Lucy went out for a walk early evening before nipping over to the Park for a short time.

Monday 9th May 2011
Was happy overall with yesterday, absolutely shattered when got back home last night but got back into the running again with a likkle 2.5 miler up town and back. Sub 10 min miles which is good enough for me. Details

Sunday 8th May 2011
Woke up at 4am to the sound of pouring rain which was a bit of a bugger as I'd wanted to re-ride the route to check it was all okay. Didn't get that chance so the ride started at 12 noon. Only 4 riders on the 25K one, rode round with Claire Brackenbury (Margaret Miles-Bramwell, founder of SW's daughter) few problems with hills, punctures, head-winds and what have you but we got it done just took a bit longer. Details

Three hour drive home and then it were all done!

Sunday 1st May 2011 to Saturday 7th May 2011

Saturday 7th May 2011
Sunderland 25K testing the route out went okay. Got lost on a regular basis so will need to sort out the courses thing on the FCR1 (maybe reading the manual might help!). There's a bit of the trip to the hotel bolted onto the end of this link but essentially that's what I done today.

Up at 4am to take Phil to work. Nice morning and when we set off at 4:30am it's already becoming light. Got back and thought I'd have a crack at programming the route for the http://www.bensmiles.com/ Sunderland Party in the Park 25K route which I've done using http://www.bikeroutetoaster.com/ then outputing the course to a TCX file which has then gone into the Garmin 405cx watch. Am hoping it'll give me directions along the way but will be taking a map in the rucksack just in case. Did a quick spin on the FCR1 this morning just to check the chain is alright and apart from a bit of noise in second it'll be fine. It should be for £35!!! So will be dropping Lucy off at me mums in a couplde of hours and then all being well setting sail for Herrington Country Park to test the route out ahead of tomorrow!




Friday 6th May 2011


Not doing nothing today. Need juice in me legs for the weekend so will take it easy! Getting everything set up for the weekend.

Thursday 5th May 2011
Well set off with good intentions - rode most of the way ... to Hulland Ward before chain snapped. Great. Within minutes though a chap called Graham Soult stopped and asked if he could help - I was going to walk back home which would have been six miles but with a fair bit of downhill. Anyway, he said he was going to Kirby in Ashfield and could drop me off on the way. What a star. Offered him something for his trouble but he was having none of it - will find some way of repaying the favour I'm sure. He's a director of a company called SteveSoult.com who make coffins of distinction, no less and a top man in my view.

Wednesday 4th May 2011
Solid run up town and back. Sub 9 min miles. Details. Rode back home on the FCR1 - Details.

Tuesday 3rd May 2011
Up early, watered everything. Ran up town and back 2.5 miles in sub-9 min miles which was nice. Details


Monday 2nd May 2011
Big ride today (Well should have been!). Tweaked my brakes first thing so went on a spin up town to test them and found I'd got a very loose chain link. So off to Halfords and they put a new link in and it now feels good as new again. Went and did the 25K ride which went okay as the route was changed from Friday's!!! Problems with a puncture meant it wasn't the fastest of rides but it was for a good cause so not to worry! Details Check out the progress Ben Miles is making at his website http://www.bensmiles.com/




Sunday 1st May 2011
Not much to report. Went to Donnington Market first - got Phil some bits for his compressor got some sea angling magazines for diddly squat.