July 2006 – Frank Kinlan's Blog

Clearing the wardrobe Part 2

Things have taken another turn since the first post two weeks ago. I’ve had to make another trip to Tesco,s to buy some more trousers. 42 inch trousers were just a stop gap, I now fit into 40 inch trousers so came out with 4 pairs that were reduced to make way for the winter ranges. Shirtsize is now a L instead of a XXL on the subject of collarsize I was buying 18.5 inch collars thats now down to about 16.5 inches.
I’ll do another post about current BMI but its dropped around 10, it’s around the 30 mark now so the aim is to drop out of the obese catagory and into the overweight.

Disaster, a pair of the trousers were dry clean only. I threw them in on a quick wash and they came out a good 4 inches shorter. good job I hadn’t paid the £30 that was on the label. You live and learn.

Weekending 30 July o6

Monday: Hour in gym, 15mins cross trainer, 5 mins rowing, the rest on weights.500ml of water before the Spinning class, another 500ml of water during the class. Sweated most if not more out during the class. Another 15 mins doing my arms after the class.
Tuesday: Wirral circular route, must have had the wind behind me as I was doing 25 mph down the prom at Seacombe. Called in to see Brian, stopped at West Kirby and had a treat, an strawberry lolly ice. The first since I’ve been on the plan. Met Pinarello Terry whilst I was filling my water bottle (dont buy the “Paris” that’ll be two bling bikes you have) another climb up Grange road out of West Kirby. It was good but not as satifying as doing it the first time.
Turned left at the bottom of the hill and then it was up Montgomery Drive and then another climb up the roundabout at the Irby Mill, these used to be the hardest climbs that I could manage without collapsing at he top of them. But it was the only way out of West Kirby at the start.
Back home via my Mum and Dads and Rest Hill,30 miles.
Spinning class at 6.30 .
Wednesday: Down to the Eureka via the Missing link, breakfast as usual. Picked up a ride from Bob of the CTC and six others to the Waterfalls Garden Centre near Wrexham.
Turned out to be a really great day out, couldn’t tell you for the life of me what route was taken but a lot of it was all new to me including the cycle path down along the River Dee. Had an unbuttered tea cake at the garden centre which probably wasn’t enough.
Back through Chester on the cycle paths to the Eureka, bought the tea which seemed to go down well. Back home through Puddington, Ness Neston and split off at Gayton.
Had to refuel at Heswall Hills with an oat flapjack. A memorable day. 67 miles
Nearly forgot RestHill at the end of it.
Thursday: Restday
Friday: Another restday
Saturday:Evening out after work. This is the longest break for a while where I haven’t done some form of extra exercise.

Weekending 23July06

Monday: 30 mins in the Fitness Suite then a spinning class. Starting to get some payback from this class, climbing hills isn’t as hard as it was. It’s not easy by any stretch of the imagination and compared to some of the other in the class I have no speed for the sprints , but I’m not cheating by having no resistance on the machine.
Tuesday: 1/2 Wirral loop with stops for photo,s for the easy routes I’m trying to develop .Brilliant weather, tackled the climb out of West Kirby ( Grange Road) for the first time, stopped at the top for a photo I liked it that much. Thurstaton cutting was tackled too along with RestHill with a photo taken at the bottom.
The second Spinning class this week went well now that I’m drinking water before the class starts. 25 Miles.

Grange Road out of West Kirby

Resthill Road

Wednesday: 1 Hr in the gym after work, 20 mins on crosscountry cycle program.
Thurday: 1 Hr in the gym after work, 25 mins on crosscountry cycle program.
Friday: Rest Day, watched Tour de France.
Saturday: Another rest day, will fettle the bike for Sunday.
Sunday: Wirral Circular Route, Hoylake was quite quiet considering the final of the Open was on. Posting a picture of Telegraph road at Thurstaton as this is a fair climb and I would have to say its a DANGEROUS one at that.

Telegraph Road.jpg

It was straight to the Eureka Cafe for breakfast then back home via the Missing Link for 11o’clock. Booked 2 spinning classes. 41 miles most of it absolutley empty.

Wirral Coastal cycle path(Easy)

This is the first route I am going to do and the easyest. There is a slight rise halfway along that might require you to change down a gear or two BEFORE you hit the bottom, not when your starting to struggle half way up.

Start: Seacombe Ferry
Finnish: New Brighton
Distance:
Start is at Seacombe Ferry and the finish is the pub at New Brighton they have been renovating for what seems like years. This is just meant to be a taster route and to let me get the hang of things.

As you can see it’s deserted at this time of the morning.
Next picture is just past the pub that overllooks the Mersey.

Youve just come down this slope, so keep pedalling. Next up is the slope I was telling you about at the start.

The next picture is the end of the route.

Now turn around and ride back to the start. That shouldn’t take too much out of you.

Eating whilst on a ride.

A post to stop you falling into the trap I fell into.

Before I went on the weight management course I was stuck at around 122 Kg. I’d be doing a 30 mile circular route about once a week that took in the promenade at Seacombe and New Brighton, Hoylake WestKirby and home. As part of this ride I’d regulary stop off at the kiosk at the pitch an putt in NewBrighton.
Here I’d buy a Mars bar and a Corneto (mint flavour) icecream, I thought I deserved it I’d just cycled 8 miles I must have burned that off just getting there.

This stop sometimes washed down with a Fanta was undoing the work of the next 20 odd miles I was going to put in, including Montgomery hill outside WestKirby. How many calories in a Corneto anyone?

That was then, now it’s a piece of fruit if I bother to stop and I’ll only ever have water in the bottle. I’ll have an energy bar in the back pocket for emergencies. One other thing, a Mars Bar after 10 miles in your back pocket looks like the last thing on earth you’d want to eat.

The first follow up class

To say I was apprehensive about this one is an understatement I’ve been populating the site with posts for the last month with no feedback and then I get two comments from Ron. Thanks Ron.

Like on the classes I attended we were introduced to the class that replaced our class, that moment has stuck in my mind and is one of the reasons why this site was formed.
I want to put something back into the program that has benefitted me so much.

If you were in that class, I was in exactly the same situation 3 months ago. In a few weeks time you are going to be fully equiped to follow this plan on your own.
I’ll restate what I said this evening “Do your daily exercise plan, and if you’ve been given a Leisure Pass make sure you use it, the gains can be tremendous”.

Anyway six of us turned up, four from the class I attended and two others, I thought there might have been a few more but there could be a thousand reasons for not turning up, one being it’s holiday season.

The weigh in revealed a weight loss of 4 kg in five weeks with my weight now at 101Kg, a total of 31Kg lost to date.

The rest of the time was spent explaining a bit about this site, how to access it and a Q&A session on aspects of taking up cycling again and routes.
It looks like the map and routes section is going to need a fair bit of work to get it up and running 100% and I also need to address the problem of those without internet access or any computer knowledge.

I’ve been very encouraged by the feedback, if there is anything anyone wants to discuss, post a comment.

Weekending 16 July06

Monday:Spinning class, bit easier on the arms this week, still sweating buckets. Took a bigger bottle of water in this week too.
Tuesday:1 Hour in the gym after work. Added an extra 5kg on a few of the machines.No exercise bike just the cross-trainer and the rowing machine.
Wednesday:Wirral loop(40miles)took some pictures of the prom at Seacombe, had to turn down a ride to the Ice Cream Farm which was pity but the new toy needs collecting from a service. The toy is a Trek Maddone 5.2 for those that know what one is, thought I deserved a treat as I’ve now lost 3 times the weight of one of these.
Weigh in at St Caths.
Thursday: Wasn’t in the mood for the gym as the Tour De France is on so did a loop down Levers Causeway, up Resthill turned around at the top then did it again.Next time three.
Friday: Got to the gym in my kit only to be told it shut at 8 on a friday, DOH looks like a restday then.
Saturday: Came across old Terry going the Mills down Resthill, rode along with him through the farm at Willaston(didn’t know this route so thanks), second Breakfast of the week then started a Wirral loop with Terry. Went down the lane to the marsh and did the climb that emerges by Ness gardens. A nice climb(thanks again), onto Parkgate, Terry left at Gayton. Terry is 76 by the way! Onto WestKirby, Hoylake and along the sea defences to Moreton Lighthouse where it was time to join the road. Back on coastal route to NewBrighton, Seacombe.Stopped at Woodside to sea cruise ship in Mersey.
Home. 48 miles.
Sunday: Breakfast at the Mills, rode to Ice cream farm with Jim Kevin Alan and Charlie.Back on the canal path. Brilliant sunshine. Another good day out. Up Resthill.
55 miles.

Total 143 miles 1 spinning class and an hour in the gym + a loop up Resthill

Clearing the wardrobe.

It is now four months since I started the course and I’ve had to have a wardrobe clearout. I’ve lost around 4 inches off my waist and the pants just dont fit any more.
Some of them were unworn with the tags on them to boot.
The way things are going the rest of the wardrobe will soon be in a charity shop as well, I’ve dropped at least a shirt size so the shirts too are going to need replacing.

One of the great benefits of going through all this is your not struggling to get anything to fit you anymore. I’m of the impression that the buyers for the shops only ever order a token amount of the largest sizes and if they sell out fast they are never going to reorder them as they have a shelf full of midrange sizes to shift.

Weekending 09July06

Wednesday: 1 hour in the gym after work.
Thursday: same as wednesday.
Friday:Wirral Circular route clockwise(45miles),stopped at Parkgate and the boating lake at New Brighton, swans on the lake.
Saturday:Breakfast at the Eureka Cafe, rode back with Terry as far as the Wheatsheaf in Ness, onto Parkgate, Heswall. Called into see Daves block paving then back home via Station Road and Rest Hill (no problem 1min30)25 miles
Sunday:Breakfast at the Eureka Cafe, joined Kevin and Bill on a ride out to the Ice Cream Farm. Came back via the canal for tea at the mills. Home via Thornton Hough and another trip up Rest Hill. A great day out, 50 miles.

Liverpool-Chester-Liverpool ride report

Rode down to the Birkenhead tunnel and then through it before they closed it off. Which is just as well as I later heard that people were being turned back on the Birkenhead side.

Still I registered on the day and then had to carry the T-shirt around with me, at some points I should have used it as a sweatcloth as it was it ended up going under the new bike to protect the frame from getting scratched on the way home.

The ride: Had a really good ride, saw no crashes but heard about one in the tunnel from a chap I rode the Chester-Liverpool leg with, gather the three of them were OK. Highlights of the trip out were tagging on to a group of four at Gayton and falling off the back of them on the road to Willaston. Neston, Ness and Burton came up and then it was a stop for a Slimmer,s Breakfast at the Eureka Cafe, the third one this week. Rejoined the ride well fueled with only the roundabout on the A55 giving a bit of concern. Met the chap that signed on before me at the Chester stop had a chat and decided to ride back to Liverpool together. It proved to be a good decision as it turned out we have similar abilities and it made for an enjoyable ride back. The hill at Brackenwood didn,t seem as bad this year and neither did the climb out of the Wallasey tunnel, it just goes to show what loosing a couple of stone and getting out more can do for you. Sting in the tail was the emergency exit sliproad at Liverpool tunnel entrance. This is about twice the gradient of the 2 mile climb out of the tunnel itself. Granny ring for me this year although now it wouldnt be a problem on the middle ring.

A brilliant day with great weather will probably do it again next year. I felt for all those doing it on Mountain bikes they,d dragged out the shed, it looked like hard work dragging 40 pounds of steel around with tyres that want to stick to the road.

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