So the BBC announced today it is planning to shut down BBC 6 Music and Asian Network by the end of 2011 in a cost cutting exercise.
From when the rumours of this announcement first came out I thought it sounded like a terrible idea to close down the only music station that actually really cares about the music they play, so was interested to hear the BBC’s justification for this act. The strategy review which is suggesting the changes states the key aim is “putting quality first“.
I don’t see how 6 Music could do a better job of being a “quality” music station. The suggestion that commercial rivals could fill the space left by 6 Music is massively unlikely, it’s the sort of service only the BBC can provide, and at a relatively low cost as a proportion of the total licence fee budget. David McCandless, author of the fantastic Information is Beautiful
book has created a fascinating graphic for the Guardian showing the current breakdown of the BBC budget.
There’s a great deal of political discussion regarding the BBC and their fear of what a potentially incoming Conservative government might do to them, well summed up here, but personally all I want is that the only BBC Radio I have contact with be kept alive.
There’s a strong movement building up online, headed mainly by the love6music website, where you can sign the petition, and find details on how to contact the BBC to lodge your objections. There’s a chance this can all help, with the BBC Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons saying if there was a big enough public response about the cuts then he would ask management to rethink its strategy.
So please, do the following:
Please do sign the petition though, the BBC have to listen if enough people speak up!
Well, I’ve decided to get back into posting on my poor neglected website, and have changed the blog software over to Wordpress again from Drupal, it’s much better to use for my purposes, and the install and importing posts was really quick, so hopefully there’ll be more posts from me shortly!
In case anyone’s wondering about how the mini-triathlon went back in June last year, we came 24th out of 58 competitors, so slightly better than I hoped for!
I’ve not done a whole lot of training recently, I managed a 6 mile ride on the 2nd, then didn’t do any more until yesterday when I got out for a 6 mile run.
Today I did another 6 miles running and then jumped straight on the bike for a 6 mile ride. It was interesting to see how much more I struggled with the steep uphill parts when riding, but seem to have found the smoother bits easier than usual. I was fairly satisfied with how I got on, but I think I’m going to have to do a lot more practice of the running and riding together in the next few weeks.
I got out for a 6 mile run yesterday, which marked reaching the 100th mile target I’d set myself, yay!
I’m now at 105.4 miles for May, hopefully I’ll get out on the bike tomorrow, then from June I’m going to start the run+ride in one session.
Just a very quick post to say how I’ve been getting on. I’ve missed a couple days of training over the past week or so, but I’m going to try and catch them up when I have time.
Anyway, I managed a 6 mile run on the 19th, and 11.4 mile ride on the 21st, a 12.1 mile ride on the 25th (a great ride, twice round Frensham Little Pond, and about the right length), and a 6 mile ride today (the 27th, I didn’t have time for any more). Hopefully I’ll get out for one more run and a ride, then I’m going to start putting the two together in one session and see how I get on.
Just a quick update, I didn’t manage to get out on Tuesday, so I rode on Wednesday and Thursday this week, I decided as I didn’t have much time on Wednesday to go for the short 6 mile route but go as quick as I could, no resting, no slowing down or coasting if possible! I managed the route in 36 mins which wasn’t too bad, but I think there’s room for improvement there. I very nearly came off going down a hill too, but was saved by a sturdy laurel hedge which bounced me back straight again!
On Thursday I decided to try and find my ideal 12 mile route by heading out towards Frensham Little Pond. The weather was much cooler and slightly drizzly, so I tested out my new soft shell jacket, which worked exactly as it should. It looks like there’s some great routes around there, but mine went slightly wrong…
The plan was to find the pond, then just follow the path around it to see how far that was, then adjust the route to get it to the magic 12 miles. However, in a way that only people who possess my unique sense of direction could; I managed to get lost. While following the circumference of a pond. A fairly small pond at that. It was getting towards lunchtime and I had no food with me, so I decided to just head for some main road noise I heard. I didn’t realise quite how far I’d travelled, so after a 5 mile ride along a main road I arrived in Tilford, where I bought a snack from the tiny village shop, and made my way home along the normal route.
Anyway, it was a good ride, 14.4 miles in total, although a chunk of that was on the road. Next time I’ll try and stick to off road.
I managed to drag myself out for a short ride this evening despite feeling really lazy. I found a new track which I might be able to stretch out into a 12 mile circuit. I was losing the light today so decided to turn around and only managed 7.7 miles in total. I did see a bunch of rabbits and a deer on the way round though. Not much going on with the filming, just a bunch of security guards and lighting trucks parked up.
I’ve decided one of my goals for May is to do at least 100 miles of total running and cycling by the end of the month. As I have potentially 10 more odd-numbered days left in the month and less than 60 miles to go I think it’s an easily doable target. Maybe next month I’ll up it a bit, or maybe I’ll work on getting my times down.
I made a bit of a mistake underestimating how hot it was today. I set off for a run on my normal 6 mile route at noon, and by half way round I was struggling in the heat, I think it was up to about 25°C. I was quite pleased I managed to keep going though.
It looks like they’re putting up some sets for The Descent 2, it’d be good to see some actual filming going on for once, I always seem to miss it.
They’ve also introduced a bunch of big black cows into the woods to graze, which was a bit of a wierd sight, I assumed the heat was playing tricks on what I was seeing at first, but I’m pretty sure they were real!
So I aimed to do a 10+ mile ride today by doing two laps of the woodland section of my ride, but in the end it only came to 9.5 miles in total. I can either try for 3 laps (which might start to get a bit boring) or do an extra 2 mile loop a couple times which I think I’ve found today. It was a gorgeous day though, 24°C in the shade when I set off, nice to be riding in the sun for once.
There’s more filming going on up in the woods, in the last few months there’s been the new Harry Potter, The Wolf Man, and now The Descent 2! As the last Descent movie was set in a cave, and presumably this one is too, and the woods contain approximately no caves, I’m not sure what they’re filming there, but we’ll see.
Anyway, hopefully next time I’ll be up to my 12+ mile target and then I can think about getting the time down.
A few stats from today:
Miles: 9.5
Time: 1 hour 7 minutes
Squirrels scared: 3
A quick first post then to round up what I’ve managed since the beginning of the month.
I did my 2nd 6 mile run of the year on the 1st of May, which wasn’t too bad, having done the previous one about a week before. It’s my normal route, so a big downhill at the start, followed by some more gentle hills through woodland, then a big uphill on the way home.
On Saturday the 3rd I did a short 6 mile ride on the same route, I was feeling lazy and didn’t push to go any further.
Yesterday I lengthened the ride slightly to 8.3 miles but I need to check up on some maps and try to get it to at least 12 miles (preferably slightly more) and as much on rough terrain as possible. I did manage 31.8mph on a bit of downhill which I think is a record for my bike!
Hopefully from now on I’ll be aiming to do only doing 10+ mile rides and possibly extend the running to around 8, I’ll see how it goes!
