A few weeks ago I purchased a brand new road bike – the first bike of any sort I’ve ridden in around eight or more years – with the intention of using it as a cross-training fitness tool to compliment my running.

Before getting the bike home, I entertained in my head the possibility of biking to work. It would save petrol, it would get me biking-fit pretty quickly, and the roads between home and work didn’t look that bad for cyclists.

It’s funny how quickly your perspective can change.

After spending about 10 minutes on the bike, I realised that there was no way I was ever going to ride to work. A space a few feet across on the side of the road, whilst reasonably suitable for running, is rather terrifying on a bike if the road is busy. I’ve also started noticing how non-existent the cycling infrastructure is wherever I go. For example, it didn’t occur to me until I started cycling that there is no possible way to get from Northcote to Auckland City (around 5km) by foot or by bike; unless, of course, you prefer to go the alternative route via West Auckland which is around 60km. Less dramatically, I’ve realised it is also quite risky just to cycle to the shops a few kilometres from home.

It’s quite disheartening to realise that in the midst of obesity crises, global warming and fluctuating petrol prices, it’s not feasible to choose a simple method of transportation that would solve it all.

Does anyone in Auckland really cycle to work?

I’m almost over my cold, so I’ve resumed my running routine. I decided that I’d start using MapMyRun.com to log my workouts.

• View my MapMyRun.com profile

MapMyRun offers an iPhone application which utilises the phone’s GPS system, but I’m reluctant to run with a phone so I’m currently entering data manually. I’m tempted to get a GPS watch, like a Garmin Forerunner, so that I can track distance, time and such more accurately, but I’ll think about that in the new year. Being able to view your distance and speed whilst running sounds very cool.

Today I have decided to officially abandon work on my work-in-progress weight training log site, StrengthFu.com.

I lost interest in the project some time ago as I’m no longer training with the regularity I was when I started.  Additionally, I decided that I would not have been satisfied with the project in its planned form, as I would now prefer an iPhone application for entering data (coupled with an online interface for reporting) and that’s not something that I’m prepared to attempt.

Every year, as summer nears, I start running regularly.

Every year, after I start running regularly, I get a cold and the weather reverts back to winter.

It’s uncanny.

Vodafone offers an online account management facility, which allows you do various things relating to your phone account including making a prepay payment.

I registered for the site months ago, and I remember it as a painful process. First, they require that your password is at least six characters long and contains at least one number and one letter. That’s fine – I tend to create cryptic passwords anyway – but for some reason whatever I was entering wouldn’t get accepted by Vodafone’s site and I ended up having to invent some bizarre password which I didn’t keep a record of and instantly forgot.

Again, that shouldn’t be much of a problem in itself because Vodafone offers a convenient “Forgotten your password?” page which allows you to reset your password by entering your mobile number and your date of birth. Pity it doesn’t work.

I’m reasonably confident that I know my own birth date, but I entered it three times in different formats (Vodafone suggests the newbie-confusing “Y-M-D” format, but I also tried “D-M-Y” and “M-D-Y”) and every time it rejected me. After the third attempt, it locked me out of the site for 24 hours. Great.

So now I have to top up using the over-complicated and tedious phone service system. But that’s another rant altogether.