Treading the mill

About six weeks ago, I bought a treadmill on eBay; we had to go to *Scunthorpe* to collect it. It’s a fairly basic affair, motorised, Fitness Pro, and I used it religiously. In the past two weeks, I’ve done an hour every morning on it, averaging 8,000 steps before breakfast, and starting on the Couch to 5K program. Incidentally, I can now run for 8 minutes in succession without dying, and I’m starting to have visible muscles!

But the treadmill has no incline, and no programs, and I wanted something better. Yesterday I won an eBay auction for a Proform 900, which sold at £1,500 originally. I paid £300 for it, and it’s costing £65 to get it couriered here to Hull from Hunstanton, which is cheaper than actually driving there and back (never mind the issue of whether it would fit in the car). It arrives tomorrow afternoon.

Once I’d won the auction yesterday, I photographed the old one, and stuck it on Gumtree and eBay. It was sold within 2 hours via Gumtree, and I got within a fiver of what I paid for it, with the added bonus of no eBay fees. But, this morning, there was no! treadmill! Wah.

So I went out. *Outside*. In a long sleeved running top, and a fleece, and a warm hat, and fingerless gloves (and leggings, of course). The sun was shining, but it was -2C, and the pavements were frosty. I walked up to the local park, which is about 7 minutes away, and attempted to do my C25K there, but it didn’t go well. Took me ages to warm up, so I really only managed three of the six runs, and the pavements are very hard compared to the treadmill, and my knees didn’t like it. I walked for another half an hour over that, so I got the steps in, but I think I’ll stick to indoors after tomorrow, thank you!

Here’s the route, should you be interested; we’re lucky to have this virtually on the doorstep.

Mirrored from kestrel.org.

a wheel at each corner

The gas struts in the Saab’s tailgate failed, oh, in December, I think. Or possibly November. It was mildly inconvenient, but not hugely so, and after a bit we got round to buying some replacements online. Then we realised we didn’t actually know how to fit them, so we bought a Haynes book of lies. And then we were a bit  nervous of doing it, and kept putting it off.

When I put the old treadmill up for sale, I blithely said “will deliver within 20 miles for petrol money”. And then we realised that it would be well nigh impossible to get the treadmill into the car without a third person (or a prehensile tail, or a trunk), as the tailgate had to be held up. So I phoned the local garage and asked if they could do it, and they said “of course, pop it round – it’ll only take a couple of minutes”. So we decided to pop it round late morning today, and have lunch on Newland Ave. We got in the  car, drove 25 yards up the road and realised it was making a sound it shouldn’t, and not driving as it should. Pulled in, and front off side tyre flat as a pancake. And as it had been filled less than 2 weeks before, that was a bit of a worry.

Pete footpumped enough air into it to get us to the garage on Prinny Ave, then he filled it with their airline, and checked all the others too. One was OK, but two others weren’t great. So we trundled down Springbank to the tyre man, who took them all off, and pronounced three out of four knackered. £207. thankyouverymuch. And when they’d fitted them, the car wouldn’t start. Dead as the proverbial dodo. Seems that the battery was pretty flat, and the five starts in ¼ mile was too much for it (outside the house, further up our street, garage for airline, parking at the tyre shop, and then (not) coming out of the workshop). The battery was completely dead. They jumpstarted it, and suggested we took the car for a long run, but I felt safer buying a new battery. Another £76. Sigh.

Then we drove to Richmond Street, where they realised that they couldn’t do the gas struts, because they had to take the roof lining out (I could have told them that), so it has to be booked in, and they couldn’t tell me how much because the boss wasn’t in, so I’ll have to phone them tomorrow.

We did finally get to Newland for lunch at about 2.15. Bacon sandwich and coffee, not really what I was hoping for :)

Mirrored from kestrel.org.

chicken and ricotta

We had a chicken stir fry a couple of days ago; when I got the chicken out of the freezer, I discovered there were two breasts melded together. One went on the stir fry, and one was left.  On Sunday, I made a quick cheesecake, as the friend coming for supper had requested same. So there was a tub of ricotta, and half a lemon, left over from that.

Diced up the chicken, and fried it off in a very little olive oil. added three cloves of garlic, some sliced chestnut mushrooms, and a chopped red onion. Stirred it about for three minutes or so, then added the lemon juice, and a small slug of white wine from an open bottle in the fridge. We seem to be slightly overrun with white wine – no idea why, because we don’t buy or drink white.  I think people bring it, and then decide they like the red on offer better!

Put a lid on the pan, and let it simmer down while the fusilli cooked. At the end, stirred in about half a tub of ricotta and some torn basil leaves. 

About 210 calories, plus pasta. 

Mirrored from Reactive Cooking.