Fitness

OK, I admit it, I am a geek. A real equipment junkie. A man well and truly in touch with his inner nerd. I really like stuff. Perhaps it’s because I’m an engineer at heart, so I really appreciate the quality and ingenuity of great things. Or maybe, it’s because I need all the...
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You’ll remember how impressed I was with my new and very comfortable Asics Cumulus VIII running shoes that I bought from SheRunsHeRuns in Kent last month? Basically this was the first time I’d found a shop that actually took any notice of my feet, and how I run on them, and what kind of running...
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So last Friday, we all went off to Sigean safari park. We have all the usual photos of lions, ostriches tapping on the car windows, giraffes, etc, that I won’t bore you with here. The only one I want to show you is my daughter (on the right) in the back of the car...
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Last Thursday morning was my wife’s parents’ French lesson, which we tagged along to. The teacher, Caroline, lives in Abeilhan, which is conveniently just under 8km from Gabian. So I went with my running shoes on, my shorts under my trousers, and a breathable / wicking top in the back of the car. The weather...
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When Von SmallHaussen came to visit a few weeks ago, she commented as we were leaving the gym that she thought I was a bit of a metrosexual. Now, I live in the North East of England, where the culture is distinctly butch and hard drinking. So I was a little worried about this label....
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This is great countryside for running in - especially at this time of year, when the weather’s not too hot (like The Big Yin, my skin isn’t white - it’s more of a pale blue . . . ). If I’m here in the summer, when the temperature’s often in the mid 30’s centigrade,...
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Drove down from Whitley Bay to my parent’s place in Kent on Friday night. We left late, after my daughter’s swimming lesson, so as to avoid the worst of the traffic on this 320 mile journey. So we didn’t get in ’till gone midnight, and to bed ’till 1:30. But for some reason, I was...
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Not such a busy training week, this week - lots of work to get done, as well as preparing to be away for the next ten days. We had friends up last weekend . . . and did some local tourist things - visiting Hadrian’s Wall on Saturday (COLD and WET - in fact too...
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I had such a good session in the pool this morning . . . that I’ve just got back from another session. Loads more work on the same basics as before, interspersed with some lengths of full stroke. What I’ve found is that on all the drills from The Fish upwards, the thing...
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I had a great swim session this morning - mostly through concentrating on back to basics stuff. My problem has always been that I’m not a natural swimmer - although I’m fairly confident in the water, there’s still an edge of fear from when I almost drowned as a kid. Breast stroke is fine for...
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