Friday 31 July 2015

2-1 up with 2 to play

The rollercoaster of the Ashes series continues with Engeeerland winning by 8 wickets, quite remarkable. 

Forget the piddly Bay #13 at the MCG, Edgbaston was like Selhurst Park on a Saturday arvo. Unbelievable scenes with 25k+ baying for Mitchell Johnson's head and boy and oh boy did he cop it. Great fun.

Still all to play for and with my main man Jimmy missing in action it's gonna be close.

Stat of the day, in the pre 5 day world of 20.20 cricket, how many 6s did Sir D Bradman hit in his entire test career? 

A mere 6!!!!, says it all really!  As Boycott put it 'why on earth would you hit the ball in the air if it increases your chances in getting out?' Fair point Joeffrey.

I could not help but mention this stat (and the score for that matter) to our Aussie guests staying with us when Melissa turns round to me and says 'well I've got one better for you, the great Sir Don once came to our house for tea!'. 

Just asked my Australian wife what the score is? This is way too much fun, long may it continue :)

Jogged in to office on a sunny day c.17kms in 4.45s. The 2nd highlight of the day. 



Thursday 30 July 2015

Bromley FC vs Crystal Palace

Great night of footie with all the stars on show on a warm summers evening.

At one point had 8 boys under my watch. Report to come tomorrow.

A good running day. Managed to hold 5kms at 3.29 at lunch and then able to double up and run home. All up 25kms today.

Wednesday 29 July 2015

Okay time to talk cricket again

No time once more and literally had 45 mins to leave my office and get back in time for call, so legged it to work gym downstairs. It's called 'fitting it in'.

I had completely forgotten about the cricket until that point. Result, with the large screen in eye shot the Aussies were already 3 down with only 70 on the board.

I was exactly 34 mins on that treadmill and unbelievably saw another 5 wickets go down. Even bigger RESULT! They were going down quicker than I could run the ks.

It made for an absolutely splendid run as 'Oh Jimmy Jimmy'' kept mesmerising the Aussie top order. In the end they only hung around for 36.5 overs, England got bowled out for 37 the week before. I love the symmetry of these ding dong Ashes series.

I am now pleased to report that last week's self imposed obstination re anything  'Ashes' is officially over and can now look forward to tonight's highlights show.

Back to the running, given time constraint I opted for high intensity once again. Progressive: 1k @4.30, 5ks @ 3.50, 1k @3.40, 2k @3.26. HR hit 167 at end.

*Please don't share these stats for risk of also being accused of doping comme Messers Froome et Thomas!

Tuesday 28 July 2015

2 x 5km progressive

With the time constraint of a 45 min slot I figured I needed high intensity. Decided on 2 sets of 5kms increasing speed as follows: 1km @4.30s, 2-3km @3.40s and 4-5km @3.30s.

First one was fine with HR only hitting 160 but for the second one I was gawwwnski at 4.5kms with my HR hitting 170. It is noticeable that even with a [5] min recovery the HR was quick to increase on the second set. It goes to show that once you hit the red zone there is no turning back. Had to call it a day there.

Unusually for me I felt horrid for the rest of the day whereas the endorphins usually make me sail through the afternoon.

Have decided to run into work in the morning. Company most welcome.

Monday 27 July 2015

Rest

Rest day today which coincided nicely with a busy day at work. Had a couple of wins which is nice and will take them whenever I can.

Got home to a house full of boys as with summer holidays comes 'sleep overs' - as if we haven't got enough boys in our house!  It's the new rage.

Classic comment from boy no.3's best mate who gloated to me that this is his first ever away day.  He meant sleep over away from home.  I love how London kids default everything back to footballing analogies :)

Big night on Thursday as Jack and Lukie's footie club 'Bromley FC' play my beloved Crystal Palace in a pre-season friendly.  Is already a sell out and the whole family will be there including my Dad.  Bromley just got promoted to the Conference and will be fascinating to see the Cabaye match up.

Really looking forward now to getting away with the family in a week or so time for our summer break - am in need of a break.

Sunday 26 July 2015

Christopher Froome 2 - DOUBTERS 0

To be honest I have been pretty disappointed with all the DOUBTERS who I have written about a fair bit over the last few weeks.  They have done their very best to spoil this amazing event (TdeF) and throw Christopher Froome's credibility into the trash can.

The incessant jibes were shot in Froome's and Team Sky's direction knowing full well they have their hands tied and are limited in terms of how they can respond. 

Basically if we cannot trust these guys then we have lost the very core which sport has to offer - that is in itself very sad and means we also cannot trust our favourite rugby, football, tennis players et al.  I say if you don't like it, stay away (on ya bike son!)

It is damn right ignorant to accuse the likes of Geraint Thomas of doping and compare him to the other G (George Hincapie) and is doing these guys a real disservice.  As I have said previously there is no heat let alone smoke with Team Sky.

There is no disputing the fact that Froome is an incredible athelete and am pretty sure he would have a hattrick of Tour wins had it not been for his crash on stage 5 last year. 

Moreover, he has faced more adversity in these 3 weeks than any other athlete in recent memory and has come through with his integrity 100% in tact.  I applaud him for that as I do the rest of his team mates such as Thomas and Porte who have all shown their weaknesses, as indeed Froome did on those last two torturous mountain stages.  I am not sure if I have ever seen a more courageous act. The finale was thrilling.

Special mention to Adam Hansen who I've mentioned previously who finished his record 12th Tour in a row today.

On the running front, Jack and Lucas were out early doors to run the Sunday Park Run - the UK have rolled out a Sunday 2km race for < 14s.  Jack was 5th in 8.xx and Lukie in 10.10.  I only rolled out of bed as they got back home.

I snuck out around 3pm avoiding the rain and thought what the heck I'll do 10 x 1kms with 90 secs recovery.  Started the first three in 3.37s and then slowed to a 3.43 average.

https://www.strava.com/activities/354493880

Happy that I committed to the session but form is still no where to be seen.  That said a solid week of training with > 60kms (4 speed sessions) and a couple of rides thrown in.  Bike form always seem to be good in comparison. If time was not a constraint I would focus on the bike much more than I do.

Here is Thibout Pinot's winning Alpe D'Huez ride - a not too shabby 38mins up the Alpe hairpins :)

https://www.strava.com/activities/353888183

Saturday 25 July 2015

Park Run (#5th place)

3 generations of Agnews made our way down to Norman Park for the Bromley Park Run this morning.
 
Jack #10 (pb 23.17) took the honours in the match up with my Dad #71 (25.ish). Lukie #8 ran 28ish and me 18.15. I was feeling flat as a pancake this morning feeling the effects of a tough week at work. In any case, I took the first km easy and then picked off the stragglers to finish 5th. Roger ran well in 17.11 despite the strong wind and jogged back home with him and Rory. 
A nice morning and enjoyed the chats after with the usual crew (Dad, Jacqueline and boys all joining in).
 
Our Jack ran well given he does no training and relies on the copious amount of football training he does with his various teams.  I keep telling him that the added endurance will really help with his football come the start of the season in September.
Hardly moved from the couch since as have been glued to the TdeF.  Epic stage today and widely regarded as the most exciting penultimate stage ever. Incredible. Quintana really took it to Froome who owes Richie Porte a pint or two.
 
Here is the Strava upload: http://strava.com/activities/353500762
 
HR got to 174. Getting better all the time.

Friday 24 July 2015

Usain

After yesterday's late night I dragged myself out of bed this morning. Heavy rain to boot further dampened the mood.

It's been raining in London all day and not good timing with the Anniversary Games tonight / tomorrow. What must Usain be thinking?  'I could be back home in sunny Jamaica and I've come all this way for this?' 

Well Usain let me tell you, you're not the only one! 

In all seriousness though it will be a cracking 2 days of athletics. It's amazing to think that 3 years have passed since the Olympic Games. The family and I were fortunate enough to be at both the Super Saturday day and evening sessions. It will live long in the memory. The boys still talk about seeing Usain in the flesh and wow that Saturday night. Is quite surreal looking back and was an amazing summer of sport.

My Tour de France predictions are still looking good with really only the Alpe to come tomorrow:

1. Froome (by 3mins)

2. Quintana 

3. Nibali

4. Contador

Almost forgot, uneventful 8kms on work treadmil squeezed in at lunch avoiding the rain. Will run Park Run in the morning.

Man of the day: Usain. The closest I have ever seen to a living Superman. Not only is he the best runner I have ever seen, but his personality is larger than life. Truly exceptional, truly great.

The highlight of the day was the 20 mins spent at brekkie with the little man. Happy boy. Love him dearly.

Thursday 23 July 2015

Under the pump

Massively under the pump at work (this will be an ongong theme) and only leaving the office now (11pm and cabbing it home).
 
I did though squeeze in a 2 x 20 min session on the treadmill @ 3.45s. Actually felt ok. No complaints. HR hit 161 on 2nd set.
 
That's all there is to report on today. Riveting stuff I know. Onwards and upwards. I guess it could be worse, heavens above I could be a DOUBTER.

Wednesday 22 July 2015

Mordor

Decided on the run in last night and that's what I did. On a sunny warm morning it was anything but easy as weighed down by a heavy rucksack, guessing anywhere between 15-20kgs. 
As usual felt sluggish until Camberwell but then all of a sudden perked up.
 
 
The big news of the day is that David Walsh is not a DOUBTER. Finally common sense prevails!

I've written previously why I think Tour riders are the toughest sportsmen going.
Here is Laurens ten Dam's blog - he uploads all of the stages onto Strava:
 
The view of Mordor from the office:

Tuesday 21 July 2015

10 x 800ms with strict 45s recov jogging 100ms (Avg 3.00mins / 3.45 min/km)

Slammed at work today and the first time I came up for breath was at 7pm. Really was not keen but forced myself out to do the session from home.
 
I programmed the Garmin (which really helps the discipline) and got straight into it. Nothing spectacular but bloody hard work and pleased it is over and done with. Ankle 80%, breathing really off.  The strict 45s recovery is a nightmare and even managed to hit a 170 HR by sprinting the final 600ms. I cannot remember the last time I got it that high.
 
 
Nice link. The Rendell interview of Jalabert was a classic. If anyone gets a chance to see it, you will know what I mean.
 
 
Found the interview link:
 
Here is another one for you DOUBTERS:
 

Monday 20 July 2015

Ride with Odin the God

Up at 5.30am to meet Bono (Odin) for a 6.15 meet. He's just back from Palma and was still on a holiday high. Always the best way to catch up on the bike, we covered everything from the Tour (I am glad to report that he is not a DOUBTER), his hols to retirement plans.
 
We plan to ride together a lot more over the warmer summer months. Bono is much tougher than me and is renowned for 200km plus rides in freezing temperatures and rain. He actually revels in it. Bono and I climbed Mont Blanc together in 2007 and Christian Trommsdorf (our guide and current head of the French Guide Association) dubbed him the 'Mountain Goat'. I rest my case. I will never forget how it took me 25 mins to put my crampons on whilst leaving the Goûter Hut in the dark of night at 2am. I have never been so cold whereas the Mountain Goat was in his element.
Had the day off of work today and had another day out in central London with my boys riding the top deck of the busses, the mandatory visit to Nike Town, tea at Fortnum & Mason and a couple of hours at Waterstones (picked out some classics: Mark Twain for T, Treasure Island for J, The Jungle Book for L and lego for R).
 
Grabbed burgers on the way home which made for happy little people.  Today being the first day of the holidays, I managed to cajole them to start their books which takes some serious doing. My old boss used to say that there were 3 distinct phases of persuasive parenting as his children got progressively older:
 
Phase 1. Physiological / intellectual  manipulation (long gone)
Phase 2. Physical threat (wearing thin)
Phase 3. Hard cash (have resorted to this 10 years ahead of time)
 
It would be remiss of me not to congratulate the Aussies. Australia will now take huge confidence into round #3 of the Ashes.  And to think it was meant to be England riding on a crest of a wave. The UK press have given then a rightful kicking, from 'heroes to zeroes' springs to mind.  Consistent with only watching MOTD when Palace win, I could not bring myself to watch any of it. I've also not bought a newspaper in 4 days.
 
Man of the day is undoubtedly GT (Geraint Thomas). It seems that not only do Team Sky have to contend with the French chucking urine in their faces (ok it was only one guy) and the French media making the Lance'esque accusations that they are 'riding on another planet', today they had to contend with the Frenchman Baguil knocking them off the road. I watched it live and I swear he was a gonna. The Chapeaux Thomas was though quick to thank the very nice Frenchman who retrieved him from the ditch. It was tension in the extreme and to think he recovered to only lose 40s. Magnifique!
 
 
Interesting article on my subject of 'balance':

Sunday 19 July 2015

Tommy's last day of Primary School and Ryder dance concert pix. Today in Hyde Park with J and boys and M&D

Out early doors with the family on fast train to Victoria. My company had laid on a morning feast at the Serpentine Gallery in Hyde Park. Met my folks there too on another glorious London summer's day. I have to reinforce this as there aren't many! Spent the rest of the day in the park stopping by Harrods no less for lunch. Jacqueline was in her element!

The boys were beside themselves as we saw a metalic gold Bentley (WTF), a silver racing version Porsche (never seen one like it), 3 Lamborghini's, a number of Ferraris and even some Maclarens. I ended up dropping them back at Victoria and shoved on the runners and headed out towards Vauxhall Bridge Road, over the river, past the Oval, Camberwell, E Dulwich, Sydenham and home - the only way to kill 2 birds with one stone. I was shattered by the end as had way too much sun and after yesterday's mini triathlon I was done for. All good though as managed 4.5hrs of cardio this weekend. This route back is c.17kms which got me to c.60kms for the week despite my ankle dramas, plus a couple of quality rides thrown in.

At dinner we spent half an hour debating which boots are better, Adidas or Nikes? Jack started rolling out all the materials that go into Nike and that he had studied 'boots' (WTF again). If only he would study English and Maths. He reckons there is carbon fibre on Nike soles?? For the record, in a household of 5 boys these are very normal dinner time subjects!

Ryder (#5) pix from his Hop Hop concert last weekend and breakdancing :) with large audience:






Tommy's last day at Primary school:













Today in Hyde Park:


















Ryder:


Saturday 18 July 2015

Park Run and bike TT

Only Dad and Tommy out for Park Run this morning as Lukie and Jack bottled it after late nights at the 20:20 game down at the gorgeous Canterbury ground.
I have been feeling crap recently - it must be mental - and can't blame it on the ankle which is feeling 80% better. May be it has just knocked my confidence.  In any case I managed a 17.55 with the ks starting sub 3.30 and then slowing (as per usual) until the normal final push in the last k. Roger ran well (potential 2.35 marathon runner) in 16.55 and Simon (2.40 in London this year) powered past me in the final 400ms. He is well off his top fitness too.
Spent the afternoon in the garden having water fights with the boys which in theory belongs to us now as we have agreed a price with the landlady. Now just need to find the cash. Donations welcome.
Jacqueline gave me a free pass in the afternoon and so motivated to avoid hearing anything titled cricket I jogged over to the local bike shop to pick the bike up post a much needed service.  Got talking to the owner of Le Bicycle 'Alex' who turns out to be from Sydney and use to run the bike shop in Hornsby which we use to ride past on the 3 Gorges ride. He then asked me where I bought my bike and so I proceeded to tell him about Bike Addition in Manly. So you will have bought it from Sean? a mate of mine he says. To which I replied I did, as well as a bunch of my Manly mates (Ben Stecky, Ben G and Tommy H). We swapped stories and then rode the 2km home.
Still trying to avoid the cricket I quickly got changed and headed out into the neighbouring country side on my bike which was feeling super sweet post the service. Felt good so ended up riding 90% threshold all the way round on my tough hilly circuit managing to hold >30kmph average. It's a technical course on the lanes to boot. Lots of sharp corners which are unsighted and some +10% gradients which make it a lot of fun.
Feeling guilty when I got home I headed straight to the shops for dinner to feed the fam.
Man of the day has to go to Steve Cummings, arguably the most liked rider on the circuit, who took his and Team Qhubeka's first ever stage win on Mandela Day no less. It's been an incredible Tour for this first ever African team.
Loser of the day goes to the gentleman who chucked a cup of urine in Froome's face and Jalabert / Rassmussen (serial dopers as riders) who now earn their trade as DOUBTERS, err sorry reporters on the Tour and in doing so taking the meaning of hypocrisy to another level. 
This gives you a sense of the TdeF mayhem on the supposed easier transitional stage. I love the bit half way through when Cav screams 'Mottooooo' as the Police motorbikes are trying to make their way through on the inside. He's such a lad.
GoPro: Tour de France 2015 - Stage 8 Highlights: http://youtu.be/0rtmriDfb4o
The country lanes / afternoon:

Friday 17 July 2015

School's out for summer

As mentioned our Tommy had his last day of Primary School today. I walked him to school as planned and attended a really nice ceremony in the afternoon. He is lucky that he has a nice group of mates and are mostly all going to the same local Secondary.

England got smacked in the cricket today.  Plain and simple. I have been debating whether to get involved and buy tickets for the final day on Monday. Is now looking like a good call that I haven't. The best England can hope for is to bat out from here and will need the heavy rain forecast for Sunday to hang around longer than the top order.

On the Tour front no major shake outs, a transitional stage toward the Alps. GT is now being dubbed the next Brad. At this stage of his career there are obvious parallels with Sir Wiggo.

I've been following Adam Yates' daily Strava updates from the Tour. It is very sobering indeed. Avg speeds of c.40kmph whilst  climbing 5,000m and clocking top speeds of > 90kmph. All in a day's work or 21 days straight in the case of the Tour :)

An amazing night of Athletics at the Monaco GP with the younger Dibaba breaking the DOUBTFUL 1500m WR in 3.50. Wowieee. 30 year old American record for Shannon Rowbury also, one of the NOP Salazar group.

I squeezed in a run at lunch in between calls (circa 9km @ 4.30s) and felt yuk but more importantly the ankle Ok.  Will try and tempt the family with Park Run in the morning.  

Thursday 16 July 2015

Dam early. The dreaded one dayer

Had a car pick me up for a 545am start to take me to City Airport for a flight to Amsterdam to face the music. On arrival in Amsterdam I had an hour to kill so jumped in the €90k Tessler taxi (the aiport has bought a bunch) and headed to the Anne Frank museum followed by a bite to eat at my regular haunt, the Pulitzer Hotel. Glorious day in Amsterdam on the canals.

Post meetings headed back to Schiphol Airport, perfectly timed to watch the final 25km shift up the Plateau De Beille. There are simply not enough superlatives to describe Graint Thomas. Forget Porte defecting and becoming a GC contender next year, give GT a handsome pay rise and wrap him up in cotton wool! He has now officially jumped to #1 in my favourite rider list. Great ride too by the little 36 year old maestro JR (Rodriguez) to win his second stage. 

Froomie showed some weaknesses in the cold today (he is Kenyan after all) and as a result I can report there will be no videos of Froome's predicted wattage, P2W ratio, VO2 etc. released any time soon. Crafty buggers those DOUBTERS.

My win of the day was successfully managing to direct conversion between the Dutch lawyers and I towards the Tour (the universal European language) and there was no stopping them. I am obliged to keep this blog honest and must reveal that there were DOUBTERS in the room. They are frigging everywhere!

This became painfully obvious when after realing off my first #3 of my #9 bucket list I could tell they thought I also had been drinking the 'magic potion' (more on that to come). Within seconds they had defaulted back to the matter in hand. You see now what those flammin' DOUBTERS are doing to our sport!

Fair play to the Aussies who fought back today and scored a lot of runs. Is only right to give credit where credit is due. This is about as good as the banter got today -Watto on 12th man duty:

Shane's carrying the drinks today. The grumpiest waiter in town?

"How's that wine for you, sir?"

"Nice, thank you."

"Are you sure? Do you want to review that decision?"

Shane Watson
Getty Images

Managed to get a 9km run in on the home circuit this evening.  Ankle was okish and happy to have gotten round in 4.10s. Relief though anxious about any long stuff.

Our Tommy has his last day of Primary School tomorrow. There are going to be a few tears shed. A real landmark day for us. Will be working from home tomorrow and will walk with him to school for the last time. Over the years I have always tried to make the effort to walk the boys to school, in Manly along the beach even. Oh boy how things have changed! Trivial perhaps but something I have taken great joy from.

Here is what the Dutch press are making of Froome. Translation is along the lines of 'how come he is so good in the mountains?' and 'is he winning the Tour using a magic potion?'. Make of it what you wish.