Sauerkraut experiment

Rather than being the name of a stereolab album. I've been meaning to experiment with fermentation as a means of food production. We all love beer, but there must be other things to make with making stuff go off.

I recently bought a book on fermentation and the history and cultural significance thereof. Whilst very good, I thought I'd try this simple recipe for sauerkraut as a first step.


First sterilise the jars (weird huh given that I'm cooking with bacteria)

Then core and chop the cabbage

Massage in the salt for 5-10 mins

Put in jar, cover with a whole cabbage leaf and weigh down with a smaller jar (full of water)

cover with a jam or cheese cloth

wait...

And if you do decide to make some more... buy at least 2 cabbages!!

Dignity?

There is a dignity in rising up to meet a challenge but there is very often little to no dignity in what we have to wear to achieve our goals.

A case in point would be the triathlon suit that arrived in the post this Saturday. All in one, stretchy Lycra in black. Cut using the basic assumption that we are all shaped like a pro. The zip extends only as far as the sternum so I am going to be a hot sweaty mess if I ever need to get in and out of it to use a lavatory.

This is just one of an increasingly long list of totally undignified things that we wear, smear on or accept as normal in the pursuit of sporting glory.This list includes but is not limited to...

• Chamois cream - mentholated or regular? Used to prevent friction burns and saddle sores this goop is smeared on your genitals and bum. The result feels like you pooped your pants with ice cream.
• Winter bib-tights - Brilliant protection for the elements but effectively a fleecy skin-tight baby-gro. Keeps the draft out but as it has no fastening you have to get all the layers off and then sit naked with it around your knees when using the loo.
• Cycling shorts - The fastest way to look like an oversized sausage with a camel-toe. At worst you look like wurst. At best you look like a member of 1980's band Erasure.
• Running shorts - See above only this time think Burt Reynolds does PE.
• Hi-Vis clothing - Are you going to the Camden Palais in 1995? a little bit rave a little bit council health and safety officer.Not dignified and impossible to look at whilst eating/concentrating on anything else.

Have I missed anything?

My new found shame

"You should be ashamed of yourself;Overtaking on a narrow road like this"

As I was riding up through Islington and into Hackney last night I found myself stopped at the junction behind three other bikes. As the lights changed we set off together over the junction. I noticed as we entered the road opposite that I was gaining on the bikes in front and so after signalling I pulled around them and off in a single manoeuvre.

As I did so, the car (at this point about 10 metres) behind honked. Revved it's engine and pulled alongside. Now blocking the lane for oncoming traffic the lady in the passenger seat wound down her window and tutted:

"You should be ashamed of yourself;Overtaking on a narrow road like this"

Why?

I checked behind me
Signalled the manoeuvre
Made the manoeuvre
remained on my side of the road

Why should I be ashamed?

I wasn't passing judgement on others. I was within  the law and the highway code. we were on a road with traffic calming measures, where the narrow width (2 lanes of traffic between parked cars) and frequent speed bumps make it difficult for cars to get above the 20mph limit.

Why should I be ashamed?

At that point I hadn't a thing to be ashamed of.

I considered my response.

"Fuck you" I muttered

Now I was a little tiny bit ashamed

Why I'm doing the triathlon

This August I'll be swimming/cycling/running the London Triathlon in aid of SCOPE. Scope exists to make this country a better place for disabled people and their families through advice, providing services and campaigning on their behalf.

On the 3rd of August I have chosen to compete in the Olympic distance: which involves a 1500m swim, A 40km cycle and a 10km run. I can currently do two of these things but not on the same day, so there is a little training still to go.

You can read more about why I’m doing this and what it involves, as well as hopefully sponsoring me, on my fundraising page. Please support me and this excellent charity.

A lovely ride by the river

We'd agreed the meet by Facebook messages earlier in  the week. We knew where to meet but not really where we were going. This however is ok because today we are following the Lee River navigation. The main choices are which side of the river to go on, and whether to follow any of the signposted diversions.

Everyone's agenda differs slightly and we had some people picnicking and others buying the food en-route. Some had a distance in mind and others were looking for a decent pub (we didn't find one). Claire decided to do the journey on a borrowed bike with 2 slow punctures, whilst Vera and David used full on touring machines. The rest of us used city bikes. This is my second longish ride on the brompton. Whilst it's definitely do-able, it leaves me very achy and sore the morning afterwards. On this occasion we also caught the sun a little and rehydrated with beer... both adding to the fatigue.

We stopped for lunch at the Lee Valley Adventure centre picnic area and immediately caused a panic by trying to order 3 sandwiches at once.

The journey out took 2 hours. The Journey back just 1.5. We debriefed in the pub before Vera went off to work and we went home to find out if my cousin and her friend had managed to find Lincolnshire.

Lee Valley Duathlon - Race Day!!

I woke up this morning in a flash and checked my alarm.

06:48.

Exactly 2 minutes before the alarm I'd set was due to go off. My running gear was stashed in the spare room along with tights and a jacket. I'd lowered the handlebars and taken the touring rack off of my Kona. The plan was to have a light breakfast and then take a leisurely ride up to the Lee Valley Athletics centre for a 09:00 start to the race.

Needless to say I panicked about everything from the route there to the fact I've never raced as an adult...

The nice lady on google maps talked me through the route there, although I did find myself correcting her out loud a couple of times. The only other people around at that time on the river are the sunday morning fishermen.

I parked up and locked my bike before going in. I soon discovered that everyone else had wheeled their bikes straight through. I was given a number to pin on my shirt and some safety pins. I wandered off to find the lockers and pin on my number, only to realise that it would have been easier if

a) I had taken the shirt off to pin on the number... and not my trousers
b) I had not been wearing my helmet which I should have left with my bike.

Outside and the race organiser ran us through the route. After about 30 seconds I realised that I couldn't remember this under any circumstances so as I was going to be some way off of the front I'd follow people and look out for bollards. There were only 15 runners this year as opposed to 50 last year. I don't think the rain, lack of a website or race pack, and no online info played any small part in this, but if this is your first time this is a nice and short race

On the dot of 09:00 we were off. The pack split quickly into the skinny people in tri-suits at the front and everyone else spread out according to ambition more than ability at this point. I say this as for the first half of the running section I was about 5th until passed by all but 4 runners on the back section.

I took my time getting on the bike and was passed by one of the remaining runners in transition. But the bike bit was fairly easy I was able to pass them quickly and get in front of another rider quite quickly. I slowed down a lot as we passed some fly tipping and a caravan I hadn't remembered being there earlier (although it could have been fresh) before pushing on and finding I was still on the right path.

Running after legs 1 and 2 provides an interesting distraction in that my legs had jellified a little and I wanted to be sick. I had drunk too much fluid on the bike section and was making an awful sloshing noise as I ran. 3 laps of the park and I didn't feel too bad as I crossed the line.

Afterwards we chatted sitting on the track waiting for the last couple of runners in. I was third from last. There was a quick presentation and we were done. The ladies winner looked about 18 and this was her 4th win. I still had a lap to go when she crossed the line. The men's winner had left East London by the time I finished.

It was 10:00 am on sunday morning. I rang Sophie and asked her to put the kettle on. It started to rain.

Horsham to Brighton

This good Friday Sophie and Rachel had agreed to join David and myself for a ride to Brighton. Unlike the usual and slightly epic route over the south downs, culminating in another failed attempt to tackle the ditchling beacon, we opted for a route we hadn’t tried before.

After much to-ing and fro-ing we opted for Horsham to Shoreham. A simple 26 mile route with  a few extra miles tagged on for the last leg to Brighton.

Many of the reviews of the route suggested it was unmanageable on anything other than a mountain bike. I opted for the brompton as it would be easy to take on the train and has Marathon tyres on which are much better suited to this kind of journey. Most of the other bikes we saw were indeed full suspension mountain bikes, but you don’t need to go that far unless you want to do the journey really fast, in which case I reckon an old fashioned touring or audax bike, or one of the new cyclocross hybrid would be quicker.

As you can see from the pictures we had a motley assortment (or Crue if you like) of  bikes covering multiple “disciplines.” In truth it is manageable on any bike you want to go on, although I’d avoid anything too roady.

Inevitably we got to Horsham later than planned and decided to forgoe the first tea shop to get a few miles in before lunch. Had this been Holland we would have been passing cafes all day but refreshments were not all together easy to come by. Indeed with a group of 6, including 3 vegetarians, found it a little tricky to get lunch at all. I had cauliflower cheese and cheesy chips which meant I didn’t need to eat again for the rest of the day.

The route itself is lovely  if a little uneven and potholey in places and the ride into Hove from Shoreham is bleak and industrial but I loved it and will be doing the whole thing again shortly.

Upon arrival in brighton Sophie and I stopped for ice-cream and a suitable amount of bum rest before retiring to a local hostelry. Unfortunately the first bar was riddled with wankers downstairs and needed the upstairs for a function in the evening, so we moved on to a much nicer bar a little closer to the lanes.

We really should have checked the trains a little more thoroughly because the journey time was an half an hour longer than usual so Sophie and I popped our folders into a black cab at St Pancras. Unfortunately that meant we followed Robert all the way through Islington. He did indicate his pleasure at this with a salute using just a couple of fingers.

All in all a lovely day out.

The Lee Valley Duathlon

"I'll be coming to the gig, but I'll need to take it easy though as I'm racing a few days later"

I am not sure how it all happened, but I found myself saying the above phrase out loud on Saturday over a few beers. A few years ago the quickest that I moved was to catch a train if I was running late, or last orders if the pub was closing.

Late last year after some cycle touring and a couple of really quite long rides, I started running again with the express intention of entering the London Triathlon in 2014.Whilst my fitness has been growing, I have started to find myself a little daunted by the whole finish-get-changed-try-another-sport-straight-after part.This is usually referred to as transition.

I'm one of those people with little, or no,sense of direction. When under pressure I often take the wrong turn. Worse than that however is the inability to locate items such as keys and a bicycle helmet when they are in the flat. After seeing the transition area at the Hyde Park Triathlon last year I am genuinely concerned that I'll:

a) never find my bike
b) never find my way out

With that in mind I started looking for small/short multisport events that are close enough for me to get to without having use the term 'logistics' to describe getting there

To this end I now find myself entered in the Lee valley Duathlon. It is a relatively straightforward 2km run/5km bike/2km run mostly contained in a park 6km from my house. At present there are only 15 entrants, so I should be able to spot my bike with ease. Even if that is because afterthe 2km run it'll be the only bike left in the transition area.

I've started looking at some quicker pacing and maybe doing a trial run using the bike rack outside the flats as a transition area. I don't normally put on cycling gear for a journey this short - I'd take the brompton.

As the conversation in the pub turned to the perceived lunacy of any absolutely non essential exercise, David piped up.

"You're not  doing it naked are you? Or is that something else?"

You could have heard a pin drop

Bryton Cardio 60 Review - Part two: Running

I have worn the Bryton Cardio 60 on 2 runs so far. Run 1 was a 6 km loop in the morning without the HRM chest strap and the unit set up straight out of the box. Run 2 was a 10km slow run focusing focusing on  heart rate and stride rate.

Run 1

I strapped the watch on fully charged, but with only my user profile set up on the unit. By the time I’d walked across the communal garden and out into the street the unit had acquired a satellite fix and corrected the time settings. The unit has three fields configured as standard (which I changed for run 2. It was easy to read and understand in use. I had distance/time/pace to look at on this initial run, which was informative but didn’t massively change my approach to training in any way.

Run 2

Before setting off I configured the screen to show Time running/Current heart rate/Pace/Cadence and made sure that the HRM strap was paired and working. I set off on a loop that I thought would offer me around 10km of running with some quite big inclines on busy roads, finishing on a few quite roads then a lap of the park. The aim of the run was to stay under 160bpm for the whole run but to try and keep my heart rate at around 150bpm for most of it. Throughout the run I wanted to keep my cadence/stride rate above 80.

Monitoring this was easy (I will configure alerts and workouts next) but all in all it was good to have a device confirm my perceived effort on this run. My distance calculations were also about 0.5km off so I was able to add that on as I went rather than discover it on  the iPhone app after I’ve stopped running.

I can see that there is a lot more potential for getting my training right by using this device, however I did find myself checking it quite often and not just as my perceived effort changed. A word of warning. The chest strap works beautifully but I may have worn it both too tight and too high. I have been left with 2 puncture/rub points where the skin in broken under my right armpit. I'm going to check for advice online to correct any error on my part though. 

Merrel Bare Access - A short review after 2 months

Over Christmas I tried on a pair of Merrel barefoot Road Glove shoes and whilst I liked the tread and the fit, I already had a pair or zero drop shoes with zero cushioning. After Christmas whilst perusing the sales I came across the Bare Access shoe reduced by 50%. This is the same upper, built on the same last but with 8mm of cushioning.

During the wet winter months my usual trail section of my park run had become un-navigable and so my runs became exclusively on tarmac. The longer weekend runs were less painful on my legs as they got stronger (and perhaps in no small part to the wearing of compression socks to recover), but the balls of my feet felt it. I took the plunge and purchased the Bare Access Merrells in lemon  and blue.

The first couple of runs left my left ankle sore and so I started to grow concerned that I would forever more be consigned to running in slippers. The first run had been at lunchtime whilst I was working from home and I did wonder whether the time of day had anything to do with it. I reverted to the Saucony Hattoris for a couple of runs.

I noticed in the Hattoris that I was heavier on my feet after just a couple of runs in the slightly more padded trainers. I tried the Bare Access again. They were narrower and slightly stiffer under the arch than  the Hattoris and I had reverted to a flat footed strike that bordered on heel-strike at times.

With careful attention to my running gait and lowering the angle of my forefoot strike I was able to compensate for the additional stiffness and be as light on my feet as in the Hattoris. I vary what I wear now and use the Bare Access for the more roady runs. In fact as they grip better in the wet and on downhill runs I am wearing them more and more. I just need to not  lose sight of how I was able to run again. Light. Easy. Fast will come.