Swimming, 5th March 2019

Yet another repeat of the same set I’ve been doing in the last couple of weeks, but things are progressing slowly so I’m not going to get distressed about that.

Today I managed twenty reps before failing on twenty-one and then finishing off the set relatively easily. That’s one more than yesterday, keeping things moving in the right direction.

USRPT distance this year: 58,600m
Total distance this year: 60,400m

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Swimming, 4th March 2019

After the disaster of my last session I was determined to do better today and I’m pleased to report that’s how it went. Not a big improvement on my previous best performance, but an improvement nonetheless.

Today I managed nineteen reps before failing on twenty, after which the last four weren’t too hard to finish off. Hopefully I can keep things going tomorrow.

USRPT distance this year: 56,850m
Total distance this year: 58,650m

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Building an observatory. Construction #44

During last week I managed to get most of the final piece of cladding at the tops of the walls in place. All that remains now is a piece above the door and the piece below the flap in the southern gable, which I can’t do before the flap is completed because I want it to trap the strip of EPDM that will stop rain being blown in through the gap where the hinges are.

The forecast for this weekend was pretty miserable.    However, Saturday wasn’t actually too bad so I decided to try to finish the end flap.  The first job was to make a few adjustments to the fit, then get all the hinges on.  I was planning on using large strap hinges, but I found some stainless security hinges intended for hanging fire doors on the Screwfix website and decided to use those instead.

To fit the flap to the wall I made up the supports that will hold the flap when it’s down.  I’m not really very happy with them at the moment.  They do support the flap, but they just don’t feel quite as stable as I’d like.  I might have to revisit them later, perhaps to add some extra bracing or even another support in the middle of the wall.  Once I had them in place it was easy to put the flap in the “down” position to fit the hinges to the top of the wall.  As I lifted the flap into the closed position to check the fit again, the rain started.  I think I need a small amount of adjustment at one end, but it will have to wait for dry weather.

Because I wasn’t quite ready to stop at that point I finished off by using up the offcuts of insulation that have been lying about the observatory for the last few weeks to fill the smaller spaces in the warm room walls.

A couple of photos with the flap in the “down” position:

By the time I took this one of the flap closed up I was starting to lose the light.

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Swimming, 1st March 2019

I wasn’t feeling great when I went to the pool today. Nothing specific, just not quite right. No idea why.

Clearly there was something not right as the session was a complete disaster. I couldn’t even finish the set. Not a good day nor an encouraging start to the month. Best forgotten 🙁

USRPT distance this year: 55,100m
Total distance this year: 56,900m

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Swimming, 28th February 2019

Quite a successful day in the pool today. I repeated my current set and managed to make eighteen reps before failing, two more than yesterday. After that I had no more failures, though the last couple were quite tough.

Afterwards I spent some time practising tumble turns at the shallow end of the pool which always make me a little apprehensive. I almost hit the floor on the first, but after half a dozen or so I was getting better. I joked to the life guard on the way out that the pool needed topping up and to my surprise he said that actually that may well be the case. Assuming I can get there tomorrow I’ll see how it is 🙂

USRPT distance this year: 53,500m
Total distance this year: 55,300m


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Swimming, 26th February 2019

Much quieter in the pool today, though as I warmed up I felt that it was going to be quite a struggle. Didn’t sleep too well last night and as a result I wasn’t really feeling on the ball for today’s session.

Nonetheless I think I did pretty well. I did feel a bit slow, especially towards the end of the set, but I managed to complete sixteen reps before my first failure and despite really struggling towards the end I managed to complete the set with no further failures.

USRPT distance this year: 51,750m
Total distance this year: 53,550m

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Swimming, 25th February 2019

It being the first day back at school today, I went to the pool expecting it to be quiet. Within a couple of minutes of me getting into the water it was already far busier than usual. Turns out that some of the local schools had an inset day, so the children weren’t actually at school anyhow. Hey ho. More choppy water to swim in…

Anyhow, back to the same set as I was attempting last week. I have to admit that I was lacking in energy a bit for this one, not having slept particularly well last night, but despite that it went pretty well. I managed fourteen reps before failing on fifteen and then had one further failure on rep twenty-two. Not my best swimming, but I was pleased to make progress nonetheless.

USRPT distance this year: 50,000m
Total distance this year: 51,800m

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Building an observatory. Construction #43

I didn’t have much time for work on the observatory this weekend, but I did manage to cut some additional timbers for the frame to support joins in the external cladding where they didn’t end on an existing part of the frame. I deliberately chose to do this for the first seven or eight rows on the eastern side of the observatory because I’d have wasted a lot of cladding otherwise, and it’s well-protected from the elements by the stone wall alongside.

That done I nailed the remaining ends to the new timber. I had to drill pilot holes for the nails to stop the cladding splitting as it has dried out so much since I first fitted it.

Whilst I had the wood on the chop saw, I also added some additional diagonal bracing in the walls. I probably don’t need it, but thought I might as well given that I had the timber and I now have a better idea of the weight of the roof.

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Building an observatory. Construction #42

I’ve now put together my list of things that need to be done to keep the project moving forward. This is not an exhaustive list, but should get me a fair bit further on. In fact, it’s two lists. The first contains things I can do now without buying more materials (good, because I need to get things cleared out of the workshop before it becomes unusable), and the second contains the rest.

List one:

  • Complete the cladding at the tops of the walls where a full width piece is too tall
  • Complete the cladding on the gables
  • Make some adjustments to the fit of the southern gable flap
  • Fix the flap in place
  • Seal the runners so rain can’t be driven in along them
  • Finish off the access panel in the warm room floor around the cable ducts
  • Lower the internal window (I’ve decide it’s too high)
  • Finish putting the blocks together for the piers
  • Add trim on the corners to finish off the cladding there
  • Fit the internal window
  • Fix down the EPDM on the rolling roof
  • Trim the EPDM on the warm room roof

List two:

  • Add posts to support the ends of the roll-off rails
  • Clad the internal walls, warm room ceiling and piers with ply
  • Insulate the warm room
  • Fit an external door liner
  • Construct and fit the external door
  • Fit stops on the roll-off rails
  • Fit an internal door liner
  • Construct and fit the internal door
  • Lay floor tiles in the scope room
  • Put some sort of floor covering in the warm room (as yet undecided)

This gives me a fair bit to focus on over the next few weeks. Unfortunately there are other things that need to be done with my time, but at least the evenings are starting to get light now, so I may find time then.

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Swimming, 21st February 2019

By contrast with earlier in the week, today I was the only person in the pool when I started swimming, though two or three others did turn up during the course of my session. Odd that it should be so different today. I’ve no idea why.

Anyhow, back to the same session again. I must have slept awkwardly and woke up with some strange irritation of a muscle in my back that was uncomfortable when I was warming up, but once I got going I completely forgot about it. This time I managed a much stronger performance than the last one, completing thirteen reps before my first failure, then failing for a second time at twenty and going on to complete the set. I was very pleased with this, and actually it felt far less of a struggle than earlier in the week.

Hopefully this bodes well for future attempts at the set and I can improve again next time.

USRPT distance this year: 48,300m
Total distance this year: 50,100m

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