Sunday, November 19, 2006

The last week.

Another caffeine free passed reasonably successfully. I am still not sleeping managing to get a full nights sleep though which is very concerning, I do not think I am stressed with anything but I maybe I am ? I am going to not worry about avoiding coffee when I am in Australia next week, but I plan to keep off it at work any way. I guess the next thing to give up is alcohol but I don’t really drink that much or that regularly to believe it has any impact on my daily life.

Tai Chi was good again, we learnt a few more steps in the process, I started off the week getting up at 6.30 and doing 10 minutes each morning but got slack as the week progressed, will have another go this week at early rises.
After Tai Chi I went down to the school sports field and after a 10 minute warm up did a few sprint runs. I aim to do some sprints once a week to augment the slower runs I am supposed to be doing but aren’t. If I am planning on doing this marathon next year I am going to have the ramp the running up a lot over the next few weeks.

Tuesday night was another great little Murawai ride, it was just the 2 of us this week. I really struggled on the climb up the first hill to the forest entrance, all muscles hurt and breathing was a struggle. I do not why I am struggling with my running and riding at the moment, I have been fairly consistent with the amount I am doing and my diet has been pretty reasonable lately. Maybe I need a holiday from exercise as well ? We rode down Wild Thing and a bit of the Dak Track and then out the back and up the forest road to the quarry. There was quite a strong northerly blowing so riding up the road was quite hard work and I was pretty knackered by the time we got to the quarry. The quarry was an interesting place to ride, not a big area but lots of little challenges to play on, I had never been there before. I was worn out and riding like a real muppet so didn’t do try anything silly as it was just going to end badly, but I would like to go back there again. We left the quarry and continued north looking for trails made by the motor crosses that were rideable, we fond one great run that was no too chewed up and powered along there for a while before climbing over the fence and riding back down the road, with a nice tail wind back to the start. It was a good ride as it was a new set of trails and we saw deer, quail and rabbits, but I was very awkward on the bike for some reason.

I didn’t do much with the rest of the week, too lazy to get out and run, though I had good intentions !

On Saturday morning I did arrange to go riding with Miles and even got as far as driving all the way to the forest but the weather was awful and I waited in the rain for 10 minutes for the guys to turn up and it was cold and miserable so I packed the bike back in the car and piked. I think this must be my first pike ever from a ride. Normally the weather does not bother me at all. On the way home I dropped in at a new bike store in Henderson where I know the mechanic and had the disk brake fitted to my new wheel.

That night I cooked an OK butter chicken for dinner and had a couple of wines with Miles and the wife.

Sunday number 2 son went out to play softball with mates so I went out for a run. Drove up to Titirangi and ran from there to Exhibition drive, did 2 circuits and back to the car. One hour 27 minutes, 7 minutes faster than 2 weeks ago. I felt good, though again I had quite a sore arch. When I am in Australia next week I will look for a pair of Nike Pegasus from the Nike discounter shop, I have never had an issue with those shoes.

After the run I fitted a road tyre to the new wheel and now have the Cindercone going in road mode again. I now have 3 bikes that mostly work, though none of them are in perfect condition.

Been listening to a lot of Jawbreaker lately, loving that CD, but this afternoon has been Fields of the Nephilim on the stereo – loving the goth.

I must get back to updating more regularily. Roll on my holiday 1 week to go.




Sunday, November 12, 2006

The last week wrapped up

Tai Chi was good on Monday night, learnt another step in the process of whatever it is we are learning, along with some more stretches, I was still feeling a bit crap when I got there though the appalling head ache I had been suffering during the day had abated a bit.

When I got home my wife and I were discussing what to do for our 20th wedding anniversary at the end of the month and rather on the spur of the moment have decided to go to the Gold Coast for 4 days and visit her family and then take 4 days up in Cairns. We booked the flights that night ! this will be the first time we have been away for more than a night without the kids for 12 years. My sister will take the youngest and the big 2 can stay at home by them selves. We are placing a lot of trust on the two teenagers to not have parties while we are away. I am not so worried about my kids but I do not have a lot of faith in some of their friend.

Tuesday I booked my leave from work.

Wednesday I bought two CD’s Jawbreaker – Dear You and Ride – Smile. Both old CD’s and both are great. First Jawbreaker I have bought and I really do like it, will be hunting down some of their CD’s now. The Ride CD is a compilation of their first two EP’s, it is also very good. 2 good music purchases in one day, awesome.

On Friday night I decided to stay for a couple of drinks after work and not unusually I ended up getting completely toasted by 9.00 PM. Had a couple of wines or 3 with a couple of the finance people at a pub down the road from work. Miles collected me about 8.30 and we went off to a Japanese place for food which I really did not feel like. It is times like these that you really appreciate BK ! My wonderful daughter came and picked me up and between us we located the party number 1 son was at and drove home.

The next day I was up at 7.30 for number 2 sons softball game, I felt like crap and spent the 30 minute game warm up slumped in the car. The game was Ok, they were winning up until the last innings when they got slaughtered… still the boys enjoyed the game and number 2 got player of the day for a fine hit. I also succumbed to a very week instant coffee to perk myself up, it was so week I certainly did not notice any caffeine hit.

After the game and lunch, number 2 son disappeared with mates for the afternoon, my wife disappeared to see some friends, so I rode the AC in to town to pick up my car. It was a real struggle, I wasn’t in prime form, and a heavy fully suspended bike with 2.3’’ tyres is no road machine, though I did have a new seat post…

Sunday morning I was awake very early, it was a gorgeous day so I was up at 6.30 AM and drove into town for a run along the waterfront. I parked at Okahu Bay and ran east along the waterfront and up the hill at the end of St Heliers, then back to the car. I felt pretty good during the run but the arch of my left foot was really tender by the time I got to the car. The intention was to run for an hour and a half and I believe if it wasn’t for the foot I could have easily have done that. I am now experimenting with some arch supports.

My daughter has decided to go flatting with a friend, in a house above the friends mother, so it not a complete cut off. I am quite excited for her, she is 18, has a job and this will be a good learning exercise for her to see what you actually have to do to run a house – she has no idea.

She also broke her wrist in a drunken slip on Saturday night, so I spent Sunday evening at the A and E clinic while they x-rayed and plastered her up. She could be off work for 4-6 weeks, though it was not a major break.

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Giving up coffee

It is now Monday, my third day without coffee, I am at work and I feel less than average. If I did not have a budget finalisation meeting this morning I would probably have stayed in bed.

The weather has been very warm and sunny, the first of the summer weather arrived for the weekend. I did run on Friday, ride on Saturday and run on Sunday, I am guessing part of the issue is dehydration, though I did drink a reasonable amount over the weekend. I am also wondering if there was a small element of heat stroke. Though it is hardly hot at the moment it has been hotter than normal and I wonder if my body needs to adjust.

• I am extremely tired after 3 lousy sleeps with Friday and Saturday nights being particularly bad, I am not sure if it is the caffeine withdrawals or just my normal cycle of bad sleep, though I feel worse than normal.
• Yesterday I had a really bad headache in the afternoon and early evening, I really do not like taking pain killers but if it kicks in again today I will have to pop some Nurofen or I will not survive the day at work.
• Most of yesterday I had a mildly upset stomach and it is not 100% right today, not sure what that is related to, caffeine or something I ate ?
• I have long suffered from pain in my lower back, a couple of visits to a osteopath a few years back resolved the issues and rarely suffer anymore, and can usually stretch it out. The pain has come back again, though I have not really started to stretch properly again. I will get onto that tonight.
• I have had a stiff/sore neck for about a week, not terrible pain, more frustrating and niggling.
• My legs hurt….. I very badly broke the “do not exceed the previous weeks exercise by more than 10% rule” so it is my own fault. I was planning on introducing some sprint reps into my training after tai chi tonight, but I will wait until next week.

It was my wifes turn to do softball this week so I went riding on Saturday morning with Miles, I took the single speed up to Woodhill forest. If the dry weather remains much longer then Woodhill is going to be un-rideable soon, but Riverhead will be fantastic ! We had another slow ride, kept the pace down on the flat and climbs to as close to easy chatting pace as possible. I am really enjoying these slow chatty non-stop rides. Rode up Powerball, where we stopped so I could adjust my chain, then hit Big Mumma, and the back trail to enchanted forest, where we had to walk one section of this trail, though it has been un-rideable for years, I must talk to the bike parks people about making a bypass to that section… We then rode Haggis and Northern Exposure and stopped before riding no brakes. Stopped again at the top of no brakes and then did Iron Horse, I kept the seat right up and didn’t do any of the jumps this time round. We had another small break before the steep climb up to the fun back section of Conifer Loop that links back into Haggis, followed up with Tree Huggas, Link, Cookie and finally Raceface down, back to the car. Though we kept a fairly sedate pace we did cover a fair bit of ground and I was quite tired when I got home.
On Saturday night we celebrated Guy Fawkes with friends, though I was quite tired and I am guessing the caffeine withdrawals were starting to kick in. I still slept badly though.

As usual I had planned to get up early on Sunday morning and go for a run before my wife went to work and as usual I stayed in bed till 10.00 reading a novel. Once I had all the shopping completed I did get out for a mid afternoon run along Exhibition drive. I took it very slow as my legs were extremely tight and almost painful. I ran for an hour and half at a very slow pace, running from Titirangi, 2 laps of Exe and back again. One of the sections took me 21 minutes, I can do that lap in 16 minutes if I apply myself, I was running that slowly. I did keep my heart rate under 150 though which was the goal.

I am definitely not ready to do any distance running at this stage, 15kms in an hour and a half and I was pretty wrecked, not a good sign.

Had a BBQ at our place, my head was so sore and one of the guests tuend up an hour early so I was very unprepared and had not done all the house work I wanted to do. It was an Ok night, but I was not really up to it.

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Work trip to Tauranga

I had a work trip to the Tauranga office on Friday, it was all kinda last minute so I did not try and arrange a ride bit took my running gear and planned on a run if the weather was OK.

In fact the day was awesome, warm and sunny with no wind. I finished work around 2.30 and drive up the road to Mt Maunganui and went for a run around the seaward base of the mount. I have never been round the base before so it was a great run, no idea of the distance but I ran for 50 minutes.






I then jumped into the sea here for about 30 seconds, it was still damn cold, before driving back to Auckland. It was a great ‘work’ day.

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Tai Chi and Tuesday night riding

The week at work has been a real shitter, not too sure why, it has been no different than any other week, I am just not up for work any more. I would take a holiday but have no idea what to do or where to go and I do not want to just hang around at home doing the odd ride on my own.

I had my first tai chi lesson on Monday night, it was ok, I am not sure what my real expectations were but this is a pretty low brow course at the local high school. Still it was kinda fun and the hour passed fairly quickly. We learnt a basic move involving 4 steps (stances ?), the instructor was not that verbose… Anyway I have a few things to practise this week.

Tuesday night I headed up to Murawai for a ride. I am still riding the AC with a shortened seat post and it just feels so weird on the first climb, I still ride the AC like a single speed hard tail, standing and pounding on the climbs, it kinda works but I am sure sitting and spinning on the climbs would be more effective and a lot less tiring.

Had a good ride, just the three of us this week, rode straight to the forest and hit up Dan’s track, then back up to the old National downhill, only had a couple of runs down the jump section then we went and rode a really really old track called Wild thing. Wild thing existed when I sued to ride there years ago, though there is only a short section of it left now. Still it was a bit of fun. We then pushed back up and rode down Mainline. I have not ridden this track before, it was pretty sandy at the top but once we got into the trees it firmed up a bit and man it was a fun track, I do like to lead on these pedally downhill tracks as I can hit it at my own pace…. From the end of Mainline we pushed most of the way back up AFL. I am loving this track, I really nailed most of it, missed one of the tricky bits that I by pass so lost some speed, but I reckon I had my fastest run down that track, I must get a speedo to find out.

Got back to the car after an hour and a half of riding at 8.00 and it was still pretty light.