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2004-01-20 11:10:10 Source: Web

Somewhat belatedly I've noticed that I may have to keep an eye on my mate Mike - complements will get you nowhere.

:-D

2004-01-14 21:58:34 Source: Web

So - the moment we've all been waiting for... the verdict from the ultrasounds scan...

Dun-dun-daaahhh!

There's nothing visibly wrong with it.

Damn! That's kind of a non-event then! I'm still none the wiser as to what's behind the problems I'm having running for longer than 15-20 minutes. So the next step is to go back to the Ortopaedic clinic who gave me the referral and see what we do next.

Now, one possible approach is that I've avoided running for the last 3-4 months. So possibly the next step is to start running again, see if the problem is still there and then go for a new scan with the knee stressed from running. Of course, with a little luck the problem *may* have gone away, but from what I've read of similar problems, if one doesn't get to the root of the problem it's most likely that it will reocurr.

So I'm basically back to the drawing board. *sigh*

2004-01-13 21:27:33 Source: Web

So after 5 months of waiting I finally have an appoinment to get my knee scanned. Yay!! I rang a hospital in Stockholm which I had heard had much shorter waiting times, but after being passed from department to department I decided to just check with the local hospital one more time.

This time I had some luck - there was the doctor (or nurse - I'm not sure) who is actually responsible for doing the scans and when I made sure to point out that I was intending to pay privately for the scan it appeared that I probably *should* have had a time quite a while back. Grrrrr!! Anyway, she managed to book me in for the scan tomorrow. SO after all that waiting I finally get booked in for the next day!!

Well, I'm not going to turn down that opportunity so tomorrow maybe I will get a new lead in what's been causing my running problems. I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much though as whatever the result of the scan, it will probably lead to more frustration down the road when I come to the part of trying to get some sort of treatment. But at least something's happening again.

Apart from that, I have been to my chiropractor a couple of times recently after (wait for it!) getting a trapped nerve and pulled muscles in my neck from doing an impersonation of my niece's reaction when opening christmas presents! Of all the dumb things ;-) I had two days when I could hardly even sit still it was so painful.

Anyway, the stiffness has pretty much gone away now so I'm looking forward to getting back into the swing of cycling and swimming again. I'm also going to try out a Pilates class that I've tracked down here. And maybe even try a little gym equipment as I can get a 10 day free pass to try things out at this particular gym.

So half way through the first month of the year and time to start getting the plans together for the coming season.

2004-01-01 20:59:01 Source: Web

Visit to London, Christmas, New Year - it's all been happening around here and I've apparently been just too lazy to document any of it! What a waster eh?

Well, I guess one of my New Year's resolutions should probably be to post here more often then, but we all know how it goes with resolution eh?

Now that the dust has settled though, I can mention that Lotta and I had a great time in the UK over Christmas. We got the chance to hook up with quite a few people as usual, we showed Lotta just how great a traditional British christmas can be (twice in fact!) exchanged some great presents with people and generally had a damn good time. I was particularly impressed to stay with two sets of friends who have both moved into new flats since I last visited them. Both have done wonderful things to their new lairs - quite making Lotta and I feel like we've been terribly lazy with our own place (which we have I'm afraid to say!). So that'll be another goal for the coming year - try and lick this place into better shape!

Some highlights of our trip (apart from food, presents, food and more food) include seeing The Return of the King (most excellent!) and a night out at a Cure tribute band party (featuring The Cureheads). Since getting back to Sweden, we've managed to cram in yet another xmas (that made 3 this year) with Lotta's folks and have treated ourselves to a joint present - a GameCube packet with Mario Karts and all the Zelda games! Mmmmmmm! We also received our new digital box which was a great improvement over the crappy Boxer service I have been paying a lot of money for!

So it's been a "toy" weekend for us here. We didn't do much to celebrate the New Year - we watched the fireworks from our balcony and drank a little champagne, but after all the hectic wonderfulness of christmas, it was nice to actually spend a couple of evenings at home.

So I'm back to work tomorrow for a single day before the weekend begins. I'm looking forward to getting back into the rhythm now and hoping that 2004 is going to be as great a year as it promises to be. We have plans to complete for our wedding and if this year is better than the wonderful 2003 that I've had, I'll count myself a very lucky man!

I hope that 2004 is good for you all as well!

Skål! Och god fortsättning!

2003-12-03 21:28:19 Source: Web

The cycle trainer that was ordered for my birthday finally turned up. Yay! Only a month late. Worth the wait though as it is completely brilliant! I have been tracking down some good suggestions for training routines and did a couple at the weekend. I can definitely do a much more structured workout than I've been in the habit of doing on the road. I never realised for instance how much more difficult doing single-legged pedalling would be! Also one can really thrash on a sprint interval and exert at a level that could be potentially dangerous on the road.

I've decided that what I really need to work on in order to make some major cycling improvements this year is intensive interval and strength training on the trainer, combined with long outdoor rides when possible. I need to avoid overtraining though, sa I found out this week when I completely crashed! I felt absolutely rotten for a couple of days after a very intensive weekend. I had an ulcer at the back of my tongue, pains in my heel (which appear to be from over-tight and poorly stretched calf muscles) and I ached all over which made me suspect flu! A really early night on Monday, plus taking Tuesday afternoon off work and crashing on the couch have really helped and I'm feeling much better today. But I do need to try and balance my training out a bit better.

Eventually I'll learn ;-)

2003-11-21 07:50:30 Source: Web

Ow! Cramp hurts ;-)

Cycled to swim training last night in cold and rainy weather. I then began a hard training set with a lot of kicking exercises. By the point I reched around the 3km mark, I had already had several small cramps in my foot and then *pang* a muscle in my calf went bezerk! It was standing out like a chunk of stone in my leg :-)

So that was the end of my swim session and I cycled home being careful not to overstress my leg muscles. It's still giving me gip this morning! So that's what I get for trying too hard ;-)

2003-11-17 21:56:50 Source: Web

Well, the new car has been like a dream! Reliable, quiet, easy to drive and what's looking like extremely low fuel consumption! I'm definitely very pleased we went with this one!

We saw The Legenday Pink Dots play at a local club at the weekend. We saw them last about 3 years ago and I have to say that they gave a great concert this second time as well. I really enjoyed myself!

I swam a couple of km at the weekend just simply looking at what sort of time I can put in. My first km was swum in 20.10 and the second in 19.49 - so I was pretty pleased. I have a way to go though if I'm going to be competitive - but at least that means that I wouldn't place bottom in our triathlon club. Hopefully I should be able to get down well under 19 minutes during this coming season.

I'm still waiting for delivery of my cycle trainer. I should jopefully hear tomorrow whether it's arriving this week or not. It's been back-ordered at the supplier. Bit of a bugger, but if it is back-ordered again I'll probably change my order for a different model. I hope not though, as the Elite is the model I wanted.

2003-11-11 15:17:11 Source: Web

Got it!

Yup - the deal is done and the car is ours :-D What a relief to be able to get rid of the (trusty???) Ford.

2003-11-09 13:54:03 Source: Web

We took the plunge - and plonked down a deposit on the Corsa!




I should get the financing cleared up on Monday and hopefully be able to pick it up (with spanking new winter wheels installed) on tue/wed. What a relief it will be to have a car that is reliable, modern, clean and economical (good fuel economy on this car as far as I understand it). I'll be planning to fix on a bike carrier, as it doesn't look like my bikes will go in the back, but that should be no problems.

I'm also getting my cycle trainer delivered any day now. That should be fun! My training frequency should increase quite a bit and I'm planning on using the trainer for interval/speed work and trying to get out on the road as much as possible for the distance element. It will also give me a chance to fine-tune the seating setup on my road bike in a controlled environment. Important before a long ride like Vättern Runt.

Finally, I'm hoping to hear more about my "secret" during this week as well! Fingers crossed eh?? ;-)

2003-11-07 17:26:43 Source: Web

Well - it's decided. No MOT!! The decision has been taken that we are definitely gonna get rid of the piece of junk that is known as "The Ford" and replace it with something considerably newer! I've been looking at a few cars via a really comprehensive site that covers most of the car dealers in Gothenburg and tomorrow we're going to go and test drive an Opel Corsa. It's a 2000 model that's only done 31000 km and is in excellent condition.

There are some other possibilities out there as well, but I've got my fingers crossed for the Corsa!

More news as it comes!!