You See, I can't do anything right. (UCI)

No training last night, but I'll be running or rollering tonight all being well with a possible swim later on if son-in-law number 3 get's his ar$e in gear.
There seems to be a lot of public talk between the UCI and WADA that's going nowhere.  If it's in the papers it means they are not talking privately whch means they are not getting on well at all.  I can't understand why not, I mean, they must both want to be rid of this doping controversy so why not sit round a table and have a discussion about the way forward.  It seems to me that there must be something fishy going on - probably on the UCI side if I was to guess but goodness knows what.  I can't understand why the disbanded their 'independent investigation' before it had even done anything.  Probably a lawyer or 2 involved creaming off the cash.

Keep on track.

The new HS2 railway is going to cost the equivalent of £1000 per person in the UK.  I hope they keep to the budget, I can't afford to give any more.
Actually, I'm against this high speed spend.  In my humble uninformed opinion, why don't they increase capacity of the exiting?  They could start by aiming for double decker trains like they have on the continent - thereby doubling (approx) the capacity.  The big spend, of course would be in the height of the bridges, and there's where my £1000 comes in - a much better place to spend it.  I can see the argument for the high speed option, but what about the existing low speed, low tech, stuff?  It will probably suffer from even more underinvestment and eventually become a cycle path.  Not that I have anything against cycle paths, but you know what I mean.
Here's an MT update (mundane training)..did 7 miles tonight in the dark, and I mean dark - nearly went over down our drive as well as on the way back.  Must get some mini solar lights down there if possible.

Basic training.

Lance is unable to meet the USDA's deadline for helping with enquiries I note. Still, he's got the confession off his chest so I don't suppose he'll be too worried about the bad press. 
..and Richie Porte gets high praise from Andy Schleck - maybe see a Sky 1-2-3 at the tour?  Now that would be worth watching.  If the Sky training regime carries on the way it is, then we'll see most of them up there on the leader board.  I wonder how long before other teams realise they have to be more scientific to win. Maybe they have been depending too much on the team's doctors to 'inject a bit of pace'.
Hopefully that's behind cycling now, but you never know what might crawl out of the woodwork next.
Anyway, back to mundane training stories...  Did a 9 miler on Saturday and felt reasonably OK, so the running is paying back at last.  I need to get out 3 times a week minimum with a bit of biking in between (or rollers at the moment due to the weather).  Running is usually Tues, Thurs or Fri, + Sat or Sun, with a smattering of rollers in between.  We had so much snow on Friday night, biking was right out of the question.  Don't think I've been out on my bike for nearly 3 weeks, so I'm glad I have the rollers.  I didn't get a swim last week due mainly because son-in-law number 3 was away but try as I might, my swimming is decidedly one paced - Slow.  I'm resigned to having a slow swim at the half Outlaw, then give it some on the bike followed (hopefully) by a steady 13 mile jog.  I could do with setting a target time, so I'll do a bit of homework and see what to aim for.  Watch this space.

In my opinion...

I've noticed that my creative head (metaphorically) is only active at certain times of the day.  Let me expand on this..  Take last night - I was watching the news or maybe surfing the web (it was a long time ago remember) and I thought 'Hmm, I've got an opinion on that' or something to that effect.  But at this exact moment in time, I can't remember what the heck it was, and also, more worrying/interesting and hence my note today, is that I don't have a strong opinion on ANYTHING at the moment.  Whats going on there??  Just to clarify, what I'm calling 'opinions' I think of as being creative.  I'm not known for my forthright views, although I tend to speak my mind if I think it gets the point home, so I can only conclude that my natural biorhythms or something have a direct influence on my state of mind and hence my outlook on a subject at any point in time.  And that has led me to ponder if everyone has this trait - and then, if that were true, then those that have strong opinions on everything (you know the sort) are acting, or consciously trying very hard to have that opinion rather than my 'natural' opinion.  Mind you, I'm now thinking it's a state of mind you can work yourself up to because the longer I type this, the more I have a stronger view on it.  So, my conclusion is that if you want to have an opinion, you have to talk yourself into it.

Running man

Probs at the cyclocross - I was just setting off for a course recce when BANG! rear puncture, then when I finally got a new tube in it, it was also knackered so I had to ask for my tenner back, watched a couple of laps, got freezing cold and went home.  To compensate, I managed to get an 11 mile run in which is my furthest for about 3 years so not a bad day in that respect.
Along with 7 miles on Saturday, 18 miles over the weekend was very satisfying, and my muscles are not overly complaining today.
Took me an extra 25 mins this morning due to the snow. I reckon we had about 50mm, which meant a very dodgy 2 mile drive down our lane, a slushy few miles to Brigg, then not bad the rest of the way.  Hopefully will be fine until our lane, then a crawl home.
My new rollers came on Friday so I'll be trying them out tonight if I feel up to it.  If not, then deffo tomorrow.  They look good - aluminium and shiney!

So, Lance has finally come out of the closet with his doping admissions.  About time too.
It was hot news when he first retired in 2006 or thereabouts - so those that thought he was clean and it was a smear campaign were kidding themselves.  The big problem now is where does he go from here?  He must have weighed up the cost of admission - he will have to pay off various injured parties, possibly pay back some winnings, give up competing for a couple of years and then, well, who knows?  There's talk of him wanting to compete in triathlons, but will he want to?  Will the average competitor and spectator give him the respect he needs to carry on 'as normal'.  Personally, I felt a twinge of respect when he came out with it, but it's tempered by 'but he's a lying manipulative cheat' thoughts. ..and the problem is that he gave such an entrenched 'I am right' point of view for so many years, you can't help but feel 'tough mate, you've made your bed now lie in it'.  Not that it bothers me, but it's an interesting read.  The thing is, it must cast many others in quite a bad light - such as all those involved in cycling at that time.  No wonder a few names left Sky when they set the 'no drugs' rule a few months ago.   I would be alright though, unless Covonia counts.
With the bad weather sticking around I'm pleased I had the use of some rollers to keep me in shape.  Used them last night for 10 miles when it was minus 5 outside and I was sweating like I was in a sauna.  I should get my own today, so looking forward to that and I can hand these back to Mr G., although he doesn't know I have them, having borrowed them from son-in-law number 2 who borrowed them in turn from Mr G.
It's the last cyclocross of the year on Sunday, but highly unlikely to go ahead due to the frozen ground.  They won't be able to get the course pegs in.  I'm not too bothered, because Bardney is a grueler of a course, but that in it's own way makes it more enjoyable, well, finishing it is enjoyable anyway!

Let it snow let it snow let it snow.

Snow today, so not much going on for me outside.  Forecast to be snow today, then cold tomorrow, then not as cold for the rest of the week.  To make matters worse, son-in-law number 2's pal who he borrowed the rollers from wants them back, so I'll have to bite the bullet and buy some.  Therefore, today's entry will be short whilst I go off and search out some January bargains.
Just over 9 mile run yeaterday and 7 on Friday, so my running is taking shape even if getting out on my bike is not very forthcoming.

On, and on, and on, and...

I was on the rollers again last night - a quick 11 miles.  I managed a bit longer in the 160's - lasting for 2 miles before I had to slip it down a couple of gears to recuperate.  Swimming tonight for the first time since Christmas so I guess my neck will be sore although it doesn't tire me out as much as running, probably because my pace is on the slow side.  I could do with some lessons really, but I don't know if there are such things at my local leisure centre - they seem to be aimed at beginners.
An interesting subject on the web yesterday - the number of 'Earth like' planets they seem to have identified amongst all the others.  I didn't read the details, but they had a specific number out of a specific number of planets which got me thinking that if they know the total number of planets, then they must know the extent of those planets, which means the know where the universe ends! ..but I'm not so sure.  I'm not sure if I can quite get my head round infinity relating to space, I mean, how can something go on and on and never finish? Scary.

Rolling along

13 miles on the rollers last night with the usual pool of sweat left on the floor.  Luckily it's in a shed, it would be a real pain in a house trying to minimise spillage of your bodily fluids.  I see you can get what the call a bike 'thong' that is attached from the handlebars to the seat catching (I guess) all that liquid.  I keep an eye on my heart rate whilst on the rollers, and every mile notch up or down a gear to vary the intensity depending on how knackered I am.  There's no letup with rollers, you can freewheel for about 2 seconds before you slow down enough to fall over, so there's no easy option when you get going.  Interestingly enough (or not) is that I tried really hard to get over 160bpm which I just managed only to find out that it's nowhere near my anaerobic heartbeat of 175 or thereabouts.  I will surely struggle to get to that.  Talking of heart rate monitors, I checked my freebie iPhone app against the Garmin as I was cooling down, and it looks to be pretty accurate. Evidently it monitors the change in colour of your fingertip as each pump of the heart sends 'new' blood to it. Very clever I think.

Mind how you go..

'10 things you didn't know you could do with a smartphone'.  What a load of tosh.  This was an article on Yahoo that simply stated you could download apps to do x number of things.  It's a bit like saying '10 items of food you didn't know could go into your fridge'.  Unless you want the food, you wouldn't buy them, and if you did, you could just look for them and buy them.  Having said all that, I did go to the app store and look for the 'instant heartrate' app - even if I delete it it's a freebie so no risk.
Just tried the heartrate thing - it looks pretty good, so I'm taking back all my assumptions about it being rubbish.  Evidently I have a rate of 48bpm today, which seems fairly low even for a highly tuned athelete like me, but I guess there's some room of error in there.  I don't know whether to ask my colleague (who I don't know all that well) to try it.  Maybe not, he doesn't give me an impression of being that sort.  Whatever that sort is.
Anyway, another more inportant topic is fitness for the half ironman I plan to do in June.  I did a 9 miler on Sunday and boy did it take some doing.  Could have been because I was assisting my son-in-law to level his concrete on Saturday (31 cubic meters of the stuff!), but my muscles felt bad.  I will need to be doing 13 miles reasonable comfortably to make sure I can do it justice on the day.  No walking is my aim, and get half way up the leader board for my age group.  Next year (2014) I have an eye on the Ironman distance, so If I'm struggling with the half, I can forget the full.  Swimming and biking have their own issues, but the marathon is quite daunting, speaking as someone who did a few marathons some time ago, where if you were not trained up, it was painful.  I'll update this next time I do a few miles.  I think I'll be on the rollers tonight, but I might venture out in my trainers.

New start

New year, new blog.  Well, new posting anyway.
For me, it's also a new job..although that's not quite correct - it's a new permanent job doing the same as I was when I was a contractor, so it's a new type of job.  There, I'm please that's cleared up.
With the new type of job comes a new office place of work.  Now, I don't want to sound all royal about this, but you have to have an official place of work so that the taxman knows how to fleece you.  The advantage for me is that my official place is probably only going to be used less that half the time, so I can claim travel for travelling to my non-official place of work which is in fact my normal place of work even thought it's not official.  It's quite clear really.
I'm quite pleased to have secured a permie job in the current climate.  Contractor jobs pay well but have been a bit in short supply the last couple of years.  This new job is 40 miles from home which is positively local compared with the last 15 years of Brussels, Oslo, Nottingham, Winchester and London.  Not sure I can count Brussels and Oslo in the same sentence as Winchester, London due to the fact I flew to them, but travel time was obviously not short.