weight: 10st 6lbs
Unsurprisingly, my week of booze and chocolate resulted in a 3 pound gain of flab.
Anyhoo, today is the first day of my 10K training, but instead of a run, I decided a ride was in order.
I went out late, about 4pm. The sky was big, bright and blue but the sun was low. This meant that some of the lanes were deep in shadow. Plus, the morning's rain had left standing water here and there, including two places where water was all across the road - I had to roll through with my feet up by the top tube to keep my socks dry!
It was a hilly 20 miles, Irelands Lane had me working hard and, of course, I had to give it the beans riding up through The Farm as usual. I came home with an average of 14mph. Slow but steady.
I ate healthily all day - muesli for breakfast, soup for lunch, homemade beef pie with loads of vegetables for dinner.
Tuesday
I got up early to run my first ever 10K. Yesterday, my brother, who has a nasty chest infection, put 10 kilograms on his back and then ran 10K in 53 minutes. My target for today was an unweighted 62 minutes (10 minutes per mile.)
The first thing I noticed about today's run was the cold! It was a bright and sunny morning but rather chilly. My fingers went numb and the muscles in my back were protesting. At the two mile mark, my time was under 20 minutes. Cool! I was ahead of schedule. By this point I had warmed up a little, and after 3 miles I was sweating! Towards the end of the run, my left knee was aching. I considered stopping to prevent damage but I was too close to completing my first 10K. By the end of the run, both knees were complaining and my time had slowed accordingly. However, I completed the run in 63 minutes and 10 seconds - only 70 seconds off my target.
I have 4 weeks to get up to speed ready for the big day. Then I just hope my bro doesn't mind slowing down and waiting for me!
I strapped up the left knee, had a 3-egg and mushroom omelette, watched some cycling and then went to see Batman vs Superman with the family (while enjoying a few alcoholic drinks!)
My review of Batman vs Superman
Wednesday
I had to go in to work to do a bit so I cycled there and back. Back at home, I hit the weights hard and did a solid hour's lifting including squats, deadlifts and overhead presses (as well as my usual dumbell work.) I even included 300 bodyweight reps!
I ate healthily all day and avoided the booze.
Thursday
I got up early to walk the dogs and then jumped on the road bike. I went balls out, trying to stay off the brakes on the descents and getting up out of the saddle on the climbs. I was only doing a short distance and was determined to make a 15mph average.
Once, when I first started road cycling as an adult and training for my first century ride, I was joined by an experienced cyclist in the lanes. He was asking me about my training and advising me to get SPD pedals. At one point, I was struggling to stay alongside him as we chatted. As we went over a motorway bridge, I glanced down at my computer which said 17mph. "Do you always go so fast?" I managed to gasp.
"This isn't that fast," he mumbled. Not long after, when we reached Lowsonford, he carried on without me.
Today, as I went over that same motorway bridge, I looked down at my computer and read 21.4mph.
Todays' ride was 16.4 miles at 15.2 mph.
In the afternoon, Eric turned up with a carload of tools and we set about working in the garden. We replaced 3 fence panels (we had to cut them to size first) and I got a fire going to burn the scrap. He repainted the summer house while I repaired the decking.
In the evening I made us a protein-rich meal of liver and vegetables which I washed down with a bottle of red.
During the work in the garden, I developed a sore throat. I put it down to all the woodsmoke I was breathing in...
Friday
I woke up and felt like crap. It was only 5am but I couldn't sleep with a horrible headache and aching limbs. I watched cycling on TV and drank Lemsip. Later, I walked the dogs and felt a bit better in the fresh air.
After some soup, I did three more hours in the garden - sawing and burning scrap from yesterday's work.
In the evening, Martha, Mabel and I went to karate. Mabel, who is only 11, enjoyed her first karate lesson and wasn't afraid to get stuck in with all of the different exercises.
Martha and I were singled out by Sensei Mark and he pushed us really hard to get our techniques strong and powerful. Afterwards, he came to chat with us to explain why he was pushing us so hard - apparently he thinks we're 'fantastic' and we're going to make good black belts! We left the dojo on cloud 9!
At home, I ate loads of chicken and salad and drank some more Lemsip. The cold got a little worse at night with lots of sneezing!
Saturday
I woke up at 4:30 feeling terrible. I got up to lie on the couch and watch cycling. My nose was running like a tap and my head was banging.
Today was the 50th wedding anniversary of Lucy's mom and dad, Jane and Eric - two of the nicest people I've ever met.
To cut a long story short, today was a whirlwind of people, food and drink from 1 in the afternoon until I finally left at 7:30. In that time, I didn't touch a drop of alcohol and I only ate healthily! I was suffering so much with my cold that all I drank was tea and Lemsip! It was a lovely day, despite the illness.
Sunday
Woke up feeling much better although I was obviously still poorly.
Today, I wondered around Kings Heath food market with the family and then went to see Jonnie and watch England narrowly lose the Twenty20 cricket final to the Windies. I got drunk and then went home to get drunker! I still remembered to eat healthily, however.
My new iPhone allows me to monitor my heart rate with an app. Here are the results:
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