Kids like mud too

Imi about a mile into yesterday's 5 mile hike. Just before it started raining - Well it's character building isn't it?

Bleh!

My biggest run ever today - almost exactly 20 miles. All off road, all hilly and muddy as hell. Is hell muddy? 'Course not it's just an imaginary place used to frighten catholics. But if it did exist, and I went there I'm sure I'd find it was muddy. Anyway I digress, 20 miles and I don't feel too bad so feeling quite optimistic about the stinger in 3 weeks.

Running season commences...

Well, I've only gone and done it now! Put my name down for the Steyning Stinger again but this year I've gone for the full marathon version. Eek! My first marathon and it's going to be a hilly offroad one. Well, I've done plenty of training so I probably won't actually drop dead, but should still priove *interesting*. Oh well, before that I've got the Brighton half marathon to run next weekend which should serve as a nice warm up.

Marin Winter Series - Thetford

Last sunday saw the first round of this series. I've ridden at Thetford many times but not given this race a go so thought it about time. Preparation was not ideal - Jo and I were at Tim's party the night before and didn't crash out until 3:00 am. An early start of 6.00am for the 140 mile drive left me feeling pretty shaky on the start line!
Once we got going though the race was excellent, lots of fine twisty singletrack linked with stretches of fireroad and three bombholes - Real bombholes at thetford t00 :o) I came 18th in the male 4hour solo and Jo 9th. Both pretty good results but you have to wonder how we might have done with better preparation.

Unfortunately this effort left my defences low and the kids' virus that I've been avoiding for the last few days finally got me and I spent most of that night locked in the bathroom. At least I made it home before the symptoms kicked in!

A good day's racing!

At last, at bloody last! After running the Brighton 10K every year since 2002 I've finally managed to break the 40 minute barrier :o) Not sure what the official time will be yet but I ran under the clock at 39:40 and my stopwatch showed 39:28 so the chip time should be something like that. It was pretty painful but I've trained hard this year and it's finally paid off.

After that I headed over to Stanmer to see if I could get there in time to catch the cyclocross race. It was tight but the officials were ace and helped me sign on quick and even pinned my number to my back for me. Made it to the start line just after the GO so had to chase them down and start working my way up through the pack. Course was great, muddy and twisty but not too slippy and with enough roots to keep things interesting. Don't know where I came but I made a decent showing and the ride helped to work out some of the stiffness in my legs from the morning's run. Reckon this is the way to go in future. If only I was a decent swimmer I'd have a crack at a triathlon.



:o)

Nice day for it

Didn't get out for my usual early morning ride today - Nope, I got up a bit later and spent the morning with the kids. So, by the time I went out for the afternoon I was feeling nicely laid back. Instead of tooling round as fast as possible I took some time to look behind the hedges and explore a few paths I've often glanced at and wondered about. Sure I was rewarded with plenty of dead ends and bramble-overgrown slogs but there was plenty of good stuff to compensate. Also took time to stop and chat to anyone I passed. And still managed too get many miles in before dark. Quicker isn't necessarily better.

Up to speed...

Hmm, been a bit slack keep this up to date haven't I? Not as slack as say - John for example but pretty poor all the same. ;o)

So what have up been doing seen we got back from France? Well, running and cycling mainly in an effort to find out just how fit I could get if i really put my mind to it. So mainly quite dull unless you're into that sort of thing. But, a few highlights have been:

I tried golf. My work had a golf day so I thought I'd give it a go. Not as boring as I'd have thought, I quite got into it and showed a reasonable aptitude, but it takes an enormous amount of time. Time that I can't help think could be better spend riding around in the hills rather than walking around a relatively small patch off grass carrying a heavy bag.

Entered 2 10k run. The first at Arundel was an offroad affair. Really nice route which went straight through the castle and off into the estate on paths usually closed to the public. I enjoyed it but didn't really run to full potential due to some weird stitch like pain that stopped me from going all out. Did ok though, coming 57th - Results. Yesterday I did the Bexhill 10k, a mainly flat run along the seafront I thought I might be on for a personal best but didn't reckon on the hill that we had to run over twice in the last 4k. Came 25th in this one - Results.

Cycling... Well apart from several bike sunday rides, night rides and a couple of goes on the cross bike, the biggest thing was the Southern sportif 150k ride on the 10th of September. This was ace, a big road ride through a prt of the south largely unexplored by me. Kind of tough but good fun and an excellent excuse for a big curry later.
That's me on the far right drinking tea - well, one has to maintain standards!

Also took the kids to legoland. They loved it and I had a pretty good time too. Imi went on her first roller coaster and jack learnt to drive.
The '4d' cinema was pretty impressive too. Watched two short films 'Spell Breaker' and 'Lego Racers'. Computer animations that you watched through polarised glasses. Really effective 3d enhanced with falling snow, wind, heat etc. Think I was more impressed than the children! :o)

Anyway, must go - I've left the window open and now the lounge is full of crane flies - Bah!