What a week!

I did mean to publish this blog when I hit the 200 workout mark on Endomondo however, that number has somehow surged to 239 workouts in a blink of an eye or in my case month since March 2011 (1097 miles in total, 0.0044 times around the world - nearly there :lol:)!  Commuting to work once a week by Bike has helped the workout numbers surge as that counts as two workouts; one there and one back :)

Anyway, moving on...this week has been great in terms of exercise despite losing my 2 year old running partner to another country at the start of the week (...and what's wrong with the weather in this country!?...oh, oh right!) who usually made at least one of my runs each week more bearable.  Running Club thankfully does now help fill that gap.

Moving on again, this week I wanted to get my running mileage back up to around the 15 mile  mark but, have actually achieved 16.96 miles with a long run of 7+ miles today, my longest non stop run in nearly 12 months!  In addition to the runs, I also completed two cycling workouts (1 commute) totalling 13.91 miles.  If the calculations are correct (it's good to hope), then the Endomondo website reports that I have burned near on 4000 calories this week alone...34" waist here I come......that was until I scoffed some of my favourite chocolate...Lindt Lindor that my wife bought me today as its our Anniversary and the excess food that I'm about to consume out celebrating....

Also this week, I have finally made the step back to an Apple iPhone (albeit an older 3GS model as it was what I wanted and could reasonably afford).  It also fits in my running armband to so bonus, no new accessories required!  Although I think the Android Operating system has come on leaps and bounds in the last couple of years; music management or lack of is where it lets the side down.  Most of all with Apple, I like being able to rate songs (on a 5* scale) when I'm listening to them (apart from when I'm running to them that is :lol:) and then syncing back to iTunes to help me form smarter playlists that may help improve my running playlists; something that in my opinion works best on Apple's software at the moment. 

Considering my 2nd hand iPhone 3GS doesn't have as good specifications and is a year older in terms of when it was released than my Android albeit budget handset, its amazing how much more slicker, smoother and faster the whole Apple experience is.  I just need a faster computer now to be able to cope better with iTunes because it does run slowly on my 6+ year old computer....

Things may change with what Android and Windows will offer in the future and I will revisit the competition if they introduce similar music management systems that can rival iTunes and Apple's software, but at the moment I'm glad to be back with an iPod/IPhone.  Only downside I can see at the moment, is that you can't get Andoku Sudoku for iOS but, I'm hoping I can find something in the app store which is close enough :).

From my statistics, by the time I post my next blog, I would have run over 200 times since Mar 11 and covered a distance of around 825 miles.

Mixing it Up

The last 30 days or so has seen me record 16 miles of walking, 22 miles of running and 66 miles of cycling.  I'm still trying to work out when to throw the odd swimming and gym session into the mix to complete the set!  And most importantly, I need to find some time to play golf as it has seriously been neglected so far this year and I'm not exactly expecting great things from my last two society games of the season, although in my defence we haven't exactly had the weather for it!

The running mileage is down for the month, but I missed two running club sessions mainly due to our summer Holiday which I intentionally went on without my running gear, but to compensate I did manage to do some walks...

Although I clocked up a lot of cycling miles this month my bike has pretty much been condemned by the specialists so I'm not sure how much further its going to get me.  I spent more on new parts for it this month than what I originally bought it for to try and make the riding position more comfortable and that was before I was quoted an eye watering £85 to get the gears into better working order (almost twice what the bike originally cost me from ebay!).

So enough is enough, I'll try and eek out its usefulness for as long as I can, hopefully giving me enough time to decide whether its an activity I want to continue with and therefore enough time to save up for a replacement!  In addition to this, I will be continuing to run, hopefully upping my running to pre holiday mileage and trying to add more gym/pool work into my fitness regime to shed the last few pounds and inches around my waist whilst still finding time for some golf before winter sets in!