My second revelation of this week, after sports yoga… I’ve just broken a long term trend of running solo, and gone training with West Cheshire AC.
I’ve always been wary of joining a club in the past, however its nice to try something new, and a good way to fill up an evening a week doing something I really enjoy.
This evening’s session was hill training. Such a coincidence that’s my favourite 
For me, there’s little things that compare to running up a steep hill/bank/mountain/cliff…
They were all a friendly bunch, and there was lots of good banter this evening. We we’re out for just over an hour. Will definitely be going next week.
Tonight I took a brave new step forward and attended a sports yoga class. I’d opted for the one and a half hour ‘Intermediate’ class (skipping the beginners session) as I’ve done some yoga before.
Typically for me I was running late and had to run to the class…
It was not what I was expecting entirely. For the first 45 mins we rapidly shifted through numerous standing poses from one to another with no breaks. I found it difficult keeping up with the pace, as some poses I’d done before, some I’d not. I was used to yoga being very slow and concentrated, but this was fast flowing and very strenuous! I was surprised at how quickly my muscles started to fatigue, and soon I was breaking into a sweat and secretly hoping that we’d take a break soon so I could recover! I also wished I’d not been out running at lunch, as this was a serious workout.
After a time, things were slowed down into mat poses, mainly abs and back. This was also really tiring as we did multiple reps of each pose.
Our instructor was great, and during the class she moved about doing the poses around the room so we were not restricted by our positions in the class. She also gave me and the other newcomer some extra help getting the mat poses correct. Just hope I can remember next time!
Near the end of the class, we were told to put our warm clothes on and blankets were handed out. Then the lights were put out completely, setting a wonderful mood for the relaxation session.
After the class everyone had tea and biscuits and a chat. It turns out that many of the people there were runners, and I noted a few familiar faces from fell races I’d taken part in last year.
I’m sure I’ll be feeling sore from this in the next few days, but think I will definitely go again.
Today I attempted to walk up Pen yr Ole Wen , the most southerly mountain in Snowdonia’s Carneddau range.
It was a total disaster. One, because I got there rather late, and two (somewhat connected to the reason behind one) I wasn’t feeling very well.
I’ve never actually set foot on any of the Carneddau’s 3000 footers before, so this was somewhat ambitious considering my physical condition at the time, and the weather didn’t help either.
Anyway, to cut a sad story short, I took the steeper scrambling route from Idwal Cottage, got within 50 metres of the summit (I think) and made the decision to turn back as I felt dizzy and faint. Took some pictures though of the surrounding mountains, so not a complete debacle.
More images here…
Why does choosing a WordPress theme take so long? Every time I find one I like, I discover a problem with it and have to start again.
Another few hours consumed and no result!
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Since owning my iPhone for a few weeks I’ve been busy trying out Apps and accessories. I can recommend all of these…
Appigo “ToDo” is the best task manager I’ve found on the iPhone, having tried many of the popular ToDo Apps. I also opted for a “Pro” account on Remember the Milk, to benefit from online syncing of my tasks. I much prefer Appigo over RTM’s own App, the most useful feature to me being the “Quick Add” button.
“Feeds” is the nicest RSS reader I’ve found on the iPhone yet, with compatibility with Google Reader and plenty of customisation options to make it work just the way you want it to.
For the car, the dash/windscreen mount above fits the iPhone 3G perfectly and is really slimline. It even comes with a free charger. However, that’s not needed if you get an FM transmitter with charging capability. After lots of research and reading all the reviews out there, I opted for the Griffin iTrip Auto Pilot. It’s a cool piece of kit. The track & play/pause control buttons on the car power plug are a great idea, as it prevents you having to dangerously mess with the iPhone controls when driving. The auto tuning has been fine so far. I’ve owned two iTrip’s for various iPods before this one, and can confidently say that the Griffin’s FM transmitters are powerful enough to give a clear signal even when you’ve not got a completely clear FM frequency. Although, this can depend a lot on where the aerial is in your car…
Moving on to desktop docks, I’ve opted for two. The offical Apple iPhone 3G Dock for work and a non-Apple one for home. The official Apple one will work with headphones in it’s Line-Out socket, so long as your headphones have a volume control (otherwise you can’t adjust the volume).
I should also mention Nuevasync.com who provide a free service that can sync your iPhone calendar with Google Calendar. This is totally fab if you use Google Calendar.
I recently found out that my seemingly perpetual mobile contract with vodafone was finally over, so at last I’ve been able to join the ranks of iPhone users! Got the 16Gb white model today
This isn’t the first post I’ve ever written on a mobile device, but it’s certainly a lot easier typing on the iPhone’s screen than on those tiny little mobile phone buttons.
Hello.
