Flamin' heck - I'm absolutely cream-crackered and it's only a little past 10pm!!
This will therefore be a very quick post. My long weekend away has gone surprisingly ok on the dieting / health-front, although I can feel myself just starting to slide, so will welcome the routine of the office again tomorrow. On on a non-eating front it's been absolutely ace for the most part, and I've thoroughly enjoyed myself!
I headed home to Malvern on Thursday night, after a frustratingly late exit from the office (and I forgot to put my Out Of Office on my email so will no doubt face an onslaught of e-wrath tomorrow morning), but managed to scramble home and sneak in a quick trip to the pub before falling into bed and death-sleep. Thankfully, I'd already got in my run on Thursday lunchtime, and didn't drink at the pub, so didn't have too much to feel guilty about.
Following Friday's rather pleasant weigh-in, I did about a billion errands / jobs on the list in a sudden burst of hitherto-unheard-of productiveness, and was on Jon's drive packed and bang on time to get my lift to Wales at 6pm. Several hours, and a lot of raucous bad singing, later we arrived in deepest, darkest (central?) Wales for the weekend - I had no idea where we were, but the cottage was warm and welcoming and full of friends, so that was all fine by me.
I avoided snacking too much, enjoyed a lovely homecooked dinner, drank rather too much Polish cherry vodka and crawled to bed about 2am.
Saturday morning was a little slow to get moving, as we seemed to have a lot of people who have worked mighty hard through January and were enjoying there lie-ins, but after a well thought out breakfast choice, I booted and layered up and set off for a "stroll" with the others. 4 hours later, some scrambling up a waterfall, a lot of hills, and several miles of wild, heather-strewn bog-topped hill and a steep brackeny descent (paths?? who needs paths when you've got an orienteering expert with you!?!?) and we all arrived back at the cottage extremely muddy, extremely satisfied and starving since we hadn't quite expected to be gone that long and hadn't taken food. Good job that it was tea-party o'clock then!!!
Whilst the rugby was played on tv, we descended like a plague of locusts on the cake selections (of which there were many!!!) and drank our booze from teapots and cup and saucer like the civilised folks that we are :o) My original plan was just to have two cakes, and I freely admit that went out the window, but I didn't go nuts, and I sensibly decided to take the edge off my hunger pre-cake with a banana and jam and toast - a wise move, I feel! The hours (and alcohol) rolled by in a pleasant hum of companionship (and booze) and eventually an amazing roast dinner appeared from the kitchen. More booze (yes - more!) and an eventual 3am (wobbly) ascent of the stairs to my bed.
One entire bottle of Polish cherry vodka demolished on my own over the weekend. And a bit of champagne. And possible a sneaky (half a) beer by the waterfall on the walk. If you're going to binge drink, then truly, you should aim high! Apparently.
Sunday morning, consequently, hurt. Quite a lot. Less enthusiasm for breakfast than Saturday, although I did have some, and then we cleaned the cottage and started the trek home. Jon and I had to stop for liquids and snack food as we were both still feeling it, but even then, I managed to think logically and pick stuff that wouldn't ruin my day's points. I stopped over with the boys in Malvern last night, as films and the sofa and a blanket seemed more appealing than another hour's drive to Bristol.
Today, once I got back, I went exploring. My poor, poor bike has sat neglected in the store room for far, far too long. It hasn't even been out since I got Jon to tinker with it and get the gears running more smoothly! Since the weather looked ok-ish, I decided that I'd run out of excuses this afternoon, and today was an exploring day ..... and it turns out that Ashton Court is only 14 mins from my garage door along the bike paths .... I don't even have to go on the roads to get there!!! Woooohooo!
Mind you, it was like riding through a bog when I did get there. I spent a little while just wandering around the tarmac trails and the bridal paths, working out the geography, before I stumbled into the first section of the single track. Two short sections later I gave up - absolute liquid mud or deep puddles! I'm all for honing my wet-weather riding skills, but after one rather neat dismount / step completely off the bike whilst it was still moving, and one flat out sideways slide into the mud on my arse, I decided that sticking to the wider trails was probably a good idea until it's a little drier. I only went out to explore anyway, so I'm not really disappointed about not getting to ride more of the actual trail.
I had a smile on my face for most of the ride, in any case, and spinning appears to have kept my legs strong which is great. I still love though, that when I switched off my heart rate monitor after 90 mins easy-ish biking (or so it felt), it still shows my max as 174, my average at 137 and an estimate 834 calorie burn - got to love something that works you so hard, but feels so easy!
So despite much cake and alcohol (or certainly more than was strictly necessary), I actually remain with activity points to spare at the end of this weekend. Just goes to show that a long walk and a short bike ride make all the difference! :o)
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