#30daysofbiking the missing days…

A while since I've written, but I have been on the bike every single day.?? It's just not been very,?? well, beautiful…?? Most of it has been the grind to and from work.?? I reckon that in an average year I get a proper soaking less than a dozen times, but it feels like most of these have happened this month.??

Last weekend was fun; new bike for the oldest and so the youngest had his.?? This meant that the first day she fell off a lot, but wasn't giving up at all.?? The second day she was much more steady, but I suspect it will take her a little while to figure out the gears.??

I'm going to have to have a "token" ride tonight, after a trip to the big city…

Only a couple of days to go.?? I have loved it though…

Day 15 of #30daysofbiking and a long ride with @nicebrowncardy

I've not written or tweeted much in the last few days, mostly since returning to work, because all of the runs have been commuting trips. ??However, today @nicebrowncardy??and I were out just as the frost was fading, heading south of Birmingham to the undulations of Worcestershire. ??It was a beautiful day; clear blue skies and enough sunshine for shades. ??After a couple of weeks in the city it was almost a shock to see fields and sheep and all that normal stuff which occurs outside of the maelstrom. ??

We reached our destination – coffee and a a snack at The Jinney Ring??in what felt like record speed, arriving before the hoards of weekend shoppers start to zombie around the place. ??Mounting the bikes again for the return it became rapidly evident that our apparent peak of fitness on the way there was in fact a combination of a tail wind and quite a lot of downhills… ??The trip home took probably half as long again as the trip there, but a nice 55 km round journey done in around three hours, of which 2.5 were in the saddle. ??

Halfway through the #30daysofcycling, and I can honestly say it doesn't feel that different; just shifting the bike up the priority a little – although it's pretty high most of the time anyway. ??I've not yet had any real sort of challenge where fitting in a short ride is a real problem, but I image that may well come in the next 15 days…

Days 6 and 7 of #30daysofbiking

Back to work for the Easter weekend, so back to the (relative) drudgery of cycle commuting.  That said, it’s not without benefits.  Friday morning was crisp to the point of frost, and the roads were clear enough to make me wonder if someone was remaking 28 Days Later.  A fairly long day at work, lots to do, plus a mere 289 emails – anyone figured out how to do email from the saddle? – maybe a stationary bike?  Was going home along Colmore Row at about ten past six and who should I see but Critical Mass.  Sadly I couldn’t join the ride – what with being on call and that, but I did have a good chat with a few people, including NiceBrownCardie.  Attempted, on the way home after, to take an on call advice telephone call whilst riding – hands free, natch – but the quality of my cycling deteriorates still further and I wasn’t safe to continue along the towpath; I think I’d have taken a dunking…  

A damp ride in to work this morning for day 6.  Nobody does drizzle like the UK, I’m sure.  However, it’s unlikely I’ll shrink.  Hopefully a little drier on the way home.  Nothing much of excitement to record today sadly…  Not looking forward to the downpours forecast for Monday…

A short trip with the kids on today’s day 5 of #30daysofbiking

Just a short trip today; library, shops and swimming pool. Mrs Ian
takes the opportunity to txt me more and more groceries to pick up, so
that I really need the extra push from my daughter on the tagalong.
Just recovering watching my son have his swimming lesson before the
last (short) stretch home.

However, if the years have taught me anything, though, it is 97%
probable that Mrs Ian will need me to go back to the supermarket for
something once we’re home…

Today’s snowy #30daysofbiking (day 4)

In a "normal" month, I wouldn't have gone out on a bike today. ??Woken by the kids with "It's snowing!", it was pretty horizontal whiteness for a large part of the morning. ??But 30daysofbiking??doesn't come with options. ??Well, it does – it says you can just go round the block. ??However, I thought I'd try to see what it would feel like to really use the bike. ??

There are advantages and disadvantages to cycling with glasses on in a blizzard. ??The main disadvantage is inability to see anything. ??The main advantage is that fewer ice crystals land directly on your cornea. ??

There are two adages for cycle clothing, and the truth is somewhere between them:

??- there's no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing

??- you don't need to wear a uniform to ride a bike

I decided to go with full wet-weather gear, although in retrospect I could have done with googles as well. ??Anyway, all in all I covered about 20 miles, mostly in 5 or 6 mile chunks. ??It really wasn't so bad once you relaxed into it; I stuck to relatively minor roads and paths so, and didn't go too fast so didn't build up too much heat inside – there is a point with waterproofs where the effects of the exercise outweigh the benefits of waterproofing. ??

And now? ??A little tired, a little weary. ??My face is working again, which is nice. ??It feels to me like I've used a lot of nerve endings that I've not activated in a long while, even as a regular cycle commuter. ??I feel great…

Day 3 of #30daysofbiking and the going is refreshing

I guess the good part of #30daysofbiking is that each day is not optional… ??So, despite the rain I thought I'd get in a trip around the block, but it was so good being out on two wheels that I turned left at the bottom of the hill instead of right, and did a couple of miles. ??Went along the Bournebrook Route and found that they've built a little bridge where my son fell off the stepping stones last year. ??The stones are still there though, which means much family based hilarity can still be had…

To the Edge of Space…

Was watching the very fine Orbit on the BBC the other day; details here: ?? http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00xztbr??. ??There was a beautiful sequence where they attached some cameras to what looked like a drinks cooler and a big helium balloon, and then launched them, gently, into space. ??For an idea of what this looked like, this fabulously ridiculous project launches a lego space shuttle into space. ?? ??

Watch and marvel. ??At first you think, great; just a wet day, clouds, more clouds. ??Then you notice that the cloud thins, and you look at the horizon and think – hey, can I actually see a curve to the horizon there? ??And then you notice that the sun is very, very bright, and the blue is down, and the sky is black – very, very black. ??The toy space shuttle is in space – it's at 35,000 metres. ??It's a thing of beauty. ??

This got me thinking. ??It's unlikely that in my lifetime, despite my fondest childhood dreams, that I'll touch space. ??Even Concorde – from which, apparently, you could see the curve of the earth, is retired, and nothing on the drawing board. ??I'll never be able to afford to fly Virgin Galactic. ??

But what if I found out that I didn't have that much time left. ??What if my GP said to me, in anachronistic fashion, "Don't buy any long playing records". ??I've been thinking about it, and I reckon, provided I could get the rest of my affairs in place, I'd be very tempted to go the way of Larry Walters. ???? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Walters??Can you imagine? ??You drift up; perhaps you'd need to take a bit of oxygen with you. ??And if you've got it right – and I mean, really right, then perhaps one of the last things you'd see would be the curve of the earth, and the blackness of space in full sunshine… ??

So, if you see me stockpiling party balloons…

Breaking in the Brooks Saddle

Well, it was about time. ??My lovely wife bought me a gorgeous Brooks??saddle nearly two years ago now, for a significant wedding anniversary. ??There had always been a reason not to fit it to the bike, and then, suddenly, there was none. ??Usual cycling pal @nicebrowncardy was otherwise engaged, and so a shorter than usual Sunday morning ride beckoned. ??I??marinated the new saddle in Proofide – smells like beeswax and lemon juice – and climbed gingerly aboard.

And what a beautiful ride. ??What cycling is about, 100%. ??I don't want to go all "Last year at band camp…" here but bicycle rides are filled with the sorts of serendipity that no other form of transport can offer. ??Like nearly colliding with the bloke who had been our best man all those years ago, up on the Harborne Walkway. ??Then catching up with another family friend, and a cup of coffee at Brindley place, which led me to decide that it was a good day for Urban??Archaeology. ??Or, to be less poncy about it, getting lost on the canals; you know the sort of thing – taking a left when you'd usually take a right. ??Fun for an hour in brilliant sunshine.????This view below takes in the Selfridges building at the Bullring, Millenium Point, some ancient engineering and a bit of post industrial bleakness. ??

Then, leaving the canal I decided to zigzag through the inner city to get to Highgate and pick up the Rea Valley way at Cannon Hill Park. ??Hearing a little bit of a commotion, which sounded like fun, I was surprised to find a bunch of folk, including some I think I could recognise from @brumcyclist??playing cycle polo. ??Turns out they're??http://birminghambikepolo.com/??- and they were very kind, in that they didn't run me off the grounds shouting "idiot" when I asked about the rules etc. ??It was very exciting to watch – and played in tremendous good humour. ??A small part of me wondered whether I should have a midlife crisis and take it up myself; however the??commitment??seems quite a lot and I already feel pretty guilty about my odd leisure pootle without family on the bike. ??And of course, being middle aged now my bones wouldn't heal as fast these days… ??I was??surprised??to read that Brooks saddles are big in the world of cycle polo too though. ??

And my Brooks? ??Well, got me the ten miles or so home, and pretty comfy – but not utterly broken in yet. ??That said, me and this saddle are going to cover tens, if not hundreds of thousands of miles together, so there's plenty of time for that. ??

What’s research? Means a lot of different things to different people…

Right, so first off, I'm not a researcher, and aside from a woeful few weeks in a lab as a medical student I've never done anything that could be properly described as research. ??I don't have the aptitude for it, for starters, and then there are a whole bunch of other reasons that I shouldn't be allowed in a lab…

I've been thinking a lot, though, about the use of the word "research" and how its use has shifted.??

A few examples, to illustrate what I mean, and deliberately extreme:

Watson/Crick, in the pub, circa 1953: ??"We've been researching the structure of DNA". ??Meaning????They've done some fairly serious thinking, mixed in with a bit of genius, playfulness, and come to an extraordinary insight.

Woodward/Bernstein, terrified and excited, circa 1972: ??"We've researched the goings on at Watergate and discovered that the president was lying". ??Meaning????Dogged hard work, persistence, luck and good use of a source. ??

My tutor to me as a student circa 1987, "An afternoon of research in a library can make you a local expert". ??Meaning????I'd got the critical facilities to be able to dissect an issue with a bit of reading around it. ??

Average anti-vaccine contributor to a website "I've researched vaccines, and they're bad". ??Meaning????I've googled it.

I have to say that I get this last one quite a lot from parents in clinic too.

Now, Google is an amazing thing . ??For example I can tell you, full of pretension, that only this afternoon I was trying to understand what a platonic solid was, and Wikipedia helped me out in seconds. ??And, I reckon if you gave me another half hour with the website I could have a pretty good go at explaining to you what a platonic solid is. But this wasn't research. ??Not in any sense of the word. ??To go back to the vaccine example, any proper use of the word "research" with respect to vaccines would reveal that they're actually pretty good things. ??We should have a word for what I was doing – well, we've got lots, but none are that helpful. ??

We need to carve out and reserve the word "research" as a description of a deep understanding of an issue, and the ability to carry out critical thought in that area. ??Of course, this also implies that we need to equip many more ??people with the ability to carry out critical thoughts, which is perhaps the more important thing. ??And given that in the last week, three of the headlines in one of the red tops have been about someone apparently chucked off of the X factor TV show, I suspect that's not what those that sell us a lot of the information want us to develop. ??

Was the Medical Research Council press release at the heart of the "Brain scans diagnose autism" nonsense?

A commentator on my previous blog post pointed out that the press release by the Medical Research Council was at least partly to blame. ??Having just read it, here??I can only agree.

If this is the standard of press release from such an important organisation, then we're in real trouble. ??"Accuracy of 90%" anyone?