Cranking up again

It's me Martin - just in case I forgot who I was!

OK I think it's time I got this blog powered up again. I guess most people have stopped checking up on me after a six month hiatus but I'll see how things go now. Much of that time was spent at the wonderful Chatterbox English School in Sardinia where I was teaching a lovely class of Year 5 children. Just as busy as schools in the UK though and little time for anything else such as a blog. So after this sabbatical I'm ready to go again and I'll chip in with bit and pieces from the missing six months as I go along. Running has been on the agenda and I did a couple of half marathons in Italy at Assemini and Cagliari (more about those later) and back in the UK in January I ran the Four Villages Half in Helsby followed by the Village Bakery Half at Wrexham (there's a theme there which I've only just noticed!) Times have been remarkably consistent with me coming in in 1.40.42, 1.35.02, 1.35.46 and 1.35.22 respectively. The latter performance earned me a North Wales gold medal in the regional champs and a packet of crumpets.

Nice red bell!

Just before Sardinia Lou and me managed to fit in LEJOG, i.e. the Land's End to John O'Groats bike ride which was a frantic twelve day dash! Because of my sudden plan to go teaching we had to fit this one in quickly - two weeks before we'd intended. I'd done most of my training on this faithful old Dawes Audax  (pictured above). However several hours on slow ups and speedy downs convinced me that my dodgy gears and brakes were not up to it. Rather than spend a few hundred quid on upgrades I thought I should spend a few hundred quid on a new bike, hence the shiny bright red Fuji Tourer you see in the photo below. The very helpful chaps at Evans Cycles fitted some nice mudguards and more robust tyres and I can tell you it was all money well spent - the disc brakes proved themselves on a couple of notable occasions and the 900 miles plus was puncture free.

Not quite so shiny now though!