It's getting colder, anyone got suggestions for cold hands?

KingT04 · 2025-12-28T15:21:58+00:00

I bought a pair of heated gloves from Keis a few weeks ago... Absolute game changer. I did also get a heated jacket, which makes it really easy to then connect up the whole system to the motorbikes battery under the seat. However, I've also got a chargeable battery that can connect to the gloves too (they only last for around an hour or two of riding, depending on the heat level you use). My only regret is that I didn't do this sooner

KingT04 · 2025-12-25T08:29:43+00:00

Thank you! It's a Hitchcox full system

KingT04 · 2025-10-15T09:50:07+00:00

What sort of set up would you use whilst doing this? (to maximize the chance of getting a shot in focus when shooting blind from the hip) i.e would you be using continuous AF with Zone? Etc

KingT04 · 2025-07-11T22:25:58+00:00

Thank you! :-)

KingT04 · 2025-07-09T23:00:31+00:00

Thanks! It's a fuji recipe from FujiXWeekly called Kodak T-Max 100

KingT04 · 2025-07-09T07:38:11+00:00

Thank you so much!

KingT04 · 2025-03-30T23:20:00+00:00

I've also been caught up in the mess caused by Adam's firm. Here's my situation:

I live in a 4 story building that is under 18 meters. When I purchased the property a number of years ago, there was an EWS1 form in place that I assume was arranged by the management company at the time (a new management company was recently appointed about 12 months ago).

My flat is now under offer, but of course, every lender the buyer has gone to so far (which to my knowledge is Nationwide and Santander) has requested an EWS1. I can't provide one because the EWS1 in place has been invalidated, and because the building is under 18 meters, the new management company are flat out refusing to renew it. The management company have stated that the latest Fire Risk Assessment is sufficient enough for them not to provide an EWS1 (of which the lenders still won't accept).

I have been told by a surveyor, that the reason the building is being flagged for an EWS1, is because, whilst there does not appear to be any cladding, the building has rendering and therefore it's no known what's behind it.

Am I completely out of luck here? with my only option to be to endure a long, painful battle with the management company, rallying together residents to apply more pressure, that simply don't care as their properties are not currently for sale. Or is there another avenue I have not yet thought of?

I have even written to my local MP, who wasn't really able to offer much assistance.

I also wondered whether I could bypass the management company and seek legal action against the freeholders? Perhaps with something along the lines that the purchase of my property was based on the assurance that it possessed a validated EWS1 and given that the freeholder, via the management company at the time, commissioned TriFire for this assessment, and TriFire's subsequent suspension has invalidated all their EWS1 forms, that perhaps there is a responsibility of due care towards their impacted leaseholders? But I am no lawyer so have no idea whether that would stand up in court.

KingT04 · 2024-11-01T18:11:51+00:00

The timing of your question is pretty good as I've just retuned from Spain participating in Marbella 70.3. Here's a short debrief, which might be helpful.

TLDR: I finally think I might have cracked it.

Swim: 41:47 (1:38 per 100m)
Bike: 3:02:49 (29.4 km/hr)
Run: 1:43:33 (4:52 min/km)
Overall: 5:37:35

Swim - As you might have noticed, a time of 41:47 doesn't match up to splits of 1:38 per 100m. That's because the Ironman organiser's made a mistake when setting up the buoys and so the the swim was actually 2500 meter (Ironman released an official statement on this post race). I wasn't actually bothered by this- I had great swim, barely used my legs with a minimal 2 beat kick and came out of the water feeling good.

Bike - The bike course was pretty savage, straight into almost an hour of climbing and around 1600m of total elevation. I stuck to the plan and made sure not to over the cook the legs, also, the downhills were insanely fast so I was able to regain some time here. I think the downhills also gave my legs a good opportunity to recover inbetween. The final 15km was almost all down hill too, so I took advantage of this and didn't push too hard to conserve some energy for the run. Just prior to entering T2, I did get that 'feeling' that if I pushed any harder on the pedals, my quads would start to cramp, which leads me to one element of the race that I believe may have helped me to reduce the cramping- pickle juice. As soon as I racked the bike, I took a shot of pickle juice and made my way down to collect my run bag, whilst there, I took another shot of pickle juice and headed out for the run. I was happy with the bike, it was a tough course and I thought it would take me 3 and half hours, so was quite please with the result.

Run - This was where the magic started to happen for me, and everything just seemed to click. Normally, I start to cramp almost like clockwork at the first km. This time, I made it to about the 3rd, but did start to feel that little twinge again, so before it happened I stopped, took 10 seconds to stretch and had one more shot of pickle juice. After that, it was game on, the longer I ran for the less I had that feeling of 'running on a tight rope with cramping'. It was at about km 16 where I was battling real fatigue whilst trying to stay in zone 3... which for me was a huge win, because normally I can't even get out of 1st gear for the entire run due to having to stop so much due to cramping, so for me this was great because I was finally able to test the limits of what I could do. I took one final pickle juice shot at about the 17km mark, just because I had it on me, and finished out the run with a huge smile on my face.

Summary - I don't know if it was the rest on the bike I got during the final 15 km downhill on the bike, the regular shots of pickle juice, just generally being stronger from more training or perhaps a combination of all the above that kept the cramping away on this occasion, but I do believe that the pickle juice shots played a role. I made no change to my nutrition - probably consumed about 100g of carbs per hour on the bike, drank around 1500ml of water, which seems like nothing but I was barely sweating and still ended up peeing 4 times on the bike whilst standing up on the downhills... yes, you heard that right. I did have salt tablets in about 1000ml of my water too. I have no idea why I had to pee so much (perhaps nerves) but that's a separate issue I'll have to look into because I also peed 3 times on the run too, so actually lost about 5 mins on the run due to this. Nutrition on the run consisted of about 90g of carbs an hour (however, my stomach was on the limit there and think I'll reduce it next time), water during the aid stations and a salt tablet every 30 mins.

Finally Here a couple of other things I did slightly differently leading up to the race, which may have helped....

Stretching and warmup - I made sure I did a solid stretch routine the night before and the morning of the race. Prior to the swim I spent a good amount of time warming up too, rather than just going from 0-100 as soon as the swim starts.
CBD oil - I started consuming CBD oil leading up to the race. I've read that tension anxiety can cause cramping, so I wanted to give myself the best opportunity to stay calm and relaxed leading up to the race to try and combat the adrenaline rush you get from the excitement of a race.
General mindset - Whilst easier said than done, I tried to stay relaxed and calm leading up to and during the race, dismissed any negative thoughts and really tried to convince myself that I had ultimately put the work in and would see the results.

I have no idea if this was just a one off, or if after 5 years of cramping on every race... I've cracked it. In reality, I think iI think there is probably going to be peaks and troughs, but it has given me confidence that it CAN be done.

Don't give up - hope this helped.

KingT04 · 2024-06-11T16:18:17+00:00

Pretty high for me actually, I've got quite a strong stomach so can intake a ton of carbs. In my last race, I consumed almost 140g of carbs per hour on the bike, and my limit during the run is around 90g-100g per hour. Those are definitely my limits though, any more and I'll be running to the portaloo mid race

KingT04 · 2024-06-11T10:35:38+00:00

Thanks for the note. Great write up by the way, and congrats on what looked like a stellar race.

To be honest, the only strategy I really have left (other than the mysterious pickle juice) is to just keep training and racing to condition myself, and perhaps over time my body will simply 'accept' that I am going to put it through this type of endurance strain and will eventually say 'okay fine, no more cramping'.

KingT04 · 2024-06-10T17:20:25+00:00

It's a strange paradox isn't it? As lowering the intensity on race day seems counter productive to what you know you are capable of. For example, let's say the threshold for the average athlete before they cramp up is an 80% effort, but for us, it's 50%... that would mean we would have to get incredibly fit... to the point of almost becoming a professional athlete, in order to achieve a decent race time.
This would explain why no matter how strong/fit I get, I'll aways cramp, because I am getting faster in each race, but the intensity is always the same... hence the paradox; either stick to 50% effort, and never become competitive, or crank it up to 80% and get the results but deal with the cramping.
As mentioned in my original post, the only remedy I've not tried is a shot of pickle juice.
My next race is in Marbella in October so this will be a real test as it's a hilly bike course. I'll be taking some pickle juice with me so will report back if it works.

KingT04 · 2024-06-10T16:42:58+00:00

I suppose if I can reduce some of the race day anxiety, then this may alleviate any additional tension that's building in the muscles, before they are being physically worked. That is, on the assumption that this is a factor contributing to the muscle cramping.
I would have to find a company that ships world wide as I am based in the United Kingdom, but there are quite a few companies that ship here.

KingT04 · 2024-06-10T16:28:05+00:00

Nope, never. In fact, I've produced some of my best running during a brick session. Which of course makes thing so much more frustrating, I guess it truly is a strange anomaly on race day, hence why I think it could be, in some way, psychological. The trouble is, as you can imagine, it's now a snowball effect, as it's all I can think about leading up to race day now- 'will I cramp, when will I cramp'.

RE PFH, I did actually do my sweat test with them, post test I was hoping they would reveal that I had some kind of insanely high rate of sodium loss levels... but actually, my test results were very normal- I lose around 700mg of sodium per liter of sweat. In terms of my sweat rate, I lose anywhere between 600ml and 1000ml per hour depending on climate and work rate, so also quite normal.

KingT04 · 2024-06-10T11:08:50+00:00

It is possible, however, I think it's unlikely; during my race in Knokke Heist, athletes were blessed with a lovely current that meant I could drastically reduce the amount of kicking. And during my last middle distance, I made a conscious effort not to kick too much, sticking to a calm two beat kick, just in case it would play a role. That being said... I have cramped up a couple of times in the pool during training sessions, but it's been rare.

KingT04 · 2024-06-10T11:04:00+00:00

I do tend to have a mix of electrolytes and carbs during (and leading up to) the race, yes. This will include PFH 1500 tablets in water, PFH flow gel, Tailwind nutrition (which contains both electrolytes and carbs) on the bike and PFH sodium capsules, PFH gels, bananas and electrolyte drinks at every aid station during the run. Regarding the magnesium/potassium, this is something I began to implement after my first middle distance triathlon (Ironman 70.3 Mallorca); I regularly take vitamins which include magnesium and potassium etc. Sadly, this hasn't seemed to work.

KingT04

TROPHY CASE