Another chilly week

It seems to have been blimmin' chilly for about a week now, but to be honest give me cold and still over warm and windy any day.

Last week panned out pretty much as planned - firstly a bimble round Hyde Park, which turned out to be decidedly brisk.  There was some sort of time trial/race going on, so all the usual iPod laden joggers had been replaced by gnarly looking dudes, some of whom were in vests and shorts.  I was miling at low 7's (and below 7's by the end) and was overtaken by about half a dozen guys all looking steely eyed and determined.  Still, got me back in time for the footy.

The Thursday saw me and the Herb, along with our new training bud Sue, at the track for a slightly longer efforts session than of late.  A decent warm up then 5x1k off 200's.  Sue's first time on the track, and as expected she gave us a mild kicking - lapping probably 3-5 seconds quicker than me (and a lot quicker than Herb who was suffering a bit and looked even more Forrest Gump than usual).  My reps were all between 3:45 and 3:50, which is respectable, but not the 3:35's I was running a couple of years ago - still, not bad and there's more to come I'm sure.

Steady 4m Friday, then Saturday saw me and the girls at Cas for our last practice session in the big fridge before Morzine in a couple of weeks.  It's great to see how far they've come, especially Lily who had effectively never skied before.  She's verging on the "overconfident" so it'll be interesting to see how she goes over there.  Maisie is more in control, so I think she'll cope better when it steepens up.

Sunday I'd planned to go out with the club on the long training ride, so drove down to Ilkley instead of riding, but a change of plan (well a lack of a clear one, really) meant I went with the usual group instead.  Having driven down, of course I'd managed to forget helmet and battery, so a helmet less, lightless ride was had over to Kirby Overblow and back via Castley - a nice 40 miles in perfect, if slightly icy conditions.

Today was back to work, and all the systems conked out, so The Newmanator and Bobby T set off for a Reverse Tomes.  The problem with Rob is that even though he's not at his fittest, he can't seem to stop pushing, so the result was a (for me) very fast run up the hill to Morton, then a PB time overall of just under 40 minutes for the 5.25 miles.

Spin class tonight, which is definitely feeling easier.

My main challenge now after a good January is to keep it up through Feb.  Rugby this weekend, then two weekends of skiing and then a trip to Keswick with K for our anniversary means that cycling opportunities will be limited to commuting, unless I can scab a ride on the Saturday before skiing.  Running at weekends will be equally limited, along with doing nothing when we're skiing for a week.