Solutions

I’ve been doing a lot of research and I have the answer to my bike problem.

I just want lower handlebars. That’s all. A 20 minute job.

OK, so far I’ve taken the fairing off and fitted a back to the clocks.

The problem is the handlebars still hit the clocks.

The solution is simple. Instead of having the clocks mounted on an arm fixed to the frame,

make a mount and attach them to the handlebars.

You have to make this plate, complete with sunken drill holes, but it’s do-able.

Simple.

But wait.

That leaves the old arm and plate (two pictures above) hanging in mid air looking ugly.

OK, take off the arm.

That exposes the air intake in the frame.

OK, so you make an air intake cover.

But wait, that arm also supports the headlights.

So you have to buy headlight support arms that attach to the fork legs and hold the headlight.

But they only work for single headlights. So you have to buy a new headlight. And possibly mess around with the wiring as the loom supports two headlights.

And because your handlebars are now lower you need to fit a shorter throttle cable off a different model of bike.

Ends up looking like this.

Actually, looking at it, that does look rather lovely.

Hmm.

The thing is, I wasn’t going for aesthetics, I just wanted a better riding position.

It’s not quite the 20 minute job I envisioned.

I’m in two minds about it. But at least I now know the answer, should I choose to pursue it.

 

The other thing that needs fixing is me.

I’ve been nursing damaged tendons on my left foot for about 18 months. Extensor tendonitis, apparently. The tendons that run along the top of your foot and draw your toes back. You can damage them by too tightly lacing your shoes and by overuse. In that time I’ve had other injuries, and the plague, so I’ve stopped running for a whole month on one occasion, and six weeks hardly any running on another. As soon as I started again the pain was back. I had resigned myself to it. It’s just routine now, get out of the shower, slather my foot in ibugel and put on a compression bandage. It only hurts badly after a long run (15+ miles), so I was living with it.

A few days ago one of my twitter chums mentioned she should be doing a marathon in the morning (in jest) but it put the thought into my head. So Sunday morning I did the 26.2 miles.

Which was stupid anyway, as I’d been doing sprint miles the day before and my legs were battered. I was struggling by mile 7. I forced myself to complete it but it was horrendous. 4 hours 10, so, pitifully slow as well. I was trying to take positives from it; lesson learned, never marathon after hard sprint sessions, first marathon since I broke myself last autumn, good for mental toughness, only 3 days since I was too weak to run (the plague comes back in waves), etc.

My foot was hurting pretty badly afterwards, but I was expecting that.

That night I couldn’t sleep with it, I got about 3 or so broken hours. I was on the sofa trying to keep my foot propped in one position so it wouldn’t hurt. Still not unusual. But I got to thinking about in the long, boring, painful hours. I did some more reading and apparently it can sometimes take 3 to 9 months to heal. If ever there was a year to take that long out of training, this is it. I was fighting against it, as it’s taken me all this time to get back to fitness, but this is the perfect time to heal, with all the races being deferred and/or cancelled.

I made up my mind to quit and heal.

So I don’t die of morbid obesity before I can get running again I decided to start commuting to work on my pushbike. To test the water I did a ride there and back yesterday, 19 miles with hills. That was a massive, massive mistake. I thought as your feet are actually attached to the pedals by clips, and the base of the shoe is rigid, there would be no foot movement, so I would be fine. So wrong. My foot flared up like never before. Normally if I move it it hurts, so sleeping is awkward, as is movement. This was just non-stop pain. I couldn’t find any position that didn’t hurt. And movement was making me shout out.

I was lying on the sofa about 03.00 thinking about going to A&E for an X-ray, I thought I might have broke something. I finally got to sleep properly about 04.00 and when I woke up it was back to normal. Which is to say, it hurts a bit when I move, but nothing like that.

That was my wake up call though. I’m determined to heal properly now.

I had a heartfelt whinge about it on Twitter. Some of my running twitter chums have put me on to a sports physiotherapist they use and recommend highly. They say that he’s never stopped them running, always given them active rehabilitation exercises, so there’s hope for me yet. But I’m prepared for the worst. If I have to, I’ll stop. The trouble is, with lockdown, the physio isn’t seeing anyone physically. I’ve sent him an email, as he’s still doing virtual consultations.

For now I’m resting. Tomorrow I’m back at work so I’ll see how my hoof is holding up, then maybe low mileage easy runs just to keep me ticking over. See how it goes. I’m not pushing anything now.

 

Quick catch up on twitter and I’m out of here, busy doing, er, rest.

Some politics:

 

 

A shocking condemnation:

 

Morons gathered for an end of lockdown protest

And forest fr1ends, and account that humorously juxtaposes cutesy kids dolls with adult themes was on fire:

 

Some other whimsy

“Her face when she realises she’s pregnant (pic 3)”

And there’s a thing called “dog shaming” where you put a placard around your dog’s neck saying what they’ve done wrong, take and post a picture of them.

 

Right, that’s me. I’m off to dynamically do nothing.

Stay safe,

Buck.