What a boring title.
The best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley. I had planned to take it easy for a few weeks after discovering how to stretch my calf, but I improved so quickly that I succumbed and raced in the Somer Valley 29 on Sunday.
Done alright too, as I won in 1:06:17, beating Ben by just 1 second (sorry mate). And together with Rob Gough, we won the team prize. Simon Snowden might be a bit annoyed at that because he wasn't that far behind Rob, but it's only the top three that count for team prizes. Given that there were four of us in the top eight, we could have won the team prize with any combination.
But the win wasn't the important thing. For me it felt good to finally be able to put equal force through both legs without deleterious effects. The stretching I've been doing over the past week has made a huge difference as I don't feel any pain any more. It's not 100 percent yet because I'm still getting a little bit of swelling around the Achilles, but being pain-free is a big plus.
I've entered the National 25 mile championship on June 7, which is being held near Thetford, not that far from where I was born. Now I've got to get back to March fitness, which hopefully shouldn't take too long. I am still at 310W for these longer events, which is OK because it means I haven't lost any power since the WTTA hilly a month ago despite having two weeks off the bike. By comparison, I was at 325W in the Chippenham hilly in March, and that was only 10 days after I'd torn my calf muscle! And I got to 335W last summer.
So it's back to basics: some weekend long rides, a few midweek club races and an open 10 in a week and a half. I was going to do the National 10 but didn't enter it in time, as I thought I wouldn't be fit enough. Not to worry, I prefer 25 miles anyway...
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Monday, May 04, 2009
Sliding doors
I was going to start with a quote from Wikipedia about causality and how it's funny who (and what) you bump into, and whether it matters. But it would necessitate too much explanation so I won't bother.
I'm just going to point to Schrödinger's cat instead. Conceived in 1935, I reckon there's a pretty bloody good chance that it's dead now. So we can ignore all that bollocks about quantum superposition of wavefunctions and just use common sense. Namely, if we wait long enough, things will sort themselves out. More or less. Sometimes they may need a little help.
For example, me calf injury. With the aid of the Internet, I've finally figured out what sort of stretches I should be doing to regain the full range of motion in my soleus.
The most common calf stretch is one where you put your hands against a wall, put one leg forward and keep the rear leg straight. This stretches the gastrocnemius, which is the biggest calf muscle. The smaller soleus is the one that sits between the gastrocnemius and the tendon. To stretch this, you need to bend your rear leg while keeping both heels flat on the ground.
So I've started doing that for 5x15 seconds, three times a day, and it appears to be helping. Plus massage, plus wearing a pressure band, plus acupuncture (not really convinced), plus light to moderate riding, minus nurofen. I should pay another visit to the physio too, although I wish he'd told me about the right stretches early on in the piece.
This weekend I've been able to ride virtually pain free with the help of the pressure bandage. I can also climb steep hills, as long as I do them relatively slowly and favour the good leg. I feel twinges when I'm climbing stairs but I can walk OK, again with the bandage.
I'll continue to take it easy this week. It's nice to be able to just ride without worrying about the next race, although the temptation to push it is strong.
Quick report on the Beacon RCC Little Mountain TT ('cos I need to write a blog on it for work): I rode my road bike and finished seventh in a time of 1:46:43, getting a prize for fastest roadman. Fantastic event, great course and I'll definitely be back.
Pics: Start, top of Ankerdine and presentation.
I'm just going to point to Schrödinger's cat instead. Conceived in 1935, I reckon there's a pretty bloody good chance that it's dead now. So we can ignore all that bollocks about quantum superposition of wavefunctions and just use common sense. Namely, if we wait long enough, things will sort themselves out. More or less. Sometimes they may need a little help.
For example, me calf injury. With the aid of the Internet, I've finally figured out what sort of stretches I should be doing to regain the full range of motion in my soleus.
The most common calf stretch is one where you put your hands against a wall, put one leg forward and keep the rear leg straight. This stretches the gastrocnemius, which is the biggest calf muscle. The smaller soleus is the one that sits between the gastrocnemius and the tendon. To stretch this, you need to bend your rear leg while keeping both heels flat on the ground.
So I've started doing that for 5x15 seconds, three times a day, and it appears to be helping. Plus massage, plus wearing a pressure band, plus acupuncture (not really convinced), plus light to moderate riding, minus nurofen. I should pay another visit to the physio too, although I wish he'd told me about the right stretches early on in the piece.
This weekend I've been able to ride virtually pain free with the help of the pressure bandage. I can also climb steep hills, as long as I do them relatively slowly and favour the good leg. I feel twinges when I'm climbing stairs but I can walk OK, again with the bandage.
I'll continue to take it easy this week. It's nice to be able to just ride without worrying about the next race, although the temptation to push it is strong.
Quick report on the Beacon RCC Little Mountain TT ('cos I need to write a blog on it for work): I rode my road bike and finished seventh in a time of 1:46:43, getting a prize for fastest roadman. Fantastic event, great course and I'll definitely be back.
Pics: Start, top of Ankerdine and presentation.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Progress report
I'm pleased to report that I'm on the mend after my door-related critical fail a couple of weeks ago. Head felt fine after a week and getting back on the bike helped.
12 days post-headbutt of roller door
But the more serious calf tear coupled with a swollen Achilles remains, although it's slowly mending. The week I spent on the couch basically did nothing for it, despite me doing all the icing/massaging/elevating I could be bothered doing. That ended up being quite a lot. As soon as I started walking again I could feel it and it got worse. Riding gently, even moderately hard was fine, but racing the Dursley Hilly was not.
I think it's because some movement is needed to get the blood flowing. But too much stretching or impact damages the muscle again. It's a fine line and I've definitely crossed it a few times in training and racing.
Back to the Dursley...
Last year I dun good and won it. And I think I would have had a decent chance of repeating that this year had I been fully fit, but it was not to be. The course was the full 45km with four big climbs (last year's was 36km and lost a climb). I'd recced it back in February in 1hr30 at a moderate pace, so figured a time of 1hr18 was doable at full speed.
Taking eight days off the bike knocked that idea on the head. From experience, I know when I take time off I tend to lose endurance before climbing speed so was a bit worried about whether I'd last the full 45km, especially with 35km to get up to Wootton-under-Edge. So I used some of the free energy drink that was on the cover of Tri Plus. I normally ride on water so I forgot that energy drinks usually need to be diluted well beyond the manufacturer's recommendations. I also didn't read the ingredients. I do not understand why they put aspartame in an energy drink...
The start was on a hill, but I rode it conservatively and didn't get too close to my usual TT heart rate. One down. Then a fast and occasionally tricky descent into Dursley (tick!) and past last year's start. Managed that in under 16 minutes with a bit of a headwind so given I did <1:03 last year, I figured 1:19-1:20 was possible today. If I could keep this speed up.
Crawley hill was next. It was six minutes of pain, a bit slower than last year but still OK. Then the descent of Frocester Hill (tick!) followed by a roundabout and a climb back up. I had Dave Kiddell two minutes behind me at the start, and he'd picked up some time when I clocked him on the return leg. But I'd put about 20 seconds into Chris Madge, who started six minutes in front of me. So I knew I was going OK but not flying.
Frocester Hill was manageable, 20 seconds slower than last year but I didn't feel that bad. Three down. At the top I was still on track for a sub 1:20, especially as there was a tailwind finish. Then the only part of the whole race I enjoyed, the nice undulating bit before the descent to the Sesley roundabout. I caught two riders on the descent but couldn't get past one so waited until we turned around back up the hill.
It was starting to hurt but I knew if I could make it to the top, I'd have the tailwind for the last 10km. Easy. As I climbed, I saw I'd put a good chunk of time into Dave Kiddell and was still 20 seconds ahead of Chris Madge. At the top I calculated I was about level with Rob Lyne - my 10 minute man who I'd seen when I was on the descent - who ended up finishing second by three seconds.
One more gulp of energy drink at the top and ... what's that? Oh dear. I feel queasy. No water for the last 10km. Maybe sneak one more sip in? Body says no.
I'd been looking forward to the tailwind but suddenly found out I was out of gas. Even the tiniest undulations that I'd stomped up last year reduced me to 53x23. Just hang on, not far to the finish.
One more sip at 5km to go. Bad idea. Very bad. Taste of chocolate muesli bar and Zipvit gel in my mouth. I tried to find a gear that I could roll without hurling. Nope. Just grind away, limit the damage. With about 1km to go I passed someone who I'd normally fly past, then completely blew and saw him roll past me again.
I could see the finish but I was more concerned with keeping my breakfast down. Luckily most of it had digested but not all. Blurgh. Stopped pedalling and dropped into the small chainring, absolutely crawling, eventually crossing the line at 25km/h instead of 45. Oh, one more retch for good luck. Thank goodness it was over. At least my ankle wasn't sore like it was at the end of the WTTA 29.
I'd done 1:22:06 and knew I'd lost any chance of winning but was surprised at how close the top placings were. Gavin Poupart won in 1:20:00 - an excellent result for him after puncturing last year. Then Rob Lyne in 1:20:03, followed by Chris Madge in 1:20:41. Derek Smetham, Rob Gough and finally Dave Kiddell had all finished ahead of me too. So not much more than two minutes between first and seventh. For a relatively long event too!
To compare, the gap between first and second in the WTTA 29 two weeks ago was 1'44, and that was done in a much quicker time. But the gap from second through ninth was also 1'44 so when you take me out of the equation it does make sense.
We did have the consolation of winning the team prize (me, Rob Gough and Ben Anstie) so that was something.
I was feeling rather poorly when I got back to the HQ but a cup of tea, a bit of cake and a Snickers picked me up and I felt good on the way home.
Funnily enough on Monday I was speaking to a colleague who'd put the same drink in his bottle as I'd used (hey it was free). It was just for his commute home but he said he nearly threw up at the top of a hill and was almost passed by an old lady.
I don't think I'll be using it again.
What next? I've entered a few races but I'm going to stop after this weekend's 64km Beacon RC Little Mountain TT. It should be a great event and I've been wanting to do it for over a year (made a promise to the organiser) but I'm going to have to scale back my ambitions and treat it a bit differently. To that end, I'm just going to take my road bike (there's a special roadman's category) in order to get a feel for the race and the course. Next year...
Then it's into full rehab mode. If I can continue riding lightly, that'll be fine. Then I will stay relatively sane.
I just wish I'd known what to do when I first tore it. Instead of resting, icing and elevating for the first 24 hours, I did 90km in the rain, a fair bit of walking, one-legged 'strengthening' exercises(!!!), carried a backpack and a bike bag back from Belgium and didn't see a physio until 10 days after I did it.
From what I've been reading, that wasn't the ideal way to treat a torn muscle.
I should take up stunt riding as it looks much safer. This video is brilliant. The bloke featured, Danny MacAskill, is going to be at BikeRadar Live at the end of May:
12 days post-headbutt of roller doorBut the more serious calf tear coupled with a swollen Achilles remains, although it's slowly mending. The week I spent on the couch basically did nothing for it, despite me doing all the icing/massaging/elevating I could be bothered doing. That ended up being quite a lot. As soon as I started walking again I could feel it and it got worse. Riding gently, even moderately hard was fine, but racing the Dursley Hilly was not.
I think it's because some movement is needed to get the blood flowing. But too much stretching or impact damages the muscle again. It's a fine line and I've definitely crossed it a few times in training and racing.
Back to the Dursley...
Last year I dun good and won it. And I think I would have had a decent chance of repeating that this year had I been fully fit, but it was not to be. The course was the full 45km with four big climbs (last year's was 36km and lost a climb). I'd recced it back in February in 1hr30 at a moderate pace, so figured a time of 1hr18 was doable at full speed.
Taking eight days off the bike knocked that idea on the head. From experience, I know when I take time off I tend to lose endurance before climbing speed so was a bit worried about whether I'd last the full 45km, especially with 35km to get up to Wootton-under-Edge. So I used some of the free energy drink that was on the cover of Tri Plus. I normally ride on water so I forgot that energy drinks usually need to be diluted well beyond the manufacturer's recommendations. I also didn't read the ingredients. I do not understand why they put aspartame in an energy drink...
The start was on a hill, but I rode it conservatively and didn't get too close to my usual TT heart rate. One down. Then a fast and occasionally tricky descent into Dursley (tick!) and past last year's start. Managed that in under 16 minutes with a bit of a headwind so given I did <1:03 last year, I figured 1:19-1:20 was possible today. If I could keep this speed up.
Crawley hill was next. It was six minutes of pain, a bit slower than last year but still OK. Then the descent of Frocester Hill (tick!) followed by a roundabout and a climb back up. I had Dave Kiddell two minutes behind me at the start, and he'd picked up some time when I clocked him on the return leg. But I'd put about 20 seconds into Chris Madge, who started six minutes in front of me. So I knew I was going OK but not flying.
Frocester Hill was manageable, 20 seconds slower than last year but I didn't feel that bad. Three down. At the top I was still on track for a sub 1:20, especially as there was a tailwind finish. Then the only part of the whole race I enjoyed, the nice undulating bit before the descent to the Sesley roundabout. I caught two riders on the descent but couldn't get past one so waited until we turned around back up the hill.
It was starting to hurt but I knew if I could make it to the top, I'd have the tailwind for the last 10km. Easy. As I climbed, I saw I'd put a good chunk of time into Dave Kiddell and was still 20 seconds ahead of Chris Madge. At the top I calculated I was about level with Rob Lyne - my 10 minute man who I'd seen when I was on the descent - who ended up finishing second by three seconds.
One more gulp of energy drink at the top and ... what's that? Oh dear. I feel queasy. No water for the last 10km. Maybe sneak one more sip in? Body says no.
I'd been looking forward to the tailwind but suddenly found out I was out of gas. Even the tiniest undulations that I'd stomped up last year reduced me to 53x23. Just hang on, not far to the finish.
One more sip at 5km to go. Bad idea. Very bad. Taste of chocolate muesli bar and Zipvit gel in my mouth. I tried to find a gear that I could roll without hurling. Nope. Just grind away, limit the damage. With about 1km to go I passed someone who I'd normally fly past, then completely blew and saw him roll past me again.
I could see the finish but I was more concerned with keeping my breakfast down. Luckily most of it had digested but not all. Blurgh. Stopped pedalling and dropped into the small chainring, absolutely crawling, eventually crossing the line at 25km/h instead of 45. Oh, one more retch for good luck. Thank goodness it was over. At least my ankle wasn't sore like it was at the end of the WTTA 29.
I'd done 1:22:06 and knew I'd lost any chance of winning but was surprised at how close the top placings were. Gavin Poupart won in 1:20:00 - an excellent result for him after puncturing last year. Then Rob Lyne in 1:20:03, followed by Chris Madge in 1:20:41. Derek Smetham, Rob Gough and finally Dave Kiddell had all finished ahead of me too. So not much more than two minutes between first and seventh. For a relatively long event too!
To compare, the gap between first and second in the WTTA 29 two weeks ago was 1'44, and that was done in a much quicker time. But the gap from second through ninth was also 1'44 so when you take me out of the equation it does make sense.
We did have the consolation of winning the team prize (me, Rob Gough and Ben Anstie) so that was something.
I was feeling rather poorly when I got back to the HQ but a cup of tea, a bit of cake and a Snickers picked me up and I felt good on the way home.
Funnily enough on Monday I was speaking to a colleague who'd put the same drink in his bottle as I'd used (hey it was free). It was just for his commute home but he said he nearly threw up at the top of a hill and was almost passed by an old lady.
I don't think I'll be using it again.
What next? I've entered a few races but I'm going to stop after this weekend's 64km Beacon RC Little Mountain TT. It should be a great event and I've been wanting to do it for over a year (made a promise to the organiser) but I'm going to have to scale back my ambitions and treat it a bit differently. To that end, I'm just going to take my road bike (there's a special roadman's category) in order to get a feel for the race and the course. Next year...
Then it's into full rehab mode. If I can continue riding lightly, that'll be fine. Then I will stay relatively sane.
I just wish I'd known what to do when I first tore it. Instead of resting, icing and elevating for the first 24 hours, I did 90km in the rain, a fair bit of walking, one-legged 'strengthening' exercises(!!!), carried a backpack and a bike bag back from Belgium and didn't see a physio until 10 days after I did it.
From what I've been reading, that wasn't the ideal way to treat a torn muscle.
I should take up stunt riding as it looks much safer. This video is brilliant. The bloke featured, Danny MacAskill, is going to be at BikeRadar Live at the end of May:
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Fail
As rest weeks go, I have to say I've had better ones. I'm currently nursing a nasty cut around my right eye, a result of riding into a closing roller door at work that I just didn't see. Could have been worse, could have been a lot better.
Recall the scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark where Dr Jones just makes it under the vertical sliding door in the temple. He even manages to get his hat.
Unfortunately, my life does not follow Hollywood rules and I didn't make it under the door. Yes I had a hat on, but no it wasn't a helmet. Stupid, because it would have reduced the damage I sustained and I wear it every other time. Never again.
Briefly, it was a combination of ignoring the signs at the top of the ramp to dismount (cyclists hate walking, but it can be a dangerous ramp), expecting the roller door to be open (it usually is at that time of the morning, as long as the security guard was there, which he was), wearing dark glasses (although they probably saved me from more damage) and following another cyclist down the ramp (concentrating on the wrong moving object).
The other rider made it through and although I had five seconds, I simply didn't see the door closing until just before I slammed into it. I turned my head to the left and bam, down I went. Lots of blood and a sore head, but I didn't lose consciousness, could remember everything, didn't have eyesight problems - so thankfully no major symptoms of concussion.
As resident first-aider, John patched me up PDQ and his bandaging was so good that when the paramedics arrived shortly after, they didn't feel it necessary to change the dressing. Then it was off to hospital for stitches, with Justin Loretz keeping me company for want of something better to do. I got nine stitches, although I wasn't sure if they counted the two in the wound above my eyebrow - I suspect they did.
I was out of there by 12:30 and went back to work so people could keep an eye on me, spending the afternoon watching DVDs. Even managed to get out for a drink (non alcoholic) later on before spending the night at John's, just in case anything happened. Head injuries are serious!
Since then, it's been a rather boring and depressing period, mostly spent at home. I'll try to get the stitches out on Monday and start riding after that. The main positive is that my ankle feels a lot better, although it's hard to tell how good until I start riding and walking again.
Oddly enough, this year reminds me a bit of 2007, where I also had three crashes and got sick a couple of times - almost there already, and it's only April! Maybe it's the curse of the rainbow jersey...
Recall the scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark where Dr Jones just makes it under the vertical sliding door in the temple. He even manages to get his hat.
Unfortunately, my life does not follow Hollywood rules and I didn't make it under the door. Yes I had a hat on, but no it wasn't a helmet. Stupid, because it would have reduced the damage I sustained and I wear it every other time. Never again.
Briefly, it was a combination of ignoring the signs at the top of the ramp to dismount (cyclists hate walking, but it can be a dangerous ramp), expecting the roller door to be open (it usually is at that time of the morning, as long as the security guard was there, which he was), wearing dark glasses (although they probably saved me from more damage) and following another cyclist down the ramp (concentrating on the wrong moving object).
The other rider made it through and although I had five seconds, I simply didn't see the door closing until just before I slammed into it. I turned my head to the left and bam, down I went. Lots of blood and a sore head, but I didn't lose consciousness, could remember everything, didn't have eyesight problems - so thankfully no major symptoms of concussion.
As resident first-aider, John patched me up PDQ and his bandaging was so good that when the paramedics arrived shortly after, they didn't feel it necessary to change the dressing. Then it was off to hospital for stitches, with Justin Loretz keeping me company for want of something better to do. I got nine stitches, although I wasn't sure if they counted the two in the wound above my eyebrow - I suspect they did.
I was out of there by 12:30 and went back to work so people could keep an eye on me, spending the afternoon watching DVDs. Even managed to get out for a drink (non alcoholic) later on before spending the night at John's, just in case anything happened. Head injuries are serious!
Since then, it's been a rather boring and depressing period, mostly spent at home. I'll try to get the stitches out on Monday and start riding after that. The main positive is that my ankle feels a lot better, although it's hard to tell how good until I start riding and walking again.
Oddly enough, this year reminds me a bit of 2007, where I also had three crashes and got sick a couple of times - almost there already, and it's only April! Maybe it's the curse of the rainbow jersey...
Sunday, April 05, 2009
Hard decision time
Rest. That means no riding at all, not much walking, lots of ice/elevation/anti-inflams and probably some beer.
Thus spake the physio, after looking at my MRI and consulting with a mate of his. Oh well, it has to be done or I'll go through the whole first part of the season with a torn muscle. I'm not enjoying it, despite being in reasonably decent form. Enjoyment is more important than winning races.
At the moment, if I train or race hard, then it takes a few days of nothing/light training to get back to where it was. This is not conducive to improvement, and I noticed another drop in power in today's WTTA hilly: 310 Watts/321 normalised.
So I was somewhat surprised that I won by 1'44.
Everyone was there, although some (including 2nd and =3rd place getters Chris Madge and Rob Lyne) had ridden in the Diamond HF 10 the evening before. But not Chris Birch (coming back from illness), nor Gavin Poupart (had a week off).
I was on a new bike though: a Specialized Transition. Maybe it is as fast as Specialized claim. I'll do a first impressions review on it on BikeRadar as part of a long term test.
My ride was slightly more measured than the Ba'ath hilly two weeks ago. The Mercy Seat plus Sinead O'Connor's rendition of House of the Rising Sun helped with the necessary focus. In a 47km TT, you have to keep a lid on things.
The course is relatively flat, even more so than the Chippenham hilly although it does use the same final 18km. There was a light easterly blowing, which would have slowed us down a bit because it was against us on the outward uphill leg.
Speaking of wind, there was one point, just under the M4 bridge before the turnaround at Wootton Bassett, where I thought I'd punctured. It felt like the rear tyre was going soft whereas in fact it was just me. I decided to ride up to the roundabout, stop and get a lift back with the marshal. I got there and it still felt squishy, but when I got out of the saddle and jumped on the back wheel a few times, it seemed OK. So I kept going. Back down the hill and yep, still squirming all over the place. But once under the bridge, it settled down.
It was just the wind blowing me around. This sort of thing really bakes your noodle in a TT.
But after that, I went flat out on the way back, so I don't think I lost much time. In the end it was 1:06:57 - not good enough for the course record (1:06:14) but clearly good enough to win.
I acquired some more trophies and cakes too. Very important.
Thus spake the physio, after looking at my MRI and consulting with a mate of his. Oh well, it has to be done or I'll go through the whole first part of the season with a torn muscle. I'm not enjoying it, despite being in reasonably decent form. Enjoyment is more important than winning races.
At the moment, if I train or race hard, then it takes a few days of nothing/light training to get back to where it was. This is not conducive to improvement, and I noticed another drop in power in today's WTTA hilly: 310 Watts/321 normalised.
So I was somewhat surprised that I won by 1'44.
Everyone was there, although some (including 2nd and =3rd place getters Chris Madge and Rob Lyne) had ridden in the Diamond HF 10 the evening before. But not Chris Birch (coming back from illness), nor Gavin Poupart (had a week off).
I was on a new bike though: a Specialized Transition. Maybe it is as fast as Specialized claim. I'll do a first impressions review on it on BikeRadar as part of a long term test.
My ride was slightly more measured than the Ba'ath hilly two weeks ago. The Mercy Seat plus Sinead O'Connor's rendition of House of the Rising Sun helped with the necessary focus. In a 47km TT, you have to keep a lid on things.
The course is relatively flat, even more so than the Chippenham hilly although it does use the same final 18km. There was a light easterly blowing, which would have slowed us down a bit because it was against us on the outward uphill leg.
Speaking of wind, there was one point, just under the M4 bridge before the turnaround at Wootton Bassett, where I thought I'd punctured. It felt like the rear tyre was going soft whereas in fact it was just me. I decided to ride up to the roundabout, stop and get a lift back with the marshal. I got there and it still felt squishy, but when I got out of the saddle and jumped on the back wheel a few times, it seemed OK. So I kept going. Back down the hill and yep, still squirming all over the place. But once under the bridge, it settled down.
It was just the wind blowing me around. This sort of thing really bakes your noodle in a TT.
But after that, I went flat out on the way back, so I don't think I lost much time. In the end it was 1:06:57 - not good enough for the course record (1:06:14) but clearly good enough to win.
I acquired some more trophies and cakes too. Very important.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Slowly
In some particular order, but perhaps not the most logical one:
The tendon/calf thingy is on the mend, although it's a few weeks off being 100%. MRI scan today said 'it's inflamed', which I could have determined without traipsing up to Cheltenham and paying a couple of hundred quid for the privilege. But I will get the full report in a few days, which should tell me more. It is definitely not as sore as it was a week ago, so that's a good thing.
I still managed to lose a little bit of fitness over the last two weeks, as I found out in the Ba'ath hilly on Sunday (it's 24 miles not 25.7). Chris Birch turned the tables and convincingly beat me by 41 seconds. My average power was 5-6W down on what it was at the Chippenham hilly, which doesn't sound much but it's ~25 seconds over an hour long event. Not enough to make the difference though. I would have needed to be at my 2008 summer level to win.
Nevertheless, I was pretty happy with my ride. My pacing wasn't bad, although it was hard to judge because I didn't really know how hard to go. I got over the hills OK but my heart rate was often in the mid-180s, which normally doesn't happen. I kept just enough in the tank for the final 6.5km drag (a 1% false flat) to the finish. It was a head/crosswind at that point and I somehow held 335W for the next 10 minutes. I hit 188 bpm and cramped in both thighs at the top. Perfect, really.
With 58'29 I snuck under the old course record, but by then Chris had already clocked 57'48. C'est la vie. In fact, five people went under the hour and it would have been six had Dave Kiddell not been held up by cows! Prior to Sunday, the course had been used just twice for this event, and only two people had beaten the hour on it. So the competition wasn't bad.
I also beat everyone who was beating me at this time last year and I got another 120 hardrider points 'cos Chris Birch isn't registered in the series. We won the team prize which meant I won two cakes, one of which I have not yet consumed.
Next race: WTTA hilly in a couple of weeks. I hope it doesn't snow like last year. I will avoid eating dodgy curries too. Saturday was better.
The tendon/calf thingy is on the mend, although it's a few weeks off being 100%. MRI scan today said 'it's inflamed', which I could have determined without traipsing up to Cheltenham and paying a couple of hundred quid for the privilege. But I will get the full report in a few days, which should tell me more. It is definitely not as sore as it was a week ago, so that's a good thing.
I still managed to lose a little bit of fitness over the last two weeks, as I found out in the Ba'ath hilly on Sunday (it's 24 miles not 25.7). Chris Birch turned the tables and convincingly beat me by 41 seconds. My average power was 5-6W down on what it was at the Chippenham hilly, which doesn't sound much but it's ~25 seconds over an hour long event. Not enough to make the difference though. I would have needed to be at my 2008 summer level to win.
Nevertheless, I was pretty happy with my ride. My pacing wasn't bad, although it was hard to judge because I didn't really know how hard to go. I got over the hills OK but my heart rate was often in the mid-180s, which normally doesn't happen. I kept just enough in the tank for the final 6.5km drag (a 1% false flat) to the finish. It was a head/crosswind at that point and I somehow held 335W for the next 10 minutes. I hit 188 bpm and cramped in both thighs at the top. Perfect, really.
With 58'29 I snuck under the old course record, but by then Chris had already clocked 57'48. C'est la vie. In fact, five people went under the hour and it would have been six had Dave Kiddell not been held up by cows! Prior to Sunday, the course had been used just twice for this event, and only two people had beaten the hour on it. So the competition wasn't bad.
I also beat everyone who was beating me at this time last year and I got another 120 hardrider points 'cos Chris Birch isn't registered in the series. We won the team prize which meant I won two cakes, one of which I have not yet consumed.
Next race: WTTA hilly in a couple of weeks. I hope it doesn't snow like last year. I will avoid eating dodgy curries too. Saturday was better.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Hello
An interesting week, one of mixed fortunes for myself and others (go Sam!). I suppose it is the Ides of March so I should expect it.
The injury for starters. The physio noticed a small improvement in my torn calf, although the tendon is still inflamed which means it gets painful on the bike. I've been riding easy for an hour and a half most days and I tend to find it's OK for about 30 minutes before it starts getting sore. Then during the course of the day it settles down and is often almost pain free by the time I get home. That's definitely better than it was but because I ride first thing in the morning, it doesn't have time to settle.
I'm due to get an MRI next week in order to fully assess the damage. That ain't going to be cheap but it's better to know, especially as it is the start of what could be another good season. I suspect I'll just have to keep riding easy/rest for the next three to four weeks until it heals, although I do have one race on the menu next Sunday.
The good thing from my point of view is that I can afford to take it steady as I doubt I'll lose much fitness. Winning last Sunday was very good for my confidence (pics here). 54'10 for 39km! I couldn't believe I averaged 43km/h and broke the bloody course record on such a windy day. For comparison, last year our winning 3-up team did 53'24 on an almost identical course on a calm but foggy day. Second placed VC St Raphael did 54'12...
There's no need to rush things, as I don't really want to be going well until the second half of April with a view to lifting that for the National 10 and 25 in late May/early June. I doubt I'll place highly in the National 10 but a top 20 in the National 25 would be cool.
Humpty Doo nearly total recall
Back to team time trials. I've been perusing a few triathlon mags that have been idly left around the office (our almost launched new mag, Triathlon Plus, is going to be tres good). On the cover of one I noticed a chap by the name of Craig Alexander, who has won the Hawaii Ironman triathlon twice. It's considered the top race in the sport so this guy is hot property in the triathlon world. His name rang a bell so I delved into my memory banks, with the help of google, and found out that he's roughly my age, lives in Sydney, and used to go to uni.
Ding! (another bell sound effect)
I then remembered that at the 1995 university games in Darwin, we had a couple of triathletes in our team time trial team, along with Brent McParland and me. One of them was Mr Alexander! He was pretty handy on the bike back then and fitted in well to our team on the basis of our sole training session together.
The TTT was a dead flat, out-and-back 50km jobbie at a place called Humpty Doo, somewhere south of Darwin. We were all pretty evenly matched and everyone pulled their weight, including the triathletes. I even skipped a turn or two on the way back. We ended up winning fairly convincingly in 1:04:something. Uni of WA had to settle for second, unless my memory is as bad as it very likely is.
So that's my Craig Alexander story. It's almost as good as passing Robbie McEwen's team in the TTT in Brisbane a few years previously.
Interestingly, he's still riding the same depth rims as he did in 1995. Gotta get a disk mate!
Weather
Drizzly last week but improving to dry and 10-15 degrees this week. That's excellent for the Ides of March so you'll hear no complaints from moi. If it continues through until next weekend, it will be a Good Thing. Not just 'cos it's the Bath Hilly either. Things are looking promising after the coffee wars episode, possibly.
More news, anon.
The injury for starters. The physio noticed a small improvement in my torn calf, although the tendon is still inflamed which means it gets painful on the bike. I've been riding easy for an hour and a half most days and I tend to find it's OK for about 30 minutes before it starts getting sore. Then during the course of the day it settles down and is often almost pain free by the time I get home. That's definitely better than it was but because I ride first thing in the morning, it doesn't have time to settle.
I'm due to get an MRI next week in order to fully assess the damage. That ain't going to be cheap but it's better to know, especially as it is the start of what could be another good season. I suspect I'll just have to keep riding easy/rest for the next three to four weeks until it heals, although I do have one race on the menu next Sunday.
The good thing from my point of view is that I can afford to take it steady as I doubt I'll lose much fitness. Winning last Sunday was very good for my confidence (pics here). 54'10 for 39km! I couldn't believe I averaged 43km/h and broke the bloody course record on such a windy day. For comparison, last year our winning 3-up team did 53'24 on an almost identical course on a calm but foggy day. Second placed VC St Raphael did 54'12...
There's no need to rush things, as I don't really want to be going well until the second half of April with a view to lifting that for the National 10 and 25 in late May/early June. I doubt I'll place highly in the National 10 but a top 20 in the National 25 would be cool.
Humpty Doo nearly total recall
Back to team time trials. I've been perusing a few triathlon mags that have been idly left around the office (our almost launched new mag, Triathlon Plus, is going to be tres good). On the cover of one I noticed a chap by the name of Craig Alexander, who has won the Hawaii Ironman triathlon twice. It's considered the top race in the sport so this guy is hot property in the triathlon world. His name rang a bell so I delved into my memory banks, with the help of google, and found out that he's roughly my age, lives in Sydney, and used to go to uni.
Ding! (another bell sound effect)
I then remembered that at the 1995 university games in Darwin, we had a couple of triathletes in our team time trial team, along with Brent McParland and me. One of them was Mr Alexander! He was pretty handy on the bike back then and fitted in well to our team on the basis of our sole training session together.
The TTT was a dead flat, out-and-back 50km jobbie at a place called Humpty Doo, somewhere south of Darwin. We were all pretty evenly matched and everyone pulled their weight, including the triathletes. I even skipped a turn or two on the way back. We ended up winning fairly convincingly in 1:04:something. Uni of WA had to settle for second, unless my memory is as bad as it very likely is.
So that's my Craig Alexander story. It's almost as good as passing Robbie McEwen's team in the TTT in Brisbane a few years previously.
Interestingly, he's still riding the same depth rims as he did in 1995. Gotta get a disk mate!
Weather
Drizzly last week but improving to dry and 10-15 degrees this week. That's excellent for the Ides of March so you'll hear no complaints from moi. If it continues through until next weekend, it will be a Good Thing. Not just 'cos it's the Bath Hilly either. Things are looking promising after the coffee wars episode, possibly.
More news, anon.
Saturday, March 07, 2009
Birth, omloop and injury
Stop press: My sister has finally produced an offspring, a boy named Sam. Born on the same day as Pete, which should save on presents. Very exciting for us Joneses and Boyds! That makes me an uncle. Luckily she didn't have a girl or I would have been an aunt, a maiden one at that.
Het Omloop
Het Volk
© Jeff Jones
This year's Het Volk (now renamed to Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, grr) visit was for a whole week. Longer than the usual weekend because I'm still trying to use up my 2008 holiday.
It afforded the chance to bring my bike over in order to do the Schelde ride again as well as revisit some of my old training routes and mates. It was the first time since 2006 and I now realise why I got such a shock when I first moved to the UK. For one, Belgium is flat. Really flat. Even the hilly rides are flat. Secondly, the road surfaces are better. It's so much easier to roll along at a decent clip when you're on smooth asphalt rather than coarse aggregate.
I did a one hour out and back effort at a bit over 80% of max on the first day. 37.5km for my pains, which ain't bad on the road bike, especially as it was only 4 degrees. My record a few years ago was closer to 40km, but that was when it was actually warm and I was probably a bit fitter.
I caught up with the Sunderland clan on the first day, visiting a dinosaur museum in Brussels. I still find dinosaurs amazing - they were around for hundreds of millions of years and never even blogged about it. Then they went and got themselves wiped out by some climactic event. Not that that could ever happen again.
This exhib in Brussels was apparently the largest in Europe. The most impressive was a display of the 30 Iguanodons that had been dug up in a Belgian coal mine. Eight of their skeletons had all been reconstructed in upright positions, as it was first thought they were mostly bipedal. But it's now considered more likely that they spent most of their lives on all fours. Their very well developed 'arms' are a clue.
A triceratops looking starved
© Jeff Jones
A tyrannosaurus looking starved and mean
© Jeff Jones
That's a big leg bone
© Jeff Jones
Checkin' out the Grand Place
© Jeff Jones
Van Gogh lives!
© Jeff Jones
The well known manneken pis
© Jeff Jones
The little known Jeanneke pis
© Jeff Jones
I also managed a couple of rides with Scott during the rest of the week. He's still fit for someone who doesn't ride that much. Alas, while following him up a hill I made the mistake of looking behind me for a bit too long. When I turned around, I'd overlapped his wheel, overbalanced and down I came on my right side. I was barely hurt and thought nothing of it until I got home and found walking was rather painful. Turns out I think I tore my lower calf muscle, which is a bit of a bugger. More of that later.
I saw several of the Schelde riders, notably De Witte, but also Henk, Lucien and Jules. Unfortunately there have been a couple of (non-cycling related) deaths among the group in the last few years, but at least three births to balance them. Such is the way of the world.
On the pie shop front, Reiny and Gwen are doing well, even in these times of the credit crunch(tm). They're still working hard but the business is steadily picking up. 'Twas nice to stay with them again and remain at moderately sober for the entire week, despite them having acquired a crate of Jupiler that almost literally fell off the back of a truck. Luckily I don't like Jupiler that much. Promising news: Cafe Igor has now been gutted and is being turned into a microbrewery. I tried some of the beer and it was good. This bodes well.
Future beer!
© Jeff Jones
We met up with Gregg and Holly Germer at Pane & Vino one evening. They are top value: Holly works at one of the Irish pubs while Gregg has moved from there to doing a factory job. He was a bike rider and did ride as a pro for at least one year before getting a job that paid a bit better. He's in the process of allocating a chunk of his and Holly's large house in Oudenaarde to bike riders as a base for the season, with a view to turning it into a proper business venture.
The Omloop itself was quite pleasant. I moseyed around the start in Sint Pietersplein, taking the odd pic before catching up with Aussies Andrew Torney and Karl Becker and their kids for 'n koffietje. They are well settled in Belgium although the call back home is still there. Apparently the winter in Belgium was a lot colder than what we had in the UK: it got down to -22 somewhere, and it was even -12 in Gent. So all the lakes and canals were frozen and many were skateable. Not great riding weather and not surprisingly, I heard there were a few crashes in the bunch.
Unlike previous years, the Omloop night out was not a big affair. We caught up with Reiny's ex-shop helper at a passable French restaurant in the Patershol, but didn't extend the evening beyond that. It ain't easy to recover when you're working flat out six days out of seven.
Cycling can be cras at times
© Jeff Jones
More volk
© Jeff Jones
Andrew Torney and son
© Jeff Jones
Return: injury confirmed
I got back to Bath on Sunday but it took me until Friday before I got to a physio to figure out what the problem with my ankle was. It also involved a walk up (and down) Lansdown Road, which probably wasn't ideal! The upshot was that I've probably torn my soleus (lower calf) but I need to get an ultrasound next week to make sure. I think the rehab will take several weeks and a few hundred quid - also not ideal. But it's got to be done. I also might be able to do something about my comparatively weak left side, which has given me problems in the past.
The good thing is that I can still keep riding. Even riding to work is better than walking, so I'll do that. I'm also allowed to race, provided I don't sprint hard or push too much if it's painful (painkillers are definitely out of the question too), because there is a small chance I could rupture the tendon. That would be bad.
So tomorrow I'll do the Chippenham hilly, but not with any particular ambition other than maybe to sneak in for the team prize. Pity because up until the crash I was going well. No point in buggering up the rest of the season though, so it'll be steady as she goes.
Tomorrow's results
Better than I thought. Much better. I won in 54'10 in a new course record on what could be described as a 'blustery' day. And yep, we won the team prize with Ben and Rob Gough.
My leg didn't give me too much gyp so I could push it as hard as I needed to. Actually it probably helped me not go out too hard. As a result, my pacing was spot on. I averaged 325W - about 10W lower than my best power over that distance last summer - and each leg was pretty consistent (hur hur). I started halfway down the field and did cop a little bit of rain in the last 10 minutes, but not nearly as bad as the guys who started behind me...
Now, two weeks off racing before the Bath hilly. Hopefully my injury will be right by then. I can't imagine it'll get worse as I've now got a physio and am doing the right things to fix it (Ice ice baby. Maybe I should just stand outside in the sleet).
Het Omloop
Het Volk© Jeff Jones
This year's Het Volk (now renamed to Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, grr) visit was for a whole week. Longer than the usual weekend because I'm still trying to use up my 2008 holiday.
It afforded the chance to bring my bike over in order to do the Schelde ride again as well as revisit some of my old training routes and mates. It was the first time since 2006 and I now realise why I got such a shock when I first moved to the UK. For one, Belgium is flat. Really flat. Even the hilly rides are flat. Secondly, the road surfaces are better. It's so much easier to roll along at a decent clip when you're on smooth asphalt rather than coarse aggregate.
I did a one hour out and back effort at a bit over 80% of max on the first day. 37.5km for my pains, which ain't bad on the road bike, especially as it was only 4 degrees. My record a few years ago was closer to 40km, but that was when it was actually warm and I was probably a bit fitter.
I caught up with the Sunderland clan on the first day, visiting a dinosaur museum in Brussels. I still find dinosaurs amazing - they were around for hundreds of millions of years and never even blogged about it. Then they went and got themselves wiped out by some climactic event. Not that that could ever happen again.
This exhib in Brussels was apparently the largest in Europe. The most impressive was a display of the 30 Iguanodons that had been dug up in a Belgian coal mine. Eight of their skeletons had all been reconstructed in upright positions, as it was first thought they were mostly bipedal. But it's now considered more likely that they spent most of their lives on all fours. Their very well developed 'arms' are a clue.
A triceratops looking starved© Jeff Jones
A tyrannosaurus looking starved and mean© Jeff Jones
That's a big leg bone© Jeff Jones
Checkin' out the Grand Place© Jeff Jones
Van Gogh lives!© Jeff Jones
The well known manneken pis© Jeff Jones
The little known Jeanneke pis© Jeff Jones
I also managed a couple of rides with Scott during the rest of the week. He's still fit for someone who doesn't ride that much. Alas, while following him up a hill I made the mistake of looking behind me for a bit too long. When I turned around, I'd overlapped his wheel, overbalanced and down I came on my right side. I was barely hurt and thought nothing of it until I got home and found walking was rather painful. Turns out I think I tore my lower calf muscle, which is a bit of a bugger. More of that later.
I saw several of the Schelde riders, notably De Witte, but also Henk, Lucien and Jules. Unfortunately there have been a couple of (non-cycling related) deaths among the group in the last few years, but at least three births to balance them. Such is the way of the world.
On the pie shop front, Reiny and Gwen are doing well, even in these times of the credit crunch(tm). They're still working hard but the business is steadily picking up. 'Twas nice to stay with them again and remain at moderately sober for the entire week, despite them having acquired a crate of Jupiler that almost literally fell off the back of a truck. Luckily I don't like Jupiler that much. Promising news: Cafe Igor has now been gutted and is being turned into a microbrewery. I tried some of the beer and it was good. This bodes well.
Future beer!© Jeff Jones
We met up with Gregg and Holly Germer at Pane & Vino one evening. They are top value: Holly works at one of the Irish pubs while Gregg has moved from there to doing a factory job. He was a bike rider and did ride as a pro for at least one year before getting a job that paid a bit better. He's in the process of allocating a chunk of his and Holly's large house in Oudenaarde to bike riders as a base for the season, with a view to turning it into a proper business venture.
The Omloop itself was quite pleasant. I moseyed around the start in Sint Pietersplein, taking the odd pic before catching up with Aussies Andrew Torney and Karl Becker and their kids for 'n koffietje. They are well settled in Belgium although the call back home is still there. Apparently the winter in Belgium was a lot colder than what we had in the UK: it got down to -22 somewhere, and it was even -12 in Gent. So all the lakes and canals were frozen and many were skateable. Not great riding weather and not surprisingly, I heard there were a few crashes in the bunch.
Unlike previous years, the Omloop night out was not a big affair. We caught up with Reiny's ex-shop helper at a passable French restaurant in the Patershol, but didn't extend the evening beyond that. It ain't easy to recover when you're working flat out six days out of seven.
Cycling can be cras at times© Jeff Jones
More volk© Jeff Jones
Andrew Torney and son© Jeff Jones
Return: injury confirmed
I got back to Bath on Sunday but it took me until Friday before I got to a physio to figure out what the problem with my ankle was. It also involved a walk up (and down) Lansdown Road, which probably wasn't ideal! The upshot was that I've probably torn my soleus (lower calf) but I need to get an ultrasound next week to make sure. I think the rehab will take several weeks and a few hundred quid - also not ideal. But it's got to be done. I also might be able to do something about my comparatively weak left side, which has given me problems in the past.
The good thing is that I can still keep riding. Even riding to work is better than walking, so I'll do that. I'm also allowed to race, provided I don't sprint hard or push too much if it's painful (painkillers are definitely out of the question too), because there is a small chance I could rupture the tendon. That would be bad.
So tomorrow I'll do the Chippenham hilly, but not with any particular ambition other than maybe to sneak in for the team prize. Pity because up until the crash I was going well. No point in buggering up the rest of the season though, so it'll be steady as she goes.
Tomorrow's results
Better than I thought. Much better. I won in 54'10 in a new course record on what could be described as a 'blustery' day. And yep, we won the team prize with Ben and Rob Gough.
My leg didn't give me too much gyp so I could push it as hard as I needed to. Actually it probably helped me not go out too hard. As a result, my pacing was spot on. I averaged 325W - about 10W lower than my best power over that distance last summer - and each leg was pretty consistent (hur hur). I started halfway down the field and did cop a little bit of rain in the last 10 minutes, but not nearly as bad as the guys who started behind me...
Now, two weeks off racing before the Bath hilly. Hopefully my injury will be right by then. I can't imagine it'll get worse as I've now got a physio and am doing the right things to fix it (Ice ice baby. Maybe I should just stand outside in the sleet).
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Plus one
During the week, I had the good fortune to be led to a Bath establishment that I had not yet been to. The Chandos Deli, in George St. Best sandwiches I've had here (meaning the UK. It can be done), including actual tasty bread and fresh ingredients. And the coffee was decent too.
I'm going to add this place to our work posse's lunchtime coffee haunts list. Trust me, that's almost as hard as getting three Michelin stars.
In rough order of cappuccino and americano quality, the list is currently:
Same Same But Different
Chandos Deli
Tea Centre
Fine Cheese Co
Real Italian Ice Cream joint
Kindling Cafe (both of them)
Epicurean Deli
The Hub
Metropolitan
The top five are the best but for some reason we don't visit them as often as the bottom four.
Fire alarm madness
A sophisticated and expensive fire alarm system was installed in all of the flats recently. Unfortunately it doesn't work. Or rather, it doesn't know how to distinguish between, say, having a shower and a full blown fire. Or cooking (which has been known to produce smoke) and a full blown fire. Or even heating the kitchen and a full blown fire.
It seems to be the alarms in my place that are the worst, although the guy downstairs has had his go off too. Resetting involves dashing down to the ground floor, punching in the right sequence of numbers on the panel, getting annoyed and reassuring the neighbours that you were merely browning the onions.
It is not satisfactory.
The worst was when I came back from a five hour ride last weekend, fairly knackered and hungry. I had a quick shower, opened the bathroom door and the steam set off the alarm. Argh. I wasn't thinking straight and couldn't work out how to reset the thing, so half an hour and a phone call to the installer later, the noise was finally silenced. Neighbours were not amused. Nor was I.
The problem had been that the vents in the extractor fan in my bathroom were closed, so the steam built up. But still I wanted to know if I could turn the detectors off, even temporarily. The installer bloke said he could only switch them to a heat detector and didn't recommend it. I spoke to the landlord, who agreed it was a pain in the arse and we will do something about it.
But I may have a solution. Pete, one of our developers, told me that he just used to put plastic bags attached by rubber bands over the detectors. Of course it doesn't help if you have an actual fire, but after doing extensive user testing of this system, I conclude that it's rubbish and I'd probably burn to death if there was a real fire anyway.
Weather et al
The snow has all gone and the country is back on its three feet. In fact, we've had some rather pleasant weather of late. Today it was blue skies and 11 degrees. Joy!
'Twas a perfect day to clock up 140km, including a lap of the Chippenham hilly course (38.7km, couple of short climbs) and some time with the club chain gang. The Chippenham hilly on March 8 will be my first race and I'm looking forward to getting stuck in again. I was 3'30 quicker over the course than last week for the same heart rate, so that's a good sign. Even better was that I was five minutes quicker over it with a slightly higher average heart rate than I was at this time last year.
It kinda made up for being a bit slower on Tuesday and Thursday during the week. That was a result of doing a bit too much last weekend and not going easy enough on Wednesday. Gently does it on rest days. I think with another couple of weeks of training, I should be in pretty reasonable shape. Can't wait to race in my new Chippenham skinsuit with rainbow cuffs ;-)
150km tomorrow then off to Belgium on Monday to visit Reiny and Gwen, do a few Schelde rides (yep, I'm taking the bike) and catch up with some old friends.
Much more exciting is that at some stage during next week, the family will be increased by plus one and I'll become an uncle. Go Lucy!
I'm going to add this place to our work posse's lunchtime coffee haunts list. Trust me, that's almost as hard as getting three Michelin stars.
In rough order of cappuccino and americano quality, the list is currently:
Same Same But Different
Chandos Deli
Tea Centre
Fine Cheese Co
Real Italian Ice Cream joint
Kindling Cafe (both of them)
Epicurean Deli
The Hub
Metropolitan
The top five are the best but for some reason we don't visit them as often as the bottom four.
Fire alarm madness
A sophisticated and expensive fire alarm system was installed in all of the flats recently. Unfortunately it doesn't work. Or rather, it doesn't know how to distinguish between, say, having a shower and a full blown fire. Or cooking (which has been known to produce smoke) and a full blown fire. Or even heating the kitchen and a full blown fire.
It seems to be the alarms in my place that are the worst, although the guy downstairs has had his go off too. Resetting involves dashing down to the ground floor, punching in the right sequence of numbers on the panel, getting annoyed and reassuring the neighbours that you were merely browning the onions.
It is not satisfactory.
The worst was when I came back from a five hour ride last weekend, fairly knackered and hungry. I had a quick shower, opened the bathroom door and the steam set off the alarm. Argh. I wasn't thinking straight and couldn't work out how to reset the thing, so half an hour and a phone call to the installer later, the noise was finally silenced. Neighbours were not amused. Nor was I.
The problem had been that the vents in the extractor fan in my bathroom were closed, so the steam built up. But still I wanted to know if I could turn the detectors off, even temporarily. The installer bloke said he could only switch them to a heat detector and didn't recommend it. I spoke to the landlord, who agreed it was a pain in the arse and we will do something about it.
But I may have a solution. Pete, one of our developers, told me that he just used to put plastic bags attached by rubber bands over the detectors. Of course it doesn't help if you have an actual fire, but after doing extensive user testing of this system, I conclude that it's rubbish and I'd probably burn to death if there was a real fire anyway.
Weather et al
The snow has all gone and the country is back on its three feet. In fact, we've had some rather pleasant weather of late. Today it was blue skies and 11 degrees. Joy!
'Twas a perfect day to clock up 140km, including a lap of the Chippenham hilly course (38.7km, couple of short climbs) and some time with the club chain gang. The Chippenham hilly on March 8 will be my first race and I'm looking forward to getting stuck in again. I was 3'30 quicker over the course than last week for the same heart rate, so that's a good sign. Even better was that I was five minutes quicker over it with a slightly higher average heart rate than I was at this time last year.
It kinda made up for being a bit slower on Tuesday and Thursday during the week. That was a result of doing a bit too much last weekend and not going easy enough on Wednesday. Gently does it on rest days. I think with another couple of weeks of training, I should be in pretty reasonable shape. Can't wait to race in my new Chippenham skinsuit with rainbow cuffs ;-)
150km tomorrow then off to Belgium on Monday to visit Reiny and Gwen, do a few Schelde rides (yep, I'm taking the bike) and catch up with some old friends.
Much more exciting is that at some stage during next week, the family will be increased by plus one and I'll become an uncle. Go Lucy!
Friday, February 06, 2009
Footsteps in the snow
This week it's turned a bit wintry with snow an' that. Typically, the UK ran out of grit/salt on the first day so the entire country shut down. Not me though! I even managed to do a training session in the Quay House basement.
Note: there is nothing new here that isn't on Facebook already. Please move along.
It may look calm from the safety of Cleveland Bridge, but plunging into the icy waters of the Avon means certain DEATH. Fortunately I stopped myself from taking my regular early morning swim just in time.
© Jeff Jones
As the end of the world is obviously nigh, I've taken precautions and booked my spot to beat the rush. Quick!
© Jeff Jones
Pulteney Bridge and the weir. If you look (very) closely on top of Lansdown hill you can see that Bath is an avalanche waiting to happen. If we don't get buried alive by snow, we'll surely drown in the Avon.
© Jeff Jones
It's that cold you can almost skate on the Avon. Or likely just drown.
© Jeff Jones
This once used to be a beautiful park with no riff-raff. Now look at it. Ruined by the snow.
© Jeff Jones
My only escape route from the cold involves plunging into yonder Roman baths. But I doubt I will survive the drop.
© Jeff Jones
It's getting worse. I'm not going to make it now.
© Jeff Jones
Where's me shovel?
© Jeff Jones
The park up the road. You have to tiptoe in order to avoid an avalanche
© Jeff Jones
Downtown Bath. Quiet innit.
© Jeff Jones
Let me in, I want a swim!
© Jeff Jones
Lack of wide angle lens and a suitable place to stand led to this photo
© Jeff Jones
I just threw this in for effect
© Jeff Jones
Tree: "Where is everyone? If I fall, there will be no-one to hear me"
© Jeff Jones
Note: there is nothing new here that isn't on Facebook already. Please move along.
It may look calm from the safety of Cleveland Bridge, but plunging into the icy waters of the Avon means certain DEATH. Fortunately I stopped myself from taking my regular early morning swim just in time.© Jeff Jones
As the end of the world is obviously nigh, I've taken precautions and booked my spot to beat the rush. Quick!© Jeff Jones
Pulteney Bridge and the weir. If you look (very) closely on top of Lansdown hill you can see that Bath is an avalanche waiting to happen. If we don't get buried alive by snow, we'll surely drown in the Avon.© Jeff Jones
It's that cold you can almost skate on the Avon. Or likely just drown.© Jeff Jones
This once used to be a beautiful park with no riff-raff. Now look at it. Ruined by the snow.© Jeff Jones
My only escape route from the cold involves plunging into yonder Roman baths. But I doubt I will survive the drop.© Jeff Jones
It's getting worse. I'm not going to make it now.© Jeff Jones
Where's me shovel?© Jeff Jones
The park up the road. You have to tiptoe in order to avoid an avalanche© Jeff Jones
Downtown Bath. Quiet innit.© Jeff Jones
Let me in, I want a swim!© Jeff Jones
Lack of wide angle lens and a suitable place to stand led to this photo© Jeff Jones
I just threw this in for effect© Jeff Jones
Tree: "Where is everyone? If I fall, there will be no-one to hear me"© Jeff Jones
Sunday, February 01, 2009
Arbeit macht frei
Starting on a cheery note...
I watched a two hour doco on the story of Anne Frank t'other night. It was interesting, with interviews with many of the surviving protagonists, and predictably harrowing.
After Anne's family was arrested while hiding in Amsterdam in 1944, they were sent to various concentration camps. Poor old Anne and her sister Margot died of typhus, their mother starved to death, most of their friends died, but their father Otto managed to survive and eventually published Anne's famous diary.
The Nazis really had it in for the Jews, and just about everyone else. Glad they lost.
On the subject of harrowing experiences, I also went to Milton Keynes (via Birmingham of all places) during the week. It was for a worthy cause - a bike show - but all the same. We stayed in a weird place called Whittlebury Hall, about 15 minutes outside the city. It was modern trying to be historical and I found it rather unsettling.
Shopping at Morrisons on Saturday afternoons is not quite as harrowing, but it's up there. At least you can buy chocolate, beer and other essential comestibles.
Weather-wise, it's turning chilly again with Actual Snow(tm) predicted for the next couple of days. If it's any good I'll take pics. I doubt I'll be riding in it, although fresh snow is usually not too slippery. It's when it turns to ice that it gets tricky.
I managed a measly 1420km for January, a couple of hundred down on what I'd planned 'cos of ice/illness. Still, I'm faster than I was last January and that's what counts. I'm typically averaging 30-32km/h on my long rides: those sorts of speeds took me until July to get to last year. To do that when it's 2 degrees and there's an icy 30km/h nor'easter blowing is even better.
A handy discovery I've made and sort of known all along: Snickers bars rule for long rides. They're not pure carbohydrate, I know, but I find them much easier to stomach than muesli bars or other more designer things like Clif bars. Gels work but they cost too much. Snickers are nice 'n cheap. Today I did 4.5 hours on one Snickers and one Uncle Toby's chocolate oat bake. I should have just had two Snickers. As soon as I took a bite, the bitter wind didn't seem so bad so I was able to stupidly continue riding into it somewhere near Warminster.
Thinking back to Belgium, a lot of guys used to race on one Snickers and a couple of gels. Nothing for the first hour, Snickers for the second hour, gels for the final. That meant if you didn't make it into a decent group you wouldn't waste your gels :-)
The Chippenham club do last weekend was excellent. The club had nearly 440 members at the end of last year, making it the biggest real club in the UK (we reckon). 100-odd people turned up to the dinner, including the colourful cycling personalities David Duffield and Keith Butler. I don't quite know how it happened but we were all fairly merry before we'd even sat down to dinner. There were approx. 800 trophies to hand out and our table (Ben, Simon, Mark Hanby, Richard Farrow, Gary Walker, Chris Tweedie were all on it) ended up with a goodly proportion of them. I think we were all sat together near the front to save time.
I took home the club TT championship (might count that as win no. 16 in 2008), a couple of plates for breaking the 25 and 50 mile records, first in the West DC 25 mile teams championship and second in the evening 10 series. Ben won the road race championship, the evening 10 series, the club 25 and 50 mile championships and probably a bit more; Andy won the club best all rounder trophy, Richard and Simon won the lottery two-up. Etcetera, and so on.
Notable others: Chris Tweedie took home the gunner trophy because he was "gunna do this" but didn't. Ian Jacques took the half-wheel trophy for his performance on the club chain gang rides. And Gordon Scott won the dragon's tongue award for best story.
More pics here: picasaweb.google.co.uk/chippenhamwheelers/DinnerDance2009
Right, back to work.
I watched a two hour doco on the story of Anne Frank t'other night. It was interesting, with interviews with many of the surviving protagonists, and predictably harrowing.
After Anne's family was arrested while hiding in Amsterdam in 1944, they were sent to various concentration camps. Poor old Anne and her sister Margot died of typhus, their mother starved to death, most of their friends died, but their father Otto managed to survive and eventually published Anne's famous diary.
The Nazis really had it in for the Jews, and just about everyone else. Glad they lost.
On the subject of harrowing experiences, I also went to Milton Keynes (via Birmingham of all places) during the week. It was for a worthy cause - a bike show - but all the same. We stayed in a weird place called Whittlebury Hall, about 15 minutes outside the city. It was modern trying to be historical and I found it rather unsettling.
Shopping at Morrisons on Saturday afternoons is not quite as harrowing, but it's up there. At least you can buy chocolate, beer and other essential comestibles.
Weather-wise, it's turning chilly again with Actual Snow(tm) predicted for the next couple of days. If it's any good I'll take pics. I doubt I'll be riding in it, although fresh snow is usually not too slippery. It's when it turns to ice that it gets tricky.
I managed a measly 1420km for January, a couple of hundred down on what I'd planned 'cos of ice/illness. Still, I'm faster than I was last January and that's what counts. I'm typically averaging 30-32km/h on my long rides: those sorts of speeds took me until July to get to last year. To do that when it's 2 degrees and there's an icy 30km/h nor'easter blowing is even better.
A handy discovery I've made and sort of known all along: Snickers bars rule for long rides. They're not pure carbohydrate, I know, but I find them much easier to stomach than muesli bars or other more designer things like Clif bars. Gels work but they cost too much. Snickers are nice 'n cheap. Today I did 4.5 hours on one Snickers and one Uncle Toby's chocolate oat bake. I should have just had two Snickers. As soon as I took a bite, the bitter wind didn't seem so bad so I was able to stupidly continue riding into it somewhere near Warminster.
Thinking back to Belgium, a lot of guys used to race on one Snickers and a couple of gels. Nothing for the first hour, Snickers for the second hour, gels for the final. That meant if you didn't make it into a decent group you wouldn't waste your gels :-)
The Chippenham club do last weekend was excellent. The club had nearly 440 members at the end of last year, making it the biggest real club in the UK (we reckon). 100-odd people turned up to the dinner, including the colourful cycling personalities David Duffield and Keith Butler. I don't quite know how it happened but we were all fairly merry before we'd even sat down to dinner. There were approx. 800 trophies to hand out and our table (Ben, Simon, Mark Hanby, Richard Farrow, Gary Walker, Chris Tweedie were all on it) ended up with a goodly proportion of them. I think we were all sat together near the front to save time.
I took home the club TT championship (might count that as win no. 16 in 2008), a couple of plates for breaking the 25 and 50 mile records, first in the West DC 25 mile teams championship and second in the evening 10 series. Ben won the road race championship, the evening 10 series, the club 25 and 50 mile championships and probably a bit more; Andy won the club best all rounder trophy, Richard and Simon won the lottery two-up. Etcetera, and so on.
Notable others: Chris Tweedie took home the gunner trophy because he was "gunna do this" but didn't. Ian Jacques took the half-wheel trophy for his performance on the club chain gang rides. And Gordon Scott won the dragon's tongue award for best story.
More pics here: picasaweb.google.co.uk/chippenhamwheelers/DinnerDance2009
Right, back to work.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Absurd
This is actually an improvement on what we had at the start of the year. I don't mind if it's wet, as long as it's sufficiently above freezing that your tyres stick to the road.
Earlier this week I was riding up a hill near Timsbury that was so bad that even in the saddle, if I tried to put any power down, my back wheel would start spinning. It became an exercise in smooth pedalling at snail's pace but I eventually made it up without mishap. I did it as a test to see how bad the lanes were when it was 0 and had rained the previous night. Now I know. At least the scientist in me isn't dead.
It was nice to get back on track with training this week. I did my first hard tempo ride today, compared it with an identical ride at this time last year and ... I was slightly slower but the conditions were crap. Heart rate and splits along the flats were the same, so I probably lost most of the time taking it easy on the muddier bits of the bike path.
It would have been nice to be a couple of weeks ahead but it's hard to achieve when you don't actually ride the bike. Training is quite simple in that regard. Onwards, upwards, bigger, better, more and I'll see where I am in three weeks. Probably here.
What else is happening? It's the Chippenham club do this Saturday, which will be a good laugh. I'm even in line for a prize this time. Result!
I'm reading Beryl Burton's autobiography, Personal Best. She was an amazing athlete. She must have been one of the first women to break a men's record (277 miles for 12hrs in 1967) ... and it was on the same day that the men's record was set! Her 12 hr mark stood for two years until another bloke broke it. No woman has come close to 277 miles since then, even after tri bars and disks were introduced some 20 years ago.
Lots on at work. It's been go-go-go from the moment I got back. BikeRadar Live, new triathlon mag called Triathlon Plus launching, shows, trips, blah, etc. Better 'n being bored innit.
The absurd thing is that despite being 6'0 tall, I'm about to become the second shortest member of our team. Four of the others are taller!
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Roads
The good news (from the me-centric view of the world, naturally) is that the weather has improved out of sight since last week. Temperatures up to 10 degrees, a bit of rain but so much better than ice.
The bad news is that I have been sick with a cold since the start of the week, thus haven't been able to take advantage of this fortuitous state of affairs. So much for the healthy diet, although I think it's because I haven't been drinking enough beer.
It's not a "flat out on your back for a week" cold, neither is it a "get over it in a couple of days" cold. It's more a case of a runny nose with just enough tiredness to convince me to stay at home and off the bike. But it hasn't yet turned into a cough and I hope to keep it that way. Maybe a couple of gentle rides on the weekend, we'll see.
It's bloody annoying. From a training point of view, I was all fired up to reach September '08 fitness by April and was definitely ahead of where I was at this time last year. That may still happen, depending on how soon I can shake it, but it's not ideal. I suppose I was bloody lucky last year not to get sick at all, beyond the occasional sore throat. Payback time.
From a wasting my life point of view, it's also annoying. Of course you can't avoid being sick but it's nothing time. I can't do much work, can't go out, don't feel tired enough to sleep, don't feel inspired enough to do anything else (like get the heater fixed) and have a tendency to think about things too much. I do enough of that already.
Like where the economy is going. Or what is the economy exactly? And why is failure rewarded (or bailed out)? Surely that makes the problem worse? And why useless jobs (like the hundreds doing nothing at Beijing airport) are necessary to keep the world's population employed. And the problems they've got in the Middle East, you know. And the baggage retrieval system they've got at Heathrow. And more things besides.
This is where something like The Adventures of Barry McKenzie and Barry McKenzie Holds His Own come in. Two very fine fillums, a bit on the crudish side occasionally but a fair dinkum portrayal of Australian culture overseas in the '60s and '70s, with plenty of elements still extant today.
Dost thou taketh the piss? Nay, verily I speaketh the truth.
Scene: chatting to an older Australian couple in a pub last year. Asking them about Bath:
"It's a bit of a dump. All the houses are the bloody same. They're a bit like Masterton Homes."
I kiddeth thou not. This is almost a verbatim quote and they were serious. Roll on the cultural revolution.
Postscript: QI is also very good.
The bad news is that I have been sick with a cold since the start of the week, thus haven't been able to take advantage of this fortuitous state of affairs. So much for the healthy diet, although I think it's because I haven't been drinking enough beer.
It's not a "flat out on your back for a week" cold, neither is it a "get over it in a couple of days" cold. It's more a case of a runny nose with just enough tiredness to convince me to stay at home and off the bike. But it hasn't yet turned into a cough and I hope to keep it that way. Maybe a couple of gentle rides on the weekend, we'll see.
It's bloody annoying. From a training point of view, I was all fired up to reach September '08 fitness by April and was definitely ahead of where I was at this time last year. That may still happen, depending on how soon I can shake it, but it's not ideal. I suppose I was bloody lucky last year not to get sick at all, beyond the occasional sore throat. Payback time.
From a wasting my life point of view, it's also annoying. Of course you can't avoid being sick but it's nothing time. I can't do much work, can't go out, don't feel tired enough to sleep, don't feel inspired enough to do anything else (like get the heater fixed) and have a tendency to think about things too much. I do enough of that already.
Like where the economy is going. Or what is the economy exactly? And why is failure rewarded (or bailed out)? Surely that makes the problem worse? And why useless jobs (like the hundreds doing nothing at Beijing airport) are necessary to keep the world's population employed. And the problems they've got in the Middle East, you know. And the baggage retrieval system they've got at Heathrow. And more things besides.
This is where something like The Adventures of Barry McKenzie and Barry McKenzie Holds His Own come in. Two very fine fillums, a bit on the crudish side occasionally but a fair dinkum portrayal of Australian culture overseas in the '60s and '70s, with plenty of elements still extant today.
Dost thou taketh the piss? Nay, verily I speaketh the truth.
Scene: chatting to an older Australian couple in a pub last year. Asking them about Bath:
"It's a bit of a dump. All the houses are the bloody same. They're a bit like Masterton Homes."
I kiddeth thou not. This is almost a verbatim quote and they were serious. Roll on the cultural revolution.
Postscript: QI is also very good.
Friday, January 09, 2009
Strewth
Starting with the weather, as usual...
It's been the coldest week I can remember in the UK. That's not saying much because I've only been here two and a bit years and I can't remember how cold it was in my childhood. Actually it's colder than I can remember it ever being in Belgium, although I was usually never there in January.
On a couple of nights, it got down to -4 in Bath and a lot colder than that out of town. Given that we had a bit of sleet and fog, I decided it was too risky to ride in the mornings - even on the bike path - and restricted myself to just a couple of lunchtime rides. These were actually quite good.
I should really do something about getting the heating fixed. The oven will only heat the front room, which is not ideal. I thought it was gunna be fixed over the Xmas break but apparently not. Oh well, that's what base layers are for innit.
So not an ideal start to the year but it's getting warmer and wetter this weekend. Hurrah!
Work's been busy, but we've had a solid start to the year. Bikes tend to do well in recessions, so I'm in the right game. Of course, Future ain't just about bikes.
I finished In Defence of Food and am rapidly running out of Xmas books. It's an OK read and as I wrote in the previous lot of bilge, I agree with its premise: eat real food.
That means growing things like veggies yourself or getting them from farmers markets or even the organic section at the supermarche. It means cooking it from first principles, not microwaving it from a fourth derivative using the chain rule. It means eating omnivorously and not worrying about what individual nutrients do. It means eating stuff that actually tastes good, so you don't overeat (avoid diet products). It also means taking an appreciative attitude towards food that goes beyond it being just 'healthy' or even 'fuel'.
If you're an athlete, you can't ignore the fuel aspect so you have to factor in getting enough calories, especially carbohydrates. That's where the luxury items come in.
It's funny that nutritionists have managed to break down food into very small parts but haven't been able to put them back together again without losing something. That's the beauty of complexity (cue The Blind Watchmaker reference).
It's also one of the reasons why I gave up science: I just didn't see the point of what I was doing. The chemical problems I delved into were solved by engineers using a very basic 'let's try this' approach. I could show what happened on a more micro scale but it wasn't going to change anything.
Sunday, January 04, 2009
At least it's sunny
Back home after a lovely 35 hour journey between Sydney and Bath. I'm glad it's sunny, because it helps mitigate the fact that it was between -4 and 2 today. It's forecast to get chillier next week too. Dry is good though, because there's not much chance of ice.
The Air China flight home was easier than the outgoing journey. Two 10.5 hour legs plus a six hour stopover in Beijing airport. Two hours would have been better but beggars can't be choosers. I did get to have a good look around.
The main part of the terminal, which is the hub of a Y, is impressive to behold. It has an enormously high roof which looks great but must be a bugger to heat. It was -9 outside and I had to keep walking around to stay warm.
The number of gates that will fit on the Y isn't enough to cope with all the planes. I think there are other terminals but this seemed to be the main international one. The strange thing is that there is a huge area of tarmac for the planes to land on, which leads to long taxi times (15 minutes or so). But also if you're not lucky enough to get a gate attached to the terminal, you need a reasonably long bus journey to get to your plane. Maybe they just ran out of money to build more terminal.
There are no banks in the terminal, despite there being one marked on all the maps. It appears to have been replaced by a watch shop. There are a couple of currency exchange places, but they charge 50-60 yuan (£5-6) per commission. I wanted enough for a cuppa but I wasn't prepared to pay upwards of £10 for Chinese airport coffee. Although the exchange places assured me that none of the shops would take credit cards, I found a cafe right next to my gate that did and had a passable apple pie and coffee for 43 yuan. On the flight I drank Chinese tea, which was better than the alternative.
The signage is a bit lacking. After disembarking from the Sydney flight I again tried to figure out where I had to go to transfer to the next flight. This time I started at one of the 'foreigners' immigration gate before being told to go to the 'diplomatic' gate then finally the cunningly hidden 'international transfer' gate. Last time I went to the international transfer gate first but because it was a domestic transfer I ended up at the diplomatic gate...
On the efficiency front, I noted there were a lot of people employed at the airport who were doing absolutely nothing. Mostly they were working in airport shops but the immigration officials manning the Chinese gates weren't being kept busy either. A few more on the international transfer gate wouldn't have gone astray. I don't think inefficiency is necessarily a bad thing for the economy anyway. We can't all do essential jobs.
On the whole, given that the actual flying time between London and Sydney (21 hours) was roughly the same as going via Singapore or Kuala Lumpur, I'd fly Air China again.
Books
Some holiday reading was done, although I occupied much of it with re-reading The First Book of Lankhmar by Fritz Leiber.
100 things you didn't know you didn't know by John Barrow. I quite enjoyed this collection of the application of mathematics to real life situations. Did you know that it's slower to board planes from the back first than in a random order? The fastest way, which has been patented, is to board even (or odd) numbered rows starting from the back, window seats first. Then odd numbered rows, then non-window seats, again even followed by odd, back to front.
The most important thing is to get all those in window seats on first, because they can put their stuff in the overhead lockers without greatly obstructing those wanting to get past. Also they won't have to get up for those in aisle seats.
It'd be tricky to actually implement this but it could be largely done via boarding groups. I think some airlines already do this. Of course it means that passengers would have to pay heed to the boarding calls. The Chinese don't, they just all line up as soon as the first announcement is made so it becomes a random mess. But strangely quicker than boarding from the back first, so maybe they know how these things work.
There are lots of other interesting nuggets in that book.
Life of Pi by Yann Martel. This won the Booker Prize a few years ago, despite getting a bit of a pounding from critics. I found it engaging enough although the author was a bit wide of the mark when he said 'this story will make you believe in God'. If anything, it reinforced the opposite.
[Don't read if you don't want to find out what happens]
The story is about Pi Patel, a 16 year old Indian boy whose parents run a zoo in Pondicherry. They decided to emigrate to Canada and en route, their boat sinks. This leaves Pi in a lifeboat with a tiger, a hyena, a zebra and an orangutan. The tiger eats all of them except for Pi, who manages to assert his authoritaah and survive, eventually landing in Mexico.
While recovering in hospital, he is visited by two Japanese who work for the department of transport and want to know what happened to the ship. He tells them his story, which they don't believe. He then tells them another one, which more or less substitutes humans for the animals and is more plausible, but not quite as entertaining. Given that he can't prove either story, he leaves it up to the Japanese to choose which one to use in their report. They go for the animal one, which is meant to be the allegory. Or at least that's the way I read it.
While one should never let the facts get in the way of a good story, I think Mr Martel cheated and did the reader a disservice by not telling the second version in full. Real life can be told in an interesting manner. Reality TV shows do not fit into this category.
Eric by Terry Pratchett. One of the few Discworld books that I haven't read. Well I have now. It's only short (150 pages) but it's one of his funnier ones. Loosely based on the story of Faust, except the lead character is Eric, a 13 year-old boy who summons up a demon to grant him three wishes. He gets Rincewind the wizard instead and the wishes take an unusual twist.
The Demon King of Hell is good. He has remodeled Hell to be like a typical medium sized company with various stupid and annoying regulations. There's even a sign on the door that says "You don't have to be damned to work here, but it helps." And it has a coffee machine.
In Defence of Food by Michael Pollan. I've just started reading this and while I like and agree with the book's premise, it's told in a rambling, ranting fashion with the occasional nugget of good information in there. The author argues that 'nutritionism' - the ideology that has arisen from nutrition as a science - is misguided and that we should eat real food and not processed nutrient-enhanced crap. He says it's the latter that has led America into its dietary health epidemic, and the rest of the Western world is following it.
Nutrition is a typical reductionist science: let's take everything apart and see if we can work out what each bit does. e.g. does eating lots of saturated fat lead to higher bad cholesterol and thence to heart disease. The author cites modern reviews of the literature which come to the conclusion that for the most part, it doesn't. It's hard to believe because this points to a gigantic con on the part of the scientists, journalists and the government.
But nutrition is also a fairly modern science and you just have to look at its history to see that the goalposts are constantly being moved as to what you should eat. Fats are bad, protein's bad, carbohydrate is bad ... I cringe every time I see potatoes being maligned because they are "carbs". Potatoes are one of the most filling and, dare I say it, nutritious staples you can eat.
The message appears to be eat real food, mostly plant based. Obviously that includes beer and chocolate. It doesn't include margarine, which for a long time was one of the worst things (besides mercury) you could put into your body. And when this was discovered, they simply re-engineered it to make it 'healthy' again. What a swizz. Just eat butter.
The Air China flight home was easier than the outgoing journey. Two 10.5 hour legs plus a six hour stopover in Beijing airport. Two hours would have been better but beggars can't be choosers. I did get to have a good look around.
The main part of the terminal, which is the hub of a Y, is impressive to behold. It has an enormously high roof which looks great but must be a bugger to heat. It was -9 outside and I had to keep walking around to stay warm.
The number of gates that will fit on the Y isn't enough to cope with all the planes. I think there are other terminals but this seemed to be the main international one. The strange thing is that there is a huge area of tarmac for the planes to land on, which leads to long taxi times (15 minutes or so). But also if you're not lucky enough to get a gate attached to the terminal, you need a reasonably long bus journey to get to your plane. Maybe they just ran out of money to build more terminal.
There are no banks in the terminal, despite there being one marked on all the maps. It appears to have been replaced by a watch shop. There are a couple of currency exchange places, but they charge 50-60 yuan (£5-6) per commission. I wanted enough for a cuppa but I wasn't prepared to pay upwards of £10 for Chinese airport coffee. Although the exchange places assured me that none of the shops would take credit cards, I found a cafe right next to my gate that did and had a passable apple pie and coffee for 43 yuan. On the flight I drank Chinese tea, which was better than the alternative.
The signage is a bit lacking. After disembarking from the Sydney flight I again tried to figure out where I had to go to transfer to the next flight. This time I started at one of the 'foreigners' immigration gate before being told to go to the 'diplomatic' gate then finally the cunningly hidden 'international transfer' gate. Last time I went to the international transfer gate first but because it was a domestic transfer I ended up at the diplomatic gate...
On the efficiency front, I noted there were a lot of people employed at the airport who were doing absolutely nothing. Mostly they were working in airport shops but the immigration officials manning the Chinese gates weren't being kept busy either. A few more on the international transfer gate wouldn't have gone astray. I don't think inefficiency is necessarily a bad thing for the economy anyway. We can't all do essential jobs.
On the whole, given that the actual flying time between London and Sydney (21 hours) was roughly the same as going via Singapore or Kuala Lumpur, I'd fly Air China again.
Books
Some holiday reading was done, although I occupied much of it with re-reading The First Book of Lankhmar by Fritz Leiber.
100 things you didn't know you didn't know by John Barrow. I quite enjoyed this collection of the application of mathematics to real life situations. Did you know that it's slower to board planes from the back first than in a random order? The fastest way, which has been patented, is to board even (or odd) numbered rows starting from the back, window seats first. Then odd numbered rows, then non-window seats, again even followed by odd, back to front.
The most important thing is to get all those in window seats on first, because they can put their stuff in the overhead lockers without greatly obstructing those wanting to get past. Also they won't have to get up for those in aisle seats.
It'd be tricky to actually implement this but it could be largely done via boarding groups. I think some airlines already do this. Of course it means that passengers would have to pay heed to the boarding calls. The Chinese don't, they just all line up as soon as the first announcement is made so it becomes a random mess. But strangely quicker than boarding from the back first, so maybe they know how these things work.
There are lots of other interesting nuggets in that book.
Life of Pi by Yann Martel. This won the Booker Prize a few years ago, despite getting a bit of a pounding from critics. I found it engaging enough although the author was a bit wide of the mark when he said 'this story will make you believe in God'. If anything, it reinforced the opposite.
[Don't read if you don't want to find out what happens]
The story is about Pi Patel, a 16 year old Indian boy whose parents run a zoo in Pondicherry. They decided to emigrate to Canada and en route, their boat sinks. This leaves Pi in a lifeboat with a tiger, a hyena, a zebra and an orangutan. The tiger eats all of them except for Pi, who manages to assert his authoritaah and survive, eventually landing in Mexico.
While recovering in hospital, he is visited by two Japanese who work for the department of transport and want to know what happened to the ship. He tells them his story, which they don't believe. He then tells them another one, which more or less substitutes humans for the animals and is more plausible, but not quite as entertaining. Given that he can't prove either story, he leaves it up to the Japanese to choose which one to use in their report. They go for the animal one, which is meant to be the allegory. Or at least that's the way I read it.
While one should never let the facts get in the way of a good story, I think Mr Martel cheated and did the reader a disservice by not telling the second version in full. Real life can be told in an interesting manner. Reality TV shows do not fit into this category.
Eric by Terry Pratchett. One of the few Discworld books that I haven't read. Well I have now. It's only short (150 pages) but it's one of his funnier ones. Loosely based on the story of Faust, except the lead character is Eric, a 13 year-old boy who summons up a demon to grant him three wishes. He gets Rincewind the wizard instead and the wishes take an unusual twist.
The Demon King of Hell is good. He has remodeled Hell to be like a typical medium sized company with various stupid and annoying regulations. There's even a sign on the door that says "You don't have to be damned to work here, but it helps." And it has a coffee machine.
In Defence of Food by Michael Pollan. I've just started reading this and while I like and agree with the book's premise, it's told in a rambling, ranting fashion with the occasional nugget of good information in there. The author argues that 'nutritionism' - the ideology that has arisen from nutrition as a science - is misguided and that we should eat real food and not processed nutrient-enhanced crap. He says it's the latter that has led America into its dietary health epidemic, and the rest of the Western world is following it.
Nutrition is a typical reductionist science: let's take everything apart and see if we can work out what each bit does. e.g. does eating lots of saturated fat lead to higher bad cholesterol and thence to heart disease. The author cites modern reviews of the literature which come to the conclusion that for the most part, it doesn't. It's hard to believe because this points to a gigantic con on the part of the scientists, journalists and the government.
But nutrition is also a fairly modern science and you just have to look at its history to see that the goalposts are constantly being moved as to what you should eat. Fats are bad, protein's bad, carbohydrate is bad ... I cringe every time I see potatoes being maligned because they are "carbs". Potatoes are one of the most filling and, dare I say it, nutritious staples you can eat.
The message appears to be eat real food, mostly plant based. Obviously that includes beer and chocolate. It doesn't include margarine, which for a long time was one of the worst things (besides mercury) you could put into your body. And when this was discovered, they simply re-engineered it to make it 'healthy' again. What a swizz. Just eat butter.
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