Cycle Commuting and Rain

September 30, 2006 at 4:27 pm · Filed under Commuting, Cycling

As mentioned previously I’ve decided to keep a tally of the number of times I get caught in the rain while cycling too and from work. I cycle approximately 8 miles each way, so thats two journeys of about 30 mins, in and around West London.

Key:
1 raindrop - barely worth moaning about and I could probably get away without a rainjacket if I was made of sterner stuff.
2 raindrops - ok so now I am pretty wet, I just got caught in the typical English downpour.
3 raindrops - I’ve saved this extreme for those crazy flash flood days that we seem to get about once a year.

Date	AM	PM	Rain
28/09/06	Y
28/09/06		Y
02/10/06		Y
05/10/06		Y
06/10/06	Y
06/10/06		Y
10/10/06	Y
Morning Totals	3
Evening Totals		4
Total to Date	7

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Soggy Bike Commuting

September 29, 2006 at 3:51 pm · Filed under Commuting, Cycling

Now that I’ve changed jobs my daily commute has a changed considerably and I have whole new stresses related to it. I now head west out of London, which brings me into contact with faster cars and it seems the drivers are less familiar with cyclists than those crawling through central London.

My main issue though, is related to clothing. Now that I have a “proper job” I have to be smart at work, and for the first few months I don’t have a desk or anywhere to store all my cycling trammel. This means I’m carrying my suit and shoes in my courier bag and then lugging it around all day with my sweaty cycling clobber. Not very practial. I’ve even stopped wearing my helmet cos its just something extra for me to lug around.

I’ve started stressing about the weather as well now. Usually I don’t care if I get wet, I’ve always been able to dry my clothes either on the back of my chair or by using a blow torch from the lab. If it rains on me now, the trip home is going to feel gross.

I vaguely recall some statistic that claims London commuters only get caught in the rain about 4 times a year. This I believe is absolute tosh! This article from the Independent claims the average London cycle commuter will get drenched an average of 12 rides a year. I need to find out if this is reasonable so will start keeping a table with all the wet rides endured.

There are of course stacks of positives associated with the commute. I arrive at work an hour earlier than I would if I used the public transport and on friday I found a lovely route almost door to door along the Grand Union Canal.

It’s quite bizarre to find yourself so completely isolated from the grotty hubbub of this industrial side of London. Actually in someways it is rather too isolated - I wouldn’t fancy doing this at dusk on my own.

Popularity: 13% [?]

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Not so odd pains

September 25, 2006 at 9:59 pm · Filed under Running

My hip pain has ceased to be quite so interesting.
I struggled to sleep last night after my ill-advised second run of the day. I couldn’t relive the pain in my iliac crest and this morning I found that I couldn’t walk without groaning about it. It has eased up a little bit now but it must surely be some kind of over use injury, perhaps I should try and resist running for a few days.

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Odd Pains

September 24, 2006 at 9:16 pm · Filed under Running

I had a stonking week, managing to cram in an amazing 6 runs. I noticed this morning that I was really close to a record week so I decided to nip out again in the evening for second jog around the river. I left it a bit late though and it got so dark I scared myself silly and had to maintain a ridiculous pace before I recrossed the river and felt safe again.

Here’s a shot of Chiswick Bridge and the early morning rowers, taken this morning.

I’ve developed a whole new running pain this week. It’s focussed on the top of my pelvis, the Iliac crest, but isn’t a bone or joint pain - it feels like a bruise. Odd, can’t imagine what is causing this but it doesn’t seem to affect movement, its just painful. While still on the subject of running pains, I ought to report that my glucosamine and fish oil tablets arrived a few weeks ago but I still haven’t managed to swallow one of them - these are serious horse pills! Fortunately my knee isn’t bothering me during my runs at the moment.

Here are the totals for the week:

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Weekly Updates

September 17, 2006 at 9:43 pm · Filed under Running

Well it’s time to update the weekly totals table as it was missed last week:

Popularity: 4% [?]

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End of BfL Challenge 1

September 17, 2006 at 9:19 pm · Filed under BodyForLife, Diet

I have officially completed my first Body for Life challenge although I’m ashamed to admit that it kind of just fizzled out towards the end.

I made the most progress in the first 6 weeks and the second half saw me fighting to maintain this. Anyway I can’t complain, I managed to lose another stone in total.

I’ll definately start another challenge after I’ve settled at work and found another gym where I can shift some weights. In the meantime I’ll keep up the running and keep an eye on my weight so that I don’t move backwards.

Popularity: 24% [?]

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The Great River Race

September 16, 2006 at 10:12 pm · Filed under Running

I’ve had a really odd couple of weeks, the new job has kicked in and its been so varied I just don’t seem to be able to get back into a proper running routine. In fact I can’t get into any kind of routine.

My first run after the hotel break felt great - the time off seemed to work wonders for me but then the next day it went back to feeling like I was running through mud. I knocked off early on thursday so went out for an evening run, but it felt terrible as well. The forerunner didn’t help with my motivation at all, I was running hard with my heart rate at an incomfortable 174 bpm but I still felt like I was dragging myself. Looking at the garmin just made matters worse, the pace read out was around 8:30 min/km which is an all time low. I nearly quit and went home. When I loaded it up into Sporttracks the route came out as a cray zigzag affair which needed stacks of corrections. I don’t know what was up with the GPS signal that day, it was a little overcast but not so bad. Anyway turned out my pace was the more usual 7:20 min/km.

Today I headed out for an 8km run up around Kew Bridge and Barnes Bridge. I set off mid morning which coincided with the great spectacle of The Great River Race. This was quite an amazing show, a whole stack of ramshakle rowing machines navigating the 22 miles from Ham to Greenwich. They were going considerably faster than me but their efforts really made my run more bearable. I really regret not having my phone with me to take some shots but the last time I ran with it, I came straight home and shoved it and my shorts straight in the washing machine. That cost me £300!

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Healthy Addictions?

September 3, 2006 at 7:48 pm · Filed under Running

I managed to squeeze in a tiny 3.5km run into my super busy schedule yesterday, but as my plans changed at the last minute I had to run straight after my lunch or face a runless day. I normally run first thing in the morning before I have eaten anything so I found running with lunch bouncing around quite uncomfortable. I can’t bear the thought of a weekend day without a run though. It is beginning to look as though I might have developed a healthy addiction for a change. I’m quite pleased about it.

I start a new job tomorrow which kicks off with a 5 day residential induction so I’m a bit concerned that I am not going to be able to do any running for a week. In fact I know that will be the case as I have had to remove my trainers from the suitcase in order to close it, and there isn’t much chance of me running in my suit. My intention is to get up super early tomorrow and try and get enough of a fix to last me til the weekend.

This morning I headed out to Richmond Park to try and catch the Nike 5k training run. I went on the bike this time so I wasn’t tired out before I reached the start, which was my pitiful excuse last Sunday. Shakti came along for the ride and here’s a snap of her trying to overtake me on the way up.

Click image to enlarge

It was a slightly overcast morning, which was a blessing as this was one of my toughest routes. To start with, I faced a killer climb on the bike just to reach the start and then I had to run back down it in a crazy uncontrolled fashion just to spend the remaining 36 mins on a circuitous uphill route back to where I’d started. I suppose thats running for you though.

Click image to enlarge

I expected the hilly run to play havoc with my quads but they actually seemed to have faired quite well. If anything, I would say that my hamstrings are twinging slightly and I don’t normally feel anything here at all.

I seem to be alternately heavy and light weeks and this was a good one, here’s the totals:

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Knowing Your Audience

September 3, 2006 at 7:35 pm · Filed under Rambling, Technical stuff

It’s great knowing that folk are actually interested in reading the random scribblings that make up your blog but I find that it comes with a worrying sense of responsibility. All of a sudden I feel like I am writing for an audience and have to consider what it is “they” want to read. All the more concerning when you know that your most regular audience comprises your mum and your dad.

Anyhow, I am pleased to announce that my dad has now started his very own blog, so I can now check up on him on a regular basis too. So far he is writing about the characters he comes across on his allotment and has already educated me on the reason why Pythagoras avoided Fava beans. Check him out at The Nearly Good Life.

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