R.I.P Dorothy

Had a good training week I am glad to report. Completed all my planned objectives. Hope this training pays off in the audax next week. Would be great if this training plus audax means that my impending London to Paris trip is just a walk in the park ...Since the 'mid-week menace' report, I cycled a further 2 times. The first was just a quick 10 mile blast with Ron around country lanes in Studley. The second was quite exciting and included a large portion off road. I think I will repeat this second run and use it as one of my training rides. I am going to call this the 'naught-over-ford sting' route. Such a name is given because from the starting point in Studley the route goes over fields in Oversley following a public footpath rather than a bridleway (ie 'naughty' fields). It was over these 'naughty' fields that I took my first fall from Scotty, no damage done, really I should wait till the fields are less water logged. From these 'naughty' fields the route continued to Oversley Woods and then further, passing through Coughton Ford. Once the ford was hit, the skies darkened and it snowed heavily. The 'sting' is a name title that I am going to add to my routes if I add a little 'sting in the tail' at the end. This 'sting' is essentially 2 short but relatively steep hill climbs - namely 'The Slough' and 'St Judes Avenue'. My new bike shoes arrived this week too, I have yet to use them. I will report on my shoes next blog.

Ran only one more time. This run was during work time and it felt so good to be running, knowing that I'm getting paid to do so. This run was around Ladywood reservoir.

Dorothy (the duck) died. I guess the mistaken gender was too much for him to bear. The rescue centre reported that he had been tried on 3 different antibiotics but it didn't shift the infection. This infection had gotten all the way to his air sack and in the end the vet had to put him down. R.I.P Dorothy.

Weekly totals: Swam for 45 mins; Cycled 105 miles; Ran for 90 mins; Skipped for 4 mins.