Well That Sucked

I'm just getting over having had Covid-19. Tested two weeks ago and got the results just after.

The diagnosis coincided with the last of the warm weather and just as the mornings started getting dark so the seasons also haven't promoted wellness.

On the first day I believe that the stress of not knowing along with the start of the illness triggered off a migraine. Normal migraine symptoms of confusion, loss of speech and headache sent me to bed.

The following morning, when I actually got the result, I had woken up aching.

By about three that afternoon I was beaten and had to go back to bed.

That's pretty much how I was for the past two weeks, aching and tired. Popping the odd Ibuprofen, making sure I drank plenty of water.

This of course has meant no leaving the house and no running.

There's lots of people out there being hit much harder by this pandemic than I have been so far but I still feel it's important to take a note now of what happens to me too.

There was that initial feeling of dread when getting the positive test result. The news is full of just figures and information on how to avoid spreading the virus, but nothing much in the way of what to do to look after yourself if you are diagnosed as having it. Should you drink more? Should you wrap up warmer? Should you eat more prunes? With no real guidelines it feels like a lottery as to whether you'll get better and what impact the virus will have. 

Keep On Running

 I've been tracking my steps automatically and saving to Google Sheets since 26th October 2019, almost a year now. My first recorded run with Maia was 2nd November 2019 when we struggled to complete a few laps of the local, small park.

There was a break in our exercises from December 2019 to March 2020 and since March we've been pretty persistent, running more than twice a week most weeks.

Most mornings now we run 5km and gradually we're getting quicker.

This week I had my first running injury. I've had knee pains but don't really count those as I'm still finding my running style. 

I stepped on a branch which I though just bruised my toe but on later examination it seems that the branch stuck a thorn through my running shoe into my toe.

Took this little splinter/thorn out using magnesium sulphate paste and tweezers. All back to normal now.

Keep On Moving

 On the 1st of September I ran 5km at 6:30am and the mist across the river was beautiful. Boats appears out of the mist and then disappeared and the sound of the morning was blanketed. As I was running I didn't have my phone with me to take pictures.

This morning Lance and I walked across Horsell Common. It wasn't quite as cold as it had been yesterday so the mist over the water was much lighter and soon evaporated as the sun rose.

Personal Best Updates For August 2020

 Seems I've not posted personal bests here since April. Not much improvement but then not much effort put into improving these either. I've mainly been working on consistency and distance rather than times.

Times from August 2020

1km - 5:37
1 Mile - 9:35
5km - 32.46

Times from April 2020

1km - 5:52
1 Mile - 9:35
5km - 33:05

I've been running 8 - 10 times a month, typically twice a week. Added a new route across Horsell Common walking and running with Lance. This new course is around 8.5km and is more flat than the 5km local run though I've not set any personal bests on this route yet.

Despite a couple of problems with Garmin and with Virgin Pulse over the last few months I've still been consistently monitoring steps.

I started using the Honor Band 5 when Garmin had their technical issues, this adequately counted steps and monitored sleeping patterns. At the beginning of August I was unable to synchronise my step count between Google Fit and Virgin Pulse, while investigating the cause of this issue I went back to wearing my Virgin Pulse Max Buzz so as to keep the step count on my Virgin Pulse account up to date. The synchronising appears to be working again now but I've stuck with the Max Buzz. Although the Honor Band 5 is a nicer device it really doesn't give much in the way of shared information with other systems meaning you have to read the data in the format provided by the Huawei Fit app. I've not gone back to the Garmin Vivofit as I'm now cautious about their entire system after their infrastructure was offline due to an apparent cyber attack.

I feel the next big test of my exercise regime will be whether I keep running as rain becomes more frequent.

Fitness Tracker Change

Having not been able to sync my Garmin Vivofit for a couple of days I finally did a search in the news and it appears Garmin have had a massive system failure. As the failure appears to impact their entire range, including their aviation navigation devices, experts are speculating they have been hit with a ransomware attack.

As it's unclear when the Garmin site is likely to come back online I'm having to change the device I use to measure sleep.

What I liked about the Garmin Vivofit was it's very low battery use. By using a very basic display, not trying to make the device a smart watch by adding too many features and critically only using BlueTooth connection when manually told to sync, the strap is able to use standard watch batteries which last for months, possibly years. Not sure of exactly how long the batteries last since I've not been using the strap for a year yet. I did put in new batteries when I got the strap. While it had been sitting in a drawer for years the time on the Vivofit was still showing and the step counter worked for a few weeks before finally the battery died. Clearly sitting in a drawer for years doing nothing is going to use less power so that's not a true measure.

In the time old tradition of inheriting gadgets from Jude, I'm trying her Honor Band 5.

I had seen these bands and looking at the specification to price they look amazing and have had good reviews. It does seem that complaints I had read about the device were related to people not configuring it properly or the issues have been addressed in firmware updates since their review.

While the Honor Band 5 app does link with my Google Fit account it's not clear yet if the sleep tracking gets syncronised. I have some research to do.

While Maia also has one of these fitness trackers I haven't seen the results she gets from the app.

With different devices having access to Google fit it's not clear which can read what information and which write what information. This may be something to analyse in another post. 

Tracking What How Where When Why?

Overview

I started my last blog post with a specific point in mind then proceeded to write about something else. What I had intended to cover was this, the information regarding what fitness aspects I'm currently tracking, how I'm tracking each aspect, where the information is being logged, when and why.
I wanted to blog this as recently I'd changed the way I gathered some of the data.

Data Gathering

Weight

Measured every day as I wake up using Renpho BlueTooth scales. The weight is recorded directly to Google Fit and every night a script runs to pull the data from Google Fit and write it into a Google spreadsheet. While the scales also measures body fat this data isn't currently exported from the Renpho application (something to investigate). Weight measurement is also manually entered into the Virgin Pulse fitness application.

Sleep

Measured every night via a Garmin Vivofit. One of the benefits of the Vivofit is that it uses standard watch batteries which allow the device to measure steps and sleep for months without need to charge or change the batteries. As the fitness strap runs on limited power it's functions are also limited, it's a balance of features against battery life. Sleep data is automatically recorded into the Garmin 

Steps

Measured constantly with Garmin Vivofit, backed up with Android step count on either the phone or watch. Step count is recorded in Garmin Connect from the Vivofit, Google Fit for Android steps and then both are recorded in Virgin Pulse. Only cadence is recorded in Strava when activities are started manually.

Workouts

Currently limited to runs and walks, recorded with Strava app either on Wear OS for running or phone for walks. Workout data from Strava automatically populates to Virgin Pulse. This has recently changed as I was manually adding workout data from Strava into Garmin connect, this would then populate Virgin Pulse. With the old method I was getting duplicate workout recordings as the Garmin Vivofit was automatically generating a workout after 15 minutes of what it recognised as "running". I've disabled workout auto detect on the Vivofit, this stops the duplicate recordings. While this does mean that Garmin connect no longer has workouts recorded this information is still held in both Strava and Virgin Pulse. Workouts are also synchronised into Google Fit from Strava.

Distance timings

Times for 400m, 1/2mile, 1km, 1Mile, 2km, 5km, 10km, 15km, 10Miles, half marathon, 30km, marathon and 50km are recorded when a workout is manually triggered in Strava. Once a week I use the web site https://stravabestefforts.com to export all the timings for each workout and record them into a Google spreadsheet. The free account on the web site displays the past 180 days of data. Typically it's only runs which record the times. 

Segment timings

In Strava, repeated runs are broken down into segments and timings for these segments are recorded. With the free version of Strava only a limited record of the recent segment times is displayed. Segment times, while a motivator, are not recorded outside of Strava.

Hardware

TicWatch Pro

This is a watch runs Wear OS. What's unusual is that the watch has a dual screen function in that most of the time the display is monochromatic showing just time, date, step count and battery level, on awakening the watch shows a full colour OLED display.

Renpho ES-20M BlueTooth Scales

These scales measure weight as well as rudimentary body fat via pads on the scale. Once measured the scales store the results and can send them to it's own app on a mobile phone. The Renpho app automatically feeds in to Google Fit. 

Garmin VivoFit

The VivoFit is a sports band which is only able to measure movement so is used to record step counts and sleep. What makes this specific band unusual is that it is powered by standard watch batteries. To minimise the power consumption the band only connects to the phone app when a button is held. The screen is low power LCD and there is no backlight. With a long battery life this is ideal for monitoring 24x7.

Programs

The main tools I'm using are, Google fit, Garmin Connect, Strava and Virgin Pulse.

Mobvoi

The app provided for use with the TicWatch Pro. Rarely touched as the data collected is already reflected in other apps.

Google Fit

Google fit records a lot of information from the phone an Wear OS watch however the data is only visible through the phone app, because of this I tend to use Google Fit as a storage system and as a way to link the other tools.

Garmin Connect

Garmin Connect is the interface for the Vivofit sports band. The site is quite comprehensive with history data, badges, challenges and social interaction. If I were using a Garmin device with more features I'd possibly make more use of the site. Customisation is very good allowing dashboard configuration. Other than the limited information I'm able to provide to the site from the sports band the other reason I'm dialling back my use of the site is that the social media side is not as popular as Strava.

Strava

Strava gathers data via Android and Wear OS apps which measure steps, heart monitor and use GPS data. Strava is very popular and acts as a stand alone social media platform as well as interacting with other platforms. Features such as "kudos" and "fly by" along with challenges between members make the platform very popular. 

Virgin Pulse

Virgin Pulse is a fitness application provided by my work. The system pulls data from Strava, Google Fit and Garmin. Social interaction on Virgin Pulse is limited to within the company I work for but all the same is quite active. The Virgin Pulse program offers benefits for accruing credits which are gained by completing specific tasks. Current tasks that give credits are:

• Create a Personal challenge 5 Credits
• Join personal challenge 5 Credits
• Track 10000 steps 20 days in a month 5 Credits
• Track 7000 steps 20 days in a month 5 Credits
• Track steps or active min 20 days in a month 5 Credits

Google Sheets

While each of the applications has their own levels of history data, graphs and various different ways to show data it's sometimes helpful to have figures in a straight spreadsheet. I have used Google Sheets and the scripting capability within Google Sheet to pull data from Google Fit. Currently I manually add more detail from Strava, this could possibly be automated too at some point. Should one of the systems stop supporting a specific measure there's capability to get that information from another source and still maintain the spreadsheet.

Still Going

I found out last week that the points on my Virgin Active account, which is a fitness tracking system funded from work, pays for points. It's not a hell of a lot and because I wasn't aware of this feature I'd not really put in much effort. I was able to claim £26 for the points I had collected over the past 18 months (?). Coincidentally one of the points earners is to register 20 days in a month of over 10,000 steps, a feat I was just able to make on the last day of May.
First day of June and I'm hopefully switching now to a 5km run every other day, stepping up from the previous 3km, intending to intersperse with 5k walks, aiming again to register 20 days of 10,000 steps, only this way not cutting it so close to the wire.

Money For Nothing?

OK so now that Microsoft Edge is based on the Chrome browser it's a lot more attractive to use. I've been using it for both work and home since it was first put on general release.

Edge now supports many of the features of Chrome along with better integration into the Microsoft eco system.

For some years now I've been a member of the Microsoft Reward scheme. Having to purposefully switch to Internet Explorer, or the old Microsoft Edge meant that other than a couple of dedicated months, I just didn't stick with the program.

I still "game" the system, I don't feel that Bing gives me anything like the quality of search results that Google does so I purposefully perform 30 searches with Bing that are actually of no use to me other than to gain the 3 points per search. Similarly with the 20 mobile searches.

The quizzes and polls can be interesting giving a few additional points per day.

Personally I'm saving up points for sweepstake entries. I have no concept of how many people are entering these sweepstakes or what the odds of me getting anything are but I figure I'm paying for these entries with a few minutes of my time each day.

The rewards site offers vouchers for Amazon, Halfords, NEW LOOK, John Lewis, M&S, PizzaExpress, Tesco and other retail outlets. The points to pounds ratio isn't great but again, it something for a little of your time every day.

For more information have a look at https://account.microsoft.com/rewards/

5km The Opposite Direction

Managed to run the full 5km this time. Possibly helped by the fact this was a second attempt, possibly helped by the fact that for the past week we've been running every other day which in this case means I've run 3 x 3km, certainly helped by the fact that I ran with Maia and she runs at a slightly slower and more consistent pace and certainly helped by running the opposite direction to the last attempt.
Running the route anti-clockwise means that the run starts with the same short climb to the apex of the whole circuit then down hill to the lowest point in about 1km.
The run along the river, as you'd expect, is flat, then there's the gradual climb up again over 1km back up to Stoughton crossroads.

Personal Goals Mini Update

400m 2:11 A segment on my normal run, down hill, wind behind me. Perhaps when the lockdown is over I should look to do some track time and get some more accurate times.

Personal Bests

It's all about personal bests.
Until very recently I didn't run.
At school I walked the cross country and took short cuts. The teachers couldn't monitor the whole class on a run.
Walking, now that I could do by the mile after unstoppable mile but never run.
When I first moved to Surrey, in my 40s, I joined a gym and enjoyed running on the tread mill. I could listen to podcasts and when I got tired I would still be right where I started.
I started street running in 2019, age 48. That biological clock telling me how I should stop taking my general good health for granted and start doing some work on it. But I wasn't logging the exercise, not recording times and distances.
Though I'd had step counters in the past it was getting a watch capable of tracking GPS that has helped most with the fitness tracking.
Step count is something I've covered in other posts and it's the simplest measure but what I'm getting interested in now is getting to a point where I can run 5km and once at that point I want to work on improving my times for that distance.
Towards the middle of last year I set up a spreadsheet which automatically pulls my step count from Google Fit and records it. While Google holds the data itself you have to use the mobile app to view the information and I want the flexibility to browse the information in different ways. The idea behind this was to get some base line numbers so that when I started exercising properly I'd have something to compare with. Exercising to start properly as I turn 49, with a goal to being fit for 50!
Just over a month into doing regular runs and despite the pandemic induced lock down, my running is getting better.
I started running Tuesdays and Thursdays. First I would walk to a local playing field then run two laps around it, then walk back.
When I went to run early one morning and found that the playing field was shut I opted to run the block around the playing field. Distance wise, running the street was just a little shorter than two laps of the field itself, about 2.5km.
About two weeks ago, rather than walking to the start of the run and walking back after it, I started running from the front door and finishing back at the house too. Just over 3km.
Last Sunday I chose to run a circuit that I'd walked several times as I knew this was just over 5km.
The circuit takes me down to the river, along the river then back up before a short run back down to home.
The climb starts at about 3km, roughly where I've been ending my regular runs. On this first attempt I didn't manage to run the full 5km, slowing to a walk at 4km then another run from the top of the road.
Despite not technically running the whole route it's given me a circuit time to beat, which I'll be trying again next weekend.
As well as giving an over all circuit time to beat the Strava site that I've been using to record each run has finally got some sensible distances to register some times with, these are my starting points:

1km - 5:52
1 Mile - 9:35
5km - 33:05

As mentioned above, the route isn't flat but it's one that I'll repeat so the distance is symbolic, though it will be interesting to see the time difference for 5km over different courses and as the weather changes.

Since I started using Strava I've run 45.6km over 14 runs, a total of 5 hours 46 minutes.

Lets see where we go from there.

Reminders Of Better Days

Through March I got reminders from Google "this day in history" telling me I was climbing x mountain or walking y river. And with the weather being just about perfect for walks I'm feeling a little caged. I must not complain though as I'm "caged" in a beautiful house with amazing people and yes I'm saying this after almost three weeks of lock down. I'm also fortunate in that I'm able to work from home with little impact. I have had to go into the office a couple of times but when I have it's empty.

So Close

Well my attempt at 7000 steps per day for March failed, but I have a good excuse! Around the middle of March the world was put on lockdown, yes the entire world, or near enough.
In the UK we were told to limit all journeys to essential only. That meant certain workers, trips to the chemist for prescriptions, essential shopping and one trip out for exercise.
Yes that last caveat should have allowed me to keep up my daily step count but it's not as simple as that. There's still an element of guilt with going outside, a feeling that you're not "isolating" properly. With each day of this situation I feel this less and less but certainly in the first few days of isolation I just didn't feel right leaving the house.
Needless to say I'm not attempting 10,000 steps a day in April, or any other month soon.
I look forward to reading this back in ten to fifteen years time, that time when a virus had the world on lockdown.
I'm extremely lucky to be home with loved ones, have plenty of space and a job that I can do from home. In fact, before this situation started I was already working two or three days a week from home so that aspect of daily life hasn't really changed.
I'm still wearing the step counter and still weighing myself every day.
Interestingly, since isolation started I've actually dropped the final few pounds to reach my arbitrary weight goal of 13st (182lbs). There's a few things I can put this down to; first I don't have access to a vending machine as I do in the office. Those two/three bars of chocolate per day, while not adding to my weight greatly, certainly kept it around the mid to high 13st range. Second, for lunches I'm eating homemade meals. Processed sandwiches, pies or even the odd trip to Subway are my regular lunch when I'm in the office. The combination of fast food and snacking for sure has kept my weight higher.
Perhaps I need to give myself a new challenge. I certainly believe I don't drink enough. Since the Garmin fitness tracker allows for recording water intake perhaps this is what I should record next?   

Goodbye Rusty

There is a likelihood of tears as I type this.
This morning we had to take Rusty to the vet to have him put to sleep.
Rusty lived with Kate's mum and dad in Cornwall. While they owned a pub on one floor, with a big field out back he could run in, all was good.
When Kate's parents moved to a pub where they lived three floor up Rusty started to show his age and struggled with the stairs.
We brought Rusty up to live with us and he was very happy.
Having been raised in pubs and around other people and other animals the lovable temperament of the Golden Retriever was amplified.
In recent years, as he's got older, he'd been taking medication daily to assist with pain in his back legs and hips. More and more often he was struggling to get up and sometimes his back legs would give out on him. The vet said that, given he was 14 years old, pain medication was really all they would recommend.
Last night he collapsed and couldn't get up. Kate and I sat up with him all night. He slept on and off but any time he tried to get up his legs gave way.
We hoped this was just a temporary thing and that on waking up in the morning he'd be bouncing around like a puppy. Hoped but honestly knew this wasn't likely.
We spoke to the vet early this morning and they advised us it was time to bring him in.
Because of the isolation instructions given to the UK just the night before, the veterinary practice, where possible, were asking people to stay in their vehicles in the car park and they would come out and see animals. In a way, this worked out a calmer ending for Rusty.
The vet gave Rusty an injection to sedate him, Kate and I sat with him in the back of her car until he went to sleep.
Lots of people knew Rusty. Kids grew up with him, friends looked after him and anyone that visited got covered in his hair and slobber.
On the odd occasion Rusty would escape and we'd had phone calls from neighbours asking us to come get him.
I have cried a lot today, triggered by little things.
I'll miss you Rusty.

Caffeine Withdrawal

Started the day with a repeat of lat weeks walk. When I got back I had a headache which I thought was due to dehydration. I took some paracetamol and washed them down with a pint of water then went back to bed.
I woke up an hour and a half later still with a headache. Notably not a migraine. Typically headaches I can clear with medication but this one stuck.
It wasn't until later in the afternoon that I realised I'd not had any coffee all day. Typically I'd have at least three.
One coffee later and my head cleared!

22nd March 2014 - No data
22nd March 2015 - 1279 steps
22nd March 2016 - No data
22nd March 2017 - No data
22nd March 2018 - No data
22nd March 2019 - No data
22nd March 2020 - 17724 steps

This evening I fixed the curtain rail in one of the girls rooms and set up a "smart" thermostat in the other. While the thermostat has been replaced I now need to do a little investigation as to how to use it.

What we'd like to do is be able to shut the bedroom radiators down during days when we need the heating on in other rooms but not necessarily the bedroom.

Once I've got this one working as we want to then I can order up the same thermostat for other rooms, potentially then setting up routines and the home assistants to control them.

A Busy Day

Started the day with a walk to the chemist to collect prescriptions. The tiny chemist has a three customer limit during the social distancing state, still people would come in, ignoring the queue out front, demanding attention. Colourful language and gross ignorance. Anyone working with the public right now gets my respect. The public can be a pain to work with at the best of times.

The walk to the chemist was just that, direct there and back. I may have stopped at a poke-stop but certainly this was a walk with a purpose rather than exercise.

Once back at the house I'd wracked up about 3500 steps. Just short of midday and half way through the 7000 step goal.

Once back home I shut the central heating off as I needed to re-fill the radiator in the recently re-decorated front bedroom. While waiting for the system to cool I cut the grass.

A quick brunch after cutting the grass and then spent the afternoon finishing up the front bedroom.

I re-filled the radiator, built a book case, built a table, built a lamp, built a chair, fitted handles to the wardrobe, then to end the day's work cleared up after myself.

The end of day step count was surprising...

19th March 2014 - No data
19th March 2015 - 3625 steps
19th March 2016 - No data
19th March 2017 - No data
19th March 2018 - No data
19th March 2019 - No data
19th March 2020 - 11277 steps

So reaching 7000 steps while not leaving the house may not be impossible. Even if you ignore the 3500 steps for the walk to the chemist I still made 7000 steps. Granted I'm not going to be decorating all day when I'm also working but perhaps I can attend conference calls using my phone and pacing the room, use the standing desk.

Going to walk the 10km route that I walked last Sunday again tomorrow. Again the step count for previous years is very low, I can only imagine there was a technical error or I didn't wear a watch that day! Even if the walk gets canceled, as long as I make my 7000 steps I'm good.

Not The Top Day!

I said it was going to happen and today was that day! In retrospect I should have checked yesterday what the target was going to be.

20th March 2014 - No data
20th March 2015 - 13066 steps
20th March 2016 - No data
20th March 2017 - No data
20th March 2018 - No data
20th March 2019 - No data
20th March 2020 - 8471 steps

As the phrase goes, on this day in history, March 20th 2015, it appears I walked from home to the station to get the train to work, then in the evening I walked from the station to what appears to be a local petrol station, I'm looking at my "Timeline" on Google Maps, then back home.

Today I just did my 5km lunch time walk that, took me over the 7000 steps but doesn't touch the 13000 from 2015. Thinking back, in 2015 I didn't have my own car so would often walk to the station, walk to the shops and walk in to town. There's likely to be more high step count days from 2015.

Meanwhile the country is locked down further tonight as pubs, restaurants clubs, leisure centres, cinemas, theatres all go on lock down. Many other European cities have banned all but essential street use so it's looking likely that at some point I'm going to have to find a way to keep up my step count without leaving the house! This could mean a lot of step ups on either the stairs or a stool. I really doing want to not make the 7000 steps across March because of this crazy situation. Have to safely and responsibly overcome this hurdle.

Learning from today's mistake, checking historical step counts, previous data shows that I didn't make 7000 so as long as I do my 7000 step goal I'm good.

Lots Of Steps

Today's count, 12925 steps. That's a run with Maia in the morning followed by a walk at lunch time. The lunchtime walk was just over 5km, will aim to run that route once we can get the current shorter route quicker.

The Strava app' didn't quit half way through my lunchtime walk today, I think the previous issue may have been due to "gesture" unlock and accidental stopping. I'll report back if this continues to work or has more problems.

19th March 2014 - No data
19th March 2015 - 5446 steps
19th March 2016 - No data
19th March 2017 - No data
19th March 2018 - No data
19th March 2019 - No data
19th March 2020 - 12925 steps

I'm going to eventually catch up with one of the dates of one of my mountain walks, but not today! 

For every day in March I've taken over 7000 steps. Not sure yet if I'll try 10000 for April or maybe switching some of the walking for a different exercise?

1st March 2020 - 12684 steps
2nd March 2020 - 16827 steps
3rd March 2020 - 10051 steps
4th March 2020 - 13038 steps
5th March 2020 - 8941 steps
6th March 2020 - 10019 steps
7th March 2020 - 14745 steps
8th March 2020 - 10687 steps
9th March 2020 - 9130 steps
10th March 2020 - 11863 steps
11th March 2020 - 12424 steps
12th March 2020 - 8011 steps
13th March 2020 - 7687 steps
14th March 2020 - 7218 steps
15th March 2020 - 19450 steps
16th March 2020 - 9770 steps
17th March 2020 - 7020 steps
18th March 2020 - 8711 steps
19th March 2020 - 12925 steps

Highest count so far this month was from Sunday when I went for a walk along the Hog's Back. May repeat that route again this coming Sunday.

Logging Failure

I went out for a reasonably long walk at lunch time and the app or possibly the watch, I'm not sure which, stopped recording half way through the walk.
I've still got data from Google Maps but it lacks some of the data available from Strava.
I've tried disabling the "twist to wake" gesture on the watch to see if this stops accidental wake and app stop.

18th March 2014 - No data

18th March 2015 - 7156 steps

18th March 2016 - No data

18th March 2017 - No data

18th March 2018 - No data

18th March 2019 - No data

18th March 2020 - 8554 steps

I'm running Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Running before 7am, empty streets so still isolated. Alarm set for 6am!

Took Rusty to the vet today to have two "lumps" removed. I was genuinely concerned that this would be serious.
Thankfully at the end of the day the vet was able to tell that one lump was a cyst and the other was not dangerous.

Rusty is very happy to have people home all day.

Barely Made It

7020 steps. As I sat down at my computer to write this I was still 50 steps short of the 7000 required. I went downstairs, made a cup of coco, and her we are 70 steps later. Despite going for a run this morning which got me to well over half way before 8am the rest of the day I've been at my computer or driving.

17th March 2014 - No data

17th March 2015 - 5964 steps

17th March 2016 - No data

17th March 2017 - No data

17th March 2018 - No data

17th March 2019 - No data

17th March 2020 - 7020 steps

It's a good thing that data from previous years was sparse today.

Tomorrow's goal a little higher since the data for 18th March 2018, since that's the only year I appear to have data covering March, is 7156, which would still be a few more trips down and back up the stairs.

The run was good. Sun rise times meant that the sun is now just above the houses at 6:30am and shone right in my eyes. Not a blistering pace yet, still walking to the start point, running the circuit, then walking back. At a little over 3km I hope to increase the distance and run all the way. At the moment we get 3km covered comfortably within half an hour, still giving us time to shower and prepare before getting out of the door at 8am.

Beware Of Scammers

IF YOU GET A CALL FROM SOMEONE TELLING YOU THEY ARE TECHNICAL SUPPORT AND YOU ARE NOT EXPECTING THE CALL, HANG UP.

Especially as so many people are now working from home, please be aware that "Technical Support" scammers will be trying to take advantage of the current situation. Often scammers will phone home numbers which, when we're at work, we won't answer.

Microsoft, BT, Virgin will not cold call you to tell you that your computer is being hacked or that your Internet connection is running slow. Your corporate IT will generally only call you if you've asked them to and will have some means of verifying who they are.

Your corporate IT should not need any of your passwords, typically companies set up "security questions" to verify who you are. To perform our work IT professionals have our own administrator access and do not need to know your password.

Please do not hesitate to ask me via direct message if you have any technical questions.

Upping The Reaction To COVID-19

In The News

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51917562

On the day that the action triggered by the COVID-19 virus escalated I was trying to help Jude with medical attention for extreme shoulder pain which she's been suffering with since last week.

Knowing that the NHS services are already hard pressed we first, instead, went to a chiropractor that we've been to in the past. After a consultation he recommended going to the doctor.

As we expected, the doctor surgery is taking emergencies only. Thankfully the triage nurse was able to get a prescription from the doctor for stronger pain killers.

Hopefully the enforced working from home will mean no driving and a more relaxed environment that will help Jude's shoulder settle.

Stepping Up

Various walks to the chemist today put my step count over 9000.

The Google Sheet automatic tracking started in October last year, data before that was from various different phones or step devices.

16th March 2014 - No data

16th March 2015 - 8058 steps

16th March 2016 - No data

16th March 2017 - No data

16th March 2018 - No data

16th March 2019 - No data

16th March 2020 - 9524 steps

Highest recorded steps for 16th March. OK that's not saying much since I only have one other date but I'll take the small victories.

Tomorrows challenge is looking pretty easy too since the highest on record for 17th March isn't even 7000 steps. Once the dates start to overlap more consistently this will get more of a challenge.

Early morning run tomorrow.

Seven Thousand Steps

I've been trying to maintain seven thousand steps per day. Some days I've had to do a short walk before bedtime to scrape in the step count.

Today's count was 17247 following a 10km walk.

I've got a script set up which is pulling step counts into a Google spreadsheet. I've got data from my Android phone that goes back to 2014, though there's some patches missing in the earlier data.

I think I'll re-awaken this blog to record my fitness journey.

With the COVID-19 outbreak I may have chosen the wrong year to try signing up for a sponsored event. The London Marathon has been postponed until October, likely that other events will get postponed or cancelled too.

I'm currently using Strava, Garmin Connect and Virgin Pulse, along with the spreadsheet which is pulling information from Google Fit.

Strava uses GPS on either my Android phone or Android Wear watch to track my walks and runs. I've had varying success with the app and how it works with the phone and the watch.

Garmin Connect takes my step count from a health band that I wear 24x7. This tracks steps and sleep. The good thing about this specific health band is that, having very few features it doesn't use much battery power and runs off regular watch batteries instead of needing frequent charging.

Virgin Pulse pulls in data from Garmin and Google fit. The reason I'm using this is it's a service paid for by the company I work for. There's various "challenges" within groups and a certain social element to it.

Each of the systems has something that it tracks which it won't share with the others, there's a certain amount of manual data entry for some aspects.

I weigh myself every day. I'm not overly concerned about my weight but I do want to ensure that it stays sensible. I use Renpho ES-20M Bluetooth scales which automatically send my weight to an app on my phone. While the app does write my weight to Google Fit that information isn't then passed on to Strava, Garmin Connect nor Virgin Pulse. I enter the information into Garmin and Virgin Pulse manually.

At the end of the March, if I've been able to maintain 7000 steps all month, then for April I'll up the game to 10000 steps per day.

Stay tuned for updates and statistics!

2004 Nissan Micra Not Starting Warm

Warning

!!! Always disconnect the car battery when performing tasks under the bonnet which involve removing parts and using spanners. Especially in this case there can be live cables which would cause powerful sparks and possibly electric shock if the spanner touches engine while you're undoing the cables. !!! If you're not a confident DIY mechanic please take your car to a proper mechanic.

TLDR:

2004 Nissan Micra won't start when warm, doesn't turn over the engine at all. Starts fine with jump start and starts fine with bump start. Replaced starter motor addressed the issue.
Changing the starter motor not as tricky as some descriptions suggest.

History

Looking back at this now I think this has been a problem since I first got this car but I'd not tied it down and had partly addressed it by other means.

Not long after I first got the 2004 Nissan Micra 1.4 I had trouble starting it after a visit to a hospital. With the car being relatively new to me and still having the factory supplied battery I jumped to the conclusion that the battery was at fault and replaced it. Indeed replacing the battery appeared to address the issue. The non-start was a one off thing and I replaced the battery the next day, a reasonably simple task.

Just recently, again the car has had trouble starting. I hadn't pinpointed the exact problem because first thing in the morning and in the evening when coming home from work, the car would start without problem. It hadn't twigged to me that on the increasing number of times that the car had failed to start the engine had not long been turned off after a drive.

Vid01 shows the problem, the various beeps and pings are from the dash cam. The engine isn't turning over at all. It got to the point where even when cold the starting would be hesitant.

I took the car in for it's annual service and frustratingly the car didn't show the starting problem. After that point the issue became more and more frequent.

Most of the suggestions on the Internet were around a faulty heat sensor, suggesting putting a resistor across the sensor or unplugging the sensor to get to the vehicle to start. However, the symptoms reported by other owners suggested that the engine would turn over but not fire, this didn't match the symptoms I was seeing.

With a reasonably new battery I decided the next thing to try, before getting an expensive diagnostic, would be to replace the starter motor.

Changing The Starter Motor

Much of my Internet searching referred to different vehicles, it seems that there are different vehicles branded as "Micra" in different countries and I couldn't find anything specific to the car I have. I bought the online version of the Haynes manual for the car and it suggested that the replacement was a reasonable job to do for a confident DIY mechanic.

The manual suggested that there were two ways to remove the starter motor, either by jacking the car up and accessing from underneath  or by removing the wiper motor and "support panel" to allow access from above.

Initially I tried removing the wiper motor but failed at step one trying to get the wiper arms off.

Looking at jacking the car up and accessing from underneath I couldn't really see a clear access even if jacked up. The starter motor is at the top of the block at the back of the engine, access from the top is more logical.

First things first, when you're going to be reaching around in the dark for the solenoid ensure you've disconnected the battery (see warning above). The starter motor has a cable direct from the battery and if you were to try undoing that lead and were to short it to the engine this could cause dangerous, high power sparks and possibly electric shock.

I reached in behind the engine and used my mobile phone to take some pictures of the starter so I would get a better idea as to how to reach it.

On looking at the pictures I could see corrosion on the cable from the starter solenoid to the starter motor, this gave me a little more confidence that it was the starter motor that was wrong.

The pictures also gave me more confidence that there was space to get my hands and tools in from around the side/top of the engine without the need to remove the wiper assembly.

With the battery disconnected I used a 13mm socket to remove the main feed cable from the solenoid.

Pic 01 shows the solenoid after the main feed cable was removed.

After removing the feed cable I then used a 10mm socket to remove the switched feed, the smaller cable at the bottom.

With these two cables now out of the way I was able to get a 14mm socket with a half bar extension in to remove one of the two bolts. While the ratchet was able to fit without the half bar extension there was no room to move the handle.

The bolt is quite close to the solenoid (just visible in the picture above, below the switched feed). I did initially make the mistake of removing another bolt from the clutch housing, when it was clear that the starter motor wasn't coming off I realised my mistake.

The lower bolt can be fully removed.

The upper bolt is visible behind the battery and threads in to the starter motor from the opposite direction. I was able to reach in and support the starter motor with one hand while undoing the top bolt with the other.

Once the top bolt was out the starter motor could be lowered onto part of the engine allowing you to then withdraw the ratchet, bolt and your hands, then you can approach the starter motor from a more convenient angle to remove it from the engine compartment.

There was a lot of working by feel for this removal but with care and patience it's certainly a job I was comfortable doing.

Fitting the new starter, as Haynes is so fond of saying, is "reversal of removing". However there's a couple of points that I feel are missing from this vague instruction.

It's definitely easier to remove the bottom then bolt, then the top and when fitting the new motor it's certainly easier to fit the top, then the bottom. As always when tightening bolts it's best to do a little on each rather than tightening the top all the way only to then find the bottom isn't aligned.

Pic 02 shows the new starter motor fitted with the switched feed connected.

There's a potential for the switched feed and the main feed to be touching when they are fitted. If these were to short out then the car would try to start the moment you reconnect the battery. Make sure that the smaller, switched feed cable at the bottom of the solenoid points directly down. As you tighten the nut there is a tendency for the cable to move. As I have done above, I'd suggest taking a photograph with your mobile phone after you've affixed the cable to ensure it's correct.

I then attached the main feed and took further pictures to ensure there was no shorting then slipped the rubber cover back over the main feed.

A further step in being cautious I removed all tools from the engine bay in the expectation that the car would try to start, or the at least give a large spark, when I reconnected the battery.

Now fully prepared, I reconnected the battery and nothing happened. It's always good when you plan for the worst but actually things go well.

After tightening the battery terminal I tested the start and it fired straight away. Leaving the car running for five minutes I stopped the engine and tried starting again. Again the car started without fault.

Vid02 the car now starts consistently.