Tigers in the bushes

It’s been a while since I blogged, one way and another. Most recently (since June 22, I think), I’ve been laid up with a dodgy back, unable to cycle, sit or take public transport. After the first week the severity lessened, and I’ve been able to take shortish daily walks to local parks where I’ve become pretty obsessed with the variety of wildlife populating S E London.

Most of all, I’ve been noticing the spread of the beautiful Jersey Tiger Moth, Euplagia quadripunctaria. I’d never seen one before, and now I’ve seen 10, all within a short distance of the local railways. They were formerly regarded as a South Coast species in the UK, but a population is thought to have established itself in the Devonshire Road nature reserve in 2004, and they seem to have spread from there. There is a suggestion that they have spread by the railway, and the locations of my sightings would support the hypothesis.

Other London sightings:
http://queerpup.livejournal.com/503071.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pomphorhynchus/2770031307/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/louisiana/3769333101/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dm-set/3729914591/
http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/pictures/showphoto.php?photo=68788&nojs=1
http://www.ispot.org.uk/node/1447
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rcoldbreath/2728967616/
http://honoroak.blogspot.com/2008/07/jersey-tiger-moth.html
http://capitalnaturebexley.blogspot.com/2009/07/29709-jersey-tiger-moths-in-streatham.html
http://www.back-garden-moths.co.uk/Sightings.php?pageNum_usersightings=4

North by Northwest

“I am but mad north–north–west; when the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw.”

Heron nest at Manor House Gardens

We saw no hawks today, but we got a good view of ‘handsaws’ – or hernshaws – young herons, and a bird the sight of which might have given Hamlet reason to doubt his sanity – parakeets.

Monk parakeets, to be precise. 21st Century London boasts thousands of parakeets, but the vast majority are rose-ringed parakeets, with a sprinkling of co-roosting Alexandrines. Only in one isolated spot – Mudchute Park on the Isle of Dogs – can you find monk parakeets.

These birds were the object of our ride today – a quick spin from Catford to Greenwich via Manor House Gardens, then through the foot tunnel and into Mudchute Park. We didn’t know exactly where to look for the parakeets, but went to the City Farm, and there, in a tree above the pygmy goats, opposite the Gloucester Old Spots and Light Sussex chickens, we caught our first glimpse of them.

Monk parakeet at Mudchute Park

It was the first of many. Unlike rose-ringed parakeets, who nest in tree-holes, monks build vast communal nests of twigs which they deliberately cut from trees with their secateur-like bills. They were building very assiduously today, and we got lots of excellent views of their behaviour on the woody banks to the south of the farm.

As we left the park, Molecule Man noticed some memorials at the edge of the allotments to the east of the farm. They were rather poignant personal tributes to local people including air raid wardens Johnny Hills and Frank Bernard Kemp, who were killed when their shelter received a direct hit during the Second World War.

Memorial in Mudchute Allotments

By this point, evening was drawing on, and we’d worked up a thirst, which we slaked at the Gun in Coldharbour, then cycled home, pleased to have got another “tick” for the “London Borough Challenge” (Tower Hamlets).

I have a backlog of trips to write up – a ramble up the River Lea, taking in parts of Waltham Forest and Hackney, and a walk from Highgate Wood to Shoreditch, along the Holloway Road in Islington. But that will have to wait until next week – I’m off to Lisbon for the weekend.

Bom dia!

View our route at bikely.com

Death and Dabchicks in Hackney

My mission for March was to visit Hackney, Islington and Waltham Forest. I don’t know any of these boroughs well – I’ve cycled the length of the Regent’s Canal, and walked part of it. I’ve skirted the southern borders of Islington and Hackney, been to the dogs at Walthamstow, and skated at Lee Valley, but that’s about the extent of my experience.

It’s not easy to decide on a starting point for these trips into the unknown, but I have a bit of a fascination with cemeteries. It may sound morbid, but it’s not really. London’s cemeteries provide refuges for wildlife, and were planned as park-like open spaces. I do love the cemetery clichés of mournful angels and crumbling headstones, but there’s more than that – the names provide a window on the population history of the area, and each cemetery shows distinctive local styles of stonemasonry.

Abney Park’s disused non-denominational chapel.

Traditionally, London’s premier cemeteries are known as the “Magnificent Seven”. The only two I hadn’t yet visited were Abney Park and Highgate. I’ve always been slightly put off by Highgate’s “Theme Park Death” marketing, though I do hope to visit it soon, but Abney Park seemed like the ideal starting point for a stroll through Hackney.

Abney Park was designed as a cemetery, park and arboretum. It was London’s first fully non-denominational cemetery, and as such attracted many protestant non-conformists, including General William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army. Its twentieth century history is the familiar tale of overcrowding, disuse and re-birth as a nature reserve, and today it’s a popular place for locals to stroll and walk their dogs.

We saw quite a variety of birds, including goldcrests, and heard woodpeckers calling. There were plenty of interesting memorials, but the light wasn’t especially kind to us until just as we were ready to leave.

We headed north and west through the heavily Orthodox Jewish area of Stamford Hill. The houses could be in any part of suburban London, but it felt quite exotic – people of this ethnic / religious group are uncommon in our area.

We joined the footpath by the New River near the West Reservoir, came out by the Castle Climbing Centre and meandered into Clissold Park, where we watched a dabchick furiously diving for food. It’s amazing how much time they can spend underwater.

Canoe Storage by the West Reservoir.

The light was going, and we had a concert to go to, so we cut west towards Islington, and down through Highbury Fields before a well-earned pint at the Cock Tavern at Highbury Corner.

All in all, it was a pleasant afternoon’s walk. We know we’ve barely scraped the surface of Hackney, and will surely be back to explore more fully, but I’m beginning to link up some of the areas of North London in my mind now.

See our route at bikely.com

The Kingdom by the Sea

“England, of course, resembles a pig, with something on its back. Look at it. It is a hurrying pig; its snout is the south-west in Wales, and its reaching trotters are Cornwall, and its rump is East Anglia. The whole of Britain looks like a witch riding on a pig, and these contours – rump and snout and bonnet, and the scowling face of Western Scotland – were my route.”

Paul Theroux The Kingdom by the Sea 1983.

Bedraggled ten-year-old t-shirt

In 1999, MM and I attempted the most clichéd journey in Britain – the End-to-End. We started at the ‘wrong’ end, John O’ Groats, planning to cycle to Cornwall in time for the Total Eclipse on August 11.

I say ‘planning’, but in reality, our plans were rather poor. I injured my knee on the first day, but we stupidly continued, making it worse day-by-day, until we had to bail out and take the train for large chunks of the route. We did get to see the Eclipse – well, as far as that was possible through the thick black clouds – but have always planned to go back and do the trip ‘properly’.

Carn Brea, Cornwall, England. August 1999.

So ten years on, we’re giving it another bash – starting at Land’s End this time. We haven’t got a date yet, and we’re yet to figure out routes, distances, time-frames etc, but it’ll almost certainly be soon after the end of MM’s summer term.

One thing is certain, we both need to get fit and make some proper weekend cycle trips before then.

Camden Crawl

There are London boroughs that are vast blank sheets of paper to me. Enfield, Redbridge, Bexley… I know virtually nothing about these areas, and almost any trip into them will be a completely new experience.

Then there are the boroughs and areas I know very well – the City, Southwark, Lewisham and so on. There, my challenge is to find pockets that I haven’t explored. I’m sure there are streets within a mile of my house that I’ve never walked down – Rob Winton’s blog on walking all the streets of SE23 is an object lesson in how much there is to discover in your local patch.

And then there’s Camden. Notoriously diverse, it stretches from Hampstead in the North via the gentility of Belsize Park and Primrose Hill, swirling through the chaos of Camden Town to Bloomsbury.

I know parts of Camden pretty well – MM works at Birkbeck, and I’ve had courses at Hampstead and at various locations in Bloomsbury, but the central swathe – including ‘Camden’ itself – I’ve skimmed by only briefly.

So for my Camden challenge, I took Birkbeck as my starting point, and headed north until I was half-tired, and then back south. I had no special sights in mind. No museums, cemeteries or nightspots. Just a winter afternoon stroll to make the missing links between places I knew.

See my route at bikely.com

I was in a mood to be distracted by minutiae – the patterns formed by drain covers, tiling, shop lettering, architectural details, urban decay and encroaching nature.

My memory card came home full of these (see my flickrset), along with the predictable Camden clichés – the Black Cat cigarette factory, the Roundhouse, numerous tat emporia, diverse graffiti, and…

Mornington Crescent.

Enfield Chase

Valentine’s Day – champagne, chocolates, a single perfect rose, candlelit dinner à deux – or a tube trip to Cockfosters to explore the London Borough of Enfield with Mondoagogo

No contest!

I know virtually nothing about Enfield, so this was a true voyage of discovery. Mondo suggested a visit to the Museum of Domestic Architecture and Forty Hall, and with no suggestions of our own, Molecule Man and I were happy to go along with this.

We took the Piccadilly Line to Cockfosters Station – a rather lovely synthesis of concrete and brick, with a Hopperesque diner.

A small parade of shops had a great array of lettering and signage – a bit of an obsession for all of us, while a potentially dull call centre along the main road redeemed itself with a graceful curve, making a surprisingly fetching photograph.

Cockfosters Call Centre

The entrance to the Museum of Domestic Architecture was slightly tricky to find, but this small museum is well worth a visit. One of the things I love about museums with a 20th Century emphasis is the potential to bring back memories – “my mum had one of those…” But my favourite photographs from the museum were abstracts of the fixtures of the museum itself.

Light at MODA

Next, we hopped on a double-decker to make the trip to Forty Hall – like something out of a Jane Austen novel transplanted into suburban North London. It boasted some wonderfully ugly carvings, and engaging displays of 20th century childhood pursuits, advertising ephemera, ceramics of variable quality and assorted kitschy tat.

Forty Hall

The Borough of Haringey was on our February Borough Challenge list, so we got a bus to Wood Green, changing at Enfield Town. It was a bit dark by the time we got there, so I’d like to go back for a more comprehensive photo-stroll, but I managed to grab a few shots of the tube station, and got mildly admonished for my pains by a London Transport employee.

Wood Green Tube Station

Finally, we got the tube back to Central London. Soho was heaving with romantically-inclined couples – we had entirely forgotten it was Valentine’s Night. We found a table at Café Em’s, decked out with primly closed daffodil buds and heart-shaped balloons with an unfortunate resemblance to comedy breasts.

So all in all, an interesting jaunt for Valentine’s Day – but I’m still waiting for my flowers and chocolate.

London Borough Challenge

One of my favorite flickr groups is London by Londoners. As its name implies, it is confined to those who live or have lived in London, and it attracts many of London’s best flickr photographers.

A recent discussion in the group suggested a challenge to photograph the 32 Boroughs of London and the City of London within the space of a year:

February – Camden, Haringey, Enfield
March – Islington, Hackney, Waltham Forest
April – Tower Hamlets, Newham, Redbridge
May – City, Barking, Havering
June – Greenwich, Bexley, Bromley
July – Southwark, Lewisham, Croydon
August – Lambeth, Merton, Sutton
September – Wandsworth, Kingston, Richmond
October – Hammersmith, Hounslow, Hillingdon
November – Kensington and Chelsea, Ealing, Harrow
December – Westminster, Brent, Barnet.

Disappointingly few have taken up the challenge, but I enjoy having a framework to encourage me to get up and explore parts of my city I’ve never seen. I may change the order around in coming months, but in February, I tackled Camden, Haringey and Enfield, and in March, I’ve visited Islington and Hackney and have a few more days to hit Waltham Forest.

I will be using this blog to chronicle my travels.

I hate this time of year

I don’t mind the cold. And although I hate long dark nights, they haven’t really begun to bite yet. And the autumn leaves look pretty.

What I hate is the plague of viruses that appears around now. No sooner do I get stuck into my 10% programme than I’m struck down with a cold. I’ve been incapable of doing much for the last week.

Before I really got bad I managed a swim – 20:39 for 800m. I think this is on the slow side for my current fitness, as I had the remains of a backache, which I’d got from trying a Body Combat class the previous week, and, as became apparent over the next few hours, the beginnings of this cold. But it gives me a target of 18:35. I’m hoping to do a bit better than that, though.

I’ve got my new shoes, and went out for a microminijog to try them out. They felt good, but I’ll have to wait till my cough goes to really put them through their paces. I’m slightly anxious about the running, as it’s now two weeks since I’ve been for a proper run.

The only compensation is that I lose my appetite when I get ill, which means that I’ve lost 1kg in the last week without making any effort. So less lard to lumber around, at least.

10% in 10 weeks?

I’m pleased to have got my first race under my belt. What next?

Well, I’m still a bit on the porky side, and I wasn’t exactly speedy. Unsurprising really, since when I signed up 3 weeks before the event, I’d never run the distance. It was also not a very fast course.

My swimming is also a bit lackadaisical. I know I can swim faster, if I get into the habit of going regularly. My cycling is by far my best discipline – lets leave that for the minute.

So: My aim is to improve by 10% in 10 weeks.

Diet
I dieted for about 3 months at the beginning of the year,. My weight has rebounded very slightly since then, though I’m still well within the “healthy” BMI range. So on Tuesday 16th September I was 73kg. A 10% loss would take me to 65.7kg, but I’m not too bothered if I don’t quite make that. I’m aiming for an average of 100g loss per day, but have lost a bit faster than that during the first two weeks. I’ve still got about 5kg to go to make the target.

Swimming
I think I need to do a bit more than pootle up and down the pool. I also need to get into the habit of going at least twice a week. I didn’t swim between February and July, though I’ve gone quite a few times since then. I found a helpful site (swim4fitness) which has 10-session programmes of varying intensity. I aim to do one relaxed swimming session per week, and one session following the part 3 fitness programme from that site.

I haven’t measured my baseline swim speed yet. I will measure it this week over 800m.

Running
I’ve ordered some new running shoes. Well, I think I have – I haven’t actually received a confirmation e-mail. The next couple of weeks, I just intend to keep the distance up, and to go for regular relaxed runs without my Garmin to put pressure on me.

Then I’m going to try the Runner’s World 8 week 3x per week 10K training plan, targeting a race at Worthing on December 6th. The plan includes all sorts of technical stuff such as interval running, tempo runs etc. If I find it’s too much I may switch to a simpler plan.

I’m targeting a 10% improvement on my Alice Holt race – that would be 56:41. The weight loss should help, but I’m also going to have to get fitter. It should be feasible – The Alice Holt race was only the third time I’d covered the distance, and was a pretty technical course.

Alice Holt 10K

My first “running only” race was on 14th September, at Alice Holt Forest, near Farnham.

It was advertised as an “off-road, multi-terrain undulating course”, and was pretty much as I expected – some small areas of mud and puddles, and narrowish paths, but mostly pretty good forest tracks with quite a bit of up-and-down (about 170m ascent and descent according to Bikely) but nothing to stop me in my tracks.

I cycled there from my sister’s house, and the back route I took was quite hilly, so I was a bit more “warmed up” (=knackered) than I intended.

I was a bit nervous when I saw how many club runners and proper fit people there were, and wondered whether I’d bitten off more than I could chew. I started right at the very back of the starting funnel, rather than in the middle of the crowd.

We were started off by a Town Crier, and the start was very slow and congested, but once the field had spread out a bit we got a bit of a move on.

I was pleased that I managed to run up the hills when others were walking, although my slow steady pace became a bit slower and less steady. I was quite knackered by the end, but did manage a bit of a dash for the line and finished in 1:02:59 (140th out of 188 women in the race). I was quite glad to hear more experienced runners describe it as a tough course.

Then ice cream and beer beckoned, and it would have seemed rude not to answer their calls.

My only major frustration is that my bastard Garmin 405 chose that day of all days to cut out, revert to factory settings and lose all my data, including all my heartrate and pace data from my first ever race.

Alice Holt Forest 10K

Share your bike routes @ Bikely.com

London Triathlon 2008 – sprint distance

The London Sprint Triathlon was yesterday: 750m swim, 21km bike, 5.2km run. The Excel Centre was quite a big, daunting venue for my first race of any kind, and my race was last on at 17:00.

It was a horrible day for it – persistent rain and  a bit of a wind. I’d managed a couple of swims in my wetsuit, and it was beginning to feel less like an alien lifeform engulfing me. I knew I could do the distance.

In the event, however, it wasn’t the distance, the wetsuit or the open water that bothered me it was complete inability to deal with swimming with so many people (over 300 in my wave).

I just couldn’t get any rhythm, with feet and arms and heads everywhere. So I panicked and hyperventilated. The unfamiliarity of the open water, and of my first race obviously contributed, but the main problem was swimming in a crowd.

Once I was away from other swimmers, I got into some rhythm, but every time I caught up with a group, I’d start to panic again and lose the plot. The kayak marshals were great, but I nearly gave up there and then. In the end, I completed the swim leg in over 28 minutes.

I walked slowly through transition 1, and used it to regroup, but felt much better once I was on my bike and starting to overtake people. I’d always known this would be my best discipline, and was reasonably pleased with my time of 46:29 in persistent rain and wind.

By the time I got to the run, I just decided to treat it as a jog in the park, and make sure I got home in one piece, without walking. It took me 31:37, and I finished in 1:55:23.

I felt pretty good afterwards, and just have slightly tired legs today. I’d do it again, but I’d try to pick an event with fewer competitors, and sort out my open water swimming, so that I have more in reserve to deal with the splashing crowds.

Long overdue update

I’m crap at blogging, aren’t I? I’ve got a few things I want to say, but I don’t want to make this post too long, so I’ll probably post again later.

I haven’t been as organised in my training as I intended, but I’ve been doing quite a bit of running and cycling. And, as you see, I have new running shoes. Now I must go and get them dirty.

I got out of the habit of swimming when my skin got really sore in the cold weather earlier this year. The chlorine and wetness seemed to make it much worse, and I haven’t got back into the habit since then. I intend to start swimming again this week. 750m is minimal in terms of distance, but I do need to work on my technique.

Likewise, I haven’t been keeping to a diet for a while now. My weight has been stable since I stopped dieting, but I should make a final push to lose this last half a stone – I’m sure it would help my fitness level.

In exciting personal news – I now have a niecelet to add to my collection of 5 nephews. Born at 4:17 this morning. My mother is delerious that she finally has a granddaughter.

Triathlon goals

State of play, end of February.

There have been a few disturbances to my intended schedule:

Firstly, my bike was stolen. This also affected my swimming, as the pool is at least a couple of miles away, with no easy public transport link. Having to walk there and back makes the exercise very time-consuming.

Secondly, I haven’t been very well in the second half of February. I had fairly severe skin soreness in the cold weather, followed by stomach upsets, apparently caused by coffee intolerance, followed by caffeine withdrawal headaches when I tried to sort that out. Ho hum.

Taking this into account, I’m reasonably happy with where I’ve got to so far:

Running:
Have run max of 45 minutes continuously. Have run two or three times per week. Can run 5km in 32:48 at comfortable speed (measured a couple of weeks ago before I got poorly).

Swimming:
Have swum < two times per week on average. Have recently suffered a bout of very sore, dry skin, and haven’t wanted to risk the chlorine followed by a walk home in the cold.

Can easily swim 750m in front crawl. Can swim 30s lengths for couple of lengths, but I have to slow down a bit to swim 750m.

SPL (average): 22

SPL (minimum): 17

Cycling:
Was cycling until my bike got stolen. Have just received my new bike, and bought a cycle computer to log progress.

Diet:
Have averaged 1660 kcal per day since 21st January. Have lost 6.2kg since that date. Am now within “healthy” range, but I need to lose quite a lot more to be race fit.

General health and fitness:
Quite good until the last couple of weeks. No migraines or fainting. No colds or flu.

Done masses of walking (well, with no bike, I have little choice).

My arms and legs are becoming noticeably more toned, but I have no abs to speak of.

Goals for March:

Running:
Run 3x per week (2 short, 1 long, or 1 short, 1 medium, 1 long). Increase duration of long run conservatively. Be able to run 60 minutes continuously by 31st March. Try to include some gentle speedwork on some of the shorter runs.

Maybe buy some new running shoes. I’m currently running in *ahem* “Aldi Technical Jogging Shoes”. They don’t seem to have caused me any problem, and I’m not sure whether the whole running shoe industry is largely a con, but since I’ll be increasing my volume of running, it might be better to be safe than sorry.

Swimming:
Swim 3x per week. Make one of these a 1-hour session. Try to get to pool a bit earlier to maximise lane-swimming time. Incorporate drills, rather than just ploughing up and down. Aim to reduce SPL. Visit Command Baths (50m pool) when I go home.

Cycling:
Ride regularly, now that I have a bike again. Try to get at least one long ride in per week. Do a bit of Fartlek. Get gear to build racing wheels onto my MA2s.

Diet:
Continue on 1600-1700kcal per day if possible. Aim to lose 3kg in the month.

General:
I really should try to do some core exercises and stretching. And limit the coffee.

In at the deep end

Downham swimming pool

Originally uploaded by Cllr Chris Best

I went swimming for the first time today. Downham Leisure Centre and Library was only completed under a year ago, and as a result, is as clean and modern as a public pool is likely to be.

The pool wasn’t busy, and I had a lane entirely to myself. I was happy to find I could swim faster and further than I had thought I’d be able to after such a long lay-off. I swam for slightly over half an hour with rests, and managed 45 lengths of mixed breaststroke and crawl, which aint bad for a first time in over seven years. It felt good, but I’m feeling quite tired and a bit achey now.

My only real problem was that my swimsuit was slightly loose. I dove in and almost dove out. Need to sort that out fairly promptly.

I spoke to a chap at the centre about joining to use the gym. I told him that I was doing the triathlon, and he couldn’t seem to get his head round the fact that I wasn’t interested in treadmills, stationary bikes or spinning classes. I can get all the running and cycling I need outside, without feeling that I’m on a hamster wheel.

What a gym and classes might be useful for is focussed strength training and flexibility exercises, building core stability, adding variety and bringing my training together. I’ve done a very small amount of gym work before. I didn’t exactly find it unpleasant but so-o-o-o-o boring. I’ve never done a class, but I can see how the regular discipline of a class could be helpful.

I might consider joining later in the year, but I’m not sure that I need it yet. Fitting in workouts for all three disciplines is challenging enough for the moment, so I’ll wait until I’m accustomed to that before taking on any more.

Change of plan

No swimming today.

I got engrossed in the Roddick-Kohlschreiber match, the best match of the Ozzy Open so far, and it was past three when it ended, and the swimming pool would have been full of schoolkids by the time I got there.

I did, however go to the Pool. The Pool River, that is, along the stretch between Catford and Bell Green, where I had a nice little run.

Must. Swim. Monday.

Swimming pools

Swimming kit, ready for the terrifying plunge

I love swimming. I really do. I like the shock of the cold water as I dive in, the way that I cut through the water, feeling the power and symmetry of my body.

I have the perfect tall, broad-shouldered, long-limbed frame for the sport, and a few spare pounds don’t impact on my ability in the same way they do in cycling or running. So why haven’t I swum for over 7 years?

Two words: swimming pools.

Yeuch. I hate the mingled smell of stale sweat, cosmetics and cleaning fluid, the distorted, echoing sounds, the slightly slimey feel of the tiles beneath my feet, the thought of the countless children who have peed in the pool, the lines round my eyes from the suction of my goggles, the chlorine making my eyes smart, my hair turn to straw, my skin to paper.

I feel exposed walking from the changing room to the pool in a swimsuit that compresses my breasts into some sort of bizarre monoboob, and equally awkward when shivering in the lukewarm communal showers.

I despise the little old ladies, and even youngish ones, swimming sedately up and down, sometimes chatting to their neighbours, in a waft of perfume and lipstick, gamely keeping their heads safely clear of the water. I loathe the show-off who insists in swimming speedy backstroke in an overcrowded session, forcing other swimmers to take evasive action, and I despair of anyone who is unable to work out the appropriate lane to swim in.

But just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water…

Running because I want to.

It’s no part of my plan to run on consecutive days, at least not until I’m a lot fitter, but I just felt like a run today, so I did.

It should work out quite well in a way, as I’ve got to cycle into town and back tomorrow, and then I could try for my first swim on Friday, if I’m feeling brave. I really don’t want to swim at the weekend.

Triathlon training plans

I have 207 days, or nearly 30 weeks until the race. I don’t expect to record a spectacular time, but I don’t want to be struggling home in the last few. I wasn’t very well at the end of last year and haven’t exercised at all since October, so I’m starting from a low level of fitness.

Last year there were 602 entrants and 585 finishers. If I can complete the course in under 2 hours, I will be among the main pack, rather than the stragglers.

Finishing times in the 2007 London Triathlon

30 weeks should be plenty of time, but I’ve started looking at a few triathlon training plans, and they’re quite bewildering in their variety, although similar in fundamentals. The ones I’ve looked at have varied from 8 -20 weeks in duration. I fancy leaving it as late as possible before getting locked into a program that will make me anxious if I deviate much from it, so I’ll probably be opting for a very short program, but I want to be as fit as possible when I start it.

In the short term, I guess that my goals are to get back to a reasonable level of fitness, to lose some weight and to get to the point where I can comfortably do the distance for each individual discpline.

Current state and short-term goals:

Swimming: I haven’t swum since summer 2000, but used to be quite good. Short term aim: swim 750m without breaks by end of February.

Plan: Join local pool, try to swim 3 x per week.

Cycling: I cycled for first time since October last Thursday, and have cycled twice more since then. It has been satisfyingly easy to get back into, and I have no doubt I could do 20km without breaks already. My spuds broke last autumn, and I’m using toe-clips, but I really want to get back into cleats.

Plan: use cycling as default mode of transport, get new pedals.

Running: I ran for first time for 6 months last Friday, and again today. I’m taking it slowly, as I think this is the discipline in which it would be easiest to injure myself if I try too much too soon. Assuming that the swim goes to plan, I’m fairly sure that running will be my weakest discipline, but as the last leg, I don’t need to leave anything in the tank at the end of it.

Plan: Gradually increase duration of run and eliminate walk breaks until I can run about 35 minutes without breaks by end of February. Try to run 3 x per week.

Weight: I’m fat.

Plan: Try to eat sensibly, a bit less, and at more regular times. Cut out sweets. Only drink at weekends, and not too much. Aim to lose 3 kg by end of February.

Elmley Marshes

Yesterday, we went to Elmley Marshes to look at birds, which involved about 17 miles cycling and a fair amount of walking.

The last leg of the ride to the reserve was down a semi-made-up track, and required quite a lot of care. So it wasn’t particularly energy-sapping, but it was tough on the hands and arms, and by the end of it, my backside felt like an endangered species, although there appears to be plenty of it.

It was a beautiful day, and we saw all sorts of birds, but the highlight was a short-eared owl, hunting among the long grasses and reeds, just before twilight. Then it settled on a post, and one of the other birders trained a spotting scope on it, and gave us a look. It was really a splendid bird, and so clear and easy to see with the scope. It made me hanker after a spotting scope, but I guess it’s too early to start making up this year’s Christmas wishlist already.

View from one of the hides at Elmley

So an enjoyable, if tiring day, but marred at the end by my neighbours’ decision to throw a party, in a terraced house, with a DJ and bass cranked up until it caused the pictures on my wall to vibrate, even in the rear wing of my house that has no party wall with their house. The music went on until about 4:30 this morning, and pretty much wiped out today for both Molecule Man and myself. Bastards.

Oh shit.

What possessed me? I have committed myself to half a year of pain. I’m not sure I can do this. I could do each leg in isolation, but in quick succession? I must be out of my mind.

Did I mention that I haven’t swum since summer 2000?