December 2015

December 30^th

After the start of December and the completion of my final Bikeability for the year time  seemed to gallop on, hence no Blog posts! fixing/replacing lights in the kitchen and porch along with getting the van sorted with its new power steering pump [£392!] and christmas food shopping with all our visitors to feed seemed to take up time.

I have managed a couple of runs and the odd cycle ride and as of this morning I only have to run another 1.5 miles to hit the 600 mile mark for running the year! So I hope to get a run in before the end of the year.

It has been a busy month, with Mrs Ian B and IanBs dotter spending several days in London, the weather has been atrocious and as I type this storm ‘Frank’ is outside, not quite as wet as the North but very windy [seems silly to me to give them names just ‘hypes’ it all up, like the word ‘weather bomb’, how to scare people without trying!!!!] so not much cycling. I did enjoy a 5 mile run on Christmas eve and felt very righteous being out! Still very warm though, I notice many cyclists out in shorts!

Christmas has been and gone, we had a wonderful Christmas with some lovely gifts from my family and with visits from our 3 children and 3 grandchildren, the twins growing fast now nearly 4 months old!!! It has been spent I have to say eating!, not so much drinking [unless tea counts?] so having not been on the scales, I daren’t think what weight has been gained!

 We have managed to spend some time down at the seaside’s of Sidmouth and Seaton, giving granddaughter a chance to try out her scooter on flat terrain, over a longer distanc.

I intend to go to Kettlebells tonight so that will be a good indicator. Only just over two months to the Grizzly event, so now have to think of miles in the legs, but! My left ham string has started to niggle away again, not sure if it’s the kettlebells irritating it, and my right knee seems to have developed a slight pain, not really hurting but, more of an ache, I hope neither develop further. 

Cancelled lakes holiday and steering problem with the van.

11^th December 2015

After the charity cycle on Sunday a short run on Monday the rest of the week was my usual ‘training regime’ spin, kettlebell, spin, possibly to be called ‘spinning the kettle’ in the future. I did manage a 9 mile run on the Friday before we were due to drive to the lakes on Sunday for a week at Fallbarrow Park. BUT!!! We hadn’t taken account that there was a huge storm called Desmond heading straight for Cumbria – Saturday dawned in Somerset to be grey and very windy but, no rain, however, in the lakes it was not only raining there was a deluge. It didn’t occur to us that so much damage would be caused. We had a phoned call at 4:00 in the afternoon, it was Fallbarrow Park informing us that Bowness had been badly hit by heavy rain and was very flooded, and so was the park!! so they were cancelling all bookings that week. We were clearly disappointed, but, that’s the forces of nature, and looking at the pictures on the news I am glad we hadn’t set off as clearly the whole of the lakes was in deep trouble with closed roads, and flooded towns etc. I hope they are all safe and wish them the best to get sorted asap, we will rebook and be back in March I am sure.

So we had a week at home visiting one or two local places, Sidmouth, Exmouth, the unusual Trago retail area near Newton Abbott, always worth a visit for a bargain or two!! I even did some DIY and managed to replace some down lighters in the kitchen with LEDs, the weather wasn’t good for the week so no cycling and only 2 runs of 9 miles on Monday and 7.4 miles on Friday, along with my spinning kettle!!

12^th December

It was a trip to Gloucester on Saturday to look after the twins for the day, now 3 months old, time flies! GD was going to a panto so we had the pleasure of feeding, winding, changing the two boys for the day, they are very responsive now and developing their characters. A fantastic day out, good to see they are well and very alert, very interested in faces!

Sunday managed a 42 mile cycle over Muchelney way and I didn’t get wet for once! And very little wind, so a good ride.

The afternoon gave me chance to check out the van as the steering was very noisy and I was a little surprised to see fluid dripping from the underneath!! Which on inspection found to be power steering fluid. I hope it’s just a hose gone and not a new pump needed!!! We haven’t used it quite so much this year and as always fear lack of use is not helping, I hope we are able to reverse that trend in the new year.

Bikeability two days this week, I hope the weather holds, very mild but could be damp.