Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Health and Fitness Update

When I started this lark, one of my main aims was to improve my health and fitness. I've been properly overweight for nigh on twenty years now. So is it working?

Well I wouldn't say I'm back to the 1980s. I haven't even really lost weight - although that is slowly starting to happen. But I am definitely much fitter. I did nearly 15 miles yesterday with no ill effects. And even since last autumn I'm noticeably faster on the road: I'm using 2nd or 3rd gear on the steepest uphill bits of my commute, where originally I would walk or use 1st gear. And I quite regularly hit top (8th) gear, which used to be a rare event. So although far from the fastest, I am definitely not the slowest person on the roads any more.

At the beginning I was a bit worried about the effect of cycling on my creaky knees, and they did ache at first. I even consulted my GP. But the Doc was right: now my legs are much stronger it's really not an issue. I do still have to restrain myself from using the full force of my leg muscles, for fear of hurting my knees.. but 'mind your knees' speed is now considerably faster than it used to be.

So there seems to be no downside. If you're dithering, just do it!

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Delivery Boy

Today I are mostly been impersonating G-G-G-Granville from Open All Hours..

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Cyclebabble

On Tuesday I went to the launch of a new book "Cyclebabble", which is a digest of the best bits from the Guardian bike blog. The launch event was at Look Mum No Hands, a bike shop cum cafe-bar on Old St EC1.

Look Mum is a bit painfully trendy for my taste, but it was nice to meet a couple of the people behind the book, including Sara from the Guardian's tiny publishing department, and the very enthusiastic Peter Walker. I also chatted with a nice lass who turned out to be the girl behind the wonderful 101 Wankers project. Dawn was lovely and her blog is a laugh, as well as highlighting a serious and mystifying issue: why does riding a bicycle somehow make a girl fair game for witless comments and sexual harassment? Are the low-forehead fraternity somehow threatened by her.. I dunno.. freedom of movement? If so, god forbid they ever spot a girl in a sports car.

I was invited because I occasionally comment on the Guardian blog, but I don't know if any of my comments made it into print as I didn't have time to flick through all of it. They were selling copies for £6 instead of the cover price of £7.99 but I didn't buy one for two reasons:

- Everything in it is already available on the Guardian site

- Even if I did want a hard copy (perhaps for the loo) I thought it would probably be cheaper on Amazon (and it is!)

Anyway, it was interesting to attend and I enjoyed a couple of refreshing Slags. Thanks guys, and good luck with the book.