A christmas eve cycle and some Christmas-y presents!

Happy Christmas Eve everyone!  Today it was only mildly rainy, so I got on the bike for a little jaunt to try out my new cycling gear!  My dad bought me a very exciting selection of base layers and other awesomeness, I now own the complete DHB set, including the ever sexy cycling bib:

Bibs are the new Little black dress!

I also now own the following Merino base layers:

So warm! So quality! So comfy!

Unfortunately my gear to idea ratio is a bit high now - I have more cycling gear than skill.  But if not being cold (or riding in the rain) count as skills then I'm moving forward rapidly!

Yay more cycling!  Thumbs up for base layers!

After the ride we stopped at Maindy track, purely so I could finish my goal of not being The Slowest Rachel.  It worked, and now I'm 8th of the ladies, with 3 ladies slower than me.  Horray!

I need to adjust my mudguards, because I broke them on the first ride and now I come home looking like this:

hahaha poopy butt!

Anyways, now it's time for a massive house clean and a delicious dinner of discount M&S Salmon with discounted Morrisons ravioli and expensive M&S rocket!  NOM NOM!

Happy Christmas Eve Y'all!

Park Run Cardiff

Yesterday was Black Friday in the UK.  Black Friday in the UK is much different than Black Friday in the USA.  In the USA it's the day after thanksgiving, when people wake up stupid early for door busting sales and shopping delights.  In the UK, it's the last friday before Christmas, where everyone gets really really wasted after work.  The only difference is that normally British people get really really wasted after dinner - on Black Friday everyone's smashed by 8pm.

I was not smashed at 8pm, but I did eat a lot of oven pizza after I got home from the pub around 9.  When I woke up this morning I did not feel great, but somehow parkrun seemed like a good idea.  Parkrun is a 5k that happens every Saturday at 9am.  I put on my running clothes, grabbed my bike, and cycled to the start by 8:58.

I forgot to check the weather.  This is the weather:

This was my second attempt at Park Run. The first was a cold crisp day - I ran a Rachel Record of 29:30.  Today was very wet, and apparently 5 fine american ales with ABV of 7+ each is not great fuel for running.  I was not last - but mostly because of a slight sprint at the end which put me ahead of 1 person. (edit: actually 8 people - results showed there were people in the 40+ minute time)

This was me at the end - it took me 34:02 and I had a stitch pretty much the whole way.  

The good thing about parkrun is that by 10am I was home, and by 10:30 I was showered and chowing down on this amazing breakfast omlette

Mushroom and onion scramble with salsa, tomato, and avocado! Yum!

The bad thing about Park Run is that it's at 9am on a Saturday.  WHY WOULD ANYONE RUN AT 9AM ON A SATURDAY?

The next one is on Christmas Day - we will see if I can get out of bed any better for that one.  One of these days, I'll try the run without a hangover too.  

Maybe.

Wednesday is Gym Day!

I go to the gym.  I go to the gym once a week, with my gym buddy Geraint, who is awesome.  I call him my personal trainer because he sets what we do, and then he does it well, and then I complain.  I complain a lot.  Geraint has not yet stopped inviting me to the gym, so I think our parasitic gym relationship might actually be a symbiotic one.  Geraint is very strong, and he lifts heavy weights, and now I am going to learn how to lift weights.

FACT: Geraint is one of the few people in the world with a nicer smile than me.  If that's not a brag-compliment, I don't know what is.

This is me and Geraint, not at the gym.

Our gym is very cheap and full of people wearing football gear, which is odd becasue none of them are playing football.  I recently started lifting weights - our current routine is as follows:

Rower: 500 Meter Sprint

Deadlift (20kg) 15 sets

&

Lunges (10 kg) 10 each leg

Clean & Press (15kg) 10 sets

&

Bent over Rows (15kg) 10 sets

Bicep Curls (12kg) 10 sets

&

Upright Row (12kg) 10 sets

Chest Press (7.5 kg each side) 10 sets

&

Push Ups (I can't actually do a push up, but the routine calls for 10)

Tricep Extention (EZ Bar* with 1.25 each side) 10 sets

&

Bench Dips (10)

Ab crunch bench - 15

&

Plank - 45 seconds

Repeat three times.

Geraint does this 4 times a week.  I do it once a week and it hurts!  but good hurt.  I guess.  Of all the things in the list, the two hardest are Plank and Push Ups.  I can't do a push up.  I can do lots of "girl" push ups, and occasionally I can do a star push up, but no push ups.

NEW GOAL: 10 PUSH UPS.

Also, I never stretch, ever, so that's probably why I feel so awesome in the morning, and by awesome I mean sore, and by sore I mean kind of not awesome.  WOULD IT KILL ME TO STRETCH? Probably not


NEW GOAL: Stretch after weights

NEW GOAL I HAVE ABANDONED IMMEDIATELY: Stretching after weights.

*I don't know why they call it the EZ bar because it is not at all easy!

Water Polo Tuesday

On Tuesday I made it to the Cardiff Tri  swim session.  The session started at 7:30 with the usual hour of lap swimming broken up into hard and really hard bits.  Sometimes I felt like an amazing swimmer, gliding effortlessly and gracefully through the water.  Most of the time I felt like a drowning seal.  As a special christmas treat the second hour was a game of water polo, which I had never played before but which is completely awesome.

Why water polo is awesome:
Flailing is an integral part
It is agressive
You don't have to run (or be seen running)
I am agressive

I wasn't particularly good, but I was particularly agressive.  I'm not sure which team won, because there were some dodgy fouls, but all in all it was loads of fun, and a lot of effort.  I played defense, which seemed natural from my short lived football/soccer career, but really I just flailed around in the pool for an hour.  It did make me remember how much I enjoyed playing team sports and how agressive/competitive I can actually be - I need to bring a little more competitiveness into my cycling/running.  Winning is exhilarating  finishing is expected.

New goal: feel more competitive during cycling.
Step 1: go to Maindy and not be last on the Maindy Strava segment:

Step 2: nail it.

A Sunday Ride

On Sunday I went out with Cardiff Ajax for a Sunday "social" ride.  At 9:30 the fast group shot off, with fast people who do the fast pose when not riding.

Ben is in the fast group.  He sits on his bike like a fast person, but he should have one foot clipped in. He's still fast though, so his foot can be unclipped, I guess:

When the fast group left they then called the middle group, followed shortly with the steady (read: slow) group.  Normally I go with the steady group, but they were only doing 30 miles this week, and I wanted a bit more of a challenge.  So off I went with the middle group. This is what we did:



Yes, that indeed is about 60 miles in 4 hours.  It was hard.  At the cake stop I ate a cheese pasty, which is like cheese and potato in a flakey butter pastry.  It's delicious.  In order to not suffer the terrible energy crash later I ate a snickers as soon as I got home, followed by a big plate of pasta.  And then I slept for about 2 hours, had a big glass of chocolate milk, and went out to Dinner to say goodbye to my housemate.  There I had a most delicious giant burger, and chunky wedges, and sticky toffee pudding.  It was the best I've done at not having a post-ride washout day, where I just feel tired and grumpy and exausted all day.  I know the rides will get easier, and I'm sure my consumption is not the beacon of recovery eating, but it's better than last week where I cried, fell asleep, woke up, and then felt sick to my stomach for a whole day.

Anyways today I was pretty sure there was a problem with my bike as it was moving really slowly on the way to work, but I think the problem is with my legs, so I had an evening off.  Tomorrow the Cardiff Triathlon group is doing water polo after the swim training so I'm looking forward to that!  Also looking forward to home made soup and fishcakes for lunch!

Also, with the addition of overshoes (Silly shoe covers that keep my feet warm while cycling) I now have everything I need to look like a real lycra-clad cyclist!  Check it out!

Andy took this photo.  I wonder if as a 6 foot and change boyfriend he always sees my head as being almost as large as my legs.  Perspective is strange!

Hello again Internets!

So it's been a while eh?  Well my life in Wales has been pretty sweet, I got a job, a boyfriend, a house (that I rent), some good friends, some awesome hobbies, and I went from being penniless and directionless to penniless and owning a nice bicycle.

I wanted to use this blog to talk about my two main interests in life: exercising and eating.  This summer I competed in my first off road Triathlon.  Then I did my second triathlon - a novice tri (300m Swim, 24k bike, 5k run), and came in not last.  Not last was my goal:

That's me coming in not last!

I also do some cycling.  Here is a picture of me after I finished cycling up "the tumble" - a 6 km climb of about 1,300 feet.  I know I just combined metric and imperial, but the point is, it was hard.

Do I look tired?  I felt tired.

And my other hobby/passion/interest is food.  I love food.  I love cooking food and eating food.  And going out to resturants and eating food.  Tonight, my goal is to make some of this:

Carrot Cake Jam.  Yum! 

So hopefully I will use this space to write about food and exercise, which is pretty much my life in Wales!

PS - (Re)starting a blog on December 12th is waaaay less cliche than January 1st!

Brewer Half's Half Brewed Reviews: Williams Joker IPA

William's Brothers Brewing Company: Williams Joker IPA 5%

It's a stunning sunny evening after a busy day at work, and I had a hard time waiting for this beer to chill to the right temperature. I couldn't wait to taste the promised hoppy goodness, however good things come to those who wait, so I waited.

This beer is a thrist-quencher for hop lovers. Strong hop flavours, but lighter and more floral hops. Not much malt flavour. Light-bodied.

Perfect beer for the situation.