Week 12 - Cycle 50km in the week.

This week's challenge was picked out by Alan Doheny, one of my colleagues in Proof Design. Thanks to him I had to cycle 50km this week. If I'm honest I planned on doing it in one go but alas it didn't work out that way! I'm gonna blame it on the wind! Also it didn't help that I still havn't replaced my bike that got knicked.

As a Plan B I did the 50km in the gym but had to split into 30km and 20km spins, which, in the gym, are really really boring. I even resorted to watching cricket to pass the time!!

So... proof below. Was tempted to photoshop the distances but my honesty got the better of me!

Week 11 - Bring Granny for Sunday Lunch (Now read... 'Do an indoor Triathlon')

The task for this week was to supposed to be bringing my lovely Granny for Sunday lunch. Unfortunately my ninety something year old Gran had more plans than I did for the weekend so that plan went up in shmoke!

So... Plan B. I woke up Sunday morning still to figure out what I was going to do. For some reason the first thing to hop into my head was to attempt to complete an indoor sprint triathlon which is actually one of my other cards. Might not have been one my brightest ideas!

A sprint triathlon consists of a 750m swim and a 20km bike ride followed by a 5km run. Due to the fact I was doing it indoors, I had to make a couple of changes to the order so the bike came first, followed by the 5k run and then the swim. The other thing I had to take into account was the fact that my body is banjaxed and my physio won't allow me to run due to a combination of a dodgy knee and a bulging disc in my back. Soooooo... the only solution that wouldn't hurt like hell was to walk the 5k 'run'!

The end result is that I finished the whole thing despite the fact I thought I was going to calve halfway through the swim, which I admit, I had to stop briefly during! All I need to do now is learn how to run again! Run Forrest... Run!
 

20km Cycle - 41:00

5km Run (Walk!) - 44:58

750m Swim - 15:56 (Took me 15 seconds to work the timer!)

Week 10 - Learn how to tie 10 knots (or maybe 5!)

This post is a little late in coming but better late than never I guess! I wrote on the card that I had to learn 10 knots but the longer time went on I thought that 5 sounded a little better and a bit more achievable! Sure when would I ever need to know 10 knots anyhow?!

I picked what would be considered 5 of the basic and essential knots that are pretty handy to know: The Round Turn with two and a half hitches, the square knot, the slipknot, the figure of 8 knot and the sheet bend.

Round Turn with 2 and a half hitches

The Square Knot

The Slipknot

Figure 8 Knot

The Sheetbend

Week No.9 - Make a roast dinner

Week Number 9 in the Big Brother... I mean 52 week challenge! This week's challenge was to do something I'm ashamed to say I've never done before and cook a roast dinner. My sister was home from London for the weekend so it seemed like good timing to make it a Sunday Roast Dinner.

So... following a heavy night of boozing and celebrating my cousin's 30th birthday, sticking a pizza in the oven and uploading a stock photo of a roast beef diner sounded very tempting!

Roast beef was the order of the day with some veggies and both roast potatoes and roast sweet potatoes. Said I'd try some Yorkshire Puddings too. Doing a dinner like this was always something I wanted to do but I guess I was kinda afraid of messing it up! When you think of it, what can really go wrong?!

Sunday Roast Dinner:

Roast Beef - Carrots, parsnip, celery, red onion, a mountain of garlic, olive oil, sea salt, black pepper.
Roast Veg - Roast carrots & roast parsnips with rosemary & garlic.
Roast Potatoes - Both good ol' regular roasties and sweet potato too.
Yorskshire Puddings & Gravy

Lessons learned...

• A roast dinner is much easier than I thought
• The beef always needs longer in the oven than you think
• I messed up the Yorkshire puddings (Think I know what I did wrong!)

I'm not one for taking photos of my dinner so you'll have to trust me that it was delicious!! :-)