Night out

Tonight we are going to our friends house warming party without the kids. It will be the first time that we have been out without them in Denmark having left them with my mum for an evening in Shustoke a few weeks ago. It should be fun.
This morning I was 104.2kg but this time I am not dehydrated so I think that is an accurate weight. I am planning a sneaky bike ride today before we go out and as we have another long weekend here this weekend I am planning some serious mileage over the coming days.
Have a good weekend, I hope the sun shines for you all.

DK NEWS.....

The ear doctors in Roskilde have finally managed to do a hearing test on DK without F'ing it up somehow and he apparently has perfect hearing.
Hurray.
Much more interesting than dieting or cycling.

Ideal Weight

I was just writing a reply to a comment about ideal weights and have decided to post the link here because I think this is a pretty good site: here
Apparently I should be between 81 and 101 kg depending on my build. I know that I am still fat at 101 kg and I would probably look pretty unhealthy at 81kg so I think somewhere in the middle is where I should be aiming. At some point in the last 10 years I think I was about 95kg and that was OK, still a little podgy around the edges so I guess 90 would be perfect. I have no idea if I can do it, but there's the goal...
That website has some interesting tools for calculating weight loss in many different ways, have a look.

Salad tastic

We had a barbecue for tea on Tuesday night which involved some marinated pork chops and the mandatory sausages. As I finished my second sausage MK told me that K&L had been visiting friends at the weekend who were on the Weight Watchers diet and had disappointed L by telling him that 1 grilled sausage was the equivalent in points terms of an entire meal. Bummer.

Thanks for telling me after I've eaten them and not before!

So that is another thing that is off the menu now although it is really pretty obvious that they are completely full of fat and not doing anyone any good at all.

Last night I had a pile of salad and a couple of fish cake things followed by a banana and a lot of water. I had hoped to get some exercise in, but I was baby sitting and DK wouldn't settle so I couldn't hide in the basement as planned.

Weight this morning 104.6kg and according to the scales, down to 25% body fat. I do hope those things are not accurate, because I can't really believe that I have 26kg of fat (not so well) concealed about my person.

On the slide

I seem to post more pictures of DK than J so here is one of him on the slide in Shustoke to make up for it.

Breakfast boy

Mountain Biking

Last night we had an early barbecue so that I could head out to the forest with my mountain bike. I haven't ridden it much this year for one reason or another and that is a shame because I always enjoy myself up there in the forest. The trail was perfect with a few muddy patches but my riding was pretty poor, I think I am really just out of practice, but I rode like a complete donkey and fell off a couple of times as a result.
Towards the end of the ride, there were a couple of heavy showers so the vast number of exposed roots on the trail got very slippery making progress even more hazardous, but in the end I got in 1½ hours of good riding and I have decided to try and get out there once a week for the rest of the summer.
I am also going to put the roof rack on the car, it is too awkward and dirty putting the bike in the car and that is the second time this week it would have been useful to have it.
Weight this morning: 104,2kg. I am sure I didn't lose a kg yesterday even if I was hungry all day, I think I must be dehydrated.

DK was at the physiotherapist yesterday afternoon, she declared that there was no real reason to keep seeing her as he is doing fine and everything is completely normal. MK will take him a couple more times, but it was good news. Tomorrow he's off to see the ear doctor.

Starving Myself

On January 1st this year I weighed an embarrassing 110kg and by the middle of February I think I was down to 105 kg which is where I have been since with some small fluctuations I up and then down again.

I have just had a look back at a post I wrote in December that concluded that I needed to lose 15kg to be able to take 30 minutes of my time in the Marmotte this summer compared with my 2005 time of 9 hours and 54 minutes. I also need to spend 30 minutes less sitting at the side of the road eating, but compared with the challenge of shedding 30kg, that is easy. So I need to get rid of as much weight as I can in the next 40 days before the race.

If I want to lose 15kg, then that is 375g per day - deficit of 2894 calories per day!
loosing 10kg would be 250g per day - deficit of 1929 calories per day
and loosing 5kg is 125 g per day - deficit of 965 per day

It looks like the 15kg loss is beyond reality, but maybe I can get down below 100kg before the race if I try to stick to the awful starvation plan for the remainder of the time and keep riding my bike.

At the moment I am trying to avoid sugar, starchy stuff like pasta, rice and potatoes. I am eating smaller portions and trying to fill up on salad and veges, the challenge is not knowing how to lose the weight, but having the will power to do it.

I guess there'll be more updates to follow, weight today 105.2kg

Windy 100

Thursday was a public holiday in Denmark (Big Prayer Day amusingly enough) and Friday was a day off for me as well so I wanted to get some training in.

On Thursday we went to the "land of legends" in Lejre which is a sort of re-enactment of a medieval village with all sorts of things to see and do. We were there with T&B and K,L&A to celebrate B's birthday, the weather was kind to us and we had a great picnic in the sunshine. I had the somewhat silly idea that we should all go by bicycle so we set off for the 30km (~20mile) bike ride, MK on her bike alone and me pulling the trailer with 2 boys in it and lot of other clothes and gear. It was hard work but we were not too late and I think it was worth the effort. MK was suffering a bit by the time we got home and I was glad that J elected to get a lift with his grandparents instead of weighing me down.

After a short ride on Friday, BHP and I agreed to go for a long ride on Saturday. He plotted a route and we met half way between our houses to set off for 160km. There has been some rain overnight so I put on my rain jacket and set out at 09:30 to meet him. It was very windy and we somehow managed to ride approximately 110 of the first 120km heading into the wind before finally turning to ride down wind. The map shows some sort of approximation of the route and the blue arrow shows that the wind couldn't have been much less helpful. I was really tired when we got back to Sorø and was happy to crash out for a while before being presented with a great meal. Sunday was a lazy day, I took J to the swimming pool, he now kicks his way across the pool with his arm bands on and loves going down the big slide. Now I have to get on with a more aggressive training and dieting plan for the next month...

The reason that I am tired today

That is 160km (100 miles) and 6 hours of riding

The smallest, cutest shoes in the world

DKs first haircut

Speech Therapy

DK has been making quite a lot of noise for as long as he has been able to. He loves banging anything he can get hold of together to make a noise and since he had drains put in his ears in December so that he can hear better, he "talks" quite a lot too.

Normally kiddies of his age should be saying dadda and other things by now and of course MK was worrying about the fact that he doesn't say those things yet.

Last week he had an appointment with a speech therapist from the cleft palate centre who will follow him until he is about 10. She was happy with his speech and said that he makes all the noises he should be able to make given the cleft palate and is doing fine. When he has the operation to correct the cleft palate, he will be physically able to make the missing consonant sounds and then he can get on with the "mamma" and "daddas".

Legoland

We had a great trip to Legoland at the weekend. I have plenty of pictures on my phone, but I don't have the cable with me at the moment so that will have to wait until later to get them posted.
The weather on Saturday was horrid, it was cold (8 degrees IN MAY!) and raining. Thankfully the rain disappeared in the afternoon and it gradually warmed up. We went on a few rides and then went back to the hotel to warm up and get ready for dinner.
We had a big Mexican (DanMex I think it more precise) buffet and too much to eat whilst J ran around with the other kids. The Legoland hotel is great for kids and the staff don't seem to mind the kids running around shrieking and Lego everywhere.
Sunday started with a hearty breakfast, I did the make your own pancakes for the rest of the family and then we hit the park again at opening time to do some more rides and look around a bit more. The little Lego world was pretty cool and I particularly liked the guy working on his bike outside his house in the Lego Beverly Hills.

The trip home went fine for the first 2 hours until we hit a serious traffic jam about 5 miles from home that took 1½ hours to get through. There was crying and a roadside pee stop, but in the end it was enough justification for us to have pizza for tea so it wasn't all in vain. I'm looking forward to better weather for next years trip...

Pics to follow.

The Long March

I don't expect too many people will remember the film with John Cleese called clockwise, but last night I reinacted some parts of it by getting rather lost on my way home from work. He was in a car whistl I was on my bike, but we both ended up going round in circles and in the middle of fields.

I got lost leaving Copenhagen and took a somewhat meandering route to get out of the city. I then had a stroke of luck in meeting up with a guy who was riding home to Køge at a pretty good pace and was happy for me to sit on his wheel. Unfortunately when I turn off that road, I was all alone and not at all sure where to go. I manged reasonably well until near Borup when I took a road that ended up being a dead end after about 5km. Rather than turning back, I decided to find my way through the forst trails and get over or under both the motorway and the rail tracks that were either side of me.

In all honesty, it was a really good fun ride, I enjoyed being in the forest and the odd field never hurt anyone, I would just have liked to get home a little sooner. The good news was that I felt really good even after about 3½ hours of fairly hard riding so I am starting to feel a little more confident about finishing the races in the Alps in the summer

Tomorrow:

Alarm clocks

I used to be fairly reliable with an alarm clock because without one I would never wake up. That has changed since J and DK moved in with us and we are generally awake quite early in the mornings. This has had 2 consequnces, firstly on the odd mornings that everyone sleeps a little later, then I oversleep and secondly, when I do need an alarn I rarely seem to get it working as it should.

This second problem has 2 root causes, the first is that sometimes the alarm clock has been tampered with by either MK (becuase I didn't turn it off properly) or J (he likes to fiddle with things) meaning that the volume may be off or some other problem meaning that it makes no sound. This morning the problem was entirely of my own making. I checked the time, but forgot to check that it was turned on. It wasn't.

I had planned to cycle to work today, the bike was prepared, the clothes laid out and I was psyched up for it. However, given that it is about 2½ hours ride, I needed to be out of the door by 06:30 at the latest and I didn't wake up until 06:18 meaning that I was not going to get to the office before about 09:30 which is too late even for me. In the end I took my bike on the train and I will cycle home, at least I will get a reasonable ride in and have a chance to scope out the route in reverse before I try the round trip (maybe next week).

View from the office

The trees don't really do the picture justice, but from the balcony at our office we have a great view over the beach and all the boats passing through the Ørsund which is the stretch of water between Denmark and Sweden. I can even see it though the window from where I am sitting which means that I am constantly reminded of something that I would rather be doing... There is nothing wrong with working as such, but I do find that it takes up far too much of my time that I would rather spend doing something else.
Last night I managed an hour on the bike after the kids went to bed, it was a little chilly and there were millions of insects, but the sun was shining and it was great to be out again. This morning I have brought a bag of clothes to the office with me with the intention of cycling here tomorrow morning. I am a little fearful of actually doing the round trip becuase I think it will be about 140km all told, but I need to get some training in if I am to manage to finish the Marmotte in July.

Can't resist a bargain

Last week we got in our bi-anual shopping spree. I bought a few T shirts, MK a Christening outfit and the boys both got a complete new summer wardrobe.

The best bargains to be had at this time of year though are winter clothes.

The Tour of Italy is going on at the moment and you can follow the liver coverage here. If you look over to the right of the screen you may be lucky (or unluky if you are my wife) to notice that Competitive Cyclist has a sale on meaning that you can get Assos winter gear half price.

It is unusual to see such discounts on Assos gear and I am looking forward to dressing up as a very blue superhero: Doughman or blueberryman or something like that...

I bought some stuff and am looking forward to getting it before the leaves fall off the trees again in the autumn

Home again

We had a really busy time in England driving up and down the country but it was really nice to catch up with people and DK's feet are doing exactly what they are supposed to.

We managed a day in Manchester at Booth Hall Children's Hospital just before they relocate to a new building in the centre of Manchester for our next visit in November. J stayed home and made cakes with Grandma and they both enjoyed themselves thoroughly.

On Saturday we met with S, C and F for lunch. The lunch and ice cream were hits, but sitting on the old tractor outside was less posular with J as you can see.

We then went to Thomas Land at Drayton Manor Park to meet Thomas the Tank Engine and his chums

Going home

It will be nice to spend some time in Enlgand this weekend. There are fish and chips to be eaten tea to be drunk and maybe a curry to be consumed at some point.
I have also ordered a fortunes worth of gear over the internet to bring back to DK including a new PC some cycling clothes and a couple of books.

Fun times :-)

Let the blogging begin (again)

It's been a lean period for this blog for a while, but I am now hopeful that I can put that behind me and come up with something to read again.

On Saturday I got up very early to to a 12 hour mountainbike race near Copenhagen. I wasn't really looking forward to either the early morning or the many hours riding round in circles. These timed races generally follow the same format of riding around a course as many times as possible withing a given time period. In this case the course took about half an hour I think and it was not too bad. The weather was perfect, the course dry and there was nothing to complain about at all.

I started badly, we were in a holding area waiting to start when the announcer said (in Danish or course) make sure your timing chip is in the right place on your shoe, don't start at the front unless you are going to stay there etc etc. No sweat, I'm near the back and SHIT I forgot to put on the chip on my shoe. By this stage the holding pen thing was full so I had to run over the to the solo rider tent thing to try and find my chip. Not there. Then run back to the pen, get my bike and ride back to the car to get it. All in, I think I was about 10 minutes late for the start and I cought up with some people about half way through the lap.

The problem with not having to get from A to B is that there is no real motivation to keep going on these rides. I am not competing with anyone, I can't tell who I am close to becuase I don't knwo who is laps ahead of me or behind me and it just gets rather boring. The course was hard and bumpy which makes your back ache pretty quickly and by lunchtime my interest was waining. At about noon, I stopped for a sandwhich and some coke and enjoyed half an hour off the bike. The lunch was rather heavy and when I started again I felt rather sick so decided to take another break to digest a little longer.

My heart was never really in it after that, I was bored and missing spending the nice day with the family so at about 4 oclock I decided to go home and have dinner with them instead to punishing myself any further.

I remember that last year I felt about the same, but then MK and J showed up and encouraged me to keep going, I also made friends with a couple of Aussies who were riding solo as well that day so there was some more motivation to keep going.

Maybe I'll do it again next year. It is extremely well organised and run and there was a lot of entertainment arranged for bored kids, just not quite enough for a bored rider...