THE GOOD BUCK

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!

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.

I’ve been making a few attempts to return to running, in between bouts of plague weakness, but every time I do my foot immediately starts hurting again. Happily, all my races have been cancelled this year, so I’m not losing out. The one that looks to be actually happening is the Warrington Way, a 40 mile loop of Warrington. That’s in November, due to the small field and the natural separation over that distance, it looks promising that it can take place. 

I was hopeful about doing that, but my foot is just useless. I’ve had enough of it. It’s been 21 months of bothering me, now is the time to rest it until it heals properly. This can take up to 9 months. I’m going to test it every 3 months.

The thing that decided me was the plague weakness. It progressed from recurrent, 2 or 3 day bouts,  to 2 solid weeks of feeling wasted, to a greater or lesser degree, every day. I decided to seize the plague ridden day and rest. It was that constant that I’d accepted that was it, my life was plague weakness from here on in. Then I noticed I’d been 3 days without it, 4 today. It’s not permanent. Yet. That is such a relief.

I’ve been making a few attempts to return to running, in between bouts of plague weakness, but every time I do my foot immediately starts hurting again. Happily, all my races have been cancelled this year, so I’m not losing out. The one that looks to be actually happening is the Warrington Way, a 40 mile loop of Warrington. That’s in November, due to the small field and the natural separation over that distance, it looks promising that it can take place. 

I was hopeful about doing that, but my foot is just useless. I’ve had enough of it. It’s been 21 months of bothering me, now is the time to rest it until it heals properly. This can take up to 9 months. I’m going to test it every 3 months.

The thing that decided me was the plague weakness. It progressed from recurrent, 2 or 3 day bouts,  to 2 solid weeks of feeling wasted, to a greater or lesser degree, every day. I decided to seize the plague ridden day and rest. It was that constant that I’d accepted that was it, my life was plague weakness from here on in. Then I noticed I’d been 3 days without it, 4 today. It’s not permanent. Yet. That is such a relief.

I’ve bought a 1988 V twin, shaft drive, naked Honda as my next challenge.

The camera flatters it, it’s a bit rusty and the paint isn’t as lovely as the on the pictures.

Apparently it was stood for about 14 years, someone put it back on the road last year, and it’s blown up.