Mr Angry from Northall...

Do you remember the BBC Radio 2 show 'Steve Wright in the Afternoon'?

I was an avid listener, and of constant amusement for me were his characters who regularly 'phoned in' to the show. There was Linda Lust, Sid the Manager, Mr Paranoid and, of course, Mr Angry who was, for me, the most memorable. This guy would phone in and just spout off angry moan after angry moan. He would always end with the line "it makes me so angry I could throw the phone down".

I felt like throwing the phone down this week during a telephone conversation I had with the hopelessly hopeless membership department with my gym - David Lloyd in Luton. I shall repeat that - the hopelessly hopeless David Lloyd gym in Luton.

I won't bore you with all the details, but I currently have a dual adult membership and wanted to change one of those adults to a child membership (for my daughter Emily who is really keen to start at the gym). The only way of doing this, "apparently", is for the adult to resign and the child to join.

And therein lies the issue. There is a 3 month notice period for the adult resignation, and also a joining on fee for the new child member. So, I asked if they wouldn't mind simply changing the adult to the child membership with immediate effect, without the need to resign and re-join as a child. OK, I know that would mean bending the rules, but in these times of recession and high competition between gyms, I figured that if they valued my business they would agree to my request. I have been a member for around 10 years and I thought this would be a nice way of repaying my loyalty.

But oh how wrong I was. Apparently, this wouldn't be "fair" for the other members who resign and who have to go through the 3 month notice period. They couldn't see that I wasn't resigning and so they weren't comparing like for like. Neither could they see that they stood the risk of losing me as a member entirely if they couldn't end the rules slightly - something which I did explain to them.

So, in one single telephone conversation they turned one very happy member into a resigning member, and now I am seeing out my 3 month notice period whilst currently looking at joining a new gym, of which there are plenty locally and also all are less expensive.

The cost to David Lloyd will be substantial - I spend at least £200.00 per month (in membership fees and in the cafe) and, as a very active person, was fully intending to be a permanent member. Add that to the fact that I now have a personal goal of warning everyone I talk to off of joining their gyms, then the cost to them could be tens of thousands of pounds over the years. Ah well, their loss and my gain - with the saving I shall be subscribing to Sky+ HD, so the kids are very happy with the result (except Emily, but I shall be joining her up to the new gym).

Another source of great frustration this week was the continuing arctic weather. Cycling and running is impossible, and so all I have managed to get done is a couple of gym sessions. As a result of this, I have decided to stretch last week's running schedule over to the coming week, instead of trying to catch up and cram two weeks training into one, thus running the risk of injury with over-training. Having said that, a quick peak out the window and I see it is snowing again. Doh!

On the plus side, I attended a very beneficial TCR show on Saturday. I didn't get any shopping done because I spent most of the day listening to some very worthwhile seminars. The first was a presentation by the great Joe Friel who spoke about perdiodisation. This came at a very appropriate time of my training and so I think I am going to brush down my copy of Joe's book 'The Triathlete's Training Bible' and have a read.

Then there was a talk by Steve Trew on the mind of a triathlete. Some very, very useful tips by one of the UK's most experienced and respected coaches, and I can see how many of those can be incorporated into my training and racing.

Next there was the highlight of my day - a Q and A session with Chrissie Wellington. There I sat, no more than 7 feet away from Queen Chrissie, starry eyed and totally absorbed by her amazing attitude towards the sport and to life in general. She is a born winner. So tremendously focussed, and it is easy to see why she is the world's greatest female athlete IMHO.

Back in the pool for some concentrated swim sessions this week. I have neglected the swimming a bit recently, in favour of running and cycling (in that order), so I think I need to get in the pool more often. This starts with a hard club session Monday evening. If I don't put on the trunks more often than I have done recently I will end up like Boutros Boutros Boutros Boutros. If you don't know who he was, or what was his claim to fame, then Google him. You'll see what I mean.

Until next week, C