Cross Training

Last week I received a Proper Training Plan from the nice people at Guide Dogs.  I guess they're by now worrying that anybody cycling to raise money for them might not be, like, actually training, so they helpfully send a Proper Training Plan.  For the 12 weeks until Ride London.  Eeek.

I ignored the first week as I wasn't training.

If I'm brutally honest, I've largely ignored the second week too as there still hasn't been a lot of training.  However, I've already exceeded the targets for weeks 1-4, so I'm ok.  No, really, I'm ok.

One thing it does mention is 'cross-training' and suggests rowing as being a good way of training that doesn't involve a bicycle.  I've done tree-felling instead.  That's ok, isn't it?

We had a big evergreen in the garden that looked like this (ignore the squirrel and the fact that it's winter, we forgot to take a 'before' picture):

And it was dying.  Properly dead inside, various branches keeling over from time to time, stopping everything else growing because of the shade it cast and, well, downright ugly as well.

So the Melodeon Master and I took it out...  We sawed, we lomped, we used secateurs.  It involved ladders and ropes (mindful of next door's cold frame that we really didn't want to smash) and quite a lot of sweat and swears.  As opposed to blood, sweat and tears.  No blood, thankfully, and no tears either.  And then we shifted all the cut off branches, mowed the grass, moved compost, repositioned the bird table, replanted a rose and sat down to admire our handiwork:

And sitting down to admire our handiwork obviously involved a glass of something cold...

There are now 10 weeks and 5 days to Ride London.  I have resolved to train properly, give up chocolate (I know!) and drink less wine.  From tomorrow.

Diets always start tomorrow, right?