6lbs in 24 hrs

Well this weekend did not go as planned. I was going out for an 80 miler on Saturday then I was going to be cycling into work on Sunday night. Instead I managed 10 miles on Saturday before it became apparent that if I didn't find a loo pretty quick my shorts would be in trouble. From then on it was 24 hrs between the bedroom and the lav. On the bright side as you can see from my skinnyr graph on the right somewhere I lost 6lbs! Of course that is just fluid but it is nice to see the scales saying something less offensive to me. Hopefully I will pile on a few miles this week as I am working nights all week so I hope to get in 180 - 200 miles. We will see.

Activity | Road Biking | Whitestone, United Kingdom | MotionBased Dashboard

Activity Road Biking Whitestone, United Kingdom MotionBased Dashboard
Despite the dodgy weather managed to put in a very wet 30 miles on Saturday. Almost had a total wipeout as a car came around some parked cars on my side of the road and seemed oblivious to the fact that i was just about to bounce off her bonnet, i can only apologise to anyone who lives in Dawlish and heard me swearing loudly. Im sure your a nice person really, but please look out for cyclists!!
Had a drier ride today and did a steady 40ish miles, with the emphasis on keeping the heart rate down, and trying not to sprint too many hills. (Click on the title for workout download.)
Have to say it felt a bit easier today, hopefully the training is starting to pay off a bit, always nice when you can knock out a steady ride and feel comfortable at the end.
All the accomodation is now booked, and i have started to think about the exact route we will take. I thought we might go through Runcorn instead of Liverpool, as it means not having to negotiate a major city, and it would be nice to avoid some of the A roads as well. (If you have checked our route and could give us advice, please let us know).
Well its that time of the day when the only training left to do is open a cold beer...........

Bad habits link to Alzheimer's

Interesting article from the BBC news today;
'Bad habits' link to Alzheimer's

Around 700,000 people currently suffer from dementia in the UK
Heavy drinkers and smokers develop Alzheimer's disease six to seven years earlier than those who do not smoke or drink, US researchers claim.
A study of 900 people aged over 60 found early onset was most likely in those who also had a high-risk gene.
A second US study found people with high cholesterol in their early 40s are one and a half times more likely to develop Alzheimer's.
The research was presented at an American Academy of Neurology meeting.
It has been estimated that a delay in the onset of Alzheimer's disease by five years would lead to a 50% drop in the number of cases.
It's possible that if we can reduce or eliminate heavy smoking and drinking, we could substantially delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease for people and reduce the number of people who have Alzheimer's at any point in time
Dr Ranjan Duara
The researchers said their findings showed heavy drinking and smoking were two of the most important preventable risk factors for the condition.
Those taking part in the study had been diagnosed with possible or probable Alzheimer's disease and smoking and drinking history was obtained from family members.
Risk factors
Heavy drinking, defined as more than two drinks a day was found to lead to an almost five-year earlier onset of Alzheimer's.
And those who smoked more than 20 cigarettes a day developed the disease two years sooner.
People with a specific gene - APOE variant 4 - developed Alzheimer's disease three years earlier than those without the gene variant.
All three risk factors together were associated with onset of the disease 8.5 years earlier than those with none of the risk factors.
Study leader, Dr Ranjan Duara, from Mount Sinai Medical Center in Florida said: "It's possible that if we can reduce or eliminate heavy smoking and drinking, we could substantially delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease for people and reduce the number of people who have Alzheimer's at any point in time."
In the second study, 9,700 men and women were followed from the age of 40.
Those with cholesterol levels higher than around six millimols per litre (mmol/L) had a one and a half times higher risk of developing Alzheimer's than those with low cholesterol.
"High mid-life cholesterol increased the risk of Alzheimer's disease regardless of diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, smoking and late-life stroke," said researcher Alina Solomon.
Dr Susanne Sorensen, head of research at the Alzheimer's Society said the research added to the weight of evidence on drinking and smoking habits and the risk of developing dementia.
"The best way to reduce your risk is to eat a balanced diet rich in antioxidants and vitamins and to exercise regularly.
"Not smoking, drinking only in moderation and getting your blood pressure and cholesterol checked regularly throughout life are also important ways people can reduce their risk of dementia."

Joglers are like Buses

Practically all my training has been done solo, all on my lonesome, then this past week I have been out cycling with 2 Joglers on separate occasions. Just like buses as I said.

Last Friday (the 11th) Dr Stephen was down visiting from Scotland so we arranged to meet up for a quick tour of the local Cotswold Hills. We had a fine little ride of 32 miles, based on a route in a recent cycling plus. Our route is here if you care to look. Stephen was, as usual, quicker than me up the hills, weighing about 3 stone as he does, even at his 6ft4ish height. Even so I didn't get tearful and just pretended I was taking it easy before the HONC. I think Steve knew better but is too much of a gent to say so.

Due to the actual riding of the JOGLE starting a day later Dr Stephen is now able to join us for an extra day so we should have more bodies to cut through those Scottish winds.

On Sunday it was HONC or Hell Of The North Cotswolds day. Dave came up for the ride with his rather lovely Specialized Hardtail. He also came bearing gifts courtesy of Pete at Iron Bridge Runner in Exeter who had given Dave a load of Science in Sport goodies at very low prices to help the JOGLERS. (Pete is a top bloke who has also offered to supply goodies for the actual event and drive us to John O'Groats from Inverness Airport. Cheers Pete.)

We started off right near the back of the 1000 strong pack since we were out for a days riding rather than setting any records. This can be mildly frustrating as the sheer volume of riders cause bottlenecks at the narrower points and we came to a complete standstill on several occasions. This was not really a problem though as the atmosphere and organisation were as usual great. Everyone happy to chat and throw about cheesy one liners about men in shorts etc. All good fun. The ride itself was great for the most part and gave my Focus Cross Disc a chance to show its true colours. I can truly say that it excelled. I was really chuffed with it's performance. There was a lot of gloopy mud and many mountain bikers were having to stop to clear the mud from their frame but my skinny little steed kept on riding. There was not really any point during the ride were I felt at a disadvantage to the Mountain Bikers and I was finally glad to have taken the disc option on the bike.

With about 20 miles to go Dave's saddle started to slip slide all over the place in his seat post to the point that it became unridable (as detailed below by Dave). So after 10 miles of struggling we decided to abort. This did not feel like a let down to me though as we had covered 50 miles of pretty tough on/off road terrain and had a really good work out. Even better I felt pretty fresh which bodes well for the JOGLE. Here is our shortened route. Pics to follow when these guys upload them.

Busted saddles and sore legs

Well finished the HONC, kind of, in a roundabout way. Due to recurrent saddle problems, the bolt for my saddle gave up the ghost at about 40 miles, so had to miss the last 10 miles of the ride due to being unable to sit on the saddle. At least i got in a good 50 mile ride, and given that it was off road it was a reasonable training ride.
Not pleased that i didn't finish but happy with the distance.
Would definitely recommend this ride to anyone who fancies a challenging off road ride.
Hoping to capitilse on the improved weather and get some evening rides in this week.
Have virtually booked all our accomodation for the ride now, need to start fine tuning some of the route. Hopefully we will avoid as many A roads as possible.
Only eight weeks to go.

Honc Honced

The live updates were abit of a flop due to very patchy 3g coverage. Ah well at least the ride went injury free. To the riders at least. I am going to bed. Night.

Zen and the Art of Coping With Alzheimer's

IN BRIEF

• The number of Alzheimer's patients is expected to increase dramatically in coming years, straining the health care system
• Scientists have not discovered the cause nor devised effective treatments
• Even diagnosis is difficult
• In the absence of therapies, attention has turned to teaching the skills necessary to cope with demented patients
• Increasingly caregivers are encouraged to validate the feelings and perceptions of the person with Alzheimer's

Check out the New York Times article here

'I would rather die of cancer than have my living self stripped away a bit at a time,' says Terry Pratchett

From the Daily Mail:

The day that fantasy novelist Terry Pratchett announced he had Alzheimer's, he received an incredible 60,000 responses from fans on his website within just a few hours.

"Some were from wellwishers, others had advice for me," he says.

"It was all so diverse - I wouldn't have a clue whether they were things I should take on board or not.

"We talk to one another on the internet and compare regimes. Part of me lives in a world of new age remedies and some of the science is a little like voodoo.

"But science was never an exact science, and personally I'd eat the a*** out of a dead mole if it offered a fighting chance.

"Some of those who got in touch wanted to sell me snake oil and I'm not necessarily going to dismiss all of these, as I have never found a rusty snake.

"But I'm not reading any of the medical books about it. I don't want to follow guidelines.

"You can't out-run the train but you can run and, who knows, if you can keep running for long enough, someone might find a way of blowing up the train."

Read full the article here

The Wonder of Tractors

I rode into work again a few times this past week. It is helping with piling on the miles but the return journey can be somewhat of a bore. Usually into a head wind and just wanting to be in bed I struggle to get my heart rate up and plod along at an average of 14mph or so. On the flat on a road bike.

Sometimes there is a treat on the journey, something to motivate me and get my heart pumping and the speed up. It could be music, another cyclist, the local time trial on my route or one of many things. I especially like overtaking spotty teenagers on their 50cc mopeds. The treat on my journey home yesterday was a stinky tractor flicking mud in my face. I had just crested a gentle rise and was struggling to push the pedals around, just grinding slowly along at about 15mph when this muck spattered machine came rumbling past. I was instantly out of the saddle and sprinting to get a slipstream tow from it. What an amazing difference it makes! For the next few miles I averaged 25mph and it felt so easy. I had to keep backing off so I didn't roll into the back of the tractor. I wonder if we could persuade someone to drive one all the way down in the jogle. Reckon we could do it in half the time then. It is a little bit dangerous though (incase PC Regie is reading) because you can't see what is in front of the tractor and if he hit the brakes..... ouch. At that time of the morning though I am willing to take the risk to get me home.

If you feel nerdy all the stats of that particular ride are here

The JOGLERS

Sport and oh,oh...Politics

Good to see Steve making a few notes on the blog. I wasn't aware he could write, so quite an achievement.
Managed an hour and a half on the stumpy tonight, still a bit muddy for decent riding but it was good to get re-acquainted with nobblies again. Hopefully the weather will be good for the HONC and i won't bonk before 50 miles!!
Thought i should make a comment about world affairs, seeing as how this blog is a medium for all things good and proper.
I have always been an advocate for world peace, and given that we are undertaking a sporting event in the Olympic year i thought it only right to suggest that we boycott watching the Olympics, given China's intrusion in Tibet, maybe a small token but if enough people did it....who knows. Having travelled in Nepal and India i can only comment on how friendly and welcoming Tibetan refugees were to me. Comments please.

Corrupt Mr Sylvester here

Right, Mr Sylvester here. I've been brought into the team to add some leadership to the proceedings. See I am a manager and Dave and Nick are nurses, get my drift. Dave's not relied for his navigation skills (viva la France) and Nick ends up doing his own thing, he’s not used to peoples company. I need to beat these two losers in to some form of shape. Really joking aside it will be great to do the ride for the Alzheimer’s Society a very deserving fund. Back to the insults. It dawned on me the other day that this indeed could be the last ever ride with Dave and Nick. Come on, as you know times not been favourable for Dave, every day he looks more and more like Keith Richards from the Stones. As for Mr Robinson, his impression of Augustus Glupe from Charlie and the Chocolate factory is quite uncanny, and he’ll soon be sucked up some chocolate pipe. As for me I am finely tuned riding machine, currently being protected by a specialist insulation layer (otherwise know as fat!)

I've just taken out another mortgage getting the bikes services (thanks Rich!) and the training has started (now me tum tum is better) 35ish miles on the mountain bike on Saturday, run this AM, a spin class this evening, wow it was great and so it goes on. I'm in the states next week so no riding, but there is a gym at the hotel and trainers on me feet, so all out effort when back. Oh....assoss cream rules..

Ps Gears sorted on the MTB, sweet

The HONC is looming

This Sunday it is The Hell Of The North Cotswolds .This is a very popular and fairly tough reliability ride in and around the Cotswold town of Winchcombe. About 1000 riders take on either the 50K or 100K courses which are a mix of about 50/50 on and offroad. It is one of the few events that us JOGLERS have had a regular presence at over the years. This will be my 5th time at the event and Daves 2nd. Dr Stephen did it in 2004 and Steve in 2006.

I have tackled it on a singlespeed, a full sus mountain bike, a tandem, a hardtail mountain bike and this year it will be done on my cyclo cross bike. Dave is riding his hard tail and Steve will be washing the dishes at home. Girl. I may however have frightened Steve off, as the last time he rode it was on the back of the tandem. Unfortunately my confidence outweighed my talent on that day and we had a fairly spectacular wipe out when I tried to squeeze into a narrowing gap between two other riders on a descent. Fortunately the other riders were restrained enough to avoid punching me on the nose, which is probably what I deserved. I am pretty sure I ruined their day as well as Steve's. Sorry out there whoever you are. For Steve's part he was suprisingly restrained, didn't even swear. Considering he could hardly use his arm for a month after that was quite impressive.
Last year, due to a general lack of riding and fitness we took the short route but we did at least get around without any dramas. This year Dave and I are planning on doing the 100k hopefully without any faceplants or broken bones.

The pics are At the Top: Nick and Dr Stephen at the start of the 2004 event. on the right: us again on a descent later on the same day and the last pic is Dave with Nick on the left.

2006 Route 100k shortened after Tandem Wipout
2007 50k Route

2008 routes are here: Short Long
The Memory Map and Tracklogs versions are here

Activity | Road Biking | Whitestone, United Kingdom | MotionBased Dashboard

Activity Road Biking Whitestone, United Kingdom MotionBased Dashboard

Managed some decent training this weekend despite my wife being on nights, a tree hitting me in the face (i continued to cut down trees in the back garden and a branch hit me in the face, stop laughing, i now have a nice black eye) and the blizzards!
I went out today in full thermal get up and rode the last 15 miles into a northerly wind which was bitingly cold. I grovelled up the hills, the very same ones i used to ride on a 42/52 chainset with 12-23 on the back, im now using a compact chainset and a massive 28 on the back, it can only get better. At least there is no such thing as a flat ride in Devon so i should be prepared for the hills.
Hopefully now with evenings getting getting lighter i may get out midweek a bit more, its trying to manage it all around work, pregnant wife and daughter, throw into that lot a few odd jobs around the house, cleaning bike(s), updating blog! and watching Champions League on the telly, (yes Nick, Steve, football is important) and you end up with little time left for quality training.
As you have probably noticed i have a new toy, Garmin 305 GPS, (Click on the title) great fun and excellent way to look at training stats (how sad), hopefully as i get fitter?? it will be a good way to observe overall improvements, i am convincing myself there will be improvements!! It was good to see that even though i was struggling towards the end the average speed stayed around 14mph. The peak in the heart rate was big ringing it around the Penn Inn roundabout, not a pleasant place, and the only safe way to negotiate it is at the same speed as the traffic. More stats to come soon.

Metamor City Mention!

I was super excited to see the latest episode of Chris Lester's Metamor City podcast downloading this morning. My excitement shot up a notch further when I realised Chris had given us a plug! If you are not familiar with it The Metamor City Podcast is a sci-fi/fantasy audio fiction series that is distributed for free through Chris's website. It features a mixture of short stories and full-length novels, all taking place in one large world with an overarching story arc. Combining the narration of audiobooks with the music, sound effects and full vocal cast of a serial radio drama, The Metamor City Podcast provides an immersive audio experience of a world like no other.

If you have found us through Metamor City, we are two psychiatric nurses who have both been touched in different ways by Alzheimer's. We are cycling the length of the British Isles to raise money for the Alzheimer's Society and awareness of this cruel disease. We are doing this over 9 days now, after initially planning to do it in 7. We also now have health service manager Steve joining us for the ride and Stephen, a web guru and MRI expert, joining us for some of Scotland.

Donations can be made through our Just Giving site which is linked to on the right, or if you prefer, through the paypal donate button. If you are unable to donate, any comments on the blog or plugs on other blogs would be very much appreciated. Until then, keep it on the bright side!

Night Shift Rogate Ramblings

My training has been going very well this week. I have cycled the 30 mile journey into work two days in succession now and plan to again on Sunday. My knees are starting to complain a bit though so I figure I will play that one by ear.

Like most cyclists I have bits of kit I particularly like so I thought I would review the odd one here or there. So here goes:

Last month I bought a DHB Rogate top from Wiggle on offer (They always clobber me with their email offers and my weak will). It has really surprised me how versatile it is. I have been wearing it with a string vest type base layer under it and it keeps me nice and snug at 0deg C right up to 10deg without getting all boil in a bag. If things do start hotting up there is a full length zip to give maximum ventilation. It is also extremely comfortable, all fleecy inside, with a windproof front, a silicone gripper at the base of the back to prevent ride up and a zip up pocket in addition to the usual 3 rear pockets. One of the nicest design features for me has been that it has a chest pocket designed for mp3 players with a little hole to route the headphones inside. It just has room for my iPod Touch so should fit most players just fine. It really is fantastic quality for the money. It retails at £44 but was £30 on offer and is one of those tops that will be worn from October through to April. I love it!

Time Trialing to Work

Cyling into work this evening was great, the sun was shining and I was able to just wear shorts and top for the first time this year. I even added a few miles to the trip to make it a 32 mile inward ride. What made the ride was discovering myself in the middle of the local bike clubs evening time trial. Just as I turned onto the A38 a guy flew past me all tucked down and really going for it. Not long after another guy came by but going at a more sensible pace averaging about 22-23mph. I was able to grab his back wheel and got a nice tow for the next 5 miles or so Mega! After he turned off it was me and the wind again but I managed to keep up a better pace than of late and consequently had the time to add a few extra miles.

I am still riding the cyclo cross bike with knobblies on so hopefully I should see a pick up in pace when I get around to sticking the slicks on.

Resistance Training With the Family

Since the sun has been out the past couple of days everyone wants to get on the bike. We decided to take the two boys, Noah, 3 and J, 1 out in the Chariot. this would be the first time for them to share it on a decent length bike ride. I was concerned that it would be all elbows and bitter disputes over territory however I need not have worried. The trailer seems to send the boys into some sort of trance and they sat there staring at my back wheel.

Well untill Noah started singing Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and asking me to fly. I was not able to oblige unfortunately. The harmony continued and a jolly time was had by all. Even old Dad got a good work out. That is quite a lump to haul around the Cotswolds.

Nick Gets a Taste of the Truth

If You Like Sci/fi Horror Watch this.