Back in the game

My mojo was hidden down the back of the sofa crumpled up in birthday paper, mince pie wrappers and new born nappies from the little bundle of joy that is my new baby daughter, Elsie Grace. The Girl will now join The Boy in taking up as much of my time as humanly possible for approx the next 18 years.

To be honest, this maybe part of the reason I even started looking for my running mojo again. As with many people out there with families, it's some of the only time I get to myself. I rarely ran in the evening before but now once The Boy has gone to bed and The Girl is having some dinner it's the only time I can really. Not that I'm complaining mind. I could do a lot, lot worse than a beautiful and happy family!

The other thing that helped get me back out there is I have entered the Maas Half Marathon in May. I think it's something of a small race as I was competitor number 17 to enter. But they'll be plenty more I'm sure. Eatingtrees has already entered so that ups it again. The cool thing is our fundamentally ridiculous plan to cycle to the race. From Britain. On single speeds. I love that I have a friend as ridiculous as me! 

There may be people out there who think that therefore, we are relatively fit and in good shape. I assure you for me, this is not the case and I suspect it's going to hurt a hell of a lot but the idea of 4 days of cycling, staying in little Belgium B&B's, drinking Belgium beer, talking crap with one of my favourite people in the world and then ruining all the goodness by running a half marathon in 'barefoot' running shoes is something that I just cannot say no to to be honest!!

In a fix

Knowing I've been neglecting my legs recently in favour of assault courses, fixie building and I believe 'nesting' is the term, I made sure I got up and did an early loop this morning. Pretty quickly for me too completing the mandatory 5.14km in 25:27. None of the quite random aches and pains I've had for the last 2 weeks (caused by lack of use) flared up which is always good and I really enjoyed it. I should think about doing it more often!!

My current project is this little beauty you may have seen me mention a few weeks ago. I've been working to strip, file, clean, and generally abuse it and turn it into my ultimate fixie.

At the moment, after a visit to the powder coaters and awaiting delivery of numerous parts, it looks like this! Awesome I think is the word I'm looking for! Meet 'Yolkey'.

I love all the old frame detail and so I topped it off with the old school reflector off the original frame.

I'm going to have to wait until next month until I can buy the wheels and a few other little bits and pieces but I'm delighted with it so far.

Speaking of next month, only 4 weeks until due date! In theory he or she could turn up at anytime now which means I don't have long to complete 'Yolkey'. I better get ordering!!

Juneathon. Day 28. If you go down to the woods today

you'll probably have seen me sweating a lot while out on the bike! Which I guess isn't the best thing for other people but I had fun! There was another reason for going out on the bike today. I am delighted to announce that this Juneathon, my had built bodge job of a bike has taken me 201.65km!!!! That I'm proud of!! Not the fitness thing, the fact it's still in one piece!

However, there will not be many more single speed outings for this one as I'll be putting the gears back on it in the near future. This is because I'm susceptible to the power of suggestion so yesterday, with 11 seconds left of the auction and with LG telling me to do it, I bought this!!!

Now I know it doesn't look like much at the moment but give me a few months, and when I'm not changing nappies, feeding, cleaning, not sleeping and everything else involved with impending fatherhood, I'm going to turn this into a fixie thing of beauty!

June 1st: RUN 5.95km (31:48)
June 2nd: RUN 4.46km (22:31)
June 3rd: BIKE 11.31km (??:??)
June 4th: RUN 5.14km (26:05)
June 5th: BIKE 8.61km (??:??)
June 6th: RUN 5.14km (26:15)
June 7th: RUN 5.14km (25:02)
June 8th: RUN 5.14km (28:33)
June 9th: BIKE 21.65km (approx 53 mins)
June 10th: RUN 2.83km (15:16)
June 11th: RUN 5.14km (25:48)
June 12th: BIKE 24:85km (approx 1:10) 
June 13th: RUN 5.14km (25:56)
June 14th: RUN 5.14km (26:00)
June 15th: RUN 5.14km (25:33) 
June 16th: BIKE 18.58km (45 mins ish)
June 17th: RUN 5.14km (26:23) 
June 18th: RUN 5.14km (26:01) 
June 19th: RUN 5.14km (25:23)
June 20th: BIKE 87.44km (a long, long time) 
June 21st: RUN 5.14km (26:50) 
June 22nd: RUN 5.14km (26:28)
June 23rd: RUN 5.14km (25:59) 
June 24th: RUN 5.14km (26:00) 
June 25th: RUN 5.14km (26:58) 
June 26th: BIKE 16.87km (a while including a Homebase stop) 
June 27th: RUN 5.14km (25:55) 
June 28th: BIKE 12.31km (not too long)

Please wait

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Not too much of interest

Another week's gone by and only 1 run to speak off. That was my 4.14 mile out and back route that I do but as I know I've been a bit slack recently, I pushed myself and was delighted to have come back and realise I'd run the thing in 8:04 pace. I'm putting it all down to it being the first run in the brand new shoes of whiteness. It was so nice to have grip, bounce and comfort back!! This is my 3rd pair of New Balance 1063's and I personally, really can't go wrong with them!

Job seeking is continuing but currently just ticking by with the housework, shopping oh and yes, building myself that new bike I mentioned last time. When I say building, I mean destroying. Went back and got the bike out of my parent's garage on Sunday and then dismantled everything I could off it. HOW MUCH FUN IS THAT!?!?  Now it's all the sanding of the paintwork (not the most fun in the world) and buying the essential parts that I need to make it into a lovely looking single speed. Watch this space for before and after shots in a few weeks time!!

Right I'm off. I'm sure there's another load of washing to do and sanding to be done. If I'm really good, I may even try and run more than once this week but we'll see!!