I’m sitting in with my feet up on one of those nice armchair recliner thingamys and wanting to write something inspiring, clever and interesting. My brain is a complete blank.

I will just start writing and see what happens. It cant go that wrong surely. Apologies if I get waffley. Not the tasty kind with ice cream and sprinkly bits.

My training week was so much better than the week before. I managed a decent four hour hilly’ish road bike ride. It wasn’t fast but it doesn’t have to be. I got around, that is the main thing. I still suffer from ‘dont want to go syndrome’ when it comes to road biking. I get up on a Fri morning (I don’t work Fridays) and think ‘Oh I wish I was going mountain biking’. I then spend the first 30 minutes of my bike ride thinking ‘I wish I was on my mountain bike out on the trail’.

I’m not quite sure what makes me think this. I recently got my bike adjusted both for comfort and fit and also for easier gearing. It’s great and I can ride for ages without any aches or pains. It’s also a lot easier riding on the road bike in reality. At least its quicker and its lighter. And yet that voice is still there in the back of my mind…….’you want to be on your mountain bike’……mountain bike…….m bike……..

I’m still hoping I will learn to love road biking as much as the MTB but we will see. For now I’m getting around. That’s all I need to do.

I did a shorter run on Saturday this week. When I say short – 15km is short now. It’s all relative. I wanted to have the energy to focus on my hike.

So off I went on Sunday to Chinley and hiked up South Head and over to New Mills. It was 18km, which I’m happy enough with for now. I was carrying my backpack with about 7kg. I need to pack it properly next time to practice walking with the full weight. I also need to know what that weight will be. At the moment I tend to just throw things in the rucksack before I set off, to approximate the effect.

Going uphill 5km an hour would be a very decent pace with the full rucksack and weight. On the flat I can manage more but uphill thats probably a realistic limit. I will need to stop to eat, get water, pee etc. So that means it may take me 14hours plus stopping time to do 70km (if I walk the entire thing). That’s doable if I set off at 6am. However, since stopping time is generally around 2 hours (not kidding it adds up quickly) I wouldn’t be pitching my tent until 10pm. Hmmmmmm.

This is the kind of uncomfortable maths I find myself doing as I hike or run on the weekend. It makes me think, don’t stop for breaky/lunch/dinner, or run uphill or set off at 5am. Or perhaps I just shouldn’t pee 😁🤷. I probably shouldn’t ponder these things. 😂. Any other suggestions are welcome. A time portal?

We have a new bosu ball in the gym. It’s a large dome shaped thing, like a large ball someone cut in half. You can sit on it to do your core workouts, balance on it with your tum, stand on it to do single leg squats. We are both discovering more and more workouts you can do with this one single item. It’s a lot of fun and a good way to build strength.

Now I’m feeling a lot better about the bike this weeks focus will be on running and hiking further with the backpack and ensuring its fully packed. I’m also starting to focus in on my nutrition, making sure to eat well to support my hard work and my recovery.

In other news my husband has bought an ice barrel for the garden. Apparently its very good for your health to have the occasional dunk. Some of you may have seen that series last year on the TV with Wim Hof.

Thankfully hubby has yet to insert a mini step in the barrel, before I can use it as currently I could get in it but would struggle to get out. We have both booked ourselves onto a cold water workshop in May; so I’m hoping they teach us the breathing techniques for getting in the icy water. At the moment I’m thinking hmmmm can I wear my wetsuit, a woolly hat and bring a hot chocolate with me?