Wednesday 22 February 2012

Out with the old, in with the new...

I'm at that point now where it's likely to be the end of any serious cycling endeavours for me, you see I no longer have the desire to swing a leg over a bike... it's gone... all gone... dead... You all know the reason why, I think you've all worked it out now that I'm fearful, a scardy cat... Cycling has lost its joy simply because I do not want to smack the floor with any part of my body, I do not want to spend any more time in hospital, I do not want any more metal in me, no more rehab, no more additional constant pains...

But I'm one of those people that NEEDS to do something and do something different, something that may be a little weird for some people but hey it's my party. I can't do the cycling I used to love but I do have other hobbies, photography is one and another, the one that has me all excited is training my dog haha weird aye? I'm one of these people that gets really immersed in things, no half measures with me, something now has to replace the energy and enthusiasm I put into my cycling..

If you've been reading my blog you'll know that I have a Dobermann puppy, heck there's a photo below so you know what he looked like a few months ago but now that little lovable bundle of fun is 7 months old now and weighs 7.5 stone with his head the height of the metal in my hip. He's also a handful, he's boisterous at times, he's bitey when he wants to be, so he needed an outlet for all this youthful pent up teenage aggression, what did I do? I took him to obedience classes that's what I did but he'd just lay into me all the more, not nastily you understand, he's just playing with me, he was telling me he was bored, he'd grab my leg with his mouth as we were marching up and down the field when he was told to heel or he'd jump up and grab my arm, very embarrassing, nearly as embarrassing as getting doggy humped (not happened yet)... "NO!!!" I was told to shout at him, don't use a choke chain that's too primitive just use your most disapproving voice, well to cut a long story short this namby-pamby type of training does not work with him and I had to look for another training method...

People in the know told me that this bitey thing is his prey drive developing which is how it should be with a Dobermann. The Dobermann as a breed was originally bred for guarding and personal protection and with Ozzy that breeding is coming out to play. Now I've always wanted to get my dogs into a training activity that's over 100 years old called Schutzhund but it's pretty new in the UK and there are few clubs, getting into these clubs is fairly hard as they will only train dogs that have the right temperament, not shy and not vicious. A few weeks ago I was invited to a club in Leigh near Warrington and I was very very excited. The Saturday came around and me and Ozzy drove up to the club. Ozzy had a lesson in obedience where he was also being scrutinised for his temperament and ability to train then came the main test, a simple test that will decide whether Ozzy is suitable for training the Schutzhund way, a bite test. The helper (trainer, man wearing the bite suit) along with a German bloke, (the bloke who brought Schutzhund to the UK) took myself and Ozzy out into a field and the helper lashed a rag out in front of Ozzy resulting in Ozzy lunging for it and holding on. The German guy called Kurt simply said "he's got it..." (the right temperament) - YES, YES, YES, WE ARE IN, YES, YES, YES.... I was excited to say the least, I was on a high for the next week...

Anyway we've been attending the club now for 3 weeks (Sat 12 till 5) and Ozzy is coming on in leaps and bounds, he's progressed to the stage when he's ready for the sleeve, the bite sleeve the helper wears around his arm, he's started tracking and is coming on great on obedience but all this takes time, at least an hour a day but I love it and so does Ozzy.

If you are still reading and not bored witless, I will leave this blog entry with some photo's of moi and Ozzy being worked in bite work last week.



Many more photo's here

So this is what I do now, sadly and I do mean that, cycling is part of history for me, it really depressed me to have to stop but as one chapter ends another one starts and I hope that I am up to taking Ozzy far in this sport, yes it is a sport, there are competitions to participate in, honours to be won, titles to be gained, it's hard work but fun, not a vicious bite to be had not a nasty liability to be made, it will make Ozzy a well rounded confident dog with a fantastic discerning temperament and as obedient as hell to boot, and for me all this training gets the heart going it keeps me fit and outside and very interested.

That's it I think, my cycling has come to a premature end and I can't see this blog being updated any more but I'd like to thank all my cycling chums for the time I've spent with them, all the boys n girls at North Cheshire Clarion who allowed me to ride with them and those that came to my aid when I needed it the most, you're are all the best, I will and do miss your friendship and companionship.

Thanks for reading, it's been a pleasure.

Thursday 15 September 2011

Wow It's been How Long???

Mid July was my last entry, eight weeks...

Why have I stopped blogging? simple really, I've not been on my bike. Why? Well it's all to do with these bones of mine and events. Bones that are weak due to osteoporosis and the event? well some of you may think I'm being silly but it was the death of my faithful companion Zach as I made mention of in my last entry.

I've been on edge when I've been on my bike since they told me I was made of glass and that made me really depressed to think that the cycling I loved so much could so easily put me back in hospital with just one little fall and then came the death of Zach and I think this was the straw that broke the camels back as they say. I'm not one to give up but it was all just too much and I did just that, I gave up and went on holiday. The next line should be I'M BACK but I'm not, my bikes are gathering dust, my Garmin has disappeared behind the sofa somewhere and I've put all my cycling gear away however I'm really hoping that next year I will get back into the swing of it and resume my cycling. Turbo over winter me thinks?

There is good news though, Zach has a passed the baton on to the shark known as 9 week old Ozzy  :-)



Thursday 14 July 2011

Zach - 2000 to 2011

Quite a few posts back I made mention of my loyal Dobermanns that I've had the privilege of owning down through the years with Zach pictured below being our current Dobermann, well I'm sad to report that Zach passed away yesterday with what looks like heart failure. Over the last few months he's started to display signs of his old age, he was 10 years 7 months. His walks at times were getting slower and slower but his zeal for 'walkies' was undiminished and yesterday we went for our walk in the morning as usual but in the late afternoon he took a turn for the worse and passed away at home at 7pm.   




Already just one day on he is sadly missed, I went for our walk today on my own, you can imagine how wrong it felt, the house feels empty, I have lost my pal.

You may say that he's just a dog but you would be so wrong, he was a dog yes but he was also much more than that, he was a member of this family, he was like a child with his own likes and dislikes, he loved a rawhide bone and would happily chew on one all day he also loved his walks especially with 'Dad' - me. When one of us came into the house or first thing in the morning, he would bring you a gift usually the bone, sometimes this 'gift' was unwelcome as he after hunting it down, would often drop it onto your bare feet - that hurt. He loved everyone that came into my house and wanted to be fussed. He was also an excellent guard barking menacingly at anything he thought was a threat, he would even bark at someone trying to leave the house, he didn't want them to go. He didn't like rain... or cats...

Will we get Dobermann No5? You bet we will. Why? The pull of the Dobermann is his character, intelligence and above all his undivided loyalty to myself and family, every Dobermann we have had the privilege of owning have had these qualities and I can't imagine what it would be like to not have one in the house.

Sunday 3 July 2011

Hello World...



Yes hello world that's how I feel right now after being 6 months in the dumps so to speak, I feel fit and healthy and that feeling is the best feeling in the world, you really do miss it when something happens to rob you of your hard gained fitness but enough of that you must all be getting fed up of reading about me going on about these things...

Friday
Sooo, today or rather this weekend has been the most fruitful enjoyable weekends of the year for me and it all started on Friday as I headed to the gym to do a simple all over workout concentrating on my legs but getting in a few upper body exercises. I want to do some proper squats, I hate squats they make me want to puke but they are the king of all exercises as you get a full body workout however all the hard core body builders are hogging the stands grunting out 150+ kg and I would feel a right weed squatting with probably just 60kg so instead I head over to the leg press to force out a few reps, the squat will have to wait for quieter times...

Saturday
A beautiful day in the mid 20's 'C so I set off on my bike to do my usual loop around Preston on the Hill, it's just 20 miles so just over an hours worth of bike and sun. The chippings that the Council in their cheepness had deposited all over the roads I like to ride on and has stopped me from riding this loop has mostly gone, ground into the tarmac or slung to the sides of the roads by a few weeks worth of cars but I'm still cautious travelling these roads however on Saturday it wasn't the chippings that got me it was farmer Giles as he trimmed his thorn bush hedges with yes you can guess it, a puncture. I stop in Preston on the Hill opposite fellow club member Martin Hickmans house but I cant get the thorn out of the tyre so knock on Martins door and with the aid of a pair of tweezers we eventually get the thorn out, so thanks Martin and Jackie for your help. Note to self, buy some tweezers...

Sunday
Another fantastic day even warmer than Saturday and I love the sun, the warmer and sunnier the better for me, so at 11ish myself and Phil M set off on a 30 mile loop. We want an easy ride a steady 15 - 18 mph ride, but today Phil is a bit like my dog with a cat. My dog thinks he is a wise dog, he knows cats can hurt him with those nasty sharp claws but any cat that decides to leg it is fair game and my dog will chase until it's cornered then he will back off, quite normal I suppose. So here we are having a chat along Marsh Lane when another roadie comes past and the chase is on, Phils off after him down in the drops so I follow. We are racing along at 23 to 24 mph and I'm puffed, we catch him as we come to the junction at the end of Marsh lane, roadie turns left as is our route and I thought bloody ell here we go again but there's another roadie having a break on the junction and as we pass I hear a 'Hi Mark', I look and recognise Andy from the club so we pull over for a very welcome break and a chat. We ride on together heading through Comberbach and then cross the A559 into Great Budworth where there's a hill which Andy storms up as myself and Phil climb at our own modest pace, it's here that the 'sprint' we had a few miles comes back to bite us in the bum with tired drained legs as we crawled up this little ankle biter of a hill. Andys waiting for us outside a pub and it's so tempting just to nip in for a pint...


Phil M & Andy

We resist the urge and carry on and then it's Andys time for a turn on the front and when he does the pace goes up so once again I'm puffed but it's all ok as this sort of pace is whats needed to nudge those poor fitness levels up a notch or three.

  Arses of which Phils was very sore - new saddle...
 

Eventually we say our byes to Andy as Andy heads over to Tatton and we carry on heading north through to Appleton Thorn and then west where we were down to 15 mph into a bit of a headwind which leached energy like multi coloured fairies as we headed towards Stretton and finally home.

30 great warm sunny miles in the bag, great stuff and my leg didn't hurt at any point in the ride. Later came a stubby or two in the garden to top the day off and a fantastic way to finish the whole weekend off ...

My Stats
30.5 miles, 2 hrs, 15.2 mph average, Av HR 144bpm (75% max) 901 ft climbing (garmin)