Disclosure

As the tital suggests this is a Monday morning ritual which involves emailing the TGS list and disclosing your exercise for the last week.

Some records of effort are more technical than others (distance, time, time spent in each heart rate zone) but the comments do add some colour to an otherwise bland list of numbers. My key determinants of effort are distance and time which, by default, give me an idea of speed which will hopefully improve over the coming weeks and months. I get criticised for not recording my heart rate and training off that but, for now, perceived effort is my main gauge.

Some may call this amateur but I was put off the use of heart rate monitors in last year's Cowman. As I was running my 4th loop of the 5+km circuit for the half marathon I was tackling the long slow hill that took you to the top of Emberton village. As I ran past one middle-aged, male competitor I heard a whole series of loud, angry bleeps coming from his watch.

"Is that telling you that you're about to have a heart attack?!" I quipped between breaths.

"Yes, I think it is" he replied solemnly.

I'm not aware that he did have a heart attack. The only serious injuries that day were the man who fell off his bike when a bee flew into his helmet while putting his water bottle back in its cage; the girl that then cycled into the back of the car who's driver had stopped to help bee man; and, very sadly, the passer-by's dog that got run over (and killed) by the ambulance taking the 2 cyclists to hospital. RIP dog.

The other column on the disclosure email is that of 'Lagers' which is a very unscientific record of the number of alcohol units consumed in a week. Needless to say there is an inverse correlation between number of lagers consumed and the amount of exercise done. JK did manage an epic (or rather liver-pickling) 60 units over the course of 4 days one particular week and his training suffered for at least a week afterwards.

Either way, it's quite a useful record of where we all are and what our contemporaries are up to. Some of the whackier recorded exercise efforts more recently include bikhram yoga (in a very hot room), the 'Haute Route' from Chamonix to Zermatt and WJD's dancing efforts on the floor of the Inferno in an attempt to pull another CHSB*. Needless to say, some are probably kidding themselves when they record their efforts (TB to mention but one) and I sometimes wonder whether all my "C2W's" really do constitute training when I'm on the Pash**. It's worth doing and it cheers up Monday mornings significantly along with making plans for the next weekend's training effort.

* Clapham High Street Babe
** Princess Sovereign, Pashley. A wonderful bit of British engineering that is made of solid steel and has a large basket on the front. 3 Sturmey Archer gears are all you need to propel this machine across the country but the somewhat inefficient cycling position means that your body acts as a sail forcing you backwards. I record this as 'resistance training'.