Big Jim’s attempt to become Slim Jim

[TheSignalEngineer]

What route are you using from New Street to Kings Norton? 

My usual route with the bike when my parents lived there was along the canal from Holliday Street to Bournville.

[big jim]

That’s the route I take….

 

It’s a nice ride along the canal, a nice passage but it gets a bit tight around bournville boulevard though! 

 

 

One more day of it to go then maybe a regular commute when the RHTT starts 

 

 

Edited September 9, 2021 by big jim

[jcredfer]

Are you driving the RHTT?  They look really messy beasts.

 

[big jim]

Yeah, will do when it starts in 3 weeks, see my work thread for pics 

[big jim]

Another comparison picture, week one of weight watchers at the end of feb 21 compared to yesterday after just over 6 months of it and regular exercise

 

 

I certainly feel a lot better physically and mentally, not tired any more and keen to get out and about in my bike as often as I can

[sb67]

Great comparison pics Jim. Well done on coming so far 

[big jim]

Thanks, a good week again, smashed it on the bike with all the commutes to kings Norton, no running again but the bike makes up for that 

 

 

 

hopefully a couple of wolves to bescot and back to new st commutes to do this coming week to get a few miles up

 

 

 

 

Edited September 12, 2021 by big jim

[big jim]

As the nights begin to close in I’ve got myself an extra headlight for the bike, an Amazon warehouse special this time for £8, 1000 lumen this time, mounted it below the Halfords light which has a remote so I can switch from constant brightness to various flashing modes so I can now have both modes at the same time or 2 headlights!

 

and Car boot bargain of the week, a CycleOps turbo trainer, paid a whole £4 for it and it works perfectly, it’s missing its resistance adjuster but they can be bought for a few quid and it works well enough without it, these are now produced by a company called saris and are £250 new! 

 

weigh in day tomorrow but again not expecting any loss as I went to a food festival at the weekend and today is the first bit of exercise I’ve managed this week due to the shifts I’ve been on, got a home to station and wolves to bescot commute tonight and bescot to new st and station to home tomorrow morning so I may lose a bit but I’m not going to be disappointed if I don’t, as I mentioned before I think I’m at that plateau point at the moment

 

 

 

Edited September 14, 2021 by big jim

[big jim]

Weigh in day. Surprisingly a loss again, 2lb more so now 17.5 Stone, a total loss of 5.4 Stone so far since February 

 

I think the 22 mile I rode last night and this morning may have helped with shedding a bit of the weight just before weigh in

[Barry Ten]

Just to big up parkrun again, for anyone who fancies it, our local run has now resumed after the 18 month Covid hiatus. I went from running , to volunteering, to being on the organising team as one of the Run Directors who share the role from week to week. Here's the gang just before our return on the 4th of September. We were a bit apprehensive as we were a largely new team, but we've now done two successful events and are looking forward to the third one on Saturday.

 

 

I certainly found that not having parkrun in my week was a big demotivator when it came to keeping up my running, so I'm glad to have it back. The volunteering side of it is great fun and very satisfying, even if you don't get to run the event quite as often.

 

It was a bit touch and go as to whether parkrun as a whole would return in the UK, due to various problems with local authority permissions, Covid protocols and so on, so it's good that these hurdles seem to have been overcome. 

[big jim]

I’ve yet to make it to a park run, the local one is in the park where I normally do my running but I seem to be busy every Saturday morning at the moment, I did however do a 5k yesterday back from dropping my bike off at the station so at least I’ve done something this week! 
 

 

[big jim]

The commute home this morning broke the 1000 mile mark on the bike!

 

 

That distance has taken me 14 weeks to do, the longest continuous ride being 26 miles, the longest day of shorter rides combined being 40 miles when I went over cannock chase etc to bescot then bescot to new st etc, the most miles covered in a week was 126 in the summer when I rode to chester and did a few other tours closely followed last week by 107 commuting miles 

 

that’s far more miles that I would have imagined I’d cover in that time, I find I’m now planning my work week to fit a ride in, tonight for example is going to be another wolves to Bescot ride but it will be dark this time as I’m leaving an hour later, the bike will then go in the loco and come back to crewe with me and I’ll ride home from basford hall in the morning! 

 

[big jim]

Not much to report for weigh in day, only about 1/2lb lost but I was a bit lax with my points last week using up my ‘spare’ weekly points (points you can dip into if you use your daily quota) I only normally use maybe 5 a week extra but last week I used the full 40 extra!

 

as for the bike, just shy of 1100 miles now and I’ve completed a strava challenge to cover 300 miles in September, since the 1st I’ve covered 305 miles with 10 days to go 

 

got some more lights from the Amazon warehouse, this time £6 a pair and they are really good, little so attach to the forks which in turn shine on not only the road but the reflective spokes to increase visibility, they also have a light sensor so as well as being able to leave them on you can have them come on when light levels drop which I didn’t realise they did until I started riding along, handy for the tunnels on the Birmingham canals! 
 

no excuse not to see me while out and about now!

 

 

ive put one of the spare tail lights on my helmet too

 

Ask in readyness for winter ive bought thermal snood, balaclava and gloves as this morning it was beginning to get quite cold riding home 

 

this week has been a pain for exercise with the shift I’m on, I’m only getting 5 mile a day in riding and in the day I’m asleep so I’m not able to get any walking or running in, hopefully make up for it Friday when I’m off with a run and a bike ride somewhere, my job Saturday I’m considering maybe riding from hams hall to birch coppice and putting the bike in the loco again 

[37114]

Great to see you getting kitted up for winter Jim. One thing worth considering if you are riding more in the dark on less well trafficked paths is getting an "Angi". I came off my bike on a cattle grid at 5am on a deserted lane recently. I was ok(ish) and managed to get home but if I had been knocked out I could have been there for an hour or so. I now have an Angi (size of small watch without the strap) that secures to the helmet and it basically sends a message with the location to my wife if I fall off. 

[big jim]

25 minutes ago, 37114 said:

Great to see you getting kitted up for winter Jim. One thing worth considering if you are riding more in the dark on less well trafficked paths is getting an "Angi". I came off my bike on a cattle grid at 5am on a deserted lane recently. I was ok(ish) and managed to get home but if I had been knocked out I could have been there for an hour or so. I now have an Angi (size of small watch without the strap) that secures to the helmet and it basically sends a message with the location to my wife if I fall off. 

the Komoot app has a function called beacon which is similar, I’ve not properly looked at how it works but I put my wife’s number in and if something happens It alerts her, not checked if it’s automatic though, I’ll have a look at it later now you have given me the heads up as something to think about 

 

The latest Apple Watch does it too but I don’t think my series 3 does 

[big jim]

@37114 just been looking at that ‘angi’ fall detector, can’t work out if you need to have the ‘specialised’ app or the likes of strava running for it to detect the fall, I don’t normally have an app running while riding on routes I know such as home to the station or wolves to bescot so unless it can work independently linked to the phone it would be no good most of the time for me 

 

my Apple Watch doesn’t do fall detection either, it’s series 4 and above and mine is a series 3

[37114]

6 hours ago, big jim said:

@37114 just been looking at that ‘angi’ fall detector, can’t work out if you need to have the ‘specialised’ app or the likes of strava running for it to detect the fall, I don’t normally have an app running while riding on routes I know such as home to the station or wolves to bescot so unless it can work independently linked to the phone it would be no good most of the time for me 

 

my Apple Watch doesn’t do fall detection either, it’s series 4 and above and mine is a series 3

Hi Jim, yes you need the app running for it to register as it is effectively the app that sends the message. 

[big jim]

That’s a shame, I don’t want to have to download and run another app just to use that function or indeed have strava running all the time while out and about on the bike as that’s really just where my ride data is uploaded to rather than being a sat nav as I prefer to use Komoot if I do use the nav function 

 

 

[big jim]

Terrible week for exercise this week, only managed 25 mile so far on the bike but I have done 2.5 mile walking miles. No running again though, it’s all down to the shifts I’m on, quite simply can’t get any decent exercise in as I’m just doing home and sleeping before going back out again in the evenings, I have been getting the bike mileage in to and from the station but that’s it, no leisure rides compared to last weeks trips to the leek and manifold railway and rudyard 

 

tomorrow should bump the miles up a bit as I’ve got a 2.5 mile home to the station and a 7 mile new st to kings Norton ride to do as well as a 3.5 mile long Eaton to attleborough ride to the hotel to do in the evening, much rather take my bike than use hire cars and taxis! I’m also in a hotel with a good gym and swimming pool so Monday evening and Tuesday morning I’m going to make use of those facilities between turns 

 

saying that, this weeks weigh in i lost 2lb so I’m down to 17.3 Stone now, so I’ve now lost 1/4 of my body weight since Feb, here’s the latest comparison picture 

 

 

[great central]

4 hours ago, big jim said:

Terrible week for exercise this week, only managed 25 mile so far on the bike but I have done 2.5 mile walking miles. No running again though, it’s all down to the shifts I’m on, quite simply can’t get any decent exercise in as I’m just doing home and sleeping before going back out again in the evenings, I have been getting the bike mileage in to and from the station but that’s it, no leisure rides compared to last weeks trips to the leek and manifold railway and rudyard 

 

tomorrow should bump the miles up a bit as I’ve got a 2.5 mile home to the station and a 7 mile new st to kings Norton ride to do as well as a 3.5 mile long Eaton to attleborough ride to the hotel to do in the evening, much rather take my bike than use hire cars and taxis! I’m also in a hotel with a good gym and swimming pool so Monday evening and Tuesday morning I’m going to make use of those facilities between turns 

 

saying that, this weeks weigh in i lost 2lb so I’m down to 17.3 Stone now, so I’ve now lost 1/4 of my body weight since Feb, here’s the latest comparison picture 

 

 

 

Congratulations on your weight loss Jim, but Long Eaton to AttLEborough is a bit more than 3 miles or so

A common mistake, some years ago an EMT engineering poster made the same error, that would be one hell of a possession and work site!

[big jim]

You never know with some of the network rail planning notices!

 

I had one last week, job in atherstone, assess point stafford station, that’s a long walk down the cess 

[jcredfer]

7 hours ago, big jim said:

You never know with some of the network rail planning notices!

 

I had one last week, job in atherstone, assess point stafford station, that’s a long walk down the cess 

 

Which just goes to show.....   there's someone in planning that's sympathetic to your health cause.   

 

[big jim]

I was having a moan yesterday that I hadn’t got the mileage in on the bike but today with job changes I managed to get another 25 miles in, home to the station, new st to kings Norton, kings Norton to bescot and bescot to the hotel in walsall!

 

also managed a fair bit of exercise in the gym at the hotel, running, elliptical and swimming

burned a fair few calories that’s for sure 

 

 

[jcredfer]

4620 Kcal in one day.....     that's a whole week's worth!!     

 

[wombatofludham]

Hotel in Walsall?  Did it come with hot and cold running cockroaches?

(Before anyone kicks off, I was born there, I have family there and used to work in the Civic Centre for a while.  That gives me locus standi...)