Olympic Dreams Overweight smoker to Olympian; my personal quest.

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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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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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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This morning I had to get up extra early as I had arranged to start Counter-Strike Source practice early because I was going to leave around 8pm to check out the cycling club at their weekly meet.  I got up at 6.30am and set off at about 7.20am.  When I woke up this morning I was freezing, so for the first time I decided to wear my cycling jacket.   I am quite glad I did as for the first twenty minutes of the journey it absolutely threw it down, every part of me got thoroughly drenched, with the exception of the bits under the jacket.  The ride was about 40 minutes, again including stoppages and so on - which is a good time for the morning run so far.

I got to work and went into the toilets to get towelled/changed/de-odorised.  I stripped off, dried myself off with the towel and started getting dressed.  Put my socks on, my boxers and my pants.  Put my hat on, and then put my t-shirt on.

At least I would have done if I had remembered to pack a t-shirt.

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So today was the first proper commute.  I set off at about 7.20am and while it was a little chilly, there were few clouds and the sun was out so I was looking forward to a pleasant ride.  Right from the off I realised I would not be breaking any speed records on this journey.  I was a bit tired and my legs didn’t seem to want to warm up.  After about two miles I stopped at the Londis store in Broughton to buy a bottle of sports drink.  I put the front wheel of my bike just inside the open door, as I have done a few times now.   This time though, the American guy that runs the place came storming out from behind the till and told me to move my bike.  He looked fairly annoyed and suggested that the sensor which my bike was touching was worth £5000.  He also advised me that “no one will take my bike” if I left it outside the store.  I am fairly cranky in a morning, and the first thing that popped into my head was “if a machine that’s sole purpose is to beep when anyone walks past it cost you £5000 you got yourself ripped off”.  I bit my tongue, however, bought my drink and went on my way.  Luckily no one stole my bike.

I am starting to remember that when I used to be a cyclist, before I got a car, I hated motorists.  I am also starting to remember why.

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I did some research and the two main providers of cycling insurance in the UK are Cycleguard and British Cycling Bike Insurance.  There are various levels and options for insurance - including third party liability, which covers you for third party claims, bike insurance which covers theft and accidental damage, roadside recovery (like the AA/RAC but for cyclists - excludes flat tyres) and personal injury insurance.  Standard insurance covers recreation and commuting (similar to social, domestic and pleasure motor policies) - it’s slightly more expensive to be covered during road races as well.

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As I mentioned earlier, for my ride today I did the route that I will be taking to commute to work.  I set off around 4pm and didn’t push myself too much because it was only my second ride and I wanted to see how long it would take if I didn’t go as fast as I could.  Also, I had to ride immediately back so it’s double the distance.    The ride was pretty easy, I felt comfortable the whole time, although having to wait for traffic lights and negotiate large multi-laned roundabouts was a bit annoying.

I didn’t realise that the roads are so bad though!

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So I got home from work last night all pumped up and ready to ride.  First thing’s first, I needed to make some modifications to my bike.   First off I had to remove the bell.  Apparently it is a legal requirement for all new bikes to be fitted with a bell before they can leave the shop.  Now I am all for safety, but this bell wouldn’t be heard by someone standing ten feet away if you were both inside an empty concert hall.  I suspect that on any occasion where I might need to use a bell, I’ll use my more than ample vocal ability instead.  So I took off the bell, and fitted my behind-the-saddle toolkit bag, which required moving the back reflector down a bit.

The next step was to properly inflate the tyres.  This is where it went a bit pear shaped.

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