A rare day off

Today I find myself slightly at a lose end with the weather in usually sunny Romsey putting a temporary hold on my plans to get out on the bike and get some miles in before the winter mountaineering course with Talisman Mountaineering, that is rapidly drawing closer.


Realistically the only way that, in the next 9 weeks, I'm going to achieve anything close to a decent level of fitness is to haul my ass out on my trusty Cannondale CAAD7 road bike (or turbo trainer in the garage when its too dark or raining!) as much as possible and to get down to Calshot for climbing as often as I can.  
When I booked the course over Christmas I had the confidence of time on my side in regards to training and its been one of those things that I've managed to overlook until it hit me this weekend that I haven't done nearly enough to make the most of my trip to the Cairngorms.


I fell into that category of people who used to exercise a lot (gym 4 times a week and cycling 2-3 times a week) but who, due to work and other commitments, have let that slip to almost nothing - cycling 50-60 miles on a Sunday morning (something that was a weekly occurrence a year or so ago) seems like something that is done by "other people" as there is no way I'd be able to rise to that challenge now!


So here I am; yes typing this but don't worry, in the 4 hours since starting this blog and finishing it, I have been out on the bike (Garmin GPS log and photo taken en route is below to prove it!) and I'm off climbing this eve so the day certainly hasn't been wasted despite the best efforts of the good old English weather!


(Donkey in the New Forest)
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/124231320


Keeping up with the exercise routine is going to be the difficult bit but motivation will come from the fact that I intend to enjoy the winter skills course as fully as possible and to do that I need to be in the best physical shape that I can be (realistically!).


In other news there should be 2 packages awaiting my return to the office tomorrow. One from Alpkit (sleeping bag for winter camping, 2 bivvy bags and a dry bag for kit) and one from PHD (down jacket) so aside from being as excited as a small child at Christmas I'll be putting both through their paces as soon as possible and will be adding reviews here..
Location: 1 The Hundred, Romsey, Hampshire SO51 8, UK

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