Tales from a down-shifted family
- Making the most of modest means
Alan, Anna & Morgan live in West Wales and attempt to make the most out of life. Alan is a freelance website designer, Sports & Exercise Science Lab Technician and full time Dad & husband. Anna works at Aberystwyth University and is a full time Mum & wife.
Strong winds – 30-40 knots WNW Big(ish) Waves – 3-4 foot messy surf Sunshine New sail – 5m Gun Transwave New Harness – Gun Trion An Hour or so to spare All adds up to big fun and sore ribs! All felt fine with the new kit and I was well powered up and flying...
Read more »Coast Path Vital Stats Conwy to Rhos on Sea Distance: 13.80 miles Elevation Gain Today: 287m Highest Elevation: 142m Time: 3:17:42 Av. Pace: 14:20 mins/mile Av. Heart Rate: Max Heart Rate: Calories: 2308 Totals to Date Total Distance: 396.48miles Total Time: 75:21:47 Total Elevation Gain: 10787 Total Calories: 37308 Distance to go: 499 miles Another day and another chance to complete...
Read more »I had a bit of a change to my usual Wales Coast Path Run this week. We were down on the South Coast so that Anna could attend a River Cottage HQ cheese-making course that I’d bought her for her birthday. So, while she was at that all day on Sunday I decided to run along the coast...
Read more »MRI Scan Results I’ve finally had the results back from the MRI scan on my shoulder and a diagnosis. Essentially there’s some fairly extensive arthritis of my acromioclavicular (AC) joint. If you remember back to the New Year when my shoulder pain first occurred then I thought at the time that it was an AC joint issue....
Read more »My training for the upcoming Ocean Lava Half-Ironman distance triathlon has been going from bad to worse. In fact as mentioned previously I haven’t really been ‘training’ this year, just exercising. I’ve had a shoulder injury so no swimming. I’ve had achilles problems which has stopped me running a little. Then last week I had some...
Read more »Coast Path Vital Stats Maltraeth to Four Mile Bridge Distance: 18.70 miles Elevation Gain Today: 332m Highest Elevation: 68m Time: 4:06:45 Av. Pace: 13:12 mins/mile Av. Heart Rate: 101bpm Max Heart Rate: 158bpm Calories: 1452 Totals to Date Total Distance: 262.72 miles Total Time: 48:44:59 Total Elevation Gain: 7349m Total Calories: 23209 Distance to go: 623 miles That was...
Read more »Those of you who knew me a few years ago won’t quite believe this, but it has been ages (literally months) since I’ve been windsurfing. So long in fact that I don’t want to look it up to see how long ago it was! This may not seem unusual to some people, but considering the...
Read more »For some reason we’ve all been exhausted for the last couple of weeks. Anna is tired, Morgan is tired and even I’m staying in bed until 6am! My training has been terrible as a result too. I took it easy while I was ill a couple of weeks ago but just haven’t been able to...
Read more »After months of Base level training over the winter, it’s time to gradually start upping the intensity a little. Nothing too mad yet, just some harder, shorter intervals on the bike and some tempo runs rather than the usual low heart rate MAF zone runs. Sick Bucket Needed! Monday saw the first sunny day for...
Read more »The latest Fenix 3 v6.50 firmware introduced a slew of new Run Dynamics features giving me yet more run data to analyse. The updates to the Advanced Run Dynamics included Ground Contact Time Balance (GCT Balance) Stride Length Vertical Ratio This is in addition to the previous Advanced Run Dynamics of: Ground Contact Time (GCT)...
Read more »What seems to be an never ended stream of injury and illness continues, this time with an acromioclavicular ligament tear. yep, I’m falling apart! Until recently, my shoulder had been fairly bullet-proof. Despite lots of swimming and the wrenching and pulling of windsurfing I’d never had any issues with them. This changed over Christmas whilst on a usual...
Read more »I haven’t been running for ages and it’s driving me nuts – How can I call myself a triathlete if I can’t run, and how can I train for races. In fact, it make me question the point of training at all because I can’t actually race at the moment anyway, so I’m not really...
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