Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Advanced Muppetry....

Its a good idea when taking a hot pan out of the oven to carefully use an oven glove on the exceptionally hot handle. Its also a good idea to move said pan by the handle away from the edge of the cooker to a safer position, though taking the oven glove off before doing this was most definitely not a good idea.

Cue burnt hand and a few hours of sitting with my hand in a jug of cold water whilst necking pain killers. D'oh, d'oh.

Its a bit sore this morning, a couple of blisters on my fingers and thumb and a nice imprint of the pan handle on my palm and its throbbing a tiny bit. MTBing is out tonight but road riding may be ok tomorrow as don't hold onto the bars the same way. Just debating whether going swimming is sensible (no weeping from the burn)...may just content myself with a run?

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Back from Switzerland...

Had a great few days with day two being one of the toughest days of riding I've probably done. Journey back on Monday totally disrupted by flight cancellations in the UK, eventually got home after midnight sans bike and exhausted.


Currently sat at home waiting for said bike to be delivered after an anxious few days waiting for it to be traced and brought up to Manchester. The boys all got theirs on Tuesday but I managed to leave my baggage receipt on aircraft from Zurich in my hurry to get off. On future air travel I will not be so careless with baggage receipts, its not worth the worry and scanning the small print in house insurance policies whilst totting up the replacement costs!

Will post more, sort out pictures etc over the weekend.

Monday, September 5, 2011

August - meh

Not had the best August I have to say, I think its been the lowest activity month this year with a measly 158 miles ridden and one solitary, very short swim. I did somehow manage to run 40 miles which is the most in a month this year. Currently feeling a bit unfit and out of sorts.

The reason is a combination of things all ganging up on me at once. Niggly injuries, a bout of sinusitis which caused a headache so bad I was sofa bound for two days and wasn't fit to drive as my balance was shot to pieces.

This was closely followed by a parental visit, which to be fair did allow me to recover nicely but then I was straight into the first period of on call I've done in a very long time. This was over the bank holiday weekend which meant I couldn't stray too far out into the wilds. Though the weather wasn't that great anyway.

Jez and I did squeeze in a quick blast on the mountain bikes on the Sunday where I tried my hardest to stay right on his wheel. Pretty much managed it too particularly uphill, though on some of the fast open downhills he gapped me a bit even though I was pedalling hard but that's momentum for you.

I indulged in a bit of retail therapy to cheer myself up and the extra money from the on call means I could finally start building the commuter/winter road bike with full guards and a rack I meant to build at the beginning of the year (spent the money on Bianco then instead).

The plan is to move the bits from my old Ribble frame to this new Kinesis frame. I foolishly said I would build it...that may or may not go well. It will certainly take me a lot longer than Jez would. I think he had Bianco built in about an hour, including the gears and fork steerer sorted. Somehow think its going to take me a lot longer....if I don't get banned from it due to lack of mechanical sympathy.

IMG_0643


September has at least got off to an ok start with a swim (which went better than it had any right to), a run and I managed to squeeze in a bit of an MTB blast on Friday morning before heading north for a weekend in Edinburgh with friends. Its good fun being a tourist in your "home" city, saw stuff I've been meaning to for years.

Got another steady run in today up around Darwen Tower with one temporary misplacement incident in Tockholes woods which was hilarious. Somehow I managed to dodge the rain only have to run about a mile and a half out of 7.2 miles actually directly into the stupidly strong wind.

Going indoor skydiving tomorrow which should be interesting! Then starting the packing process for our trip to Switzerland (similar trip to a couple of years ago). I can't wait but just wish I was feeling a bit fitter for the hour long climbs.