Author: Buck

The Sufferfest training plan I’m doing has a mental toughness course. It’s not (just) about enduring the pain without quitting, it’s (also) about focusing your mind on your goal, planning how you’re going to get there, and trying to instil habits that will keep you going when you lose interest, or find it too hard. The Sufferfest is very good at what it does. The goal setting thing was “What are your goals?” Bolton Ironman (IM) Sub 3 hour marathon Lose the weight I’ve put on since I stopped running Land’s End- John O’ Groates pushbike ride? (LEJOG) “Not good enough!Be specific!” OK, 15 hour Bolton IM. Get to 10 stone. 2 hours 59 marathon. Still LEJOG. “BIGGER!” OK, 13 hour IM Bolton. Still 10 stone. 2 hours 45 marathon (Berlin marathon qualifying time), LEJOG in 7 days. Once they’ve got you a bit scared and panicked about the scale of the challenge they move on to whittling it down to your primary goal. Bolton IM. As they rightly say, the other goals can be stepping stones for your primary goal. Your personal Mount Sufferlandria. Then, and here’s the science bit, instead of just leaving me to shove chocolate bars in my face and wait to get slim, they ask what you’re going to do to get there? What is your goal for this month? And to get to that, what is your goal for this week? They had me so focused I put as my weekly goal for this week (I only had 3 days left when I did the module) to lose 5lb, (I’d already lost 2), to go for a swim, and to up the resistance on my turbo trainer. I did a 2 hours 10 minutes session on the turbo on The Sufferfest today, and it’s just not feasible to up the power yet. My legs are in bits, I could barely hold on for the beasting sessions. Upping the power by a third is just too much for now. But that’s OK, it says to review, reflect and revise for the next week. I’ll see in the morning, but I’ve lost 4 pounds already. I had a chippy tea (we’re going into lockdown, no more chippy for a month or so) but I’m hoping the long session on the bike will have neutralised the calories. The main thing though is the swim. I got swept up in the training plan and said I was going for a swim! I hate swimming. The first thing I did when I gave up on triathlon last time was to bin my trunks. Which felt great! It’s not the physical activity of swimming, I get a huge resistance to going, and a mild panic at the thought. I was trying to work out why, but I can’t. OK, I don’t want to meet people, but it’s not like a club where you have to interact with them. Odd. Anyway, the night of great enthusiasm gave way to the cold […]

I had that unexpected week off work, then asked to work my days off to get some overtime. My first day back was on Saturday. As usual it was too early in the morning. I tweeted thus: A few hours later I added: So that kind of bummed my weekend out. I was off until today, (Tuesday) so nothing could progress. I went in today to give my statement. They’ve taken my swipe card and locker key and suspended me. That is standard. It’s going to a hearing for gross misconduct. I asked the manager on the ‘phone yesterday, “Am I sacked?” and he surprised me by saying that they’d go through the procedure, but hopefully it wouldn’t come to that. Today though I got the impression he just didn’t want to be the one to tell me. We’ll see. As he was being so evasive, I asked a shunter. They are based in the yard and talk to all the drivers and know everybody’s business. He said, as I thought, the last load of drivers have all been sacked. I have some mitigating factors. The bay at this particular drop is tight against a jutting out concrete wall on one side, so you park as far to the other side as possible. With the trailer doors open this means you can’t see the traffic light. The guy tipping me is very deaf, and his speech is very hard to understand. I parked, there was only 5 bags to take off, I saw one go past in my mirror, heard him shouting, thought he was saying I was done, so went and got my keys and pulled forward 15 foot to close my doors. Oh very dear. I think I’m sacked. But as someone said “There are two things in life about which you should never worry. That which you can change, and that which you can’t.” I’m currently destruct testing the latter part of that maxim. It’s really inconvenient timing to be sacked though, with the plague destroying the economy. A year ago I could have walked out into another job. Now I’m looking at agency work until the new year, but that is very thin on the ground after that. I’ve applied for another job, and I’m looking at several others, but I’m expecting long shifts and probably nights. Life is change. Better to be here, with a HGV licence and not drinking, than the state I was in most of my life. I can make money and have options, even if I’m sacked. For many years all I worked for was to pay for beer and such. And thinking about it, I’m not loony. The agency is bad. There’s no getting away from that. But when I think about what I’ve been through, most of it self-inflicted, life is still a shedload better than it has been. Anyway, not to fret. Right here, right now, I’m on paid holiday until they send me a letter (a snailmail […]

Ride Up Grades.” Eddie Mercx That quote has been rattling around in my brain for a few weeks. Today I did something about it. I’ve had a week of beasting myself on the Sufferfest, and I’ve about got all the niggles with my turbo trainer worked out. I still have trouble grinding out low revs, high power (for simulated hill climbs) though. I may try turning the computer control off for those rides. I digress, today I did my first non-commute ride in ages. If you’re going for a bit of ride, there’s only one testing ground on my doorstep, Frodsham hill. A mile straight up, with a 16% gradient at the top. I remember, as a teenager, my mate and I rode up there in 10th gear for a challenge. Stood on the pedals the whole way, but we did it. We passed a cycling club, wobbling their way up, some of them off and pushing. This new bike has three gear rings at the front. Your normal large ring for high gears, and the middle one for shameful hill fails. And the unspeakable, tiny, ring of shame, that no-one would ever use. By the time I hit the 16% at the top of the hill I was stood up, in the ring of shame, in the first gear on the back cog, wishing I had a lower gear. My legs were screaming. I got to the top and my legs were so battered I didn’t think I’d be able to ride up the hills on the way home. I managed to do 40 miles, but most of it was along the canal. As you can see from the graph, all the hills were in Frodsham. You can see to infinity on the way down, and your life flashing before your eyes on the ride up. The positives I took from the ride are: I did it, and didn’t die. I didn’t get felled by plague weakness. Road riding (which I’ve been avoiding as too dangerous) is actually OK. And my first ride out in a year or so, and, looking at the stats, I managed over a third of the miles and more than a quarter of the elevation of the Ironman Bolton ride. The not so good is that it wiped my legs out. I couldn’t have done another ascent of the hill. And even with the rest of it on the flat, I was too slow for the time cut-off. But it’s a base upon which to build. I’m going to make Frodsham hill a weekly event now. Build up to hill repeats. I used to be able to do it. Don’t buy upgrades, ride up grades! The lad knew what he was talking about. The fact that I was out riding today is another cause for celebration. I looked at my payslip and I’m down to 6 day’s holiday for the year. *sad face* That’s still a long time if I want, as I’m currently […]

In the space of 3 weeks I’ve gone from not having cycled in months, to reluctantly forcing myself to commute to maintain my fitness while I rest my foot, to new (second hand) faster bike, and now I’m on to getting a turbo trainer (the indoors trainer thing you stick your bike on and can connect to training programmes online.) Obviously, because I’m me, I picked the worst possible time. The shops are all sold out of cheap ones due to everyone panic buying fitness equipment for lockdown. We are heading into the second wave/ new lockdowns and winter, which is the traditional time for buying indoor kit anyway. So even the second hand stuff on eBay is selling for nearly new price. I managed to track down a really good trainer at Decathlon through a strange advert link. If you search directly on their site they say they don’t have any and you have to buy dearer ones. Through this advert, which presumably Decathlon bought, you can still get the trainer though. Odd. I have been scouring the adverts at every opportunity but due to all of the above, but the only cheap one I saw said “Heavily used. Would suit a beginner or someone with turbo trainer repair experience.” Err, no thanks. There was a sale on eBay for the model I eventually got, it was “Ex display”, scuff marks, no box, presumably no warranty. That went for £30 more than the brand new one, with 2 year’s warranty, I’ve just scored! If you imagine a fat bloke on a cheap bike, it would look like this: Quite why he’s wearing a crash helmet on a static, indoor, bike is another question. Or sunglasses. …Next day. Decathlon emailed me to say my trainer was ready for collection so here is the actual set up. It’s not ideal, but until my uber-shed arrives that’s where it will have to live. Setting it up was an ordeal. I had to fit the cassette (gears) to the trainer 3 times. In the end I had to read the instructions. For shame! Then the bike was wrong. The chain was all gunked up and stiff, so I had to clean and oil it, then the front gear derailleur wasn’t working. It’s just been sat there, pampered, indoors. How can it have stopped working? Anyway. Then I had to set the trainer calibration and link all the software. It took me 3 hours just to get it set up. I had trouble collecting it as well. As it’s my day off I’d taken Wendy’s car into the garage so had no means of getting the dirty great lump home. Typical. The car was only in for a bulb. I’d tried everything and couldn’t get it out. The garage guy had tried and failed. I had to take it back today. He was going to strip the headlight unit out and then get the bulb out. I was a bit gutted about home much […]

It’s been a funny old couple of weeks. I started cycling to work to try and maintain some fitness and avoid having to have the front door widened. It was begrudgingly, unwillingly, and ungraciously done. But necessary, so I set to it. It wasn’t as terrible as I remembered. Obviously the weather turned cold immediately. Because of course it did. Within a few days of cycling I was going for commute Personal Bests, then, following my usual, somewhat exhausting, obsessive pattern, I had a whim for a faster bike. The next day I wanted a faster bike. Then I spent a week constantly searching the internet because I *HAD TO HAVE* a faster bike. I was looking at second hand bikes in my (budget) price bracket, reading the reviews, checking the brand sizes, the equipment spec, etc, etc. The curse of the internet is as soon as you start researching anything the reviews always say “that’s OK, but this one (3 times the price) is way better. And what you really want is the this one (over a grand dearer)” I am thinking of maybe getting back on a turbo trainer and renewing my torture sessions on the Sufferfest (the online cycling thing) so I wanted a bike with a 9 speed minimum back cog. Basically the only game in town was the Decathlon (sports store) own brand Btwin Triban range. They are not as low a riding position as dedicated road/ racer bikes, but they are good spec and cheap. I was looking at the basic Triban 5, which is about a year 2000 or so bike, so there’s a risk of stuff being worn out. I actually had one lined up but the guy who was selling it was taking at least a day to reply to each of my questions, and couldn’t arrange a viewing. While that was all happening I came across a Triban 520, which is a much better bike and they only started making them in 2016 (I think) so a lot newer. The Triban 5 was going for £150, the 520 was going for £270 but it had an option for offers. I put in an offer for £240 and got it! Yay! When I was looking on eBay the other 520s were over £100 dearer. Also, it’s hard to get a bike in my size. I take a small or XS, they are definitely the exception to the norm. Anyway, I got it. It took me an hour to sort out the slack brakes, adjust the seat and handlebars, reposition the gear lever/ brake and pump up the tyres. I noticed a bit of a buckle in the back wheel and the handlebar tape was a bit of a shoddy job on one side. I got the wheel straightened and bars re-taped the next day for £17. Job’s a good ‘un. Actually, that was before I had the handlebars rewrapped. He’s done it all in black, but at least it’s a decent […]