{"id":28700,"date":"2019-01-29T15:32:02","date_gmt":"2019-01-29T15:32:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alananna.co.uk\/blog\/?p=28700"},"modified":"2019-01-29T15:58:32","modified_gmt":"2019-01-29T15:58:32","slug":"the-january-doldrums","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alananna.co.uk\/blog\/2019\/01\/the-january-doldrums\/","title":{"rendered":"The January Doldrums"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I’ve been trying to think of things to add to the blog over the past week or so, but we just haven’t been up to much really. I guess it’s just the January Doldrums. It’s cold, it’s wet, it’s miserable and more often than not it’s dark outside. We’re back at work, Christmas seems as though it was ages away and we’re trying to save money to recoup what we spent in December! What with all that, there just hasn’t been a huge amount happening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beating the Doldrums<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I don’t let such things get to me too much of course and I’ve been as busy as ever, it’s just that it’s been more routine than anything else. Busy at work and busy at play too. Work has been busy both at the University and for Pixelwave Web Design<\/a>, whilst busy at play has been getting my head down to some training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An average week at the moment sees me running three times, cycling 4 times, swimming 2 or 3 times and surf skiing 3 times too. It’s a mixture of base miles and some harder interval sessions too. I’ve written a training plan myself and so far I’ve been sticking to it fairly well so that all my weeks are coloured in mostly green!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s last weeks plan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Last Weeks Training<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The grey session on Monday is an extra surf ski session that I managed to fit in. I was planning to do one on Tuesday as well but don’t always put these in the plan as the weather often dictates whether or not I can get out. Not having it there in the first place means that it doesn’t ruin my nice green colour scheme with a horrible red ‘missed session’. The yellow session on Sunday was supposed to be a 2\u00bd bike ride but I went out into the hills for a ride with Simon and we were out for 3\u00bd hours so it went a little over the plan. Not a problem as it was then too windy to surf ski on Sunday so I didn’t get a 3rd surf ski session in last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Riding in the Hills<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The ride with Simon was good though. We headed out from Borth in 40-50mph winds before it was light. We rode around the southern edge of the bog and then up into Talybont woods before following the Leri up to Bont Goch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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River Leri<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

We then joined the Syfyddrin MTB Trail and rode up to Llyn Syfyddrin and then out to Craig y Pistyll. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Craig y Pistyll<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

It was certainly wild up here in these winds and now quite a slog. It was also down to about freezing temperature-wise as well and the hills were covered with a light dusting of snow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A Dusting of Snow
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We cut the corner a little here and headed onto the main Bont Goch descent. Speeding down hill was freezing but we gritted our teeth and enjoyed the gravity assist as we continued to battle against the wind. I got a puncture halfway down so had to repair it. Not only did this break up the fun descent but it didn’t help with our temperature either! Once it was fixed we continued on our way into Talybont. We then had a little detour into the woods behind Taliesin so as to avoid the main road. Simon was struggling a bit by now and was soon off and walking on any climbs. We therefore headed back towards Borth and the relief of a hot shower, hot drinks and some lunch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n