Debbie took part in the Manchester Treeathlon yesterday, a 5K run at Heaton Park. She did it in 25 minutes – her best performance in a race so far. Pretty impressive considering the relatively short amount of time she’s been running too. I’m so proud 😉

For taking part, she got a tshirt, some vouchers for bog roll(!), a water bottle, some free fruit and a sapling to plant. The first sapling that was handed over was a beech I think. An English oak subsequently fell into her pocket too. We’re going to plant them once they’ve grown a bit bigger in a secret place in the Clough. Ace.

Whilst in Heaton Park we bought ice creams from The Rudest Woman Who Works In An Ice Cream Van In The World ™. You know the sort – so unbelievably rude that it’s funny, a bit like Basil Fawlty except this miserable cow wasn’t stressed, she was just a miserable, rude, ignorant cow (not her above, although Rachael does look grumpy in that pic).

In spite of the excitement in the park, I managed to get a ride in. Again I didn’t have the motivation to do anything particularly big so did another little local loop. I’ve actually enjoyed the lower intensity of the last few days so I must have needed the rest. I need to stay focussed though and don’t let things slip too much, in fact I’ll start my winter training routine this week. Long live long rides eh? There’s a few local cyclocross races I want to do as well – there’s one this weekend just down the road in fact but I might just spectate that one (cue comments).

The sad news of the last couple of days was the final demise of my Sidi Dominators. They’ve been such a comfortable, hardy pair of shoes but there’s only so much Araldite a synthetic leather upper can take. The cleats were knackered and they’re seized in anyway, one of the ratchets is broken and the soles are doing that crocodile thing that just says “thrown me in the bin”. So I did. I’ll get some new shoes in the new year, for now I’ll have to make do with my Specialized Comps which (worryingly) don’t look like they’re going to last anywhere near as long as the Sidis.