A Decent Burial

Apparently there were flurries of snow in centre of town this morning but I’ve seen nothing. Even L reports it snowing during her morning walk with the dogs.

L’s been looking at cycling undies in Evans Cycles. Cycling undies? Really? There are such things then but apparently there’s not much of a range. Not quite La Senza then. Although I’m not sure L's idea of cycling undies is quite the same as mine.

Finally we get a flurry of snow here. Then suddenly the flurry turns into a white out, albeit a brief one. I check my phone, no texts about dog training being off tonight, yet. They are a fickle bunch; surely it’s just a matter of time.

I receive an email from the Derby Triathlon Club entitled 'Dear Athlete'. Flattery will get them everywhere. The Derby Double Duathlon, which is three lots of running and two lots of cycling, is on again. This year they’ve even avoided a clash with the Derby 10k. It’s the week after, not that that helps much as I already have several options for ‘entertainment’ that weekend. Another weekend where I’ll be pulling events out of a hat.

The Save the Victoria Leisure Centre Campaign rumbles on as the council attempts to close the centre a year early, before it has even obtained planning permission for its replacement. A petition of 3464 signatures and 233 letters of objection have been submitted. There was also a demonstration last weekend that attracted hundreds of people.

One interesting fact about the ‘public consultation’ has emerged. Initially, the consultation on the future of the historic old building produced a majority in favour of refurbishment. That was until the council went into local schools and made presentations to the children. Once their views were counted, the results were reversed and there was suddenly a majority in favour of knocking the place down and building a new one. No doubt swayed by the option of a child-friendly fun pool? Nice maybe but a loss maker for the council. Kids now swim for free and the money the council gets from central Government doesn’t cover their costs. Perhaps they should listen to what the paying customers want but then they’d be in danger of turning a profit.



Shame about the Americanised spelling.

Dog training actually survives the two millimetre deep drifts we have here and I head off over there with the boys. MD’s weaves are excellent. Unfortunately he won’t be required to weave on his debut on Saturday. His jumping is ok; he even keeps most of the poles up. His tunnels though are rubbish. I mean how hard can a tunnel be for a dog? There’s very little you can do with a tunnel rather than go through it but MD doesn’t seem to quite get it yet. Unfortunately, I’m sure they’ll be plenty of those on Saturday.

After training I go around to my father’s again, he’s still having computer problems. Well that might be an understatement. It’s totally died. I take it away with me, to give it a decent burial.

A Man After My Own Heart

Having delayed L getting up, I volunteer to walk the dogs. Though it’s not too icy today, I bet she wishes I’d volunteered yesterday, when it was truly hell on ice. The skittish one, as L calls him, was relatively good, although I did have to remind him how to behave a few times but I think he took it on board.

More news on the campaign to keep Victoria Leisure Centre open, at least until planning permission for a replacement has been granted. There is now an online petition.

Originally the council agreed to fund the centre until March 2011, by which time it was hoped a replacement would be close to being available. However now the council has changed their mind and the centre will close on April 1st. They have been trying to close the leisure centre since 1993 and it looks as if they may get their wish this time. Whilst I'm not great fan of Victoria, closing it and not replacing would put an intolerable strain on the other centres, some of which are already heaving.

I also think the proposed redevelopment plans are a mess and will do little to enhance sport and leisure facilities in Nottingham but that’s another story. If the council for once actually put together something that people wanted and would use then they might find that they'd actually make some money from their investment rather than forever having to subsidise it, as is the current case.

Squash is called off at the last minute as my opponent cuts his finger loading the dish washer...

So I have to hastily rearrange my fitness schedule and I meet L at the Tennis Centre gym, where I do 16km (10 miles) on the bike. I’ve recently started reading a new book about cycling called ‘The Hour: Sporting Immortality The Hard Way’, it’s written by a chap called Michael Hutchinson who is a rather successful British time trailist (that’s cycling by the way). In it he decides to have a crack at the ‘hour’ record, which is how far you can ride a bike in an hour, which was at that time held by Chris Boardman.



Well Hutchinson likes the science side of the sport, a man after my own heart, and mentions that he reckons he can generate around 400 watts of power for an hour and that should put him close to Boardman’s record. Wrong. When he attempts the required pace in training 400 watts is nowhere near enough, turns out he needs to generate over 500 to get even close, which caused him to have a bit of a rethink. Anyhow, my point is, as I sit pedalling away, at a furious pace, generating a lot of power... I see the power readout on the bike reads 200 watts. Ouch. So I’m no Chris Boardman nor Michael Hutchinson nor even half a Michael Hutchinson for that matter. As I draw to the end of my session I see what I can push it up to. Eventually I reach 300 watts, for about two minutes. Hmmm. No ‘hour’ attempt for me just yet then.

It’s been lurking in the freezer for nearly a week now but tonight we finally bite the bullet and cook the conger eel, well L does anyway. I’m always up for something new but it’s possibly the boniest fish I've ever seen. So not sure we’ll be having it again.

The Usual Run Around

Saw this advert reproduced on the Red Bikes blog. I like it.



Now if only I could get out on the bike. Love the weather, but hate the lack of training opportunities. If I had a MTB I’d probably risk coming to work on it but I’m not getting the road bike, particularly not with all that salt on the roads.

The Carriageworks Theatre in Leeds has demonstrated the Dunkirk spirit and vowed that the show must go on, although only nine people showed up for Wednesday night’s performance of the very appropriate ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’. Of course we’ve no idea if that’s a normal sized audience for them or not but by braving the weather and putting the show on regardless they’ve gained some excellent publicity. Smart move.

Seems Nottingham City Council has reneged on its promises as regards the Victoria Leisure Centre. Originally they had planned to keep it open until the new centre was ready in 2011 but now apparently they now intend to close the centre at the end of March this year. Yet there are no approved plans yet for the redevelopment and no planning permission in place. Seems it’s all to do with the council running out of cash after playing Icelandic bank roulette with our money and losing.

There is public meeting next Wednesday January 13th at 6pm at the Training Suite, Victoria Leisure Centre to discuss this latest development.



Finally some exercise and I play squash tonight. It’s a good workout as I’m given the usual run around, which is exactly what my legs need.