Green!

Morning runs are ace aren't they! Especially if its nice weather. OK, only if its nice weather. If its raining and there is a howling wind then its crap and horrible and I'd rather eat a pack of digestives and drink tea.

However this morning was a gorgeous - I know, 6 days in a row! - morning and I had the forest to myself save for an early dog walker and a couple rabbits. Felt good most of the way round but a tendency to go too fast needs to be curbed. That's not me being cocky by the way, it just means I run out of steam and die much sooner than if I use a slower pace.

Incidentally, if you think I've been touching up the recent photos and over saturating? Nope, thats just how Deeside looks this time of year. Its so green its weird. Its so green that you pray for some other colour just to break it up. Its so green you could spend a week counting all the different shades and only be a 100th of the way through the possibilities.

Hoping tomorrow is a nice day as have to get some time on the bike in after work!

There be Giants....

Glorious ride in this morning! Really strong headwind coming from the south made it a harder affair than normal but its still a stunning route to begin your day and never fails to get me in a better mood. No sign of the knee problem thats been popping its head up on the last few rides either but perhaps the rest over the weekend (well, lack of beasting myself) has had a bit to do with it. The rest of the day was a curious mix of frenetic activity in the workshop juxtaposed with near comatose states induced by heat.

Tonight I've done 45 minutes with my weights and them some yoga and eaten half a Baklava which immediately undid any good from today.

I also have a new bike....unfortunately for me I'm not allowed on it till September (21st to be precise) to mark my passing into the Vets category. Eek! Anyway, here he is...

Rock Shox Reba SL 120mm travel fork with Fox Float R rear shock,  XT Shadow rear derailleur, Hayes Stroker Ryde d/b, Race Face Ride XC chain set. I'll be sticking on a better set of wheels and tyres but other than that leaving it be.  Its a 2009 model (which is twice the spec of the rather disappointing 2010 model) and bought it off a mate - its immaculate. Soooo I can get on the slightly more technical stuff now. I'm still going to crash and die so I'm prepping Bob the hardtail who's getting new light 100mm travel forks for when I cry like a gurl and go back to singletrack and fire roads :).

Finally, and I know I've been banging on about them for ages now - but if you haven't heard of The Leisure Society - take a few minutes and listen to the below. I don't think I've fallen in love with a sound so much since The Eels.

Stonehaven

Today we headed to the coast and spent the afternoon in Stonehaven at the international market and the beach. I love Stonehaven - its so unlike many of the east coast fishing villages. Its had its fair share of misery and problems with unemployment etc but its still a gorgeous place.

We toured the market first for lunch, Jnr buying cheese (in french!) and Nick and I both had a pot each of giant gambas pan fried right there in front of us in garlic olive oil. We finished off our picnic with a pot of green olives stuffed with sun dried tomatoes and some baklava - all eaten on the beach in 25 deg C.

 

Tonight we've had a very enjoyable evening at Bike Boss's - BBQ, tarte flambée, wine, tales, chocolate and a pavlova to die for courtesy of Mrs Bike Boss ...

This week I need to do some work to shift this weekends excesses :)

Chillin'

Its been 25 deg C today so chillin' is exactly what I've been doing this late afternoon. Been a busy few days and I've got some great rides in but it was a swim & run day today. Stopped by the river after my run this afternoon and sat for a (long) while soaking up the rays and listening to my band of the moment - The Leisure Society. Its been a fab day off and I really hope the sunshine continues!

Sports Day

As any parent will know, Sports Day is the culmination of a years training for your child. The tears, the tantrums, the copious amounts of chocolate as bribes...everything comes together on one, usually baltic, day in June.

Today was Robert Gordon's College Sports Day - the first for Mr H Jnr. He's gifted with brains but no evident athletic prowess and the attention span of a gnat so when a diesel ride on mower drove past on the playing fields at Countesswells, guess where Jnrs attentions were diverted to. It was only the presence of a certain young Italian lady (Bella Angela - spotty jacket in top photo) that kept him from wandering off to investigate. But he's game for everything and we're hugely proud of him and his efforts today. At 4, its all about having a good time. Next year he's in P1 and its all change with like, stress and stuff and homewurk for, like ever...

Anyway - some photos of him in action.

Hurdles - the leap

The fast turn (note hair)

and head down for the sprint to the finish!

A small smile passes over our athletes face as he realises his rival's (in sack race, and love...) race is over
.....

"Look at me, I've got a small yellow sack on my head and a slightly manic (but lovely) teacher behind me but I'm still cool enough to wave at my parents"

We whipped butt in the egg and spoon race and all enjoyed lashings of mini pork sausages and organic apple juice for lunch after which I left for a double cream mocha with my mate in Aberdeen and then returned to a much warmer Banchory to pick up the bike and get some more miles in. Tonight I felt strong (despite a howling side wind that threatened to blow me off the bike as I passed gaps in walls/hedges/fences. I warmed up for 3 miles and then got down on the drops, gritted my teeth and and smashed my previous 10 mile time. Woo and indeed ya frikkin' hoo! An easy 5 miles cool down saw me home and happily stuffing my face with rhubarb crumble.

Ace day :)

I love the smell of Evolv in the evening..

Tonight we hit the wall. N and I were, again, appallingly bad but both managed a grade harder than we did last week which is um.... promising. However I have to admit that we also both  failed miserably on a pink route. Pink! of all things. I mean if you're going to fail on a route on an indoor wall, at least let it be stone or grey or those weird swirly green and red ones that make my eyes go funny. Pink is like just saying 'yeah, I failed on a girls route'.


But the big news of tonight is that James, who screamed the place down last week while roped up, has come out as a Boulderer. After initial tantrum and begging on hands and knees 'pleeeeease mummy and daddy, noooooooooooo' - at which point the WHOLE wall looked at us like we were trying to kill him - we took off his helmet and harness. It was at this point that he shot off towards the warm up board and began to work his new project. NB Yes I know all parents think their child is ace and equally any non-parents reading this will think' oh lord, another smug parent'.


James working project from Jo Horne on Vimeo.


Anyhoo hurrah! Thats one less that Trad has claimed and one less pair of red ramblers socks I have to wash :) Now if I can just convince N to ditch his harness, I can get back to bouldering :)

Cav crash

Right or wrong - and I'll leave the press and investigating bodies to decide that... but you just know that's going to hurt like hell.....still it seems like he got off luckier than some.



Nothing exciting to report today. Its been good, busy and a nice easy ride in this morning at recovery pace. 10 miles, 510ft ascent.

Bricks 'n' Rain 'n' Flapjacks

Today has been a rainy, windy, bloody awful day. However little oddments of joyfulness have interspersed themselves throughout the day to make it much less grey than it could have been. The first was coffee and laughs with Bike Boss, Molly and Bike Boss Wife who arrived early this morning on their way to get some stuff from the caravan shop for their impending and annual trip to follow Le Tour.

The second was making flapjacks (recipe at bottom of page) and cupcakes with Jnr as N taught Bike Boss son to weld so got to ogle N in boilersuit too... and the third was managing my first official Brick (Bike before run) session without dying. I did go into suspected cardiac arrest at least five times but I survived and am now feeling pleased with self - less for the effort and more for the fact that despite feeling like I just want to sleep 24 hours a day (new meds), I got out.

So a 40 min cycle at av 79% (aerobic capacity and endurance zone) followed by a 20 minute run at av 88% (I'm going to effing DIE/simulate race pace) The cycling was ok (av speed up hurrah and most definitely getting the hang of high cadence stuff!) as was um...55% of the running as I chose to abandon the track for offroad through the woods which is much nicer on my poor old ankles. So post session analysis? I've a shed load of work to do...

But enough of this exercise malarkey and back to the flapjacks.....

Apricot and Raisin Flapjacks

• 115g (4oz) sunflower spread
• 115g (4oz) golden syrup
• 55g (2oz) soft brown sugar
• 175g (6oz) rolled oats
• 55g (2oz) dessicated coconut
• 55g (2oz) dried apricots, chopped
• 55g (2oz) raisins

1. Grease an 18cm (7") square shallow tin.
2. Melt the sunflower spread, syrup and sugar together in a saucepan, stirring until the sugar has dissolved.
3. Stir in the rolled oats, desiccated coconut, apricots and raisins.
4. Spread the mixture in the prepared tin and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180ºC(160C if its a fan oven)/350ºF/gas mark 4 for 30-35 mins.
5. Cut into 16 pieces and leave in tin until cold.

I'm on my third :) Which is ok as starting tomorrow, Saturdays are the only days that cake or biscuit or mouth wateringly magical bacon rolls from the Cairn Gourmet or roast chickens with crusty bread - you get the idea - will pass my lips.....

A Day of Two Halves

Day off today so Sue and I took off on our mountain bikes through the forests and up and around Scolty/Gouach/Trustach hills. Rained a bit, but mostly warm and was great to be in t shirt and shorts again after the past couple weeks of really rubbish weather. I was fairly pleased with how I went on the hills - the mileage is paying off. Came a cropper only once on a technical section but that's fine because I'm not a technical rider :) It was a great ride, we righted the world on the firetracks and burnt off some angst on the singletrack and long climbs. Fantastic views from the top over to Lochnagar and Clach na Beinn. A great afternoon to finish off an otherwise crap day.

2hrs 52 mins, 19.53 miles (inc ride home) with 1961ft of ascent.

Sue (above) at the start, and the interesting bit of our afternoon (below)

On being rubbish

This morning I took the hardtail into work along the trail as it had stopped raining! Route was 70% mud fest though. I left it at work tonight and got a lift into town with Bike Boss Son tonight as my friend Sue and I are heading off into the hills on our bikes tomorrow (its my day off) from Banchory. It was a really lovely ride this morning, unhurried but keeping HR and cadence up. I'm almost convinced that my 'staff bike' next year will be a new mountain bike. I'm almost convinced its going to be a Cube or Merida and I'm positive its going to be a hardtail.....

Bike Boss came off his bike today and is now a mess of road rash. Nasty, really nasty......the bike is ok though. One slightly scuffed lever (Ultegra) and one slightly scraped saddle. Its quite amazing really as they were sprinting around 30 - 35 mph when it happened but C reckons Bike Boss's body took the impact instead of the bike. First crash on road bike in 37 years (many on mountain bike though..) and it could have been a lot worse.

Tonight N, Jnr and I went to the (climbing) wall for the first time in aaaages. Needless to say we were rubbish and stuck to the easy routes but I am pleased that I did don a harness and not freak out  (I'm a boulderer at heart) and I did 7 routes in the 90 minutes we were there. I also really enjoyed it (more than I expected since I've had no hankerings at all to return to the vertical world) and my elbows didn't pop out again. N is up for this being a regular Thursday evening event hurrah! Jnr might take some convincing though...

Wet

It has done nothing but rain today. It was raining when I got up, it rained when I cycled into work, it rained while we sat staring out the shop windows at people getting very wet, it rained while Bike Boss and C faffed over their profile for the Cape Epic (they won a place in the 2011 race in the Cape Epic lottery!), it rained while we fixed bikes, it rained while we sat eating biscuits and it rained while I battled grimly against a wind so strong I even had to pedal downhill on the way home.

Stage 4, Cape Epic 2010...(jealous? moi?)

20 very wet miles (32 soggy km). My thighs hurt, I look like a bedraggled cat that's been hauled through a hedge backwards and then left out in the rain, and I've eaten for Scotland today. I'm now staring out the window at walls of water cascading off the roof and praying its stopped by tomorrow mornings pre-work workout.

In the meantime, I'm hugging my bottle of Kräuterlikör and diving into a bath with a copy of Men-in-Tri-suits Monthly....

Run rabbit run....

After a reminder that I'd volunteered to run the Aberdeen to Stonehaven leg of the now under-way Round Britain Coastal Relay I thought it best (despite the fact I'm not supposed to run anymore*) to get some practice in as I am due to complete said leg on or around Sunday July 4th. So 3 miles trail run tonight (I haven't run in quite a while so thought it best to start short!) followed by a lot of stretching. I felt OK and didn't have to stop, so I think the cycling has at least kept my muscles and aerobic capacity in some sort of compatible state. Actually, I'd go further than saying it was OK and admit to loving feeling the rhythmic pounding of my feet upon the earth again. Whether my thighs and ankles still love it tomorrow morning is another question!

Last week was all about shoving in steady mileage on the roadie and an unofficial TT on Saturday before work to end the week. I didn't end up going to Fort William for various reasons I'm not going in to on here, so I had a lazy but enjoyable Sunday with N and Jnr. In retrospect I'm kinda glad I didn't go to F/W as I needed the rest. So instead we shopped unsuccessfully for open water goggles for me, successfully shopped for stuff for N in the Apple shop which reminded us we were old and not cool enough to even stand in the doorway, met an old friend and his new baby further down the coast, chased ducks, ate Swiss roll in front of the log fire, drank German herbal liqueur (continuing my quest to find a reasonable equivalent of Hierbas which isn't available over here), watched Fast and the Furious and yapped well into the wee small hours. Bloody well perfect lazy Sunday if you ask me :)

Oooh yes, I have new wheels too! Light with bearings so smooth it makes your heart sing. They're responsive and just lovely. I had previously doubted people when they said the biggest improvement you can make on a bike is by putting on a set of lighter wheels but holy cow! What a difference! Still have to pedal the thing  though eh ;)

The veg is coming on well. I'm impatiently awaiting the first crop of spinach though - it seems to be taking an age - but the tomatoes are flowering and the first buds have appeared on the peppers. I've moved everything into the greenhouse as we're over-run with rabbits this year. Its the first time I've seen this many - many twenty or more of them nibbling away on the lawn on the mornings. Its very cute but it does mean any veg grown outside is fair game. If I were more of a man (?) I'd pop some off from the bedroom window of a morning but I'm not, and the only other person man enough to do it isn't interested in anything other than his double espresso until about 8am by which time all our wee Thumpers have legged it into the lush green barley fields surrounding us.

*Apparently - due to a medical history peppered with multiple fractures of my ankles and feet, combined with a (in retrospect) damn stupid impatience which saw me removing my own casts most times well before the allotted healing time -  my ankle and feet bones have not healed in the correct places and this has been causing the pain and difficulty in walking after running. I was offered surgery to re-break and set the bones in ankles/feet but as the time-in-plaster was given as 4 MONTHS per ankle/foot, I politely refused. 8 whole MONTHS without cycling or walking in the hills or running or anything? I made the seemingly simple choice to switch from running to cycling. Was going fine too until I got the reminder about the relay which forced me to don my shorts and try to ignore the excited buzz as I laced up my trainers.....

Well that's about it for now, off to put Jnr to bed and look out the rain jacket for tomorrows cycle in and out, yup summer's here again.....A Bientot ma petits Filous!