I am not even going to commit to text my efforts on the treadmill, except to say so far it has been poor.  I am trying to take some comfort in the fact that I can swim a kilometre without too much of a problem and cycle a reasonable distance, but it’s simply no good.  I feel like going on a cheesecake binge, but I cannot shake the feeling that wont help much.

Just to add to my despair one of my friends has just entered three, yes three, Ironman events this year and I am flagging in my training for a sprint event, which breaks down as follows;

• Swim – 750 m
• Cycle – 20 km
• Run – 5 km

The swim/cycle element is good, I am confident I can manage those distances, as I regularly do up to 50% more than those distances as part of my weekly training (well before Christmas and exams I was).

Since my last summer holiday, however, I have barely run at all and don’t I know it now.  Talking to those that know, skipping the running elements whilst pushing on with cycling and swimming may have been counter productive as I have been developing the leg muscles that are in opposition with those that I need build to be a good runner.

I think that after the time off training over christmas, this has probably been a bit of a wake up call.  The other massive factor in this is that I am in the final 5 months of my last year of my studies at University.  Ultimately I can train at any time, but I only have 5 months left to get my degree finished.

Hmmmm, some balance required me thinks.

This is all that was left of the sensor

The only problem was that the sensor was faulty – for faulty read smashed to bits, the picture on the right here shows the only remains.  No serial or part number or even internals to figure out how the sensor worked.  I should point out at this juncture that it’s a manual treadmill and does not need plugging into the mains.  Being battery-powered I was fairly safe to poke around with the gubbings without risk of electrocution.

I accidentally discovered that when the two wires running to the sensor touched that the readout was triggered (two touches = 1 metre) and with a bit of internet research I found out that there are basically two types of magnetic sensor used by treadmills.  The Hall effect sensor relies on a current created by the path of a magnet and is the kind you find on bicycles.  The other, pictured left, is a simple switch that is operated by the proximity of a magnet, this is what I needed to fix my treadmill (Maplins – £1.79), so with a deft bit of soldering and a length of old speaker wire I found in a box in the garage I folded the connectors to fit the remains of the sensor and soldered on the speaker wire as shown right.  The only problem now was that the whole thing was flapping about inside the remains of the old sensor looking like it would fall apart with the first knock, so back to the garage for the hot glue gun!

Being careful not to burn my fingers, I glued the sensor, connections and the wire into the remains of the sensor and added a bit more glue around where the wire goes in for added protection and left it to cool – as shown left.

The finished product whilst looking a bit Heath-Robinson seemed to do the trick as I screwed it back into place as seen here on the right.

I routed the wire so that when the treadmill is folded away when not in use it does not stretch and damage the sensor or wire.  The magnet can just be seen as the silver circle in the flywheel just below the sensor in the picture.  Every two passes by the magnet causes the distance meter to advance a metre.  I taped up all the connections for good measure and gave it a little test.

The whole repair seems to have worked well so far, so total cost was £15 for the treadmill (plus collection) and £1.79 for the magnetic sensor from the good people at Maplins and only took about half an hour to complete.  As I said earlier, this is a manual treadmill and does not require any mains power, had it been a mains powered treadmill I would have had to have been a lot more careful as mains electricity can and does kill.  There are a number of treadmill parts sellers on eBay, but I was not able to determine what type of sensor (Hall effect or switch) they were offering and at about £20 a sensor it would have cost more than the treadmill itself, double if I ordered the wrong type.  The final picture shows the tools I used in fixing my treadmill, comprising ‘Old Faithful’ my soldering iron, a hot glue gun, solder and wire cutters.

Just a reminder – this is not a ‘how to’ site, but a blog of how I fixed a particular problem.  If in doubt, contact an expert – you can do untold damage to yourself if you start playing about with thing like mains power etc.  You have been warned!

I am off for a jog in my garage – cheers!

That’s over 100 kgs, I was down to 15 stone 5 last year – frankly it’s not a surprise, having spent most of my time either studying, eating or travelling the exercise regime has completely dissolved, plus I have severe hypothyroidism, meaning I put on weight just looking at food.  With all the revision and travelling I have been doing I have been a bit neglectful of taking my daily medication which also has not helped.  So, basically I am looking a bit rough!

However all exams are done till May now and I can now find my way back into my training for the next few months.  I have already started in the pool and done a swift couple of hundred meters, fortunately I seemed to be able cope with this without collapse, so maybe all is not lost.

But it’s not all doom and gloom, Christmas bought me a lovely bicycle servicing tool kit, which includes a set of thin cone spanner’s, meaning I can adjust my troublesome back wheel with having to take it out the frame every time.  I also picked up a treadmill, but because I am a poor student it was second-hand, which has brought its own challenge.  The speed sensor is broken, so the readout constantly shows zero.  Not a problem in itself, but because it thinks you are not using the treadmill it powers off after 5 minutes.  I can feel a spot of fixing coming on!

In a spot of new years eve excitement, I went off to visit my sister across the other side of the country with a car load of family when we found ourselves stranded, young ones in tow in need of toilets and shelter.  We bumped into (almost literally as he walked round the corner) a large shaved headed gentleman looking all the world like a biker.

With no other option, we asked the chap if he could help.  Much to our surprise, rather than just pointing us in the direction of the nearest public toilet he took us in and provided us with tea and biscuits and the use of his house.  I don’t believe in guardian angels, but the way this chap took us in and looked after us till we were sorted was above and beyond the call – and the whole family are exceedingly grateful to him.  I spent the entire time talking motorcycles to him as it turns out he owns the exact same model of Kawasaki I started out on many years ago.  It was only as we were getting geared up to go again I found out that he was an off duty Metropolitan Police officer!

We dropped a thank-you card through his door the following day, but I would just like to add a further thank you for coming to our rescue that day!

Now back to the training ………………….. [no really!]

A bit busy at the moment.

Normal service will be restored soon!

[Honest]

I am sat here and I should be doing a bunch of exam revision, but I found my memory drifting back to when I lived in a friend’s house.  His mother was a nurse and had served for quite a while in the NHS.  As well as putting a roof over my head when the only alternative I had was a park bench, she did her best to sort me out with a job.

Exploring my options I phoned up my local college to get on a welding course and just so happened to speak to the head of the Engineering course who invited me in for an interview, I was accepted onto a HNC course and started my life in Engineering.  However, had he not answered the phone or had I phoned at a different time and not spoken to him I may not have got onto that course.  Incidentally, the HNC wasnt the course I phoned up to enroll in – it just so happened that I took up the offer of the interview on the off-chance.  I lived in my friends 6ft by 8ft spare room for over a year whilst I studied for my HNC.

If I had not enrolled on the course then my other option was with the NHS.  My friends mum knew my love of motorcycles and had been talking to the local ambulance controller, with a view to getting me started down the path to becoming a motorcycle paramedic.  I would have started as an ambulance technician and had to work my way up.  But, because of the college offer I never took it any further.

Sadly, she passed on a few years back, but I still think of her and how she took me in – a relative stranger and gave me foundation to my life and helped me build what I have got now.  Its funny how people touch your life.

I have made some very good friends, especially as the years rolled on and the group was whittled down form the 80 plus that started and crammed into the lecture theaters or classrooms, sometimes with a late few having to stand.  Those of us that remained  have become more focused on finishing and getting good grades and I am pleased to note that through group projects and field work groups have emerged and friendships developed.

All of this means that my training has gone completely to pot.  In fact I got on the scales and they almost groaned under my weight – all that hard work undone – pants!

In addition to that my services have been much in demand outside of engineering, in my sort-of hobby of music making.  I have never been a competent or practiced enough musician to play live, but I do know my way round a mixing desk and FX units and recently I have been doing live sound mixing for more and more gigs.  Usually these are either Friday or Saturday night, meaning I spend my weekend in a zombie like state until I can get the impetus up to do some Uni work.  I have to put a temporary stop to this until my exams are done, else I feel my grades will suffer.   Ironically I started setting up for proper jobbing bands at more or less the same time I started at Uni.

After my exams in January I need to get back into my training, just letting it slip for a couple of weeks puts me back a massive amount, but I have only got a finite amount of time.  I have also let my blogging slip as I don’t have the time to update and I am not training so I have less material that I want to commit to pixel.

Also I still need a treadmill, but I somehow ended up buying an electronic drum kit.

Oops ………

P.S. Merry Christmas!!

I am not good with free time at the best of times, I cannot sit still and manage to fill my spare time with kit car building, restoring motorcycles, cycling and swimming.  However, a degree in civil engineering on top of a full-time job has done quite a good job of occupying my time.  I fear I may become insufferable without something to occupy my focus.

I don’t think after five years that I can face another two years to study for my Masters, not without a break anyhow.  There are two more weeks this semester, then its the Christmas break followed by the mid-term exam period.  Then the final leg to May and the end of the course.  Then freedom, horrible, horrible freedom!

So rather than study, I could devote my time to the original reason for this blog, trying to get myself fit enough to get a triathlon under my belt,  my next big purchase may well be a treadmill.  Thinking along those lines, I found my old Kendo kit at the back of a cupboard the other day, which set me thinking about life prior to starting my degree, which all seems a long time ago.

Six months and counting ……………..

Last week in discussion with my dissertation tutor I showed him a calculation that I had formulated, basically it was an equation for calculating the forces that an arch generates when subjected to a series of loads.  The basis of which is the sum of a series of integrations relating to moment calculations.  My tutor looked at it and said ‘Arch analysis is outside my area of expertise, you will need to speak to our resident expert’, so I penned a quick email with a few hand drawn scribbles and the basis of how I formulated my calculations and fired it off.

For a few days, no response was forthcoming and to be honest I was only expecting a quick email in return, so to receive a phone call was beyond my expectations.  We had a good chat about what I was trying to achieve and the basis of arch analysis.  Then the crunch, I asked the question ‘So, what did you think of my formulation?’, there was a pause, during which time my heart started to sink, in my head I was thinking ‘Oh God – I am a simpleton and just made a fool of myself’.  The reply? ‘Yes, it seems that you have encapsulated everything, I havent checked your numbers through but the theory seems sound’  and with that they bid me fair well and hung up.

I had to sit back in my seat for a while then go and have a cup of coffee, blimey I managed to get something right – if I keep this up I might just get through my dissertation.

On the subject of the word ‘blimey’ – I was on site talking to a member of the public about an ongoing project when we both went to have a look at a hole that had formed just off the road.  I said casually ‘Cor, Blimey – that’s a big hole’ to which he replied ‘That means God Blind Me, you know’ and wandered off.  Strangely this is second time that a complete stranger has told me this, maybe I over use that saying.

But over the last month or so, every spare second seems to be spent doing research, preparing assignments and reading material for lectures.  All of which means that the training has all but bitten the dust.  I managed to get in the occasional dip in the pool, but only managing five to six hundred metres a session before having to get back to study.

I have had a number of meetings with the tutor assigned to my dissertation subject who seems to think that I have a good grip on my project and am heading in the right direction, but it worries the hell out of me that I have chosen the wrong topic or it’s too involved and in the limited time between now and May that I wont be able to do the subject justice.

On top of that my push bike needs a service, the bearing in the rear wheel have a lot of sideways play and my beloved ZZR brakes have seized up because I havent used it enough of late.   Apparently this is a common problem with ZZR brakes, so I will have to service both of those – and the car – which needs an oil and filter change at the very least.

Right – enough internet prevarication, back on with the assignments.

I was in a lecture at the time and one of my fellow students, he was one of the younger students in his mid twenties.  He interrupted the lecturer and asked if we could observe the two-minute silence – he had set his alarm in advance to give a couple of minutes warning.  I was impressed that one of the younger members of the group took the initiative in leading this.

My grandfather was in the Navy in the second world war, he made it through fairly intact, but from what I understand the ship he was serving on came under repeated and heavy contact and saw a lot of his fellow sailors killed in the most horrible ways.  I have not been told the full details of what happened, various family members have told me of what they know.  The details seem to be sketchy but unpleasant, I was told that it was something he did not like to talk about upon returning to civilian life.

What I do know is that he came from a very tough area and grew up in the hardest of circumstances.  He signed up during the first days of the war but had an essential position as a dock worker which meant he was unable to see active duty, a fact that upset him greatly.  Eventually as the war worsened he was called to active service and ended up serving around Spain where he came under torpedo attack that crippled his ship.  With a large number of the crew dead or injured he ended up taking the wheel of the ship guiding it into a burning harbour at night.

I have heard tell of what a ferocious man he was in battle, but a gentle man in civilian life.  I was told of how during a fight at the dock side he fought 5 men beating them bloody.  Part of this ferocious nature came from his upbringing working as a docker in London’s east end and living with his uncle who made his money as a bare knuckle boxer, a sport that he brought home with him and one that my granddad use to see the wrong end of.

I never met my Granddad as he died shortly before I was born, I have been told that I take after him by various family members, I will have to take their word for that and consider it somewhat of an honour.  What I do know is that he considered it his duty to protect his family, his house and his country and did so willingly knowing that it may cost him his life.

That is what I thought of during my two minutes of silence.