Our anniversary trip away to Peebles today, so a lovely ride with Emma out of Cardrona, through Peebles, out to Stobo, Drumelzier, and back again, after a bit of a detour for lunch, and a trek through a very muddy path. More like a cycle-cross route, to be honest.
The cycle was 60K – a great ride, with lovely scenery, nice weather, and a decent tailwind for the route home.
Just a commute to work today:
But then, when I got home, the sun came out so we had chance to go to Fife for Emma’s first run out on the new bike. She was expecting to just cycle to Tayport, so a run out to Leuchars and back was a bit more than she had thought, but she was fine!
Emma goes to a running club on a Tuesday – it’s for newcomers to running, organised by Dundee Sweatshop. This week the kids are away, so I went with. I’d predicted a very gentle run, as no-one there was predicting anything quicker than 5:30/km, but at the last minute a guy called Bill turned up – he turns out to be a running coach, and a 1:20 half marathon runner. So, I was stretched out by him after the first 2K:
My quads were tight from the cycle, but I kept it up. Without the 30 seconds waiting at the traffic lights both ways, I would have done a pretty respectable time. More running sessions required to be able to dip under 20 minutes again. Ankle didn’t give me any issue, thankfully.
Jane Tomlinson died in 2007 having raised £1.85 for cancer research. She was from Wakefield originally; her family still live there, and they continue her fund raising efforts. Although Jane was known for her running, she was a keen swimmer also, so the Jane Tomlinson appeal now organises a Swim For All in Pugney’s lake, near Wakefield. I registered to do the 1 mile swim, and registered Emma to do the 500m swim.
Emma had never done an open water swim before, not even a practice swim in her wetsuit.
She did very well – 16th out of 50 entrants to the race. She managed the first 1/3 doing crawl, but the cold got to her face, and she reverted to breast stroke. Still, she finished, without stopping, and was the 8th fastest female.
My swim went well – usual steady start from me with everyone thrashing off like mad things. I kept my line, and made it to the first buoy in the top half. Round the first bend, and onto the end of the lake I overtook maybe a dozen swimmers, and pushed on for a pretty good finish – 25:27 on my own watch to the finish line, 26:29 to get to the timing mat 100m further on. The reeds/weeds were a particular nightmare for the last 1/3 of the race, but other than that, it was nice and warm (19 degrees), not too much fighting for space, and it went well.
One thing is that I seem to have one pace – I felt as though I could have swum the same pace for another mile, but when I tried to pick up the pace I could lengthen out, and slow my SPM, but kept the same pace with less effort, rather than speeding up. I shouldn’t worry, really – 33rd out of 318 isn’t bad, given my short experience with swimming.
Loch Ness swim in August to come.
Down in South Milford with Mother. Forgot my Garmin, so can’t link to the GPS data. Having returned from Cambridge, Emma and I decided to go for a cheeky wee run around the South Milford block. The lap was 1.2 miles, we think.
Lap 1 – with Emma – 10:33
Lap 2 – with Emma – 10.09
Lap 3 – just me – 6.58
Lap 4 – just me – 7.38
Lap 5 – just me – 7.31
I need to work on my pacing – without the Garmin, I set off too quickly once Emma dropped out, and wasn’t able to sustain it. Nice run, though. Sunny, in Englandshire.
Jane Tomlinson Swim-For-All tomorrow morning in Pugney’s lake; Emma’s first ever open water swim, and my third 11 mile race of the year.
