Dear Blog V XV - the blog strikes back

[EviL Ras]

Dear blog

Moved desk at work today. I'm now closer to my chilli's! But sadly sitting further away from the fun people as I'm moving into a new job.

[matt]

dear blog,
Go on then, I'll bite...

Apart from being the chief chilli whisperer... What's the new job?

Lot's I could talk about on the blog, still engaged with no dates in sight and Flynn is now 6 months (time flies on limited sleep and spending too long at work).

Have just about started running again with some work colleagues doing the couch to 5k. Reminds me I need to buy entry into the local 10k to keep me honest. Had a great moment this morning running alongside a field with frost on the wall and the sunrise peeking over the top so little things like that keep me going.

Need to get Flynn's passport off then hopefully a trip to the Philippines so the family can see him (and a break from the madness). Failing that, had some cousins over from New York which we haven't visited in nearly ten years so might also be an option to cash in the air miles.

Hope everyone else is trucking on, 2019 is shaping up to be another busy one!

Matt x

[EviL Ras]

Dear blog,

Weirdly my chilli's are twice the height of everyone elses on my floor. Very odd..

I call my new role "purple". As in we know the colour, but not the shape. Is it a dinosaur? A telly tubby? A sweet?

Basically something around central services manager. So all the central stuff IT needs, i set up the processes that govern them. All part of the journey towards IT director some day i hope!

Crazy to hear Flynn is 6 months old!

We cashed in 124k avios points and booked business class flights to LA, then flights straight out to Hawaii. We go in 8 weeks.. Can't wait!

[Johnmcl7]

Source of the post dear blog,
Go on then, I'll bite...

Have just about started running again with some work colleagues doing the couch to 5k. Reminds me I need to buy entry into the local 10k to keep me honest. Had a great moment this morning running alongside a field with frost on the wall and the sunrise peeking over the top so little things like that keep me going.

Matt x

Dear Blog,

Great idea Matt, my sister has been following this program after having no interest in running and she's got on really well with it so hope it works for you as well. You'll find as you get better you'll have more of those moments and enjoy it more. I don't know if you prefer doing it solo or with a group but if it's the latter I'd look into whether there's parkruns in your area as I've quite a few friends who take part that and find it great.

Years ago I wanted to get better at cycling as I only cycled short distances to work and across town, towards the end of the year there's not many options so when a new MTB group had been created I thought I'd give it a go as I had no clue about what that involved. It was a steep learning curve starting at night and I didn't have the fitness for the big hill climbs, the technical ability to actually ride the bike, I didn't have suitable lights, clothing etc. and I hated it. On the second ride where it hadn't gone well I decided I was going to get rid of the bike but I was convinced to keep on going and I did but any excuse to avoid the ride, I took.

However a few months in and there was a good covering of snow we headed up a hill south of Inverness and it was amazing, the bike could just glide across the snow and ignore the rougher stuff underneath and I could hear it cracking through ice but it didn't affect me. Sections of track that are horribly muddy and slippy were frozen solid and the moon was so bright reflecting off the snow that lights weren't even needed. It just seemed so magical to be able to riding across the untouched snow under the bright moon at night all to ourselves. That was the first time I actually liked the mountain bike and kept on going.

I missed the group ride last week as I was too busy at work and was upset to see my friends up in the snow on the same route. On Saturday night the temperature plummeted and the moon was out, I thought about it for a while and then thought stuff it and headed out into the night on my own at 9pm. I planned to do a short one hour loop on the same route as above but as I came round the conditions were amazing, it was that cold there was no liquid water, no mud so the bike easily rumbled across the trails. Although it was dropping past -7, I was warm without being too hot so I was finding the cycling easier going. I went on and did a second loop and arrived home after three hours past midnight and parked up the bike which didn't need any cleaning as there was no mud.

People think I'm crazy doing rides like that but it's hard to explain that I don't do it because I'm a fitness fanatic or hugely motivated, I need these sort of rides to clear my head and think of nothing else. There's just no way to capture those moments as you see everything around you glittering and sparkling with the bike kicking up incredibly fine ice and going at a speed which doesn't feel like it should be possible in the conditions.

[Replicant]

Dear blog,

Well I signed up to the Dulux London Revolution bike ride last week. A two day 300km ride around London in May.

I am in Estonia at the moment but flying back home later and today. Will be going for a three hour bike fitting tomorrow as I need to iron out some niggles and make sure things are set up correctly for long distance riding.

[Johnmcl7]

Source of the post Dear blog,

Well I signed up to the Dulux London Revolution bike ride last week. A two day 300km ride around London in May.

I am in Estonia at the moment but flying back home later and today. Will be going for a three hour bike fitting tomorrow as I need to iron out some niggles and make sure things are set up correctly for long distance riding.

Dear Blog,

I was wondering if you had any cycle challenges lined up this year, that one looks pretty awesome. Are planning in doing it over two days or one go? I haven't signed up for anything at all this year as I got a bit carried away last year and did three events in a row which put me off a bit but I've been thinking I should get signed up for something to give me a task to aim for.

I'm curious to hear how you get on with the bike fit as it's not something I've done before but feel that I should as it's incredible how much difference a small adjustment can make, I find my rear end is sore for a while after particularly long rides but not sure if that's because I don't do enough of them or I need to adjust the seat. The fat bike has never been right after I changed the seatpost but no matter how many times I adjusted the height I couldn't seem to get it right so I decided I should change the seat which made it worse so it was back to the drawing board. Except I don't know what I've done different when I put the original seat back on but it's fine now so I seem to have accidentally sorted it.

John

[Replicant]

Source of the post

Source of the post Dear blog,

Well I signed up to the Dulux London Revolution bike ride last week. A two day 300km ride around London in May.

Dear Blog,

I was wondering if you had any cycle challenges lined up this year, that one looks pretty awesome. Are planning in doing it over two days or one go?

John

Dear blog,

I am doing the two day event but I also have my eye on doing the dirty reiver next year and I would also like to do the famous LEJOG next year too.

I bought myself a Wahoo Kickr turbo trainer and signed up to Zwift before Christmas too. Some good stuff but not got fully into it yet though.

[csteff]

Dear Blog,
The webhosting got a price raise also cpanel have raised their prices (not much for cpanel raise about 2.4 euro/year). If anyone wants to send a £5 pls pm me, otherwise don't worry I will keep the site live for many years

[Johnmcl7]

Source of the post Dear Blog,
The webhosting got a price raise also cpanel have raised their prices (not much for cpanel raise about 2.4 euro/year). If anyone wants to send a £5 pls pm me, otherwise don't worry I will keep the site live for many years

Dear Blog,

Let me know how you want payment and I'll do so.

John

[EviL Ras]

Dear blog

No-one posts here anymore...

[Johnmcl7]

Source of the post Dear blog

No-one posts here anymore...

Dear Blog,

That's because all the cool kids are on social media these days.

John

[csteff]

Dear Blog,

Hello John