The idea of a closed weekend this early in the season seemed like a good idea when suggested by my wife. After all I had completed 5 Supply League assessments , led on a Basic Course for New Referees and attended a handful of meetings in the first 3 weeks of the season. A weekend sitting around catching up on films downloaded from SKY, maybe watch a game or two on the tv ... well not quite.
We left home almost as soon as I got in from work and made the 150 mile journey south to my in-laws where we deposited our dog, grabbed a few hours precious sleep and then headed for Legoland near Windsor. We paid extra on our tickets so we could effectively queue jump using the Q-Bot. It's a nice piece of tech, where you select a ride with a long queue, book your place and then wander around until the time slot you've been allocated. You then turn up and walk past all the people who have stood in line, straight to the front of the queue. It's absolutely invaluable when you have an impatient 5 year old who wants to be "doing something" all the time.
After 9 hours of fun and games, we headed to our hotel, the Holiday Inn at Reading. I was concerned that we might get caught up in the Reading Festival traffic but it was all clear on all routes and I found we were staying about 15 minutes walk from the home of Reading FC, the Madjewski Stadium. No football on there though!
Day Two and we headed for Chessington World of Adventures. This is a place I've always wanted to visit but when I got there it appeared slightly run down. To add to the disappointment, their equivalent of Q-Bot cost £40 per person which was just a little too much so we missed out on many of the "big" rides. Nevertheless, we had a good time and timed our sitting down for lunch perfectly as we watched the skies open and the torrential rain poured down as we sat inside the pizza/pasta restaurant abusing their "all you can eat for £8" option (18 slices of pizza ... a new record!!!)
Weary legs needed some rest after 7 hours wandering around Chessington so we headed to the swimming pool when we got back to the hotel, but we only got 30 mins in the water. It was long enough for me to injure myself (no surprise) as I slipped on the steps and raked my shin down the metal steps into the pool - it really brought tears to my eyes.
The final day saw us take a trip to London. Driving around north west London trying to find somewhere to park the car was a nightmare. Eventually a sharp turn down a side street, saw me pull up at a cobbled strip. As I checked for traffic, I realised I was driving across Wembley Way with the huge stadium on my right still decked out in the banners, etc. from the rugby league Challenge Cup Final which had been played 2 days previously. Then it was on to the tube and into the capital.
We had booked a "flight" on the London Eye. It was my third trip and Liam's first but he wasn't that impressed, spending time drawing a picture of the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. On "landing" he insisted we go see a street entertainer he had seen, who was dressed as Darth Vader. His grin spread from ear to ear as he jousted with "Vader" before being patted on the head. His next treat was a trip into County Hall for the last day of the London Film Museum display.
It was a great treat for all of us and Liam's highlight was finding some Stormtrooper armour, being allowed to "film" inside the Tantive IV and marvel at Batman's costume from Batman Begins. Our weary legs finally carried us to the Science Museum which, like Chessington, was a bit of a disappointment. This time it was as much through our own exhaustion but some bad signage and information found us in a deserted basement, with routes to other areas blocked instead of a display area.
We decided to forego plans to visit the Notting Hill Carnival as we were all exhausted, so it was back to the car, up the M1 to the in laws, collected the dog and home. I've learned my lesson though ... no more closed weekends, they're just too tiring!
Showing posts with label Liam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Liam. Show all posts
Wednesday, 1 September 2010
Sunday, 1 August 2010
Training 3.7 (an away fixture)
The school summer holidays started last Wednesday for my 5 year old son, Liam.
He loves school and school loves him. He got a very good report at the end of his first year in "big" school and he never needs any persuading to get there in the morning. Obviously he can't stay at home during the school holidays so for the next 5 weeks, ad hoc arrangements are being made for him to visit various relatives and for my wife to use some of her days off, when she would normally work overtime, and some holidays to ensure he is looked after.
The first trip was to my mum's in Leeds where he had a great day re-arranging furniture and ornaments as well as going ton a bus trip to visit one of mum's friends. As my wife (hello my lovely Specks) was at a meeting in Cheshire, didn't get back until half seven, so couldn't pick him up, I had to forgo training on Thursday to get the little tyke. Speaking of "Tykes", Happy Yorkshire Day to all those currently living in (and exiled from) God's Own County!
Liam's next port of call is his grandparents who live in Kempston, near Bedford. We made the journey down the M1 in atrocious driving conditions as rain lashed us for most of the 150 mile journey. On arriving , My wife and I took advantage of the grandparent's babysitting service and had an all too rare night out.
I paid for it yesterday, feeling jaded for most of the day but still managed to fit in a visit to Liam's great grandmother's house before calling in at a friend's niece's daughter's Christening! I couldn't persuade my wife to have another night out, so it was a relatively early night at 11:00.
When I woke up at 5:30 I couldn't get back to sleep and spent most of the time until around 8:00 trying to kid my body that it just wanted to sleep, but instead the guilt from missing Thursday's training and Friday night's excesses, I decided to go training.
Kempston is served by two council run football facilities, each with a handful of fields available for teams to use. I chose the one down by Hillgrounds as my venue for this morning's session and began my self imposed torture. My warm up was two laps of a field, dropping the pace to walking to ensure I kept my heart rate at around 75% of maximum.
After my shuttles I completed 3 sets of 4 exercises. I ran from the goal line to the edge of the penalty area, back to the goal line, up to the halfway line, back to the goal line and then to the far goal line and back to the start point. I wasn't feeling too good (having eaten far too much yesterday afternoon and still feeling slightly jaded from Friday night's session around the bars and clubs of Bedford) and decided to try and maintain an even pace. After each exercise I was taking a minute's rest and after each set of four I took 3 minutes rest.
I was exhausted by the time I had finished all three sets and had no problems just jogging/walking my way through my warmdown. I knew I hadn't worked as hard as I had last Tuesday but I still felt better for the workout. Calories burned around 840. My average heart rate was down to 140 bpm and the troughs (recovery time) in my heart rate would seem to indicate that my fitness is beginning to come back.
I just need to keep working at it and make sure I get all three sessions in each week. It's Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday this week. Saturday will, I hope, also see my first assessment appointment of the season as my Supply League kicks off. The appointments have been delayed as there was some uncertainty over the future of a couple of clubs who had been demoted at the end of last season following financial difficulties. It seems that the uncertainty has been resolved and it's time for another season of notebooks, pens, pencils and hours in front of the screen making constructive comments about referee performances!
Click the image below for a full size version.
He loves school and school loves him. He got a very good report at the end of his first year in "big" school and he never needs any persuading to get there in the morning. Obviously he can't stay at home during the school holidays so for the next 5 weeks, ad hoc arrangements are being made for him to visit various relatives and for my wife to use some of her days off, when she would normally work overtime, and some holidays to ensure he is looked after.
The first trip was to my mum's in Leeds where he had a great day re-arranging furniture and ornaments as well as going ton a bus trip to visit one of mum's friends. As my wife (hello my lovely Specks) was at a meeting in Cheshire, didn't get back until half seven, so couldn't pick him up, I had to forgo training on Thursday to get the little tyke. Speaking of "Tykes", Happy Yorkshire Day to all those currently living in (and exiled from) God's Own County!
Liam's next port of call is his grandparents who live in Kempston, near Bedford. We made the journey down the M1 in atrocious driving conditions as rain lashed us for most of the 150 mile journey. On arriving , My wife and I took advantage of the grandparent's babysitting service and had an all too rare night out.
I paid for it yesterday, feeling jaded for most of the day but still managed to fit in a visit to Liam's great grandmother's house before calling in at a friend's niece's daughter's Christening! I couldn't persuade my wife to have another night out, so it was a relatively early night at 11:00.
When I woke up at 5:30 I couldn't get back to sleep and spent most of the time until around 8:00 trying to kid my body that it just wanted to sleep, but instead the guilt from missing Thursday's training and Friday night's excesses, I decided to go training.
Kempston is served by two council run football facilities, each with a handful of fields available for teams to use. I chose the one down by Hillgrounds as my venue for this morning's session and began my self imposed torture. My warm up was two laps of a field, dropping the pace to walking to ensure I kept my heart rate at around 75% of maximum.
After my shuttles I completed 3 sets of 4 exercises. I ran from the goal line to the edge of the penalty area, back to the goal line, up to the halfway line, back to the goal line and then to the far goal line and back to the start point. I wasn't feeling too good (having eaten far too much yesterday afternoon and still feeling slightly jaded from Friday night's session around the bars and clubs of Bedford) and decided to try and maintain an even pace. After each exercise I was taking a minute's rest and after each set of four I took 3 minutes rest.
I was exhausted by the time I had finished all three sets and had no problems just jogging/walking my way through my warmdown. I knew I hadn't worked as hard as I had last Tuesday but I still felt better for the workout. Calories burned around 840. My average heart rate was down to 140 bpm and the troughs (recovery time) in my heart rate would seem to indicate that my fitness is beginning to come back.
I just need to keep working at it and make sure I get all three sessions in each week. It's Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday this week. Saturday will, I hope, also see my first assessment appointment of the season as my Supply League kicks off. The appointments have been delayed as there was some uncertainty over the future of a couple of clubs who had been demoted at the end of last season following financial difficulties. It seems that the uncertainty has been resolved and it's time for another season of notebooks, pens, pencils and hours in front of the screen making constructive comments about referee performances!
Click the image below for a full size version.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)