Ashington

I spent the morning in a meeting where people were discussing how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, and the finer details of Kafka’s novels as an idealised template for how to run an efficient organisation. Or something like that, anyway - I might not have been paying that much...
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To fit in my extra swimming session each week, I’m doing it on Thursday mornings. The thing is, Thursday is also a day in my schedule for cycling. So yesterday was a ride into work, a short pool session, a day at the office and then riding home. It was good fun, apart from finding...
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There’s this strange thing with coaches who don’t specialise in working with multi-sport athletes. They assume that we have all the time in the world, and that life isn’t a constant battle against the schedule, and that their particular sport is the one that we think we need to dedicate most every minute of...
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Pedestrian refuges / traffic islands - put there for your safety. On the one hand, they mean that pedestrians can cross roads one lane at a time. And drivers, get a greater perception of their speed, which hopefully means that they slow down. The trouble is, that there isn’t always room for a car AND...
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You remember the unwritten rule of cycling when it’s windy? The one that says the wind will miraculously change direction and be right in your face for the ride home as well as the ride out? Well it DIDN’T happen last Friday! Ride to work was head-to-head with a 20mph wind from the North, interspersed with...
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Last Thursday was officially a bike day in my training schedule. The trouble was that I had a series of off-site meetings - how to accommodate these in with my training? The answer was obvious when I thought about it. Training doesn’t always have to be head-down-bum-up kind of work. Sometimes,...
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Just because it was my birthday last week, it didn’t mean that I got to take a day off training! Although for reasons of common decency, I did keep my trunks on. Workout: Type: Swim Date: 03/10/2010 Total Time: 00:40:00.00 Calories: 292 Distance: 1,600 m Average Pace: 2:30.13/100m
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Nothing much to say - just SO tired. Actually, I do have something to say - my swimming must be improving, because I was dramatically under-shooting my pace target, and had to work hard to slow down . That is a very new experience for me. Workout: Type: Swim Date: 03/08/2010 Time: 12:35:01 Total Time: 00:50:00.00 Calories: 487 Distance: 2,300 m Average Pace: 2:10.81/100m
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This is my last active week in my Base 2 training period - next week (oh joy!) is recovery week, where I shall be lounging around, drinking piña coladas and notching up a mere 6.5 hours of training. To celebrate, I opted to do a brick session - bike followed immediately by a run. The bike...
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I had a session with a new swimming coach yesterday morning. She’s really good at giving negative feedback - stuff you need to be told, yet delivered in a way that doesn’t pop your bubble completely. That’s the good news. The bad news is that I’m now looking at three pool sessions a week, plus a...
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