Coffee

Number 14 on my list was to have a coffee. 

Probably a strange one for most people who frequent Starbucks, Costa Coffee, Caffe Nero or any number of independent coffee shops that have grown over the last few years and taken over the high street. 

But it's been about 10 years since I had my last coffee. 

I can't remember when exactly, but Mrs P and I have been together for over nine years and she has never seen me drink one. 

So, the reason for not drinking coffee. 

About 10 years ago I went to the doctors for a bit of a health check.

I was not in the best shape: I hardly did any exercise, drank a bit too much and didn't eat as well as I should. 

I also drank a lot of tea and coffee everyday, in excess of 10 cups, with sugar in. 

At the health check I weighed in at 16st 7lbs - the heaviest I had ever been. 

The doctor told me to make some changes. 

So I cut down on booze, started to eat better foods, began running and cut sugar out of my tea and coffee. 

I found I didn't like tea and coffee without added sweetness, so I stopped drinking them both and turned to green tea (which I now drink in great quantities). 

I remember going to a Cornwall Chamber of Commerce breakfast event about three months later and had a coffee. 

My head completely span out from the caffeine and that was the last one I drank in a decade. 

There have been times when I have missed it: I used to enjoy an espresso after a meal, particularly when in France. 

However, with 40 approaching I thought I'd give it a shot. 

In my head I'd planned to make it a ceremonial event, similar to brewing my beer, but it didn't work out like that. 

It just sort of happened. 

We'd arrived in Brittany for our family holiday with Mrs P, Olivia, Bryher and the in-laws (mother in law - Cathie, father in law - John and brother in law - Dan).

As we were unable to checked into our accommodation in Fouesnant until 3pm we stopped off at a creperie in Beg Meil for lunch.

A combination of tiredness from the overnight crossing from Plymouth to Roscoff and our Franglais not being up to speed the post-lunch coffee order for Cathie, John and Mrs P slightly confused our waitress, who ended up bringing out four coffees.

So what to do with the extra petit cafe?

The extra petit cafe

On the spur of the moment, and thinking about this list, I said  I'd have it.

Drinking the petit cafe 

Mmm, this is quite nice

The finished petit cafe

And I really enjoyed it, although I could feel the caffeine in my head over the next few minutes.

So, when Mrs P and I went back to the creperie for a date night, I decided I'd have another.

Date night crepes

Another petit cafe

Since we got home I've had one more coffee, from Costa, when we were in Yorkshire to watch the Tour de France. And again, I really enjoyed.

I think I will start drinking coffee again, but I'm not going to go down the Gold Blend or Nescafe route like I used to.

Classic Quarter

Number 3 on my #40before40 list was to beat the time that I recorded on last year's Classic Quarter second leg.

For those that don't know, the Classic Quarter is a 44 mile ultramarathon in Cornwall that starts at Lizard Point and finishes at Land's End.

You can either run the whole race as a solo entry, or take part in a relay - two or four people.

For the second year running I took part in a four person team and tackled the second leg, which starts at Gunwalloe Church Cove and ends at Perranuthanoe. 

The leg is just under 13 miles and takes in some amazing coastline and some incredibly steep parts, especially around Rinsey Head.

Richard Wadman from Francis Clark, who ran the whole marathon last year, was in charge of getting the team together.

In fact, three of last year's team remained in place: Simon Choak, Kirsti Ashworth and myself. 

The only change was Richard coming in for Jez Mancer, who decided to take on the whole 44 miles this time.

After a 4.30am alarm call on Saturday 7th June, which didn't go down too well with Mrs P, Richard picked me up in Truro at 5.15am and we headed down to the Lizard Point.

12 months earlier Simon and I found ourselves driving down to the start in torrential rain, lightening and thunder. 

The weather was much more favourable this year, although we did have thunder, lightening and rain the night before.

Richard and I registered, picked up our race numbers and listened to the briefing before the first leg runners set off around 7am.

My race number

Richard Wadman and myself at Lizard Point. Richard ran the first leg, which started at 7am

I then hopped into Richard's car and drove round to Gunwalloe Church Cove and got ready.

Having a cup of green tea selfie in the car park at Gunwalloe while waiting for Richard

The checkpoint at Gunwalloe Church Cove

Richard arrived at the first checkpoint around 8.25am after making good progress on the first leg.

I set off at a steady pace determined to beat last year's time.

The big thing for me last year was that I found I ate too much before the start and felt sick for the first part, but then ran out of energy.

As well as fitness sessions with Felicia Sheingold, I have also been getting some nutrition tips.

I had leftover frittata around 6.30am followed by porridge around 7am - Felicia suggested I avoid the porridge and go for more protein, before having some other carbs.

Porridge has become a bit of a pre-event staple for me - I even have it before midweek football matches - so I felt slightly unsure about changing before such a big event.

What made me feel sick last year was following the porridge with two peanut butter and jam wraps.

This year I swapped the wraps for two rice cakes and made a peanut butter and jam rice cake sandwich.

It was much better on the stomach.

Last year's run had been tough and the rain before the start made the path tricky and very slippy, especially the hilly parts.

Without that, I found the course to be much better to run on.

Although mainly on the coastpath, we ran across the beach at Loe Bar, as well as on the road around Porthleven harbour.

The first half to Porthleven is a nice run. It's the next part that takes in Rinsey which is tough.

There are some incredibly steep hill climbs and descents where it is only possible to walk, although I'm sure there were a few participants who enjoyed running up and down those sections.

Last year I found the mental battle the hardest part of the race, although it was physically tiring, simply because there are no mile / km markers that you'd find in a normal road race.

At the time it felt like it would never end.

This year was slightly easier mentally as I knew the course and had an idea of how much further I had to go.

Physically I found it tough. I guess that as well as the nature of the course, a lot of that was done to the fact that I had less time to train for the event as the end of the football season took up a huge chuck of time (six games in 18 days in early May).

For the last couple of miles I had really bad cramp in both carves, thighs and my left groin. Getting over the granite and wooden styles, or rock parts of the path, became more challenging. At one point I found myself frozen halfway over a style as both legs cramped up.

One of Felicia's suggestions to help my energy was to take walnuts inside dates. I put six in my pocket and found they really helped as fatigue set it.

I struggle to eat when I'm running as I find I get uncomfortable, but as soon as I had the first one I could feel my body craving more.

Despite the cramp I managed to summon up the energy for a sprint finish, where I handed over the timing chip to Simon to run the third leg.

Unofficial finish time on iPhone

Richard then drove round to Lamorna Cove to wait for Simon, and then join Kristi to provide moral support in the last leg to Land's End.

After getting dressed very slowly due to more cramp I drove home to eat a big lunch.

My official time in 2013 was 2:35:48.

This year I did it in 2:23:52.

I managed to knock 11 minutes 56 seconds off my time.

When the results came through I did feel slightly disappointed as I'd aimed to knock 15 to 20 minutes off, but on reflection I am pretty pleased with that.

It also gives me a target to beat next year!

Jelly Babies at the end of the leg - they've never tasted so good

End of run feeling exhausted and hurting from cramp selfie

My finishers running T-shirt and medal to add to my collection

Beard Blog

Number 21 on my list was growing a beard.

Last time I grew a full beard was in January 2008. I did it to keep my face warm when I went snowboarding for my stag do before I married Mrs P. 

Since then I've been pretty much clean shaven every day, especially since Olivia was born nearly four years ago. That includes weekends. 

I just got into a habit of shaving daily. 

I hadn't really planned when I was going to grow my beard, but naming my beer Beardstoker gave me the imputus to be slight more hirsute for the launch at MPAD's refreshed brand / 15th birthday party. 

I decided to start growing the beard on 15th April, which gave me 23 days to grow for the bash.

Day 1 without shaving

The one thing I noticed as my beard grew was that whiskers that had previously been ginger had now turned grey. 

Olivia even asked me if I was going to be Father Christmas. 

I was quite pleased with the beard at our party. It went down well with our clients and associates, as did Beardstroker. 

Day 23

The Beardstroker label

After five weeks the beard started to get slightly messy and uncomfortable, despite shampooing, conditioning and moisturising on a daily basis. 

Day 35

I now had a choice: to invest in a beard trimmer or to go clean shaven again. 

I decided to go for the beard trimmer.

Beard trimmer

Day 36 and a trimmed beard

Seven weeks and half weeks and counting and the beard is still here. 

Trimming every two or three days and continued moisturising is helping. 

Now I just need to decide when and if it goes....

In the meantime, here's a short time lapse film made up of five weeks of beard growth photos.

The Beardstroker

So last night (Thursday 8th May) we unveiled the beer and its name at the MPAD rebrand launch / 15th birthday party, which we held at the Driftwood Spars in St Agnes.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you 'The Beardstroker'.

The labels arrived back from the printers on Tuesday and Dom at the Driftwood stuck them on to the 360 bottles we produced.

We had samples on arrival for our guests to taste and I was really pleased with the feedback, although there did seem to be a level of surprise in people's voices after their first taste!

I think people expected it to be like homebrew, rather than properly brewed beer created with proper ingredients in proper kit.

We then announced the beer's name and unveiled the label during our presentation.

All the guests were given a goody bag to take away containing a bottle of The Beardstroker, as well as a beer mat that contains seeds, so when it's planted it will grow wildflowers.

Mark Smith from Unlocking Potential said: "It is a very nice beer, really great rounded flavour - well done."

Legal eagle, Benjamin Jones, said: "Cracking into the take-out now mate!"

Tim Bunting from CHICKS, said: "Loved the #beardstroker - congrats on the rebrand guys."

I am also now sporting a beard, which was grown specially for the launch, and will be posting another blog on that shortly.

Beer 2: lotta bottle

On Tuesday (22nd April) afternoon I headed out of the MPAD office and down to Granite Rock Brewery to meet up with Driftwood Spars' head brewer, Pete Martin, to check on progress of our beer.

Pete had been in over the weekend with Dave from Granite to taste and start the process for bottling.

When I got there I found the beer had been transferred into six casks, with four of them high up on a rack with tubes connecting them to a piece of apparatus that made the brewery look like some sort of beer milking parlour.

Pete placing the bottles under the 'udders'

There were six 'udders' with bottles under each one, filling up with a beer.

Beside the equipment were three bottle trees with washed and sterlised bottles ready to take the brew.

Bottle tree

Bottling underway

Pete told me that he'd needed to add a 'hop tea' to the beer on Saturday before transferring to casks to help boost the flavour.

When brewing at the Driftwood, Pete adds loose hops to the mix and lets them stew, but as he was using different equipment at Granite Rock he decided to put the hops into three 'tea bags' to reduce the clean up process at the end.

It would seem that the tea bag process didn't allow the flavours to mix fully - a bit like the difference between loose leaf tea leaves and tea bags.

It was also the first time Pete had used Nelson Sauvin hops and he thought the Cascade could have hidden the flavour, and that if he brews it again on his own kit he may have to use even more of them to get the full effect. It might even be a case of substituting them for different hop in future.

Anyway, Pete made a tea using the Nelson Sauvin and Cascade hops to help the flavour.

It was great to have a small taste of the beer, and Pete was happy to have the initial bitter hit that then softened.

Once Pete had showed me the ropes I started getting into rhythm of sticking the bottles under the 'udders', letting them fill, removing them, adding another bottle, placing a cap on the bottle, putting into a case, filling the case, putting together another box, and repeat.

Me having a go at bottling the beer

Action shot - checking there's enough beer in each bottle

It was actually quite therapeutic just to focus on one job and getting it right. I could imagine Mr. Miyagi sat on the side repeating "bottle on, bottle off."

Capping the bottles and putting them in the case

The cases soon mounted up and the beer worked its way from five of the casks into around 360 bottles (one cask is being left to be split between our forthcoming MPAD party and the Driftwood's beer festival - May 2nd - 5th).

The cases starting to takeover Granite Rock's floor space

Pete with a full case

Pete was then going to transport the beer back to St Agnes where the bottles need to condition for two weeks: one in a warm room and one chilling, which helps the flavour develop.

That means it will be ready to go on 6th May, just two days before our party.

Pete did say that he will come over the office beforehand so we can have a tasting.

And all this in the name of work........

Beer!

I spent a few hours on Sunday (13 April) with the Driftwood Spars' head brewer, Pete Martin, at Granite Rock Brewery in Penryn.

The Driftwood's own brewery is being extended at the moment, so Pete had to become a gypsy brewer and find a temporary home.

Step forward Dave and Frances from Granite Rock, who played host to us while we created a special for MPAD's forthcoming party on 8th May.

When Pete and I had initially met back in February we discussed flavours and styles. A couple of days prior to the meeting I'd tried Brewdog's 5a.m. Saint, and been impressed by the flavours.

I found out during the meeting that this was down to the hops - Nelson Sauvin.

I arrived at Granite Rock at 9am on Sunday morning with my wellies and met Pete, who having already worked out a recipe, was busy measuring out the ingredients.

The recipe

Pete weighing out the malt

There was pale malt, chocolate malt, crystal malt and cara malt.

More malt

We had a quick cuppa while we were waiting for the water to reach its strike temperature. Once it was up to the correct heat we were able to add the combined malt and start mashing.

Adding the malt to the hot water

Mash

Me doing the mash

Once this was done I had to make a hasty retreat in order to take or eldest daughter to her third birthday party in three days, and so I left Pete and David to tinker with the machinery and chat about all things beer.

Having survived the party, I got back to Granite where the boil was taking place and the first set of hops - Admiral (for bittering) - had been added.

I'd only been in the building for a couple of minutes when an egg timer went off and Pete handed me some rubber gloves so I could bung a teabag full of Nelson Sauvin and Cascade hops into the mix. These were for the flavouring.

A 'teabag' of Nelson Sauvin and Cascade hops

There were also some other tablets that were added in here, I think it was something to do with protein, but there was a lot to take in and I forgot!

Once this was done, we waited and had another cuppa.

The egg timer went off again and it was time to add the last teabag of hops - Nelson Sauvin and Cascade for aroma - and turn off the boil.

Once it had cooled slightly, pipes and pumps were rigged up to a cooling system and the liquid was transferred into a fermenting vat (FV).

We waited for another 15 minutes for the liquid to cool down and for the yeast to be activated.

Before adding the yeast, Pete drew out some liquid and put it to one side to rest. He was then able to test the gravity (1043) and work out that the beer will be around 4.3% to 4.4%.

Dave from Granite Rock checking the gravity

The yeast was added, mixed around and the lid added to the FV.

Pete adding the yeast

It will now do its own thing for around a week when Pete will return, taste it and start the bottling process.

He's worked out that it will give us 400 bottles for our party, as well as other events, and leave the Driftwood with two kegs for use at the pub.

In terms of style, it was a little bit darker than Pete initially thought, but we decided it will be an 'American and New Zealand mix with a Cornish twist'.

An idea of what the beer will look like when finished

'What about the name?' I hear you ask, well Pete joked about calling it Admiral Nelson, due to the hops, but the you'll just have to wait until our labels are produced before you get to find that out.

It was a very interesting day and fun to get involved, and for anyone into their real ale I'd recommend giving it a go.

But, I think the most fun will be reserved for when we can actually sample it.....

Huge thanks to Pete from the Driftwood, and Dave and Frances from Granite Rock. 

They're just round the corner from Raise the Roof, so drop your kids off and go and try beer!

Rebuilding momentum

So, I'm only three months into the #40before40 challenge, but I feel like I need to start building the momentum again in order to a) get 40 things on my list, and b) start to do them.

I'm a bit of a lists persons and like to tick things off. I often let myself be ruled by my to do list at work and sometimes it's more of a case of crossing things off rather than actually focusing on one task at a time and enjoying it.

Rock Solid was a brilliant experience, but I feel like I ran out of energy after it, so perhaps having a little break has been good.

I also feel like I need to build momentum in the #40before40 blogging. I tend to have more time in the evenings when the girls have gone to bed, but after a day of work or Daddy Day Care, it's easy to put it off.

There's also been the distraction of some good TV lately, like True Detective, that has kept me otherwise engaged.

There had also been a couple of things that seemed like they might not happen, which have played a part in the lack of momentum.

Firstly, it seemed like I'd be unable to do the Classic Quarter again, and hopefully beat last year's time.

For those that don't know The Classic Quarter is a 44 mile ultra marathon that goes along the coast path from Lizard Point to Land's End.

You can either do it on your own, as a pair, or in a team of four. Last year I ran in a team of four and tackled the second leg - just over 13 miles - from Gunwalloe Church Cove to Perranuthanoe.

It took me around 2 hours 30 minutes to complete the route that had lots of steep climbs, two beach sections and lots of mud after pre-race torrential rain and lightening.

My plans to beat last year's time for the leg seemed to have come to an end after our team leader, Richard Wadman (who took on the whole race in 2013), went to register and found the race was full.

Gutted was not the word.

The second thing to make a dent was down to some good fortune for one of clients - the Driftwood Spars in St Agnes.

I'd meet the Driftwood's head brewer, Pete Martin, a few weeks ago and started to plan out a brew day.

We're currently refreshing MPAD's brand and having a party at the Driftwood on 8th May to unveil the new look.

As part of this event, as well as a #40before40 challenge, I was going to brew our own special beer.

Initial dates were set and I was about to undertake some serious research to work out what I wanted to create.

In the meantime the Driftwood had been successful in a plan to expand their brewery. In order to do the work they've had to temporarily close the brewery, right in the window of opportunity for creating the MPAD beer.

So it seemed like no run and no beer.

But just when I thought I might have to cross these two activities off my list without completing them, things picked up.

I received an email from Classic Quarter organisers, Endurance Life, to say that extra spaces had been made available on the Classic Quarter and Richard had booked us on.

Then a couple of days later Pete emailed to say that he'd arranged for us to set up a temporary home at Granite Rock Brewery in Penryn.

I went from gutted to excited, and feel like I'm getting some momentum back in the challenge.

Now, what do I do first - beer or running training?.......