Not a long ride but it had it's ups and downs.

I don't know if anyone else does this but I procrastinate and I talk myself out of things, even things I like doing, but I am trying not to do that. This morning I had that nagging in my head that said 'don't bother going out' but I fought it off. Thank goodness I did.

Today was wall to wall sunshine, great company, lots of laughs. lunch out and I treated myself to a little present.

 Lynn, Suzy, Pat, Paula and myself cycled from a pub called The Raggalds where our cycle club, Queensbury Queens of the Mountain, are based. It is at the top of a hill so the only way is down.We did lots of twists and turns and quite a few downhills, followed by the inevitable uphills.   

                       

        

This was actually written in March 2019 and never finished so not sure why it is only showing as published on 5th November 2019!     

Here we go again!

I have not blogged for a few years for one reason or other but I'm feeling like I want to again now.

I will update how things have changed or not!

I don't do as much running now as I did or kayaking but I'm doing more cycling.  One reason is that I have joined an all female cycling club, Queensbury Queens of the Mountain.  They are so supportive and inclusive but we don't just cycle, we socialise, we campaign, we have spa days, theatre nights and we have just come back from Mallorca.  Can you imagine 69 female cyclists all in one place at one time? We are all shapes and sizes and all levels of cyclist from just starting out to racing and mountain biking.  We take LOTS of photos and laugh a lot.  I am also part of the Open Water Swimming offshoot with other club members.

Apart from that I have now cycled to our twin town in Germany and back for charity 4 and a half times altogether.  Four times it was there and back, the fifth time we had disabled cyclists with us so we flew home and the bikes came back with our drivers in the van.

Last year I went with some disabled riders to Roubaix in France and back again.  We watched the end of the Paris-Roubaix race in the stadium and even got to ride around the velodrome on our own bikes.

I also did the Coast to Coast from Morecambe to Saltburn, again with disabled riders, and I am doing it again this year but we will be finishing in Redcar this time rather than Saltburn.

The most exciting thing is, all being well, I am going to be cycling in Vietnam next year.  Having never been out of Europe that will be something else! 

Friday 9th Jan

Not much to report today.  Went aquarunning as usual this morning at 7.30am.  Great session as Debs really pushes us but that's the good thing about aquarunning, it's as hard as you want it to be.

She also does a visualisation thing with us.  She will put a scene in our heads, for instance the park run.  She will tell us what the weather is like and then get us to start running.  we usually start off steadily then she will say we are coming to a big hill so we need to push harder with more power. This will be followed by another steady part and then maybe a fast downhill.  This makes the effort more enjoyable as you don't know when the different aspects are coming.

The guy who promotes aquarunning in this country came to do a session with us a couple of years ago. He reckons that if you do a session correctly that you would burn around 640 calories in a 45 minute session!

Wet workouts - Thursday 8th January

Thursdays I look forward to and almost dread too.  I go aquarunning at 7pm which is a pretty strenuous workout in itself - 45 minutes of running and various other exercises which stretch, push and get your heart beating like a flipping metronome.

Straight after that I swim.  They put up a fast lane which is a great help unless there are a lot of twits who don't understand the concept of a 'fast' lane.   I take my float and pullbuoy and goggles and I get stuck in. I have developed a set of reps  which stops me from getting bored just ploughing up and down.

I'm a strong breast stroke swimmer but I've had to teach myself front crawl.  So I do two lengths just breaststroke legs, two breaststroke arms, two front crawl legs and two front crawl arms.  In between each two I do two straight forward lengths of breaststroke.  This makes 48 in all which in my pool is 0.75 mile.  This I usually complete in around 30 minutes.

Then and only then, I will stop for a chat with whoever wants to chat.  Today it was my lane buddy, Helen,  Then a posh Indian chap who is very pleasant.  Lastly as I was leaving it was Kelly who is duty manager.

By the time I got home it was nearly 10 o'clock and I was famished.

An early walk - Wednesday 7th January

I was determined to get up early and take Barney out for a good walk before I started making excuses about the weather, things I've got to do etc.  So 7.15am we set off down through the village.

We are lucky that we live in a rather pretty village with a duck pond and a village green so that's the way we went.  The ducks were up early too, doing whatever ducks do.



This isn't a photo I've taken but this is the view I had this morning.

We carried on down and out of the village, into the countryside, over the motorway and down into the next village of Hunsworth.  Here we took a turn off the road and down a snicket (a tight little pathway down the side of a house) where Barney spotted a cat.   All systems are go!  By the time we got to the end of the snicket the cat had disappeared.  Barney searched all round but couldn't spot it.

Here it comes out into a very large field and I thought it would be safe to let him off for a run.  He was like a bullet out of a gun and headed straight down the field and disappeared.  I tried not to panic, followed him down and started whistling and calling his name as I couldn't see him.  All of a sudden a whirlwind nearly knocked me over from behind!  He must have gone up the other side of the hedge, got back through and then caught me up. Phew! Back on the lead now.

Another field crossed and we were on a main road.  A long uphill one!  So we started up here and I noticed it was now getting light.  We passed the farm with the two Shetland ponies and Barney actually behaved himself.  On up until we got to the Fire Station HQ, crossed the road and on a little further.

A left turn saw us going up another snicket and then we did a few twists and turn s and came out onto another road.  At the top of this road we turned right and this is like Millionaires' Row. On one side there are very nice, fairly new detached houses with biggish gardens.  On the other there are several VERY large houses, almost small mansions.  They have such vast driveways that you need sponsorship to walk up them.

After these houses there is a school a few more more modest houses and eventually we come to the bottom moor, up that moor and we join the top moor and it is now fully daylight.  All that is left is to cross the road and we are home. Four and a third miles done before breakfast.

A walk or two and a run.

Tuesday morning, not as cold this morning as yesterday but still nippy.  All things prepped for work I don my gloves, phone in pocket, Garmin set and on, Ipod in lugholes, silly (but warm) hat on.

It is in no way an arduous walk.  I use my Garmin as a bit of a mind game really.  I know where the mile points are so I check my time on the first mile, I then have to try to beat it on mile two or at least match it.  I really don't want to go slower than the first mile.  So there is usually a bit of maths going on in my head here.  It's not bad if I do it in 15 minutes but if I do it in say 14.47 I am doing a bit more mental arithmetic.  The third mile then has to be at least whatever the first mile was.  More adding up and taking away to work out what time I need to get to the end of mile 3.

The first mile is mainly up my road and then heading into a more traffic heavy main road, past a shopping area and a pub.  I do know a little of the history locally so I know that I am passing a small but old graveyard that a lot of people don't know is there.  It's now next to a cheap supermarket and about 10 yards from a bus stop but you can't see it from the road or at least can't identify it as a graveyard.  On the other side of the road there is a row of old cottages, nothing exciting to look at but dating back from the 18th century.  How many people have walked past here since they were built?

The second mile is initially flat but then downhill but I have to cross the busy road a couple of times.

 
St John's Church - along my walk

 I could use the subway but it is built in such a way that you seem to have to walk twice the distance and I find they can be quite unpleasant so I try to avoid them.  The downhill bit is okay but it is paved and shaded so quite often in winter time it is slippery.

The third mile is just down from there. This section has a busy road that it is almost impossible to cross so I do use the subway here.  It is a huge roundabout with four areas that feed into it.  I can't speak for the other two parts but the parts I use are grubby, graffiti-ed, full of rubbish and there is a blocked drain so I have to paddle across one part.  I am always relieved to arrive back at the top of the steps in one piece.  Then there is more downhill and then when it flattens out there is another busy road to cross.  At this point there is a Seikh Temple that is actually quite an old property but they look after it really well.  They have a garden down one side where they grow fruit and vegetables.

So you can see there are pleasant areas on the walk along with less pleasant ones.  I'm always wide awake when I get to work that's for sure, windswept, wet or overheating but I am definitely wide awake.

Today was also my run before I get weighed day.  I class it as that but it is just a small training run.
I take Barney, my labrador, with me.

My run is, for him, at best a trot but often just a fast walk.  He is very good and keeps in line with me. His only fault while running is when I do right hand turns he doesn't. He's getting the idea though. He is only 17 months old and we only got him at 15 months.

So more on these subjects another time.

Back to work today.  Well all good things have got to come to an end!


BRADFORD CITY HALL


Having said that I use this as a form of exercise.  I could, and did for many years, drive to work,  It used to be that I had to because I used my car for my job as a Visiting Officer.  When that particular job came to an end I wasn't made redundant but I went to a desk-based job.

BRITANNIA HOUSE - My office is here.

So now I was either struggling to find a cheap or free parking space each day.  Even if it is cheap it soon adds up so I thought, one day, that I would walk to work and see what happened from there.  I wasn't sure whether I would get the bus home or walk.  Even if I walked one way it would mean exercise that I wouldn't otherwise have had.

So that was nearly two years ago. I work 2 or three days per week, both ways, and I walk on Monday and Tuesday each week. Wednesday I usually drive so if I have bought anything that I can't carry home I can get it home on Wednesday.

I carry a rucksack with me so that I have a complete change of clothes and shoes when I get to work. This might seem a bit extreme for a 3.33 mile walk (each way) but I am usually very damp by the time I get there either from perspiration or the weather. It would be unpleasant for my colleagues to sit near me if I didn't change.

Today was the first walk to work of the year and it was cold but reasonable which makes for a pleasant walk.  I listen to the radio and see it as a bit of me time before and after work.

I will tell you a bit more about my walks in later blogs.