Mountain Biking Sunday - a trip to Glyncorrwg and an abandonment of W2

Sunday was beautiful!  The sun came out and it stopped raining and I managed to get my bike in the car by 8:30am for a trip to one of the most beautiful parts of South Wales - Afan Argoed!  I was trying to complete the (overly) ambitious Wall 2 - 27 miles of black grade trail with 3,000 feet of climbing and  "two of the most demanding descents in the UK" according to the website.

To be honest, if I had looked at the website before I started I probably wouldn't have tried.

But I did it!  Well I did some of it.  I did half of it. But this doesn't really matter - I'll only do better next time!  The important bit was this:

The view was amazing!  Many people call the South Wales Valleys "Gods Country" and though that's often mocked by Cardiff people, they have a point.  It's beautiful!

My Strava was less impressive - I'm getting quicker downhill, but my climbing and stamina are crap.  I also forget that unlike road biking, going downhill on a mountain bike takes almost as much effort as going up hill. 

The only rest was when I took a gently sloped fire road down a hill for a while.  This was counteracted by realizing I missed a turn and grinding it back up the hill for a while.  

Next time I'll probably just do Whites Level - It's about 15 miles and will probably tire me out enough.  Looking forward to the next nice weekend!

PS - I'm sorry about the stupid shirt that I'm wearing.  I once went on a mission to get a shirt from every state.  I had a few, but the only one left is the above "Idaho? No, Udaho" shirt.  Embarassing!

(non)Paleo Pancakes and a Lazy Saturday

One of the great things about being away with work was/is that I work with a group of health conscious people and there are loads of healthy eating options available   I decided to do a test and see if I could eat no cheese and no white bread/grain for the 3 days I was away - I did and I felt good for it!  So I've tried to keep it up since coming home - sort of a cross between Paleo and the old Weightwatchers Core programme.  Also lots of Aero Hot Chocolate because it is DELICIOUS!

I eat a lot of eggs and omelets but this morning I wanted something a bit different.  I wanted PANCAKES!  but I didn't want flour.  So I looked up some recipes for Paleo pancakes and found one that looked interesting, so I chucked the following in a bowl and blended it:

3 bananas
3 eggs
1/3 cup peanut butter (because almond butter is too expensive)
1 tsp baking soda

That's pretty much a paleo pancake, but it just made me think of peanut butter and banana omelet  which sounds gross.  So I added a packet of flaxseed that I got as some free handout

and about 1/4 cup of oatmeal (which is not Paleo at all, but I'm not being Paleo, so I don't care)

And then I chucked it in a frying pan with tasty tasty butter:

And it came out like this:

Blurry!

No, actually delicious.  Not exactly like a pancake, but not far off.  I quite liked the thick texture, and I put a bit of Agave Nectar on it (because apparently I'm just being annoying now) and it was tasty tasty!  My brewer half probably would have preferred normal pancakes, but for a mostly made up attempt at avoiding white flour and overly processed foods I thought it was quite good!

The recipe made 6 pancakes, I had 3 for breakfast and then I had one for lunch - cold with a bit of almond butter.  YUM!

Tomorrow I'm off mountain biking - normally my snacks are french bread with cheese but I'm going to try chicken skewers and falafel bites instead.  But I'm probably going out to dinner after, because sometimes a girl needs treats!

Thursday Training

What's that thing where 2 words have the same start?  Like my clever "wednesday workout" post followed by "thursday training".  Anyways, on Thursday I was still away with work, but I managed to AGAIN get down to the hotel gym for an early morning workout.  I also figured out how to log stationary trainer and treadmill on Strava, so now I have a list of workouts such as "stationary bikes are boring" and "treadmills are boring" which they are.

So in an attempt to keep me from getting too bored, I created CARDIO ROUTINE 2 FOR THE GYM!

I'm even going to list this under "routines" so I can look at it next time I'm away with work, which is exactly 10 days from now.

CARDIO ROUTINE 2

Treadmill:

Running intervals - 20 seconds slow, 20 seconds transition, 20 seconds fast

Repeat 10 times

Rower:

500 meter sprints

1 minute recover

repeat 4 times

Stationary Bike:

20 minutes on random, level 8

Going to the gym only less boring than writing about going to the gym, so I'm very sorry for making you read all this boredom.  On Sunday I'll be mountain biking again (it's been a while!) So look forward to some better pictures then.  Horray!

Wednesday Workouts!

You read that right - workoutS!  I'm away with work at the moment which means I'm working bizarre and continuous hours.  Todays schedule ran from 8am to 10pm, but I managed to run to the gym 3 times.  I also have the added benefit of working with sports people, so when I'm away there's loads of healthy food on offer.  I've decided to try another bread detox (I was on one before I got sick, but when sick I ate everything I could because my theory is the body needs lots of food to make it better.  Or, I feel terrible so at least I can eat comfort foods that make *me* feel better).  Today is day 3.  I've been eating loads of veggies and chicken and fish - and loads of fruit.  I had 2 bananas today!

So this morning I was up at 6am to do my Weights Routine 1 though I only did 2 sets and the weights were a bit off because I'm not used to this gym equipment.

Then after lunch I snuck downstairs for 25 minutes on the stationary bike, Level 10, and I managed something around 8miles.  Obviously the resistance is to low.  I need to look into stationary bike workouts.

And after dinner I snuck down again and managed to run 2 miles in 20 minutes, then spent 10 minutes on the cross-trainer  and then practiced headstands for a while.  I want to be able to come in and out of headstand without falling - ie no thumping feet to the floor.  At least I don't fall backwards much anymore.

I'm completely addicted to this song at the moment.  It makes me want to run and jump and dance and be really good at stuff.  I know it's misogynistic and also from like 10 years ago, but I don't care, I love GirlTalk!


Tomorow is my last day away with work, then it's back home and back on that bicycle!

Tuesday Travels

I'm almost over my SARS.  Being sick is lame, but the exciting part of being sick is getting healthy again!  I've not been able to excercise since Friday but I managed to make it to the gym today for modified Cardio 1.

Modified Cardio 1:

Treadmill: Run a mile.  

Cross Trainer: 3 minutes on 8, 2 minutes on 18, repeat 4 times 

Rower: Row 2,000 meters

There were a couple of good points - the mile took me 9 minutes today, which is really good for me.  Before I started running a mile took me at least 10 minutes, usually 11 or 12.  Today I was tired after my mile, but I probably could have continued if treadmills aren't so damn boring.  I think the interval training of Non-modified Cardio 1 must be helping.

The rower took me under 10 minutes, which is also really good for me.  I've never timed myself on the rower but 11 to 12 minutes is my usual for 2,000 meters.  10 is such a nice round number that I have little desire to improve, except maybe to start doing 9 minute miles and 9 minute rowers?

Tomorrow I am going to try TRY TRY to get up at 6am for an early weights session at the gym.  Being sick over the weekend set me back and I haven't been for a long weekend ride in 3 weeks now so I'm somewhat worried about my next cycling adventure.  I don't think there's much I can do to keep my long ride stamina up, except long rides, and when you're away with work (which I am now) you can't really sit on a bike machine for 5 hours.  Also, that would be so boring I would rather....

... I don't know, I can't think of anything more boring than that.  Even watching paint dry would probably be less boring than 5 hours on an indoor bicycle.

If I am to get up at 6am I better get to sleep now, so goodnight blogosphere!

.CN - Authentic Chinese Cuisine - Restaurant Review!

Recently I went for dinner at .CN - the authentic North Chinese restaurant on City Road.  As part of my previous life I was a douch-y backpacker in China, and I have fond memories of eating my way through the streets of Zhuhai.  I ate four or five times a day, I ate everything I could get my hands on.  I'm the only backpacker I know who lost weight in Italy but gained weight in China.

The restaurant was clean and medium full at 8pm on a Sunday night:

and their menu was a world of excitement - so many choices!  So many memories!  

 We tucked in to some TsingTao

I was excited to see Jiaozi on the menu - these boiled dumplings were my favorite hangover breakfast in Zhuhai.  They were like I remembered them - the dumpling melts in your mouth but the meat is soft and delicate.  Not an overpowering flavor  but perfect dipped in a bit of Chinese vinegar and sliced ginger.  YUM!

I was also excited to see my other favorite dish from China - Mapo Tofu.  I ate this loads - often because I knew it did not have bones.  Everything I ate in China had bones.  I swear I ordered mixed vegetables once that had bones in it.  Everything was delicious, but when you're competing against yourself for a personal best eating contest then bones get in the way.  I ate Mapo Tofu like it was my job.  The Mapo Tofu at .CN was spicy and sweet and the tofu was firm enough to stay square and absorb flavor  yet so soft and succulent.  It was prepared with a generous helping of Chilis - my mouth was on fire and I loved it.

My brewer half ordered in the very traveler style of pointing at a picture on the menu.  He chose Pork in Peking Sauce with Pancake.  Paper thin pancakes and succulent pork with amazing Peking Sauce - this dish was perfect.  It's what I want when I order Chinese, and it's mostly disappointing when I order takeaway.  Yet .CN has it just right, crunchy, flavorsome, lovely texture, ample sauce... DELICIOUS!

NOM NOM NOM!

I was going to be sensible and order some steamed rice with my Mapo Tofu, but my brewer half ordered the mixed seafood fried rice.  

They did not skimp on the seafood!  Some of the animals I didn't recognize, all of the seafoods were tasty!  I've been disapointed with fried rice for so long I've given up ordering anything but steamed rice at resturants, but .CN made me realize some people do it right!  It was not greasy, it was just full of flavour and perfectly cooked shrimps and squids and calamari and all sorts of tasty morsels.  It was the aquarium in my rice!

Yummy a squid!!

I really loved my meal at .CN and I cannot wait to go back again.  It would be great to go with an adventurous group of eaters as all the mains are surely delicious and I love trying different foods.  I would really like to go back and try the duck tongue as it's supposed to be immensely good.  They also do hot-pot for only £15.99 per person - a bargain if you're hungry!

The servers were nice, the ambiance was pleasant, the food was served quickly but with care, and the price was fab for such quality food.  Looking forward to visiting again soon!

Details:
.CN
228 City Road
Cardiff CF24 3JH
029 2048 6688
http://www.eatcn.co.uk/

Saturday is the fail day.

I had a wonderful day planned!  First a parkrun at 9am, then mountain biking at Afan - hopefully to have a go at the epic Wall 2

On Friday I did Cardio at the gym with Geraint, which killed me as it always does.  We used to only do Cardio, then switched to weights, but decided to throw in a second session this week and make it Cardio.

The cardio routine at the moment is as follows:

Cross Trainer

 3 minutes on 8

2 minutes on 20

 keep above 100

repeat 4 times 

(20 minutes)

Treadmill

walk for 30 seconds

run for 20 seconds

10 seconds of transition

repeat 10 times

(12 minutes with 2 minutes walk warm up and down)

Rower

Row 2,000 meters as fast as you can

(10 minutes)

Running kills me, and might actually be easier outside because you spend most of the time raising and lowering the speed. 

I've also tried to cut down on bread after Christmas and eat more protein and veggies - I had a healthy dinner of chicken and potatoes and salad, then an early night with no drinking (2 weeks no beer - detox!).  All in prep for my awesomely sporty day of running and biking!

...

...

...

and I woke up this morning with SARS.  Okay, maybe it's not SARS, but I'm not good at being sick. I get man flu.

I did nothing but watch 5 episodes of Dr. Who and moan and drink Lemsip tea and moan. This SARS is the worst.

Hopefully on Monday I'll be fixed enough to try running with the Cardiff Tri group - that might actually kill me.  But until then I shall moan about my sore throat and grumpy tummy.  Oh (wo)man flu!