Author: Buck

It’s been an interesting fortnight. I took my Harley into the shop and I was all set. Money in the bank, Harley to be fixed, Honda to be my reliable bike. The Harley shop still haven’t got back to me. Then I clipped a road sign in my truck at work, so I’ve been off work, without any pay, for 12 days while I wait for them to put me in with the driver trainer for retraining. Then we had a beastly hot heatwave, so I wasn’t sleeping and I was tired and grumpy. I got bored and started perusing bikes again. I saw a (modern, -2010-) Triumph Bonneville for sale. Only 22 miles away. £2,650. Over a grand cheaper than similar bikes. I was up after 3 or 4 hours sleep on the longest day, reading bike reviews for models of Bonnie. Everything said this was the one to get. It was so cheap because it had done 54,000 miles, but everything I read said that as long as you changed the oil and checked the valve clearances on time, modern Triumphs are good for well over 100k. They are a well engineered bike, that is under very little (67bhp) stress, so they keep running. This one had a full service history, so it met the criteria. I was losing sleep obsessing, so I tried to convince myself my VFR750 was a superior bike. I was awake from before 03.00 so I got up at ungodly o’clock and rode to Keswick (230 mile round trip) for some pasties. The bike was awesome and the pasties were nice, but they didn’t remove the taste of Bonnie obsession from my mouth. Then the guy updated his advert. He said he’d just done a 200 mile run out to a Hairy Biker run thing, and he dropped the price to £2,390! Which means the bike is a good ‘un. Nobody sets out for a 200 mile ride on a bike they don’t trust entirely. And it was a steal. It will come as no surprise that I cracked and gave into my my obsession. So, no money, VFR750 that nobody is buying, no work to make more money, but BONNIE! Yay! Look at the attention to detail. They are trying to do a modern, fuel injected bike that’s also supposed to look like a 1970s classic. Just look at it. Air cooled engine (with a radiator for an oil cooler, presumably), with fuel injectors hidden inside fake carbs! On the other side their is a fake choke lever that is the enricher for start up (so basically it is a choke). I drove to the bike, in Bury, then rode back. Wendy followed me in the car. Which was awfully nice of her seeing as she’s so scared of motorways, and driving in general. It was raining most of the way home, and I was keeping it slow for Wendy’s sake. It seemed like a weird bike to ride. A very low […]

We’ve been having a bit of a nightmare with Wendy. She was off work for months after being diagnosed with a knackered heart valve or something. It was a bad time for her as she was bored witless, just sat on the sofa all day long, or scared by nasty chest pains every time she did anything to break the boredom. It was a long 3 months for her. She finally got the operation date, 14 weeks after the diagnosis. They said it was go in, 45 minute procedure to insert the stent, wait 4 hours to check everything had settled, go home. Should be over the operation in 3 days, don’t drive for a week. All good. We went in, they did her without any painkillers of consequence (just paracetamol) and it took them 2 hours. It seems like they were training up a new guy. So two hours of agony. At least they did it, so she just had to get over the severe bruising and pain. They said 3 days, which is what I’d booked off work, then I had my normal 2 days off, so 5 days. She was still in a bad way after 5 days and had to go to the doctor. He said the nausea and bad back pain was a kidney infection, so gave her antibiotics. “They will clear it up in 3 days”. I was back at work, doing long shifts, leaving her on her own. Less than ideal. A few days later she was still in such a state she had to go back to the doctors. This time it was a woman. She said Wendy definitely didn’t have a kidney infection. Super. She said her back was badly tensed up. She sent a urine sample to the hospital, they confirmed no infection, and arranged for a blood test and kidney function test. We did that today. As she said “we have to relax that back” to Wendy, I’ve been giving her massages morning and night, which is providing temporary relief and making it bearable. Hard to think what it could be. If it was a damaged kidney you wouldn’t think massaging it would ease it. If it’s muscular you’d think the massages would stick. But the pain and stiffness keep coming back. I don’t understand. It’s grim for Wendy and it’s inconvenient for me. It’s really hard to do training around looking after her, which obviously has priority. I managed to get my Harley into the specialist Harley garage today. It’s up by Birkenhead. They are going to fix it so it runs right and test my charging system. The battery seems to go flat really quickly, so if there’s a problem I want it diagnosed so I can fix it. If it’s the stator, it’s not too expensive (£100) and I’ve had it off before. I’ve also asked them to MOT is, so it will be all legal and on the road. I had thought I’d get a […]

I had a few days off training after the marathon then got back to it on Thursday. A 1k swim, followed by 30 minutes rowing, straight into an hour on the treadmill (7.3 miles). That is made really tough because you are already sweating from the rowing, then you have to run, in a barely cool gym, with no fan. Great heat conditioning, I suppose. But awful. The next day I just did an hour on the bike trainer, the day after I did an easy paced 8 mile run. Yesterday I did an hour on the bike then straight out for an 8 mile run. I was just trying to train my legs to the misery of running off the bike, but after a 3 miles aiming at sub 8.30 I was feeling fine so I upped the pace to 7.40s to bring it home under sub 8 average pace. I was surprised and happy with that. Last night I was thinking I need to do some long rides to get myself bike fit for the half tri and work towards LEJOG. I tried the Garmin feature where you ask for a distance and it plots you a safe bike course. It lead me along Cromwell Ave (busy main road) and over the motorway roundabout (a Highways Agency declared accident blackspot). That’s a no. How can I train and not get splattered? The cycle route stuff is good for LEJOG but it’s slow and mostly flat, not much use for training for speed. I went online and found ICTrainer, a cycling app. It’s a month free trial, then dirt cheap (£2.08 per month!) after that. Apparently it has tons of video of real world cycling routes, but most importantly, it allows you to upload gpx files. I got it this morning, uploaded the gpx of the cycle leg of the actual (half) triathlon I’m doing and gave it a go. The course is three 18.3 mile laps. It took me a while to figure out what was going on, but I was appreciating the system by the second lap. The gpx tells the app the route you are taking and the elevation, the app then increases the resistance of you trainer to realistically simulate the hills. By the second lap I realised that it tells you shortly before each change of incline what the next one is going to be. So you are on the flat (there doesn’t seem to be hardly any 0 elevation ‘flat’, it’s all at least some incline) then on to a hill so it goes to 1%, then, say 3%, over the crest and -1.5%. Once I learned to watch the prediction boxes I barely looked at anything else. It has bloody tough sections, even in first gear I was stood on the pedal on an 8% incline, grinding out 240 watts. The first lap was a hell of a shock to the system. The second was bad, but I was getting the hang […]

I got a free place for winning my age group at Blackpool marathon with a 3.08:11 last year. Then I lost my mojo. And got lazy. And missed so much training I thought I was giving up on running. Then I got a nasty dose of covid and I physically couldn’t run for a month or two after the bug. Which was actually a good thing because as soon as I was well enough I was dying to run again. I got back on the horse, got some good training done, overdid it, got a sports injury and had to take weeks off of running just a few weeks before the race. I did a 20 mile test run last week and I was so battered I decided I wasn’t fit enough to start the race this year. But then I was rabbit-holing triathlons and saw a full distance one, relatively cheap, in 18 weeks. I mentioned it to Wendy and she said “But you’re not even doing marathons right now.” (Or words to that effect.) I realised I was being slack and defeatist. So I did the marathon today. Being on the sea front the wind was pretty stiff, right in your face one way, at your back coming back, then in your face for the 3 miles back to the start finish line, you do two laps of that. There were some some of roadworks today so they’d re-routed the course a little, but not re-measured it. It was consistently .3 of mile too long. My watch was saying 10 miles, then I’d pass the 10 mile marker at 10.3 miles. It wasn’t just my watch, I asked two other runners and their watches agreed with mine. That was a tough mental challenge on the last 3 miles into the wind. I was absolutely smashed, I wasn’t really marathon fit, I had nothing left, and they were sticking an extra third of a mile on. I ground it out, clicking my watch at 26.2 so I’d have a real marathon distance time, then at the finish line. By that point I’d done nearly another half mile (.44 of a mile). I’ve just looked, the official chip time is 3.42:36, but 3.55 of that was the .44 miles extra. 6th in my age group, 154th out of 596. That really hurt. Just the last 3 miles into the wind. That was so painful. I stretched off, came home, showered, ate all the food, but the pain wasn’t going away. I ended up taking pain killers. To be honest, the result is probably better than I deserve, given the last year. Today was just about finishing the distance. Which I did. And more. And didn’t die. So, it was a win. Tomorrow I’m having a rest day from training because that smashed me today. I’m going to do a bunch of exciting tests on the CB550/Four and try and get it running properly. Then I’m going to MOT it. Either […]

Things were all going badly. I’d totally lost interest in my motorbikes and I couldn’t sell them. Work looked like they were messing me about on purpose so I was looking for another job. And my achilles was limiting me, and I was quitting in advance, not even attempting the Blackpool marathon. The agency have been creeping my start times earlier and earlier. Last week they gave me an 05.20 start. I decided to draw the line before they had me on 02.00 starts. I declined the shift. This week they only gave me two shifts, both of them 05.00 – 06.00. I was sure it was on purpose. Either do it, or get no work. I declined them. I thought they wouldn’t give me any work for the whole week. I was looking at other jobs, which made me sad because this is the best one. You know your shifts a week in advance and get a finish time. The money is good and I get a lot of downtime, which is also nice, but mainly knowing your home time. Anyway, they gave in first and gave me three shifts, two 09.00 starts and a sucky one that starts at 13.10, but I’ll let that slide. I don’t need to get another job! A different, full time, driving job would suck in many ways. Virtually every other driving job wants 12 hours out of you each day, and you just never know when you are going home. My training would go out the window. So, happy to be staying here. I was looking at maybe doing an brand name Ironman next year after LEJOG, when I should have legs of steel. Quick glance said it’s £700! Bloody hell! I was rabbit-holing then, so I looked for cheap ones. There’s one at the end of August for £250. I mentioned it to Wendy, and she casually remarked that I’m not doing marathons at the moment. For some reason that was all it took. I had planned on skipping Blackpool marathon on Sunday, and I was worried as my BPD is getting less with age, so is my willingness to suffer and persevere. When she said that my brain switched on again. I’m doing it. It’s going to hurt and it’s not going to be a great time, but I’m not quitting before I start. The other thing is my bikes. I had a bike mechanic come around the other day to look at the CB550/Four. He didn’t make me an offer but he got chatting about possible faults, and mentioned the valves. I did a pressure test and it is low, but within the operating range. As soon as I started messing I got back into it. Today I did the compression tests again, then with 2 big squirts of oil in each cylinder. The compression was a bit higher, so the rings are worn, but presumable the big loss is from the valves. Apparently it’s common in bikes that […]