Thames Trot pre recce

I'm up on 27th Dec 13 at 6:30. The plan is to get a train from Reading to Oxford then run back to Reading.  The is one Red flood warning and lots of Amber so my feet are going to be wet all day. The plan is to take my time and get to know the course ready for the big day, 1st Feb 2014, Thames Trot 50 miler.  I'm a little bit scared of getting lost but with the route on my Garmin and a map I should be fine. I'll report back later.  

Welsh Cross Countries Inter Regional - Builth Wells

Just a note:
2012: 8th 6:03 pace
2011: 13th 5:50 pace

2013 13th. Strong field today.

  It started to rain near the end. Bex and Karla were getting wet. Hail a bit Too! ce opposite way around again. I think Andrew Davies won it. He's quick, North Wales.

I've now seen the results and it's difficult to judge how well I've done. Been onto The Power of 10 and can see that Nathaniel Lane, who was ahead of me by 40 seconds, wis a better runner than me but other than that the other runners are hard to compare against because they're young or they only do X country.

Other news, the weekend was great, usually I f read the long drive down to Builth Wells but this time I took my wife and daughter down. We had a stop on the way down and drove slowly. Then after the race I'd booked a b and b, The Three Wells in a village called Howey. It was really nice, the decor was a bit old but the staff, food were great. Also it was a quite with no main roads or dogs. I might do the same next year.

On the Sunday I christened my new off road shoes and ran through open fields around my house.  Descovered new paths through agolf ccourse and to a village called Holt. Usually I run on roads to Holt.

Running in the most beautiful place on earth...

... is something that I haven't done this week.

Most of my runs are on a pavement whilst running into work next to cars. Gritty and dirty and dark and, normal. But I've recently really felt thankful for the beauty found in my regular route:

- the clouds;
- the moon;
- the podcasts I listen to whilst running;
- the way I chase slow moving traffic.

What beauty can you be thankful for today in the normal?

How to transfer / get / put a GPX file onto your Garmin

This took me hours to work out and I don't want others out there to go through the nightmare I did so please share it to whomever you think may benefit!

First download the gpx from wherever it is (usually from the organisor’s website)
Remember where it’s saved (download folder usually)
THis gpx won’t go straight into the connect.garmin website because it need time points in, here’s how to do that...
Go to 
www.gpsies.com
Click Convert 
then go to 
Upload from … chose the file gpx file you downloaded
then from the drop down menu on gpsies.com choose 
GPX Track 
then and this is important clock (Show Options) 
then only change the 
Speed (mph) set your speed (remember 10mps is 6 mins per mile etc)
Click convert (again remember where it’s saved)
THen go to 
connect.garmin.com
click the upload botton 
then the manual upload button 
the choose the new gpx file 
Once downloaded go to activities in connect garmin 
click the activity
then click save as course. 
then go to the course details and click save to device. 
make sure your garmin is on 
then it should be saved on your garmin. 
on the watch it should be under / training / courses

It's the small things

When you're into a heavy training plan have you noticed that it's the small things that can break you. The next run, even if it's a nasty one, can take care of itself but if something small is not in place it is that small thing that you can't cope with!

For example, I have a routine for commuting to and from work by running or cycling. Yesterday part of the routine failed in that I forgot my key pass so I'll have to ring the doorbell when I get to work. This is stressing me out more than the 12 mile progression run I'm doing first!

I've noticed that it's like this in life too. I can cope with my Grandma passing away and so too, I believe, my Dad can cope. But it's the small things like stopping the junk mail from being delivered to my deceased Grandma which is stressful.

I think I know why this happens, but still the mind can seem to be a strange thing.