OK so apologies for those (few) reading this. In my defense I have been extremely with both work and home not to mention the training. So what g'warn then?

First - Lost a lot of weight, since November when I weighed in at 88kg, I am now 78 (actually 77.5 on Tuesday but what is 500g between friends).

Second - Mileage is doing well, I now have a great Sunday route which is 80 miles long and takes in many of Surrey and Hampshire's long drags.

Third - New wheels on the training bike, after limping around on RS10's which I reckon have done over 10,000miles I am now running Planet X AL30 C's. Initially impressions are that the 32 spokes are way stiffer than the 24 on the RS10's and they weigh the same!!! Well done PX

Fourth - Did the Cheshire Cat on the 25th March 2012, got over Mow Cop in one and got the medal. I also got over Gun Hill and Wincle Hill too without a foot down. Yay! However owing to the fact I forgot to put my foot beds in, so couldn't actually put any weight through my feet. This lead to me and a guy from St Helens CC (had back pain) cruising behind the Clitheroe Bike Club instead of putting the hammers down. As a general fitness test this was pretty much perfect and I am happy with progress thus far.

So New targets.
1) Get the weight down to around 72kg, which I reckon should make me much quicker for someone 168cm in height!!
2) Get a couple more sportives in before mid June, when by order of the GF I am banned from riding events.

Brrrrrrr training in the cold

So I awoke at 0630hrs which is half past six to the rest of us. The bike was prepped and off I went.........

Except I didn't. I rode about 10 minutes down the road and then notices the gear change was slack, and every time I freewheeled or back pedalled the chain dropped onto the chainstay. So I rode back and did the Sufferfest's Local Hero. Wow the garage was cold; so cold in fact that my little toes were numb. However it knackered me, probably not as much as the 70 odd miles I had planned but good. So the little toe returned to normal when I had a bath afterward. Did I learn my lesson?

No, with snow on the ground on Sunday, I duly trudged in my cycling shorts and jersey to undertake the Revolver vid from the Sufferfest series. This was hard, this is a video that I have wimped out off for a few sessions and rejoined once I had recovered again; fifteen one minute intervals at various levels of duress including standing and sweating over the front wheel, to nailing it in sprints on the drops. At interval five of the fifteen I was going to rest, but for some reason stuck with it through to the end. I don't know why and sitting here today I am still aching from these two sessions.

So I present the data from Saturday here.

and the Sunday here:

Nothing impressive I know, but progress is coming back to me and the weight is dropping too, which can only help with my climbing on the road.

Do my duty

Well despite my best intentions, I was scuppered for a turbo session last night owing to the pikeys next door having their rims redressed (:rolleyes:), and I didn't want to have to show the the contents of my garage. So despite wanting to train last night I couldn't so I left it until tonight. Everything ready; sat on the raleigh banana gaspipe machine and turn on the sufferfest vid; hang on, why isn't the iPod turning on? Recharged dumbass? Nope, cue a half hearted training run.

Which is a bit pathetic, so the plan is to try and get a few miles in Friday night after work and a longer ride in on Sunday.

I have looked on Bikely for routes around Fleet, but nothing inbetween 70-90 miles is there. Oh well mapmyride at work?

Weekend Yields a Ride!

So a nice steady 99.9km ride on Saturday. Not exactly blazing around but was reletively relaxed at the end. I think what may be better is to increase the distance ridden weekly and once at 100miles then start increasing intensity. All in all an OK riding week; clocking over 12 hours with the commuting (and not including the Monday commutes). No other riding at the weekend with having previous girlfriend arranged commitments to attend to.

What is going to be difficult this week is the weather getting colder, with the UK having notoriously bad road de-icing and lots of ungritted lanes, I really do think that the Turbo is going to be getting some hammer.

Yikes

So long ride tomorrow, after news at work tomorrow made me and the missus not in the mood to do anything this evening. A real motivation destroyer, however I am out tomorrow for what will be my only long ride this week. I really should make use of the turbo more. So this week thus far my Strava score is a disappointing:

Which isn't that bad, considering the week before I had to go to DK for work with a chest infection. So after eating a huge Chilli this evening I am looking forward for tomorrows 60 miles. I should really do this in low zone but I have enough to do at the weekend that getting the morning free to do anything is pretty amazing in itself as the GF has already booked me up with important activities.

So most of this week has been riding to and from work, which is always fun in the UK as drivers believe the roads were built for them when in fact they never were :D. Cue on my ride to work lots of people on a Toucan crossing blocking the path when the light goes green for us. This makes it difficult to get around them, and I really have to make sure I use their vehicles for support when I go past them \m/ \m/ To be honest most drivers over 40 don't know if there is more than one type of pedestrian crossing anyway, such is the poor standard of driving in the UK and the lack of interest that drivers take in further training means that they have forgot most of their training when they took their driving test anyway. Plus the last highway code they bothered to buy was probably at the time of their test. No wonder our roads are so safe for athletes to train upon.

Meh

OK, copped out last night on a training ride owing to a late finish at work. Yeah right I hear you say; but it's true. However in my (minimal) defense I did join the work GyM last night. Which is great, however the best news is that the underused and fully trained staff there can run VO2 max tests as well as Max Heart Rate tests. Therefore I am going to try and do a little more work before Mid February and then do it. I have been told it is best to be a little rested as the test for both (can they do this?) will be over in around 20 minutes. So my colleagues who can be bothered to get to the GyM are going to have a laugh watching me try to rock my heart out on an excercise bike.

I also joined Strava, this is in the vain hope of igniting some competitive streak in myself and log some miles. Not fed in my bike weights as I appear to be devoid of the gene that makes me a weight weenie. I blame the parents for this DNA deficiency which means I cannot take advantage of the computed power readings on the website. I have also discovered that I am one of the most dismal cyclists in Fleet according to some of the Strava rankings. Go ME!! Hopefully this embedded widget from them should work:

Finally I have stopped eating before the ride to work and now do it afterward. All I have in the morning now is a nice espresso and a glass of water before the 7.5 miles to work. The reasoning behind this is that I read an article which alledgedly was from a top coach (I think it was in Cycling Active Fitness Special); who stated if he changes one thing it is when people eat, and those who commute should have breakfast on arrival at work. So now along with the lunch box I carry a smaller tuperware from the fridge which contains a yoghurt and a weighed portion of muesli. So I arrive, have a shower then something to eat. We will see.

So after resurrecting this in order to get my training back on track I better start training! So with that in mind it is worth recording what I am going to be using for my heart rate targets. These targets are from a bike radar article a while ago.

So on the trusty Edge 705 I have set up the following zones:

Zone 1 : 65 - 74 %

Zone 2 : 75 - 81%

Zone 3 : 82 - 88%

Zone 4 : 89 - 93 %

Zone 5 : 93 - 100 %

Based on a max heart rate of 193bpm (yes at 36!)

The more eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed that there is no Zone 1, chiefly because that Garmin do not allow for custom number of Zones (talk about oversight). Hence I have to remember to keep rides below 74% to do base endurance mileage. How many people go for a Zone 1 ride anyway?

Currently I ride to and from the office when I am there. This is a 7.5 mile ride on a fixed gear bike with panniers loaded up. The plan will be to get at least a couple of rides in a week, with the Turbo to be used in the event of bad weather. At the moment I am aiming to complete the Wiggle Cheshire Cat 100 at the end of March.

So that is it for now. Why not sit back with an espresso and enjoy the following: