It’s the last day of the school holiday today and the weather is gorgeous. Ynyslas doesn’t get much nicer than this.

Anna has started her new job today so I’m at home with Morgan and we’ve just got back from a wander across to the beach for some Dune Jumping.

It was a gorgeous Bank Holiday Monday here. Clear blue skies saw the temperature drop to 4ºC over night but the sun was up early and it soon warmed up. With no wind at all it was a perfect day for the beach.

My parents were still here along with my sister and her children Kia and Shaun so we had breakfast and headed across with surf boards and such like. It’s rare for us to sit on the beach in holiday-maker style as we tend to just walk across, do what we were going to do and come home again, but as there were lots of us we set up camp on the edge of the dunes and Morgan and I went for a surf.

Morgan had fun and managed to stand up well, but the sea was a little cold so he didn’t stay out long. I then went out, and had a good surf with some decent 2-3 foot sets coming in. I don’t surf that much these days as I tend to windsurf so its good to get back to my roots now and then and make sure I can still do it.

Time to hit the waves

Surf's Up

Blackberries

We’ve got visitors here this weekend so didn’t do much yesterday. We waited in during the morning for them to arrive. They arrived early afternoon, my Mum, Dad, sister Trudi and her children Kia and Shaun.

Morgan attached himself to Shaun straight away and we barely saw the two of them as they played in the garden or in Morgan’s room all the time. I did persuade everyone to come out blackberry picking in the afternoon though. Anna stayed at home and cooked dinner whilst we all had a little walk along the banks of the Leri picking Blackberries.

There were plenty of nice ripe blackberries on the brambles, and plenty more to come. We weren’t out long but managed to get almost 1.5 kgs of them – So look out for some nice recipes from Anna with ideas on how to use up the blackberries soon.

There were also lots of people out picking the sloes from the very productive stand of sloe trees there. Trouble is they are nowhere near ripe yet most of them are still fairly green and rock solid. I know they are going to go into Gin but it’s no wonder no-one else seems to be able to make nice tasting sloe gin – It’s so much of a rush to get the sloes before someone else does that everyone is picking them far too early. They won’t have any taste, and what a waste of gin!

I’ve always been a fairly good swimmer and enjoy swim sessions in the pool, but driving back and forth to Aberystwyth to get to the pool is a bit of a pain.

I’ve therefore ordered myself a wetsuit and cap so that I can do some open-water swim training here in Borth and Ynyslas. I’m hoping to be able to use my Garmin Forerunner whilst I swim so that I can see how far / fast I go and with water all around us there should be plenty of places to swim.

I don’t know how well it will compare with swimming in the pool when it comes to quality swim training as the external factors of wind, tides, waves and of course the cold will all affect my swims but it should be fun. When it is calm I’ll be able to swim along the beach off the seafront, but as I’d like to swim in flatter water where possible I’ll probably head to the estuary and swim there instead. There are also a few buoys in estuary that I should be able to swim between / around which will allow me to do intervals and reproducible sessions.

I might also try swimming in the River Leri as it will be nice and calm there, although the currents will add to the fun! There are plenty of lakes in the hills around here too that I’m sure I will have to swim at some point. It may not be the best time of year to start as it’s going to start getting cold, but what better way to start the day than a cold 5am swim in the sea.

It seems as though there is a quite an few people into outdoor swimming or wild swimming and plenty of websites with information on doing it and where you can swim.

Wild Swimming has lots of information. It is trying to sell you a book about Wild Swimming but the website has lots of freelay available information as well.

The Outdoor Swimming Society has a nice website with lots of information too, including maps of places to swim, events and tips.

Hopefully as well as having some fun and exploring some new places from a slightly wetter perspective than usual, it will help with my swim fitness as well. Once a week at swim fit just isn’t enough to keep my swimming as good as it should be.

I haven’t been on my bike much lately. The frame on my Commencal Meta 5.5 is cracked so I can’t ride that and I’ve yet to buy a new road bike. Also, it’s been pretty windy so I’ve been out windsurfing and haven’t had much time. I have been on the Turbo Trainer a few times but only easy recovery rides after hard days windsurfing.

Yesterday though I decded to have some quality rather than quantity time on the turbo trainer. Time for a quick half an hour session with some 1 min intervals. As usual this is a 10 minute warm up followed by 7 reps of 1 minute hard and 1 minute recovery. Last time I did these I did the first 3 reps at 410 Watts and the next 4 at 420 Watts so yesterday I increased that and started at 420 Watts. I was doing fine at that intensity so did the seventh at 430 Watts I’m obviously improving somehow.

• 10 minute warm up – ramp from 120 Watts to 200 Watts
• 1 min @ 420 Watts : 1 min @120 Watts
• 1 min @ 420 Watts : 1 min @120 Watts
• 1 min @ 420 Watts : 1 min @120 Watts
• 1 min @ 420 Watts : 1 min @120 Watts
• 1 min @ 420 Watts : 1 min @120 Watts
• 1 min @ 420 Watts : 1 min @120 Watts
• 1 min @ 430 Watts : 1 min @120 Watts
• 6 minutes @ 220 Watts
• 5 minutes Cool Down

Turbo Training may not be the most exciting thing to do and you don’t get to paint red lines all over Google Earth as you do in the real world, but having a set workout to do and pushing yourself makes it a little more interesting – and you get to draw red lines with your heart rate traces instead.

Heart Rate Cadence and Speed trace

Have you run out of things to do with the children during the school holidays yet? The weather might not be great, but that shouldn’t stop you getting out into the great outdoors and doing things with them.

Blueberry Picking

How about heading to the hills for some blueberry picking – You can then spend some time in the kitchen cooking blueberry muffins with them. It’s getting a little late for blueberries now, but there were plenty there last weekend.

Blackberry Picking

Blackberry season is just about upon us as well. There are pockets of ripe blackberries all over the place and there should be more on their way over the next few weeks, so whatever the weather put on some suitable clothing (long sleeves and legs to protect you from the thorns and nettles and things you don’t mind getting stained), grab some pots and get foraging.

Wildlife Exploring

Fancy something a little more organised? RSPB Ynyshir have a ‘Wildlife Explorers Go Wild‘ day next Wednesday (Aug 25th) with activities for children of all ages – pond dipping and bug hunting with the wardens to see what you can find and learn about the smaller wildlife on the reserve. We’ve been to a few such events and they are always well organised and the kids love them.

You can of course do this one your own in the garden or a nearby park.

You can even do you own big garden birdwatch or butterfly count. Just because you can’t submit the results to the RSPB or Butterfly Conservation any more doesn’t stop you downloading an identification and recording sheet and doing your own version.

Den Building

The Forestry Commission at Nant yr Arian have a Den Building course for children 5 yrs+ on Wednesday 25th. Their woodland is the perfect place to try out your den building skills. Join one of the rangers who will show you how to make one.

Photo Walks

Kids love taking photos and with modern digital cameras it is cheap and easy. Give them your compact camera set it onto auto and head off on a photo assignment. You may be surprised at the results and more often than not their perspective on the world around them will give you some photo inspiration too.

There’s no need to spend loads of money on expensive attractions, kids love the great outdoors and with a bit of imagination and a reason for being out there you can too. There’s loads to do out there and not only is it fun but it’s healthy and educational too.

It’s probably a little late in the year but Morgan and I picked a “pint of blueberries” up in the hills on Sunday. There were still plenty around, especially since I would normally think about picking them in July rather than half way through August, and we had no trouble finding enough for our needs. We didn’t even have to move away from the main tracks so I’m sure there are plenty to be had if you want to spend some time picking. Admittedly wearing my light coloured coat and short trousers probably wasn’t the best clothing choice as we were both soon covered in blueberry juice and there are plenty of beasites ready to have a munch on any exposed skin.

True to tradition it was blueberry muffins for breakfast the next day and our long used family recipe did the trick as usual. This won’t make giant fluffy muffins like you get in all the cake shops but they are tasty, more bread like, and perfect for breakfast, either on their own or with a little bit of butter…..Mmmmm.

Here’s the recipe I use

8oz (200g) Self Raising Flour
3oz (75g) sugar
1 egg
3oz (75g) Blueberries
third of a pint of milk (200ml)
4 tbsp (60g) oil

Cook for around 15 minutes at 200 degrees centigrade and eat as soon as you can. This recipe would probably also work with blackcurrents or other fruit like that.

We’re not having a proper holiday this year, instead we’re having several long weekends and staying at home enjoying our local surroundings more than we usually would.

Yesterday was one of these days off so I had a bit of a lie in (for me) and didn’t get up until 7.30am. One of the nice things about stay at home holidays is that I can still do a little bit of work each day as well.  This means that I can stay on top of e-mails and a few other bits and pieces and not have that horrible post-holiday backlog to come back to that I always dread.

After a couple of hours work I did some computer research into which new bike to buy and then pottered around the house for a bit before jumping on the turbo trainer for my first workout of the day. It was nothing too difficult, just a 25 mile fairly easy session. This was followed by a light lunch with Anna and Morgan before I headed across to the beach with my windsurf kit for a nice windsurf session exploring the high seas between Borth and Aberdovey. I covered over 26 miles in and hour and a half so I was now up to over 50 miles of activity for the day and 2 hours 45 of exercise.

It had however only just begun because as soon as I was off the water, packed up and showered, it was time to head into Aberystwyth for an hour of circuit training followed by an hour of swim training. All of that may sound like a little too much for some people – I had a tweet from someone yesterday that said:

“Morning Al. Do you ever think about sitting down, & having a nice rest ? Wears me out just reading your tweets !”

For me it was a perfect, action packed day with a total of 5 hours of exercise, and what’s more as there was little time for eating I may even have lost some weight in the process.

A pint of Blueberries

Not content with all of our garden produce we thought it was time for some foraging. I went out for a MTB ride from Pendam whilst Anna and Morgan spent an hour picking blueberries. Apparently there were loads of them and although it takes a while to pick them they got a whole pint of them and it sounds as though they enjoyed being out on the side of a hill in glorious Welsh surroundings in the sunshine.

We’ll be back for some more soon and the Blackberries are almost ready too.

Best of all we can now have Blueberry Muffins for breakfast – packed full of antioxidants!.

I’d been doing well with my weight loss and training before we had a few days away.

I hadn’t really been dieting but I had been eating a little less and had been doing more exercise, so over the course of about a month I’d lost almost a stone. I then went away for a few days, did very little exercise and of course enjoyed myself eating and drinking and not being too healthy.

I had planned to windsurf and mountain bike whilst away but I developed a cold on the first day so didn’t really have the energy. Instead I reversed all the good work and sat around doing very little other than eating!

Big breakfasts, tea and cakes, huge carvery lunches, several BBQ’s and lots of sweets. I did manage one little mountain bike ride around Nibley in South Gloucestershire, but by then the lack of activity and the excesses had taken their toll and I was feeling pretty slow.

Back home and onto the scales and I’d put on over half a stone in less than a week. Time for some healthy eating and some exercise. Hopefully if I put that much on in less than a week I can lose it in less than a week too.

On the positive side, at least my cold coincided with my days away otherwise it could have led to two weeks off rather than one and you have to have a rest now and then.