Tag Archives: bike

Cycling and sleeping

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Sign beside road saying: deer for 2 miles

The B940 somewhere north-east of Anstruther

After a week off from cycling (to get over a tummy bug and to attend the IWMW 2012 conference in Edinburgh) I went back out on my bike again this morning just before 06:00.

I’ve done something to my right shoulder. Probably a combination of sleeping badly on it, and being jumped on by Reuben; I’ve started calling Reuben ‘Cato‘ because he attacks me at the most inconvenient moments!

It was good to get out again. Here’s to a slowly developing discipline of early morning cycles and to getting fit again.

Afternoon

When Jane and the boys returned from church at lunchtime (I’d been to All Saints, St Andrews for the 08:00, then retired to bed) Joshua was still asleep in the car, Reuben was asleep in the living room, and Isaac asleep in his pram in the front garden.

Joshua woke first so I brought him through into the study… where he promptly fell asleep again using his cuddly dog (Copper from Disney’s The Fox and the Hound) as a pillow.

He looked so lovely and peaceful.

Joshua asleep on a chair, his head resting on a cuddly dog

Everyone needs a Copper for a pillow.

Cycling in the fat lane

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A mountain bike leaning against a milestone

My Giant mountain bike, this morning, leaning against a milestone two miles outside Crail.

A couple of weeks ago I was re-reading Leo Babauta’s excellent book Focus: A simplicity manifesto in the Age of Distraction in which he encourages people to slow down, reduce the number of things you are doing and focus on just one.

That was something I needed to hear again.

My mind had been spinning for weeks with the number of small projects that I was running at the same time; some web projects, some writing projects. I’d reached a point of stalemate, a mental impasse, where I couldn’t decide which one I should prioritise, which I should work on next. They all excited me. I wanted to do them all. And in the end I was doing none of them.

So I took Leo’s advice to heart and began to simplify and reduce, and in my deliberations I realised the one thing that I really needed to focus on to the exclusion of everything else: get fit. My health had to be my number one priority.

Children

Before Reuben and Joshua were born in November 2008 I spent a lot of time on my bike, and with my dumb bell weights, and I lost a lot of weight. I dropped about 5-6″ off my waist. I wanted to get fit so that I could play with my children. I wanted to get fit so that I have every chance of improving my own quality of life so that I wouldn’t die young of heart disease or kidney failure or whatever.

And then Reuben and Joshua arrived, and a few years later Isaac joined them, and I’ve pretty much not slept for the best part of three and a half years (averaging probably around 3-5 hours of broken sleep a night for most of that time). And my weight gradually crept up again as I ate at odd hours, or ate high calorie foods just to keep myself awake.

Summer 2011

Last summer I made the decision to get fit again. We were having issues with who needed the car (we went down to one car after the boys were born) and so I decided to cycle to work. My office in St Andrews is almost exactly 10 miles from our house in Anstruther.

That was going well until…

Back

In September 2011 I was cutting the grass and taking a break I sat on a travelling rug with a ten-month old Isaac… and I couldn’t get back up. My back had gone. I went to bed and fell asleep only to be woken a couple of hours’ later with the most excruciating muscle spasms I’ve ever had.

I was screaming in pain. It took me 30 minutes to crawl the 18 feet or so from my bedside to the toilet. The second time I tried it I could get only as far as the chair beside my bed.

Jane phoned NHS 24 just after tea time, around 6pm.

A doctor from the out-of-hours service arrived seven hours’ later, sometime around 1am. He returned four hours after that to give me a shot of morphine and I finally fell asleep, too doped up to care about the pain. It took another week or so to be given diazepam, which finally helped the muscles to relax, and another four months to see a physiotherapist.

I was off work for about a month, and even when I returned I struggled to walk without pain. It took me until about early May to start feeling better enough to even consider exercising again. I was desperate to get out again.

Back on the bike… twice

Nervously I got back on my bike in early May and rode a short and familiar circuit around a few of the local back roads.

About a week later my back went again. More diazepam, more diclofenac, more 30/500 co-codamol and within a week I was actually feeling better than I had been the previous month. The pains in my legs had gone. I could walk again without feeling that my hips had been replaced with knives.

Last Sunday I went out for a cycle. I made a conscious decision to go easily, to pace myself. Something that I’m not good at, but where has that got me in the past?

I cycled for an hour and covered about 15 miles. It felt good.

Two days later, on Tuesday, I went out again for a slightly shorter run. And I went out again this morning: 14.75 miles in 57 minutes. I was pleased with that.

I’m determined to get fit. I need to lose weight to help bring my blood pressure down, for a start. I’m determined not to overdo it, as I usually do. I’m determined to pace myself. That’s been the big lesson from my back injury: pace myself.

So for the next 4-6 weeks I’m going stretch every day (my physio gave me a bunch of back stretches to do twice a day), and start doing some daily stomach crunches to help strengthen my core, and go out cycling twice a week. I’ll see where I go from there.

But this time I’m hopeful. By this time next year I should have cycled my way out of the fat lane.

Daddy’s bike

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Close-up of a bicycle chainset
Bicycle Gear by donjolley at Stock.xchng.

Bedtimes with Joshua have been a little tricky of late. ‘Fraught’ might be a word that you could use about them. It’s certainly a word that I have used about them.

At his lunchtime snooze he’s amazing. You put him in his pushchair in the garden and off he drifts to sleep quite effortlessly, waking refreshed 90-120 minutes later.

In the evening, however, after his bath he screams. And eventually so do I.

But not this evening. This evening I was determined to not get upset.

No agenda

I read an article in the TAMBA magazine a while back that one secret about putting children to bed is to not have an agenda afterwards.  Don’t approach bedtime thinking “Right, once they are asleep I’ll have time to do x, y and z.”  they advised. But that’s tricky, because after their bedtime is usually the perfect time to get x, y and z done.

This evening, though, I actually didn’t have an agenda other than to embody a zen-like calm while dealing with Joshua on our bed.  And that’s exactly what I did.

What I got back from him, however, was this.

Daddy’s bike – a monologue

“Bike!” said Joshua.

I looked at him.

“Bike!” said Joshua again. “Bike! Daddy’s bike!”

“Bike?” I questioned. “You want to see Daddy’s bike?”

Joshua nodded an pointed out the window towards the shed.

“We can’t look at the bike this evening,” I reasoned. “It’s sleepy time!”

Undeterred Joshua continued with his mantra. ”Bike! … Bike! … BIKE!! Daddy’s bike!”

I am not kidding for 15-20 minutes he kept this up. At one point I thought I was in some kind of trance.

“Daddy’s bike! … Daddy’s bike! … Daddy’s bike! … Daddy’s bike!”

I couldn’t help laughing.

“Wheesht! with the bike nonsense!” I demanded.

He didn’t listen.

“Bike! …”

At one point he stopped suddenly. His face was a quizzical picture, like he was trying to figure out how he could better convey to me the seriousness of what he was telling me.  And then, there it was, a tiny Eureka moment:  ”Bike! … Bike! … BIKE!! Daddy’s bike!”

I promised that I’d show him my bike tomorrow before handing him off to Jane who put him back in his cot.

“Mummy?” he said as he lay in his cot in the glow of the night-light.

“Yes darling,” she replied.

“Mummy? Daddy’s bike!“

Fife on wheels, Scotland on Rails, Gareth on Twitter

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Bike

Fife on wheels

I can’t remember … much actually! No, I can’t remember any other new year where I’ve been clobbered with quite so many bugs as this one.

I seem to have had at least one new stomach bug or virus each month. Some months I was greedy and had at least two.

So I approached going out on my bike for a half-hour cycle last night with some trepidation. I still didn’t feel 100% and I didn’t want to push myself over the edge. Or indeed pedal myself over the edge. But I went out, all the same.

My word! Did I feel great today!

(Answer: yes.)

So I went out again this evening.

Scotland on Rails

I predict that tomorrow I’ll feel even greater.

Or at least I would, if it were not for the fact that I need to be picking up my colleague (Dougal*) in St Andrews at 06:30 and driving to the two day Scotland on Rails conference in Edinburgh.

Gareth on Twitter

I don’t expect to be blogging from the conference, but I shall likely be Twittering from my electric mobile telecommunications device. You can follow me at http://twitter.com/garethjms.

By the way, Scotland on Rails isn’t about railways or trainspotting, it’s about Ruby on Rails, a programming framework brought to life by the lovely folks at 37Signals.

Footnote

* My colleague isn’t really called Dougal. He’s called Kevin. But since he introduced me to colleagues at the University of Edinburgh during a meeting there last month as Darren I’ve been calling him something different every time I see him. Even if his enquiry is important to us!

Expensive 100 yards cycle

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Outline of bike against the sky

This afternoon I went for my shortest but probably most expensive cycle trip ever. I took my bike to St Andrews, but unfortunately I wasn’t riding it at the time.

Around 15:00 I set off on my bike, cycled about 100 yards to the main road and stopped for a car to pass. Stood up on the pedals, shoved myself off and … more or less snapped my left pedal off. It was obviously rather loose and so I’ve threaded the pedal bolt on both the crank arm and the pedal.

So I’ll at least need a replacement crank arm and pedal, but a closer inspection of my front chainset reveals that it will likely be cheaper for me just to get a whole new front chainset, as the current (and original) one is rather worn indeed. And so I’ll probably need a new chain too. And I’ve no idea of the state of my bottom bracket or rear derailleur.

Still, I’ve been meaning to get my bike serviced for a few months now. Unfortunate timing: I was wanting to work on my fitness this holiday.

I’ve dropped the bike into Spokes bike shop in St Andrews. I may or may not get it back tomorrow, depending on how much work is required.

Update

Monday 24 December

I got my bike back at 13:00 on Monday (less than 24 hours after putting it in for repair). Top marks to Spokes of St Andrews. In the end it cost me just over £60 for:

  • Suntour Chainset (22/32/42) – £24.99
  • Shimano UN53 Bottom Bracket 68-110mm – £19.99
  • Black ATB 9/16 pedals – £9.99
  • Labour – £10.00

Bargain! I was then out on it (Anstruther to Elie and back again) this afternoon, just before the sun went down. Marvellous!

Bike lights and the law

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Rear bicycle light

After a couple of weeks away from cycling — having been recovering from a bad cold — it’s been great to get back on my saddle and pedal around the beautiful Fife countryside of an evening. At least, I think it’s beautiful countryside: I can’t actually see much of it since the clocks have gone back.

There’s no better way to check the effectiveness of one’s lights than going out onto the unlit back roads, out of town, and having a game of “Guess where the road goes next”.

For the last few years, certainly while I was living and cycling in Edinburgh, the brightness of my lights wasn’t really an issue. I needed them to be bright enough to allow other road users to see me. That was all. I didn’t need to light up the road like a halogen lighthouse. That’s what the street lights are for.

But cycling on Her Majesty’s public highway after dark and out of town is a whole other ballpark of worms. I need to both be clearly seen (so that Joe McNed in his souped-up Vauxhall Corsa doesn’t knock me off the road) and clearly be able to see the road ahead (so that I don’t go careering into Farmer McDougal’s field of porridge).

The law

Which got me thinking about my bike lights and the legality of them. I remembered something that the father (a lawyer by profession) of an ex-girlfriend had said to me (in 1997) about bike lights: that if you wanted to use flashing rear lights then you also had to have a static light too.

After about ten minutes searching on Google I stumbled upon the Department for Transport’s webpage Guidance about lights on pedal bicycles which clearly sets out the legal requirements for bike lights.

  1. The use of lighting and reflectors on pedal bicycles is regulated under the Road Vehicles Lighting Regulations 1989, as amended. The most recent amendment is Statutory Instrument SI 2005 No. 2559 which came into force on October 23rd 2005.

  2. The main effect of the new Regulations was to permit flashing lights on pedal cycles. The flashing lights do however have to conform to certain requirements which are elaborated below.

Obligatory Lighting and Reflectors

  1. Any cycle which is used during the hours of darkness or during periods of poor visibility MUST be fitted with the following:

    • white front light
    • red rear light
    • red rear reflector
    • amber/yellow pedal reflectors – front and rear on each pedal.

  3. The lamps may be steady or flashing, or a mixture – e.g. steady at the front and flashing at the rear. A steady light is recommended at the front when the cycle is used in areas without good street lighting.

  4. If either of the lights is capable of emitting a steady light, then it must conform to BS 6102-3 and be marked accordingly, even if used in flashing mode.

  5. Purely flashing lights are not required to conform to BS6102-3, but the flash rate must be between 60 and 240 equal flashes per minute (1-4 per second) and the luminous intensity must be at least 4 candela. (This should be advised by the manufacturer).

  6. The pedal reflectors and rear reflector must conform to BS 6102-2.

  7. Lights and reflectors not conforming to the BS, but conforming to a corresponding standard of another EC country and marked accordingly, are considered to comply as long as that standard provides an equivalent level of safety.

  8. Lights are NOT required to be fitted on a bicycle at the point of sale – but IF they are fitted, then they must comply with these regulations.

This can also be downloaded as a PDF: Guidance about lights on pedal bicycles (PDF, 32 KB)

It would appear then that the law has changed, from those heady days of 1997, and that flashing rear lights are now permitted on their own.

The CTC (the UK’s national cyclists’ organisation) also has interesting and useful information about bike lights.

Le Tour de France

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Vladimir Karpets
Vladimir Karpets – he’s not a cheat and he has a cool name

So … shortly after Le Tour de France passed the final stage over the Pyrenees it now finds itself with an even steeper climb: rebuilding people’s confidence (should that be Cofidis?) in cycling and the complete expulsion of drugs and doping from the sport.

Out of the tour

I woke at 06:00 this morning to the surprise news that race leader Michael Rasmussen had been forced out of the tour for lying about his out-of-competition drug tests. Yesterday Moreni’s bloody sample proved positive for testosterone, on Tuesday Vinokourov left when a routine test showed that he’d been indulging in the dangerous pastime of blood doping. What news will we wake to tomorrow?

Vinokourov and Moreni

In the case of Vinokourov we have still to await the results of his ‘B sample’ to see whether he really was blood doping or not. But if he was — and certainly in the case of Moreni — how could they possibly think that they’d not get caught out?!

Rasmussen

The speculation around Rasmussen’s missed tests has been going on for a couple of weeks now, so it’s disappointing (not least for him) that it took this long — after 76 hours of cycling and more than half-way round France — before the decision was finally made to kick him off the tour.

Rasmussen claims that he was and is clean of drugs,

“Of course I’m clean,” Rasmussen said. “Like I said, I’ve been tested 17 times now in less than two weeks. Both the peleton and the public, they’re just taking their frustration out on me now. I mean, all I can say is that by now I had my test number 17 on this Tour and all of those have come back negative. I don’t feel I can do anymore than that.”
(Source: Yahoo!)

I have to be honest and say that I believe him. That may explain his more relaxed (though some might argue ‘unprofessional’) attitude to it all. I don’t, for example, pop into my local Police Station every morning just to report, “Just to let you know, officers, I’ve not committed any crimes since yesterday!”

So if you’re clean and miss a test you might easy say, “Ah well, it doesn’t matter so much: I’m clean anyway”. But with a sport so desperate to clean up its image that excuse obviously doesn’t sit well with those on the sport’s ruling boards.

Rasmussen originally claimed that he was in Mexico at the time of the out-of-competition drugs test, when in fact he was really in Italy. Maybe he’s just really rubbish at geography!

A question of sport

No doubt we’ll now find some pundits looking back at various stages of the tour and question his abilities (as they have done aleady with Vinokourov) and try to attribute every sign of talent, ability or unexpected achievement — such as during the time trial — to the effects of drugs.

The truth is that, even without the boost that testosterone, EPO or a syringe full of your best friend’s red blood cells is going to give you, these cyclists are better than you or I will ever be on two, self-powered wheels; and they are all human and will all have good days and bad days. The champions, and champions-in-the-making, just know when to up the pace when they need to, and from where to draw the energy to do so.

My solution

The folks I feel most sorry for are the innocent members of teams that have had to withdraw from the race entirely because one of their team has spoiled it for the rest of them: team Astana, for example, and Cofidis. I think the non-guilty members of the teams should be allowed to carry on.

I also think that the guilty cyclists should be forced to carry on too. The guilty, proved-positive-for-drugs cyclists should have to complete the rest of the tour, with the following humiliating consequences. They should have to choose from one of these options:

Option 1: Batman and Robin

  • The guilty cyclist must be dressed as Batman, with the words “I’m a big, dirty cheat-bag” emblazoned on the back of their cape.

  • They would have to complete the rest of the tour on a 21-speed tandem, with an obesely fat man dressed as Robin on the back.

  • The rest of the team would have to wear specially-made team shirts with a giant hand on the front and the words, “I’m with STUPID!”

Option 2: Pick a bike

  • The guilty cyclist must be dressed just in ‘gym pants’ and an old t-shirt plucked from a wicker basket in a PE teacher’s office.

  • They would have to complete the rest of the tour on one of the following bikes:

    • a BMX (no gears), or
    • a Raleigh Grifter (3 gears), or
    • a Raleigh Chopper (3 gears), or
    • a ladies’ bike (14 gears; with a wicker shopping basket on the front, piled high with drugs)

  • The rest of the team would have to wear specially-made team shirts with a giant hand on the front and the words, “I’m with STUPID!”

I think with that strategy, we’d see drugs cleared from the sport in a matter of days!

Cool names

I’m just delighed that my two favourite riders (for obvious reasons) are still in the race: Vladimir Karpets and Christian Knees.

Vladimir Karpets just has the best name ever! That’s a name that goes off the end of my cool-o-meter. That’s like calling your kid something like Sebastian Fridge-Freezer, or Aubrey Dashboard.

Christian Knees is a name in a league of its own. Other members of that league might be Buddhist Thighs, Satanic Spleen and Taoist Wrists.

Highlights (and low-lights) of the tour continue tonight on ITV4 or online at www.itv.com/tour.