A brick ... delayed!

I have done no exercise this weekend - unless you can count shopping and walking between pubs as exercise....? No I guess not! We went to Manchester on Saturday with another couple to see Micheal McIntyre at the MEN.  He was very funny and I would definitely recommend going to see him if you get the opportunity! My only complaint was I had a stupid woman sitting behind me with the most annoying over the top laugh, and boy did she laugh ... at absolutely everything, funny or not!  I wanted to turn around and tell her to shut the fu** up, but I'm much too polite! 

Beforehand we had dinner at The Hard Rock Cafe, it's a good job we had booked a table as it was packed! Along with dinner we tried a couple of cocktails, which were delicious - I would have liked to stay longer and sample the lot but Micheal was calling us! 

Afterwards we had a slot booked at the cocktail skybar Cloud 23.  Timing was perfect, although we did have to do a bit of speed walking to get from the MEN to Cloud for our 10.45 pm booking! When we got there there was a huge queue, I felt like a celebrity waltzing to the front and being allowed straight in! However, it was down hill from there!  We have been to cloud before and had a great experience, but the same can't be said this time! It had been refurbished and Saturday was the reopening night.  They should have left well alone, it had gone from a warm cozy feeling place to a sparse cold un-atmospheric place and the service was appalling! We ordered our first cocktails as soon as we sat down and it took over 45 minutes for them to be served!  

We were sat by the window which was lovely for the view but with the lack of alcohol and management obviously saving on heating we were cold. We kindly asked the young waitress if we could move to a vacant table away from the window,  her reply was "I will have to ask", nothing like using her initiative!  Anyhow, that was the last we saw of her, so we collared someone else who give us the thumbs up to move -  just in time before hypothermia set in! Our second cocktail took even longer than the first!  We complained about the poor service and eventually it arrived!  Better late than never I suppose, and the girl apologised for the delay and added on leaving  "I will see what I can do for you!" We interpreted this as "a free drink" or "discount off the bill", but when the bill arrived we were sadly disappointed!  :-( I won't be wasting my money going there again! Luckily we were staying at the Hilton so we didn't have far to go to warm up! I would say if you get the opportunity to go to Cloud 23 - don't bother, save your money and go to Hard Rock Cafe! Cheaper, friendlier and warmer! 

So after over-indulging and doing no exercise at the weekend today I decided to make up for it! 

This morning I was delighted to wake up to a bright although frosty morning. I studied the weather forecast and was thrilled to see a sunny icon all day! Using this information I planned my day! I decided to run in the morning when it was still chilly and hoped by the afternoon it would have warmed up and therefore not be quite as cold on the bike!  I went on a fairly hilly route and my pace was slow, but then again after the alcohol and rubbish consumed I didn't really expect anything different! I managed 8.27 miles at an average pace of 9.35 min/miles, the route can be viewed here!

I had a shower and did a bit of housework, but I was dismayed 
when I looked out the window to see that it was raining! Sack the 
meteorologists for getting it so wrong and ruining my plans! I would have cycled this morning in the sun, and ran in the rain! I don't do cycling in the rain - it scares me!  By the time I did a bit more housework and then had some lunch and relaxed a little i noticed the rain had stopped.  I seized the opportunity to go out, so after dashing upstairs to change into my padded leggings I was off!

I decided to cycle the route the Kendal triathlon takes to see how long it would take me! It was a lovely ride except for the huge puddles in the roads and wet autumn leaves causing a potential hazard for a not so confident cyclist like me!  I thought I had worked out the route after studying the map but it appears I was half a mile short -  hey ho never mind! I managed 13.22 miles at a slow 12.5 MPH!

I have set a goal of doing the cycling part of the triathlon in April in 45 minutes, today I did the route (less half a mile) in 50 minutes 20 seconds, not too much slower, but then again I hadn't just swam 500 metres! You can view my ride here!

You could say I have done a brick session today, albeit with a 4 hour rest in between!  I don't think it counts! 

Once I got home I took the dog for a short 1.28 mile walk (you can view it here) before collapsing in a nice relaxing bath!  This triathlon training isn't going to do our water bills any favours - perhaps I need to do proper brick sessions to save showering in between and save water! 

I am going to have another lazy few days with no exercise as I am off on holiday to Dublin tomorrow until Thursday!

Then its another new month, November will be upon us - bring it on!  Not long left of 2012!