04/05/19
Took the dog for a walk again today after a week of not doing very much at all. Feeling better again.
Went with my son so we went exploring in the woods which was fun but we got a bit lost and it was really wet and boggy so hard going.
05/05/19
Got up early and took the dog for a walk again with my son. We stayed in the path this time which was easier. We then went to the Bath track in the afternoon to drop off a bike that I had sold and we also had a play on the track while we were there. After about 20 minutes my son stole my bike and wouldn’t give it back so I let him 😂 Have to make the most of it when he wants to ride as he doesn’t normally want to ride 😁
06/05/19
We got up and went for a bike ride this morning around the route that we walk the dog. It wasn’t very successful as my son was on a borrowed Halfords bike that was way too big for him and the trails were pretty boggy. He broke the record for falling off while trying to ride on the flat too 😂
We had a really good time despite this bit I didn’t really get a workout in though.
On the plus side my knee held up well both today and yesterday so that was a bonus although I didn’t push it too much.
07/05/19
Had an appointment at the bank at 9am then went for a walk with the dog again. Then spent the rest of day doing chores at home.
12/05/19
Got up after 3 hours sleep and went and picked up a cruiser for my son as he had enjoyed riding mine last weekend even though it was way too big.
On the way back I went to Patchway track and had a bit of a ride. Knee was pain free so that was a bonus.
13/05/19
Had my weigh in this morning and I have actually lost weight without doing any exercise this week!!
Down to 104.3kgs. as long as the weight keeps dropping off it’s all a win.
After breakfast I took the dog for the usual 3.5 mile walk and then had a salad for lunch. So healthy!
I was going to ride at Bath track tonight but I have to go to a second viewing of the flat that I want to buy as the seller has come back with a counter offer so I want to make sure the flat is right before accepting the offer.
I will try and get out on the mountain bike if there is time when we get back.
14/05/19
Had my offer accepted on the flat so that is all in motion now. Found out that the flat is just off of the 2 tunnels cycle path so we can go out on the bikes without having to go on any roads which will be cool. It will also be great for sprints as well once my knee is better.
I did a weigh in again this morning when I woke up and I am now down to 104.1kgs so I should be well below 104kgs by the weekend.
After breakfast I took the dog for the usual 3.5mile walk and then had to get ready and go to bath to run some errands. I then went to the track for an hour to try out the pedal innovation pedals that I bought last week.
They seem really nice and I didn’t loose my pedals once and felt much more comfortable on them.
I am going to Bristol tomorrow night to do some gates so I will see how they go out of the gate.
Not sure if it was the pedals or the nice weather bit my manuals were much better today. I cleanly manualed both jumps on the first straight for the first time in ages and also jumped the tabletop out of the first berm. After about an hour I went and met my son and then we went back to the track for just over an hour. All in all a good day.
15/05/19
Took the dog for a walk in the morning and then took it easy to rest up to ride in the evening.
Got to Bristol track for just before 5pm and did a bunch of firsts straights and pumped the rest of the track. I then did a few where I did full speed last straights as well. I then did a few gates which were horrible on flat pedals so I called it a day while I was still in one piece.
My knee felt good so I’m pretty positive about that at least.
17/05/19
Didn’t really ride again today but did buy a new frame 😁
Bought a second hand 2018 fluro yellow GT Speed Series 24″ pro XL cruiser frame. Also bought some second hand cliq 180mm cranks as well to go with the frame.
My friend is picking up the frame for me from the national race this weekend at Birmingham so I should have it Monday night. The cranks are being sent to my work so should have them sometime next week.
18/05/19
Got up and got to the track for about 9:45 and set the gate up for gates.
The gate broke after about an hour so I was able to get some laps in so I did first straights and the tabletop on the second straight.
Really proud of my Son today. He did a lot of gates today and out 100% effort in as well. He also jumped the tabletop and also tried to jump the 3rd jump on the 3rd straight which I haven’t even tried yet. He didn’t quite make it and gave himself a shinner but at least he tried. This has put pressure on me to man up and start jumping before he beats me to jumping it.
In the afternoon we went for a walk with the dog around the 3.5 mile loop we walk around most days.
Bought a reducer axle for my 20mm stealth rear hub from my Curtis cruiser so that I can use the rear wheel on the 10mm dropout on the GT.
I have decided that I am going to build up the GT with the bits off of my Curtis then build up the Curtis again with new parts ready to race next year.
This means that I will have a complete dialled and a complete GT to ride this year while the Curtis is being built.
I am thinking that I will use the Dialled as my daily bike to ride around town and in the skatepark to practice manuals etc and then use the GT on the track and pump tracks and racing at the end of the year while the Curtis gets built up again for next season.
19/05/19
Got up and did my weigh in this morning. I am down to 103.9kgs so moving in the right direction at least.
Hopefully I can get below 103kgs by next weekend as I have 5 days off so I plan to hit the gym and hopefully ride a bit too although the weather isn’t looking the best for the week typically.
Also too the dog for a walk around the loop this morning. This time be went around the loop the other way from normal which is a little bit harder which is good for a little bit of an extra workout.
20/05/19
Woke up and took the dog for a walk and then had to go into town and meet my son so didn’t get to ride.
I did go and pick up my new GT Speed Series 24″ frame from my friend who picked it up for me at the weekend. Can’t wait to build it up
21/05/19
Had to get up and go to the track as a part on the gate broke so I had to take some measurements and take photos for my friend who built the ram to find a new part for me to order.
While there I started building the GT but found that it was missing the 15mm to 10mm adapters so I had to stop the build. Luckily the guy that sold me the frame had the washers and has popped them in the post for me so hopefully they should be with me by the weekend. Stealth have also just posted me the 10mm axle for my 20mm hub so in a couple of weeks I will be able to ride either the Dialled or the GT once the axle arrives.
While at the track I did a few pump laps as warmup then went into my first track workout of the year. Did 3 full laps pedaling only on the berms, followed by one lap pedalling all around the track. Only did one of these as it hurt my knee pedaling over the jumps.
I then did 3 X full laps doing full speed first and third straights pumping the other 2 straights followed by the reverse.
After I finished the last 100% effort for 2nd and 4th straight a whole load of primary school kids turned up and swarmed the track so I took it as a sign to call it a day.
Really happy as this was the first training session for months that I have finished without having to cut it short due to knee pain.
22/05/19
Got up early and picked up my son and dropped him off at the track car park as he was on a school trip today and the bus left from there.
Went to the track and did an hour or so of first and second straights. Had to stop as my collar bone was really hurting from all the cased manuals.
In the afternoon I put my clipless pedals back on the bike and went back to the track and did first straights. I was noticeably faster and my manuals were much better and I cleanly manualed both jumps on the first straight cleaner than ever before. My knee was ok unclipping using the Shimano pedals too so I am going to stick with the Shimano’s for now.
Iced my knee once I got home and now no knee pains at all.
24/05/19
Got up early and walked the dog around the 3.5 mile loop as normal. I noticed that the walking is getting much easier so I am going to start using leg weights when walking to increase the load a bit. I will start with 0.5 kgs per leg and build up for there.
Got home and had a nap as I have to work all night tonight.
25/05/19
Didn’t do much today. Went for a walk with my niece and the dogs but could only do half a walk as my Brother’s dog is only young still so he could only walk for 30 minutes max.
Got home and slept and then off to work. I was planning to go for a ride in my break but slept instead 🤦♂️ Still I managed the whole shift without redbull or Coke so not bad.
I was feeling horrible and bloated after drinking coke yesterday as well so I am definitely staying off of fizzy drinks from now on!!
26/05/19
Woke up at 2pm again. Had breakfast and built up my new bike to play with over the next couple of weeks.
Really happy how it turned out and really impressed with the GT easy out system on the back wheel. Think it might be a game changer for me as it is so easy to work with!!! I even managed to sort the brake out 😁
28/05/19
Haven’t done any exercise really for the past 4 days as I have been working nights and have been sleeping in my break as I been really tired due to not being able to sleep very well during the day.
I have noticed that I have also started to feel sick when I think about food most of the time at the moment which is the way that I was feeling in the USA at the beginning of the year.
I have done some thinking and I think that it is about time that I change up my diet as it is getting really bad again and I am basically living off of takeout which is really bad, not only for my health but for my bank balance too and as I have to start paying for a house soon I need to concentrate on my health and also the health of my bank balance.
I have been reading up on diets online and raw veganism keeps popping up a lot and reading more about it it is quite appealing to me as I like raw veggies more than cooked ones and I also like the fact that it cuts out cooking time from meal prep.
Moving to this diet will also mean that I don’t need a cooker or microwave when I move house just a fridge and a blender so again helping the bank balance. It also means lower energy bills so it is looking like a winner.
I plan to start from the 1st of June so this weekend and I have just bought an ebook with recipes to help me transition to the new diet. I have just taken a break from it to write this blog.
For the first few months I think that I will continue adding cheese to salads but after the adjustment period I am going to go full vegan to see how that works out.
29/05/19
Woke up and did a weigh in which wasn’t the best as I am back up to 104.4kgs!!! So I put on almost a kg this week 🤦♂️
I had figured that I had put on a bit of weight but not that much. Still it should fall off this week as I am off to the track every day this week and I am starting moving to being a raw vegan this weekend so that should all help.
I am also getting some new rollers tomorrow when I get paid so that I can start riding the bike every day to loose more weight.
30/05/19
Got up early and walked the dog around the normal 3.5 mile loop with my Son except we did the loop backwards so there was more up hill and was harder.
When we got back I swapped the back tyre on the GT to a 24×1.60 instead of the 24×1.75 that was on there which allowed me to slam the back wheel about an inch to an inch and a half from where it was before. I must say that the rear dropouts on the GT are amazing and it makes adjusting the rear wheel really easy. I also dialled in the rear brake which I had been meaning to do for a week.
In the afternoon we went to Bath track for a play and the GT was amazing! Totally different from how it rode the day before! I was going to sell it after riding it the day before but I love it now!!!
My knee felt really good too so I have registered to race the Regional at Newton Abbott on Sunday 😂
Although I am going to race I am not taking it too seriously and using it more as a training session than a race.
31/05/19
Got up and walked the dog with my son but he was a little bit ill so the walk was a struggle.
We decided not to ride today as he was feeling ill and I was a bit sore and have a lot of riding to do over the weekend.
I am going to do gates at decoy tomorrow to get used to the 5m start hill and see if I can make a full lap at race pace or not.
I have been doing some more research and have stumbled on Huel and read some people’s experiences for meal replacement and diets and it sounds promising. I have ordered a weeks supply for the powder and a weeks supply of the ready made drink to try it out.
I figure it will be a good way to move towards the raw vegan diet that I plan to try. It is also a lot more obtainable for me at the moment as there is really very little of no prep time which works for me.
I plan to have Huel shakes for breakfast and lunch and then have chicken salad in the evening for at least the first couple of month as my diet has consisted of 70% or more of meat for the past 46 years so changing too much too quickly is a recipe for disaster. I am also planning to keep eating cheese for now too.
To be honest if it stops me eating so badly at work then it can only be a good thing and it also works out to be significantly cheaper that eating fast food every day so should save me about £30 a day of of my food bill if not more!
The ready made Huel is being delivered tomorrow so I will start drinking it Sunday morning and carry on from there. The powdered Huel arrives at my work on Monday so I plan to start having the powdered Huel in the mornings and the ready made stuff at lunch as it is less hassle.