Author Archives: Administrator

Bikes on Scotrail Trains

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On Bike RailsI have always wanted to get my bike on a train, such that I could cycle to some faraway place and get the train back home again. I’m not going to do this every time I take a cycle at the weekend, but I was intrigued to see what it was like, and how easy it was.

Turns out it’s really quite easy.

First of all, you can reserve a bike space when booking your train ticket online. You have to reserve a seat at the same time, but that’s no problem since it’s free. Win. Your cycle reservation is also free.

The space itself was completely different to how I imagined it would be. You basically have two sticks that protrude from the side of the train and you rest your bike on said sticks. The sticks have a ribbed plastic thingy on it so that your bike doesn’t slide around all over the place, and it also has straps for you to put around your bike so that it stays in place.

The picture of my bike on said device is above. Note that the front wheel isn’t straight because a family had their buggy in the space too. Technically they shouldn’t have had it in there, but it wasn’t a problem as my bike and their buggy could easily share the space. I’m pointing it out merely to explain why my wheel is sideways rather than in line with the rest of the bike.

The space you can see there is for 2 bikes, so if the front wheel was straight, that wouldn’t be a problem; indeed, I reckon you could likely get 3 road bikes on there if you needed to.

Cycle Paths in Fife

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I took a ride out to Fife again today, but instead of stopping at Inverkeithing, I went to Cupar, from where I took the train home. I had my route all planned out using the Garmin Connect web site, and it was uploaded to my Garmin Edge 800. However, some of the cycle paths turned out to not be suitable for the bike I was riding, which is a road bike. I ended up giving up on one of the paths because it was so slow. Therefore, mainly so I remember myself in the future which bits to avoid and what I should have done, I’m making note of them here.

Planned RouteThe main parts of the route that were troublesome are visible in this image, which is of the planned route, not what I actually did. Click the image to see the full sized version.

Now, I will tell you what I will do next time – I’ll take the A921 from Inverkeithing, all the way to Kirkcaldy. Yes, that’s a fairly fast road with cars on it, but the time it took on the cycle path was ridiculous.

First, Dalgety Bay. The cycle route at first was ok, nice wide paths and it was obvious where to go. That is, until you get to the street called “The Bridges”, where I went the wrong way. However, that was quickly resolved as the Edge bleats loudly at you when you make a wrong turn. Up to Moray Way, bit of a climb, but still fine, and then you travel north to get to the ironically named Moray Way South (ironic, in that it is north of Moray Way, albeit south of Moray Way North; a lack of future planning, perhaps?). At the roundabout, you turn right and then go on a massive detour to get to a cycle path that runs parallel with Moray Way South, but is not suitable for a road bike. Some bits were ok, lots of bits were not. However, the rest of the route up to Aberdour was good, so maybe you sacrifice some speed for a safer ride.

Once in Aberdour, if you are following cycle routes, you don’t stay on the main road for long before turning right and taking another cycle path, as shown here:

Planned: Aberdour to Burntisland

Planned: Aberdour to Burntisland

Big mistake. While the previous one out of Dalgety Bay is touch and go as to whether you take it, the one going east from Aberdour is absolutely to be avoided. It got really bad at a point where you have to go through a small tunnel under what I can only assume to be the railway line. It was a mud-pit at this point – and this was at a dry period in Scotland! I got halfway to Burntisland and decided enough was enough. This path is just shocking; maybe if you are on a MTB you would prefer it, but if you’re on a roadie, do not take this path from Aberdour to Burntisland, just stay on the A921 instead. Here’s what I did instead, and you can see the point halfway where I abandoned the path as it’s where I doubled back on myself to get up to the road:

Actual: Aberdour to Burntisland

Actual: Aberdour to Burntisland

Preventing Dangerous Overtaking

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I have on occasion used a tactic to prevent cars from overtaking which doesn’t sound like it should work, but seems to work 99% of the time. And what’s more, it doesn’t seem to irritate drivers in the same way that taking primary does.

The scenario is relatively specific, but happens a lot – you’re coming up to some kind of pinch point, there’s a vehicle behind you and you can hear from its engine that it’s going to try to overtake and that, with the pinch point coming up, they have not realised that the speed the bicycle is going at, this isn’t going to end well (for the cyclist, anyway).

What I now do when this situation is about to happen is simply to look over my right shoulder at the vehicle. Indeed, not even so much as turning my head right round, but merely turning it enough so that I can see him out of the side of my eye, much like I would when I’m glancing behind me, but keeping my head turned like that for a good couple of seconds. It helps that I tend to ride with sunglasses on, because this means I can actually continue to look straight ahead with my eyes, but the driver behind me doesn’t know this and thinks I’m continuing to look at him.

What seems to happen is that the driver then slows down. Very, very rarely does the driver continue with their manoeuvre. Indeed, I can’t recall the last time the driver did this.

It seems an odd tactic that really shouldn’t work, but for some reason, it does. Maybe the driver is suddenly thrown into the mindset that the cyclist, now watching them, is carefully watching whatever stupidity they are going to attempt before it happens, and therefore they think twice about doing it. I’m really not sure. But as I say, it seems to work.

Different Run Training

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My normal type of running is to run at the same pace, no matter what distance I’m doing. Therefore, since I took up running just over 3 years ago, I always ran around 08:45 minute miles whether I was doing 6 miles, 10 or 15. Indeed, I didn’t see the point of going out running if I did less than 6 miles, since I didn’t really get going until about 4.

A couple of weeks ago, I went out running for the first time in ages. Couldn’t do more than 2 miles. Felt pathetic. During that week, I increased up to 5, although it was a struggle each time. Then this week, instead of putting on more distance, I instead did a couple of different things – I did something vaguely resembling fartlek, which was for all of 3 miles, and I did a 2.75 mile “fast” run, although let’s be fair here, it was still only about 8:18 per mile. Not really that fast, but faster than normal. At the end of each session, I was well knackered.

Then, last night, I went out to try to do a 10km, at “normal” pace. And it was easy. No problems whatsoever, and it was a bit of a hilly course, although to be honest it’s next to impossible to do anything but go up and down hills in Edinburgh.

This led me to think, while I was out on this run, whether this was actually the point of doing the different types of training. I’d always assumed that putting distance in was the best thing to do, and the whole fartlek and sprint running wasn’t really going to help me when it came to distance running. After one week of trying it, I’m already doubting whether this previous method of training was a good idea.

So, I’m going to continue to do the faster runs and fartleks etc for the next while, and see how the training goes.

I’m In

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Registrations opened today for the New York Marathon, to which I have guaranteed entry for 2013. So I registered, and have my entry approved – I’m in.

I’d love to be able to say this is due to my super-fast times set in previous marathons, or because I’ve run 15 NY marathons before, but it’s not – it’s because I took advantage of the rule whereby you enter the lottery 3 years in a row and don’t get chosen, therefore are guaranteed entry in the 4th year. That rule is due to expire next year, so I managed to get in just in time.

So, I have 6 months to get from not being able to run 5km to being able to run 42km.

Specialized Tahoe Cleat Spaces

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I bought a pair of Specialized Tahoe shoes today, as my old MTB shoes have a sole that is really solid plastic, and when walking on hard floors at work, it sounds like I have high heels on.

I’ve not tried them out yet, but the point of this post is merely to state how phenomenally difficult it was to remove the plastic cover so that I could attach my cleats. The instructions were correct, in that you do lift the rubber patch off the shoe, but it was stuck on with industrial strength glue and took a hell of a lot of effort, including many minutes hacking away at the rubber with a Stanley knife.

I finally got there, and I took a picture when I had removed one, just to show you what they look like once you have the rubber patch off, in case you run in to the same issue:

Specialized Tahoe, cleat space

Specialized Tahoe, cleat space

LimbO: Waterproof Bag for Limb in Plaster Cast

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castAfter my crash, I needed one arm put in plaster. Well, the hospital wanted both arms in plaster, but I wasn’t up for that idea. There are many problems that are presented when having an arm in plaster, or indeed, any limb, and one of those problems is how to wash yourself. You’re not allowed to get the plaster cast wet, you see.

Most people start off with a plastic shopping bag and an elastic band (or in our case, a hair bobble, volunteered by one of my daughters). It’s enough to protect your plaster cast if you’re really careful, but it’s not really a good long term solution.

Instead, the wife suggested she get me a LimbO, which is basically a bag with an elasticated end. Much like a Tesco shopping bag with an elastic band, I thought. How good would that be?

LimbO

The LimbO

Answer: much better than expected. Yes, this is basically a plastic bag with an elastic band on the end, but this thing has clearly been properly designed.

Firstly, they come in a range of sizes. I’m an athletically built person, so you’re not going to find people that much thinner than I am, and I was initially thinking the thing was going to be massive. But it wasn’t – we ordered the smallest size, and it was perfect. They also do different sizes for arms and legs, so don’t go thinking that you’ll get something massively long to fit your leg when you only need it for your arm. Double bonus.

But the best thing about the LimbO was the elasticated bit. Unbelievably, it clings to your arm and prevents water getting into it, but doesn’t hurt in the slightest and leaves no mark on you. It’s really quite extraordinary. I had expected one or the other, but this thing clings to your arm really well and I never had a single drop of water get inside the thing despite using it in the shower on a daily basis.

Arm in LimbO

Arm in LimbO

According to the instructions, you can even use this thing in the swimming pool. And I can believe it, although I didn’t try it. Therefore, I figure this means that the makers are confident that, even fully submerged, you’re going to have a completely waterproof covering of your plaster cast.

One way that I was able to get a really good feeling that this thing was going to work was when I put it on, and discovered that there was loads of air trapped inside. I waited a few seconds, and it stayed the same, just like a balloon that had been blown up. Getting rid of the air is easy; you just pull the end open a little, press the LimbO to eject the air, and then let go of the end. Air gone, and no more air can get inside.

Any issues with it? Well, the only real issue is that you now have a bag between your hand and whatever you are trying to hold on to (soap, sponge, shampoo bottle etc). But let’s be honest – what else is going to be possible? You need your hand covered if you want your cast covered, so you just have to get on with it. On a scale of 1 to 10 for this being annoying, it’s a 1 – not really annoying at all. The fact you can shower without having to constantly worry about whether your Tesco bag is letting water slide through is a massive bonus.

So if you’re looking for something to keep your cast dry when you need to get wet, the LimbO gets my vote.

Adjusting hoods on your road bike

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The hoods on my road bike looked a little odd when I went for a spin last week:

Hoods: Before

I didn’t remember then being aligned inwards as much as they were. It looked odd. But the thing was that it didn’t feel uncomfortable, it felt normal. But it still looked strange. A quick chat with a friend identified that they were indeed not right, in that they should not be converging but instead should be parallel with each other, therefore in line with the drops.

What I’d never managed to work out before was how to adjust the hoods. I couldn’t even tell how they were attached to the bars. I could tell from the fact that the handlebar tape was under the hood rubber that the hoods go on after the handlebar tape goes on, but there was no obvious way for how to attach the things. They seemed to stay there by magic.

However, I have now discovered how it’s done. Ultimately, you need to peel back the rubber and find a hole into which you can stick a 5mm allen key. Turn it left to loosen it, not too much so that it comes out completely, but just enough so you can rotate the hoods, and bingo – align them, turn the bolt back right again to tighten, and you’re done. Then do the other side.

Hoods: After

As with everything, it’s easy when you know how. The biggest issue I had was merely finding the hole. It was so hidden, that even when I could see the hole, it wasn’t obvious that it was a 5mm hexagon into which an allen key would fit. But now I do. Therefore, it ended up being a 5 minute job.

I think they ended up like that because the bolts were not particularly tight, as it was quite easy to loosen them. I therefore think that the bolts have been a tiny bit loose and I have therefore pushed the hoods inwards slowly over time, and it was only when I had put the bike away for 5 weeks (due to breaking myself, see previous posts) that it was then obvious that something was wrong, when I pulled the bike out of storage.

Another day, another wrist / thumb bike test

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Went out for a spin on the bike today to see whether it would be possible to ride my road bike now that I’m a little less broken than before. 13 miles later, and the answer is a qualified yes. It’s a little sore, but I’m putting it down to atrophy more than anything else. Also, the hoods are now squint on my bike, so sorting that out should make it less painful.

Which brings me to my next post…

Freedom

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Cast I got my cast off yesterday. Thankfully, I didn’t have to have another one put back on again. Had 6 x-rays done, four of which were of my wrist, to see how the break is healing. The good news was that it’s healed enough to not require another cast, although the doc made it clear that there is still a break there, but it’s now much smaller than it was before, hence I didn’t need another cast.

This is a relief, as tbh I was starting to go a bit mad with the thought that I might need a cast on for another 6 weeks, potentially. I now have had the delights of being able to have a shower, amongst many other things, in a normal way.

The wrist is still sore, mind you, due to it not having moved for 6 weeks. Therefore, I will still be in some pain for the next while, but this can’t be avoided, after all.

ThumbI also got x-rays done of my thumb. It looks really quite bad, much worse than the first x-ray I got of it, but the hospital seem to think it’s ok. It’s now much more clearly broken in the new x-ray, and it’s going to stay like this forever, meaning I can’t bend my thumb back as much as I did before. Apparently, that isn’t really a problem, since I’ll still be able to close my thumb, which is the important bit. It is now significantly less sore than it was a few days ago, so definite improvement there.

It is not possible to cycle with a plaster cast on your arm

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OK, so I was being overly hopeful at the weekend when wanting to get back on the bike. I did go out for a short 4 mile spin round the block, and initially it seemed that it is indeed possible to cycle despite having a plaster cast on my right arm, from below the elbow to my knuckles. Alas, although I could brake when at a slow speed, I couldn’t brake effectively from a faster speed, as I can’t tighten my right hand enough to brake very hard. Therefore, I had to accept that cycling really will have to wait until this thing is off my arm.

That should happen Friday. There’s a risk that they take it off, x-ray my wrist again and discover it’s not healed enough yet, but quite frankly I’m not going to let them put another one back on my arm because my skin is now massively irritated by the cast and it’s causing me serious psychological damage. They said last time I was at hospital that I would get it off and might have to use a splint for another couple of weeks if it was still sore, and the good thing about a split is you can take it off. And it isn’t the same material and is significantly less likely to irritate my skin. But mainly, being able to take it off will be wonderful. So I need to focus on that being the goal… just two more full days of this damn thing to go and then it’s off…

As for the cold, it seems to finally be disappearing. Hurrah.

Fixing the bike. Cold not shifting.

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I’ve had enough of this cold. It’s still showing no signs of going away.

Got the bike out, as spring arrived finally today. Thought I’d just need to put the chain on, since I crashed on the non-drivetrain side, but alas the brakes needing adjusted so the wheels could actually move. Not the end of the world. Seems to be in working order. I’m going to go out on it now, to see how I get on cycling with a plaster cast on my arm, because quite frankly I’m pissed off waiting to get it off, and if I can ride a bike somewhat safely and stick to quiet roads and bike paths, I should be ok.

Yes, I’m trying to convince myself.

Irritated

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I can’t help but feel irritated by my current state of health. I also know it’s probably a taste of things to come in later life, when things stop working with less obvious external notifications, but they stop working all the same. But right now, with this brokenness, added to which I’ve had a stinking cold that is showing no sign of letting up after 6 days, I’m solidly in cabin fever right now. My right thumb is now really sore due to the plaster cast having a really hard, rough edge that has been giving me pain since the 2nd day the thing was put on me, and the pain has been getting progressively worse with each passing day. And there’s still 10 days of this thing to go before I get it off. And damn, I’d better get it taken off… if I turn up at hospital and they refuse to take it off, I seriously might saw the thing off my arm myself. Frustrated is nowhere near strong enough a word for my current mental state.

Itching to get out

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Aside from contracting a stinking cold within an hour of returning home from France, I’m itching to get out for a run or a ride. It’s 2 weeks to go until I get this cast off, though, so surely to goodness I can wait that long. But it’s tough. I’m also still browsing Wiggle and Chain Reactions repeatedly, but so far have managed to resist spending cash.

Continued Recovery

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Things are continuing to get better on the recovery from my crash early last month. First, I’ve not had the black splint on my left hand for about 4 days now, at all, and it’s not caused me any problems. I even managed to bash my thumb yesterday in a way that would previously have had significant pain, but it wasn’t sore at all. Therefore, I’m coming to the conclusion that the break is definitely on the way to being healed. I’m still taking it easy on the thumb, don’t get me wrong, and there are many, many things I can’t do with it still – indeed, there are only a few things I can do with it so far. But I can use my left hand much more than even a few days ago.

The left shoulder is also dramatically better. I hardly notice any pain at all, and there’s only a couple of things that cause discomfort in my day to day activities, so it’s almost back to normal. It’s amazing what a difference a couple of weeks can make, as back then, I still could hardly move it without incredibly pain.

The right wrist, well, there’s not a lot I can do about that, since it’s in plaster. Two weeks tomorrow, though, it should be coming off, at which point I will no doubt have muscle atrophy to deal with, but that’s better than a plaster cast.

Going back to the physio today re: the shoulder. I don’t think I need to keep going to see her about it, so will tell her I ain’t coming back. No doubt she will have different opinions.

Central Taxis – odd but nice gesture

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I’ve repeatedly mentioned that I came off my bike a few weeks ago (oh! 4 weeks ago today, it seems), and when I did, I decided to get a taxi to Accident and Emergency rather than call an ambulance, as I needed to take my bike with me.

A few days afterwards, I dropped a note to them (Central Taxis, Edinburgh), asking them to pass on my thanks to the driver who took me to hospital. I told them the circumstances as to why I needed a taxi, and they then sent me vouchers for a future taxi journey, for no apparent reason. Hurrah! Being nice pays off once again, as it’s also netted me £30 of vouchers for being nice about a bike shop and £20 of vouchers for posting a review on a mobile phone web site, all in the past 3 months. All very unexpected, it has to be said, but pleasing all the same.

Thumb improvement

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The left thumb, which I broke on 6th March, is starting to show some signs of improvement. I’ve been largely unable to use my left hand even when I have not been trying to involve the thumb because the use of my fingers tends to somehow pull the muscles around the thumb, which then caused extreme pain. However, in the past few days, I have been largely able to use my left hand a lot more, albeit still not using the thumb.

However, the past couple of days has seen significant improvement in the thumb itself. It now seems to be sore to use it, but mainly I believe from atrophy of the muscles, rather than pain where the break is. I can now use the thumb in all directions to some extent; not a lot, but a little. For example, I can now hold a towel and use the thumb to hold it slightly as well, while drying myself after a shower. I can now also use my left hand to itch myself, which might not sound that impressive, but man alive, for certain areas of the body which my right hand can’t reach, it’s a blessing.

Added to this is that my left shoulder is almost completely pain free now. I can use it totally normally now, and only occasionally get any discomfort from it, and even then, it’s relatively mild. So my left hand side is definitely becoming more useful again, which is a massive win.

I am continuing to discover more things that I do left handed, though. It’s one of the odd things about being a standard ambidextrous person, which is that you do some things left handed, and other things right handed. I can see no pattern to why I do some things with one hand. Yesterday – peeling an orange. I discovered I must do that left handed when I had to do it right handed due to the lack of a left thumb. The list is getting quite long, but thankfully, I’m able to do these things right handed too, with a bit of practice.

So overall, things are looking more positive than before on the injury front. Here’s hoping I’ll be back on the bike before the end of April.

Public Transport in Strasbourg

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Before I came to Strasbourg, I spent a fair bit of time looking into how we would get around the city using public transport, and how we would get from the airport to our house. I had rough ideas about this, but there were a lot of unanswered questions, mainly because the information on the various web sites was poor at best, but mainly shit. Hence, I am writing up some notes so that others in the same boat as me can have early info that, in general, the public system is actually pretty damn good. And I say that as a resident of Edinburgh, where the public transport (Lothian Buses, mainly) is excellent, so my standards are high.

First, the trams. There are currently 6 lines, which all generally intersect at one station in the centre, called Homme de Fer. The trams go to most of the places that we have wanted to go, but if they didn’t, there is also a reasonable bus service here too. To use either the bus or the tram, you get a ticket which can be used for both. Now, here’s the first thing that I could not figure out – where to get the tickets from. The web sites suggest you can get them from some shops and some tram stations, but from my experience, you can get them from any tram station, as they all have ticket machines that can sell a variety of tickets to you, and you can pay for them with a credit card or coins.

As there are 5 of us, what we did was use “Trio” tickets, which allows up to 3 people to travel for 24 hours. And we could get these at the tram stops. Alternatively, you can get tickets for individuals, if you are on your own, but if there is more than just you, a trio ticket is the way to go.

The next thing that had me worried was what you did with these tickets once you bought them.  What you do is “validate” the tickets at the tram stops before you get on the tram, but unlike London’s oyster card, you don’t validate it again when you get off.  Instead, it seems to work on the basis of trust, in that you could jump on and off without having a validated tickets, but I assume they must have conductors who check your tickets occasionally. When you validate your ticket, it prints when the ticket is valid up to, which is quite handy especially if you are running with multiple of the things. So, validate before using it, and that’s all you have to do.

Getting from the Entzheim airport to Strasbourg itself was another concern.  Some web sites claimed that you could get an express bus, while others suggested a train.  The latter is the truth. And the trip is actually really simple.  At the airport, you can get a ticket from the airport building itself for the “TER and Tram” – the TER being the train. The airport is linked to the train “station” by a covered walkway, you really can’t miss it.  Before you go into the covered walkway, though, you can get your ticket in the airport building, as there is a machine situated just before you enter the covered walkway. The ticket was 4 euros per person, and it allows you to take the train to the central Strasbourg station (Gare de Strasbourg) from where you can take the tram to your destination without paying any more. 

However, finding the tram stop in the Gare was not easy. The signs just stopped and we didn’t find it, instead we ended up outside and headed for a different tram stop.  The Gare’s tram stop is under the station, you do not go outside the station to get to it.  You do, however, go very close to going out of the station, but just before you exit, you instead go down three sets of escalators to the tram. The tram is signposted initially with ‘tram’ signs, but these then stop and change to just pictures of a tram, which is like a bus with a ‘<‘ sign above it. Keep your eyes peeled, and just be aware that you don’t go outside, and you’re looking for escalators that go down, and you should be ok.

So in summary, public transportation in Strasbourg is good, but is let down by shit and contradictory documentation on their web sites.