Saturday 25 October 2014

DNS - Did not Start

Beachy Head Marathon
My first DNS. Very simple: fell of bike, hurt my shoulder, hip, leg. Have cold, even walking gets me out of breath. So 26 October I may try a little run.
It was Beachy Head marathon. Looked forward to it, as I would be catching up with loads of people I hadn't seen for a while.
Sometimes you need to be smart and not do what you really want to do. Choosing the most difficult choice, is probably the best choice. So that is what I did.
Well so much for that. No more events this year.

MdS
Early October I went to the MdS Expo. Which is a good event, specially for first time MdS participants. If you do sign up for the MdS it's recommend to go there swell.
This time as part of my preparation I will be doing heat chamber as well. As this come highly recommended.
Looking forward to next year MdS. It's the 30th edition and according to the grapevine it is going to be special. Well it's special anyway. One of the most beautiful places on earth.

CrossFit
In July I started doing CrossFit at http://www.crossfit2012.co.uk in Kingston. Quite convenient, as it's right behind us in the university.
It's a very intense but very addictive activity. Met great people there and will have to start pumping up my volume of participation a bit. So far been able to do 6 per month. Should be going up to 8.

Cycling
Great to be cycling to work again. 44k per day. This week been a bit less, as the bike is in the bike hospital for a make-over. Needed new wheels and some other components. Which is not surprising as it has a lot of miles and years behind it. But I decided it was better and cheaper to get it sorted than to buy a new bike. Why spend 4 times as much?

Till end November
Very little running.
Higher volume CrossFit.
Higher volume of cycling.

That is it for today.

Live happy.

Tuesday 21 October 2014

Almost 2 months - clearly not a writer

I'm not sure if I should blog loads or blog just now and then. Clearly even without decision it is now and then without a regularity about it.

September, I went to Romania, Bran. For the Transylvania Trail Transylvania Trail Info. Flew out to Bucharest where we saw the Ceausescu now Parliament Palace. Big, very big, makes most buildings look very little. You get a tour which shows about 5% of the building. Including a room that is like a 100m wide.

Stayed one night in Bucharest, to discover the city. It is proper 2nd world country. But the people are fantastic and they clearly want to build up their country. They are very proud and hard working.

Took the train to Brasov, which is about 3 hours north, to then take a taxi 30k south to Bran. Bran's claim to fame it is has the Castle of Vlad the Impaler, made world famous by the Bram Stoker book, Dracula.
Bran Castle, situated near Bran and in the immediate vicinity of Braşov, is a national monument and landmark in Romania. The fortress is situated on the border between Transylvania and Wallachia

We are in Transylvania, and Transylvania is not England. Our ways are not your ways, and there shall be to you many strange things.

We walked around in Bran for a day, which is a stretch, but if you go up into the mountains then it's time well spend. 

On Friday the 106k starts which this year (first time) was won by 3 ladies including Jo Meek. To give you a bit of a feel of the route check this Route Profile.

The race is extremely techncial, goes up to 2500m twice for the 106k and 50k. There is also a 35k. Proper mountains and an woods. Which are the natural habitat to bears and wolves and goats. In a lot of cases you have to climb, there is no running, it's climbing up and down.

Another DNF, but out a day in that environment, not that worried. Met great people Carina Ilie and George Baceanu who got us back to the road to get back by car. Bjorn Wikstrom and Per Sjogren. The 3 of us, DNFed together. So the 5 of us walked 2 hours to get back to the road. Not a bad walk, and 2 hours pass by quickly if you are with like minded people.

I can recommend the event, but it's a lot of technical climbing going up a lot, so think about the distance.

Then end of September I did the Singelloop in Utrecht where I grew up with Kim my youngest A 10km event. Her first event and we finished 1:09. Which is very good, as it was warm and we went out a  bit to fast. Really enjoyed doing an event with one of my daughters and we'll be back next year.

Now end of October the last event is coming up, Beachy Head Marathon on 25 October. Which I am told is hard, lot of hills. So that sounds good to me. Hope the weather holds (that is no rain).

I'll be meeting new and old friends at the Beachy Head event, starting Friday evening in an Italian. Not sure if that is carb loading or coincidence.

Then a month of running, only cycling and CrossFit. Then back in December to start training for the Marathon des Sables 2015.

That is it for now, but thought I quickly let you know a status.