24 Hours in Berlin

So last Friday I decided at about 11am that I was going to go to Berlin to skate in the BMW Berlin Inline Marathon. This would have been a great idea, except that it meant I had about 24 hours to get there. I’ve done the marathon before, and as long as the weather is good it’s one of the best routes you can skate. Check my video here:

Aside from the skate itself which you now know is really cool having watched the video, there were a couple of good reasons for this decision; namely 2 friends who I texted to wish them luck.
One of them is Emily. Emily is a bit of an action girl and was not just skating the marathon but also running the same race the following day. Please sponsor her; her donation page is here: http://virginmoneygiving.com/emilyorme
The other is a very close friend of mine who won’t be named. Actually she will, might as well plug her business too, which is sports rehabilitation and fitness conditioning. Her name is Kinga and she works independently at a company called Ambition Fitness – www.ambitionfitness.com
So I texted them both to wish them luck, and the responses that came back were something like this:
Kinga: I’ve never been to Berlin without you! Shame you couldn’t join!
Me: I looked into it but the flight and hotel was super expensive…
Kinga: Too bad, I had a spare space in the hotel as well!
Emily: You have no idea how much that means to me!
Me: Well I wish I could have been there to support you better…
But actually I could have been there. So I looked for a flight and booked it. Then booked airport parking. Then asked around to see if anyone who had a registration wasn’t going, so I could pretend to be them for a couple of hours during the race. Then I told Kinga I’d see her tomorrow. At first she thought I was joking but I assured her I wasn’t.
My flight was via Frankfurt so what followed was an epic journey of flight delays, the obligatory anal (not literally) German security at Frankfurt airport (only Frankfurt, other German airports seem more relaxed), and an epic fail of a skate that saw me have to stop 5 times to rest, because my back gave out about 2km in.
I did eventually finish though, and having met with friends and caught up with everyone, I was heading back to the airport within 24 hours of arriving.
I’m really pleased I went, as it’s given me a reminder of how unfit I’ve become. Starting today I went for a run in the morning; something I hadn’t done since 2006, and I felt great afterwards. My body is still aching but it was a great feeling watching the sunrise over Tower Bridge. I’ve also been eating healthily today, but it remains to be seen how long that will last. I’m fairly determined to get fitter again though, and lose the 10kg or so I’ve piled on since being in my prime 6 years ago!
Wish me luck

Le Mans 24 Hour Rollers 2012

So I just got back from our annual London Wheelers team trip to the Le Mans 24Rollers event.
I've done it 4 times now, 3 running our own team, and it was mostly excellent!

Every year I go to the event and think of something that could be done better next year. Last year, after a long train journey and a horrible walk to get to the campsite with several heavy bags, I saw some friends roll up on motorbikes and in cars and thought "I could have done that" so this year I did!

I wanted to really look after the team this year, as some were travelling from across the Atlantic ocean and others hadn't been before, so I bought enough tent space for everyone. This consisted of a gigantic tent that was sold as a 6-person tent but could probably fit an entire battalion of troops in it. The best tent on the whole campsite though, was my VW Camper Van shaped tent. It was very popular with hundreds of people stopping to take photos of it. At night while trying to sleep I kept thinking a thunderstorm was about to start from all the flash photography, and people were using it as a landmark for describing how to get to places!

To transport all this stuff there, I spent some money getting my old BMW 528i back on the road. It has a huge boot and, apart from the problems with fuel consumption and steering that both still need looking at after the MOT, it was a great motorway cruiser.

Back at the track, the team got on really well and it was lovely to have everyone there with smiles on their faces. The only downside was that although we were sharing our pit lane with several other London teams consisting of a lot of our friends, we arrived at the pit lane a little later than everyone else and they had left no space for us at all, filling it with double mattresses and a baby change area. It made the pit lane useless to us and we mostly found ourselves sitting by the trackside instead of with friends. This is reflected in the photos which either all show the other teams or our team but never together.

Next year we'll turn up early and set up a Hard Rock Cafe in the pit lane. And maybe fit a toll booth for anyone who wants to pass.

Another day, another blog post

Good morning everyone!

What a glorious sunny day ^_^

Yesterday I got a parking ticket in Shoreditch. How annoying. I am always very careful where I park and I was on a single yellow line on a Sunday morning. The adjacent resident permit bay was in force, but I wasn't in it. I suspect the stupid traffic warden was confused or just trying to increase his quota. I shall have to dispute it.

What was I doing in Shoreditch on a Sunday morning? I went to the Albion for breakfast. It was a rather nice breakfast, but £15 for 2 sausages, 2 eggs, a bit of toast, a cup of coffee and a marmite and cheese swirl is excessive. If I end up having to pay the parking ticket as well, £75 will make it the most expensive breakfast I have ever eaten, and this coming from someone who used to have to get work to pay £20 in the Glasgow Marriott just so I could have a bowl of cereal.

What else happened yesterday? Some nice skating, oh and then a fairly nice dinner in Dalston. It wasn't the best I ever had, but I did manage to clean the plate, and it cost considerably less than the breakfast down the road.

I have no idea why I even wrote that. Nobody reads this anyway.

Oh yeah, this morning I rode my bike to work again. It was rather splendid, but I have decided I can't ride it in less than 25 minutes so I'm not going to try and go any faster. Happy to be passed by the crazy Lance Armstrong wannabes in their lycra.

If the weather continues like this I may have to ditch the car and ride to work more often! Yay :)

One week of movement

Awesome! Yesterday I finished one week of exercise every day. I didn't intend to, but I've been feeling much better as a result.

It started with Rock Climbing at the Westway sports centre last Wednesday. I totally sucked at it and slipped a few times. Good thing I was secured with ropes or I'd have suffered yet more horrific injuries.
I skipped a fast skate to go climbing, so when the weather was good on Thursday I organised a skate of my own, which worked very well.
More skating on Friday, though this time I managed to skip dinner and while assisting a friend who was lagging behind, I ran out of energy myself and couldn't quite keep up either. Still made it to the end.
Saturday was epic. Intended to go for a short cycle ride and then do some more climbing in the afternoon. Epic fail for climbing though. What started as a short cycle ride ended up being a 40 mile mission to Richmond Park and back. Still, the weather was great and I could still move when I got home.
Sunday saw a return to skating, this time just a bit of gentle exercise on a lovely sunny day.
I woke up on Monday to gorgeous sunshine and a cloudless sky, so out came the bike again, this time to cycle to work and back. For a special bonus, my boss managed to fix the gearshift on my bike, so the ride home was even better (despite the sore bum I'd suffered from the epic Saturday mission).
Yesterday, another trip to the climbing centre where my buddy pushed me pretty hard and I bashed my knee on the wall. Still feeling it today so time for some rest. Yay!