It's still raining....

I'm not sure, but I hear the sky is blue, and the sun is bright yellow and is put there by a man holding a pole too far away to see.  Is that true?

Anyhoo... I went to spin class on Monday.  I couldn't sleep on Sunday night and it was dawn before I decided to do something about it. So I was still pretty much 'chemically induced' at noon the next day.  I didn't fall asleep at the wheel or anything but I did sweat profusely.  I'm a bit of a sweaty betty as it is but I wasn't even trying due to deciding to wear my feet (which was a lot like taking spin class in my bare feet, surprisingly enough) and I actually sweated through the little air holes that they say are to ensure you can put and pull them off with ease. How many people can say they've sweated through little plastic feet.  I've bought toe socks to try and stop the leaking as they were quite slippy but I won't be wearing them spinning (not enough support for the pedals to be comfortable). I intend to wear them in my first group run tomorrow with my local gym.  I hope they don't intend to go longer than the rough mile I manage but we shall see.

On the cycling front there's good news! Luella has a new front derailler! And it's attached.  Might try her out tomorrow.  The Diva's are meeting again tomorrow though it is blowing a hoolie oot there just now and they're doing intervals.  Which I could do with the way they're doing them.  So I might go.  I don't know.  

Mx
from the land that Summer forgot
(which sounds like a porn film).

Inverness in The Rain...

...which is supposed to be a rip off of a Deacon Blue song but it's not.  Even though Inverness was very rainy. And cold.  June! It's Midsummer as I write this, and it has rained since 2pm today.  And it's so windy that the Giddy Blonde TV isn't working, and the dog is in hiding in the bathroom, trying to wrap herself round the U-bend as much as possible.  I wouldn't mind so much but she seems to want me there with her.  And we're at Giddys flat and he's a very stinky boy - as was testament last weekend in Inverness - lets just say the things ensuring his toilet doesn't walk away isn't the rusty bolts through the floor!  Any way, last time it rained this much there was the Black Death, which is one of the four horsemen of the Apocolypse, the others were War, Famine and Archie.

Anyhoo.  We were in Inverness in for the mighty Shinty, for the MacTavish Cup Final.  And what a final it was.  There was blood, sweat (cos lets face it Lochaber did do an awful lot of running around)  and a wee boy behind one of the goals busting a joyous move every time Newtonmore scored - which was quite a lot.  It was a bit of a shame really.  All of Lochaber and their dog were there in magnificent support, but it was all to naught as Newtonmore - who seemed to have recruited the towns joiner and woodworking profession, so you and your shelves were scuppered that weekend - gubbed Lochaber 5-1.

And it was cold, 7 degrees at the most, in June.  I could see my breath in the air. It wasn't too bad in our little tent.  We camped out as a test for going to Benicassim soon, and I've decided there is no way I am sharing a two man tent with a 6'5" trumpet arse in 30 degree heat.  No way suree.

We then decamped to Scary Blondes flat (GB brother) for Chinese food where they watched football and I fell asleep.  I'm not one to drop off of an evening, it could have been the cold, the Chinese food, or the 4 pints of red kite we had watching the Shinty.  More than likely it was the lack of oxygen from spending a night in that tent with GB's phfaarrffy bot-bot.

We did do some cycling, quite small but glorious all the same.  Inverness has a brilliant pathway which goes straight through the City from one side out to the other, running along side the river.  It was perfectly safe and a little sheltered from the worst of the weather.  We cycled from Bught Caravan Park to the city centre in what must have been 10 minutes, across little suspension bridges with leafy pathway on either side framed by glorious sandstone houses.  In the city centre there were loads of places to park your bike and we had lunch in a place called Leakey's which is definitely the place to go on a rainy cold day.

Other than that my exercise these past couple of weeks has been minimal - I did do a spin class this week and thoroughly enjoyed it.  I didn't go to Deeside Divas this week as they were doing threshold work and I'm a bit funny about doing intervals on the road - I feel much safer going a bit grey around the temples in doors - but I'll see what they're up to next week.  Also this weekends pretty quiet so I might go out for a longish ride too.  Perhaps do 30 miles or something reasonable.

Mx

Playing nice with others...

...is something I'm not known for.  At best I'm shy at my worst I come across as superior and any attempt at banter comes out down right hurtful, and the frustrating thing is I'm lovely.  So knowing this  I took me and myself down to Deeside Divas last Wednesday, which is run for free by these lovely people here.

On arrival I was 'inspected' then 'dismissed' as non-threatening, and then was I spoken too.  Which I kind of expected, the first thing I do when I see someone on a bike, is check the bike - I've not got the 'leave your competitors in the dust' gene so seeing how fit they are isn't a consideration for me per se, but I understand others have that.

I was then spoken to by a man called Tim who was soo tall and lanky he looked like he'd been wrung through a Victorian wringer.   He of course was OUR LEADER or COACH.  Kind of.  I wonder what he gets out of running a group of about 20 women in Lycra?  He wasn't very shouty and didn't have any weird demands as OUR LEADER slash COACH and I was most disapointed when he didn't make me do endless sit ups whilst shouting 'NO PAIIINN!!!!!'.

We then headed up Causey Mounth, I intentionally hung back as I didn't want to awe everyone with my mountain climbing prowess, given that Causey Mounth isn't really a mountain and prowess is a term I'm using loosely to mean 'get out of breath a bit sweaty'.   We had a little pootle for about a mile to put us in a group as we were doing an AMT (Australian Man Tango - I may have heard that wrong) Session, which is when the 'handicapped' get a two minute start before they unleash the dogs let the other cyclists try to catch up with them.

I of course was in the handicapped group, however I much prefer the term cyclistickly challenged.  And I'm very cyclistickly challenged. I managed to keep up on the first lap, was dropped round on the second and ended up going round by myself on the last.  With a lot of folk going 'Well done!' for managing a 4 mile route.   And me wanting to go 'No!!! Honestly!!! Fuck Off!!! I'm just slow!!! I can do this all day!!! I've done this for 80 miles!!! Six weeks ago!!! According to Garry Garmin I have at least another 60 odd miles in me!!! '  But we weren't doing it all day.  We'd only been up there for an hour, and were only going to be there for another 5 minutes at most.  Or at least until I caught up with everyone who passed me on my last lap. So I kept my trap shut, and instead consoled myself with 'Well, it would have been disappointing to find myself the fastest.  Where's the challenge in that really?'

Starts in:	Aberdeen, Scotland, GB
Distance:	23.9 mi
Elevation:	+ 1355 / - 1450 ft
Max Grade	8.5 %
Avg. Grade	0.9 %
VAM	367 Vm/h
Ascent time	01:07:33
Descent time	00:44:40
Total Duration:	02:19:28
Moving Time:	01:52:13
Stopped Time:	00:27:15
Calories:	609
Avg. Watts:	90 ( with 0s)
Max Speed:	33.4 mph
Avg. Speed:	12.8 mph
Pace:	00:05:50
Moving Pace:	00:04:42
Max Cadence:	117 rpm
Min Cadence:	17 rpm
Avg. Cadence:	63.6 rpm
Max Heartrate:	179 bpm
Min Heartrate:	44 bpm
Avg. Heartrate:	109.2 bpm
Heartrate zones:
Zone 1:	18 min
Zone 2:	10 min
Zone 3:	10 min
Zone 4:	5 min

At least I have somewhere to go.  I think I'll go next week as well.  I did enjoy myself and I haven't been out much though a bit more prep before hand might be an idea.  Defo a snack or something before I leave, I only had a gel snot at the top of CM when he was explaining Alien Mouth Tent.

The metrics are quite interesting. My heart rate seems (in my opinion) to be a bit all over the place, moving time was just under two hours but my zones were just under an hour?  Does that mean I wasn't working that hard consistently or that my hr monitor is not working - and as we know I do have misgivings about my heart rate monitor.

I do have other activities to post about but I'm running a bit behind due to other constraints.  Myself and the Giddy Blonde have just come back from a weekend in Inverness (where there was some cycling) and where Not So Giddy Blonde may have to have his name changed to 'Mibbies not as Giddy but sure as hell cut from the same cloth Blonde'.  Here's a 'Choice' excerpt from my Weekend -

Giddy: Do you know what a Gilet is?

Mibbies: Yes, no, is that a thing you carry babies in?

Giddy:  No! That's a BAIN MARIE

Please don't put your baby in a bain marie.

Mx

After by being tagged by...

..This Glorious New Yorker  I've to post 7 things people don't know about me...

1,  I haven't had a TV in about 12 years.  It's been ace, I've got loads of reading done and have met a cast of hundreds in the folks I've met both on line (they're not all KA-RAZEEE) and face to face and I'm a better individual for it.  However, me and the Giddy Blonde are moving in together soon and his TV misses him when he not here because I 'don't turn her on enough' - WTF!?!?!?!? -  though when round at his TV is all I do.

2, I've entered a state of being constantly educated. I went to collage and got an HND in Communications, since then I've also gained an OU degree in the Humanities and am now after all that Arts Education nonsense I'm now training to be a mechanical engineer.  I haven't done maths in like 20 years. I'm finding it difficult and tiresome, though mostly difficult.

3, I'm vegetarian.  With a small v.

4, I'm a card carrying bunny hugger. I don't care.  I can't watch animal programmes because I don't like seeing the crocodile eat the baby deer.  I don't like the whale (or what ever the feck it is) eat the crocodile.  I don't care IT'S NATURE AND THEY'D ALL STARVE OTHERWISE.  I'd rather just watch Big Bang Theory.

5, Beer is ace. Most are.  They have a beer festival here in Aberdeen every year though sod knows what they're going to do when they build they re-build the stadium out of town.  Me and the Giddy Blonde have been about 3 years on the trot.  It's very low key under one of the stands in Pittodrie Stadium (Pittodrie - Gaelic for Dung Heap,  just saying) there's no music and the serving wenches are grizzly half cut bearded old guys who drink up the slops. It's done on a voucher system where they serve halfs (more like three quarters) and pints.  I had one that tasted like Cheese.  Like that weird orange dust on Dorito's, not 'cheese' cheese.  It was odd. I'm also quite partial to cider.

6, Reading books is like breathing, if I had to stop I'd die.

7, I'm petrified of the Dentist.  Properly.  I need drugs to attend. The last time I had to get a tooth out, I came round from the anaesthetic because I remembered feeling a metal implement in my mouth and 'Howled like a baby', because I came round for seconds during - or I may even have been dreaming - I don't have a bad dentist, I just have a ridiculous high tolerance to certain drugs - sleeping tablets, pain killers and anaesthetic etc.  I'm trying to get better at going.  I sat through 2 fillings last year, after spending about 17 years not going.  I also have 'a very clean mouth' just crappy teeth.

Unfortunately I've been ill.  I wasn't at work for most of last week due to a throat infection (and tongue swelling!!!), but I've put in for some gym classes this week, and signed up for a few next week.  I also might attend a Deeside Diva's training session this week, though I'm wanting to take it easy given the circumstance.

I've also decided to post on the running by exception as I'll be at the 0.8mile mark for quite a while, and there's only so many ways you can blog about that whilst keeping it interesting.  

Mx

Shoes with Toes...

I got these...

They smell like this...

Only not as evil looking.  

I went here (I have no idea why the lines look wiggy):

Initial tests are promising.  But I want to try them a few times before I decide on how they go. Fit seems fine, I was worried that they were too small on my 4.5 size feet but they fit fine.   

The figures:

Starts in:	Aberdeen, Scotland, GB
Distance:	0.8 mi
Elevation:	+ 114 / - 163 ft
Max Grade	9.5 %
Avg. Grade	-0.7 %
VAM	415 Vm/h
Ascent time	00:05:02
Descent time	00:04:33
Total Duration:	00:19:33
Moving Time:	00:09:35
Stopped Time:	00:09:58
Calories:	79
Avg. Watts:	137
Max Speed:	6.2 mph
Avg. Speed:	5.2 mph
Pace:	00:23:22
Moving Pace:	00:11:27
Max Heartrate:	169 bpm
Min Heartrate:	92 bpm
Avg. Heartrate:	135.1 bpm
Heartrate zones:
Zone 1:	1 min
Zone 2:	7 min

My heart rate monitor crapped out half way round (I think it was when I put it into my pocket), though I am now the proud owner of a pouch thing I can't say the name of because it either sounds like something a person with digestive problems would wear though the American versions much worse.   It'll be useful for going on the bike when I've not got proper bike jerseys on.

I've signed up for a spin class next week, will be out on the bike some point one evening, and out on the feet again shortly.

Mx