A couple of things have gone wrong. The trainers I ordered in my true size arrived. I put them on and walked up and down the kitchen. That was enough to hurt my foot for the rest of the night. The rocker is still right under my bones. I sent them back for a refund and ordered a different model of Saucony. The Speed 4. I’ve been training in the Speed 3 for 324 miles and they never gave me pain before I triggered this. They have been good since, but my bones still grind a bit when I get tired. They arrive tomorrow. I have to keep trying.
I had a day of fail on my diet, ate a big tea and lost my mojo, so had two choccy bars the next day at work. I managed to muster my mojo and get back on it the last two days. I was 10st 2½lbs again this morning. I did a fairly tough half marathon this morning and haven’t eaten much today so I’m hoping to see 10st 1 and a bit tomorrow.
Another fail is my bike. The exhaust in particular. I had a brand new system bookmarked (for about £300) but the company sold out and isn’t making any more. I’ve emailed all the other companies. Nope. The only options are new American or Japanese systems for about £1,000 or a second hand system from a breaker for £330. And the second hand one didn’t look great. Which is doubly irritating as that was the price of a brand new system.
Then I noticed a fluid leak under my bike. It was directly under the rear shock. The top of the shock was dry so I don’t think it’s anything leaking onto it, I think it’s the shock itself. *sigh*
And, to add to my joy, twice last week I put the bike into first gear from neutral, it did the hefty clunk I thought was just a Honda thing, and stalled. I looked it up and found a really good piece with a good flowchart of possible causes. Seems to be the clutch plates sticking together. If you blip the throttle a few times it frees it up and it snicks into gear quite smoothly. The article said it might be down to too thick oil. If the viscosity is wrong the cold oil will stick the plates together. I changed the oil and filter. Still clunking. It said it could be the clutch basket is scored and needs replacing.
I have a Master Plan! Rather than spend £330 for a second hand exhaust system I’m waiting for a spares/ repair bike to come up for sale. I saw a good VFR750 a month or so ago, good tyres, stainless exhaust, good runner, for £800. There’s one with the fairing off for sale now for £700 but it’s silver, so all the panels and tank would be no good for spares unless I got them resprayed. And it’s been stood for years so the tyres won’t be up to much. Anyway, my point is, when I see one I’ll buy it, then swap the clutch, shock, and exhaust. And still have loads of juicy spares. But now I have to fight my impulse to buy the first thing that comes along. Such as the £700, silver, one.
My Duolingo German hit a brick wall this week. They started going on about accusative and dative cases and I had absolutely no idea what that meant. I complained about it online, saying I have no idea as I am a bear of very little brain, and someone told me to check out the Youtube explainers. First one out of the bag was an excitable German teacher lady. I still need a lot of time to work on it, but at least I now think I could get it. As the first comment on the video said, “I’ve learnt more in this 16 minute video than in 5 years of German lessons.” That sounds promising. It turns out the reason why even Wendy had no idea about cases from her A level English is because we don’t use them.
Work has picked up. I’ve been on 3 or so shifts for a while now. 4 shifts next week. That’s more than enough to pay the bills. I’m sticking with it for now because it’s the best job out there, you have a finish time, I’m on enough money, and being part time really works for my training. If I get a normal lorry driving job, battered for hours, never knowing when I’m going to get finished, we would have a ton of money but I would be sad and I’m only one (big) step up now to getting that bloody sub 3. It would be a waste of 2 years of hard training. I’ll have a look at Home Bargains when it finally opens in Warrington. I think that’s 4 on 4 off, 12 hour shifts. I could train around that.
Right,
Later.
Buck.