In the short run no cycling in the rain

Wet and drizzly this morning so left the FCR1 inside as she don't like rain. Ran 3.59 miles in 35mins 31secs at a pace of 9:53/mile which wasn't bad considering haven't run for best part of a month. Thus far knee is not hurting. Which is nice.

Monday - nice weather, must be back at work

Weather nice again, oh am back at work. Was bloomin cold yesterday walking round the Belfry. That's life I suppose. Done Ten miles this morning and posted up yesterday's ride and this mornings. Gym at lunchtime all being well.


Sunday's ride - you can't tell but I was utterly lost at one point!


Monday's ride above. Switched edge off at paper shop then forgot to switch it back on again so it's missing a mile or so.

That was the weekend that wasn't

Well, wrote Saturday off from an exercise front. Was in office at 7:30 in the morning, still in office at 7:30 in the evening and didn't get back home til gone 9pm so a bit of a disaster really.

I had to cancel golf as well on a gorgeous day and let me golfing buddy John down again. Will have to pop down and apologise tomorrow night.

Even worse have had to cancel the manager's trip I was supposed to go away on next week due to a family bereavement. Gutted about that. Really looking forward to the break I was.
So on to Sunday. Did ten miles this morning on the FCR1 and then went to the Quinn Masters at the Belfry to watch the golf with my dad and my uncle Michael.

Great to see the pros, watched Paul McGinley tee off on the 16th, am not sure if he's one of the bigger hitters or average or what but he hit the ball a country mile awesome. Also watched the final grouping of Lee Westwood, Gonzales Fernandez-Castano and Michael Campbell tee off on the 208 yard par three and they just hit the ball so pure and so hard it's amazing to watch the difference between pros and club golfers is like premiership footballers and Derby County, absolutely vast.



Lee Westwood teeing off on the first.

Lee Westwood walking along with eventual winner Gonzales Fernandez-Castano

Paul McGinley looking grumpy on 16th tee.

Mama Mia - a bloomin pound on...

Didn't get back in time for group yesterday but got weighed anyway. A pound on which is what I deserve. I've not got the time to do all the exercise I want to do at the minute and am not bothered enough about what am eating. Am not going on a four day holiday with work next week now so am p**sed off about that and so it's like 'I don't care'. Stupid. What's up with me.

On positive side - did gym three out of five days last week.

Went to see Mama Mia with missus and kids last night, it's nice and all that but be warned chaps - it's a chick flick you ain't gonna like it.

Day late!

Ever so busy at the mo. Off to Sheffield in a minute.

Yesterday was out early doors (before 6am is my new early doors). After telling Dave at work that I'd never had a puncture since fitting Ultra Gator Skinz on the FCR1 I managed to get a thorn through the sidewall and ended up pushing home for a mile yesterday morning. Fixed it last night and got a few miles out to test it before turning in for bed. 12 and a bit miles this morning so sort of back on track.

Work til 6 tonight then straight to Ashbourne for Mama Mia (oh no, what have you done?). Oh and if back to work in time I should be going to group about lunchtime, expecting a small gain, not been very good this week but on saying that have done 3 gym sessions in four possible days so far which is good.

Puncture - see the thorn right at the point above the 'A' and the 'N' of GIANT. Damn those hedges.

Doggone Exercise up.

This morning was out a bit later than I hoped - need to get alarm clock sorted but still got 11 miles done on the FCR1. All good stuff. Weight is a bit of a mess but not worried. Am intending to do gym again later.

Yesterday got better and better. Did 45 mins in gym - 25 mins straight on rower then a barrage of weights. Then went out on bike for 8 and a bit miles in 38 minutes last night - was slow but that's what you get when it's dark. Bear in mind that I've no intention of ending up in a pile like I did back in January with a broken wrist, thank you very much.

Farewell Charlie boy!

The dawg goes back to his owner today so no more exercise disruption. Only exercise I've done this morning and I use the term exercise in it's loosest sense is taking the pooch a bit under two miles. Tomorrow the FCR1 will be tearing up the country lanes again thank the lord. Going to gym at lunchtime today as well.

Start of the week

Rubbish day on the exercise front - was downstairs early doors and expecting to pound a few miles on the FCR1 but it all went awry with the darned hound wanting taking out so I had to change plans and take the pooch out. Picture below give a good idea just how slow it is when you walk a dog that insists on taking a leak every ten paces. I whizzed up town and back on the FCR1 but a paltry four miles is not enough by a long chalk. Will perhaps take the hound out again tonight.

Sunday and working again!

Done a biggish ride from home to me mum and dads over in Darley Dale. Went hill climbing all over the spot as you can see from the gradient profile so not bothered about the slow average. Also went up through Stanton-in-Peak and round Pilhough and Stanton Lees. Pilhough Farm used to be run by my Grandad and uncle and I spent loads of Sundays there. My grandma, blesse her, used to make the best Yorkshire Puds. The farm's all done up now - the outhouses that I remember putting grain into look like they've been converted into accommodation, the vegetable garden where my dog, Jake, was buried has been grassed over. The field where I came off a sledge with my dad 30 odd years ago now has ponies in it! Ponies?? World keeps on changing I suppose. Still it was nice to ride round roads I used to go on week in week out and hadn't been on for years - time travel by bicycle that's what today was.

Pilhough Farm - there was a vegetable garden here when I were a lad!

View from Pilhough over Rowsley. Beautiful spot.


A pothole near Brassington that I shall be reporting tomorrow

Morning
Am working on some interface files for Sage. Got up early doors and loaded up breadmaker then took the mutt out for a couple of miles. Am going to cycle over to mum and dads later today so that should be a good twenty miles on the FCR1. Big project going live next week, can't wait.

Weekend begins ...at Work?

Eh? What am I doing in office on a Saturday morning? See, said I was busy.

Anyway have took the mutt for a walk, no cycling as wanted to get in office and be out again for golf at lunchtime.

Friday and more madness.....

Pleasantly surprise to lose 2lbs this week taking me back to 14st 2lbs I think (was just happy to see a loss for a change). Have got a bit of control back and the exercise is up on where it was after the knee got injured. So jolly happy all things considered.

We're looking after Janette's cousin's mutt Charlie while they're away. It's a greyhound that has to stop every ten paces and mark it's territory which is more than mildly annoying. Hey-ho.

Did a fast 6 and a bit miles this morning before taking the hound out with Lucy. We walked maybe a mile and a bit in 25 minutes (remember pausing every ten paces). So my exercise for the day is already down. Going to gym again today like I have every day this week. All good. Weight will be what it will be. Ate too much rubbish while camping to expect any sort of loss so will be happy with a maintain.

Thursday all go...

Busy day at work but got the exercise in. Did 12.5 fast miles on the FCR1 this morning I averaged better than 15mph also did a session in gym at lunch time - 15 minutes on rower for 213 kcals and some 3700 meters and then did a load (and I mean a load of weights) so all good. Scales aren't giving me any good signs but what will be will be.

Wednesday and a little bit wiser.

Been to a seminar on data asset security today in Manchester - bit of a drag getting there with roadworks and accidents but well worth it - learnt loads. Danish pastries, biscuits and what have you on offer but had nowt but black coffee and fruit on drive back - control is back!

Did 12.5 miles on bike this morning should be more but Edge conked out on me for a short while between Mayfield and Okeover Park. Hey ho, still did a good 50 minutes plus which is good.

No gym session today but have been in gym for last three working days that have been in office so that's progress of sorts too.

Tuesday morning nine miler

Got up at 4am, loaded breadmaker, back to bed, up again at 6am and out on bike. Just a swift nine miles round Mayfield, Mappleton, Ashbourne and back to Clifton on the FCR1.

Avg speed 14.3 mph but with iffy left knee makes it acceptable. Am going to get into gym again, maybe lunchtime. Got me commitment back.

Monday 15th Sept - Exercise slowdown!

Right, got up at 4:15 - loaded breadmaker, went back to bed, got up at 6:15, unloaded breadmaker, unloaded car from last night, went fetched papers. 7:10 and about 3.5 miles on clock. Day of interviews and stuff at work. Finished the day off with 35 mins in the gym - 15 minutes on rower at load setting of 10 for 205kcal, 6 mins on exercise bike at load setting 6 for 101.8kcal to make 30o in total in aerobic stuff. Then did 3 reps of 10 on biceps curl and same for triceps pushdown with it set on 10 again. Then off home. Now done two working days in a row in gym so beginning to instil good habits on the exercise front even if not a good start. Have everything ready for doing ten/twelve miles in morning. Not going to do anything to jeopardise the knee yet and am going to try to get a bloomin appointment again to see doctor. Not had any chocolate, crisps, biscuits or junk of any sort today. Had two slices of bread which was naughty but other than that am generally pleased with some semblance of control today. Progess in small order.

Sunday - Rock Fishing

On Sunday we walked / climbed to a rock mark that you can get to by taking the coastal path from the Car Park at Church Bay. It's under a mile to the mark and I reckon if you hit it at the right time you could be into some fish. Be warned though you will lose tackle. We were fishing the tide going out a couple of hours after high tide and managed a mackeral and a doggie and that was it. Andrew reckoned he had a bite that snagged towards the end but we spent about two hours and then headed back to camp to take stuff down and head for home.

Tinkering with an Iframe from Google Map below.


View Larger Map

Anglesey Adventure part deux

Been to Anglesey again, enjoyed it so much a fortnight ago we thought we had to do it again, and what a weekend. Not had any alcohol but that's not detracted (much) from a great weekend with absolutely fantastic weather. Perhaps best of all, when we were out fishing on Saturday night I managed to hook a bass, took me 40 years to get one and while it was only a little schoolie it was still a bass and that's good enough for me! Only thing to spoil it all was the traffic delays coming back but if that's all I can find to complain about it must have been a bloomin good weekend. Once again we're endebted to my brother Andrew and his missus Shona who set the most enormous of tents up for us - am now seriously considering purchasing a big un for next year.


Me walking on the Hill above Church Bay, Anglesey

View from the hill near Church Bay, Holyhead in distance across the bay

Sunset from Saturday night

Me bro holding the bass that I caught - only waited 40 years!!

Bro with the Flounder (we think) he caught

Thank the lord it's the weekend

Well, the reality of it was that it was another pound on. Not bovvered too much. Next week will do better or I'll give up! Not really. Went back to gym Friday and did a really solid session weights on 10 for biceps curl, triceps pushdown, high row and 11 for seated mid row and horizontal bench press. Did ten minutes on rower and a six on the exercise bike to warm up. A good forty minutes-worth and hopefully I'll keep up the habit next week. So hacked off a bit but only have self to blame, no-one else just need to get some focus back and get doing it again proper.

All gone wrong again!

Know that there's a weight gain coming again - am not properly on message with the plan plus much reduced exercise with the knee problem. I think I'm still going to go to group and get weighed though, there's no point pretending that everything's ok when I know I'm cocking it all up.

On the positive side tomorrow will be a fortnight with no alcohol have no intention of breaking that commitment to not drink booze in September.

Also on the positive side have got the lights working on the FCR1 so have been out and done a good ten miles this morning (although the edge seems to have lost a chunk of mileage from the bottom of Tissington Trail). Never mind, that's life! So am not going to let the knee be an excuse for not going for it in terms of exercise, if I'm going to run a marathon I can't carry this much excess weigh and need to get back to where I was last year - trouble is I've got comfortable again. Now I've got the winter lights sorted out though am going to go for it again! Onwards and upwards.

Taking good care of me knee..

Still taking it easy on my knee. Just 4.5 miles on bike this morning and some upper body stuff early doors.

Folks interested in Syn-Free Foods should be aware that Aldi are doing their Optifit Yogurt with Wholegrains at half price - 19p for a 200g pot - I live on these - two/three a day is typical and they're free on the plan (or were last time I checked). In my view they're infinitely superior (just how much inferior do I mean, can I be specific, no they just infinitely better, they are!). Get em while you can - Muesli is the best flavour in my opinion - very nice indeed.

Less is more, not...

Knee grief yesterday made me think that I need to do less running for a while and more upper-body stuff to take it's place. Am going back to gym today, doing more pressups at home as well. Trying to get an appointment at docs is proving difficult but what's new, there? Did five miles on slow but comfy bike this morning. Doesn't hurt at the moment so that's good.

Winning on Ebay Revisited

Last July I did a post on winning stuff on Ebay - Stewart added a comment to my original post the other day and it's such good advice I thought it worth sharing in September 09!
My original post:
Winning on Ebay at the right price
Just thought I'd post my thoughts on getting an item at the right price (in particular where it's an item that's new and being listed by a dealer). The Garmin Edge 205 is a case in point. They're available for £174 on Amazon but you can get them cheaper online outside of Ebay. However on Ebay you get pretty much anything cheaper (in my opinion, one or two things to watch out for but most things cost less). Here's what I did to get the Edge for a good price. First of all put loads of them in a watch list. Then made a note of all the prices they'd gone for and put them in a spreadsheet. I then took out all the ones that went for more than £60 as there was no way I was bidding £60 for one with £13 on top for delivery and insurance. Any way after I'd done that I knew that a good number had gone for between £54 and £56 and the best times were 8am, 2pm and 8pm (by best I meant going for less than £60!). I then bid on 16 before winning the item for £54.56 which with the p&p and insurance came to £67So here's the key points:
Research price thoroughly
See what times the item sells in the price range you want to get it for.
Be persistent - keep bidding again and again on the same items but no more than the max you want to pay for it.
Posted by Paul at 20:55
Labels: ebay

Stewart's additional tips:

• Always check the Completed Listings for the sold prices, under advanced search.
• Check the Sellers Other Items, they may have more of the same article, let folks have a bidding war and you go for the other one completing an hour later.
• Consider using AuctionStealer, you'll get 3 for free without paying. It's rude to snipe a bid at the last few seconds but everyone is doing it.
• If you bid manually open 2 windows for the same auction, that way you can up your bid quickly in the last seconds.
• If you see a new item with a buy it now but you don't think it will reach that then entering a bid to get the auction started will remove the buy it now.
• Do a google for your chosen product. If lots have appeared on Ebay and seem cheap it's possible that Aldi for example are selling them off. EG, PC World recently had Garmin Edge 205 end of line for £50, snapped up and foks put them on EBay starting at £50.

It's raining again...

You can never get sick of the rain in this country, can you? Not bl**dy much. Only got four miles done this morning on slow but comfy bike, thought it best as knee giving me a bit of grief, think it's going to be run every other day.

Five miler on a monday

Back to the grindstone but got a five mile run done this morning. Not the fastest with a pace only just under 10 minute miles but with the knee still getting better I'm happy with 10 minute miles!! Am wearing an Umbro X-Static knee support thing that has this silver thread in it that's supposed to channel natural electricity round the problem! Remain to be convinced of it's effectiveness!

After the rains have gone..

Stopped raining yesterday afternoon so went blackberrying up the golf course. Could go pretty much anywhere as golf course closed for play as expected. Noticed new water hazards on eighth fairway and the bunker on the fifth. What a pain.


Eight fairway with new pond - it had receded a fair bit I reckon by late afternoon.


Bunker by fifth green, Ashbourne Golf Club, now with added water!



Did a steady four mile run to fetch papers. Don't normally get the News of the Screws but as they've got a five pound off your weekly shop at Tescos voucher in it, it makes sense to buy it - you can always use it to line the budgie cage or something more fitting?

Pleased and getting on with it...

Been out on the bike in the pouring rain this morning. Didn't bother GPSing it as was only doing four miles. Week off the juice today with not a single unit of alcohol to blemish my new campaign so pleased on two fronts so far today. I reckon golf course will be closed so am tidying up round the house today I think and doing some project work. Have been given an big new project to manage at work and really looking forward to the challenge so am getting some legwork done ahead of first meeting next wednesday, onwards and upwards...

Pleased and gutted at the same time

Gutted - pound on as expected. Only myself to blame but felt I'd done much better this week. Still six days alcohol free so far and running again reasons to be cheerful are two.

Thanks to Louisa and NicNack for the supportive messages, much appreciated - am getting my head in the right place next week will definitely see an improvement.

Pleased went out running in the pouring rain (only did three miles but it was in the pouring rain).
Gutted - a preliminary weigh seems to indicate I've put on despite not drinking since Saturday and being much better I thought. I'm going to have to start a food diary if I can't start getting it together soon. Blast.

Back to the future that is Tuesday

Did same 3 mile run/ 7 mile cycle  as Tuesday.  Legs felt a bit tired which is good must be doing enough now!!!

Double Wahey - five mile running again

Thought after no real great pain in my knee following yesterday's three mile run so I thought I'd go out on it again this morning and as it didn't hurt much I bumped the mileage up a bit and did the old five miler. Well-Pleased. Bit slow but Rome wasn't rebuilt in a day. I find that the knee is fine for up and down running motions it's when it rotates a bit such as when you go round corners that it becomes an issue.



Did a quick three and half mile ride on the FCR1 to fetch papers. Thought while the roads are still dry you got to get out on the FCR1 a bit!

Running the Road to Recovery

Wahey, been out running this morning. Only three miles but it's a start. Knee doesn't feel too bad so that's gotta be good.





Then did a steady half an hour on the FCR1 round Mayfield, Mappleton, Ashbourne and back.

Pleased - think I got my focus back after being more than a little bit inspired by this blog:-
http://nicnack31.blogspot.com/ Now there's someone who's achieved something!

Anglesey Adventure

Been to Anglesey for a long weekend. Weather a bit hit and miss but good fun all the same. Our hosts were my brother Andrew and his missus Shona who were bloomin great - set up a whopping big tent for us and looked after us camping virgins the whole time. We went fishing three times including a session til 1am on Saturday night and caught precisely .... nothing! Never mind, the sea was like a mill pond which isn't ideal conditions for it but it was nice for swimming in (although a bit parky). I've got the kids wetsuits now so it's not so bad for them but by crikey for me and our Andrew it was mighty cold.

We stopped at a camp site near Church Bay which is a lovely spot (if a little light on fish). The site was in easy reach of the beach and Vic, the chap that runs it lent us his bait shovel so we could dig lugworm for bait, which was damned decent of him. I learnt the technique of digging lug as well this weekend - if I can draw a diagram and scan it in I will - it's quait clever so t'is (in a posh accent).

I've made this commitment at group that I'm going to be off the alcohol for all of September. Well after the session on Saturday I decided to stop the booze on Sunday. So we're on number two of the new D.A.F.T. (days alcohol free). Just another 29 to go!




Sunday morning I went a walk along the cliff top path and took this picture back towards the camp site. The big white house on the right of the beach is available for sale for just £795K if anyone is interested and just to the left of that is the campsite.