Landed on his face

The boys were having rides down a hill in a little cart yesterday. Not surprisingly, it ended in a crash. J bounced and DK landed on his face!

Nespresso a-go-go

Our old Nespresso machine had developed some age related incontinence so, in the absence of a home for old coffee machines, it had to be replaced.

We considered getting another type of machine, but frankly, the faff of making espresso is rather high added to the enormous cost of a decent machine and compounded with the fact that we don't drink that much of it meant that we headed straight back to Nespresso.

We got £40 back in credit at Nespresso and without any trouble at all, managed to save £100 from the retail price so the new machine actually cost 30% less than the original one did 8 years ago which was a pleasant surprise.

The coffee is as good as it always was and now we have the ability to do super frothy milk or even just heat milk on it's own without using the coffee machine.

Flax Seeds - too much information

As something of an experiment in further weight management, I have started eating flax seed again. Last week I was eating just a couple of big mouthfuls of whole seeds washed down with some water which seemed to be fine, no significant affects other than keeping things moving and getting down to 92kg again for the first time since January. Apparently your body is not able to break down the husks of the seeds, but there is some soluble fibre released that does something along the route.

After a slightly cheat filled weekend (with >160km/100 miles of cycling) I was a couple of kg up again this week so I have decided to switch things up and try grinding the seeds in a pestle and mortar before I eat them. The result should be that I am able to digest some more of the goodies within the seeds and also take advantage of more of the goodies and fibre inside.

The effect is quite noticeable!

Weight wise, there hasn't been a great deal of progress, however, it has only been a day, I didn't exercise yesterday and I ate a lot of strawberries and cream last night so it's not easy to tell the effect. I'll stick to eating them every day this week and see what happens other than not wanting to venture too far from the bog during the morning...

Race Wheels

Well after 2 or 3 years of longing, wishing, bargaining and a self examination I have finally bought myself a set (second hand) race wheels.

I can't really justify them, but I can't really justify the rest of the bike either and they look really cool.

I need to get a cassette and some special brake pads before I can actually use them, but I don't have another race for a couple of weeks so there is no hurry other than really wanting to give them a spin. I also need to glue the rear tubular tyre on which will no doubt be a messy affair involving colourful language throughout...

Bike race report

Well the first bike race of the year is over and it went as usual, I got dropped.

I have been training fairly consistently since March and I think I am actually in pretty good shape, and the first 2 laps of the 5 we were racing went reasonably well. There was just one problem - me. I had been sitting happily in the middle of the pack and not having trouble keeping up with the group. At some point there was a group of 4 riders making a break up the road. I thought it may be an idea to try to get up to them, but I resisted the temptation and stayed in the group. A couple of km later the same thing happened again, but this time my ego got the better of me and I decided to chase them.

Bearing in mind that our average speed at this point had been 41kph (25.5mph) I was being really naive to think that I could catch up to them on my own, but I went anyway. After 2km of turning myself inside out trying to catch them, the group swept past me and the break away and I was left trying desperately to recover from my effort.

I felt like I had recovered in that my breathing as back to normal but the next few accelerations through a village and some sharp corners left me struggling to get back into the group each time until inevitably I was left riding on my own.

I did another lap on my own and then called it a day and went home to watch the Tour of Italy in the tv and get the barbecue going.

We had a quiet bank holiday weekend with J in Hamburg with T&B to watch Denmark play Brasil at football. We relaxed, dithered in the garden and I had another nice long bike ride in the sunshine yesterday. It's raining again today so maybe that was all the summer we're getting. It's happened before...

Chives

I went for a long sunny bike ride yesterday and had to stop and take a picture of this field full of chives as it was such a beautiful colour.

I also took the opportunity to check what felt funny in my bike helmet whilst I was stopped and was happy to liberate a fairly large bee.

Coaching

At the start of the year I decided that I would try getting some coaching for my cycling this year so that I could get the most out of my racing and training.

I had been in touch with a coach based in the UK for a while through an internet forum (he coaches at a high level and is apparently well known and respected) and I agreed with him that he would make a 2 month program for me for the cost of one months coaching rather than the usual minimum 3 month minimum sign on period.

I agreed to that and sent him some money at the end of February. Unfortunately, I have only had a couple of mails from him since then and not a jot of coaching. I have mailed him once a week or so to remind him that I am still waiting, but to no avail.

I just send him the following mail, perhaps I'll get an answer to this one, but I'm not hopeful:

Hi Dave

With my first race of the season tomorrow, perhaps I shouldn't loose faith in you before I know how my form is. However, despite how great it has been having my own personal coach over the last few months, I just haven't noticed the improvements in performance that I was hoping for. As a result I have decided that it would be a better investment for me to buy some race wheels and leave my coaching up to Chris Carmichael and Joel Friel, after all, their advice is relatively inexpensive and whilst they probably won't answer my mails either, at least they never said that they would.

Maybe you would like to make a contribution to my new set of (used) race wheels by returning the money that I sent you and we can leave it at that?

Have a lovely weekend, I hope the sun is shining wherever you are.

Best regards

William

Race wheels

I have been after a set of race wheels for a while after agreeing with MK that I could get some when I lost enough weight.

I managed to loose the weight, but then I couldn't decide what I wanted or in any way justify the price. However, now that I am getting my 2011 bonus, I am on the cusp of getting a used set so that I can set the racing scene alight! (Well participate in a race with gear that is considerably better than I can justify)

Away Days

J is away on a school field trip for the next couple of nights so the house is quiet and MK is worrying as only a mother can (or should).

I pointed out that we are more likely to hear that he has not behaved himself than been in a terrible accident and she wasn't worried about that, but apparently that didn't help anything.

Summer is continuing unabated and apart from being too busy at work to keep anyone happy with the myriad of different things I need to do, life is good.