After many years of my nephew's "Grand Days", we have eventually been to one. The "Grand Day" is the last day of term at their boarding school, it being a school with very strong links to the military, it will come as no surprise that the school has a very strong military ethos. So much so, that on the last day of term the whole school turns out for a proper military parade.
My youngest nephew Andrew, was leaving the school this time, and as he has been the "Senior Monitor" (Head Boy) it was him to be the Parade Commander. My sister of course was as proud as punch as of course we were, it was all very impressive.
The school is in Dunblane, just north of Stirling in Scotland, we took the Moptorhome and had a 5 day holiday, it was really good, spent a night in Staffs on the way up and a night in the Peak District on the way back down.
We are due for a week's stay in the Peak District in August, so are both looking forward to that. Roll on the holidays.......
Posted by
Wyatt Earp
7:47 pm
What a lovely relaxing weekend we have just had. Spent 3 days at Felixstowe - I should have been sailing but for us, the wind never came. The sun shone brightly (and hot), the skies were blue, but the wind stayed definitely away!
Still, never mind, Sandra wasn't working so she came too, brought her paints, her sunhat and it was a nice relaxing weekend. According to her pedometer, we walked 22 miles over the 2 days - up and down the promenade and into the town!
Very close to our sailing site was a car boot sale on the saturday and a Market fair on the Sunday - even better.
Having said all that, I hope it's windy the next time I go sailing!!
Phew, Bank holiday MOnday and we are back from opur holidays. Have just spent a week with Brian Smith's "Art Course Abroad". SAndra has gone for the past 3 years to one of his 'Holiday' courses - I go as a non Painter and generally have a good time. THis year we went to Umbria in the middle of Italy. Thirteen in all, 9 Painters and 4 non. We hired 3 vehicles for the transport - and then unfortunately missed the turn off from the motorway from the airport which meant that we had a convoy of the 3 cars tring to keep together as we travelled through the centre of Rome Not easy!! Anyway, we eventually made it to our destination and had a brilliant week. The sun shone, the Painters painted and we non painters saw the sights and walked around the countryside.
Had a little problem getting back. It took longer than we thought to get to the airport and then longer than anticipated to return the hire cars. Normally that wouldn't have been a problem, but this particular day there was an Italian Air Traffickers strike for 4 hours such that our flight was called forward 30 mins (to beat the 'window') and we arrived just 5 mins after they closed the check-in gate! This was at 11:10 in the morning. We eventually got a flight at 2015 hrs..... It was a long day at the airport!!
Still never mind, eventually got home at around 11pm and with a day off the next day we seem to be fine.
Well the "another day" from the previous post wasn't today! Joined an on-line session for a stab at a PB before the season runs out on the 30 Apr. Lined up were a full 8 rowers, amongst them, Bert, my colleague from the USA. He and I have almost exactly similar times. In the event, we both went off to fast, and although we paced each throughout most of the race, neither of us made a record. I stopped twice along the way for a breather....... 'Maybe another day.....'
Well, I've had a whole 6 days off from the rowing machine. I moved it back into the car port today and then went for a row for the first time since my marathon last week. Only did a 5 mins warm up and planned for really easy 30 mins. In the event as I got into my 30 mins I felt really good and finished really strong with a distance of 7415 metres. Had I know it was going to be that good, I would have warmed up longer and gone for a PB as my PB for this season is only 33 metres more at 7448! Oh well, the moment has passed, maybe another day....
Well I've done it - completed a rowing marathon at last. Preparation started just before Christmas and the event finished in line with the London Marathon yesterday. As it happened I was on duty on Saturday night and didn't get home until 10 to 9. A quick change, log on to my computers and start my warm up so that I would be ready for 09:35 which leaves 10 mins for internet chat with my fellow rowers and then a start time of 09:45. In the event, the online software failed us for a while and it took 4 attempst to get us going. We eventually started some 25 mins after our scheduled start. Still never mind.
There was lots going on in the house, I had 3 sets of neighbours pop in to give their support and 3 sets of friends who joined us online in our Yahoo Chat Room complete with Webcam. Sandra was in charge of this - and I think she was just as stressed about that as I was about the marathon. anyway, once we were underway, it was OK. For the first hour I was determined to keep my heartrate below 150 - and this I did. Also in the first hour one of my fellow rowers kept the same pace so we were side by side on my computer screen which was good to see. I took a pit stop at the hour mark to change the padding on my seat from Sandra's gel seat cover from her bike to a folded towell - just to give my bum a change. I also redid some of the sticking plaster that I had taped around my fingers to help protect against blisters.
The second hour went OK and I was a couple of minutes ahead of my projected finish. I did find it ever so hot, and was thankful to Sandra for her water spray and sponge to drench me in water. I ate and drank as practiced in my training sessions so that all went OK. I also had quite a few 'quick pauses' where I drank from a bigger bottle.
The third hour I was definitely slowing down and drinking more often, Sandra had to redo my laces on the move(!) (my laces are always coming undone) and the network connection to the 'Race server' was lost which meant I no longer could see the other rowers. Still my local software would record the event so no worries there.
As the end appraoched, all my neighbours were there and waving the flag - literally! I found the last 3000 meters hard but just kept going to the end. I would have liked to say that I sprinted to the finish, but the truth is that I just ambled across the finish line very pleased to have completed.
Anyway, I have done it. My target time was 3:08:00. I completed in 3:07:22.2 so am really really pleased. All I need to do now is to collect the sponsorship money - come on everyone, pay up please!!
Geoff
Well, I did my final training session last night. Quite a short row of 6000 metres but at my regular 'cruising' speed of just under a 2:04 pace. Felt good at the end - all that's left is the big day itself!
Small admin problem solved. As the day for the marathon draws closer, I just thought I would e-mail all the fine friends that have sponsored me with a pre event 'thank you' and an opportunity to let them know they could watch me suffer if they wanted via my webcam. Naturally, I included the time so that they would know when to log on. As a courtesy, I also copied the e-mail to one of my fellow rowers and it's a good job I did. As the internet is global, our races are listed in the schedule on Greenwich Mean Time, our initial start time was for 0945 GMT which is 1045 British Summer Time - BST. Jasper hadn't realised this and though we were starting at 0945 BST. Unfortunately, he has to catch a train at 3pm, so a 0945 GMT start was cutting it all a bit fine. Luckily, our 3rd rower didn't mind an earlier start, so we are now starting at 0845 BST. Phew, problem diverted.
Spent most of the afternoon moving my Rowing machine in preparation for next week. It normally lives out in the car port - and at this time of the year - is in the cold. However, as I am expecting my neighbours next week for support and to wave the flag, I have brought it indoors. The Rowing Machine was easy, it was the supporting IT that took a while!
You can see that I have two computers and a flat screen television. (The tele actually lives in the Motorhome, but we are not using it at the moment) The left hand computer I use for the Row Pro software, this is one of the best programms I have used and allows us to row against each other on line. It also gives very good graphical reports at the end showing things like Average Pace, heartrate, distance etc and at intervals that you specify. It's fantastic. The right hand PC I use for Messenger Chat / Internet Radio / Concept2 Websites etc. The tele - well it will be showing the London Marathon wont it!! Not in the picture is my Laptop, this is a better spec than the ancient PC's and is the one that I will have my Webcam connected to.
Anyway, having set it all up, I then had a 45 row to give it a whirl. My row wasn't a very good one, but I don't mind that, they can't all be world beaters...
Well I meant to start this months ago to keep a log of all my training, problems, highs and lows with reference to my Rowing Marathon that is coming up real soon. In fact it's only 8 days away, so I have sort of messed this up a bit! Still never mind, I'll have a recap for the uninitiated......... (Hope it's not too boring for you).
Been indoor rowing for a couple of years and had plateaued and become 'stale'.
Decided on a marathon to spice it up - the marathon is the only recognised distance that I have yet to complete. Decided at the beginning of Dec 04.
Thought about it and decided to try and raise a bit of cash for charity while I was at it. Decided on the Blood Pressure Association as my chosen charity and 17 Apr 05 as the date which neatly co-incides with the London Flora Marathon.
Started training seriously Jan 05. Late February decided that all the 'Power Training' and the 'Sprint Training' and the 'VO2 Max trg' were all not really for me. I am a plodder, a steady state man, so have adjusted my trg accordingly ie I am just getting the miles in.
Feb / Mar have rejoined the on-line community (I used to race on-line when I initially brought my erg 2 years ago, but due to one of my back injuries that takes me off the machine for 4-6 months I had never restarted) Anyway, I'm back on line with fantastic new software and a bunch of guys who enjoy it as much as I do.
Surprise surprise, not only have I decided to row a marathon on London Marathon day, but so have about 8 other guys. We are doing it on-line and to keep bunches of rowers together there are different races for different target times. I am in the 3:15.00 - 3:30.00 group - the slowest. There are 3 in my group and 5 in the other.
On-line training has been going well and I have done 10KM sessions and 1 hours sessions. On my own I have completed 3 half marathons (21097m) and one 30K session. This period is the 'taper' period where you don't stretch yourself too much.
On the day, I hope to have the neighbours around as support - they can also watch the real marathon on the tele at the same time. That's about it for now. More later
