I think I’m hanging out with the wrong kids. People from the wrong side of the tracks who’re trying to get me into all kinds of trouble, like wearing my underpants on the outside of my trousers. The lure of converting my rather old but zippy Raleigh Record Sprint (pictured left in it’s original colours...
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There’s an article in this month’s Cycling Plus about The Science of Safety. Based on research by Ian Walker (famous as the world’s fifth best lair. No, really) at Bath University, it makes interesting reading. He’s looked quite extensively into the behaviour and riding stance of cyclists, and how these impact (that’s probably not the...
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So three weeks ago, I was in the lead up for our trip to France, and did no road miles. And then in France for a week without the bike - another duck. And then last week, no opportunity for any road miles either. I realised last night that it was looking like I was...
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After yesterday’s gadget post, you’ll never believe what I saw in the pool this evening. An mp3 player that works underwater! With Finis Inc’s SwiMP3, what you have is a 256 Mb mp3 player in a waterproof case that’s attached to your goggles. The clever bit is the headphones. These are attached to the...
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OK, I admit it, I am a geek. A real equipment junkie. A man well and truly in touch with his inner nerd. I really like stuff. Perhaps it’s because I’m an engineer at heart, so I really appreciate the quality and ingenuity of great things. Or maybe, it’s because I need all the...
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You’ll remember how impressed I was with my new and very comfortable Asics Cumulus VIII running shoes that I bought from SheRunsHeRuns in Kent last month? Basically this was the first time I’d found a shop that actually took any notice of my feet, and how I run on them, and what kind of running...
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So last Friday, we all went off to Sigean safari park. We have all the usual photos of lions, ostriches tapping on the car windows, giraffes, etc, that I won’t bore you with here. The only one I want to show you is my daughter (on the right) in the back of the car...
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Last Thursday morning was my wife’s parents’ French lesson, which we tagged along to. The teacher, Caroline, lives in Abeilhan, which is conveniently just under 8km from Gabian. So I went with my running shoes on, my shorts under my trousers, and a breathable / wicking top in the back of the car. The weather...
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When Von SmallHaussen came to visit a few weeks ago, she commented as we were leaving the gym that she thought I was a bit of a metrosexual. Now, I live in the North East of England, where the culture is distinctly butch and hard drinking. So I was a little worried about this label....
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We went en famille to Pézenas yesterday for the Mardi Gras parade. I’m not sure what I was expecting - probably something like the kind of thing we get in the UK for carnivals - trashy floats, and the occasional display of artistic brilliance. Maybe even some morris dancers. None of that - this was...
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This is great countryside for running in - especially at this time of year, when the weather’s not too hot (like The Big Yin, my skin isn’t white - it’s more of a pale blue . . . ). If I’m here in the summer, when the temperature’s often in the mid 30’s centigrade,...
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. . . . and this is why it’s rubbish: We flew from Stansted to Montpellier yesterday morning - a 1 1/2 hour flight. Because we’re cheap-skates, we’d booked withRyanair (you’ve heard of no-frills flying. Well Ryanair’s more like no underwear at all - really cheap, and leaves you feeling somehow dirty afterwards . ....
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Drove down from Whitley Bay to my parent’s place in Kent on Friday night. We left late, after my daughter’s swimming lesson, so as to avoid the worst of the traffic on this 320 mile journey. So we didn’t get in ’till gone midnight, and to bed ’till 1:30. But for some reason, I was...
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Not such a busy training week, this week - lots of work to get done, as well as preparing to be away for the next ten days. We had friends up last weekend . . . and did some local tourist things - visiting Hadrian’s Wall on Saturday (COLD and WET - in fact too...
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I had such a good session in the pool this morning . . . that I’ve just got back from another session. Loads more work on the same basics as before, interspersed with some lengths of full stroke. What I’ve found is that on all the drills from The Fish upwards, the thing...
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I had a great swim session this morning - mostly through concentrating on back to basics stuff. My problem has always been that I’m not a natural swimmer - although I’m fairly confident in the water, there’s still an edge of fear from when I almost drowned as a kid. Breast stroke is fine for...
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The police visited the address I gave them last week and caught the burglars mostly red-handed with their booty. Confessions and convictions obtained more or less on the spot. Another crime cleared up by a wanna-be super hero! I just hope I’m not as annoying as Scrappy Smegging Doo.
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Zappoman recently posted about tunes while you train . . . and I came across Steelwool yesterday, who just “can’t get motivated without music“. Now I’m not sure about this - I worry that the tempo of whatever I listen to would interfere with my concentration. And as for banging techno while I’m on the...
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I’ve just been browsing through Zappoman’s archives (I know - so much time on my hands), and found that he seemed to really like my idea of a cycling progress wall chart, even going so far as to suggest that it could be monitored via a webcam. I’m not quite that tech-savvy, but I...
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or so the urban myth goes . . . and today, I think I’ve experienced about seven of them!: The snow that falls in relatively warm air as sleet, and then freezes to knobbly ice when it hits the really cold road The snow that falls on top of that, but only in the lightest of...
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I have Reynaud’s disease - and have had for about the last 20 years. What this means is that if my fingers get cold (or a sudden localised cold shock - like holding a cold stearing wheel in an otherwise warming car), the circulation shuts down. They go really ugly yellow / white / blue,...
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