Quicker than bike....

 I decided for no other reason than I wanted to, to run the 8 peaks challenge and see if I could beat my time of 4 hours 19 minutes. So all these pics are of the checkpoints on another glorious hot sunny day.

 So I did indeed smash my previous time and even better beat the time I took to cycle it!

Bank Holiday

An extra day off is always good for the soul so yours truly set off on his mountain bike with Daz

with half a plan to cycle the 8 peaks but quicker

but Daz was not feeling the love

and on our 3rd hill we hit the eject button

which was just as well given my fence crossing skills were severely tested.

Daren made light work of it but failed the swamp crossing

having to waddle down the side gully.

Not too shabby.

Time saved by not cycling was spent at Not the Dilwyn show.

RRMK2 tried to look cool

and the apprentice failed also.

Yours truly found a cool motorbike

only because of its previous owner being Nick Mason, hes very famous.

Brain freeze.

Not a bad show and the weather was amazing. Its good to see the sun for such a long spell!

Beside ourselves beside the sea side

 As the unusual solar activity continued we decided that rather than have the boys fire stomp rockets at the cliff risking life and limb collecting spent munitions

 or waste time looking for rocket number 6 (presumed dog chew) we would hit the beach as the forecast was wall to wall sunshine and lots more.

 Except the beach we went to where sea mist put a real dampener on everything just like the weatherman said as we turned towards the seafront, some areas will be 10 to 15 degrees cooler as a result of the mist rolling in.

 This translated to bloody freezing and as yours truly was wearing nothing but shorts sandals and a t shirt it was really brass monkeys. The boys were similarly attired and after ferreting around in the back seat some jumpers were found which made it just bearable to get an ice cream from our favourite ice cream van.

 They look thrilled.

 We had taken Loki along who was introduced to the delights of frozen dairy products.

 As the sun was hiding from us we set off home again to find it so hot all our animals were hiding from it and probably had been since we left.

 Celebrations were called for as it was a bank holiday

 so we all sat in the sun or shade depending on sun factor

 and had the second barbque of the year.

 Staying out until the sun went down. Another 6 weeks or so and the nights start drawing in....

means more time indoors to be a nerd.

Quick...get outside!

 A startling thing happened...a Bank Holiday Weekend with Sunshine!!!

 Not wanting to waste a second of harvesting vitamin D we shot outside and while we had to do some boring stuff like shopping (yawn) we stopped to enjoy the garden at Kenchester and RRMK2 tried to look cool.

 The apprentice still has to learn to hold his head upright but otherwise a good pic :)

 Sunshine means bar b ques means eat outdoors

 means an audience for every mouthful

 so you have to be on your guard or you go hungry.

But at the end of the day you can always enjoy the view.

Red ones do go faster

 Inspired by Lil Bef doing the London Marathon so brilliantly and egged on by Wendy who showed me how to get a medal with a Spitfire on it for 10k of pain the time was right to put the theory to the test and find out if Red Trainers do go faster.

 Suitably attired

 with bike safely locked away

 we (me and the red ones, two of them) set off up the forest trail with the idea that a fat knacker staggering through the trees would not be so visible as one blowing his lungs out of his backside on the roadside.

 Sooner than expected yours truly reached the top.

 To head back don again, my forst just over 5km run is a long time.

Sub 36 mins for a first attempt, I'll take that :)