Next Challenge

Hmmmmm, only 2 and half years since my last post, but nevermind.

First a bit of background.  Around this time last year, I did something to my shoulder.  Not sure what it was or how I did it, but it hurt when I lifted my arm above my head, pulled anything up or tried to pick up the kids.

I buried my head in the sand and hoped it would just fix itself, but to no avail - in fact it just got worse.  I stopped going to the gym, mountain biking and even road biking because my shoulder hurt so much.  In the end I went to a physio who sorted me out, but in the meantime I started running again.

Christmas last year I was running 3 times a week for about 5km at about 5min/km pace (25mins for a run then).  About the same time I got the OK from the physio to start training again, but I wanted to try and do both the running and cycling.  I started running at lunchtimes at work and continued cycling the 50km to work once a week and the odd mtb session on the Quantocks.

In March we also joined Taunton School gym, which has two indoor swimming pools and a gym, all of which the family can use for a bargain £30 a month!  I was already running and cycling and now I had a swimming pool to use - the seed was sown.

At the end of March I signed up for a sprint distance triathlon being run at Taunton School and began training.  I'd not swam more than 2 lengths since lifeguarding 16 years ago, but just got down to the task at hand.

I also took advantage of the online training app micoach (for running) and Strava (for cycling) to get me up the hills that little bit faster.

By the time the triathlon came around at the beginning of June, I had reduced my 400m swim time by two and half minutes and my 5km run by over 5 minutes.

The end result was a pretty good time and a creditable 45th place:

Although I'm quite pleased with my time, a quick look at the stats shows several areas where I can improve my time without having to improve my fitness:

• Swim - I can reduce my time by a minute by just doing 16 lengths instead of the 18 I did (!!!!)
• Swim to Bike transition - This was rubbish.  I can reduce this time by not drying feet and not putting on socks.  A race belt will also help here as it will already have my race number pinned to it.
• Bike to Run transition - This was truly appalling.  The main chunk of time here was due to having to safety pin my number onto the front of my suit.  Again, the race belt should improve this time significantly.

The changes above should improve my time by at least 2 minutes, which would have pushed me into the mid-30 placings.

I've just spent the past week and a half drinking wine and eating chocolate cake after the race.  I'm bored now and ready for the next challenge and have just applied to do the Langport Triathlon in September.  Lets see how we get on with this one...

Sales Pitch

So, the time has finally come. Redundancy, a new job, relocation to a rented house and two children have finally beat me into submission and I'm being forced to sell one of my bikes. I laboured a while over which it should be - the nimble little hardtail or the full-sus bruiser, but in the end it had to be the hardtail. The full-sus goes like stink at the trail centre and saves me when I over-reach my somewhat limited abilities!

So here it is. The spec is a follows:

• Pipedream Sirius 18" frame - Purchased November 2006 in blue. The odd scratch, paint chip and wear from cable rub on the top tube. Frame protectors on the head tube and seat tube. Would suit anyone from about 5'8" - 6'0" (I'm 5'10")


• Rockshox Reba 100mm Fork


• Hope Headset


• Hope BB


• Rear wheel - Hope XC hub on Mavic 717 rim


• Front wheel - Ovation pro hub on Mavic 221 rim


• Continental Vertical Tyres


• Shimano LX cranks


• Sram PC951 chain


• Shimano XT 9 Speed Cassette


• Sram X-9 Rear mech


• Sram X-7 Shifter


• Shimano LX front mech


• Shimano LX shifter


• Easton EA-30 stem


• Race Face Evolve XC Riser


• Race Face Evolve XC Seat post


• Avid Juicy 3 disk brakes with 160mm disks - these are nearly new


• Charge Spoon Saddle - some damage to rear when I came off the back a few weeks ago (see photo)


• Shimano 515 pedals - nearing the end of their life as the bearings are loose

Apart from the headset installation, I've built and maintained the bike myself and its in excellent condition, even if I do say so myself! I'm looking for £500 and ideally a local Plymouth sale as sending a bike through the post is just a complete faff (and fecking expensive). I could deliver to Exeter or Taunton (possibly Weston-Super-Mare) as I'm relocating to Somerset in October. If you are interested, drop me a mail!

Dartmoor Zoological Park

Having small children now means that I'll be visiting South Devon's best family attractions this summer. First up is Dartmoor Zoological park, near Ivybridge.

We got there nice and early, about half an hour after the park opened and the car park was already filling up nicely (it was bank holiday monday after all). After paying £8.95 each (kids under 5 are free), we began the walk up the hill toward the main part of the zoo.

Its a funny place, basically what looks like a farm on the side of a hill, with pastures for each of the animals, with the more dangerous animals having proper pens at the top of the hill. There are around 200 animals including Osterich, Brown bear, monkeys, meerkat, and several big cats.

I quite enjoyed myself actually. It is a little run down in places (toilet blocks need some tlc, paths are a bit on the dodgy side if you don't have a middle-classtastic phil & ted!) and a bit grubby, but its obvious that they are investing money into the park in the right places. The restaurant is nice with a great little meerkat enclosure right in front of it and there is a large picnic area near the big cat pens with plenty of picnic tables (they missed a trick by not opening the kiosk though - they would have made a killing while we were there). We were even treated to a display from a Peacock - obviously touting for food!

Sammy was quite taken aback by the big cats - the roar of the male lion made him sit up and look around and he watched the tigers for ages, until one began pacing up and down the fence 3 feet from our noses.

There was a small petting area with some small goats which Sammy enjoyed, though he did get gently butted at one point. I think he may have deserved it for poking the poor goat in the eye one too many times.

Overall, it was good half day out for the kids. I don't think I would go back again this year (or next), but it was a good way to show Sammy what lions and tigers look like in real life!

New hobby

Its been nearly 20 years since I last bought a regular series comic.  I've dabbled with one-offs and trade paperbacks over the past couple of years, but nothing regular. 

There is a little comic shop (LTD edition) near the Barbican in Plymouth that I've nipped into and browsed a couple of times, so the other week I popped in and had  a chat with a guys and came away with a couple of titles to have look at; Batman, avengers, iron man and spawn.  Here's what I thought of them:

Batman

This the main Batman title and its pretty much the same as I remembered it - the story was pretty good, the theme dark and there was smattering of baddy bashing in there for good measure.  The whole current Batman backstory is a bit confusing as the original Robin (Dick Grayson aka Nightwing) is now Batman as Bruce Wayne is dead (well, not really, this is comic land afterall! See below).  Overall I was impressed with the first two issues.

Batman:Return of Bruce Wayne

This is a 6 issue miniseries that starts with Bruce Wayne (see, not dead!) in pre-history fighting for his life against a poweful tribal leader. There is the odd bit of iconography and Batman gets a 'Robin' halfway through the comic, but I was really disappointed by the story of the first issue and the artwork wasn't as good as I was expecting.  The second issue was much better though with the story arc being developed and setting (early Gotham in the times of the witch hunts) is a clever tie-in.

Avengers #1 Heroic Age

The first issue of a new avengers comic sees Steve Rogers (cap America, got assassinated a few years ago?) forming a new avengers team. All the usual suspects are there with the first issue setting the scene. Thor gets some action and the final couple of panels sets things up nicely.  Disappointing artwork again though, wolverine especially looked rubbish.

Iron Man: Legacy

Another new series I thought I'd dip into as I've never read any iron man books before. The action starts straight away with iron man technology being used in genocidal acts in a slavic state. Stark goes to investigate and then the fun begins!  The artwork is a lot better than avengers and the story has me hooked so I'll keep up with this one.

Spawn

I was looking for #200, but it seems this book is forever delayed, so comic shop man gave me a recent copy gratis.  It was part of an ongoing storyline, but nonetheless I was impressed by the glorious artwork, the several full page panels and the dark story.  Definitely one to keep up with.

I've also done a bit of research in other titles. With a couple of new story arcs starting shortly I'm going to take a look at Spiderman, Superman and the new x-men title. I'll report on those and update the others shortly.

I seem to spend an inordinate amount of time in my shed. First I thought it was because it was somewhere I had complete and utter control over; I knew where every single little thing was, it was arranged just as I wanted it and it was (mostly) full of my own stuff.

But lately, I'm beginning to think its because the shed is a bit of an analogy of my life and brain. Its beginning to show its age here and there, its full to bursting and there is quite a lot of tat in it! But despite all the little problems, like my life there's some exceptionally brilliant bits and bobs in there too. I'm kind of hoping this blog will be an analogy of the shed, well we'll see...