Quids In

With no races on Sunday and the Velodrome actually open because the pantomime has finally finished, I get to do my first SQT Session in about six months. My Dad turns up to watch the novelty of it and the way everyone else chews this old man up and spits him out. I enjoy it though and the well earned pint later in the Exeter.

I go to work the next day nursing a locked up right calf. Maybe I’ve been overdoing it. L asks if that’s my dodgy one. No, they’re both dodgy. Not that it stops me biking to work on both Tuesday and Wednesday this week.

MD too is nursing a slight injury because I hit him in the eye with the Lad’s hard rubber ball. Accidentally I might add. It doesn’t stop him either. I book training sessions for both of them on Tuesday and Wednesday. I’ll probably be a gibbering wreck after all that lot but I have to go twice as I have so many people to nag for membership fees.

There is entertainment on Dog TV this week with the Lad getting hold of a pair of training shoes. L carelessly left hers drying in the kitchen after she washed them. Clearly they don’t taste very nice as he soon gives up on them.

There is no squash on Thursday but L’s tennis does restart after a two week break which I think she should have complained about because there was no reduction in the monthly fee but she’s not as argumentative as me.

We are also miffed at the council offering 15% off leisure centre memberships for life for new customers. I ring them to complain but I’m rather shot down when I’m told we already pay less than that, a lot less. Apparently the membership price is fixed from the day you join and never goes up. No inflationary increases or anything. We have been paying the same since 2008. Which is great I suppose but also explains why the leisure centres are skint and having to cull facilities. If you're still paying sixpence a month from the 1960s then you really are quids in.

(Thursday 10^th January)

Rue The Day

It’s a lazy day today apart from the incessant ball chucking required by MD. It wouldn’t be so bad if he wanted one of the decent balls he’s got but he often prefers the pink one that L used to do her exercises with. It's lightweight and much more difficult to throw as well as pink. She probably rues the day she gave it to him.

It’s not a lazy evening as I’m at the Velodrome for the Sunday night SQT. This is, of course, a far from a relaxing way of spending the evening but terrific, leg shattering fun. Then recovery drinks afterwards in the Exeter.

(Sunday 19^th November)

Pet Snail

The snail that had been clinging to the wall above our wheelie bin, that I assumed was stuck there through rigor mortis, proves it is alive. The other day I had removed it from the wall and put it on the floor but now it is back in its spot above the wheelie bin. A fast mover this one. Now, for an encore, it seems tto be moving across to perch above the recycling bin.

In the evening I do the SQT at the Velodrome while L meets Daughter at the Forest Rec Firework Display. I’m undecided about whether to take the dogs with me to experience the ongoing airborne assault in Derby or whether to leave them with the ongoing airborne assault at home. In the end I take them with me, figuring it’s got to be quieter at the Velodrome where there’s less housing.

Afterwards I go for pint in the Exeter with my Dad and then on the way home pass the first gritting lorry of the year. Not that that necessarily means much.

(Sunday 5^th November)

Double The Numbers

After last week’s very quiet SQT session at the Velodrome this evening's is positively busy, double the numbers. Yes, four of us. So really busy. Just enough to practice the team pursuit but despite the lack of opposition, we are still rubbish and fail to keep it together.

L attempts to sign up for the gym through the new Metro membership and it actually goes swimmingly. So now she can use the Derby gyms whenever she likes. 

There is still no sign of this really good scheme being promoted anywhere, probably because they've now worked out it's going to cost them quite a lot of income. Then again, perhaps it won't if it's marketed right and it pulls new people in.

My Dad doesn’t come to watch this week, so the recovery session is held at the Horse and Jockey instead of at the Exeter.

(Sunday 9^th July)

Just The Two Of Us

Nothing on today other than nursing a hangover and then later an SQT Session at Derby Velodrome. Which obviously is enough to totally finish me off on a normal night but when only two people turn up...

After a warm up we do a session that includes various bursts of 250m, 500m or 1000m flat out with three lap warm downs and off track rests in between. It's exhausting.

It takes two pints in the Exeter afterwards to recover. 

(Sunday 2^nd July)

The Fit Young Things And The Fit Old Things

This evening I have a track session booked at the Derby Velodrome. My first for months due to all the running I’ve been doing. There’s little point turning up at the Velodrome post-run and getting wasted by all the fit young things and, for that matter, the fit old things. The Sunday night SQT takes no prisoners.

Ironically now that the running calendar has big holes in it, either due to the races not being there or simply full because there's not enough of them to go around, the Velodrome is winding down for the winter.

Yes, I know track cycling is seen mostly as a winter sport but then so is pantomime and the place will be taken over by Buttons, the fairy Godmother and the Ugly Sisters for most of the season. Yes, Cinderella is going to the ball, in my Velodrome, and we don’t even get tickets. Not that I'd actually want any of course but that's not the point.

Tonight, three riders from the British Cycling Academy join our session, which is quite scary. Fortunately they are all doing the sprint sessions rather than the endurance sessions like me. So thankfully attempting to keep up with them (or somewhere approaching keeping up with them) isn’t my problem.

Daughter comes to watch and I don’t think she was too bored.

Afterwards we go for a couple in the Horse and Jockey. Tonight’s dark one is Black Forest Stout from Abstract Jungle.

(Sunday 13^th November)

Intense

With nothing else planned this weekend I get a space on this evenings SQT at Derby Velodrome. Clearly everyone is either on their summer holidays or just out riding in the sunshine (if they can find some) as it’s only about half full. 

This makes for a very intense session with little or no recovery time between the exercises. It also means there aren’t enough people to split the races by ability. So for someone who hasn’t done a SQT for seven weeks it’s going to be tough... it is. 

I also nearly come off when I pull one of my feet out of the clip-in pedals and have to pedal on one leg for several laps until I can slow down enough to stop.

I was certainly ready for my pint of Dark Drake in the Exeter Arms afterwards.

(Sunday 7^th August)