Resolution for 2017....take up a new sporting activity.

Before the Bobbo Classic with Colin and Bernie

Having turned sixty in March 2015 I resolved to take up a new sporting activity....cycling. Fortunately I had thought about such a prospect and when my friends asked me what I wanted for that roundy birthday, I said "I want a decent bike!" and that's what I got! In the event, a former student I taught at SPX...Matt Whitmore, was the manager of Spit Cyclery up at Mosman and he set me up with a lovely Bianchi Impulso bike and all the gear that went with it. 

Any two from three

As is the way with any new activity it took me time to really find a new routine. Riding my bike tended to clash with the other loves of my life, running and playing football. It was with purpose then that at the beginning of 2017 I decided to step my cycling commitment and while still playing football eased off on the running. Thus, choosing the low rather than high impact activity and realising the benefits of such a choice. 

The one thing in this store that I can sell you to make a true difference......

Even though I rode bikes as a kid I'd never really used cleats on the pedals. As a matter of fact the one time I did use them I had toppled over at traffic lights so I was very wary of their potential inclusion in my new routine. That is why when I asked a bike-shop guy what he thought of them he said "They are one thing in this store that I can sell you to make a true difference in your performance on the bike"

Building up those legs

One of the things about aging is that you tend to lose muscle definition. It is around the knees in  particular I noticed the loss. Even running regularly and playing football wasn't enough to avoid the loss. Thus, taking up cycling has been a boon for reversing that loss of muscle and definition. My quads and calves have benefitted enormously. The impact of cycling on your legs is one realised across an extended timespan. In the very beginning you tend to traumatise them. Stiff hill climbs seem to send the lactic acid pumping into the legs by the litre. As you become more accustomed to pushing yourself the strength gradually builds. Calves seem to pump up and you get a more muscular definition in the quad area. You are able to recover quicker and this is the true fitness you acquire. 

Friends and Strava

As with any new activity, it is good to get support. Riding with other people makes cycling a very social activity. Our friends Colin and Bernie have certainly embraced it. Out on the highway the cycling community is very supportive and helpful. Personally my main source of motivation has been receiving the feedback available from the Strava cycling app. Thru GPS and mapping it shows you exactly where you have been and how long it took you. In addition it can give feedback on heart rate and as it puts it 'suffer score' relating to how hard you are working.

The thing about Berowra...nowhere is flat!

Fortunately up here where we live in Berowra, nowhere is flat, so you are continually working up and down hills. In addition we are surrounded by four challenging 'gorge routes'. Bobbin Head; Galston Gorge; Berowra Waters and the Brooklyn Hill. These are all rated 3 or 4 in the international difficulty scale so are pretty challenging even in good weather. This year I combined two of the gorges on several occasions but next year will do three or four in one go!

The Bobbo / Terrey Hills ride

My first big group ride was the 'Bobbo' covering a tough 59km around Turramurra Hornsby and then down and back up from Bobbin Head out to Mona Vale Road. For some inexplicable reason I reasoned that that Bobbin Head would be tough but Terrey Hills was just flat! You might have thought that the name would give it away eh? One hill in particular up Duffys Forest was evil. Managed to do it without stopping but people were literally walking up quicker than what I was riding! Took 2h 38m for the ride.

The Gong

Gong finish 90km

In November 2017 I took on another challenge when I did the Sydney to Wollongong ride for MS. Over 10,000 took part on what was an awful wet morning. That said, once we started it was a great experience in and out of the National Park and over Stanwell Tops. The scenery along the new Sea side bridge was stunning. I had two near mishaps coming down in the hills in the driving rain. First one of my eyes closed up thru cream getting into it. I managed to get a perspective down the hill by keeping another rider the same distance in front all the way down. Then on the next descent a lady fell off alongside me, when a stick caught in her spokes. Scarey stuff! Finished strongly in 4h 42m.

Strava 2017 feedback

The Strava app tells me I have done 204 rides in calendar year 2017. This is for a total of 4218km, my goal being 4500km. I'm averaging five rides a week and have ridden 5hr 50m a week for an average distance of 119km. I have climbed 62,246m in the 202hr of riding. Probably sounding like a cycling nerd here but Strava allows you to break up your rides into segments so while you may not feel like going hard all the way, you can work hard for particular segments and see how you go. For each of the past two months I climbed over 8000m in a worldwide climbing challenge.

The Health dividend

As I said earlier riding has definitely strengthened my legs. In addition, with an imposed eating adjustment (high cholesterol), I have also been able to shed 8kg which seems to have improve BP and Heart rate as well. The other benefit has been I actually feel fitter for football as well avoiding injury thru the season...stronger legs a big help! Well there it is. In cycling I have found an activity I hope I can use and enjoy to keep healthy for years to come. Aiming to take on more cycling challenges in 2018:)

Thirty years since the 87' Stock Market Crash....a personal view

Well that was a quick 30 years! Back in October 87' I was a 32 year old Equity Market Maker with County Nat West in London. On what came to be known as 'Black Monday' 19th October, world stock markets crashed across a period of 24 hours. Here is a my take on that day:)
Worked on the London Stock Exchange as an Equity Market Maker for County Nat West during the 87’ crash. It was the first ‘technology enabled’ market plummet of any note. Had worked in the 70’s on the face to face trading floor but with screen based / computer run trading it was a whole new ball game.
It was obvious on that Monday morning that we were seeing a level of volatility unseen previously. To make things worse London and the south east had been hit by massive winds and many workers struggled to into the City. Being a market maker you had an obligation to quote the stocks you traded in a particular ‘size’ ie 100,000 shares to brokers and half that to other market makers. The FT 100 index, which was a geometric mean, showed onscreen thru a live feed. The 100 prices were displayed in alphabetical order, Black if unchanged, blue if ticking upward and red for a downtick. That morning the FT 100 screen moved in waves of red prices occasionally turning momentarily blue for a short rally then going red once again. Through the morning the phones rang hot with those on the other end invariably sellers. What often made things worse was that lifelong broker friends came to you in an attempt to ‘improve’ a price but the market was all one way. Then about 10.30am something fortuitous happened for County Nat West....our computer system failed! There we were in the market crashing maelstrom not able to answer our phones because we no longer knew our stock positions. We could no longer display prices because of this. An hour went past and an eerie calm came over the dealing room while on screen we could see prices continuing to dive. It was costing us money because the prices of stocks we held were falling. However, we actually saved millions with the computer failure because in the crash answering the phones would have involved us buying even more falling stocks.
An odd / funny offshoot to this story from 87’ was the fact that not being able to answer the phones attracted the attention of the Bank of England. Mid morning, like something out of Monty Python, the Bank sent a messenger across the City on foot to come knock on the door and ask why we weren’t answering our phones😊 He told us we were naughty boys not meeting our Market Making obligations...we told him that our computers were down, didn’t know our positions and therefore couldn’t deal!
The implications of the 87’ crash were both immediate and longer term. The Investment Banks who had geared up in The Deregulation of ‘Big Bang’ in 85’ suddenly fuelled a market contraction lasting right into the early nineties. Thousands of Financial Market jobs were cut. Market activity fell significantly and many firms also cut their involvement. One of the key things that had happened in 87’ was the practice of ‘Programmed Trades’. This involved pre-planned ‘what if’ scenarios being drawn up for clients / investors. Thus, if the market index fell so many points in a set time the computer would automatically order particular shares to be sold (without human intervention) This was a questionable practice in normal times but proved disastrous in a rapidly falling market. Literally pouring oil onto the fire🔥
In the eventual investigations that followed 87’ programmed trades were identified and restricted. A bit like ‘short selling’ Financial stocks being banned after the GFC in 08’.
#87crash