I haven't posted on the blog for almost a year which is a bit rubbish, but I do pop along to read TT every once in a while.

My post last year was basically an end to my competitive racing days and nothing has changed in that regard, but one thing that has changed is my overall fitness. The knee surgery worked an absolute treat and I can now walk around and ride comfortably, something that was such a bind before. I have also lost 11kg in weight which again is quite incredible .... oohhh and I grew a full on beard. It's a bit father xmas but I like it.



My cycling tattoo collection got bigger with my candy skull and red roses added to my arm this year, can you see the chains and jockey wheels ... very pleased with all my ink



I am riding about 50-80km a week at the moment and really enjoying it, new chainset on the bike, new Mavic wheels and tubeless set up means great relaxed fun around the local lanes.

On the business front, I have set up two brand new business ventures, a catering business and a media company both of which are growing nice and steadily - I like to challenge myself and try new things, so becoming part of the catering industry was great fun .... trained and accredited myself into being able to work with my wife on her mobile crepe stall has been incredible.



The photography is still such a great thing as well for me and I am always out there shooting - I have an exhibition planned shortly on some non-sport related stuff but I will always yearn to shoot bike racing ... on the spur of the moment I drove out last night to cover the local time trial ... definitely a lucky night for me to be in the right place at the right time to grab the moment the rider caught his minute man:



Much more positive than this time last year, lots to look forward to and loads of time to do it]]>
So what has happened, well quite a bit really, lets start with the bad news.

I suppose somewhere down the line, it was always going to happen, but when you are finally presented with the facts then it’s sometimes quite hard to process them.

Over the last couple of months, I have been in contact with my surgeon and had another meeting with him recently to review my knee and the operation that I had back in February. He was really pleased with the way the operation went and in terms of general mobility and day-to-day life then we are pretty much back to normal, albeit still with a little swelling and discomfort as the wounds heal up fully – all to be expected and I am very grateful for that.

However, in terms of “sporting activities” it’s not such great news – actually that is not quite correct, I should say in terms of “competitive” sports the news isn’t great – I can still ride my bike and exercise but with caution.

With meniscus injuries they grade the damage one to four with four being the worst level of injury. Yesterday, the surgeon took me through the whole process showing my the x-rays done before the op and how it looked during the process.

Effectively I had lost all my cartilage at the front of my knee, simply gone – there was then a Grade 4 tear which needed a fair amount of work to trim it up – the remainder of the injury was assessed as Grade 2 – in his words “very traumatic”.

Although the damaged areas were repaired, there is still no cartilage at the front of my knee and that means we have a bone-on-bone scenario, which means the potential for pain and swelling is huge for any long periods of exercise, or for regular hard efforts – basically what I would have called “training” so the advice is to back it all off and just go out and “ride” my bike for the enjoyment of it, but limit the rides to around 90 mins to help protect the joint.

Running is completely out of the window and to be fair the surgeon said that from day one when he first got all the scans back, so I guess he kinda knew what the future was for me at that point.

I have to say the news hit me quite hard really – no more competition, no more long bike rides – well, I obviously still can do those kind of things, but it will lead to days of swelling and pain and future damage that could affect day to day life so what’s the point in that.

I sat in the car park as the news processed in my mind and I thought, well, that’s that then and I then started to think of all that achieved, and do you know what – I have done alright …

1988 – Toured Australia with Wigan Colleges playing 7 matches out there winning four and losing three
1989-1993 – played at the highest level in amateur rugby league, played for Wigan, Lancashire county and Great Britain, toured France and won there.
1993-1995 – played professional rugby league for Oldham RLFC at the same level as today’s “Super League”
1994 – Rode the length of Britain – John O’Groats to Lands End – covered over 1000 miles in just 9 days on a mountain bike raising over £8,000 for Wigan Hospice.
1995-1997 – transferred for £10,000 to Chorley RLFC playing a difficult couple of years as a major back injury took its toll (more later on this)
2006 – started to train for Ironman which is a triathlon with a 3.8km open water swim, a 180km bike ride and then a marathon at the end to finish
2007 – completed Ironman UK in Sherborne in Dorset in a time of 13hrs and 01mins
2008-2012 – completed 3 more Ironman UK events, this time close to home in Bolton, working with “Team True Spirit” (I was part of the original team that formed the organisation) – we raised over £50,000 for service charities and transformed one veteran into a Paralympian.

When I sit there and look at that list, I have to be happy don’t I – I have to be really proud and pleased with the levels I reached and the things I managed to do.

But then I can also draw up a list of injuries from the rugby days:

1988 – Major concussion, lost a full days memory and still cannot remember a thing
1990-1997 – the original injury was landing on a wooden square corner flag as I was twisting over to score – I couldn’t walk for 3 days and missed the whole of the next season – I struggled lots with it over the next few years, eventually retiring in 1997 – the x-ray showed the discs twisted 9mm one way and leaning over 5mm another way
1993 – hairline fracture of my jaw, very minor but the jaw clicks to this day
1994 – broken and dislocated middle finger (put back in place in the tunnel during the match) – basically top half of the finger was pointing back at me as I looked at it.
1994 – torn and frayed groin/pelvic muscles, requiring minor surgery to correct
1995 – big broken nose (I had suffered two minor breaks previously) – this one was a real smash in the face – again put back into place in the dressing room at half time – lots of blood and tears on that one
1995 – clash of heads and a gaping cut over my eye – eight stitches by the doctor in the medical room in the tunnel at Oldham, bandage on and back on to the field to finish the match off. (as they did back then).
1993-1995 – both left and right ankle ligaments torn, both requiring periods of about 6-8 weeks on the sideline.

When you look at the list of injuries, then really I have done well to do all the bike riding and triathlon stuff at all – it’s fair to say that my 48 year old body has been put through the rigours along its sporting career.

So, where does that leave me now? Well it leaves me to enjoy short local bike rides I guess, lots of lovely Lancashire lanes for me to trundle around and it will allow me more time to focus on the photography which at the moment is going really well and the business continues to grow.

A little bit of me is sad and disappointed, but it is what it is and we need to move on and into the next exciting chapter probably with a Canon piece of kit in my hand rather than a pair of carbon wheels, but that is still pretty exciting for me.

As the gloom lifted, I grabbed my kit bag and headed out in the evening sunshine to bury myself deep in a hedge and photograph the local Southport 10 mile time trial and as the sun shone down, I allowed myself a little wry smile – you know what, life is good and whilst it is the end of an era, there is another one ahead, just as good.]]>
I’m pretty much coming to the conclusion that my running dream won’t actually come to anything ….. running isn’t good for my joints these days ….. sore knees and sore ankles make it hard to get out there consistently …. but none of these afflictions affect my cycling.

Maybe that is my body telling me that I am a cyclist, always have been a cyclist and I should remain a cyclist …. I love cycling and I don’t have that passion for running … I am never happier than when out riding.


This weekend has really been quite pivotal in terms of what I will do in 2016 …. no junior football due to my lad being full of a cold meant two clear days when I could ride and out I went …

Saturday saw a ride south out to Culcheth in Warrington with a loop back around Leigh, Tyldesley and Atherton and it was my longest ride for quite some time and with the last 10km all uphill it was a tough way to finish …. I rode quite well but the route was interspersed with traffic, so my overall speed was dented.

In previous years after a ride like this I would be really uncomfortable at night, my back injury would send pain all down my legs into my calves and it would be a night of twitching around to get settled …. pleased to say none of that was there this time …. just tired legs really. After a few beers and the rugby league Grand Final I was ready for my bed that’s for sure.

I woke this morning feeling fresh and the legs felt good too … it was dry outside, so it was on with the new kit and out the door again, this time heading north to the lanes around Leyland and its surrounding villages.

I rode well, there was a fair bit of wind knocking round in parts and the open fields exposed that, so some lanes were brilliant with a tail wind and others were just difficult as you battled the headwind.

Two very different and brilliant rides in their own right and over 100km completed for the weekend which is a first for me and it really has made me sit down and think about what I could do in 2016.

I have a time trial bike and two very nice aero wheels sat there looking at me right now and I am thinking that maybe I should devote some training time to that part of cycling – my 10TT best time is 24.32 which was set about 7 years ago when I was Ironman training and I would love to be able to beat that.

I need to do some research into what sort of training I need to do over winter and then see if I can schedule the time to commit to it, but I think that it should be possible.

Other than that, I will look to see what sportives look interesting … I don’t mind a bit of climbing … long gradual climbs are fine with me, rolling terrain is fine with me, but short 25% stuff isn’t for me … no fun at all so those kinds of rides are not really the ones that I look to get involved with.

I also quite like the idea of one of the organised 24hr things … maybe as part of a team, they look like a challenge that I might really enjoy ….

mmmmm lots to ponder.]]>
BUT, one of the big things to come out of the week and quite accidentally too, was that I seemed to have kicked the sugar habit ….. hopefully for good, but I went the full week without any sugar in my coffee’s which for me is something big …. I had managed to cut down during the course of this year to the point where I was only putting in about half a teaspoon but now I think I can manage easily without any at all.

Again, its only a small change, but its a significant one … all the small changes to your diet do make a difference and I am really pleased to have done this now. I will keep it up and make sure I don’t slip back into sugar mode, but I am really pleased they had no sugar for that first cup of coffee I had on holiday … that was the starting point.

Next weekend sees the Wigan 10km race and my first running race for about 4 years, so I go into it with no real expectations other than a nice hour run around closed streets in my home town, so not much that doesn’t work there is there? I will be aiming to get around in under an hour which I should be able to do … a week without running needs some attention and I will probably go for a little easy paced run later today or tomorrow once I have caught up on enough sleep …]]>
My biggest demon is running in the sunshine, I can’t even say heat because it isn’t that hot, but sunshine and warm weather absolutely destroy me … so how do you go about getting round that – well for me the first thing to do was to get out there and get on the start line:

But rather than just plough on aimlessly, I needed a plan. Today was a warm and humid day with the sun poking its head out to say hello – it’s the perfect morning to sit on the decking with a nice cup of coffee and watch the world go by, it’s not a morning to be out running. I suppose most runners would think its the perfect day to be out running, but I have always been a rain, wind and cold weather man … always love to go out in those conditions, that is where I feel my strongest. But that has to change and today was the first small step to making those changes.

The plan was – to knock back the pace and not really worry about it, and to run a route of 12km with a good chunk off road and uphill … keep the HR under total control and get the distance in my legs and to start to “feel” how to run in the warm weather.

I pretty much nailed the session, but it still felt uncomfortable, but this time not in an energy sapping way … just hot and sweaty and I was happy to get it over – it never is enjoyable for me to run in the sun, but its a demon that needs to be taken down and I feel much better about it now, I feel more capable of going that bit further in the warm now … I feel like I might able to control my body a little bit more now.

Overall the pace was around 6.24/km which is still more than acceptable for me at this point in time over that distance and with 151m of climbing too it was a good session.]]>
The running is coming along very well and this week I have managed a short sharp run and then a really good 7km effort in torrential rain, which was a great session for “mental strength” which I have posted about on here before.

The rain was absolutely hammering it down, but it was warm and my head was telling me to run … so out I went into evening with its puddles and its mud and I ran … there is something amazing about running through the country in the rain, under the trees with huge splodges of water smashing down onto your head.

The Speedcross 3’s were well up to the task and I never put a foot wrong during the entire run. I have to admit to feeling it a little towards the end, a little tiredness in the legs, probably still from the Monday fast session, so I just need to make sure I don’t overdo it.

One good feature of the Garmin Fenix 2 watch is its ability to monitor your overall well being and fitness. As I run I get a buzz to tell me how I have recovered from the last session I did and then when I have finished it tells me how many hours recovery I need …. all very useful stuff.

Back to yesterday, a big day in our household as my eldest received his GCSE results, so we had a nervous morning before the relief and happiness of the results and then an evening of celebration which all was very enjoyable indeed. However, if we were celebrating it meant I felt the need to train, and my legs were not recovered enough to run.

And so it was out with the road bike for an hours spin around the village to loosen up the legs. Now I haven’t ridden for a month now due to holidays and of course the run training, so I found it quite tough, that combined with the blustery howling wind made for quite a hard session when I look back at it now. BUT, it did sort out the tiredness in my legs and help me recover that little bit quicker.

Mixing my run training with cycling will be a feature of my work over the winter and I will also throw in the odd swimming session too – all this combined with a weekly weights regime means I will be working hard in the coming months.]]> There are lots of different running plans out there and it can be a little confusing sometimes to understand what is the best way and which one you should choose. However, you can make it fairly easy by trying out a few of the suggested methods and see what works best for you. For me I like to be able to run 3 times a week and for those three runs, I like to do:

1 x Long Run – usually at weekends anywhere between 10-20km

1 x Fast Short Run – usually near the start of the week – around 5-8km in length, but with the pace pushed harder

1 x Other Run – freedom to choose what kind of run you want to do, either longish or fastish seeing how you feel

I personally think you can be ok with just two runs, the long one and the short faster run, so I don’t get too stressed if I don’t make the third run of the week, because sometimes life is like that and you can’t make your sessions – but not getting stressed about those missed sessions is key to having a strong mental state. Focus on what you HAVE done not what the paper says you should have done.

Anyway, the purpose of that little explanation was to lead on to my run from earlier this week, where I chose a 6km route (just short of) and tried to push the pace a little bit quicker than of late. I have been running around 5.55/6.00km pace so I wanted to be able to duck under the 5.30/km pace which would be around the level I needed to be at at this stage in the training process.

I picked a hilly course, you can’t avoid them where I live so you have to run them …. my pace varied over the course from a fastest of 4.40/km down to 6.13/km but once I had finished and downloaded all the data, I had hit my target with an average pace over the whole run of 5.28/km and it felt good too …. always in control of my engine and the legs are starting to respond a bit more now too.

I have completed nearly three weeks of running now since my comeback and I think it might be time to have a sports massage as I can start to notice the signs of tightness in my upper back – need to keep well on top of all this if I want to remain injury free.]]>
Today was a great day to run, a nice mix of warm sunshine, then dark clouds and a breeze to freshen you up.

My route was going to be a fairly challenging one … mainly off road and quite undulating with a mix of terrain, gravel tracks, mud, grass and bits of tarmac and even a football field at the end of it. We are spoiled with the tracks around my village, just perfect for running.

After a few freshly brewed coffee’s and a breakfast of toast and smoked salmon I was prepared – a large glass of water before I closed the door and off we went. Glorious is the word to describe how I felt today … I was just buzzing and loving the serene quiet of the tracks with my iPod blasting out Feeder and Just a Day …. the week had ended magnificently at work with a deal I have working on for ages dropping into place and I felt relaxed and motivated when I got up this morning.

The run went well, I still kept control of the effort, keeping the HR at an average of 126 today, so slightly lower than that last couple of efforts, but the pace remained on track and even a bit quicker .. sure signs of getting fitter and a bit faster with it.

Total Distance completed: 10.18km in 1.00hr, so just dipping under the 6.00/km average again and that is brilliant over the increased distance.

I am running the Wigan 10km in a few weeks over a pretty flat course and it will be my first stand alone 10km race … and with the work I am doing at the moment I am pretty confident of a fairly decent time (for me that is).]]>
Although my day job isn’t manually challenging, it’s one that requires mental concentration and accuracy all day long and often when I get back home in the evening, I am just too tired to get any quality running done – sure I can force myself out of the door, but that often leads to disappointment and a poor session.

So, this morning I set the alarm for 6.30am and got all my running kit together, plus Garmin, plus iPod and prepared to see the crack of dawn once more.

Now I appreciate that 6.30am isn’t really that early and to be honest my alarm goes off at that time when the kids are at school, so it wasn’t a huge thing really, but making the effort and getting out of the house and on to the trails before 7am was and this morning I managed to do that and boy was it worth it !

The sun was warm and it was streaming through the trees as I set off for a 5.66km run around the locality – most of the run off road again with hardly a soul around … it was liberating and very enjoyable too – still not pushing on these runs, just “keeping it steady” which for me relates to controlling my breathing and keeping the HR to around 130-140 which is “the” zone that I run to when I am running well.

I think the pleasing thing for me today, was that although not pushing harder than last week (and the stats bear that out) I was running faster … dipping under 6.00/km for the whole run for the first time since coming back to running – that is further encouragement for me and very pleasing indeed.

The extra effort on the diet seems to be working too, with clothes noticeable looser and again that can only encourage.

As time goes on the “Crack of Dawn” club will get earlier, as I will need more time to run further and I am really looking forward to that over the winter time … there is something ace about running in the cold, in the wet and in the wind …. I love it much more than the sunshine in that regard.]]>
Early days, but I think the running bug has bitten me again .... I have managed three gentle comeback runs this week .. having not run at all for 4 months, I didn't want to come smashing back into it, so I chose three courses all about 5km in length, with a mix of tarmac paths and tracks/trails around our village.

I decided to run to a pace anywhere between 6.00-6.30km which is gentle enough to get my muscles working but not too much to cause major DOMS afterwards ... a good and sensible plan from me for once.

I was a little achy after run 1, much better after run 2 and feeling absolutely smashing after run 3, so the work I have done on the bike has made the comeback a little more easier that it could have been.

I have started to look at races to aim for, I feel that I need stepping stones to work to over the winter ... will try to keep them local and challenging and that will hopefully see my fitness and pace improve. Races always make you run harder than training and so they should.

Happy with this first week ... a solid start !]]>