Well 2009 brings another anual family holiday. Due to the recent recession in the UK, we felt that renting a villa was out of the question, so with that in mind I googled mobile homes in southern France, and was given the Thomas Al Fresco site as a first hit. Our usual time of year to go is in June, so using the quick quote links we found a reasonable site just outside of Frejus, an area of France we had not yet been to. The mobile home was bigger than we had used before with single beds for the kids and a good size double for me! (don't know where Ruth will sleep). With aircon and decking outside we bit the bullet and placed our booking, which pleasingly came in well under £1000 for the two weeks.
D-day arrives, and Ruth has been in hospital for the past 3 days, thankfully they let her out in the afternoon and we continue to pack and get ready for our 10pm ferry crossing. All packed and trouble free journey to Dover, at the booking office the ticket clerk points out that it was 10am this morning we should have been there. Ah!!!!!!!! We had asked for a night crossing and had not noticed the 24hr time, all was well and with a cheeky smile he booked us onto the ferry. On the other side the journey began well, with Ruth still tired for being ill it was down to me to drive the 800 odd miles to our destination. By 4:30am I knew it was temp to stop for a rest. It's not easy for a 6ft bloke to sleep/relax in the drivers seat, but with some contortion I was able to sleep for a few hours. At 6am we where away again and everyone was all asleep, by 9:30am they all just woke up. Breakfast and then the journey continued. Plenty of rain accompianed us on the journey and by the time we were well into southern France we wondered if it would stop! Finally the rain stopped and the cloud started to part, soon the sun was shining through and the temperature started rising! We arrived at our site with problems or issues and 30 degree heat. We where lucky and where able to get into our mobile home early, what a suprise we had to descover we were only 10sec walk from the pool!!! Not to close to hear kids screaming all day but close enough to throw stones into the water. A light lunch and dinner and a dip in the pool saw us turn in early for the night.
I'm going to try and do a day by day brief bullet point type of review so as not to be long winded and boring!
Day 2 (Sunday 7th)
• Go in search of a nice beach, seems we went in the wrong direction and only found a small but nice beach to have lunch and let the kids climb rocks. Water is way to cold to even paddle your feet.
• Spent time in pool, kids love the water slides, all apart from Abbey! Ruth still not been in any water!
Day 3 (Mo
nday)
• After speaking to camp rep we head up the coast line in search for a beach closer than the 20min drive we had yesterday. 5mins into a journey we pass a lovey long beach with ample parking and man made bays, great for the kids!
• Still 30degree heat. Will someone turn on the aircon!
• More swimming in the pool. Ruth still to get wet!
Day 4 (Tuesday)
• Who ordered to the rain! Thunder could be heard over the mountains and when the rain came it was a torrent! Lasted for about 1 hour.
• More swimming in the pool and ruth still to take the plunge.
Day 5 (Wednsday)
• Market day - drove into Frejus to find Market, drove around for awhile until we found it, parked up and found that the Market was mostly clothes.
• Back on the beach, join kids in search for crabs hiding in the rocks, within 5mins I've caught 3 largish crabs, to the kids delight, two of which seem to be either fighting or mating, as one was pinning the other down.
• Finished the day in the pool, well most of us as ruth still undecided about taking the plunge.
• Took advantage of the on site kids playground. It's rather good and keeps the kids amused.
Days 6 (Thursday)
• More beach and pool today, with temperatures well into the 30+ degrees staying by water it the best option. This time Ruth decides she's going in the water. The best option she chose was the water slide, a quick and painless dunk at the end, and she discovers the water is warm.
• Drove into St Raphael, the joining town to Frejus, to buy icecream!
Day 7 (Friday)
• Ruth wants to go to Port Grimaud, as recommended by some friends, half way there we decided that St Tropez is also close to where we are and decided to go onto there, in search of the 'rich and shameless'. Kind of dissapointed as the harbor is full of large boats, but the town is just ordinary with overpriced shopping. Had lunch and decided to head to Port Grimaud, also known as 'little Venice'. This was more like it, the houses were in stilts with waterways running in between. Took kids in a small eletrics boats around the houses, only 5 to a boat so ruth sat this one out. From here we went to Grimaud and climbed up to the old ruins.
Day 8 (Saturday)
• Decide to hit the beach early due to being a weekend and the locals all turning up, get to where we park to find they have started charging to park now! Ahhhhh I get he feeling I'm being fleeced! Only in France can you get charged for going to the beach, well probably not but it's just over €4 euros to park for the day, that's a lot of money over the next 6 days (if thats what we decide to do).
• After spending all day on the beach to get our monies worth out of parking costs, I think I might be verging on the 'well done', that's in sun burn terms, feet feel on fire and other parts of my body are decidadly roasted. Plenty of aftersun lotion lessen the pain, a bit!
Day 9 (Sunday)
• Its 'Fathers Day' and I awake to breakfest in bed and gifts of chocolate 'cacahuetes sucrees' (a roasted peanut that I'm particulary fond of).
• Decide to start the day by the pool, which then turns out to be all day as we just can't be bothered to pack the car for the 5min drive to the beach and the exturtionate parking prices. Abbey finally allows me to take her down the slide, now she goes down on her own as long as I'm at the bottom to catch her.
• Just nice to relax today!
Day 10 (Monday)
• Discover that yeserday was not fathers days, but it's next week! Does that mean I get next Sunday as well to put my feet up?
• New neighbours in mobile home behind us decide to stay up till 1:30am with friends, Ruth not happy and has ago at them, she so annoyed she can sleep and gets up tired this morning.
• Part cloudly to start day so decide to go to Monte Carlo Monaco! Only takes just over an hour to get there, we park in the old quarter and walk around to see the Palace and the changing of the guard, walk down to the harbour and view the huge boats (and these are huge, probably cost more money than I will see in a life time of hard work!). We view the course of the 'Grand Prix' and see the preparations for the up and coming 'Tour de France' in July. Ruth takes kids into the 'musee oceanographique et aquarium', whilst I take refuge under the trees in the nearby park for some quite time!
• Back home for a quick dip in pool before dinner and a game of kids monopoly.
Day 11 (Tuesday)
• Beach day today and the sun is out. For the first time this holiday I believe the sea is warm enough to swim in, truth is I'm just a big girls blouse and have only just picked up enough courage to take the plunge. Mask, snorkle and flippers and I'm the famous French JC of the ocean, apart from there's no wrecks to explore or sea life to study ( won't be doing that again at this beach! ). By lunch the wind has picked up, it seems to do that alot here, sand being blown through my hair!, in my eyes and I'm not a happy bunny! We stick it out for a few hours as the kids are really enjoying the waves the wind has brought with it (not that that are big, just enough for the kids to jump over). Back to the pool to wash away the sand where the sun don't shine.
• Apply loction to sun burn!
Day 12 (Wednsday)
• Off to spot celeb's in the near-by town of Cannes, you may have heard of it they show films there too! Lots of large boats means rich people, but none we recognize! We find some hands prints of the stars, well some of them we recognized. Is it me or does Mel Gibson have small hands? Guess Cannes only comes alive when the celeb's are in town.
• Coastal route home and we end up on a small cove beach, with rocks for the kids to climb and a bit of sand to lay on.
• Abbey turns into a monkey and climbs to the top of the rope tower that the others have been climbing all week back at camp. Now she's up there we can't get her to come down, wish she'd stop letting go of the ropes!
Day 13 (Thursday)
• Started the day by the pool, as we are hoping to get a cheap quote from the camp rep in next years holiday. Got some prices but not what we had hoped for, however one of the sites is offering a 2 for 1 deal on the caravans, so will check back later to see what the price is once we've contacted someone to see if they want to join us next year.
• After lunch we head off to the beach, all is well and the sun is hot, hot, HOT! Hey where did all the wind come from, it's now whipping the sand up making lying down a pain, sand in your eyes, ears, nose and for some hair!
• Catch camp rep and asking him about the 2 for 1 deal, he phones a friend and the price is £150 less than we paid this year, so we book it. Looks like next year is sorted out.
Day 14 (Friday) last day!
• Ok it's our last day of relaxation and sun, so off to the beach, the whole day! Weather is great, water is surprisingly warm with plenty of fish to see. By midday I'm sun burnt again, apply sun lotion/block and I'm soaking up the rays.
• Throw kids in pool to get sand washed away.
• After dinner and a short play for the kids in park and they are off to bed so we can get packed and ready for the off. Just as things are going well the campsite has a powercut, we are left in darkness, so I decide to shower in the dark and wait for the lights to come back on. 1 hour later we have illumination and the rest of our stuff is packed.
Day 15 (Saturday)
• We are up at 7:15am as the rep is coming over to inspect the caravan and sign us out. By 7:45am we are on the road, the weather is overcast but about warm, which makes for a comfortable travelling weather.
• All goes well, usual 'fleecing' at the tolls, Lyon looms as we know this is the most likely spot to be held up, as last year it cost us 2hours sitting in traffic, luckely this year its only a 5min delay. Almost get sideswipped by a Dutchman who takes offence to me wanting to merge into the traffic, whats wrong with people he physically turned his car toward me as a gesture of his intentions.
• Even after a few stops for fuel, food and pee breaks we arrive at Calais in time to catch an earlier ferry. 10 and a half hours from Frejus to ferry, with shared driving with Ruth!
• We hit our only real traffic hold-up at Dartford, typical with over 700miles on French roads it's back here in England that we get the worste traffic!!!!
• McDonalds makes for a quick dinner, and by accident they give us 2 extra cheese burgers, we are to far to turn around so I decide they need to be eaten, by ME!
• Home by 10:30pm, un-load kids into beds, sit down for a few moments and its off to bed for me, we are home safe and sound and the holiday is offically over.
-- Post From My iPhone
25th May 2009 was a Bank Holiday in the UK, and with the weather forcast being questionable, it was uncertain if I'd get out on my bike. As luck would have it my old training partner, David West, invited me to join him on a ride in the morning.
He had been asked by the local LDS missionaries to take them on an hour ride around the area. Now I have to admit I thought the missionaries mad, as Dave is in pretty good shape when it comes to bike riding, but he was very kind and held back. 8.00am start, and the weather was good. We were about 5miles out, and a few hill climbs under our belts, and I was suprised at how well the Elders were keeping up, although we were not going overly fast, I had expected to have to wait for them, it was David that pointed out that they are 20years younger than us, and youthfullness was on their side.
The ride took just over 50mins, and 8.6miles long. Our average speed was only 10mph, but we were off road most of the time. If memory serves David and I used to average about 15mph over this course, possibly faster but my old brain can't retain information like that.!
Here's a link to google maps that shows the route we took. Click here!
A good ride in all, and was great to be back out with David, who didn't even brake a sweat.
Thanks for the invite!
Trying to get back into some sort of shape, I thought it a good idea that I start logging some of the details of my bike rides, so that I could compare my results.
So I rather lengthy search via google for some free excel spreadsheets, that were already configured for data entry, led me to this site http://www.prologcycling.com , the guy that wrote/created the site had two versions to offer, the free one was just what I needed, as although the paid for premium version had all the bells and whistles, I just did not need to know, or had know way of knowing the data to enter. So it was the free version I went for.
Here's a list of what I'm able to record:
Standard detailed cycling log
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Type of ride (road, Mountain, Track...)
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Charts
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Detail Ride Comparison:
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Set Goals and Track Them
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That's quite a list!!!
Next step was to work out how hard I need to train, this is easily worked out by 'Heart Rate', and since I have a heart rate monitor, I was able to work out my resting heart rate (RHR), and then with a simple equation worked out my training zones. It's recommended that you rest for at least 20mins before recording your RHR.
To start you need to know your maximum heart rate (MHR), I went for the 'Miller et al (1993)' equation, which is MHR = 217 - (0.85 x Age). Now I know my RHR and MHR, I could now work out my training zones to match the following:
60% = Fat burning and re-energise glycogen stores
70% = Develop oxygen transportation systems
80% = Improve lactic acid threshold
85% = Lactic thresehold
90% = Speed
The calculation of a zone value, X%, is performed in the following way:
- Subtract your RHR from your MHR giving us your working heart rate (WHR)
- Calculate the required X% on the WHR giving us "Z"
- Add "Z" and your RHR together to give us the final value
Example: The athlete's MHR is 180 and their RHR is 60 - determine the 70% value
- MHR - RHR = 180 - 60 = 120
- 70% of 120 = 84
- 84 + RHR = 84 + 60 = 144 bpm
Well, that's me sorted. Just as point of interest - I decided that my training zone should be 70%, so armed with that info and a monitor strapped to my chest I set out on my bike to record some times. What I found was that my usual cycling speed/input actually had my heart working at 90%.
Hope this helps someone, who like me wanted to get just that little more from their regular bike ride.
Don't panic it's not an addition to my already established quartet! My youngest sister has had her first baby, he was born about 4.30am. Wednesday morning. Amy and Luke are going to call him Peter Luke Hughes, after Lukes Uncle.
Here's a photo of the little chap.
He weighed in at 7lbs something! And has more hair than me! Not sure what side of the family he looks like. Slept the whole time we were there, even whilst I held him poking and teasing him trying to get a reaction out of him!
This next photo is a terrible one of me, guess I should have shaved!
-- Post From My iPhone
A very good friend of mine donated a new bike frame in my direction. So armed with spanner and screwdriver I started the proceedure of swapping my parts from my old frame to the new. Big thanks goes out to my mate Dave, cheers mate!
The frame is a 7005 aluminium triple butted 'Leader' model LD-516H high performance frame. The reviews for this frame are very good, a good light weight but very strong frame, more popular in the USA than in Europe.
The crank set I use is the shimano XT hollow form set and bottom bracket. Attached to these are 'Crank beater' pedals with platforms, for SPD shoes or for that quick trip to the shops.
At the back I'm running shimano XTR gears with an 'SRAM' hollow pin chain. These have been on the bike for a couple of seasons, and are showing now signs of wear. Just goes to show that it pays to get the best!
In an attempt to cut weight down, I sourced a few carbon parts, such as the seat stem and handlebars etc.
I found the XT gear changer remote a great addition to the bike, which allows for gear change whilst in cruise mode. Also attached to the handlebars is the lock-out remote to my 'Rockshox' Psylo shock forks, not the lightest on the market, but coming in about 3.5lbs is quite light, the remote allows me to lockout the fork when hill climbing or roadwork, then when the mood takes a quick flick of a switch and I'm back in suspension mode and ready for the downhill crosscountry that is all about mountain biking.
Stopping the bike is left to 'Hope' mini's, which have great weight saving and incredible stopping power. I could'nt finish without mentioning the tyers, came across the 'Continental' cross country tyre, at a width of 1.5, its nice an slim cutting through the mud and great on hard pack trails.
Well that's about it, I love this bike, it weighs in about 20lbs!! which is lighter than a lot of £2000+ bikes.
The only weight saving I can do know is more closer to home, that's me!! Must get out more and drop the weight and stay in shape.
I really thought that this would be easy, as a website designer I was hoping the template would be HTML based. But that would be to easy. What I need is an XML viewer that will show me exactally what changes I've made to the code. Will google that shortly.
Looking at one of the defualt templates it looks easy enough to change parts/images etc. So what I need to do know is decide on a layout. Keeping it simple.
Will update later when I'm infront of my pc.
-- Post From My iPhone
**Small update**
After much pulling of hair I finally settled on a template that I found and configuered to my needs. Very happy!!
Last Bank holiday Monday we decided to go for a walk along the river. The sun was shining and temperatures where warm.
Here's a picture of the family
-- Post From My iPhone
