Olympic Dreams Overweight smoker to Olympian; my personal quest.

So I finally got back on my bike after six months of some of the most disruptive and bizarre events in my recent history.  I had some issues with accommodation… the story behind which is not appropriate for a family friendly site.  I ended up spending three months on my mother’s couch.   Unfortunately she insisted, as parents do, on feeding me the entire time, which did nothing for my waistline.   I then had a major project at work which took all my spare time for a further three months… and caused the excessive use of local take-away restaurants.  I ended up somewhere in the region of 17 stone (240lbs).   Three weeks ago I finally found the time and motivation to do something about that, but I found that I couldn’t actually fit into my cycling gear.  Not good.   So I sold my car, which has forced me to walk everywhere  instead.  I lost half a stone or so in two weeks.   Not only am I walking all over, but I have taken up squash as well, which is also going to help my fitness.

You might well read this and think that my Olympic Dream is effectively dead, and this would be a fair assumption, certainly it is going to be a near impossible task now… but it is not quite dead… not yet.  When I started I was an overweight smoker, I am still overweight, but I haven’t had a cigarette now for ten months, the longest period since I started more than 15 years ago.   In addition several things have happened recently which may prove to help my quest along.   Selling my car is forcing me to exercise one way or another, whether I feel like it or not, but the most significant is that I have applied for university.  If I get in I will start in September and will have a little more free time (especially as I plan to study within my area of expertise), but I will also have the opportunity to join a cycling club at university too… which could help with my ambition.

So today I was invited to my parent’s house by my little sister, she has just bought the new Guitar Hero game and wanted me to come and play with her.  As my parents live around 12 miles away I had no choice but to cycle (I loathe public transport as a previous post about bus drivers might indicate).  So I dusted off my gear, pumped up my tyres and set off.  Now I was quite worried about my clip on shoes and pedals, they have proven quite dangerous thus far and being so out of practice I thought perhaps it might be an idea to take them off.  I utterly failed in this… I am not sure if I have inadequate tools or if I was doing it wrong, but I could not get the pedals off, so I gave up and decided to risk it.

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In my last post I told you that I had put my bike in for it’s first service.  What I didn’t tell you was that I was feeling a bit run down that day.  Well “a bit rundown” quickly became “quite unwell”, which in-turn became “really ill”. For the best part of three weeks I have been extremely unwell, including 6 days off work and two trips to the doctors.  Last week I was better but it had left me energy-less and weak.  I still feel quite low, but I decided today that I was going to cycle in an attempt to lift both my energy levels and my spirits.

So I pumped my tyres up to 100psi and set off for work this morning at about 8.45am.  This is the first time I have cycled in my new cycling shoes and the corresponding pedals and I have to say I was quite impressed.  They are going to take a bit of getting used to, both in getting my feet into them on the move and also getting my feet out of them.  They are a lot better for my technique though, it’s a lot easier to pull on the upstroke as well as pushing on the down stroke.

Almost immediately I realised that my fitness has suffered greatly from having several weeks of inactivity.  I struggled from the off, and I could not keep the pace that I am used to at all.  On the one hand I am disappointed that I have let my fitness drop (and put on weight) but on the other hand it helped me to realise that I had actually got to quite a decent level in a short space of time, which has resolved me to keep up with it.

So I took my time, went at a fairly leisurely pace and didn’t try to take over much traffic in queues and such.   I managed to get my feet in and out of the clips okay.

At least I was doing, until this small incident near town.

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Well the last couple of weeks have been a bit of an all round fail.  Basically two key things happened which caused me to not do any cycling.

Firstly, two games that I have been waiting for for 4 and 2 years respectively came out.  Spore and Warhammer Online.  Both amazing games and I only stopped played one because of the other.  These are two games I will probably be playing during my spare time for at least the next couple of years.

The second, and more significant thing was that I tried to give up Pepsi Max, cold turkey.   This was an awful idea, and absolutely destroyed my sleeping schedule.  I had chronic insomnia and only managed to get to work on time by staying up all night every other night.   After ten days it still hadn’t settled down, even after starting drinking Pepsi again – so I took two holiday days off work to sort it out.

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Okay before I start I would like to make a public appeal to anyone in the Preston area.  If you know any bus drivers, please ask them what route they were driving on 11th September 2008.  If they say any route which includes driving up London Road hill in the Preston direction please pass along the following invitation…

This is a message for the driver of the double-decker bus that was driving up London Road towards Preston at approximately 6.30pm on Thursday 11th September 2008.  You may remember that around two thirds of the way up the hill, you beeped loudly as you passed a cyclist.  If you are this person I would like to offer you the opportunity to join me in a public house of your choice in the Lancashire area, whereupon I will purchase for you one pint of your favourite tipple.  After buying you your preferred beverage I will propose a toast, which has not yet been fully authored (I am working on it) but will almost certainly include various questions about your parentage, a number of speculations regarding your mental abilities, and perhaps a brief treatise on your uncanny resemblance to something I once saw in a toilet.  Once the toast is complete to my satisfaction I will christen our new friendship by anointing you with your cherished pint of grog.  You utter, utter cretin.

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If you’ve been wondering why there wasn’t a post yeterday it’s primarily because there wasn’t really anything to report.   I had toruble sleeping on Monday night and consequently was not up to riding in the morning, I needed the extra time in bed.  Last night again I had trouble sleeping and again I had to drive in this morning.  I even had to put some petrol in my car, which I had not expected to have to do this month.

So why can’t I sleep?  I actually don’t know.   I’ve always been a bit of a night bird, and quite prone to insomnia.  I suspect that it might have something to do with my sudden change in routine.  I’ve gone from getting next to no exercise, smoking and eating a lot to trying to eat less (not diet just not indulge), not smoking and of course exercising more.  A lot more.  The other consideration is that I drink far too much caffeine.   I am addicted to two things, the first is smoking, and I haven’t had a cigarette for two weeks tomorrow – which I think is quite good going considering I really like to smoke.  My other addiction is going to be a lot more difficult to give up, I think.   It’s Pepsi Max.

I have been drinking 2-4 litres of Pepsi max more or less every day for the last ten years.

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I just had a slight panic and I thought I would tell you about it before I go to bed.   I put some stuff on to wash earlier, including my cycling shorts and top and a loads of socks.  I completely forgot about it and just now went to check on it…. but it wasn’t there!  Sometimes if I leave my washing in the washer and my housemate needs to use it she will put it in the dryer for me.  As soon as I realised this my heart just about stopped.  I had checked my cycling kit before I washed it for proper instructions and the one thing that stood out more prominently than all the rest of the washing instructions were the big black letters that cheerfully proclaimed “DO NOT TUMBLE DRY”.

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Okay before I start I want to put out a massive congratulations to Andy Murray who has just defeated the world number one, Raphael Nadal, to reach the final of the US open, only the second Britain to do so in 74 years. I wish you all the very best of luck for the final against Roger Federer. Okay so I know Andy Murray doesn’t read this blog, and probably never will, but it’s the thought that counts, right?

So I didn’t ride yesterday due to a late night playing Spore and I decided that to make up for it I would do an extra long ride today.   My plan was to set off from Barton and head north up the A6.  I figured I would cycle to Lancaster (about 16 miles away) and see how I feel when I got there.  I set off at 1.50pm and I got to Lancaster in short order, I am not sure what time it was because I didn’t stop and check, but I felt fine and so I carried on going.  I passed so much road kill on the way that I again reconsidered my idea for a website such as britishroadkill.com.  I could photograph and try and identify road kill I pass and post it on the website for general perusal.   Okay maybe it’s a bad idea, but I thought it might be slightly amusing.

I had a decision to make a few miles north of Lancaster; I had the opportunity to continue north along the A6 or turn west and head to Morecambe.  I had a moment of indecision – the Morecambe route would have been quite nice, and I could have cycled back south along the coast to Fleetwood, Thornton or Blackpool before heading east back home.   I might do that ride next weekend; we’ll see how it goes.  Anyway I continued north and shortly arrived in Carnforth, which is an absolutely lovely town.  I was riding along thinking what a really pleasant ride this was.  I had passed some of the nicest scenery Britain has to offer and was feeling quite happy.

No fatigue yet so I carried on. 

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View Larger Map

A – Cycle Route Start (Home)

B – Milnthorpe – This is where I got to when I felt like I’d done a good run.

C – Cycle Route Destination: Kendal, in the Lake District – a lovely town where I had a 20 minute rest outside the Globe Inn.

D - Cycle Route Finish (Home)

Total Distance: 78.9 Miles (Round Trip)
Frequency Cycled: 1-4 times per month.

Posted under Cycle Route Maps

I got a message earlier today on MSN, it was a guy I’ve met at various LAN events and played with online, a fellow gamer.  He asked me why there was no post on Friday and expressed his disappointment at not having an entry to read.  For anyone else that has similar feelings, I apologise for not getting it done.   Friday saw the release of a game that I have been waiting about four years for.  It’s called Spore and it’s addictive as hell.

After the awful day I had on Thursday, Friday was considerably better.   For a start I cycled into work, even though it was absolutely horrendous weather.  It took me less than 40 minutes, which was good.  Had quite a productive day at work, got quite a bit on my current project done.  Also went out for a game of bowling at lunchtime.  I feel really bad about that actually.  Let me explain…

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Nothing went right today.   First of all I woke up too late to cycle and had to drive to work, second I was 5 minutes late, which is the first time I have been late in this job so I was very annoyed with myself.  I felt like crap all day.  I felt guilty that I hadn’t rode in, I felt like I let myself down as well for being late.   I was dead tired all day and I had really strong cigarette cravings and I also had a chip butty for lunch.

I got my hair trimmed on the way home and the girl cutting my hair took absolutely ages.  I swear she must have been cutting it with eyebrow scissors or something.   I was going to be late for CSS practice, I had warned one of my team mates but I was actually half an hour later than the time I had said (which was already an hour and a half late).  The only chance I was going to get to eat was to grab something en-route and the only take away near the haridressers was… a generic kebab/pizza/burger shop.   Needless to say my “meal” was about as unhealthy as it gets.

On the plus side, today marked my first full week since my last cigarette, and I guess having a rest day isn’t so bad.  Although stuffing my face with unhealthy food at both lunch and dinner probably wasn’t the best idea – and made me feel worse than I already did.

Oh well, tomorrow is another day.

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