Well here I am again. It is now nearly a third of the way into the year and as ever despite great plans and constant target setting, I have made very little concerted effort to get fit or indeed to update this site as my memorial.
So let’s deal with health and fitness. I am increasingly getting over the operation from last year. The scar has almost disappeared and most days I only have a bit of an ache under what I call the overhang – the bit of flesh between my diaphram and the scar. My plumbing seems to cope most of the time and thanks to Nicky at Lunts in Pontesbury I have yet to run out of Creon although things are getting a little tricky with current supplies.
The only blip came in Feburary when one Sunday I had extreme pain in the upper part of my abdomen followed by vomiting very green stuff despite not having eaten. I rang 101 and they sent an ambulance. The crew were great and it was reassuring that most of my vital signs were OK. However, in the interests of caution they took me in the ambulance and I was taken into Fit to Sit. Some early observations and then I vomited again. Eventually I saw a doctor who was fairly sure that I had pancreatitis. I was transferred to SAU (surgical assessment) where I was given a trolley in a bay. Late in the evening I was seen by another doctor who had been waiting for the blood tests. He again was sure it was pancreatitis and said he would try and get a CT scan. It is quite ironic that when I had my first DVT (suspected pulmonary embolism) I was not given a CT scan due to “unnecessary exposure” to X-rays and I have had about six in the last 15 months. Not that I am complaining because if I had not had the one in December 2023 I might not be here writing this.
Back to February and it was Superbowl night. I was avoiding watching as it involved two of my least favourite teams. However, I was taken to X-ray for the scan and saw the Eagles score a “tush-push” touchdown. On my return to the bay I did get some sleep before being intravenous fluids and some fairly hefty painkillers (suppository) . I was then woken by the doctor who informed me that the scan had shown inflammation of the remnant of the pancreas and the presence of some “stones”. He said I would be able to go home with the painkillers and return in 48 hours unless my condition deteriorated. I watched the end of the Superbowl and then slept fitfully until Susan came to pick me up. On my return on the Wednesday it was confirmed that it had been pancreatitis and I was referred back to Stoke for any potential follow up.
Thankfully I have not (yet) had a recurrence. However, it did slow down my plans for exercise and it was a couple of weeks before I tried cycling again. My Training Peaks plan has been amended so many times.
I did however take advantage of the enforced lay off to acquire my first “E-bike”. It is not strictly new as I bought a Swytch kit and converted Susan’s old Giant mountain bike. The hardest part was actually the time that I wasted on the day that it was supposed to be delivered waiting in. Cue stroppy X message (note – i now no longer use X) and apologies from UPS who had told me three times that it ould be delivered. The first stage of the conversion was to actually get the Giant working again – it was last ridden for the Montgomery Canal Triathlon in 2017!! It took two days and lots of lubricant to get things moving again. Then I had some problems with the set up but had very good support from the Customer Service team at Swytch and I finally got it working.
I am very impressed with it too having ridden it on some of the hills around her. Yesterday for example I popped to the local village for milk and came back up Drury Lane. It was so much easier and I did the round trip in 20 minutes less than I did on Shirley. I shall still be riding my selection of “conventional” bikes but the e-bike is good for looking at the scenery and keeping my heart rate low.
Talking of conventional bikes, Claude is back on the road after more than a year on the Tacx trainer. I have entered the Velo Retro in the Lake District at the end of May and as Claude dates back to 1985 he qualifies (as indeed do I!). I am slightly worried that he is not entirely authentic as I had the gears etc upgraded to STI in 2009 but that’s 15 years ago. Prior to my operation last year I had retained all the original components (downtime shifters, brakes, 7 speed wheel) but I took them to the local cycle charity shop when I was decluttering. I am still half looking for the parts to convert him back but shall see how I get on. I am also determined to tidy up the Mercian fixed wheel bike which is of similar vintage but I shall not be riding it on the Grande Fromage ride as there are too many hills. Funnily enough the Giant still has all the original fixings so I may de-electric it! My other bike from that era – the Dawes Countryman also had a drive-train upgrade – I think about 15 years ago too. I must make another page for this site of my bikes.
The other exercise is that I have been playing golf again having joined the senior section at Arscott a few weeks ago. I shall start a new 2025 golf page in the next week or so. My first competition was a Texas Scramble with one of the best players in the club. A particular highlight were two recovery hybrids on the 5th from the dip after we both hit poor tee shots. One ended on the green and the other just off the green but pin high. Sadly I missed the approach putt and we ended up with a bogey. There were only two of us so on each shot one of us had to hit two balls. I played as well as I have done in years and we ended up 1 under par net from his handicap of 8. This however wasn’t good enough to win a prize.
The following week I took part in a 3-2-1 Stableford and in contrast played very poorly and ended up resorting to my 5 iron off the tee. My best hole was the 9th where I hit two good 5 irons and got a par which was a good score for the team. We came fourth and I actually won a prize. The following week was the 1st Medal competition. I did not take part but played 18 holes on my own. Badly. I actually used the shot-by-shot feature of Hole 19 and you can see my round here.
I started this post about a month ago and it is now the middle of April. We returned this week from a holiday in Sicily which was very scenic but had problems with food as we were part of a tour group. I did escape one morning for a walk/run. It was not the most scenic of runs along a flat road avoiding early morning Italians but I felt much better afterwards and throughout the day.
So I am now preparing for this years events including:
The Velo Retro at the end of June.
A 100 mile canal ride / NCN 81 ride into Birmingham in June.
A super-sprint triathlon in Birmingham in July.
A charity ride in Glasgow to support Sir Chris Hoy’s charity in September – I have set up a charity page here;
Another super-sprint triathlon in Nantwich a week later;
Another charity event – the Cancer Research Shine walk with Susan in London – another charity page to come.
I am also hoping to do a longer paddle over a couple of days – probably the Llangollen canal.
I am also aiming to complete much more of the historic aspects of this site including posing in all the many event tee-shirts I have gathered over the years together with the timeline of events and pictures of the various bibs I have worn. I may even take out the medal collection.
So I am still plodding while I can
AJMB 20th April 2025