My first trip to Whites Level - Mountain Biking at Glyncorrwg (Afan Argoed)

Today I was supposed to rent a car to go see my sister who lives in Oxford, I was supposed to help her move, and I was supposed to pick things up from Oxford and bring them back to Cardiff.  But when I woke up the sun was out, and the weather was supposed to get up to the high 50's (8 degrees C), and my brewer half and friends were all headed to Whites Level for a morning of mountain biking.  I called my sister at 7:30am to see if we could reschedule, and when she didn't answer (probably due to sleeping) I assumed she was okay with my change of plans and I packed my bike and jumped in the car to Glyncorrwg!

The initial ascent was closed due to forest things, but after treking my bike up a hill I was back on the trails.  It was a truly stunning day!

Dave says "look, blue sky!"

I was a bit nervous on the single track because I had never been before and I was by myself - I try not to slow the boys down when they are biking and I am very slow on the ascents so I usually just head off before them and then let them pass me.  Whites level seemed a bit more technical than Y Wal - mostly because of the stones and pebbly bits.  I'm just figuring out how to ride over roots, riding over stones is a whole different story.  

Here's me looking happy and pale and with my eyes shut after the final ascent:

Then we hit the descents together. It's well noted that I love Y Wal - but Whites level is a serious contender.  It had a bit of everything - some steep, some fast, some flow-y, some rocks.  It even had some awesome boardwalk bits!

(I stole this picture from the internet)

Whites level had something for everyone.  I've never been anywhere that was so custom built for mountain bikers.  The final descent was the best I've ever done - straight across the side of a mountain, looking over the beautiful Welsh valleys.  I felt like I was roaring down but Strava tells me it was 10mph - I'm sure I will go even quicker next time.

I managed the whole trail without any crashes today, which would possibly indicate I'm not pushing myself enough.  There was one bit that I didn't like - too many rocks and I couldn't see my line (line = the path I'll cycle to not fall off) but instead of slowing down I pedaled faster and made it over without any problems.  

As a wise man once said "If in doubt, go flat out!"

Today I watched this same wise man take the trail without working back brakes.  He went flat out.

Then he got to the bottom and tried to do a wheelie.  You can't do a wheelie without a back brake.  He ended up flat out... on the ground. We all laughed.

All in all another excellent day at Afan!  And I'm sure my most loveliest sister (who also is my blog editor), will understand a Californian in Wales's need to be outside on a bike when the sun is out!

Ben is top 50 on Strava now for the final descent. Nailed it!

Pile on the Miles - Running for April!

So far this week I have been a terrible exercise blogger, but an excellent exercise person!

I've been toying with the idea of doing monthly totals for bike and running, but havent yet done so because I don't Strava all my rides (like commuter miles) and I don't Strava treadmill miles (which are rare, but count).  I cycle to work daily which is 6 miles roundtrip, 30 miles a week, but it's nothing compared to actual training.

My total miles run in March was 17.

This was not good enough.  So this month, I'm going to see how many miles I can rack up.  This is part of step 1 for being a better runner: run more.

On Wednesday I woke up at 6:30am, and went for a very painful hour long run (painful because it was 6:30am, and painful because it's hard to run for an hour!)  I managed 5 miles

Today after work I went for another hour run, and this time managed 5.5 miles in that same time.

CURRENT RUNNING GOALS:

5k in 27 minutes

10k in under an hour

finish a half marathon in October

I'm realizing more and more that I can't do everything - I'm running now and doing a fair amount of gym time as well (twice this week and again tomorrow!) but I haven't been on the road bike in ages.  The weather has really knocked my interest in cycling - it's windy and cold and the idea of pedaling behind people in a line up busy roads sounds so awful that I havent even tried for weeks.

The last Ajax ride (long cycle) I did was February 24th - I guess that's only 6 weeks but it feels like ages.  Racing season has started and I'm already fearing my next attempt to gasp my way through a steady ride... because I haven't kept it up.

Strava doesn't lie - this winter has hit my endurance activity levels hard:

Now granted this graph aggregates cycling and running, and all my miles for April have been running, but still - i need to be aiming for September totals (241 miles), not January (62.7)

So here's hoping the weather gets good, the bike gets out, and the running gets easier! Wish me luck as I pile on the miles this month :-)

Cosy Club Cardiff: Restaurant Review (or: Best Brunch in Cardiff?)

On Good Friday the Brewer half and I decided to use our day off wisely - by going out for brunch.  After five years of living in Portland, Oregon (where young people go to retire) I had gotten accustomed to delicious brunches at my fingertips.  Wholegrain pancakes, fluffy veggie scrambles, and all sorts of delicious day-starters. In the UK I have discovered the fry-up and the bacon butty are the standard breakfast treats.  The quality of a breakfast is usually judged only by size and price, lots of food for less money is a common theme on Tripadvisor reviews.  But I was not to be deterred in my search for a delicious brunch in the UK...

Cosy Club opened in November 2012, and is a pretty unique venue in Cardiff city centre.  They serve good beers (Tiny Rebel!) and good food as well as maintaining a pretty quirky atmosphere.   

It was fairly quiet when we arrived at 10am on Friday.  The staff were nice and we had a lovely seat by the window.  I had checked our the menu the night before and knew what I was ordering (have I mentioned I LOVE food?) but there were plenty of options for the undecided.

I started with a latte, Brewer Half had an americano

I ordered the Cosy Eggs (£6.50) - or Eggs Royal as they are often called.  I've been craving eggs Benedict ever since my weekend in Bath and the amazing eggs Benedict I had at Wild Cafe.  Twenty minutes later I was served this delicious dish:

The eggs were perfectly poached - runny in the middle but fully cooked white.  They did not skimp at all on the salmon, there was loads and it was nice and soft, not stringy at all.  The hollandaise sauce was delicious, more buttery then lemon-y but still creamy and thick.  The cracked pepper on top was a very nice touch. The only disappointment was that the hollandaise was somewhat cold, as was the English muffin.  I'm not sure if it was prepared cold or had just sat a bit before being brought out to me, otherwise it was only a minor flaw in an otherwise delicious dish.

Brewer half ordered the Cosy Breakfast (£7.50), which came as described:

He had no quibbles, to me an English breakfast had only 2 variations: good and bad. This was certainly one of the best I've seen.  Everything looked tasty, nice thick cuts of bread, cute pot of beans, chunky streaky bacon.

I loved my breakfast at Cosy Club.  The price was good for brunch, under £18 for the two of us.  The staff were friendly and attentive, the food was served quickly (but not too quickly) and the quality was superb.  I will certainly return to Cosy Club soon - would love to try their dinners!

Here's another picture of those tasty tasty eggs:

Cosy Club

St. Davids 2

Cardiff

CF10 2LE

02920 225998

Swim Session with Cardiff Tri

On Sunday I swam with the Cardiff Triathletes.  They do 3 swim sessions a week, and I make it about once a month.  Each session is different, some focus on speed, others on endurance, but I mostly focus on two things - moving forward and not drowning.

(This is me swimming in Morocco.  Not sure what stroke I can do in 2 inches water)

I used to swim a fair amount - its one of the perks of growing up in California. I was on swim team as a kid and a lifeguard in college.  Swimming is something I generally enjoy and was one of the things I looked forward to in triathlon...

... Until the fateful thursday.  It was about two weeks back, I'm not sure what the problem was, but I was not swimming well. I was gasping and getting "dropped" and everyone was swimming fast and I was swimming slow.  I was trying to go faster and I was getting side cramps and my stomach was hurting and suddenly...

... I did not feel good.  I was half way down the pool and had visions of one fateful day on swim team  when we were all doing laps, and we saw one of the boys stop swimming, and we saw him look around, and then he opened his mouth and spewed chunks of cheerios and milk all over the pool.  I remember watching those cheerios sink and the milk float and the boy cry and thinking... gross.

So with that vision, I realized I was going to be that boy in a second.  And i jumped out of the pool, beelined for the girls toilets, and I'll spare you the details but it was... gross.

(Cat is not me, but my story was gross and cat is funny)

After that I decided never to go swimming again, but at parkrun I met one of the triathletes and as we chatted he encouraged me not to give up.  With those words of encouragement I hit the pool again on Sunday and I did exactly what I hoped to do - swim for an hour and not give up.  I was in the slowest lane and only did 1.25 miles, but I'm not afraid to go back anymore and I'm even looking forward to the next session.

It just goes to show that if you don't give up on things you're moderately bad at, then you'll never stay moderately bad at them!

I'm rubbish at inspiration.  Here's a photo instead:

Parkrun Cardiff - My 6th Parkrun!

This morning I woke up at 7:45 (on a SATURDAY) for another Cardiff Parkrun.  I felt pretty good going into it - but I hadn't run in about 2 weeks... (HOW DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING?)

It was cold and not raining!  And the sun was out!  It was still shockingly frigid - especially for March - but I lined up and and took off my jacket and pretended to not notice that it was only 3 degrees.

When the group started to move I saw the guy who dropped me (Mr. Red Shirt) on my first ever parkrun after kilometer 1 and decided to follow him for a while.  We did the first k together and then I decided to move a bit quicker and got on the tail of a girl in pink. Mr. Red Shirt did pass me again on mile 3, but I'm pretty sure he was less than 20 seconds ahead of me by the end.

One of the things I like about Parkrun is that I can find people I think/wish I run like and follow them.  I used to find I was around people who I thought I should be faster than - now I'm around people I feel quite equally matched to. The other interesting thing I've noticed is that skinny girls don't alway run fast, and chunkier blokes don't always run slow.  Runners come in all shapes and sizes!

I felt pretty good through the course - I don't walk at all anymore, I just jog/run quicker and slower.  I wasn't too sure of my time at the end, I didn't do a final sprint because I really didn't think I had it in me.  When I got in the time checking line there were loads of other people, which either meant I was running faster or everyone else was running slower!

In the end I had a new Personal Best for a 5k - 28:39!

Hooray Personal Best!

Sleepy Week of Workouts - and a visit to the Vale Hotel & Spa Gym

This week I couldn't get back on my workout schedule.  Or I didn't get back on my workout schedule.

Either way I had a flipping sweet meal on Monday night with some good friends that I don't get to see enough.

On Tuesday I had to work in the evening.

On Wednesday I did go to the gym with another friend I don't get to see enough.  This time we used the super posh Vale Hotel:

The gym was excellent - loads of lovely machines!  I'm not usually a fan of weight machines (I think free weights are the future!) but my friend convinced me to try a set on the Adductor:

and on the Abductor:

We started with 35kg (I think) and did 10 reps.

Then 40kg and 10 more reps,

then 45 kg and 10 more reps.

In the beginning I thought it was going to be too easy, by the end I was squeezing with all my might!  I still feel it today.  I'm thinking about designing myself a machine circuit because I have a feeling machines are easier to do alone - I always feel a bit unmotivated to do free weights by myself.

We did a couple of pull ups and some other bar work, and then 5 minutes of stomach circuits with 45 seconds on and 15 seconds off of the following:

Crunches

Side Crunches

Leg lifts

Planks

Hip lifts

Someday soon I'll to return to The Vale and use the steam room and sauna, and maybe even try a class! It's a really nice gym, just a shame it's so far from my house! 

Hotel Room Circuits - Easy Hotel Rooms Excercises!

I was lucky enough to watch someone design a circuit the other day, and after 10 minutes of it I was knackered! (That's british for tired, by the way...)  So here's how it goes...

Incredible Bodyweight Circuit!

1 minute Burpees

Then alternate 30 seconds on and 30 seconds rest for the following:

Crunches

Side Crunches

Bicycle Crunches

Leg Lifts

Supermans

Push ups

Seated Dips

Plank

Shoulder Bridge

Flutter Kick

Then stretch for 5 minutes!

Then repeat!

I love this circuit, I hope I'll do it again. I was mega-tired at my gym session after trying this - I could feel the pushups in my arms for sure.  30 seconds of pushups is a lot of pushups!

If you're looking for some more inspiration, The Greatist has a lovely set of 50 bodyweight exercises  perhaps you can design your own 10 minute circuit!

(And this workout is only 30 minutes - that's 2%!!)