Trixie the Fixie made it onto the pages of the excellent Fixed Gear Gallery! You can see her photos at on this page. Now I feel like a real fixer . . . .
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Not sure if this really counts as training at all - HR struggling to get above 90. But it’s pleasant to jog along chatting to Shana, and I don’t have any running logged this week. So I thought what the heck - I’ll put it in the log anyway. The 25 minutes refers to...
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I give blood. In the UK, it’s not about getting paid for it (’cos you don’t), but because someone might need your blood. It might save the life of someone you love, or a complete stranger, who’s just as loved by their own family. You can read more about this on the National Health...
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I know I should be doing some of this stuff in the gym. “Total body workouts”, involving weights and machines and ‘reps’ and mirrors to keep an eye on my posture / posing - stuff like that. And just about everyone tells me that it’ll mean that the rest of my training will be...
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. . . . all things are relative. I’m not really a fitness coach, but I am giving a friend a helping hand, which began this morning. After last night’s swim and cycling, it just wasn’t in me to get up early today to go for a run before meeting Shana for her first step...
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We had some friends round for dinner on Saturday, and we got into a conversation about fitness. One of the women at the table said she’d really like to be fit (to which I of course replied, “well, you’re not such a bad looker . . .” - can’t take me anywhere more than...
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So last week when I went for my Wednesday morning run, I got to the gates of the Tyne’s North Pier, and found ‘em still locked at ten to eight in the morning. This meant that instead of me rambling on for 80 seconds, you got the rare treat of the video of the...
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Yesterday I was looking around the Fixed Gear bikes Gallery to see if Trixie’d made it onto the site, and I came across a short film about a guy who plainly just doesn’t know when to stop. Take a look at the film, and think about this next time you’re feeling de-motivated - if he...
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So the Tour De France started in England this weekend. And the first stage was through Kent, where I grew up. And I went to school in Rochester, one of the towns on the route. And my parents still live in Chatham, one of the towns on the route.  But right now, I live...
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I’ve done a bad thing. I’ve submitted three photos of Trixie The Fixie to the Fixed Gear Gallery. I know I said that I wouldn’t, but we went out for a ride today, and I had just so much fun that I wanted to show everyone what I’ve got. And now I feel like I’ve...
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Hey! Guess what!? It wasn’t raining on my run this morning! So for a change, I headed south along the coast, planning on the 5 mile round trip to the end of the North pier of the Tyne’s harbour. I even took my camera along, planning to record a short ‘Hello’ to y’all from...
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So I went for a short swim this evening. Just 300m. Hardly worth a blog posting, or even a log book entry. Except this is the place where I went for the swim. The satellite image shows the tide out - high tide tonight was at 18:30, just before I got wet. So I was in...
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 . . . already mentioned in the previous post about the weekend’s party. However the highlight is that there was more work on stroke count, with the challenge to hold within 3 strokes of our best over 50m intervals, and then to take one stroke off our best for 25m. So I ended up...
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So over the weekend was Tall Friend’s Son’s christening. On Saturday night, the Little Fella was looked after by his grandparents, which meant that us youngsters (these things are all relative) could have a party. Three good reasons for this - wetting the baby’s head is an excellent tradition; Tall Friend’s Wife is now...
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After Friday’s aborted bike ride, I took Daughter to her swimming lesson after school. My plan, while she was busy being top-of-the-class (so gratifying for a Competitive Dad), I planned to roll my way up and down the pool for 1000m or so. But somehow, the drive just wasn’t in me. Maybe I was still...
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No, this isn’t a post about fixed wheel riding, but about customer service. I’ve always said that what marks out great organisations isn’t their ability to prevent stuff going wrong, but how well they respond when things do. Actually I’ve not always said that - I used to be a child once, and I was...
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Go for a swim. For some reason I got my own personal raincloud following me around today, and by the evening, I just wanted to slouch in front of the TV and have a few beers. But tonight’s Thursday Night. Which means a swim session with the NE31 Tri club. And just as I’d resigned...
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I’ve just seen the time, so this’ll be short. I went for a run this evening along the beach to the lighthouse. At the weekend, I bought a hydration belt thing, as I just couldn’t get on with the Camelbak-type thing - it requires too much suck to make drinking on the run a...
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I’ve got to have a wetsuit for the Hartlepool Marina Triathlon in August, and I figure that buying sooner rather than later will mean more time to put in some open water practice. I’ve chosen my suit (details once it arrives and gets its first outing), but before I can order it, I need...
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. . . cycle in the gym instead of on the road. When I checked the weather forecast for the week on Saturday evening, I realised that I was going to struggle this week - I had to get at least 80 miles on the bike, but the forecast was for gales and rain, starting...
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I came over feeling all queasy and odd yesterday evening - like I’d either got a virus, or been poisoned. I tried some whey protein powder yesterday, and I’ve the feeling it’s disagreeing with me. So missed my swim session. Looking on the bright side though, I think I may have been due...
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