Monday, July 31, 2006

Breakfast time fun

Every morning during breakfast we get up early enough to catch a bit of BBC breakfast before work... I very often get a nice cynical start to the day by some bad news winding me up.

But the very first thing to note is who is presenting it (even our dog is addicted), you can find all the presenters at Breakfast team profiles... but we refer to them as follows...

Sian Williams & Bill Turnbull = the A-team
Dermot Murnaghan & Natasha Kaplinski = ugh, so not the A-team
Dermot Murnaghan & Kate Silverton = the B-team
Natasha Kaplinski = pout pout
Kate Silverton = faux Natasha (referring to Kaplinski)
Bill Turnbull = we like Bill we do
Sian Williams = she's learning welsh you know, lovely
Mishal Husain = replacment Sian
Susanna Reid = replacement Mishal
Simon McCoy = Tony (referring to Tony Stamp from The Bill)
Declan Curry = ahh, Declan
Chris Hollins = sport wally
Sue Thearle = what she's pregnant too?
Carol Kirkwood = breathy weather lassy
Louise Lear = the clothes stand
Helen Willets = ah, bless, still struggling with the early mornings
Julia Botfield = faux wannabee stuck outdoors

These are the cast of characters that brighten our morning [apologies for the names they are all in cheeky jest ;o) ]

Sunday, July 30, 2006

Bow side (breaking in) & running reminders

The move to the new seat in the boat is going okay, although my body is sometimes defaulting to balancing the wrong way. It is helping to work out somethings I was doing when on the other side... so it can only be a good thing. The biggest problem is the aches that come from work muscles differently and blisters from a different grip.

We went out for two sessions over the weekend, with at least three planned for the coming week... it should be good fun ;o)

I have received application forms for three runs... the Swansea 10k, the Cardiff 10k and the London marathon... will work out if I can put in entries for all three in the next week... I need to fit them around work, holidays and rowing preparations for next season.

Saturday, July 29, 2006

Runner's World link - United Kingdom bias

I have just had it pointed out to me that the link to Runner's World on my links bar (on the right) was to www.runnersworld.com which is United States based, not a lot of use to me or anyone I know living in the United Kingdom... of more use is www.runnersworld.co.uk :o)


Correction made... the link on my blog take you to the UK site... both sites are of course from the same stable of publications, difference being that they are sales territory specific - both are very very useful for finding races, race feedback, training tips, and runner forums. I can recommended both for information, though choose the right one to search for a race near you ;o)

Thursday, July 27, 2006

Keep on moving

Squash... yeap, I am finally back playing squash after my shoulder injury of last year. It seems to be holding up very well and its other bits of me that are hurting after matches :o)

The return was prompted by a squash ladder in work, and an eagle eyed colleague spotting a squash racket when I moved offices ;o) Its gone so well that I am in second place in the ladder... granted they are pretty much novices, but its still nice to achieve such a lofty status, hahaha

As the title says... Keep on moving :o)

Getting connected :o)

Well I seem to have gotten back into following a couple of vlogs.... RocketBoom which is undergoing something of a revolution... I think I like the transformation, but am tickled by the number of people giving there thoughts every day - it seems the response from the makers is pretty tailored to the talking heads - also quite amusing :o)

The other one is the tech log CommandN, which is going from strength to strength having just past their first anniversary... I really like their style and content [almost bought a t-shirt but they didn't have my size :o( ].

Perhaps I have been task avoiding too much this week ;o)

Switch, switch, switch

Well we switched me out of stroke for the Bewdley regatta, and lost in the first round on Saturday (also lost in the first round in the eight). We did better on the Sunday, probably because we'd gotten more used to the change and also just let it all hang out grunt wise... made it to the semi.

Next I find myself switched to bow-side, this shouldn't be too much of a problem. Although I am now a bit lost as to our plans for racing the rest of the season. We shall see how it all turns out ;o)

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Up and downs - schoolyard thinking

After the highs of winning novices rowing, I was then 'demoted' out of the stroke-seat... not really that any seat is more or less important than the next. There is the responsibility of setting the rhythm and pace while racing if you are in the stroke seat. The saddest part was that no one told me why the move, and it was dropped on me as I was about to row... no warning. I have discovered that despite the advancing years of most of the participants of club rowing (that is most have passed puberty), their mentality towards sports is no more advanced than the schoolyard.... where you are in or out, good or bad depending upon more than just your ability to complete the sporting skill required.

I have had several retrospective placating comments about the 'why', ranging from you were too stressed, to you weren't fast enough, to you're better paired with that guy in that seat.... sadly a large part would be schoolyard thinking I believe. Given that we in fact won novices with me in the seat.

I'd like to say that it stops at the boat, but given a blazing argument I had with a rower from our club who should know better jumping the boating queue past 14 yr old girls crew waiting in baking heat... sadly the law of the schoolyard never leaves some people.....

...sadly, more than once I have found myself pining for a return to just running... when its you verses the distance, the clock, and your own sole set of goals it seems somehow 'purer' (that's probably not a word 'more pure').

[On 'sober' reflection my own reaction was as bad as the situation I perceived. Still these thoughts were true of the moment, so I won't censor myself.]

Monday, July 24, 2006

Senior rower with no points - Llandaff Regatta

Well I am way behind, lots going on... at the Llandaff regatta our crew won our novices, in the men's novice coxed four event over 1000m. Well chuffed, I shouted myself horse celebrating one of the biggest sporting successes of my life.

It was flaming hard work, but we came through three races (two of which were very tough) to claim our prize of tankards, champagne, a whole punched in our ARA cards, and.... yes being thrown into the river!

Monday, July 03, 2006

Weight update

I currently weigh 213lbs which I am relatively happy with, given that I am getting fitter and stronger at the moment with all the rowing. I have updated my trend plot [see the menu bar on the right], it seems the the summer dip is in progress... wonder if I can keep it off this winter?!?!

Peanut butter is not my friend !!!

It is true that whilst I am very much friends with peanut butter, "peanut butter is not my friend !". I have noticed that for a week or so we were out of peanut butter and during that same period my weight has begun to drop a little... no coincidence I fear. I am not crazy about weights measurements, though I clearly weigh myself more than someone who doesn't think about such things, and it's only a subtle trend so I am watching it to see what happens.

I have also cut out butter / spread on toast in the mornings, perhaps its more a case that... butter is not my friend ! ;o)

Grand designs

I have set myself what I thought was a small challenge of building a timer to help with interval training on ergo's or ROWperfect's... it seems it might be a little more complex than I'd hoped... I was hoping not to bother my wife with questions about getting it working... (I'll keep them to a minimum I promise)... the timer will I hope chime at preset intervals over a workout period to remind you to change effort or rate intensity in training. Its on the drawing board, will blog its progress :o)

Oil and heat

This morning I spent a very worthwhile five minutes oiling the chain on my mountain bike. The heat of the past couple of weeks, combined with dust from the Taff trail left my gears near enough bone dry and 'clanky'. A few spots of oil and 'hey pesto'... if only there was a simple trick for the actual heat... 31 degree C plus today... British heatwave forecast !!!

Saturday, July 01, 2006

Beast?

Good row in the four this morning... not great rhythm but nice and powerful with plenty of effort to achieve the correct body posture. Some where along the way it transpired that I was referred to as a beast, because I have gotten stronger and more flexible... I really hadn't noticed any particular difference and I suppose really its a form of complement.

Tomorrow we try out a new seating arrangement switching the middle two around, it involves them both swapping sides which will prove interesting... tomorrow decides what seating arrangement will be used for the next regatta - our home one in Llandaff.