I just wanted to post a short farewell note here before the old TriTalk forum is locked down.

Despite all my good intentions I am still over weight and unable to stick to a regular training habit.

But I continue to live in hope that one day I will return to something like my old peak.

It is only when looking back at my old training statistics that I realise how (relatively) fit I used to be.

This Blog and everyone who posted replies to it was certainly a big part of achieving that fitness.

So I will always remember my TriTalk years with fondness and wish you all well.

Take care, Paul. :)]]> It was -2 as I scraped the ice off the car windows to get to the pool for a 7.30am start.
Which did remind me of the ‘old days’ when I would be in the pool at 5.15am!
Although on the really coldest days, that was so early you had to scrape the car twice.
( Once to go to the pool and then again after the swim to go back home. )

Generally, my training is going well, as I am trying hard not to over-do it.
I’m still over eating, but hope that will settle down as the months roll on.

Cheers, Paul. :)

Replies:
Cobbie – Hi Pete, I remember reading your FitBit review and something you said about being inactive struck a cord. As it turns out, it has taken it a while to face up to just how inactive I had become. But I am definitely back on the right road now and I will see how I get on. Cheers.
Sue – I am being very careful when it comes to my running, as the extra weight I am carrying really has an impact on this. I managed just under 7 km this week and that is my longest run since September 2015! So building up slowly is definitely the way forward.]]> ( Most of my original records were lost when a spreadsheet become corrupted. )
Unfortunately, my swimming distance on holidays is largely guess work.
( Due to odd size pools and really no idea of pace. )
Thankfully, my turbo work was also logged in a book / scraps of paper.
But that also included some guesswork when the turbo itself went on the blink.
This was not surprizing given that I’d racked up over 25,000 km on it!
( Fortunately, I was able to source an ‘as new’ Tacx Flow replacement from Ebay. )
Finally, my Garmin 305 still had my ‘run’ history going back a few years.

So the training log on the left is now up to date for all the years to 2017.
Seeing the numbers in black and white came as a real shock to me.
The simple fact is I am over weight because I haven’t trained consistently in years.

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January 2018 Review

Swim
My first club swim left me in agony (see previous post).
But I’ve stuck with the weekly sessions & I managed to break 3,000m last night.
There is still a very long way to go yet, as I previously managed 4,500m in the same time!
My current plan is to step up to two sessions a week before the end of February.

Turbo
I had to double check the statistics, but it appears that I didn’t even sit on a bike in 2017.
( The damaged front mech was in my “To Do” pile, but all of last year was a bit of a blur. )
So January has been short/gentle sessions to acclimatise my backside to the rock hard saddle!
Hopefully, I will be able to tolerate some longer sessions in February.

Slog
I am taking extra care here, as my lack of fitness and excess weight risks injury while ‘running’.
But I’ve made a start and that is the main thing at this point.

Overall
Just over 16 hours training for the month may not seem like much.
But that is 7 hours more than I did in the whole of 2017!
So it is certainly a good start. 8)

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Weight Watchers
01/02/18 - 14 stone 2.8 lbs (90.2kg) - Body Fat 32.4%

So a loss of just 3.6 lbs, but with a decrease in body fat and increase in muscle percentages.
The reality is that the shock to my system of exercising has led to some serious over eating.
Hopefully, once I get used to regular exercise it will be easier to regulate my food intake.

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Until next time, take care, Paul. :)

Replies:
Sue – I definitely over did it on my first swim back.
When I finally checked my training records, my last club swim was actually in March 2015!
So a gap of almost 3 years is certainly gone to take a while to fill.]]>

In fairness, we took a family short break to France in the first week of January, so that was a good excuse to avoid exercise. However, in a major step forward I made a return to my swimming club on Wednesday (10th) fully expecting to suffer due to my complete lack of swimming of late. I think I managed just over 2 hours in a pool during our family summer holiday in the whole of 2017 and 2016 was not much better. I surprized myself by lasting the whole 1h 25m, but had to take lots of extra rest as I was really struggling and only managed 2,600m in that time. Towards the end of the session I was meant to do a negative split 200m, but I had absolutely nothing in the tank by this point and clocked the first 100m in 2m 17s and then abandoned after the next length as I was barely able to float. But worse was still to come as I woke up at 3am in the morning with my left shoulder in agony from over doing it and my right arm pit was raw from a friction burn. So I had to apply deep heat to one and anti-sceptic to the other (even half asleep I knew the importance of not mixing that up!) and then relocate to the sitting room in an effort to get back to sleep while propped up on the sofa. I managed a 20 minute slog (Slow Jog) on Saturday evening just to start that ball rolling too. But the big step forward on Saturday was picking my road bike up from the bike shop where the front mech had been replaced. My turbo is set up in the summerhouse, but this has doubled up as a workshop full of tools and parts during my car build. At some point I dropped something heavy on the front mech and then, without thinking, tried to bend it back into shape, which of course make it worse. I also did a major tidy up of the summerhouse to ensure I had the space required to get back on the turbo and today (Sunday) I did a very 45 minutes on it, again, just to make a start. The scary thing is, I can’t even remember the last time I did any level of Swim-Bike-Run in the same week, so this is definitely a step in the right direction.

So I will be back at the start of February with another update and my next weigh in.

Until then, take care, Paul. :)

Replies:
Sue – Good to see you back in Blogland, you were always an inspiration. 8)

Wheezy – If I can build a car, then anyone can. But my top tip would be to do your research into the number of hours that the average builder takes to complete it. My kit was a new variation of an existing one, but instead of being an improvement which should have been quicker to build, it was a complete dog’s dinner that was impossible to build without major changes to all the parts supplied. The other tip would be to build a car with a proper roof, as the UK does not have year round sunny weather.]]> ....................]]>

For the record, 01/01/2018 – 14 stone 6.4 pounds (91.8kg) – A new personal worst.

Over the last few years I have thrown hours at my first car building project.

Turning this mess in May 2013…





Into this beauty in November 2017, back on the road after I hand painted it over the Summer.







So I plan to get back into training, starting small and working my way up.

I will also cut back on some of the **** I eat and drink which should also help.

Cheers, Paul. :)]]> Replies:
Cobbie – Sorry, I’m not on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/etc.

BluePoolShark – Cheers, I can’t quite believe the car is on the road myself.

Dr Dre – The paint scheme will be British Racing Green with a Signal Yellow Nose band.

Someone else kindly mocked this up in ‘Paint’ to give me a rough idea of the final look.



As I have Cordite kit #7, I will be using these roundels as a small tribute to Barry Sheene.
( Whereas, a period racing car would have used black numbers on a white background. )



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More Car News:
I’ve now racked up just over a 1,000 “shake down” miles on the car.
This has allowed all the fibreglass and filler to settle, so the next big job is painting the car.
I’ve also switched the original 1980 “V” reg for a 1965 “C” reg, which helps make the car look older.

A couple of photos (which I am struggling to make appear in this post).

http://tny.im/8Rq

http://tny.im/8Rr

Plus some video in the style of the opening scene of the original The Italian Job:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzPNRvlshGI

Unfortunately, the YouTube link above doesn’t always work, in which case type in:

Triumph Swordfish - The Harrow Job

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Triathlon News: - In short, there isn’t any.

However, after a family holiday in Ireland, I stood on the scales this morning:

Weight = 14 stone 4.6 pounds

Body Fat % = 32.9%

This is a personal worse.

So I need to do something.

Take care, Paul. :)]]> Steve_R & Cobbie - A very belated thanks for your replies. 8)

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Unfortunately, there is still no real training to report, so here are a few photos of my car.
( Prompted by Slacko replying on my American build thread. )

It has taken me over 4 years to build, but it got its first MOT on 31/08/16. 8)

So I've been "on the road" for just over a week now and clocked up just over 100 miles.
( I'd kind of forgotten just how much traffic there is around here. )

I can't believe the hugely positive reaction I get while out driving.

I might even post some (very poor) training stats another day.

Cheers,

Paul. :)

Triumph Swordfish 1500

The Ace Cafe is only a few miles from my house, so it seems like a good place to visit.



I used to run & cycle up this road to the top of Harrow hill.



I took this photo on Wednesday night as I made the most of the evening sunshine after work.
( This car park is also just off one of the hills on my old cycle training routes. )



But you will need to see my car next to something else to give you an idea of just how low it is.

So when I came across this perfect photo opportunity, it was just too good to resist.



There are more some photos here:
http://www.rodsnsods.co.uk/forum/showroom/triumph-swordfish-1500-a-463945

Now, I really must spend some time training...]]> This town (town) is coming like a ghost town
All the Blogs have been closed down





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2015 Review
Unfortunately, I didn't build on 2014's efforts, but fell back off the regular training wagon.
In addition, the USB stick with all my annual Excel training files on it got corrupted.
I've started to recreate my 2015 records, but there is no rush, as they are hardly worth mentioning…

Swim
- I did a few club sessions in early 2015, but haven't been in the pool for almost a year now.

Bike
- My road bike is permanently set up on the turbo, but that is now just gathering dust.
- I rode my mountain bike on the road for a brief spell, the first time I'd ridden outside in years.

Run
- A few short, slow jogs around the block hardly count as running, but that was all I did.

Overall
- Does posting this on a triathlon forum actually count as fraud?

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2016 - April is the new January
Since Christmas Day I seem to have stumbled from one minor, but annoying, illness to another.
Including a hacking cough that hung around for ages and at one point left me with internally bruised ribs!
I am currently in the middle of dental treatment and have more root canal work due on Saturday.

After no training whatsoever in almost 4 months, I now weigh over 13 stone.
Which means that I both look, and feel, fat compared to the 'good old days'.
The only good thing about this is that I know a return to any sort of regular training will help.

So I will return to Blogland at the end of June and I hope there will be some training to report.

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Pumpkins
Whilst this is no longer a training blog, at least I can add some of my other regular features.

This year I attempted to cross James Bond's death mask in Spectre with a pirate's flag skull.



Obviously this was easier said than done, but I got there in the end.





And here was the complete family line up.



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Car Project
As a very belated reply to Hammerer, here are a few photos to show the progress I've made on this project.
Thankfully, I've broken the back of all the major problems I had to deal with, but still quite a bit of work left to do.

I 'mocked up' the rear lighting to get a better idea of what it will eventually look like.



It is also looking quite 'moody' when viewed from the front.
( Well, part from the wheel arches and bonnet join, which are still on my 'To Do' list. )



So far, I've only fixed one of the four wheel arches, but I was very happy with how it turned out.

Before:



During:



After:



This was my attempt at a 'drone' shot.
( Taken by hanging out of a first floor window. )



Finally, here is a very short video clip of the engine finally running for the first time in years.
( Sounds rough as it still needs to be tuned up properly, but at least it ran. )

https://youtu.be/NjJ0lml53uI

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Hope all is well, take care, Paul. :)]]>
2014 Annual Totals:

Swim - 9.2 km

The only good news is that I finally returned to club swimming on 15th December. 8)
That night I swam 2,800m, my longest swim since my last club session on 29/01/2013!
I am currently around 30 secs slower over 100m compared to a few years ago and it really shows.
But I have to start rebuilding from somewhere, so I am just really happy to be back in the water.

Turbo - 5,225 km 8)

Unbelievably, this is an annual distance PB for me & 2014 included 4 of my Top 10 monthly totals too.
The really odd thing is that I never did a single session longer than 1h 57m / 48.4 km all year.
In fact, short, gentle turbo sessions became my standard, "better than nothing", approach to training.
However, if I don't increase time &/or distance, I really should work on increasing my effort.

Run - 402 km :)

I have to take some positives from the fact this is my biggest annual total since 2009.
But I've struggled to get back into anything like a regular running habit all year.
There were 3 months with no running what so ever, and nothing further than 13.7 km all year.

Time - 267h 36m

Again, this is actually the biggest amount of training I've done since 2008!
Although technically I did 208 hours during the first 6 months of 2009 preparing for ADITL.

Overall:
As a stand alone year, 2014 was really nothing to write home about.
But in the context of the last few years, this is a major step in the right direction for me. 8)

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Other Belated News:
This was our family pumpkin carving efforts this year.





We went to see the Tower Of London poppies on Remembrance Sunday.



More Photos Here.

After lots of delays I finally got my hearing aids.





Unfortunately, I've had a lot of problems with them. :sad:
- The blue one (left ear) had to be re-made as it wouldn't stay in place.
- Then the outer shell of the red one (right ear) broke over Christmas.

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Car Project:
I've made a lot of progress making a boot access panel from scratch.







Sealing off the cuts through the "humps" & building a rain channel were tricky.
But getting the locks to work currently seems beyond my skills.
So I made a "tactical withdrawal" from this part of the build and will come back to it later on.

I've also just finished making the hinges for the "flip up" bonnet. 8)
( This was actually completed yesterday. )





Please ignore the fact a section of the bonnet is missing, as I removed that to fix a different problem.

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2015 Plans:
It has now been over 5 years since I last raced at ADITL and I can't see myself racing in 2015 either.
However, I do want to lose some weight, so I really need to get back into a regular running habit.
So at this point, I think I will try to focus on swimming & running for a while & do less turbo work.

Finally, I am going to put this blog into hibernation until there is something worth updating on a regular basis.
So don't be alarmed if you don't see another post here for six months (or more).
I am also sorry that I don't reply to other Blogs the way I used to either.

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Hope all is well, have a Happy New Year, take care, Paul. :)

Very Belated Replies:
KP & Steve - Thanks guys. 8)]]>