Week 12 - 5 days of weight training!

Monday

Cycled to work and back, an hour of weight training, no junkfood, no booze.

Tuesday

Cycling to work and back, an hour of weight training, no junkfood, no booze

Wednesday 

Cycled to work and back, an hour of weight training, no junkfood, a few beers

Thursday

An hour of weight training, no junkfood, no booze

Friday

Today was a teacher training day. Unfortunately, somebody decided that it was a good idea to host this 'event' at our Handsworth campus.

I drove over with Lucy and three other members of staff crammed into my car (I like driving the Nissan Juke, but there isn't much room in the back.) The CPD itself was crap but we did have a couple of useful conversations with managers. I then drove home through rush hour traffic.

I was about ready to collapse on the couch with a beer when I suddenly changed my mind and started setting up my man-cave for a workout. I spent the next hour lifting weights: curls, overhead presses, squats and dumbbell stuff, along with 300 body-weight reps too. After an hour of this, I then allowed myself a beer! And then another beer, and then another beer... You get the picture!

Weight training, no junkfood, loads of beers

Saturday

I woke up with a shocking head, really not in the mood to anything. Instead of feeling sorry for myself on the couch, I made breakfast for myself and Lucy before going food shopping with her in Shirley. I felt pretty rough shuffling round the supermarket but I got through it. After this, I dropped Lucy and Mouse into Solihull, and then walked the dog in the park. I was starting to feel human again.

In the afternoon, I cycled to my Saturday afternoon Karate lesson. Today, my young people were a little slow to get started and it was hard to get them revved up. However, by the end of the lesson, they were going hard at the heavy bag and everyone seemed to go home happy.

In the evening, Lucy made a lovely dinner, I had a few drinks and the family watched Strictly. 

Karate, no junkfood, booze

Sunday

Up feeling fairly relaxed after an extra hour in bed - the clocks went back last night. I met up with Jonnie and James at 9. There had been a lot of rain last night. In an effort to avoid the huge puddle on Tithe Barn Lane I took the lads along Dyers Lane. After this Jonnie took us along Cut Throat Lane and then turned left. Unfortunately, this did nothing to avoid the puddle - our mental geography had obviously let us down! We ended up tiptoeing through the deep water anyway!

We went along past the brewery, scampered up The Average Destroyer and then hurled ourselves up The Billsley Wall, all the while being mindful of the puddles and wet gravel strewn about the lanes. The conditions affected our average speed which I think was under 14mph when we rolled up to the cakestop. As always, the homemade cake was excellent, and today there was World Cup cricket on the TV. It was struggle to get back in the lanes, but the sun coming out certainly helped.

Jonnie called for a Petticoat return which was a good shout. After we had crawled out of the Lowsonford, we turned left along our Bushwood route. There was where we encountered a lot of gravel and quite a bit of traffic, but we negotiated it all safely. We got back to base after almost 40 miles and over 2000ft of climbing. I intend to use this route as part of our New Year training schedule.

I undid my good work by sinking a few ales in the evening while making a curry.

Cycling, junkfood, beers