High Adventure

To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men

2009-02-04T21:22:00.014Z

A typically frantic day in the office today pushed the scheduled lunchtime session back by a few hours - escaped for 45 minutes at a quarter to three in the afternoon.

6 miles: from the office down to the Millenium Bridge, along the Embankment to Vauxhall Bridge and back. Mixed conditions underfoot although the pavement in front of the Palace of Westminster was eerily free of any traces of there having been the heaviest snowfall in the UK for 18 years. I did witness, however, the culmination of a sixteen day-long hunger strike by the Tamil Youth Organisation conducted to raise awareness of the alleged genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka - make your own mind up:

The case for: http://www.tyo-uk.org/tyo/
And against: http://www.amnesty.org/en/for-media/press-releases/sri-lanka-government-and-tamil-tigers-violating-laws-war-20090128

A rest day tomorrow but a trip to Scotland is on the near horizon: Queensferry to Cramond and back, perhaps. A joyful climb at speed up Arthur's Seat too, if I'm feeling adventurous.

A winter warmer

2009-02-03T19:40:00.004Z

The South East of England having ground to an unseemly halt as a result of extreme weather conditions - snow - the prospect of working from home (and logging some trail running miles at lunchtime, there being no chance of hopping on the bike safely) loomed large this morning.

After sending a prodigious number of emails over the course of the morning and much of the afternoon, I finally pulled on my thermal strides at 3.55pm and sallied forth into the snow ...

Not a good run by any estimation.

Not for the first time, it swiftly became apparent that the hours between 3pm and 5pm simply don't work for me (blood sugar, perhaps?) and that attempting any sort of run during this period is futile. There was nothing in my legs. Nothing at all.

6 1/2 junk miles best put behind me, I feel.

Tomorrow ought to mean 6 - 8 miles in London at lunchtime: onwards and upwards.

Best foot forward ...

2009-02-02T21:12:00.006Z

Put simply, the purpose of this blog is to document my progress towards meeting my sporting goals for 2009, these being the Hampshire Hilly Hundred and the Southern Sportive, cyclo-sportives being run in May and September respectively.

http://www.sportivecycling.org.uk/index.htm
http://www.southernsportive.com/index.php?go=southern

Perversely and despite the enormity of the challenges I've set myself, January has been less about cycling than running - the result of climactic conspiracy rather than a dearth of desire - but given my need to get back into the habit of training the 25 miles a week or so I've been logging have been of some value.

Time now to get cracking and build up some serious weekly mileage on the bike, though; the HHH 2009 awaits ...