01/12/19
My club hosted round 3 of the deep south series today so no riding at all. I did manage to hurt my back and achilles tendon somehow so maybe a bit late getting back to training again!
02/12/19
Achilles is hurting and so is my back so I’m not training again today. I have already taken the jump bike into town and back to test out my route to work and it is quick. Going to ride to work again tonight although both my back and heel are hurting at the moment.
Really liking the jump bike to ride around on although it may well get the wheels taken off of it to build up my 4X bike with gears if I cant get used to riding it up hills 🙂
I was planning to get proper jump bike wheels next year anyway so this was planned kind of 🙂
I must say how much I’m liking the Halo wheels though. And I’m glad that I payed a bit more for the superdrive rear hub too as it makes a really good noise.
20/12/19
My Achilles and back have been playing up all month so I haven’t really been able to ride my bikes at all. I have been able to limp around town so I have been getting some exercise but I have mainly been resting up icing my achillies.
The icing is helping until I have to work or walk and then it hurts again.
I am planning to take the rest of the year off and then at the start of next year I plan to make some drastic changes to my lifestyle:
- Go back to intermittent fasting.
- Totally stop drinking fizzy drinks.
- Drink at least 3l of water a day.
- Do at least 1 hour of exercise a day.
- Stretch every day for 15 minutes.
- Do 100 press ups a day.
- Replace 2 meals a day with huel.
- Try cut out meat and dairy from my diet.
- Attempt to save at least 20% of my wages a month.
- Spend one day of my 4 days off learning new work related skills.
Along with these changes I have some BMX/ training goals too.
- Go to the gym at least 3 times a week.
- Learn to Manual properly.
- Drop 20kgs before the season starts in May.
In order to improve my manuals and lose weight I am looking at buying a manual machine as I have real issues getting into a manual which the machine is great at improving. It will also help towards my lifestyle change of doing at least 1 hour of exercise a day as I can do an hour playing in the manual machine easily.
To help with the intermittent fasting I have downloaded an app called Zero to my phone as it counts down the fasting time left so that you can plan your time more easily.
For the next couple of weeks I am going to try and get out on the road bike as much as possible as it doesn’t seem to hurt my Achilles as much as walking does so I want to get started on my weight loss goal while getting in some active recovery in.
To help with the water drinking i have bough the largest water filter that I could find to keep in the fridge so that I always have cold fresh water on hand. I have also bought 3 x 1.5L camelbak water bottles so that I can always have water with me.
These changes will also help with my budgeting as I will save at least £3 a day from buying water which I am doing at the moment so that is a saving of almost £100 a month without really trying. Also stopping drinking coke will save me at least another £100 a month without even trying to save.
I am also trying to use my car as little as possible which should also save me about £100 a month so I am well on my way to making another goal.
I have also started to cut down on the amount of stuff (especially bikes) that I have as I had 14 bikes at the last count plus 5 frames and a bunch of bits!!!
This week I sold one of my Curtis Jump bikes and I have someone interested in the other one. I also put the 2 GT frames and my Stealth Wheel sets on the internet to sell. I have also asked around about the Fit BMX that I sued in Seattle as I don’t need it as I have the We the People park bike already. Also my friend’s wife may be buying my mountain bike as I’m not using it at the moment.
Once that has all sold I want to get some new wheels for the 26″ jump bike so that I can use the Halo wheels that are on it at the moment on my 4x Frame then I can build that up to ride around town, to work and to the track as the road bike hurts too much due to the amount of potholes in the roads at the moment.
I have 90% of the parts for the 4x bike its just missing wheels and tyres and then its complete. The 4x bike also gives me the option of to ride it on the track if I feel like a change or am feeling really jumpy :-).
28/12/19
Not much has been going on this month due to the Achilles injury. It is getting much better and I am able to walk pretty much pain free which is a step in the right direction. My back is causing me more concern at the moment as I am now getting pain in my hip and lower abdomen too which is worrying.
I am going to stick to just walking until next year and I will then ramp up the exercise slowly. I am going to mainly stick to the road bike and gym in January to get the injuries in check before hitting it hard on the BMX in february.
I am definitely getting a manual machine next week and I will work on that every day during January too ready to try and get working on my manuals on the BMX in February too.
As I stated before improving manuals is one of my main goals for 2020 and I think the machine will help me with the part of the manual that I am weakest at which is picking up the bike and getting in the correct position with my weight over the back wheel. At the moment my flat manuals are really bad due to this and the fact that I tend to look at the front wheel which causes your weight to be pushed forwards.