Today I rested. Actually, I felt lazy and completely unmotivated and so did nothing. Well, I did walk the dog for a couple of hours but nothing that counts.
Summary:
Day 1: 3 hours 42 mins (+42 mins).
Day 2: 2 hours 22 mins (- 38 mins)
Day 3: 1 hour (-120 mins)
Day 4: 18 mins (-162 mins)
Day 5: 4 hours 17 mins (+77 mins)
Day 6: 3 hours 3 mins (+3 mins)
Day 7: 1 hour 50 mins (-70 mins)
Day 8: 3 hours 59 mins (+59 mins)
Day 9: Nothing (-180 mins)
So 20 hours 31 mins (-389 mins)
On the 8th day, I did a 1 hour 37 mins swim (mostly easy 100′s) and a 2 hour 22 min bike ride. So, that is 3 hours 59 mins.
Summary:
Day 1: 3 hours 42 mins (+42 mins).
Day 2: 2 hours 22 mins (- 38 mins)
Day 3: 1 hour (-120 mins)
Day 4: 18 mins (-162 mins)
Day 5: 4 hours 17 mins (+77 mins)
Day 6: 3 hours 3 mins (+3 mins)
Day 7: 1 hour 50 mins (-70 mins)
Day 8: 3 hours 59 mins (+59 mins)
So 20 hours 31 mins (-209 mins)
So, on the 7th day of my Christmas, I did a 50 minute run with Sparkie (and he ran away, which wasn’t fun). I got home and then went to the track with Jack where after a warm up he showed me that he can absolutely thrash me over 100m. In June he beat me at the start and I caught him up after 50m. Yesterday, he beat me from the start and at the end he kept on looking around to see where I was. So, he can now beat me at chin ups, push ups, sit ups and 100m.
We then jogged over to the rugby fields, just for it to start raining. Fine. Then it rained harder. Oh dear. Then it rained harder still. I wanted to go back but Jack was fine so we carried on for a few seconds. Then the heavy rain turned into heavy hail and so we turned and sprinted back for the car. Then a drive home, get a waterproof jacket before heading back and doing an hour of passing, catching, running, kicking and so on.
Summary:
Day 1: 3 hours 42 mins (+42 mins).
Day 2: 2 hours 22 mins (- 38 mins)
Day 3: 1 hour (-120 mins)
Day 4: 18 mins (-162 mins)
Day 5: 4 hours 17 mins (+77 mins)
Day 6: 3 hours 3 mins (+3 mins)
Day 7: 1 hour 50 mins (-70 mins)
So 16 hours 32 mins (-268 mins)
I started the morning with an hour swim at the Tadley pool and then going straight out for a 2 hour bike ride. I was dressed up in my winter gear (but I’d forgotten to bring my gloves to the pool). Surprisingly though, my hands were warm throughout.
In the afternoon, I went to watch London Irish play Exeter at rugby. After doing without the gloves on the ride, I was surprisingly cold watching.
Summary:
Day 1: 3 hours 42 mins (+42 mins).
Day 2: 2 hours 22 mins (- 38 mins)
Day 3: 1 hour (-120 mins)
Day 4: 18 mins (-162 mins)
Day 5: 4 hours 17 mins (+77 mins)
Day 6: 3 hours 3 mins (+3 mins)
So 14 hours 42 mins (-198 mins)
The day started with a long run with Ed around the Winchester countryside. Very muddy.
Then in the afternoon I went for a two hour bike ride. The first ride in living memory.
So, I am getting back on track.
Summary:
Day 1: 3 hours 42 mins (+42 mins).
Day 2: 2 hours 22 mins (- 38 mins)
Day 3: 1 hour (-120 mins)
Day 4: 18 mins (-162 mins)
Day 5: 4 hours 17 mins (+77 mins)
So 11 hours 39 mins (-201 mins)
Oh dear. No early session as the kids got up late and we had to wait for Christmas presents. A short row, including my first try at doing a 2k in a reasonably quick time. I wasn’t sure what pace to go at so I was quite conservative and did it in 7:46.3. That’s quite a soft time.
Then I took a long walk with the sprouts…
In the evening I got back and got changed to do some exercise when for some reason the sat tv stopped working – no signal. So I spent another long time fixing it, including climbing up a ladder in bike shorts in the dark looking at the sat dish (it was fine).
So, exercise today was 18 minutes. Oh dear. I always new that it would be difficult before Christmas. It should now start to get easier!
Summary:
Day 1: 3 hours 42 mins (+42 mins).
Day 2: 2 hours 22 mins (- 38 mins)
Day 3: 1 hour (-120 mins)
Day 4: 18 mins (-162 mins)
So 7 hours 22 mins (-278 mins)
Sleep didn’t go well last night. Just couldn’t sleep so got up and installed OS and software on a new PC. It worked, but by 2am I was very, very cold and that it took quite a while to get warm and to sleep. So, I didn’t get up until late. And then tried to get a nap late afternoon. In between I took Sparkie for a run – three and a bit laps of Burkham in 60 minutes. Oh, I also did some more stuff on the PC.
Here’s a really bad photo of Sparkie. He stood still for ages but as soon as I got my phone out to take the photo he moved. The key thing is that there is a two tone dog. Clean top, not clean bottom half. In real life the line is clear. On the photo, it’s blurred.
Summary:
Day 1: 3 hours 42 mins (+42 mins).
Day 2: 2 hours 22 mins (- 38 mins)
Day 3: 1 hour (-120 mins)
So 7 hours 4 mins (-116 mins)
Day 2: I did the longest swim session that I have done in a long time – 1 hour 22 mins. The day was then a bit busy and so I just did a 60 minute row in the evening. It wasn’t too fast and not too slow, a total of 13,632m. That’s actually a personal best by 350m from 2005 (yes, I keep records).
Summary:
Day 1: 3 hours 42 mins (+42 mins).
Day 2: 2 hours 22 mins (- 38 mins)
So 6 hours 4 mins (+4 mins) – an average of 3 hours 2 mins
I ran to work this morning (3:42 to go 34k). I left the house just after 5am and twilight happened around 7am and sunrise just after 8am.
I changed the route a little from three weeks ago – same distance but a few less paths and more roads. Some of the footpaths were more like streams. With a head torch you can tell a puddle because it is very black. But water in grass is much harder to spot. And, with a head torch, I find mud really difficult to work out. Sometimes it is just wet soil. And sometimes it is deeper than my shoes.
I was very chuffed and ran a reasonable pace. Not fast, but better than three weeks ago.
So: Day 1: 3 hours 42 mins (+42 mins).
Over the last month I have done a little of nothing much. Well not nothing, but a lot less than I wanted to. Did I want to do more? Yes. So why didn’t I? I am not sure. I spent a lot of time thinking about training. Probably more time thinking about training than training. Probably more time eating than training. Oh dear.
Actually, that’s not too fair. I’ve run to Reading (leaving at 5:30am and then getting the train back). I’ve had a few goes on a rowing machine (and did 7,324m in 30 minutes, which I was pleased with). I’ve had spent about 20 minutes in the pool. Oh dear. As for my bike. Well, let’s not go there.
Tomorrow, I will do a swim in the morning and a run at lunch time. Then Thursday is my last day at work until the new year. We are having a trip to the pie shop at lunch time as our Christmas meal. A few people have asked if I am going to do a twenty mile run to run off the pie. So, I thought I might as well get up early and run to work, have my pie and get the train home. The route I have chosen is a little more streamlined than a few weeks ago – a little more road, a little less path.
I am also intending to try to average three hours of exercise a day between Thursday and my first day back at worse. We will see how it goes.
