Christmas 2012

Only 5 hours work left to do in 2012, happy days. Finishing work at 2pm tomorrow, then taking Arleya to get a Christmas jumper she wants & home for the start of festivities.
I'm cooking Christmas lunch again, all timings written down and planned to military perfection :-)

Went out for a great bike ride today. 41 miles at a nice steady pace. Left off about 11am and faced some pretty strong winds, gusts up to 18 miles an hour for the first half of the ride. No rain though , 10 degrees & sunny so was all good. Even had to remove my winter gloves & snood as i got too hot.

Some of the roads were pretty badly flooded, including the aptly named Flood Lane.



Flood Lane. Flooded

Soon after Flood Lane. More flooded lanes, with added gunk.

Quick break at Lotus HQ

Was able to safely navigate through all but one flood, Intwood ford had to be circumnavigated as the rapids running across the road would have been better suited to a Colorado river.

As an added challenge I've decided to start taking pics of our Norfolk churches on my rides. There are 650 medieval Churches in Norfolk apparently. So, I'll plan my rides to see if i can visit them all between now & end 2013. Here's the first four.


All Saints, Weston Longville

All Saints, Mattishall



 

St Mary's. East Carleton

St Peter. Kimberley

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, great day out on the bike. Furthest i have ridden in a long time & the legs certainly let me know about that. Cycling is yet again confirmed as my favourite pastime though.

 

Training this week has been pretty non existent due to prepping for Christmas.

 

Training

Tues - 3 mile run

Sun - 41 mile bike. Here's the route - http://www.mapmyride.com/workout/214586036

 

Only 14 more days till Ironman UK training starts proper. Be good to be back on a structured plan again.

 

Booked the following four week cycle maintenance course in Norwich. Since my disagreement with the Halfords boys I've decided to learn to do it all myself. Cant go wrong at £48  in my opinion.

You can also go down & hire their tools and bike stands by the hour for £4 to fix, maintain your own.

Course: Bicycle Maintenance Basics

An introductory level course for those wishing to know how to keep their bike in good working condition:

• Week one: wheels, tyres, tubes and punctures;
• Week two: brakes and cables;
• Week three: gears;
• Week four: putting it all together - working on your own bike.

To be run on Sunday mornings 10.30am to 12.30pm.
Tutor: Lucy Hall

Dates
13 January, 20 January, 27 January, 3 February 2013

Course fee · £48 adults · £56 adult and child working together

http://www.bicyclelinks.org.uk/course_maintenance_intro.shtml

 

 Also booked up my second event of 2013.
 

The Slateman

Full Slateman: (£59.95 individual or £75.95 per team, plus a small card fee which is outside our control)

• 1000m Open Water Swim in Llyn Padarn
• 51 km Road Cycle circular route taking riders over the Llanberis Pass, to Capel Curig, along the Ogwen Valley and return to Llanberis
• 11 km Trail Run through the incredibly spectacular Dinorwig Slate Quarries and Padarn Country Park
  

http://snowdoniaslateman.com/


As part of my 30 week training plan i need to incorporate an Olympic & Half Ironman event. The above will count as the Olympic, although a bit further than a normal one. Hopefully the added difficulty with the hills & terrain will pay dividends in my prep for the Boltons hills.

Thats it then, have a Merry Christmas
 
Join the Facebook Group - The Ironman Journey
https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/287319678021088/

Say hello on the Fatman to Ironman forum
http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/forum/forummessages.asp?dt=&UTN=191464&last=1&V=1&SP=

My charity page for event listings & making a donation
http://www.bmycharity.com/clearseaz

The allotment Journey Blog
http://allotmentjourney.blogspot.co.uk/