Post Chrimbo Training

So far so good. I am coming towards the end of my base endurance training and am very much enjoying spending time in the saddle. While most of my rides have been on the turbo trainer, the festive holiday gave me much more opportunity to get out for a ride during the hours of daylight. Also, the better half gave me a Garmin Edge for Christmas and I am now totally hooked on Strava. If this is all gibberish to you, take a look at http://app.strava.com/clubs/lowroaders and you can see all of the ride data (map trace, elevation, speed, heart rate) from the teams training. I've uploaded all of my ride info since Christmas which even includes a few rides from a recent trip to the USA (I didn't take my bike over, just the Garmin which I hooked up to a bike loaned to me by the in laws).

Now that the holidays are over, I will be doing most of my riding on the turbo until the nights get a little lighter. The picture on the left shows the 'Oag Training Camp' set up ready for action (what you can't quite see is the TV just out of shot keeping me entertained with back episodes of Nitro Circus and Moto GP season review shows!). I plan to get out at the weekend whenever possible and also make the journey home from work by cycle on a Friday when it fits.

New Year & The Bike Beckons

Its a new year & it's all good so far, after indulging the delights over the festive period the bike got somewhat of a back seat. So new year & new resolution to get back on track & back on the bike to resume my schedule, so far so good with this, even with the cold & wet weather.

These 2 pictures were taken on the way to work the sun was shining, even if it was on the cooler side. The ride home was even colder too at a steady -2deg C but still enjoyable.

There is nothing better than getting out on the bike in the countryside when the sun is shinning down & the roads are dry & clear (even if it is colder than usual), you just get completely lost within the greenery & peacefulness of the open expanse. It is fantastic!

A few days later & the sun is still full on & just look at the stunning places you can see when out on the bike, here I passed through Walton Hall, this has loads of history behind it but for me there are so many memories too, mostly good but one very sad but close to my heart. When my brother & me were younger we used to spend hours playing within the grounds of Walton Hall but sadly in 1990 my brother was involved in a road traffic accident & lost his life, but as I new we both loved the grounds I suggested that he was laid to rest there. So now I can ride through the grounds & past the small church situated just to the left of the great hall & pay my respects to someone that meant so much to me.

Lets move on & today Friday 20th I road into work again but knowing that I would be taking a grand tour home at the end of the day, I had uploaded a course from Steve Jefferies the night before to my garmin & headed out to the 'deep south' (as Steve calls it) it was light to start with but very dull & the daylight was decreasing rapidly, 35miles later after some fun & interesting undulating countryside plus a farmers dog that obviously doesn't like cyclists as he tried to eat me as I road passed, I made it home. I was very tired as I forgot to pack my energy gels from home in my work bag, plus I had had only a small amount of food all day due to leaving in a rush after doing the school run in the morning, but I was pleased with my effort not only for the day but in general for the year so far.

Here's to the next blog..........

Winter has arrived

The end of the endurance training phase beckons for me, just over 2 weeks left. This winter is the hardest I've trained since I started training in earnest 3 years ago. I was always out on the bike but most of the rides were mostly at recovery intensity with the occasional endurance ride thrown in. I've still got a little Christmas weight to shift but as I've ramped up the time on the bike since then I should be in good shape for the next appointment with Dr. Palmer on the 9th of February.
In an effort to get the miles in I've taken to getting up early on a Sunday morning and I'm normally heading back into Warwick as the club rides are going out. It was a chilly ride this morning. The photo below shows the state of my water bottle by the time I had got home, or should I say slush puppy in a bottle.

The valve on the water bottle froze open so that some of the contents spilled onto my bike's down tube and then froze, see below for visual evidence...

The first piece of equipment to fail in the cold was the flash on my camera, hence the blurry picture just before sunrise this morning.

My Garmin then literally froze after 2 hours and 12 minutes, it's recovered now it's back at warmer temperatures. The bike held up to the challenge - apparently it was -4degC this morning!

Christmas and New Year Training Update

My plans to complete the Festive 500 (ride 500km between 23/12 and 31/12) went down in flames due to those inconsiderate germs that were making my wife poorly over Christmas, so I resorted to getting in time on the bike where I could, mostly turbo time in the garage in the evening whilst Helen was under a fleece blanket on the sofa watching series 1 of Grey's Anatomy. Two noteable exceptions were the rides I managed to get in while we were visiting the in-laws in North Devon, the terrain down there makes for some hard riding with a heady mix of bonkers gradients and poor road surfaces, all against a stunning back drop. I've included a shot of me with Croyde bay in the background, I had just climbed Challacombe Hill out of Woolacombe bay which hurt a bit (lots of 25% gradient) so I was more than happy to have the downhill blast to Croyde through Georgeham.

I'm starting to deliberately include more climbs in my training rides to get in condition for the challenges ahead. My endurance training phase is due to end this month which means that for the next 8 weeks after that will be my threshold block. Threshold training is primarily to improve climbing ability, so the intensity of training will increase but the volume will decrease so quality becomes more important than quantity.
My training is almost exclusievly on road due to the mild weather we've had this year, it appears to be confusing the flora and fauna but I'm taking advantage of it while I can after all this is still mid-winter.

Training On Hold

Well just a short update from me....

I have put the training on hold just for a weekend so that i could take my wonderful girlfriend away on a romantic & special weekend away. Emma had no knowledge of what was in store for her as it was all done on the QT. We went away to Coombe Abbey where i proposed to her (& yes she did say yes) so my training will be back on schedule from Monday.

I feel this is going to be a good year, a great year..... Emma his happy & so am i, plus i will be climbing the mountains in Italy with some great friends while raising money for a very worthwhile cause..... How fab is that, things will only get better on all fronts, happiness, better cyclist & money going where its needed :D

Happy New Year...

Well I had quite a bit of time off prior to Christmas with all intense purposes of getting out on the bike loads...... well didn't quite fully go to plan.

The first week I managed to get out on a few longer rides which was really fun, then the festivities kicked in & with having the kids around too it was all too easy to make excuses, like no time, too tired or bad weather. I tried to muster up getting on the turbo trainer but that failed miserably to. Christmas came & went with little training getting done but I could now feel those extra couple of pounds that I had gained, plus I was feeling more & more tired due to lack of exercise.

In between Christmas & New Year I managed to get out with Alan for a very wet ride, which was pretty fun actually & then again on New Years Day with Steve. The ride with Steve I suddenly was hit with stomach cramps just before the ride but I still managed to go out. We were planning on doing a 2 hour stint, but I had to cut it short half way through (but still managed 20 miles so it was not all bad).

I have ridden to work this week on one day with a 30 mile loop in which was fun & then a 10 mile return journey in some more rain & lots of wind which was not so fun.

So the plan is now to get back into full on training which will start Monday 9th & I will plan on trying to introduce some threshold training out on the road once a week too so I'll keep you posted.

I've also been having problems with my heart rate monitor readings, they just seem to spike all over the place (not sure why but I don't seem to generate enough moisture to keep a good contact with the sensor pad) so I have been given some conductivity gel which seems to have done the trick,so roll on Monday for some serious training.

Festive Training

Well the festive period is over and it's the start of a new year, so it's back to work and also back to more structured training. My plan for the holiday was to get out on the road and put in some longer rides. I started reasonably well on the 22nd, but it all went a bit wrong the next day when I pulled a muscle in my back. Unfortunately, this meant I was off the bike for a whole week. I managed to get another ride on the 30th with Simon, even though it was raining for the entire ride. It was a new experience having to wring out my shoe covers and my socks at the end of the ride. I managed to get out again on the 2nd of January and rode endurance on part of my route to work, so, it definitely looks like cycling to work is a possibility to allow me to get a greater volume of training in.

Another plus is that I'm seeing a significant improvement in my speed, even riding in my endurance zone. My average speed on a ride is now 24 kph, where I was previously doing in the region of 18 kph when riding way above my endurance zone.

I'm going to have to get back on the turbo trainer tonight as the weather is pretty grotty at the moment and I haven't trained for two days. Hopefully, I'll manage a decent session to get me back on track after the holiday.