Narnia, Hitch and other stuff

Had a great night on Friday night. Went round to Kush and Justin's place and simply had a nice relaxed time. It was nice to be able to drink quietly without having a race in the morning as well as just relaxing with friends.
We watched Hitch on DVD. It's an ok movie. Fairly pleasant watching with Will Smith doing his normal funny thing.

Saturday night we went to see The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I was quite surprised at how good it was. The acting from the kids was quite believable, the emotional highs and lows of the film actually worked even when you know what is about to happen. The bloodless battles were rather strange and the thing that rather bugged me was the tactics in the final battle. The defending troops had picked their battle ground (good) and had a nice steep hill behind them (even better). They then proceeded to setup their lines in the flat in front of the hill instead of getting on the hill itself. Sure they they then retreted up the hill but in a real battle they wouldn't have gotten that chance as they would have been cut down in the retreat. If they'd stayed on the hill they would have been able to funnel the attackers into a small space pick them off one by one.
Oh and why the hell was the attack led by the cavalry? Keep them in reserve and use them to outflank the enemy and cut them to pieces.

Had an interesting experience on my Saturday long run (12km this week). Met up with a guy doing exactly the same thing and we ended up doing the run together. Random... It was rather hot with full sun and a very slight northerly. I think I might have gotten slightly dehydrated because I started getting the chills up the back of my neck. Not good.

Which makes me think of some more useful present ideas (if anyone needs any more - but these are cheaper). A nice Orca run cap would be great for keeping the sweat out of my eyes. Tends to sting quite a lot... The other really useful thing would be a Fuelbelt. These useful things attach a number of bottles to a comfortable belt so that you can carry your water while you're running. The Endurance 4 bottle version is the one I'm after. Looks I'd take a large size (hmm, that makes me feel fat).

Christmas Wish List

Hmm, well, I feel a little bad doing this but one of my sisters has one so why shouldn't I?

For those wishing to find me the perfect gift there is always my wishlist on Amazon.Com.
Alternatively, Civilisation 4 has just come out and looks like a terribly tempting way to waste a lot of time.

I've started training for a marathon in June next year which involves a lot of running in training so decent running gear would be great. I only have set and it gets pretty smelly and sticky at the end of a week. Nice tracksuit pants or jacket would be nice too. Would make going to triathlons a little easier.

Some volleyball kneepads would be really great. Should be fairly cheap. :-)

Or, get me something chosen with love and I'll be the happiest guy around!

Two results for the price of one

Alrighty then, let's get to it. Had a sprint(ish) distance triathlon on 20 November. 600m swim, 24km cycle, 5km run. Fairly easy distance, in fact it marks the 1 year anniversary of the start of my triathlon career (such as it is). Quite nice to come full cycle and do twice the distance I started at.
I did rather stuff up the start a bit. While I did get in the water before the start and attempt to get nice and cold I clearly didn't do enough because the first 100m of the swim were very difficult as my breathing paralysed because of the cold. A little bit of dog paddle and finally things got underway properly. All rather frustrating because by the time I finished the swim I finally got my technique flowing nicely.
Got kicked in the cycle as normal and had an okay run.
Final result: 2nd to last in Open Men with a total time of 1:42:57. T1 exit at 17:35 and T2 exit at 1:42:57.

Last weekend I did the very first Scorching Triathlon. I did the sprint distance option (swim 500m, cycle 20km, run 5km) because I was so not prepared for standard distance. Felt a bit slack about it but that's life. Results here. I was rather pleased with it actually. I was in a really good position coming out of the swim and managed to stay roughly there through the cycle. Sure I got passed a bit but not too much so I was still doing okay coming into the run. Since this is normally my best discipline it was quite nice to start running people down. Had one guy who was staying on my tail through most of the run until I got past the final turnaround, upped the tempo on him and dropped him... Nice feeling... Final result: well into the middle of the pack with a total time of 1:27:04. Splits of 12:06, 48:25 and 26:34.