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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It snowed here last night! I felt six years old again this morning when I set off at 06:10 for the pool. Unfortunately, the snowy conditions meant that I took things a lot slower (road rash is just so unflattering) than I’d have otherwise done - by the time I got there, I decided...
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Well, with my time off (all 44...
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It’s at about this point that I lose most of my readers. But here goes anyway . . . Toward the end of last week, I was feeling pretty low. Basically, I was just permanently tired, and really easily fatigued in training - not a good sign. Well, for the last few weeks, I’ve...
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I’m feeling a bit low this evening. I just don’t know what’s wrong with me - I’m just SO tired. OK, I am doing some training pretty much six days a week, and generally fairly early in the morning (starting before 7). There’s also that 125 miles a fortnight on the bike - but that’s...
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Found this on Adrian Finch’s Random Rambling blog, and he in turn found it on How to Avoid the Bummer Life, but it’s just so incredible, I have to have it here too. It features Neil Tunnicliffe doing some unbelievable hops and jumps on a bike. Watch the film to the end . ....
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I know - Yoda would criticise me for not focusing on the present, but, well, I had this thought . . . On Phil Sabin’s great Fitness Over Forty blog today, he was quite rightly celebrating hitting his January target of 300 bike miles. Well, waistloss left a comment, saying that he’d  ” . . ....
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I was going to cycle there . . . and then into tomorrow’s client’s office . . . and the into Newcastle for The Bridge Club (GREAT networking) . . . before heading home. But it’s forecast to be blowing 29mph tomorrow, and my legs are just about done in after this morning’s spin...
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Found this on YouTube . . . now if Apple used these characters in their Get A Mac ads, I’d definitely get one. Actually it’d be another one. But you know what I mean.
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I had my second spin session this morning - 45 minutes of sprints & stand-ups. Seeing as I’m a bit of a teachers’ pet, I always take a place at the front in classes (makes it easier to leave the apple on teacher’s desk . . . ) So anyway, I’m reasonably fit, but by...
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I liked Apple’s “Get a Mac” ads with the cool Mac, and the rather fusty PC. But it was all too American. The PC guy was just too faceless-business, and the Mac just too self-knowinly cool; he was also too good looking for his own good. Now I’d just assumed that as US corporations think...
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This is something I thought I’d grown out of - it’s a bit embarrassed actually. After I left a comment on Sloan’s Cycling Blog just over a week ago about how I’d got over my ‘Yeeehah I’m IN-DES-TRUC-TABLE!” cycling phase about fifteen years ago . . . I nearly got myself mashed tonight through...
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I’m a bit of an equipment geek - probably in the hope that I can buy my way out of a lack of ability . . . I had to get some new shorts at the weekend, and went to my local sports / chav-chic  super store. Next to the counter, they had a large...
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I read a deeply alarming article on BikeForAll.net about Daniel Cadden, who was prosecuted for ‘Inconsiderate Cycling’. Basically, he had adopted an assertive position on the road, while going down hill, and cars overtaking him were crossing the double white lines down the middle. Rather than prosecuting the drivers, who for the sake of...
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I passed this poster today, and was reminded that it’s now seven years since both my parents and my sister gave up smoking.  Well done to you all - I’m so proud of you! This blog’s morphed into being all about fitness. But getting fit is just an exercise in changing what you do with your...
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A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about buying my very comfortable new running shoes from She Runs He Runs at Bluewater in Kent. They have a great fitting service, where they actually pay attention to your feet and running style / technique. Turns out that if you live in the US, you don’t have...
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No, not the sort of wind that my second* favourite Viz (a UK adult-humour comic) character, Johnny “QUACK!” Fartpants is prone to. It must be this stupid hope of emulating a slice of El Zappoman’s 5,000 mile Odyssey. Last year I’d go out riding on nice days, when the wind didn’t blow. Because I was...
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Last time this happened I got wiped out, but it’s  too long ago to remember exactly when this happened (OK, it was fifteen years. But that would mean that I’m . . . . older than I feel). If you’re in the US, read ‘right’ for ‘left’ here: Riding along this morning at a reasonable...
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So to get my daughter some decent swimming lessons, I joined the local gym last week. Under my membership, she gets access to the pool (nice - 25m), and some pretty good teachers. But it’d be a shame if I didn’t take advantage of the facilities, wouldn’t it? So this morning at 6:45 I found...
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