Resumption of the Challenge

Don't you just hate blogs which start and then disappear! Sorry for not keeping up with this, but I have an excuse and I think you will forgive me if you knew what it was.

Last week, I mostly cycled. I think I did 100 miles approximately. I also ran 20k on the treadmill and did three sessions in the gym. 

On Friday and Saturday, I took a complete rest and, sadly for me, ate like a horse after a session on the Moroccan Black. 

 I probably set myself back six weeks. This challenge is one of the toughest things I have ever done. You cannot get off the scales for a second. It's iron discipline. I am consoling myself with the knowledge that I nearly smoked after seven years on Friday (but didn't) and I managed to stay out of the pub after Friday - three double brandies and five pints of cider. 

Last week, up till Thursday, I have never been so busy. I was in constant motion, always cycling, unable to sit down. I even enjoyed the weight session on the Thursday. That, for me, is a breakthrough - I detest weight training. But after the weekend, you may as well forget it in terms of forward progress. 

I shall extend the deadline until October 1st. 

Sunday 10th August 2014

Ran 12.5 miles, half of it, down the trail, in pouring rain, the tail end of Hurricane Bertha. I was drenched before I reached the mansion on Westgate. I listened to DSOTM and finally ran up Halam Hill toward the end of the half marathon. I am running distance once per week. My legs were extremely sore after, and I had forgotten to lube, so certain bits were pretty chafed!

Monday 11th August 2014

Gym session. Mostly unable to move my legs.

Tuesday 12th August 2014

Another gym session. 

Wednesday 13th August

7.5 k on x-trainer and treadmill watching Jeremy Kyle. Legs were okay - slightly worried about my knee. Out the rest of the day so that will be it.

Glorious Goodwood Week - Retrofitted

I've been busy all week. Each year, I take a week off to watch Glorious Goodwood and this year proved no exception. I have kept up the challenge, but didn't have time to record it. Here's the retro.

Every time I mention the words weights session, please picture a man yawning in abject boredom.

Day Fifty One: Tuesday 29th July

AM: Weights session. 

PM: Cycled to Newark and back (18.5 miles) (Racecourse route)

Day Fifty Two: Wednesday 30th July

AM: Treadmill and X Trainer. 1 hour. 800 calories expended. Interval training.

PM: Cycled to Newark and back (16miles) (As above)

Day Fifty Three: Thursday 31st July

AM: Farnsfield run along nature trail. Plus the run to and from the trail - approximately 12 miles. Two hours.

Day Fifty Four: Friday 1st August

AM: Rest and recovery day

Day Fifty Five: Saturday 2nd August

AM: 8k X-Trainer and Treadmill

PM: Cycle to Newark and back. The return journey was one of the best cycle rides I have ever had. Perfect conditions for it too. Absolutely flew, even on my trundler. If I had a decent bike, it would have been something special.

Day Fifty Six: Sunday 3rd August

AM: Six Hills run. Approximately four and half miles from Southwell to Thurgarton. Then back again. I may run up to Brackenhurst the back way - or I may not. I used to cane this run back in early 2012 - lets hope I get the same vibe today.

(Did it. Tough old run. Now time for another cycle to Newark.)

PM: In the end, I cycled to Bilsthorpe and back down the Trail. 15 mile round trip, followed by half an hour in the sauna.

Day Fifty Seven: Monday 4th August

Decided to cycle to Nottingham and back. I travelled there down through Lowdham and BJ, turning up through Westdale Lane. That was like cycling up the Matterhorn. It took me an hour and forty minutes to get to Sherwood for my meeting, but twenty minutes of that were spent up Westdale - a nightmare.

Cycled back up Mansfield Road, toward Doncaster, down to Oxton and up along the Oxton Road to Southwell. It's approximately thirty four miles in all. Beautiful sunshine.

Friday 25th July Five Weeks To Go...

Day Forty Six: Thursday 24th July (cont)

AM: Weight Training. 

Yay. :-(

I managed thirty minutes before the boredom got to me. Some people love weights. You see them in there, happy as clams. They love it - its almost social for them - but I just can't see it. Next weights? Sunday evening before social sauna.

PM: Spinning. 17 girls and me. I managed to keep up for 45 minutes - a punishing, whole body, super stamina session. Followed it up with thirty minutes in the sauna. Terrific feeling afterwards...

Here's another run out for the sauna sketch, from underrated, where-are-they-now sketch show comedians Hale and Pace. 

Love it...

Day Forty Seven: Friday 25th

AM: X-Trainer/Treadmill. Approximately 1000 calories expended. Great sprint finish and an easy 26 minute 5k. Not fast, I know, but faster than I am used to.

Day Forty Eight: Saturday 26th
Day Forty Nine: Sunday 27th

Rest days. I did manage the sauna last night, but I was so hungover following the Halifax day out that I was incapable of moving for most of the day. So that's a rare two rest days.

Day Fifty: Monday 28th

I celebrated the half century with a seven miler, down past the racecourse, round Rolleston, down the banks of the Trent and up past Fiskerton station into Southwell. A warm day and I did it in good time, possibly the fastest run I have achieved? I don't know - it felt good. My head and stomach are still ropey.

The Challenge Continues - Saturday 20th July

Day Forty One: Saturday 20th July

PM: 7.5 k X-Trainer/Run. Exhausted and in pain. Also lacking any motivation, so I listened to my body and finished. About 500 calories expended.

Tiggy Wiggy destroyed a decent Newbury Super Sprint field and put herself in line for the Nunthorpe

Day Forty Two: Sunday 21st July

PM: Left my legs alone and in the evening, gave myself a full upper body workout, something I really enjoyed. 

Lots of core work. Very few people in the gym and I took full advantage. Then saw the gang in the sauna and boiled myself like a lobster for an hour. Enjoyed this much more than yesterday and felt great after.

Day Forty Three: Monday 21st July

PM: A much much better session in the cardio room, with a 10k blast culminating in a HR of 166 and a 16kmh sprint for two mins, the fastest I have run over that time. The sauna is never as much fun after a run as it is after weights. Feel back in the groove. 

The weather was like something out of a Hemingway novel; humid, hot and capable of creating an all over body sheen, a car wash beneath your shirt. I was on BB business today and I was compelled to wear my summer suit for the first time in a year and a half. 

Here's me commemorating the last day of FOPP on Queen Street. Luckily it is moving, rather than closing. Love FOPP

Day Forty Four: Tuesday 22nd July

Afternoon: A brilliant cycle along the Trail to Bilsthorpe. It's around 15 miles there and back and on the way there, I took my time, enjoying the sights and sounds of an English Summer day. And it was hot too - humid and very, very sunny. I saw the above slogan painted on a disused railway bridge about a mile from Bilsthorpe. On the way back, I hit my stride and took me half the time. I can't explain why that happened - but there were moments of speedy joy which I am aching to repeat next week.

Evening: An hour on the weights. Really struggled. I find weight training boring and always have done. Running is all about motion and momentum, the quest for rhythm, the search for that perfect moment where you lose yourself absolutely inside your own thoughts and your body floats along. Cycling too, but not so much. 

Weight training just doesn't do it for me and each session is a chore, a payment, a cost. 

It doesn't help that I cannot do anything interesting, like shoulder press, because of my long term neck muscle problem. Nor can I carry out the old posing standby, the bicep curl, because of weakness around my elbows. Boo to weight training...too much like hard work.

Day Forty Five: Wednesday 23rd July

AM: A run to Farnsfield and back along the trail. Approximately 11 miles, perfectly flat. I also ran half a mile there (though not back). Hot day - perhaps too hot for running (drank two pints of water before I left).

So eleven and a half miles without stopping for the first time since November 2012. And this morning (Thursday), I don't feel too bad. I wonder whether I can try Bilsthorpe and back next week in prep for the Nottingham run? That would be a flat 15 miles...

Day Forty Six: Thursday 24th July

AM: Weight Training. 

Yay. :-(