Thank flip it's Monday

Had a really crap weekend. Thank the lord the hundred days war on alcohol ceases this week, can't wait til Wednesday.

Ran okay this morning, 42:30 I think it was for the five miles. I've not got new laptop set up with Garmin Training center software yet so can't upload as yet.

What's it gonna be?

After all that whinging ended up going out for a solid run, not as big as the recent ones but still a solid 10 miles and mainly up hills - see the gradient profile in image below.

Early Morning Whinging

Yesterday was a rest day so only did a bit of biking and a bit of golfing which was average at best. Today I should be doing a big run but I don't feel up for it so lord knows what am going to do. Am going to fetch papers in a bit. Apparently in New of Worlds there's a voucher for Tesco's that gets you five pounds off a £30 or more shop so I'm going to get a couple of papers and get £10 off if I do some shopping and Janette does the rest. Wedding anniversary today.

On positive side I've done a white loaf overnight that looks absolutely great. Picture below:

Kids and the boss said it was yummy so am notching this up as first real success with the breadmaker (don't really eat white bread myself - it's not in the plan!). Got the recipe off the internet after doing some more research found out that 1cup = 237ml so worked out an American recipe and it seemed to work great - the key difference being that there is less water than the recipes in the Morphy Richards book have.

Anyroad it was as follows:-

Water 3/4 cup - used 180ml'ish
Flour 2 cups - 480ml'ish
Salt - 1 teaspoon
Sugar - 1 tablespoon
Dried milk - 1 table spoon
Yeast - 1 6g sachet

On the Morphy Richards 88230 (i think - not the fastbake one) breadmaker it was setting 2 which is a 1.5lb white loaf, not the dark crust option.

I know breadmaking is supposed to be a science and people keep putting measure exact amounts but blimey, there's got to be a little margin for error, some sort of tolerance. Anyway it came out well.

Fetched the papers, went on slow but comfy. It chucked it down on me so I did the four miles as fast as I could on that bike. Think I average about 16mph which is faster than I aim for on the FCR1 !!!

Made good progress with the report am doing, confident of having something ready to go by end of monday. Report scrapes something like three and half months of weekly data and crushes it into granular info for Crystal Reports. When I get it all grouped properly in Crystal it'll summarise it all nicely and allow the viewer to drill down into ever increasing detail. I'll tell you why it's clever in a couple of days when I've got it nailed down and ticked off my list.

Hate Saturdays

Not had a fun day for personal reasons. Did 8 miles on the bike first thing and 18 holes of golf. Golf was v average had about five pars. Didn't put well, hit some good irons but kept getting the distance wrong. Not played for a fortnight though so maybe what you'd expect.

Been into the office tonight to pick up my new laptop which has a much bigger hard drive and I've got a ton of data brought back on it to analyse to build a crystal report for one of the senior managers. Don't know if it was because no-one was on the system or what but it gave me about 8 gigs of data in no time at all. Was going to go and do an hour in the gym but could see I'd be done quick so didn't bother.

Not fartleking about today, weightloss or running!

Week 70 Weighin - I'll have a half

Just a half pound lost this week, which is great, really, it's great. Wasn't expecting it after Saturday night with it's tasty dessert and strawberries in chocoloate, so it's a total bonus not to have put on. Makes 4st 4.5lbs the loss in total according to my SW Consultant but I think I make it a pound less according to my spreadsheet so I was probably wrong from the off. Either way I'm just pleased with the general trend - lowest since October last year. I fancy really sticking to the plan this week to keep this going, bet I don't thought. Will see.

By the way, am still using that breadmaker and still controlling the amount of bread I have from it - it's doable, honest!


Wii Fit Coming

Have managed to get a Wii Fit on order with Tesco direct. Have to pick it up from the store tomorrow, have paid for it online so it's mine, mine, mine. They've been like rocking horse manure to get hold of so am pleased to get one almost in my grubby hands.

Slower but better, not fartleking around sort of a run
Just ran a steady pace, no fartleking (see Tuesday posts) all the way round this morning. 43:31 for 5.04 miles, pace of 8:38 per mile which is alright. Steady. Total for the week if you add the missing 7 and a bit over 41miles so a good distance when you consider a few months ago I was happy with fifteen!!

The pace remains the same...

Similiar sort of pace. Am not supposed to do fartlek training every day but it's new and the novelty's cool for a bit and the better times are very reassuring!! A dithered in the fourth mile so I knew I could get under 40 minutes for the five miles but still pleased with it!



The insurance people didn't ring me yesterday as promised so I rang them. Am getting £499.99 worth of vouchers rather than the replacement television they wanted to give me. Putting a few quid to it means I can get upgrade us to a 37" TV which will be nice.

Personal best to date

Evening
Noticed in the Times that with the astronomic rises in the price of fuel people are taking a third less trips to local shops and that trips to out of town retail parks are right down as well. Funny, I always thought that congestion would be the defining factor in getting more people cycling but I was wrong - pain in the wallet is perhaps going to be the tipping point.

Morning
Did the Fartlek training for second day running and got even better results. Making me think I can get to a decent level of fitness for a forty-year-old. I got the pace to more or less 8 minute miles which is a hell of an improvement over recent times which have tended to be around 9 m inute miles. My target for the next month is to do the five miles in under 40 minutes. I'm very close to it now so it's more than achievable.

Personal best so far...

Rang up Tesco Insurance last night about the claim for the broken TV they said surprise, surprise it's a replacement job not a repair so I should be getting a phone call at some point today.

Fartlek for a faster future...

Mentioned yesterday I was looking at this idea of Fartlek where you vary the pace as you run for random intervals. Did it this morning and got my best time ever with a pace of 8:12 miles!!!

Tired legs on a Monday Morning.

Evening
Me and Phil did another five miles tonight on mountain bikes, he might have missed this morning's ride but he's picked it up again tonight.

Am going to give Fartleks a go tomorrow apparently it's Swedish and means Speed Play. My boss what used to do running in years gone by told me about this afternoon. It's basically running at various paces, jog a bit, sprint a bit, fast walk a bit over different distances to mix it up like a free-format interval training sort of thing will report back in due course. More on Fartleks at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fartlek

Morning
Did the five miles this morning. Very tired legs resulted in slowest time for ages - pace was 9:30 miles, had got stitch as well for much of it so that's all my excuses done. On the positive side I didn't cop out and do a shorter run, so that's good.

Waited for Phil this morning but he didn't get up til twenty five to seven so went on the FCR1 without him and average a steady 15.1mph (just under 4 minute miles) which was neat. Anyway a steady start to week. Put a load of weight on over the weekend so there's gonna be work to do to maintain this week!

Ran to Darley but it's not as far as I thought, bugger!

Big Run Done
Did the big run I had planned but it's not 18 miles as I thought, it's 16.83 miles so not even 17 miles. Still it was a good distance for a run for me and furthest I've done thus far.

13 miles or so in and knackered - Top of Winster

To make it hard for me the Edge computer switched itself off which I didn't find out until a comfort break after 7 miles so for the first 7.19 miles there was no record on it.

So have used bikeroutetoaster.com to work it out and that added to the 9.64 miles it did record adds up to 16.83 miles which in 3hrs 5min equates to a smidge under 11 minute miles. As this includes a couple of breaks it's okay. This was a really hilly route, bear in mind, hopefully the Nottingham marathon in September will be relatively flat by comparison!


Today's just sub 17 mile route - purple bit where edge not working, blue bit where it was.

Slimming World Summer Ball

Evening
The Slimming World 'Oscars' Summer ball was really good. Food and company excellent and everything ran well as far as I could tell. Ed Amat from the IT Support team got the employee of the year award to continue the tradition of IT winning every other year or so, top stuff.

Me and the boss as the do...


The show seemed to have a bit more of a business focus this year, and I think some serious points were communicated amongst the fun and awards. A spotlight on the importance of promotion and the value of a solid, positive team were highlighted a number of times.

Meal was good, plenty on menu that faddy eater like me could get away with. Had the melon starter, beef main course and the chocolate pudding which I know sounds bad but it's one night only and I did avoid alcohol completely, nine days to go now!

We were sat right at the back this year so the pics are of the big screens at either side of the main stage. A good do.

We only just got out of the car park for midnight, I think there must have been a concert or something finishing in the middle of Birmingham as everyone seemed to be coming out of the car park at the same time. May have been folks pouring out of the NIA after the Khan boxing match.


Chairman and Slimming World Founder Margaret Miles-Bramwell opened events


and hands over to Caryl Richards Slimming World M.D.


Everything on menu was good for a faddy eater like me .


Morning
Funny old day today is. Am wanting to do an enormous run tomorrow (for me) from Ashbourne to Darley Dale, about 18 miles in all. So really I ought not to run today. However, three more miles takes me to a total of forty miles for last week, which is a nice round number.

Have been using Google Docs to keep a spreadsheet of various facts, I know have just ten more days until the DAFT target of 100 days alcohol free will be achieved which is my maths is any good at all means it'll land mid-week. So will be keeping that going a few days longer I reckon! Also on 355 days of no-smoking so spookily the one year anniversary of giving up the weed and 100 day target of no booze will co-incide in a couple of weeks. Great.

Not only that but have no golf today because it's the Slimming World summer ball in Birmingham tonight so that disrupts the day somewhat! N'er mind.

Justice in my time...

Justice in my time. I was a bit aggrieved at last week's slight gain so this week I am well-pleased at a 3.5lb loss taking me back to lowest weight since last October and only 3lb off my lowest ever since this quest began. The bread-maker is being managed nicely now - a breadmaker is just a thing that makes bread (hence it's curious name) it don't make me eat bread just cause it's there any more than the presence of a load of beer in my fridge makes me drink beer (80+ days and counting). Was really pleased with 3.5lb but it certainly wasn't the best loss at group, another member D lost 4.5lb as well.

Get that dip!

Running record currently sitting at 37.30 miles for the week, did the five this morning slightly slower at 46:11 but considering it was on four hours sleep I'm not going to put myself down much for that. Did I mention I had a damned flat tyre as well this morning. Learnt the magic of locking wheel nuts this morning so it's true you learn something new every day...

Revelations #2 - Journey Manchester Apollo Review 19-06-08

Journey Manchester Apollo 19 June 2008

Went to See Journey last night, did I mention I was going? Must have

Very good indeed, new singer Arnel Pineda much better than Jeff Scott Soto who was touring vocalist last year. Very much like Steve Perry but the guy is full of energy onstage more so that Perry I think. Pictures were best I could do from Row S!

First couple of Pics are of John Parr and his band who were the special guests for the U.K. leg of the tour. They were good in their way only recognised Naughty Naughty and St Elmo's fire and another tune recognised from an advert that he did for Gillette. The song's lyrics were "The best" "The best a man can get" - can you remember that ad? Well he writ it. What was interesting about John Parr's band for me was the drummer, a chap called Bobby Arechigo
who I remember from about 20 years ago as being the drummer in Sheffield band Strongheart. Jeez, can he play! Knocks seven shades of sound out of a little kit, massive sound in fact the mix didn't do the band any favours as it was over-powering pretty much everything else. The bass player was ex-Saxon and the guitar player John Oxley who also plays for yorkshire band Alcatraz. Not sure where the keyboard player was from. I ought to find out. My lad for some reason kept insisting he was Jeremy Clarkson but I think he may have that wrong!

The other interesting thing was about St Elmos Fire which was nothing to do with the film. The lyrics were about a kid called Rick Hansen who got a lift in the back of a pickup truck which crashed and a toolkit in the back broke the lad's spine. He wanted to get the world to recognise and do something about the tragedy that spinal injury causes so he went round the world in a wheelchair raising millions in the process - the man in motion tour. So when the lyrics say

"Burnin' up
Don't know just how far that I can go
Soon be home
Only just a few miles down the road
I can make it
I know I can
You broke the boy in me
But you won't break the man"

You now know the thought behind the song! Always here to educate!




Journey Pics and Words Below

Jon Cain and bass player Ross Valory


Deeno on the drums - monster player, monster singer too.


Turn down the world tonight: new singer Arnel Pineda and guitar god Neal Schon

Journey played most of what you come to expect from a Journey show - Don't stop believin', Who's cryin now, Seperate Ways, Faithfully, Open Arms (me and the missus' song, aaaah) and most of what is known to Journey fans as the dirty Dozen - the greatest hits they've been playing for the last twenty years. Deano the killer drummer sang and played a couple of songs from Escape - "Mother, Father" and "Keep on runnin'" I think. He's such a class drummer some of the fills are so quick you can't work out which hand is hitting what - awesome. And a great voice - in the past there were calls for him to sing full time for the band but with the new guy Arnel you can't say that anymore.

They also did three tracks off the new album - 'Never walk away', 'After all these years' and my personal favourite from the new album 'Change for the better' which they didn't do a perfect job of but it's still a great track. Only disappointment was them not doing 'Be good to yourself' but you can't have everything.

Good venue too Manchester Apollo - bit of a rough old spot though, bet property prices are very reasonable - bet you can get a two bedroomed semi for about a tenner!!!







As a footnote there's loads of video on YouTube and what have you a few links to tracks:-
Lights Don't stop believin' Open Arms Neal Schon Solo Stone in love

Bet's there's loads of others too. Just seen an awesome gallery at Marty Moffat's site.

Woohoo Journey Day

Going to see Journey tonight, can't wait. Did a bit more than normal this morning almost 6 miles cause I had time to then the bike run with Phil. Seeing an improvement already with Phil not so much in overall times but in getting to the top of a hill without getting off and pushing - he's lost quite a bit of weight too already, bless im.

Pace for run this morning 9.05 so in general not too bad. Have got Slimming World's summer ball on Saturday so am thinking of running all the way to me mum and dads on Sunday morning which is about 18 miles I think. That'd be good.

Rain? Pah

Up at 5:11, on road at 5:31, five miles in rain a smidge under 9 minute miles. Then fetched papers on bikes with Phil. Pleased

Fabulous Disaster Breadart

Part of my morning routine some days is to unload the Bread Maker - imagine my surprise to find this beauty which I've decide to sell to the London Art Galleries for a princely sum. I've called it Bread Explosion. Funny thing is that I thought I was getting the hang of the breadmaking mullarkey. Hey ho.

Didn't do any exercise last night, me and little Phil had a ton and a half of hardcore to shift as the base for his shed so didn't feel like much after that. Went to bed early too which was good.

Up at 5:10 this morning as usual. Five miles done in under 46 mins then 4 miles on bike. Phil couldn't get out of bed so went on my own so it was a bit quicker. Good start to the day.

Polly wants a cracker

Did the new routine, on road for 5:20am, five miles run, unloaded bread maker, out on bike with Phil, fetch papers, breakfast into work.

While me and Phil were out I spotted a Parakeet in a tree down near the end of Green Lane. It's the second time I've seen it now and as Phil's seen it too now I can report this fact without fear of folks thinking I'm bonkers. Which is good. Am thinking of seeing if I can tempt it down with some sunflower seeds or something - it'd be ace to run round at half past five in the morning with a parrot sat on your shoulder. "Pieces of eight" and all that.

Father's Day - Rest day?

Rest day, my ass. Lucy wanted to go to Carsington Water's play area on way to grandmas so I went running from Carsington to Darley Dale about 12 miles in all. Mighty hilly but ace fun. Went off road just after Winster and ran through bottom of valley. Was utterly lost for much of it and you can see a loop-back or two but it was great, like being a kid again running through the woods (note to self: when did you grow up then?). Whopping big deep pool in the woods as well almost wished I was carrying some fishing gear

Motionbased stats - link to googlemap here


Above: Where the straight line starts on the left to where it stops on the right is where I'd forgotten I'd press start again on the timer, yellow line indicates actual route. Was trying to decide which path to take so had stopped the timer. As it was I took the best one for the job. Note: deep pool - sign near it says deep water - no swimming.

This is the cross-country detour in satellite google map mode - ace fun.

Not done anything yet, had me breakfast made for me. Got some very nice Dolce & Gabbana aftershave that I like but not done one bit of exercise. will have to make up for it later and that's for sure. Been busy doing some homework for a presentation at work next week.

New Record for Week Set Early Doors

Thought last weeks mileage was good but have upped the ante again and done a total of 42.8 miles with an average pace of 9:24 which is ok. I meant to do a few miles last night to top it up to 40 but was in a bit of a mood after the miserable so-and-so's at the District Council didn't let me off a parking fine after a genuine mistake was made when my fleet car was swapped over at work and the parking permit not swapped over at the same time. Have a good mind to pay it em in 1ps or something. Anyway it's all pay, pay, pay at the moment with insurance excesses and what have you but such is life. I ended up doing 5 miles this morning as I knew PJ wouldn't be up. He's not up now as am writing this the sleepy little toad. When he's up we're biking up town to get papers and baking stuff. Have my eye on a breadmaker on Ebay too, don't think the one I've borrowed off me mum and dad has got enough oomphf to it.

This week's running record. 43.8 miles, 9:24/mile pace

Today was supposed to be a rest day and I've got 6 mile of golf coming up at lunch time so am going to have to be careful on how far I run Sunday morning!

Golf

Went okay, no comp so me John and Doug played for the traditional poond. 3/4 Handicap stableford. I went birdie, double bogey, bogey, par, par, par, bogey, par, triple bogey for front nine then birdie, triple bogey, triple bogey, par, par, par, par, par, n/r for the back nine. Took the money, played okay and found out a major fault I need to work on. Can't play a ball from a hanging lie. Am sure I'm not the only one so I'll get to work on that when time permits.

Week 68 Weigh-in : what will be will be

Weigh-in day today. Not confident - bread machine has not been the wisest investment in the quest for weight-loss but what will be will be.

As expected a pound on to 14st 11.5lbs. Not pleased but not unexpected either. Damn that bread machine. On positive side am not really that bovvered have got another big run planned for the weekend am going in opposite direction on Sunday down towards Rocester and back - don't know the area as well as Tissington way so might cycle the route in advance tonight.

The new routine is working grand, was up before alarm clock at 5:05 and on the road at 5:29. Back in time to pull a white loaf out the breadmaker and water the plants before on the bikes with Phil again. Another four and a half miles done at a slow pace but encouraging to see Phil sticking with it. He's lost some weight this week even if I haven't!

37.75 miles on the running clock and only Friday!

Body Composition and a brand new goal....

Did a slow 10 miles on the Giant FCR1 last night averaging a slow 14.6mph. A bit rubbish that but in my defence it was darned cold last night, there was a lot of uphill in it and I made the mistake of coming down Dobbin Horse Lane which is bumpy, narrow and steep which resulted in me probably taking a couple of mil off the brake blocks I reckon. That’s the problem with unplanned rides you make rash decisions. I love riding the FCR1 though, compared to the mountain bike it’s like a Ferrari to a JCB, total chalk and cheese. What spoils it is the roads round where I live which are very poor, surface-wise. But what can you do? My missus is not one for moving so it’s a case of finding the best route which has decent roads I think. What’s a definite improvement with the FCR1 and my fitness in general is that hills I used to hate aren’t that much of a problem anymore.



Body Composition Analysis
Kelly at our gym gave me a body composition analysis yesterday which although she explained isn’t deadly accurate provided me with a goal. I was connected up with electrodes to right foot and right hand and then a test run in about a second. The results were then copied from the unit onto a sheet which I’ve scanned and is on the image below. It says that currently 20.4% of my bodyweight is fat and the recommended percentage is 13-19% which is damned close so I’m quite pleased on that. In terms of actual weight it says that rather than 19.3KG of fat I should have 12-17KG, which by my reckoning means a loss of 2.3KG to get into range. So that’s my new target to lose another 5lbs which will take me to 14st 7lbs. That’s the goal!

Also worth a mention that lean weight and water readings were fine although water close to bottom end of recommendation. Total weight is 1.6kg over recommended so to be within the recommendation for that I need to lose about 3lbs which is do-able and again not far from 14st 7lbs.



Into the New Routine
New routine ticking over nicely. Up at 5:20 out running about 5:40 , total for the week is a gnats whisker under 33 miles, however it’s worth pointing out that the pace has slipped right off this morning – 9:28 miles. Anyway it’s still training of a sort and the mileage is greatly increased from where I was six months ago which has to be good. Me and Phil went to fetch papers on slow mountain bikes after the run – again pace has slipped a bit to 9.9mph – he was tired bless him at 6:30 in the morning but at least we’re doing something. 24:26 minutes and four miles on the bike is a good start.

Still crazy after all this rain

Got up early doors, raining, ran five miles, stopped raining, fetched papers on bike. total of about an hour and five minutes exercise. Did the five mile run part in under 45 minutes so target achieved (8:51/miles) although was a bit miserable to start off with in the rain. Total of 27.66 miles on the running clock and 23.16 miles on the cycling clock so far this week. Am definitiely in training for Nottingham marathon now. Am going to work out a proper plan later this week and setting myself the goal of getting to 14st 7lbs to to be at best running weight.

Paid the excess on the insurance, am now waiting for Comet to get back to me about when they're going to come out and look at the telly as they think they might repair it. I'm going to bet my FCR1 that they don't repair it (fingers are crossed and no handshake though so it don't count). Bet they replace it though.

Great modern insurance is. Am insured with Tesco, have to ring HomeServe who handle their electrical contents claim, HomeServe send out Comet to look at the Telly, wonder who'll actually sort the damned Telly out? Got SKY+ coming tomorrow as well. Bloody marvellous eh!

Tuesday new routine working fine now.

Did 8 mile according to Training Center on the FCR1 last night (went out at 9pm so had lights on) it should be more like ten but the damned thing was playing up as it sometimes does and switches itself off. I reckon it does this when the memory is too full - it's supposed to throw out the oldest data and keep the newest stuff but I wonder whether it can handle it properly at the speed I go!!! Am going to delete a load of stuff tonight.

Got up at 4:30, didn't want to but couldn't get back to sleep so I thought I might as well get up. Read a little bit, tinkered on computer, went running at 5:30. Got 22.5 miles on the clock so far which is good.

Set off on the normal route back to front and as I was approaching home it didn't seem to be near 5 miles so added a little route through the posh bit of Clifton and then back down the Lichfield Road, it came to 5.4 miles in the end so goal met. Then me and Phil went up town on the bikes and we did a little bit quicker yesterday which is good, Phil did the big hill in one go which is better than yesterday and shows he already doing better.

Not best pleased with Phil who has managed to break my LCD TV. Have put an insurance claim and we'll see how we get on. Funnily, enough (if I can be funny about it) Tesco sent the insurance renewal the same day as I made the claim so didn't even need to dig the insurance papers out to ring em up.

Monday, monday

Different sort of start to the day. Phil wanted to go fetch papers on bikes at 6:30 this morning so the exercise routine needed a slight modification. I set out and did a 3.5 mile run about 5:45 and then got bikes out at about 6:20 so plenty of time to fit everything in. It's all worked out quite well and I'm dead pleased Phil is wanted to do some early morning exercise. Top man. Legs were a bit weary and scales say I've put on a load of weight so there's gonna be some work going on this week I can tell you.

Half Marathon Distance for a second time

Somewhere between Thorpe and Tissington.

Ran half marathon distance this morning, was good, lovely weather, scenery, can't talk now, got to take Lucy out on bike. There truly is no rest for the wicked.


Check the gradient profile on the motionbased page above!!! Bit of a hill there methinks.

Right, ten minute break in mowing the lawns. Got up at 7am this morning, out on run at 7:30am, funny thing was that as am used to being up at 5:30 in the week for my running 7am feels like a mega lie-in. Bloomin grand start. Anyway, ran out through edge of Mayfield, upto Okeover Park, edge of Mappleton, turn left and head for Thorpe, took that picture of Thorpe going up the hill about half a mile from Mappleton. Then after Thorpe instead of joining the trail I turned left and followed the road round and over the A515 into Tissington village which is an absolutely gorgeous little place, if in Derbyshire take the time to have a look, it's lovely. Then down the trail for a bit and as I'd got nine miles on the clock I started thinking you might as well do 13 as ten or 11 and make it into a half marathon. Which is what I did and it was a blast really, didn't hurt anything like the first time so am please. Will have a look at the time later in comparison to first one.

Had a look at the January half-marathon run and I think a good improvement as pace in January was 11:11 minute miles and today's pace was 9:38 miles. Huzzah says I, and I ran about half a mile further this morning.

Tell you what though, another thirteen miles could well kill me! It's some distance to run and that's a fact.



View of Thorpe from little road out of Mappleton.


Me at the banana stop at Thorpe on the way back down.

Wahey Weekend - Saturday - no running!!

Rest day today, at least for running. Have golf at 12:20 I think and haven't practiced at all this week so that should be average.

Have moved all the Sky box around before kids are up so when the installer guy comes next week he can plug it in and be on his way without having to work out the fifty million wires at the back of our telly.

And have just got the third loaf out of the breadmaker. Beginning to look something like I reckon, a little bit more yeast with next one and then we're there!


Golf - hacked off again, played for ten holes at least as well as I've ever played, went par on first, par, bogey, triple bogey, par, par, birdie, double bogie, par for a total of 5 over par for the front nine, excellent start, the triple bogie wasn't as bad as it sounds either. Hit the biggest drive I've ever hit down four, left a steady seven iron in which I pulled out of bounds, a few degrees to the right and it'd have been a perfect shot. Anyway the back nine begins with a par and thereafter it all goes to hell in a handcart. Triple bogey on 11, a nine on the par four 12th, bogey on thirteen, bogey on fourteen, double on fifteen, bogey on sixteen, eight on par five seventeen and on eighteen I didn't even finish the hole. By that stage I was so hacked off at crawling round the golf course for four hours ten minutes that I couldn't be bother to play on.

I had a moan at the golf club last week, sent em an email which they didn't respond to about the height of the grass in the rough we have. They didn't respond to my message but that's not the first time. They have put a quote in the June newsletter that says "Rough should have high grass. When you go bowling they don't give you anything for landing in the gutter, do they?"

Am going to email the quote back to them in context - I think the quote should read -

"Rough should have high grass. When you go bowling they don't give you anything for landing in the gutter, do they?, but then again, they don't charge you seven hundred quid a year to make you wait for five minutes on every shot while some poor sod looks for his ball in a ruddy jungle on every hole? and while I think about it a game of bowling doesn't take four bloody hours does it? my God, I do make some stupid analogies, don't I"- Lee Trevino or something like that.

Week 67 - no gain, no pain and other Revelations

New Record for mesen!

Been out and finished the job off. Run a total of 40.65 miles this week which is more than ever before and represents a solid six hours of running. Average pace on or around the 9 minute mile which is perfectly acceptable.

Week 67 – A maintain – 14st 10.5lbs, 4st and a bit lost overall.

Steady as she goes... No gain, no pain and all that. Am a fraction disappointed to just maintain after all that running but if truth be known have not done enough to cadge a jammy weight loss this week. That said, with the arrival of the demon breadmaker a maintain is probably a better result than might be expected. That also said, I’ve not been going mad on the bread but this is bread with nowt taken out and a lot put in, the density of which would qualify it as building materials in some countries.


Am loving the look of that graph so I am (at least last three weeks!!!).

Have got the new Journey album "Revelations" in the car this morning so that's a reason to be happy - it's got new singer Arnel Pineda on it who's almost a ringer for Steve Perry voice-wise and it all sounds absolutely great - going to see them at Manchester Apollo in a couple of weeks, can't wait.

Have run a good 6.5 miles with some good hills this morning making a monster total of 36.5 miles this week and there's still this evening to get the other 3.5 miles in! Am going to have a rest day tomorrow with just 18 holes of golf and a little bit of cycling with Phil in the morning (although may end up going swimming with Lucy for an hour too thinking about it). But at least it'll be a rest from running day! Big run to be planned for Sunday, watch this space.

It's weigh-in day today and with the arrival of the breadmaker from hell I'm not got any great expectations but am hoping not to have gained too much. It does make exceedingly tasty bread though!!!



Current mood - pleased as a very pleased person who's just been elected professor of being pleased at the Pleasedness University in Pleaseborough.

Give us this day our daily bread ...

and please let it rise proper!

although it don't look it this bread is actually bl**dy great! Well tasty stuff.

Did a five miler this morning before early morning meeting at t'office. Quite nippy too with best time of week with 8:44 minute miles. Good. Total mileage for week is standing at 30 miles currently but will only increase...

Pounding along...

The masterpiece that has Allinsons, Hovis and Warburtons in panic.
Not to mention Blue Circle and Tarmac.

Didn't get to bed til late as had to wait for bloomin breadmaker to finish (am learning - don't talk to me about timers and delays). When it got done it's like a bread flavoured brick (literally - seriously heavy bread - a meal in bread form so t'is).

Anyway it didn't stop me from getting up early and got another five and bit miles worth of running done early doors to tip the total for the week to just over 25 miles in four sessions - which is still short of marathon distance it's worth noting!!!



N'er mind it's all progress towards the end goal of getting seriously running fit. Am dead pleased with where I am. Big run on Sunday.

Did only a humble 4.5 miles on bike tonight as it was getting a bit dark. Have been getting me breadmaker tuned up and ready to go, going for a 50:50 white/wholemeal mix with one or two cunning ingredients to catch the breadmaker off guard. Expecting great things tomorrow!!

Speaking of the bread though it was not only surprisingly edible but very filling to the extent that I had a bacon and sausage sambo with it and have had nothing else all night which is good cause I'll often have an optifit yogurt with something laden with syns like a caramel slice thing or something equally bad. Been none of that tonight which is a goodish thing.

Only crazy when it rains

Raining this morning,hmm, just the five miles then. Cackles of insane laughter...

Yep, joined the ranks of the insane this morning when set off in rain and did a solid five miles in a good time too - 43:58 meaning 8:46 miles. Ace. In my head now am training for this half-marathon in September. Going to get a proper training plan together but the ad-hoc one is - minimum five milers every day and a big un on the non-golfing weekend day. Aiming for a ten miler this weekend.

Current mood: insanely pleased.

This week's running record - smidge short of 20 miles and it's only Tuesday!!!

Been out on FCR1 again tonight and put another quick ten miles in. Most enjoyable. However need to find a new route as it's getting a bit samey.

Been looking at Triathlons today. Our gym has been running this Triathlon thing where you do so much rowing (instead of the swimming), so much running and so much cycling so it got me looking at the real thing - there's a page on Wikipedia here. Getting ideas way above my station now!

Starting the working week with increased mileage!

Ran six and a quarter this morning rather slowly with 9:15 miles. Ran the 8 plus miles yesterday at 9:17 so am beginning to think that this is my natural sort of speed. Anyroad up, have got 14.6 miles on the clock so far this week and it's only monday! Rocking what!

Did walk up to post office and back at lunch time. Also went out on FCR1 for extended run - did 10.5 mile at an average of 15.7 and a top speed of 29mph. Took just over 40 minutes and was most enjoyable so twas.

Am borrowing a Breadmaker off me mum as well which might be fatal on the slimming front but is proving to be a bit of a beggar in terms of getting all the ingredients. We'll see though...

I'm only happy when it rains.... not.

8.5 mile or so run this morning. Can't get motionbased to upload it at the minute so am not dead sure. Edge said 8.40 but that doesn't include going through railway tunnel near leisure centre. It was an idyllic run to start off with, nothing about, beautiful countryside (ran through Okeover Park, Mappleton, Thorpe, down Tissington Trail, through Ashbourne and back to Clifton). However, last three to four miles were with rain chucking down which made it less enjoyable than it might have been. Good thing about it all is that am going to be doing a longer run every Sunday working up towards half marathon distance in time for September and hopefully getting to stage where I can do marathon distance by next April!!!