It has taken well over a week to recover from the Kilomathon but I am pretty much back to walking normally now, and with glorious weather this Sunday I decided to get back out there and start to recover my fitness back to pre-Christmas levels.

My first idea was to take out the bike but the rear tyre was looking a bit soft. I tried to pump it back up but it had one of those weird Presta valves that I have never successfully managed to use correctly yet. I succeeded in removing all of the air from that tyre while trying to pump it up. I’m going to have a look on the internet today to see what I did wrong.

My next plan was to head out in the kayak. First time this year and it took me twice as long to find all of my bits of kit and remember how to work the roof rack. In the end I got on the water though. I had a great time on the river paddling downstream and exploring tributaries and things. On the way back I spied a nice old wooden rowing boat, a slow three man affair. Over the course of about 10 minutes I caught up with it until they saw me coming, at which point they started to paddle a bit faster. We had started to race and none of us were going to slow down. I was in a shorter but narrower boat, they had length but they were also very wide so I think I had a faster hull speed, they were powered by two men though. For the next fifteen minutes we didn’t stop hard paddling. As I got closer I could hear them grunting with effort but I too was feeling the strain and had it been any other time I would have stopped for a quick drink. We drew level just as they shipped their oars to drift to the quayside, and we shared a couple of pleasantries. I was well and truly stuffed though and glad when I made it to my landing too.

A good workout all round, though carrying my boat back to the car park I had a thought that I could do with building up my upper body as my new Speeder (4 weeks to go) is 4kgs heavier and although 22kgs isn’t beyond me, I could make portages easier if I do some weights at that weight range. I have loaded up the barbell to 22kgs and will now be doing some lifts in the evening.