THE GOOD BUCK

Well, what do you know? The Muay Thai guy didn’t want me training yesterday due to my tachycardia. He said I should see the doctor. I explained I’d already tried twice and got nowhere, the last one saying it was nothing to worry about. He wasn’t having it. I was a sad bunny. Not just because I’d started that club, but because I was worried all the clubs might react the same. In which case I can’t prepare for the fash. And I have to live in fear. Bad, bad, bad. I rang the doctors this morning. Our doctors is basically an overpriced triage centre now. I don’t think they have actual doctors there any more, just those fake ones. If you can get an appointment at all. I rang at dead on 08.00, when the ‘phone lines open and was third in the queue. I was quickly answered and they referred me to Guardian Street medical centre (in town) for 09.15, to see a real doctor! Unheard of! I was suspicious and waiting for the other shoe to drop. I got there and it was a young man who was indeed a real doctor. He took it all very seriously. He took my pulse (healthy slow) blood pressure (ideal) and listened to my heart (all good). I have recent bloods on record so he checked them and said they are all fine as well. He said he’s book me in with my surgery for a baseline ECG and write to Warrington hospital to have them fit me with a heart rate monitor for 24 hours. The ideal is to have a normal reading first, then try and catch an episode over the 24 hour period. That should be simple enough. Neck a cup of coffee then do a one mile, flat out, sprint. That should trigger it. An hour or so later I got a text, I’m booked in for the baseline ECG on Saturday! The doctor said it sounds like SVT (supraventricular tachycardia), the NHS website says they can control it with drugs, electric shocks or cure it completely by sticking a wire up your vein and burning out the faulty bit of the heart. I am going to be pushing hard for the latter. I had honestly resigned myself to enduring this for the rest of my life. Now I’m hoping they are going to fix me. It would be so great! It goes to show how far the NHS (GPs service) has been destroyed that this seems almost unbelievably good treatment. Anyway, if I can get properly fixed, the training is back on and I stand a much better chance at cracking sub 3 for the marathon if I don’t lose minutes to tachycardia every time I go out fast. I so hope this works out. And quickly.

I have really got my head around this Muay Thai thing. Book in advance, then you have to go, ready to go all in, first belt in December, black belt in 3 years. I have got over my resistance to going. I managed to talk myself around from real aversion to going, to nervous excitement tonight. It’s a brutal, real, martial art. I want it! I went tonight for my third lesson. I possibly went too hard in the pre-session warm-up, but 10 minutes into the class I had tachycardia. In retrospect, I think I freaked the guy out by going head down, arse up, on the mat. It probably looked like I was keeling over, but that seems to be the quickest way to settle the damn thing down. I got it to settle and wanted to carry on, but the guy wouldn’t let me. He refunded me the lesson and said to go an rest for 24 hours. I’ve got to ring the doctors in the morning and him at night. I think he’s not going to let me train until I get it sorted. That could take years. I’ll find out tomorrow, but that might be that for that club. I stupidly committed and bought the basic club kit package, which is £175 of (mostly) club-specific kit. So that’s lovely. There is another Muay Thai club in Warrington. If this one has binned me off I’ll ring them, explain the situation, and see if they’ll let me train. If not, maybe try some other martial art. If not, keep up the punching and kicking drills, the press-ups, sit-ups, and skipping. Owt’s better than nowt. The other thing is I’m going a bit mad obsessing over a Yamaha Tracer 900. I think I’m going to up my shifts and try and save up for one. Especially if I can’t do martial arts. Stupid heart sucks.

I went to the Muay Thai class today. New things are always a stressful time. This was newer than most. It is completely unlike any martial art I’ve ever done. I think it must be like boxing. I did the usual stretches and warm up, then the instructor had me do a jab, a left/ right combination, knee strike and a pushing front kick. Then it was timed intervals against someone with pads calling out each move and moving around, so I was constantly moving and having to punch, kick, and knee. The few minute (I wasn’t wearing a watch obvs, and there is no clock in the gym) intervals were exhausting. There were an even number of fighters there and me, so they had me do one interval while someone sat it out, then I’d cycle for an interval, then back fighting again. I can see why MT is so effective. It’s actual fight training from lesson one. No disrespect to the other martial arts I’ve done, the black belts are all scary, but in my experience it takes ages for the lesson to work as a fighting system. You go to the dojo, warm up, do a kata, then do specific drills each week. The trouble is it’s a different drill each week. For a noob it’s confusing and you don’t retain much beyond the basic principles of the moves. And you do a bit of light sparring every now and then. Eventually it all must gel. I swear down though, in that one session today I must have thrown more punches than in 18 months of Taekwondo. That is what makes it such a real world fighting system. If you repeat a move often enough it becomes muscle memory. And the fitness needed is extraordinary. I have high hopes for this one. It’s a great beasting, (which I enjoy) it’s tons of repetition of real world skills, and the training is all real. You don’t have to wait for it to make sense. Also they seem to ask for bookings in advance, which plays to the strategy I employed for the swim sessions: book it the night before, when it’s future-me’s problem, then I have to go. And curse past-me’s betrayal. I never missed a booked swim. Also there were only 6 men and 2 women there today. That’s not a overwhelming mass of people who’s names I’ll never remember. I’ve already got the names of the main bloke, the instructor and one, possibly another 2, of the fighters. This is all do-able. They reckon that it takes 3 years to get to black belt. That’s not so bad. I’m officially adding it to my life goals. Knee-down, sub 3, LEJOG, black belt. It is something I’ve wanted all my life. Well, for as long as I’ve known what it was. I could be 3 years away from achieving it. Perhaps that would even be something I could feel proud about. Apart from the cost (£12.50 a […]

That simple idea I had to line the shed. Bloody hell, what a pain. So far I’ve put the clear plastic tarpaulin up on the window side and lined the ceiling with heat retention foil and bubble wrap. It’s taken me 2 days. I still need to fit the tarpaulin over the insulation on the ceiling. It’s a full-on pain. It doesn’t help that my staple gun is totally temperamental and only works every few goes. To do the ceiling and the other walls I’m going to have to cut the tarpaulin to size in sections. It’s been blowing a gale so that’s not happening. Then I’ve got to take of all the tools I’ve hung on nails on the end wall, move the racking out of the way, and have at it. It’s going to be a nightmare. Also the Harley is still in the shed, so that’s less than ideal. I got a new tool chest and put that in the shed. Then had a clear out. I’ve brought my tri bike indoors and put my touring bike out behind the shed. I’ve covered it over with the two motorbike covers that were also taking up room in the shed. Then put some plastic roofing sheets over that. It should be pretty dry and snug. I don’t know why I get these sudden enthusiasms. And why I didn’t foresee this project was sure to be a hiding to nothing. Ho hum. It will be better. At the moment everything is stapled in place, but when I’ve got it all up I think I’ll screw down some thin slats of wood over the length of the edges. The Harley hasn’t progressed. I’ve still to suss the rear indicator. I’m waiting for the Chinese LED one’s to arrive then I’ll make a proper job of it. I’ll whip the back wheel off to get access to the indicator wiring under the mudguard. I was about to say I’ll spray the back wheel, which I will, but it strikes me if I’ve got the wheel and the indicators off, this will be a perfect time to take the rear mudguard off and respray it. Still no word from the army about my pension, so the 900 Tracer is burning behind my eyes, like the One Ring. Meh. I’m not great at delayed gratification. I’ve had two good bits of training the last two days. Yesterday I went out for a bog-standard 8 mile run, did a pretty nippy 7.50 first mile, then a 7.39 second mile, so decided to go for a fast progressive run. I made every mile faster until mile 7, which was flat out at 6.41, I couldn’t keep up that pace so I called it quits at that and jogged back with a 8.07 last mile. I uploaded it to Smashrun and they said it was PB for 8 miles runs, of which I have done many, many, many. It’s probably not a good thing, the 8 […]

Last post I was saying I just had to throw the bike back together and it was all looking like a suspiciously good job. Ha! I made a total meal of it. I put the yokes on, the handlebars, clocks, fitted the forks, mudguard, brake calipers, went to fit the front wheel… No. You have to have the mudguard and calipers off to fit it. OK. Took them off, fitted the front wheel, put them back on. Steering a bit tight. Had a look and I’d routed some of my cables on the wrong side of the headstock. I tried just taking the bars off and lifting off the top yoke. Struggled for a while, then conceded defeat. Had to take everything off again, reroute the cables, then refit the yokes, bars, clocks, forks, wheel, brake calipers and front mudguard. I turned it on for a test and realised I had no headlight or indicators. Which is to say, they were there, just not working. *facepalm* Looking good (all needs polishing and wiring in) It’s like painting that one dirty door in the front room, though. The newly painted door makes the skirting board look dirty. Before you know it you’ve had to paint the whole house. I prodded some wires and rattled a few connections but I was scared I’d knackered something fundamental. Electrics fill me with fear and confusion. I’ve been putting it off, but today I rolled the bike into the shed, just to get ready for looking at the electrics. While I was there I decided to make a start. I rigged up a bulb for a tester and set to. By a process of elimination and blind luck I worked out I still had power going in, so it must be the earth. The earth in the headlight bucket was solid, which confused me. Then as I was wriggling the headlight around I got the bulb to come on. A bit more trial and error and I realised that the headlight earth runs through the brackets that hold the headlight bucket to the yoke, to the frame. The same yoke I’d just spent ages spraying. I took the headlight bracket off and ground the paint down to bare metal where they connect. That was it! Headlight again! Some more messing and I worked out how to get my indicators working again. All the yay! I’d had enough by then. I seem to be off tomorrow, so I’ll wire it up properly now I know what I’m doing. Also I’ll have to unwrap part of the loom and repair it. Like a proper moron I was careless with the angle grinder and nicked a bunch of wires! Incredible. One stupid mistake after another. To be honest, I’m so relieved to have figured out the electrical problem I can live with having to tape up some wires. I’ve managed to get some running and a cycle done. I think the statins are doing me in though. After […]