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.

New Forest cycle ride

I went for a nice bike ride this morning whilst the missus and kids shopped in Southampton.

The first 4 miles were unpleasant dual carriageway, but the next 12 more than made up for it. There were plenty of ponies out on the open lands, including a few foals. Very cute.

What's the least bad way to get from the centre of Soton to Eling? I tried coming back a different way, and it was better as it wasn't dual carriageway, but it wasn't exactly pretty and Shirley high street is a very busy area that doesn't suit bikes. Any ideas?

MapMyRun.com

Reading an article on the IBM Developerworks site about Ajax-based websites (the cool interactive ones), it talks about a Google Maps Mashup named MapMyRun. I had previously used Gmap-Pedometer, but this one goes much further.

I've uploaded a couple of runs including the quickish 4.73 mile one mentioned in an earlier post. It isn't as good as viewing the original GPS data using eg SportTracks as it doesn't support the pace and heartrate data, but you can mark the run as public which allows other people find it and add comments if they wish.

Online Chess

There's a great online chess site named Scheming Mind.

Whilst there are options to pay an annual fee, you get to play "normal" chess against online opponents for free.

If you fancy a game, my user name is finnr.

Crazy sister running 7 full marathons in 7 weeks

My sister is running 7 Marathons on 7 consecutive sundays. You can see her plan and progress on the charity website that she's supporting.

She was interviewed by Colin Jackson for BBC1 in the Londom Marathon on Sunday,

MotorCycle World at Beaulieu

We're probably going to MotorCycle World at Beaulieu this year, Saturday 23rd-Sunday 24th June.

We've been for the last 3 years and it's always been worth the entrance fee, even the first time when it rained. There's lots of noisy motorbikes, maybe some stunt cars, stands galore, free stuff, and all the normal features of the National Motor Museum (monorail, musuem, Palace House, abbey, coffee shop).

You should go too.

Spring Duxford Airshow

I'm thinking of going to the Duxford Airshow on 20 May 2007. I haven't been to a "proper" airshow for ages and I love the power of the modern jets.

Want to come too? The wife and kids aren't too keen so I'm looking for people to go with. £24 on the day, £20 in advance.

Duxford’s season of legendary air shows will take off in May with a spectacular display of aircraft, ranging from historic and iconic warbirds, such as the Spitfire, to contemporary military jets.

There will be over three hours of aerial displays at this event, which also includes a special ground and air-based salute to Falklands 25 – the 25th anniversary of the liberation of the Falkland Islands by British troops

Recent Nintendo DS game purchases

The recent DS games I've bought because they were reduced on t'internet are:

Big Brain Academy
Puyo Pop Fever
Bomberman DS

and 42 All Time Classics has been ordered from Tesco for £8.97 with money back from QuidCo

My best runs and new trainers

These numbers are taken from my Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS wristwatch.

Distance (m)	Pace (mile/min)	Average heartrate (bpm)	Comment
3.10	7:32	160	Flat route in Warwick
4.73	7:43	165	Mostly flat route near Warwick (Old Milverton)
4.15	7:46	177	To Oliver's Battery sign and back

The work-run was done a couple of months back on my beat-up old Asics. I've got new shoes now (and bigger lungs).

I got 2 pairs of Reebok Premier Road Plus DMX III Stability Shoes from the Reebok shop at Bicester outlet village near Oxford. They claimed they were £70 reduced to £35, and they were included in a buy-one-get-one-half-price offer. So far they seem pretty comfortable, but they are definitely a road shoe. They're light and airy, which is good, but they don't provide much support on uneven surfaces.

Dilbert and the Way of the Weasel

I read the Dilbert cartoons via the RSS feed (http://feeds.feedburner.com/tapestrydilbert) but never got in to the TV show.

I also follow The Dilbert Blog (http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/rss.xml) , though it isn't about Dilbert. It is thoughts, observations and provocation from Scott Adams, and it makes for entertaining reading.

Given my enjoyment of Mr Adams' output, I bought the book Dilbert and the Way of the Weasel and it is every bit as good I could have hoped. It is interspersed with Dilbert comics but I find I generally laugh more at the humourous turns of phrase in the main prose. There are also snippets of emails from the real world, which are hideous tales of what goes on in businesses today. For example:

Mr. Adams, My boss explained to me how she delays responding to e-mails by varying amounts of time, just to impress upon people their relative standing in terms of power.

I haven't read the Dilbert Principle, but on the strength of this book I will be soon. Highly recommended, especially if you work for a large corporation.