The Pre-Race Food Of Champions

L’s volunteers to help out at work today. There’s more furniture to be rearranged or dumped and they are all meeting up at 9am. Ahemmmm. Now who’s nipping off from a lie-in on a Saturday morning...

So left on my own, I’m up earlier than usual and taking the lads on the park. ‘Lads’ isn’t very accurate I suppose, it makes them sound like youngsters and both are more like old women.

Then I bike back to the location of last night’s bonfire, to fetch the car back from where we left it. I take my ‘posh’ bike, partly because the battery on my bike computer on my usual bike is flat, only to find it is also flat on the other one.

I have almost the whole of Saturday free, a real luxury, though spent mostly trying to squeeze as much of the garden as possible into the garden waste bin. That’s my style of gardening. Then I get the bus over to Derby for the match. It’s a late kick off, 5.20pm as we’re on Sky tonight. We usually lose when we’re on Sky. Not tonight though and Derby move up to 4th with a 2-0 win over Portsmouth.

Then I meet up with L for a few beers and pies in the Silk Mill. Beer and pies eh? I know how to show a girl a good time. Romance is alive and well on our house. Then as we wait for the bus back we have chips and beans as well, the pre-race food of champions. We have a race tomorrow...

(Saturday 6th November)

What Does It All Mean?

It starts snowing quite heavily on the park this morning but later it turns to rain. All of which puts paid to any aspirations of repeating the long cycle ride that I did last week.

Instead, shock horror, I venture down to the sales. Not that anything I ever want is in the sale and this year is no exception. I do yet a cover for my new phone though but couldn't get the walking boots I wanted.

The best day of the football season, the FA Cup 3rd Round is pretty much shock free, unless you regard Derby not losing at Millwall as a shock. It shocked me. So I have a replay to go to a week on Tuesday.

Then due to the weather curtailing any serious outdoor exercise I visit the gym with L. 6k bike, 1k row, a few weights but then only enough time for a 1 mile run as we rush out, coffees in hand, to catch the bus to Derby to replenish lost fluids.

The best thing about the gym session was my new gadget, my new Heart Rate Monitor toy. Which to my utter amazement, the councils gym equipment manages to pick up seamlessly and display my heart rate on their screens. Wow. This moment is worth savouring because it is the one and only time I’ve been impressed in a council gym.

My gadget tells me 'my zone' is 120-141 bpm or something like that but the bike takes it up to 161. The run surprisingly tops this and it goes up to 170. Which seems high but I have a bit in hand, as my limit is 178. I assume this the point at which your body gives out. It’s calculated as 220 minus your age (226 for women).

What does it all mean? I have no idea, I need to Google it.

I continue to mull it all over, with a few beers in my hand, in Derby’s now rather wonderful, Silk Mill.