Month: June 2019

T-35

Eek! 35 days until the Outlaw triathlon! My training hasn’t really recovered from that 6 weeks of lurgy. I’m back up to marathon distance with my runs, I’ve done a few decent rides of 60 – 70 miles but no 100 milers, and my swim is still rubbish, done about 1½ miles. On the positives, for years I’ve been trying to find a quiet route cycling route. If you want to ride 50 miles in any direction you are going to be on main roads at some point. A while ago it occurred to me that all around Warrington are quiet country lanes. I spent a two days sorting out a loop last week, then found an app where I could plot it out and save it (as something called a GPX file) then I had to find out how to transfer the GPX to my bike PC. I took it for a test ride, the bike PC acting like a satnav on my course, and apart from one busy crossing (which I later realised I can eliminate by doing the loop in reverse) it worked like a charm. 34 miles, mostly really quiet roads, with a few hills. I did two laps, (the second by memory) it’s akin to the Outlaw course. Mostly flat, wind to contend with, a few hills that obviously get repeated. That is the best training thing in ages. You really don’t want to get on your bike when you know you’ve got to ride around town centre or motorway roundabouts.   The other positive is my running. A few times lately I’ve said “I think I’ll beat my Personal Best (PB) at X distance” and have. Looking at it, I’ve battered my PB in every category, since May. Also, which it doesn’t record as a run distance, I beat my 10 miles PB on the tenth of June.  I was recommending my running pack to two women on Twitter who wanted to run into work carrying clothes and makeup, they said their bags were killing them. I was used to pack running in the army before I got mine. Everything bouncing up and down and rubbing. By the end you’re all bruised with loads of friction burns. I got my pack for a 50 mile (ultra) I was running. It was a revelation. It just works. No pain, no bouncing, no webbing burns. Anyway, I recommended it, then got a bit nervous. Was it as good as I remembered? I ran to work and and back (18 miles) to time myself then did a pack run on my last day at work. Carrying a full uniform, a change of running gear (for coming home) a flask, rations and ‘phone. My first pack run in years and years, and my first ever double run day. I liked it. Good training. I’ll be doing that again. And the pack worked a treat.   I still suck at swimming.   I’m looking to get through this year’s […]

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Training Break

I saw a picture a while back, under “Britain’s Best Cycling Routes”, somewhere up in the wilds of Scotland. It’s supposed to be the UK’s toughest ascent, and just look at the roads! Empty, sweeping, awesome. Sadly it’s in the middle of nowhere, the holiday accommodation I could find was either fully booked or rich people only, and when I asked a native it seems the pictures are totally misleading, it’s famous and a mecca for caravans and such. Imagine wobbling up a couple of miles of leg burning ascent while caravans and mobile homes are trying to pass you and each other!  Anyway, nowhere to stay, so no. But the seed had been planted. Top of Scotland, hills, great roads, sparsely populated, little traffic. I tried a bunch of places but they were all booked, finally got a caravan in Nairn. Great. Booked it. Where’s Nairn? Oh. 6½ hours drive away. Way, way, up in the Highlands. That was our last stay in a caravan. We got up there and it was sunny and warm, as you could hope in June, then it started raining and turned cold. It turns out we’ve been to that neck of the woods twice previously, so we’d already seen the tourist sites. I feel bad for Wendy. She says it was alright, but the only thing for her to do there was walk and eat. And huddle by the fire. I had a good training session. Killer hills, gorgeous, empty, back roads, great running and cycling. Poor Wendy, though. Next holiday is somewhere that’s got holiday stuff to do. And has brick walls and double glazing. Here’s a few snaps. And look at this, Microsoft have finally dumbed their photo editing thing down enough that I can use it! Pole ruining snap, then gone! Voodoo, I tell you! Still not the best of pics, but the tech impresses me greatly.   And here’s a video of Wendy down on the farm. 4 hours in Scotland and she went native. https://youtu.be/zzX-tDZfRvQ The video of her ploughing fields in her high heeled, slingback wellies didn’t load. That’s about it. Great training, rubbish holiday for Wendy. *sad face* Next time. Later, Buck. PS, Wendy started feeling ill on Friday afternoon, said she was going to pack her kit for the morning drive home in case she didn’t feel good enough later. If we were doing nothing, why waste all of Saturday driving back? We had the idea at 16.30, 17.02 we were packed, caravan cleaned, car loaded, bike stripped and bagged, and out of there.  And it lashed it down all the way home. Started to aquaplane twice, bit of focusing trip back. (Should mention that Wendy started to feel OK again as soon as we hit the road.) Which meant today I was free to pick up my bike panel from the spray painter, cut the hole in it and fit it, with crash bungs. My bike looks groovy again. All the bottom red panel […]

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