With me taking a day’s leave today – in order to use or lose my holidays – it was nice to get up at the usual time, but rather than facing the drive into work I went for a nice run instead.
The 2.8 mile run (measured to perfection in Mrs DDWT’s Vauxhall) took me 20 minutes 59 seconds, which I was rather pleased with considering the times I have been doing for the distance since the turn of the year. This week has been a good week for me training wise, with Wednesday being the only day off thus far. Plus I’m up to 11 training sessions now!
I should know by now not to EVER go out running on an empty stomach as it’s always played hell with my system. So after my tummy troubles had subsided, we headed off to Fforestfach to take back yet more unwanted sales stuff and spend some time in Borders – DDWT Junior’s favourite haunt (in light of the mound of children’s books on offer!).
Mrs DDWT was most pleased with her retail efforts though, as she finally picked up a new mobile phone – which she’s be craving for for some time now. The sum of £49.99 ensured that she left Tesco’s armed with a T-Mobile Sagem 501C, which is rather feature rich in fairness – despite it not being what I would call a top brand. A detailed spec can be seen on the Sagem site.
I’m quite jealous in fact and can’t be outdone by the Mrs in the technology gadget stakes, it’s bad for my technical image *wink*
Well my visit to see the Swans take on the Tractor Boys is almost here and I’m getting VERY excited at the prospect I must confess and as a result I don’t think I’ll get much sleep tonight. Which is bad news considering we’re leaving Swansea at 7am.
Sitting on my backside yet again today, but on a bike this time instead of a train. For training session number 10 (wahay I’m into double figures) I went on my usual 10.8 mile route down to Limeslade. The only trouble is that at the moment my speedo is kaput, so I’ve no idea of the time, speed or distance (should I choose another route) that I’m doing. Not a very good way of judging progress is it! I think I shall have to pay a visit to Wigglerather soon.
For those of you who know of Lenny Valentine from ‘Italian Stripping Housewives’ aka ‘Tutti Fruiti’ – no it’s not a porn film, it’s was a dubbed comedy show on Bravo – I was “up the crack of dawn this morning”. Not literally of course, I was just out of bed very early to catch the 6:30 am Swansea to Paddington train.
The reason for my early start was a visit to Birmingham to attend a web seminar on a variety of topics (LG related of course) and worthwhile it was too – don’t worry I won’t bore you with the details here. The train journey makes far more interesting reading!
I think anyone he travels on the UK rail network is aware that it’s (a) expensive and (b) unreliable and today’s experience merely re-emphasised that fact. My journey to Brum was to be punctuated with one stop – in Bristol Parkway – and I’d timed my journey to arrive in Brum with 25 minutes to spare prior to the 10am event kick-off. However, there was a delay (surprise surprise) in Newport – and as a result I missed my Bristol connection and was 30 minutes late for the event start!! There was also a delay on the way back – thankfully only 15 minutes this time – but it really does show that the train isn’t a viable transport alternative, despite what the government might think. It’s also too bloody expensive!
So with the rail network seemingly going down the pan (well it has been for years lets face it) my mind drifted to other matters – such as the difficulty a 6ft 4′ man – such as myself – has trying to have a pee on a moving train. In fact I’ve called it the ‘ Wee Pee Train Game’ and the object of it is to try and have a pee whilst standing up (with the train moving) and NOT get a drop of urine anywhere on the seat – not even when you shake the drops. Try it out yourself (if your a fella), it’s impossible!
The sporadic snow flurries I saw in Swansea yesterday, turned out to be quite significant as the Midlands had had a nice little dusting overnight – jammy barstewards *sigh*
I’m making the most of the current cold (but sunny) snap with another lunchtime training session (9) – a 3 mile run today (with Razor the Racehorse). Our time of 23 minutes 26 seconds was quicker than last week, so we were both happy bunnys at the end.
Having braved the elements in such a health concious way, it even actually made look forward more to the Swans game tonight – rather than thinking what I could be doing instead of freezing my nadgers off!
Talking of the game, the Swans won 2-nil – but if the truth be known they made hard work of it and should have scored far more. It was also a shame that we only got to see the new signing Pawel Abbott in action for only 5 minutes – during which time he almost got himself booked for a rather late challenge. He must have been wathcing the Walter Boyd video on how to get yourself sent off within 2 minutes of being on the field!
A full match report can be found in the usual place. As for the stars on the night, well I think everyone did their bit apart from Mr Trundle who was off the pace or seemed to be thinking of something else anyway. What the heck though, it’s a game in hand which we won and are now back in the play-off places and it wasn’t as cold a night as I’d envisage after all.
It was cold enough to see the first bits of snowfall in these parts for 2007 though – albeit very little, it’s a start. So please Mr Weatherman, can we have some more, well lots more actually!
I’m off to Birmingham tomorrow for a web workshop on web strategy, search engine optimisation, accessibility, quality assurance and information architecture – all in the space of 6 odd hours! I think I’m likely to be brain dead by the time I return. Full report tomorrow thought or maybe the day after – after utilising bloggers ‘save as draft’ option of course *smile*
It was with great excitement today that I got on my bike (the usual lunchtime ride) for only the 2nd time this year – for what was training session number 8 (poor compared to last years standards).
Anyway with the sun shining I set off at a cracking pace towards my usual Monday destination (i.e. Forte’s ice cream parlour in Limeslade) and was thinking to myself how easy it felt, especially considering I hadn’t been out on the bike for a while. Ha ha, on the way back I found out exactly why it was so easy – the darn bloody wind was with me. The journey home was rather unpleasant given the the wind and I felt as if I was cycling on the spot (a la my teenage days when I used to visit the local gym and use the stationary exercise bikes). My quads were twitching by the time I got back to the changing rooms I can tell you!
Despite all this, I do feel better for the 10.8 mile jaunt, well at least I think I do.
