No training makes me grumpy but taking photos makes me happy

Well the last couple of weekends have been occupied with taking photos.

The first weekend I was lucky enough to photograph the Great Britain handball team at the London Handball Cup. For those interested, my photos can be seen here. HANDBALL

The second weekend I was fortunate to obtain media accreditation to the GB Canoeing Olympic Selection Event. Again for those interested my photos can be seen here. CANOEING

Unfortunately this led to no training being undertaken as I was too busy with photography.

This made me feel a little grumpy but hey ho.

The most important thing is that I am still off the evil weed. 23 days and counting. Can't believe how easy I am finding it. Many thanks to Pfizer for producing Champix. Admittedly the side effects could put a lot of people off but I am having none, which I am relieved about.

The most important thing is that I KNOW that I will never smoke again. I'm even finding myself turning into an ex smoking nazi and nagging people at work. But that is only because I am really feeling the benefits.

On Sunday I decided to put this to the test. I was planning on going out on the bike but the weather in Doncaster was changeable at best. Thanks to the BBC for the snapshot below.

It absolutely bucketed it down before I set off.

Right then on to plan B, a session with my turbo trainer. I decided to do at least 25km on the trainer. Despite this being very boring it was preferable to getting soaked to the skin.

I put on my new (well second hand) HRM. It's a Polar F11. I found it really difficult  to stay within the heart rate zones which were specified.

After 15km my wife came to ask "why don't you do the full distance?" Right gauntlet thrown down, challenge accepted. Great.

Another 25km later and I got off the bike with jelly legs. The time. Brace yourself 01:19:36 which I was amazed by considering I was aiming for 2 hours in the event. Admittedly there was no wind resistance but I had overheating to contend with as there was no wind. I felt chuffed. At about 35km in I decided to see if all the exercise had warmed up my achilles tendon sufficiently to enable me to jog afterwards.

I a word NO!!!!!! Gutted. I managed a brief jog but felt a slight twinge so decided to stop and just walk. I then stretched every muscle in my legs as a warm down.

The display off my HRM makes for some interesting reading. 1128 calories burned, max bpm 177, average bpm 148. Over an hour spent in the hard zone. For someone who has done very little exercise since 2006 (well really only 7.5 hours on a bike for the hell that was London to Brighton in 2008 with no training), this makes for some encouraging progress.

Can't believe how much difference not smoking makes. At the start of this expedition I used to get out of breath after about 3km. Indeed my first ride was 5.1km in 00:18:30. The performance today was a marked improvement.

I really need to sort my achilles tendinitis out so that I can go running during the week as I am neglecting this aspect of my training (although it is not my fault), my latest thought is that a compression ankle support may help my tendinitis. Cue google research through this week. Unless any readers have any ideas?

Right, the downsides to this much exercise out of the blue. Stiff back afterwards and stiff legs but that is to be expected, hence the stretching and warm down.

Remember you can sponsor me via my Justgiving page. I will be nagging people about sponsorship now that the London Marathon has been run.