Cycling to work/Fitness

Storebuilder Blog - Cycling to work/Fitness

Made the gym nice and early this morning and after yesterdays reasonably easy session I upped the ante on the Stairmaster to level five for 45 minutes. This is becoming a torture fest.

I managed it ok and though I finished with some left in the tank I won't be upping the level for another week or so whilst I build up enough energy to hit the circuit training as well. Burnt just over 500 calories for two mars bars worth and chocolate bars are really beginning to lose their appeal! Working this hard just to burn off three cans of stella makes you realise it's much easier to lay off them in the first place.

I've not been cycling into the office since the bad weather started as I don't feel comfortable making the turns at several of the roundabouts, I've come close to severe road rash a couple of times and I think I'll get something a bit closer to a mountain bike for the winter season. It's not the combination of skinny wheels and wet roads, although that's bad enough in itself. It's the diesel that's spilt all over the roads that makes them treacherous for road bike users.

As you can see I've been playing around with the new rockettheme template and it's taken me ages to work out how to simplify the styling. But instead of keep pressing the buttons and looking so deeply at file permissions etc if I'd just taken five minutes to read the accompanying documentation I would have saved hours of time. Everything is right there in the help! Doh!

I'm happy with the new design so I'll stop arsing around with it. Just need to colour code a few of the graphics and it's all set.

Tonight we are off to watch Telford take on Shrewsbury in the shropshire trophy final. According to the website the game is definitley on after a pitch inspection earlier today. Go Bucks!

Storebuilder Blog - Cycling to work/Fitness

It's beautifully sunny here in the UK today but the mornings are already getting cold and I had to rummage around in the drawer for last years woolie hat to wear.

I'm totally unprepared for winter cycling and it looks like I need a trip to the local bike clothing store to get myself prepared for what's coming up!

Last year I got by wearing t-shirts and thick fleeces but this season I can't do that as I ride at a much higher speed than last year and I'd end up coming into the office soaking wet.

The problem is you need to set out with something that keeps you reasonably warm, but doesn't make you overheat when you get warmed up, so I need to have a look at what's available.

This morning I got my cycle shorts on and pulled on some tracksters over the top which was warm enough but not practical if it's raining hard.

Got up early this morning and hit the road before the main commuter traffic get's going and tries to knock me off my bike. So I made the office for 8.30am.

After warming up the PC it's clear that it needs a sort out and I spend a couple of hours deleting data and installation routines from years ago and now it boots up within a few minutes instead of having to go and make a coffee and read the mail. Why does a PC gradually load more slowly over time?

Anyway that's sorted now and we've made good progress with the Bingo reviews site - it's starting to look like a proper site now!

Originally I was going to go for the common pink that you usually see on most bingo sites. But I think that caters for a predominately female audience and so I've gone for something slightly darker to try and give it a more rounded target market.

One of the good things about doing a gaming site is that you always get new consumer offers, they come along daily and so it's easy to keep the content fresh and up to date. With static products you don't have that luxury so if you are not so good at producing content then gaming sites could be a better option for you.

Yesterday I got word that this chappie has copied a load of my content from sixhanded and passed it off as his own in some crappy ebook he is selling. I know this because someone bought the ebook even though they had read a lot of the sixhanded site and alerted us to what he was doing.

He even has the cheek to say this in his home page copy:

If you have bought another  guide/system already, sorry you have wasted your money. 
If you haven’t then please save your money now. ALL of the info contained in every other 
guide is either free on the internet or 100% scam, 
especially the ones called “Cheat at Online Poker …” 
I know, because I have bought them all. 
The Great White Shark poker system is the ONLY one to show you exactly how the pros play

Trying to set up a site like this is going to get you into a lot of trouble. Not least because the customers who buy the ebook are subsequently going to be a bit miffed when they come across exactly the same material on the web. If they haven't already.

He might be hiding himself from anyone who can use copyscape to find copied content on the web my masking it in a PDF file and trying to sell it, but he's not fooling us.

 

Storebuilder Blog - Cycling to work/Fitness

I took Yvonne to the smoking clinic yesterday afternoon (where they give you encouragement to keep off the coffin nails, not to sit around and smoke with your mates :-)).

So whilst I was idly passing the time away reading the well thumbed copies of "womens own" and getting funny looks from the bloke sitting opposite me - well what can you do?

It's really boring sitting in a waiting room and reading any old trash is preferable to sitting staring vacantly into space, or trying not to glance at the girl to your right, which of course, always results in you both looking at each other at the same time and then both blushing and trying to make out you weren't interested.

Yeah I know you.

In fact when I have to take the kids to the hospital, which over the years seems to me to be an above average occurrence, I always go prepared with some serious reading material. At the very least a copy of The Times so that when you gaze up at the electronic scoreboard you are not fazed when it reads that the time to see the next doctor is a measley three hours. Barring accidents and emergencies of course.

I think the NHS is great. At least it's great once you are in the computer system and sitting comfortably.

It's the getting in bit that takes ages. If you are not in the NHS system it will take you a long time till they get around to getting you on the inside. But once you have been processed everything happens reasonably quickly. As long as your compaint hasn't killed you by then of course.

So I put down the magazine and headed off to the corner to inspect the new weight measuring machine.

This new machine is digital state of the art. It instructs you to remove your shoes and then press the start button. In a few seconds it's measured your height, calculated your weight and printed out a Body Mass Index.

Sixteen Stone Twelve!

You must be kidding me. Last time I weighed myself at home I was the right side of sixteen stone and I've taken up cycling to work since then.

The smiling receptionist kindly informs me that it's not wrong and quite possibly my home scales are way out. They usually are you know she smiles.

I'm flabbergasted. Flabby flabbergasted.

I have a body mass index of 35 which means... well you know what it means. I have some weight to lose. Probably in the region of two stone twelve.

So I've chucked the home scales in the bin and vowed that Wednesday is now "official weighing day" when I'll get clinically measured.

Looks like my "Guiness Sunday" with feet up and "Ford Super Sunday" is just about to become history. Well the Guiness bit anyway.

This morning I took the long way into the office and made an ascent of what I'm going to call "The Hill" from now on. It's a two mile uphill stretch that has me gasping as I get to the top and car drivers giving me a wide berth as if I might wobble out into the middle of the road at such a slow speed.

43 minutes for the seven mile trip. Looks like I am going to have to start doing some serious exercise if I'm going to stay around to enjoy my affiliate earnings!

Let's crack on with the UK Bingo Reviews

Storebuilder Blog - Cycling to work/Fitness

Cycled into the office again today and the average speed time is going up quick.

Made it in about twenty minutes and that included stopping off on the way to buy a new mug as I'd taken it home to wash it properly and forgotten to put it back in the pannier.

When I first started cycling to work the missus the kids and the dog laughed at me as I hauled my huge ass onto an old steel framed mountain bike  that I picked up on ebay for twenty quid and wobbled my way down the drive.

The neighbours killed themselves laughing as well that night as I rode back up the cul de sac, eyebrows covered white with snow, blue knuckles and deathly white face in the early November evening darkness, Small clouds of condensation filling the night sky a testament to my exertions.

I remember that first ride very well because I had covered about half a mile on the way in and was heading up a small hill past the pub when I suddenly felt sick. Not an ill feeling, just a nauseousness from suddenly doing exercise. I felt like I was going to keel over.

I hadn't done anything other than walk from my house to the car to the office and back to the house for a long long time.

I started to panic because I realised that I wasn't going to get to the top of the hill. Hill? It seemed like a mountain at the time. The bike was in bottom gear and I needed another 10 gears below to feel comfortable.

When I finally made it the four miles to the office my legs were jelly and I was exhausted. I had to ride even slower on the flat on the way home to conserve my energy and when it started snowing I was cursing my stupidity all the way home.

The problem was that I was an overweight, bloated 44 year old that spent all day sitting at the computer and doing nothing else. Things had to change and cycling seemed to be a good way to do it.

That first trip took me nearly fifty minutes to cover the four miles to work.

Since then I've upgraded the bike:

It's an entry level road bike to which I've fitted a quick release Topeak pannier system and the only problem is that it doesn't have mudguard clearance so I'm either going to have to find a way to fit mudguards or get a winter bike for the upcoming rainy season.

The upshot of it is that cycling into work every day is a great workout and I feel loads better than I did this time last year. I still have a couple more stone to shift but I'm hoping to be back down to a waist 34ish by the time spring comes and fit back into my jeans!

Sitting down all day and working like a dog on your computer is rewarding when the commissions start coming in but you have to look after your health as well - or you may not be around to enjoy the cruise when you win that affiliate competition several years from now.