Filed under: hastings half marathon, running | Tags: British Military Fitness, cancer, gym, hastings half marathon, running, Ryan Giggs, St Michael's Hospice, yoga
My review of 2011 is going to be very short. A measly 33 blog posts and just one race under my belt says it all really, and I’m pretty sure those two stats are connected: a goal demands progress, and progress gives you something to write about.
I also gave up British Military Fitness in the summer. I just couldn’t make the timings work with my commute, and the Finsbury Park BMFers weren’t as nice and friendly as the Reading BMFers. I still miss those guys. 
Latterly, Phil and I have joined the local gym again for the winter. It’s worth negotiating on fees for anyone thinking of doing the same sort of thing. We paid upfront for six months and they bundled in the seventh month for free. It’s great for strength and conditioning work, so I’ve been trying to find the muscles that have been lying dormant since giving up BMF.
We’ve also bought the Ryan Giggs yoga-inspired video to do at home – see Phil’s review for his take on it. (Warning to the ladies: if you’re looking for whatever it was that made all those girls go potty for him, you won’t find it here. He’s about as charismatic as a wet lettuce.)
On the running front, I’m somewhat stuck in a four-miler rut. However, I will have to drag myself out of it pretty sharpish, as training for the Hastings Half Marathon begins in earnest now. Phil and I – accompanied by a few friends – will be running the (hilly) course in March in memory of Phil’s Mum, Brenda, who passed away in May this year after a brutally short battle with cancer. She spent her last days in the care of the wonderful staff at St Michael’s Hospice in Hastings, and we’ll be raising money for the hospice which relies so heavily on donations to keep caring for patients and their families. More to follow…
In the meantime, happy new year!
Filed under: cycling | Tags: accident, bike, complaint, customer service, Cycle Surgery, CycleSurgery, problems
As regular readers will know, I recently bought a bike through the cycle-to-work scheme, offered by my company. I’d identified the one I wanted – a Specialized Vita Elite – at an little independent shop near home, but they didn’t have it in stock and weren’t prepared to get it in unless I would guarantee to buy it. Reluctantly, I decided to go else where so that I could try before buying (and spent over a hundred quid on shoes and SPD pedals for my racer to assuage my guilt at taking the advice but not buying the new bike!)
And so it was that I found myself at the CycleSurgery store in King’s Cross, who had the bike in stock and were prepared to let me try it out. I wasn’t that impressed with the advice – or lack of it – provided, but I had shopped around previously, so placed my order for the bike alongside more SPD pedals, a rack, panniers and mudguards – all ready for the Newcastle to Edinburgh ride.
I won’t bore you with all of the details regarding the customer service that followed. Suffice it to say, I arranged to pick up the bike on three occasions, only to find that it hadn’t had the accessories fitted and wasn’t ready for me to take home.
CycleSurgery: cause for complaint over customer service and safety
On the third occasion, I arrived to discover that the pedals and rack had been fitted, but the mudguards still hadn’t. I asked if they could be fitted while I waited, and there was some consultation between members of staff out of my earshot. They said the mechanic had gone home, but that it was a ten-minute job….
…and after an hour and a half in the workshop, three members of staff emerged. During that time, they had variously popped out to say it was taking longer than they thought and that there was a problem with some of the fitting screws being too long.
I was a little concerned by the amount of time it had taken, and queried this several times, but was assured they had been fitted correctly. At no point did I demand that they finished the job. In fact, I was beginning to think it should have been left to a qualified mechanic.
My misgivings were justified. On the very first run out, I shifted the back gear onto the highest cog – and my pedals locked out completed – causing me to lose my balance in the road. Fortunately it was not busy. When I picked myself up and examined the bike, I discovered that the screw holding the mudguard in place had been fitted incorrectly and the end of the screw was overlapping the bottom cog so that the chain jammed in between the screw and the cog causing the pedals to lock.
I’ve consulted two independent bike mechanics since, and they agreed the mistakes made were inexcusable, and that I could have had a serious accident if the pedals had locked on a busy roundabout or at speed. I’ve had the problems rectified at my own expense, and the entire bike checked over.
My complaint to CycleSurgery is so far unresolved. They’ve asked me to bring the bike back in so they can look at it, which is: firstly, inconvenient (I can’t take it in on the train during the week because of rush hour restrictions); and, secondly, pointless (since I’ve had the problems fixed). They have vaguely offered me a few CycleSurgery vouchers – which don’t interest me in the slightest – and taken absolutely zero responsibility for the problems caused.
I wonder if they’re reading this.
Filed under: food | Tags: Fox's Biscuits, irunbecauseilovefood, Mini Melts, review, Rocky bars, Rocky Rocks, Viennese
School dinners in my time were of the pre-Jamie-makeover variety: deep-fried, chips with everything. After two days at secondary school, my Mum switched me to packed lunches and off I went every day with my tupperware box containing a round of sandwiches, some fruit and one Treat. Sandwich fillings were typically Heinz sandwich spread, corned beef & tomato, cottage cheese & cucumber or – the horror! – egg mayonnaise. Fruit was a satsuma or an apple. No wraps, hummus, couscous or mango in my day.
So, The Treat was something to look forward to. Perhaps a little bag of crisps or a couple of bourbon biscuits. Mmmm. But a Rocky Bar was the absolute pinnacle of treats. A chocolate biscuit that was more chocolate than biscuit. You knew it was going to be a good day if you got a Rocky Bar in your lunchbox. Even if it was double-maths first thing.
So it was with a degree of excitement that I accepted an offer from Fox’s Biscuits to review their new “sharing” bags of Rocky Rocks and Mini Melts. Happily for my workmates, I decided to take the sharing thing literally…in return for some feedback of course.
First up, the Mini Melts – little versions of Fox’s Viennese biscuits with a chocolate filling and also a double chocolate variation. The press release reads:
“Ladies, you know as well as we do that great things come often come in small packages – and nowhere does this phrase ring more true than with new Fox’s Mini Melts: a luxurious range of sharing bags chock full of only the finest melt in the mouth biscuits.”
These went down well in the office: “Oooh, I love these,” said one; while another said “These are nice!” The double chocolate ones weren’t thought to be particularly different from the regular ones – and the boss wasn’t that impressed – but overall, they went down pretty well.
Next up were the Rocky Rocks Crispy Crunch, “mighty mouthfuls of chocolate covered crispy wafer with crunchy biscuit bits”.
Unfortunately, these were accused of being in breach of the Trade Descriptions Act. “They’re not crunchy or cripsy: they’re just fluffy,” said one of the girls, “it’s like something’s missing.” Another said: “Eurgh, puffy and tasteless.”
Finally, we moved on to the classic-looking Chocolate Rocky Rocks. I had high hopes for these. So did the press release:
“Rough and rugged, chunky and crunchy, Rocky is the biscuit for those who want to tear off life’s wrapper and fill their face with all the enjoyment they can get.”
“Ooooh, now you’re talking, these are lush,” enthused one colleague. “Definitely the best,” said another. And I had to agree: they brought back all the right memories about school packed lunches.
So, the small print: RRP is £1.89 for a 125g bag, and there are probably about 15 biscuits per bag. I’d assumed they’d be quite a lot more expensive than the regular sized versions, but a quick visit to Ocado suggests not: the regular packs of Viennese biscuits are £1.69 for 150g and 9x20g packs of Rocky bars are £1.59.
The difference, of course, is that you eat more. Would you sit down and munch your way through four or five individually wrapped Rocky bars? Probably not. But I can pretty much guarantee you’ll go down half a bag of Rocky Rocks on the sofa before you’ve got through the movie trailers. Each little biscuit contains around 40 calories so we’re talking 300 calories if you share them with a loved one; 600 if you’re a little piggy.
Or, to put it another way, a 30-minute run or a 60-minute run respectively!
Filed under: food | Tags: biscuits, food, Fox's, Mini Melts, review, Rocky Rocks
Many thanks to Fox’s rep at Cow PR for the opportunity to review Fox’s new “Rocky Rocks” and “Mini Melts” products. I’ve decided to crowdsource some feedback for a full review by sharing them with my colleagues.
So far, my favourite comment is: “Cow PR?! OH MY GOD that’s the best name EVER!”
Filed under: cycling | Tags: bike, cycle, cycle-to-work scheme, CycleSurgery, cycling, Specialized Vita Elite
I think I was still recovering from severe windburn sustained during the Newcastle-Edinburgh jaunt, so I never got around to posting a pic of my new bike: a Specialized Vita Elite, which is a sporty little hybrid with flat bars. It can cope with mudguards, rack and panniers; and is actually a more comfortable touring bike than my road bike, which is just a bit too light and twitchy and doesn’t have rack fixings.
This was taken at Newcastle station, so I’m still looking quite fresh and enthusiastic about the ride ahead…
If you’re in the market for a new set of wheels, it’s worth enquiring whether your company offers a cycle-to-work scheme. My new place of work does, and it means saving around 40%, not only on the list price of the new bike but on all of your accessories too. Highly recommended.
What isn’t recommended, though, is ordering your bike through CycleSurgery. I’ll need a whole other blog post to describe that experience with the detail it deserves…
Filed under: food | Tags: food, gardening, salad leaves, tomatoes, vegetable bed
I never thought I’d be remotely interested in gardening. Then again, as an adult, I’d never had a garden until I moved in with Phil last November. Neither of us has the faintest clue what we’re doing, to be honest, but we’re actually having fun trying.
This is the garden when Phil first moved in, (frankly it was quite encouraging that we couldn’t do any worse than the previous residents):
And this was it a few weeks ago:
Despite killing a fair few shrubs soon after purchase, waging an ongoing battle with slugs and becoming slightly phobic of frogs (is there a word for that?) we’re doing ok I think.
Since then, we’ve also built a vegetable bed (Phil actually did the hard work, this is me lining it before we shoveled in some soil and some shit of the equine variety)…
…and now I properly understand why people like gardening: you can grow food! And, as you all know, I love food.
After plonking a few unpromising-looking seeds into the soil (what exactly is sowing? and what’s a drill? and just how many seeds do you put in at once?) a few weeks ago, I harvested our first little crop of salad leaves yesterday to go with the first few tomatoes. And they were AMAZING – soooooo much tastier than the stuff you get in a bag.
Filed under: cycling | Tags: bike, coast and castles, cycling, Newcastle-Edinburgh, Sustrans, touring
After the Reading Half Marathon, I moved into cycle training mode, bought a new touring bike (another post on that later) in order to ride – unsupported – from Newcastle to Edinburgh (Sustrans Route 1, “Coast and Castles”) over three days with a bunch of mates. Here we all are at the start of the ride…
It would have been a superb ride during the summer. You know, the one we had in April. Unfortunately, we picked Whitsun weekend when the north-east of England and south-east of Scotland was battered by unseasonably high winds.
One day one, cycling northwards up the east coast from Newcastle to Seahouses – my first ride with fully loaded panniers – it felt like I was towing a caravan. For the record, I should say that I only had with me two spare pairs of cycling shorts, an inner tube, a lock, one pair of lightweight non-cycling trainers, three t-shirts, one jumper, one pair of trousers, a minimal number of tiny bottles of toiletries, mascara, and a bottle of perfume (my luxury item). For five days and nights away from home. So it’s not like I’d over-packed!
I didn’t think it was possible to feel any worse than on day one, but on day two we turned westwards – into the 50mph headwind. Still towing the caravan-like panniers. I can honestly say it was harder even than the longest day on the Barmouth-Yarmouth ride. At some points, I was incapable of cycling at more than 4mph and nearly got blown off the bike on more than one occasion. We arrived at Clovenfords, a tiny border village near Galashields, after about nine hours in the saddle – windswept, to say the least. (The picture doesn’t really do justice to the wind, to be honest, but you get the idea).
The winds dropped a little on day three – the final leg of our trip from Clovenfords via Innerleithen and Dalkeith and into Edinburgh. That was a lovely gentle climb up over the hills north of Innerleithen – beautiful scenery and views over to Edinburgh. We dodged a big shower by sheltering at a caff in Dalkeith, then met up with some of the others for our final ride in the city. Where I had an ice cream.
The Sustrans route isn’t particularly designed for touring – you go around the houses unnecessarily to avoid the roads, which is great for casual day-trippers that aren’t doing serious mileage and don’t like the roads, but less good when you’re trying to cover a lot of distance.
Nonetheless, despite some difficult bits where I may or may not have muttered, slightly frustratedly: “why does everything we do have to be so EXTREME?” it was really good fun, especially with the group. We stayed at some nice B&Bs, had some lovely meals and saw some beautiful countryside.
For more on our epic ride, pop over to Girls on Cogs and Oscar Mike.
Filed under: British Military Fitness, cycling, Reading Half Marathon, running
It’s been a while, dear readers (in the unlikely event that there are any still around).
I left you in March, woefully underprepared for the Reading Half Marathon. Yet I made it round the familiar course though – in an almost respectable time of 2:06, a minute under my first half marathon time ten years ago, aged 24.
So I didn’t collapse or anything (but thank you to those who were concerned for my welfare). No, life has just been a bit busy of late. Phil and I looked at the calendar earlier this week and realised we’d been away from home for eight consecutive weekends – not all of them planned. Nor have we done a full week’s work in all that time, what with bank holidays, long weekends and various other things. Which has meant when we have been at work, we’ve been trying to squeeze five days’ work into four, three or even two days.
I’ve been doing a bit of Audiofuelled running, been back to British Military Fitness for the first couple of times since moving, and been out on the bike a lot – but just haven’t found the time to blog about it all. Perhaps you have to take a break from blogging sometimes in order to remember why you enjoy doing it in the first place. Bit like running really.
Filed under: food, half marathon training, Reading Half Marathon, running, skiing | Tags: half marathon training, how to train for a half marathon, Reading Half Marathon
- Get yourself a new job a few months before your scheduled half marathon.
- Start commuting on busy trains with Other People instead of driving yourself to work with no one else in the vicinity.
- Pick up several colds that hamper training, just as you should be ramping up the mileage.
- Attempt Janathon, but don’t worry about too much running, nooo nooo – try kickboxing, aerobics, spinning and weights.
- Go to Russia about five weeks before the race, and contract a stomach bug that wipes you out for nearly a week.
- Attempt a mid-length run on a good day (just under eight miles should do it) and convince yourself you’re going to cruise another five.
- Two weeks before the big event, embark on a ski trip to Austria. It’s only 357 days since you last strapped your feet into those instruments of torture they call ski boots, attached yourself to two planks and threw yourself down a mountain with gay abandon. Your knees, previously injured in skiing and running incidents, will be absolutely fine.
- While away, ensure you partake of all the regional specialities and carbo-loading opportunities – and I do mean massive breakfasts featuring bread, cheese and salami, sausage sandwiches for lunch (or sometimes just cake for lunch actually) the odd pint at the end of a hard day’s skiing, a five-course meal every night and half a bottle of wine.
- Upon your return from the ski trip (one week to go!!!) head out for a long run (actually 7.5 miles will be fine) and don’t worry a bit if your legs feel like leaden weights and your knees appear to have been replaced by those of an 85-year-old. You’re just worrying over nothing….
Such has been my training programme for the Reading half marathon this Sunday. Oh dear. Oh very dear.
Those sausage sandwiches (the Austrian "bosna") were good though...
Skidding around, without any particular grace or style, in Austria last week
