This week's cycling.

We managed 2 rides this week, the first on Wednesday that explored Otterbourne woods, and the second on Friday which was quite a bit longer.

On Friday we managed to find the "downhill fun" that a local bike shop had mentioned. When we got there the MOD red flag was flying saying that we couldn't enter. As it was about 12:45 we took the opportunity to have lunch, during which time a guy on a quad bike drove up and took down the flag. Nice timing :)

Yes, we did push the bikes up the steep bit at 13.5 miles. The total height climbed was 2101 feet. We also found out that they've introduced bulls (cows don't have horns do they?) on to Shawford downs.

Friday's bike ride

We (Alan, Ed and I) roughly repeated last Friday's bike ride this Friday, although we found a way through the woods to avoid the last couple of miles along Romsey Road.

We didn't take a lunch this time so we spent less time away from work. Plus, when we got back, we had a lunch to enjoy.

It's nice to get the climbing done before the halfway point - you feel like you've really earned the downhill coast.

New fastest run

After collecting Emma from work on Wednesday, and having enjoyed rather too much chili con carne + chip shop chips for tea, I thought I should go for a quick run to make amends.

I took the GPS wristwatch but forgot to wear the heartrate strap. I normally keep an eye on my heartrate to make sure I work hard enough so instead I tried to maintain a 7:30 minutes/mile pace. The first 0.7 miles were downhill to the Tesco petrol station and I averaged 7:00 min/mile for that. The rest of the run was quite hard work on my lungs but my legs felt good.

When I got back home (up the hill at the end, aargh) my average pace over 3.75 miles was 7:26.

It's probably just as well I didn't have the heartrate strap as I might have slowed down if I'd seen what my heart was doing :)

Neil's Wedding

I went to Neil Johnston and Rebecca Daly's wedding yesterday. They had a church service in St Edmunds in Southampton, followed by a wedding breakfast at Chilworth Manor.

One of the highlights was a chocolate fountain with stawberries, raspberries, turkish delight, jelly babies, doughtnuts, profiteroles, pineapples, fudge etc.

There was also a roulette wheel and 21s/pontoon game. Everyone got a voucher for £50 of funny money. The winner at the end was Neil's second-nephew who ended £300 up because he collected vouchers from all the people who didn't want to play. He won a soft toy and a bottle of champagne (his dad looked pleased). A nice example of working around the rules to win - no doubt he'll go far.

2 bike rides from work this week.

The weather's been glorious every day this week down South and we managed to get out for 2 bike rides. Rather than the usual there-and-back trip to Otterbourne Jumps or Farley Mount, both were circular trips taking in some new tracks (well, new to the others but I've been pretty much everywhere around here).

The ride on Wednesday took in some of the river Itchen and Shawford Downs followed by a fun fast downhill bridleway.

The ride on Friday included a favourite downhill section in Farley Woods, the Shrine on top of Farley mount where we had lunch, a landing strip in a field, Upper and Lower Slackstead and Ampfield wood.

My sister featured by Nike & Men's Health magazine

My sister was recently interviewed by the Nike Plus marketing team. She uses the Nike Plus running system with her iPod, but she didn't use the Nike Plus shoes - she cuts out a section from the base of her trainer to simulate the Nike Plus shoes.

But now, as a thank you for the interview, she has some real Nike Plus running shoes and various other bits of running kit.

The Nike site is a pain to reach: Start here, choose Recovery Training with Paula Radcliffe and then "Anna Finn". They'll feature someone else before long so be quick.

Men's Health have a much more static looking link but a less cool photo.