GETTING HILL FIT (The Fenlander Way)

I have tried standing on one leg whilst cleaning teeth and eating my breakfast.

Tore out a filling, ruined the carpet, slipped on spilt milk and sprained ankle.

So I am now using another method

Obviously the top statement was not true and was just for effect.

BUT... After weeks, and I mean WeeeeeeeeeeeeKS of doing BUGGER ALL what with colds and antibiotics and sore throats and all manner of nasty viral interlopers in my once healthy body.

OK it was healthy back in 2004 as far as I can remember.

I got back to some proper bloody exercise this week.

Well, that is when I was not being a taxi service,

or trying to catch up with the backlog of work I have to do.

So today was the first real day.

Started with an early rise at 8.00, ok, ok it is not early but it is a Sat.

Went out for a 6 mile run at 9.00 round the fenland trail that you will have seen before.

Came back and watched a bit of the Tennis, but it was two screeching women

(that is not sexist, it is the ridiculous bloody screeching that does my head in),

so I turned over to watch the Cricket.

Excellent, England had got the last wicket earlier before my run and then only had 145 to get.

Well Imagine my horror................................

I am with Boycott on this.

It was a disgrace.

How half the England team can say that they are middle order batsmen and then get out like they did is an insult to people who play cricket.

And as for 'Kevin I am the greatest bloody Peterson' (apart from spin, I really hate spin)

 

SHOCKING! 

But I digress!

I am not sure what I did after that. Home stuff I think, and then in the afternoon, having been given permission or maybe just going, I cannot remember, I went for a little 30 mile ride.

Now, if I lived in the lakes I could have done a slightly shorter ride to get the same benefit.

Say Ullswater to Ambleside and back via the Kirkstone Pass and then the Struggle.

Now THAT is a damned fine cardio session!

It was not the clearest of days, but we managed to get down to -5m out on Burwell Fen.

That's the Munroist equivalent of a Complex Number that is!

Burwell Fen (-5m)

The View along Burwell Load

And we saw Deer and Highland Cattle. I say WE, but just ME!

The Deer were too fast to photograph.

And Seagulls by the hundred. Which means that the RSPB comments regarding Wind Turbines being no threat to them because they stay near the cliffs is utter bollocks.

But then they do seem to like the bloody things.

Rather like the truely hypocritacl Friends of the Earth,

or should that be Fiends of the Earth

The Hide near Wicken Fen

View from the Hide towards Wicken

Just over the bridge between Burwell and Wicken Fen there is a small hut used as a hide.

The second picture is the view towards the wetlands on Wicken Fen from the hide.

The little dots on the water on the right are hundreds and hundreds of assorted birds.

Swans, Ducks, Geese, seagulls and a lot more.

None of which I know the names of.

Another view from the hide looking further left towards Wicken Fen

I can say, that progress along the track was slow and arduous.

Mainly because of the 4 inches of sticky mud and reeds that most of it consisted of,

and that managed to snarl up my wheels and brakes. Not that I needed brakes at that speed.

And this was after I dunked it into the Lode

Reeds along the side of Wicken Lode between Wicken and Upware

In recent years, they have introduced a lot of Konik Ponies to the area around Wicken.

They are a very hardy breed and are now thriving.

Konik Ponies along the river

 

More Ponies (you'd worked that out hadn't you)

Yeah I know! But I liked the reeds in the foreground ok!

The Ponies were at the far end of the track from Priory Farm
just on the other side of the Lode in Wicken Fen

You can read more about the Ponies (should you feel so inclined) HERE!

At Upware there are quite a few boats and barges.

 

If you happen to have a spare £45,550 spare one was for sale!

It was quite a nice one too

Sun starting to decend over the Fen

 It was not quite that dark yet, but I still had about another 10 miles to go, and I did not want to have to put my lights on.

View back along the River from the Large Lock at Upware

To be honest, I took this one a back in October, because it was too dark today.

I don't mean I travelled back in time to October to take it.

I mean if I could travel back in time, then I only needed to go a couple of hours, and anyway 'Time Travel' is hypothetical but unlikely.

I mean I dug out a photo I took back in October.

Now I don't mean I dug up an old photo, that would be silly.

What I mean is.. oh bugger it, you know what I mean!

And at that point it was time for the bike ride home, to see if England Saxons could actually beat the Irish Wolfhounds

AND THEY DID!!!!

So tomorrow I am off to Cheshunt to watch Olly play rugby, and hopefully after that I am going to try and get a hilly 10 mile run in.

I say hilly.

The steepest bit today was carrying the bike over the 2 bridges at Burwell and Upware.

Approximate totally ascent was about 19m, but that did of course involve the descent to -5m

So today's music?  Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Well I was going to put Falling Like a Star by Cara Dillon here

because it is a very beautiful song

but I cannot find it on You Tube (you should try and listen to it though).

So instead of that.....................

THIS!

Stomu Yamashta & East Wind - Wind Words