Week 25 Mash Up

This week started well but I knew it was not going to last. Despite trying to keep my life as fun as possible, I had to return to work and associated menace. Illness spread across my family and my poor wife, daughter's, ma and pa have all suffered. My brother and niece are leaving for Australia next week. So, training has been compromised and these are some of the reasons why. Terry Wogan has died today too (31/01/20166) and Lemmy and David Bowie left us this year too.

Let me go back to the start of the week and report better times. On Monday, my bike withdrawal symptoms came to an end. I jumped onto my winter bike and cycled across to Roger's. Once at Roger's, we both jumped onto his tandem and had a nice cycle jolly.

Tandem cycle jolly with Roger

As usual, we cycled to a cafe, ate a big breakfast and cycled back. Nice. Once back at Roger's, I swapped over to my winter bike and cycled home. Must have covered just short of 100k in all. My day didn't stop there, oh no, once home I went to the pool for a swim. Managed to swim 2,500m (100 lengths) in about 1 hour and 20 mins. Despite still being slow, I was pleased with my swim.

Short turbo training took session place on Tuesday. Easy spin for 45 mins. I hadn't used my trainer for ages. It's kinda cool, just needs more use.

No training Wednesday. Returned to work. Mash up.

Thursday was a run day. Run commute into work, interval style. Ran 10k and was quite pleased with my relatively fast time. After work had a night out (curry) with my brother Dave and some of our work mates of old. Oh, those were the days...

Some of the gang

No training Friday. I had hoped to go for a quick indoor spin again but my rug rats had 'lost' my Garmin. Can you believe, I went for a second curry night out with Dave again, plus some of our friends?! This curry was awesome, forgot the name of the place but it was the one in Alcester next door to Waitrose. Nice!  Jose my niece and my wife SJ came along too which was super.

No training Saturday. Worked 9-9 and started the day with a curry hangover. Mash up.

Sunday was menace. Poor SJ was still suffering and Melody was too. So bad was Melody, we had to take an emergency trip to A and E. Thankfully, nothing more serious than a bug. A mighty creature is the germ, though smaller than a pachyderm... 

Somewhere in this mash up week I had a another swim. Mash up. Oh to have a sick free family and more time to train. These be the woe's of a wannabe triathlete. 

Week 27, 26 (Tenby) ...

Not really sure what happened with week 27. It was pretty poor on the whole and no swimming took place at all. Only managed to venture out on the bike on 1 occasion too, though this was a nice ride with Ron. I don't remember the previous time I cycled with Ron, so this was nice to catch up and pedal a few miles. On a brighter note, my running fared better - I ran on at least 3 occasions and ran just short of 4 hours in all.

Week 26 was much better. Better for a number of reasons - I was on holiday, no work, less stress and worry etc. On the not so good side, I was missing my wife, daughter (Melody) and bikes. I knew cycling would be pretty much no-go this week, so enjoyed a number of awesome beach runs in Tenby.

Was quite pleased with my swimming too. Managed to swim on 3 occasions - all in the pool, the sea would have been much too cold! My sister Jane joined me on each swim which was nice and on the one day Kim and Josephine rocked up too. I got the swimming pool opening times wrong so we all enjoyed an unplanned swimming lesson. All our technique's could improve... tell me something I don't know!

Yes Lunar, you can come one time!

Week 29, 28 ... Outside/Inside Endings/Beginnings and melt down mash up

Started this week with a tri-cycle. I didn't cycle a tricycle. I cycled a tandem and a solo bike. Basically, I cycled 3 adventures in one day - a tri-cycle! First trip was a solo cycle to Roger's using my Winter bike. Once at Roger's, we readied the tandem and went for a nice jolly to a cafe and back.

Mostly descending route all the way to the cafe - nice! At the cafe we bumped into 4 of Roger's friends. These were Maggie, John, Anne and Dave. Maggie invited Roger and I to lunch on a future ride - that was nice. At this stop we had a nice fry up which was well needed. With loaded belly's we tackled the ascending leg back to Roger's abode. From Roger's abode, I took a speedy trip back to Doo Little. Must have covered about 90k. Had now completed 315k of my 500k Rapha Festive 500 challenge.


Tuesday was a lengthy commute. I increased my regular cycle commute to work and back by many k's covering 113k in all. This was to chip off as many k's as possible for the Rapha challenge.

Wednesday was my last cycle of 2015 and I cycled 71k on this day. Like the previous day, I increased my commute distance (this time only by a little). What a way to finish my cycling for the year - cycling in the wettest and windiest weather I have probably seen this year. Great news was that I had completed my Rapha Festive 500 challenge. I figured I would give myself a 'day off' on New Year's Eve and so had cycled a total of 5,531k (3,436 miles) this year.

For those who like stat's, I have kept a record of my cycling distances since 2009 and these are presented below. The table shows year first, followed by km's cycled (with miles in brackets). 

2009 - 5,086 (3,160)
2010 - 8,509 (5,287)
2011 - 8,378 (5,207)
2012 - 6,935 (4,309)
2013 - 12,498 (7,766)
2014 - 9,253 (5,750)
2015 - 5,531 (3,436) and Run 1,170 (727)

As can be seen, this year I cycled way less than the previous 5 years. However, there is no doubt, this year I ran the furthest I have ever ran in my life covering a total of 1,170k (727 miles). 2016 will probably see me swim the furthest I have ever swam in my life (am not sure I will keep a log).

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Well, welcome to the New Year! 2016 Woo Hoo! Happy New Year and all that jazz. Well wishes and the likes to you all. Let's hope this year will blow your socks off!

My New Year started with a reunion with my brother and niece (who live in the land down under). I hadn't seen Davit or Josephine for the past 6 years. Pretty awesome eh?!

Not sure why but at the start of each year I have this habit (bit OCD like) of weighing myself. Back in 2015 I started the year weighing in at 90.3 kg. This year, my feet will have to take less abuse as I start the year weighing 85.6 kg! Happy feet!

My feet were happy to kick off the New Year with a hilly run of 14.5k! Nice. 2 x 10k run commutes and a cycle to work and back commute followed my run and this year seemed to be going great. Then boom! Melt down! Mash up! Everything right was wrong again. My iMac had died (hence this late post). Doo was ill. The beast was returning. Training stopped. Motivation walked (ran) away. Funds had gone. And on and on. Not sure where I am with my training plan but it's now 13 Jan and I will attempt to get my mojo back this very day...