Illness

DK was ill for most of last week with a cough and a fever. He had more or less recovered by the weekend in time to give it to the rest of us.

DK, MK and I joined the in-laws on a canoe trip to celebrate BHP's birthday on Saturday whilst J was at a birthday party. The sun shone and we had a idyllic jaunt along a local river for a champagne picnic before fighting back up stream to get the car and J.

We then headed out to the summer house for a couple of days of sea air. We were all pretty much under the weather without the usual energy to do much at all. We cooked a big meal and spent a lot of time watching the clouds go by.

Monday was a bank holiday so we managed another long sleep followed by a trip to "GoldFish" to local fish munger who seems to have finally crossed the line to thief. His fish-cakes are very good, but they are very expensive and this year appear to be about half the size that they were last summer. I think we'll try another place next time.

I'm at work today but feeling rather under the weather with the continued cough, cold, bad back and now a bit of a fever on top of it all so I may just have to take the day off tomorrow.

Vitamin D

Apparently over 40% of Americans are deficient in vitamin D

I guess that there is a good chance that the statistics for those of us who work with computers and spend most of our time indoors are likely to be similar. I have been taking a vitamin D supplement for a while and that seems to have helped somewhat with my general well-being. I have also read that the process of making vitamin D in your skin also triggers other processes that are linked to reducing cancer risk, improving testosterone levels and helping cope with stress.

I am making a concerted effort to get more sunlight exposure this summer so that I can improve my vitamin D levels and see if it effects how I feel. So far I have been wondering around the garden without a shirt on in the sunshine for half an hour in the evening or whilst mowing the lawn. If nothing else, I guess I'll get something of a tan.

New glasses

Dairy

The paleo way of eating should preclude dairy from your diet, I have some trouble with that being somewhat of a lover of all things dairy.

The general advice is that the higher the fat content the better so I am sticking to double cream, Greek yoghurt and cheeses. I try to limit all of them, but without too much success as I eat yoghurt most days and cheese at least a couple of times each week. The other aspect of dairy that is considered important is that the products should be:

1. Grass fed (for the health of the cows and the quality of the milk) 
2. Organic (reduced presence of antibiotics and hormones used to increase milk production)
3. Non homogenised (the fat particles in homogenised milk are so small that they can pass through the gut lining and are not digested correctly)
4. Full Fat (reduced fat dairy increases insulin response and therefore potential fat storage)
5. Fermented (the bacteria that cause the fermenting process should be good for gut health)
6. Raw (this is a tough one as it is tough to get hold of, but the pro-biotics in raw dairy should improve the balance of good bacteria in the gut)

I should try giving it up totally for a month and see how I feel and if there is any improvement in my itchy skin, allergies and or body fat which seems to be pretty stable these days but not quite as low as I want it to be.

Blueberry shoes

Never wanting to ass up an opportunity to acquire another type of footwear, I was delighted to find these Inov8 shoes on sale in this rather outrageous colour and a UK13.

Apparently there aren't too many people interested in purple trainers in that size so I got a flipping big discount as well. Most importantly they fit perfectly and work a treat.

Long weekend

Thursday was really good. There was some wind, but not too much most of the time and the sun shone for most of the day as I mentioned below. Other than emphasising how much I have to learn about racing a Finn, it was a pretty positive experience all round and it was a lovely surprise to meet the rest of the family on the slipway.

MK had to work on Friday whilst the kids and I had the day off. We made a new variety of gluten free pancakes for a late breakfast (with rice flour this time) and then walked to the station to take a couple of trains to Holbæk to meet MK and go to the theatre. It was a bit of a long way around to get there, but it meant that we only had one car to come home in and the kids like going on the train. We were seeing Rasmuss Klup på eventyr which was pretty good. DK was wide eyed with amazement throughout having only seen the characters in a cartoon before.

MK delivered the boys to her parents on Saturday for a trip to the summerhouse as we were going to a birthday party in the evening. I did a tough crossfit session (that I can still feel throughout my body today) and we had a short and fruitless shopping trip in the afternoon. The party was fun and we took advantage of Sunday morning at home alone to.... clean and tidy the house.

Grilled!

It was overcast when we left the harbour but 6 hours is a long time on the water without a hat or sunblock.

My first Finn regatta was as good as I could have hoped, we started an hour late because there was no wind early in the morning and then we waiting an hour on the water before there was enough constant wind for a race. I remember sailing with no wind at all in some lakes but that was a long time ago.

We race short 4 leg races, twice up wind and twice downwind and must have fit 6 or 8 races in the day. It took me a while to figure out that starting g procedure and get enough nerve to participate in the start line hustle and bustle but my starts got better as the day went on. Having said that, I was firmly at the back of the fleet. I achieved my goal of not being DFL (Dead Flat Last) in all of the races, I was even 3rd from last once! Which was a success in my books and I didn't end up swimming or make a total prat of myself.

Apparently the sail I am using is blown out and the fact the my mast is held together with gaffer tape hasn't gone unnoticed, but the main handicap must me the helmsman.

Lessons learned:
Wear sunscreen, a hat and sunglasses (or at least take them)
Take some food - I was pretty hungry by the time we got home at 18:00
I need to work on my nature break technique to avoid filling the bait with pee ( it looks like kneeling on the side is the accepted practice)
I need some sort of dry back to carry stuff out on the water

Now I'm looking forward to the next regatta and my fellow Finn sailors have started a campaign on my behalf with MK to get me a newer mast and sail.

Gone

I just sold my carbon race wheels that I had been so certain would make me into a racing cyclist. As I should have known (and did know in my heart), it's not the wheels that make the difference, it's the engine. If you don't train enough, you won't be fast enough.

I ran out of time and finally enthusiasm for training, it had become a chore and all of the evidence also seems to point to it not being a particularly healthy for of training either. Considering the amount of time and effort I put into training, I never really looked fit. Vanity I know, but it should be part of the motivation to train that it improves your physique, cycling didn't seem to give a good return on the time spent doing it.

So the result is that I'm not really a cyclist any more. I am trying to be a sailor and perhaps more importantly trying to train like a sailor. Apart from the inevitable consumption of G&T which I am still avoiding, that should involve general strength and conditioning so that there is some cardiovascular work and some strength training. That seems to be something akin to Crossfit and that is the direction that I have headed in.

Bodywork Ringsted opened in January as the first Crossfit type of gym in the area. MK tried it with one of her friends and has enjoyed going once a week and I have also been going a couple of times each week with J coming along more often than not.

It's a mix of bodyweight training (pull ups, push ups etc), running, skipping, box jumps and weight lifting with normal barbells and kettlebells.

I've enjoyed it a lot and took the plunge yesterday by paying for a years membership up front (saving quite a lot over the monthyl membership price). Now I need to carry on getting bigger stronger and fitter.