The weather so far has been amazing this month and has provided that extra bit of motivation to get out and ride. So much so that I've actually managed to ride 10 out of the last 12 days, and today I went for a 3 mile run whilst I was at work. My only day off was Sunday after the cyclo-cross race - I thought I deserved a break. I think in professional circles they call it a 'Rest Day' or something.
The key has been variety, as is often the case in life: a BMX session, a couple of sessions on the rollers when time was short, a 2 hour exploratory trip playing around on the bridleways of Ashridge Estate and a night ride at Cannock Chase by kind invitation from Matt at CycleShack in Cannock. It's been quite a while since I rode with a group, especially as this was designated the 'Fast Group' so having my legs ripped off for two hours in the dark was quite a shock to my tiring legs. Riding in the dark isn't something I'm used to either, it's probably at least 3 years since my last proper night ride!
Despite my legs feeling like jelly on Friday morning I still managed to cram in 20 minutes on the rollers before work but opted for a lie in this morning and swapped my spds for running shoes. It still hurt, but at least I had an extra 45 minutes in bed.
Six continuous days of quality exercise is a record for me this year with a good five and a half hours of cycle training under my belt this week. And only two glasses of red wine consumed, I could almost start classing myself as 'healthy' at this rate.
Showing posts with label turbo trainer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label turbo trainer. Show all posts
Saturday, 15 October 2011
Saturday, 27 December 2008
Out of Pants
I had the best intentions when I woke up this morning but sometimes for your own sanity and to try to kid yourself you're still a functioning human being within the confines of society, you just have to resign yourself to the mundane life stuff and get on with it. So instead of riding my bike for a bit, getting some training in and doing some exercise, I made a rather startling discovery - I was out of pants. And for all those foreigners out there (I mean the Americans), I'm talking about underwear, not pantaloons.
What a sorry state of affairs. All the working and dashing around and planning and diary organising and this is what I'm reduced to - being pant less. In fact, as I looked around the house to take stock of things, I realised I'd let things slip quite a bit with all the extra hours I've been doing. This is the scourge of the single person: if you're not there to do it, nobody else will. Piles of washing everywhere, unopened post, washing up on the sides, perilessly thin tubes of toothpaste on the sink. It's generally not the done thing to do washing or clatter pots and pans around before 6am or after midnight when you live above someone and seeing as these are the only times I have been inhabiting my house, you can see how things got to this state.
So the morning was spent doing the washing and the washing up, tidying up a bit and I squeezed in a trip to the local shop to replenish some of the basics. I did manage to get in a half hour on the turbo trainer though, so all was not lost. And the house looks a million times better. (How long it will stay that way is anybody's guess!)
What a sorry state of affairs. All the working and dashing around and planning and diary organising and this is what I'm reduced to - being pant less. In fact, as I looked around the house to take stock of things, I realised I'd let things slip quite a bit with all the extra hours I've been doing. This is the scourge of the single person: if you're not there to do it, nobody else will. Piles of washing everywhere, unopened post, washing up on the sides, perilessly thin tubes of toothpaste on the sink. It's generally not the done thing to do washing or clatter pots and pans around before 6am or after midnight when you live above someone and seeing as these are the only times I have been inhabiting my house, you can see how things got to this state.
So the morning was spent doing the washing and the washing up, tidying up a bit and I squeezed in a trip to the local shop to replenish some of the basics. I did manage to get in a half hour on the turbo trainer though, so all was not lost. And the house looks a million times better. (How long it will stay that way is anybody's guess!)
Saturday, 6 September 2008
"30 in 30" Days of Rain
This looks like it could possibly be the wettest 30 in 30 ever, it seems determined to rain every day. But so far it hasn't put me off (which has surprised even me), and I have been riding - despite a few setbacks.
Thursday, Day 2 and the rain was hammering down. Undeterred, I donned my trusty rain jacket and overshoes and set off. The flooding was so bad in the lane that I couldn't see the perfectly sized divot in the middle of the road and seconds later my rear tyre was flat with a pinch puncture. I swapped the tube but my motivation had gone. I stood on the road side trying to decide whether to carry on - my planned route was an out and back that would take me up to 12 miles away from home, and now having no spare tube and a rather soft rear tyre that would be prone to more pinching. I reminded myself why I had embarked on another 30 in 30 and jumped back on my bike to explore some lanes closer to home, just in case. So, 1h22m and 17 road miles completed.
Day 3 - a simple hour on the turbo trainer. Boring, but necessary due to work commitments. I had a rather lovely pint of Bombardier at the Mulberry Bush at a leaving do for some work colleagues. So far so good on the alcohol front then.
Day 4 - more rain! (If this carries on, I'm selling the bikes and building a flamin' ark!) Yet again the weather was testing my resolve with heavy showers throughout the day. Still, I've just put the original forks back on the Surly 1x1 and it's been years since I rode a rigid mountain bike so it gave me the little kick I needed to get out there and explore for a bit - 1hr10m and 10 miles in the rain and mud. It'll do.
Totals so far - 5h17m, 42 road miles, 10 miles off-road.
Thursday, Day 2 and the rain was hammering down. Undeterred, I donned my trusty rain jacket and overshoes and set off. The flooding was so bad in the lane that I couldn't see the perfectly sized divot in the middle of the road and seconds later my rear tyre was flat with a pinch puncture. I swapped the tube but my motivation had gone. I stood on the road side trying to decide whether to carry on - my planned route was an out and back that would take me up to 12 miles away from home, and now having no spare tube and a rather soft rear tyre that would be prone to more pinching. I reminded myself why I had embarked on another 30 in 30 and jumped back on my bike to explore some lanes closer to home, just in case. So, 1h22m and 17 road miles completed.
Day 3 - a simple hour on the turbo trainer. Boring, but necessary due to work commitments. I had a rather lovely pint of Bombardier at the Mulberry Bush at a leaving do for some work colleagues. So far so good on the alcohol front then.
Day 4 - more rain! (If this carries on, I'm selling the bikes and building a flamin' ark!) Yet again the weather was testing my resolve with heavy showers throughout the day. Still, I've just put the original forks back on the Surly 1x1 and it's been years since I rode a rigid mountain bike so it gave me the little kick I needed to get out there and explore for a bit - 1hr10m and 10 miles in the rain and mud. It'll do.
Totals so far - 5h17m, 42 road miles, 10 miles off-road.
Saturday, 29 March 2008
Another one bites the dust
Day 20 went ok. I had to wait in for a delivery so spent an hour on the turbo. The couriers had said they'd be here between 7am and noon, so obviously they turned up at 11.55, great! As I'm on night shift, it was time to go to bed after that.
Day 21, Thursday - this is where it all broke down. I'd arranged to fly up to Edinburgh for the day to visit Endura. So having got up at 6pm Wednesday evening and worked a full night shift, I drove straight to the airport and caught a flight to Edinburgh Thursday morning. We spent the day discussing womens cycle clothing and trying on the Endura womens product range.
My 6pm flight home was slightly delayed and then traffic meant I didn't get home until 20.15 - I had to leave for work again at 21.05. That left a maximum of 50mins ride time, never mind having to get changed, showered etc. Scuppered! Failed. There simply weren't enough hours in the day.
Still, 20 days in a row is the most riding I've done in a long time. And I might start again in April, we'll see.
Day 21, Thursday - this is where it all broke down. I'd arranged to fly up to Edinburgh for the day to visit Endura. So having got up at 6pm Wednesday evening and worked a full night shift, I drove straight to the airport and caught a flight to Edinburgh Thursday morning. We spent the day discussing womens cycle clothing and trying on the Endura womens product range.
My 6pm flight home was slightly delayed and then traffic meant I didn't get home until 20.15 - I had to leave for work again at 21.05. That left a maximum of 50mins ride time, never mind having to get changed, showered etc. Scuppered! Failed. There simply weren't enough hours in the day.
Still, 20 days in a row is the most riding I've done in a long time. And I might start again in April, we'll see.
Sunday, 16 March 2008
"30 in 30" Days 8, 9 & 10
Well, time for a quick catch up on the progress and I'm a third of the way through. A pitiful 12 hours ridden and 60 miles covered (hey, 5 of those have been on the turbo trainer ya know!) Gonna have to pick up the pace a bit now and stop faffing about.
Day 8 - an hour and a half exploring out in the woods. If there's one thing this challenge is making me do, it's go exploring all those trails and bridleways that I've passed so many times.
Day 9 - starting to feel the effects of consecutive days on the bike (and yesterdays bike pushing through unused trails thick with mud. Ironic really that I get shouted at for making a bridleway muddy one day, then spend the following day up to my ankles in hoof-churned sludge!)
Day 10 - a 5am start at work, a long day, dreadful traffic, torrential rain, gusting winds, cold grey and miserable. Can you tell I didn't want to go for a ride today? I really, really didn't want to go for a ride today. My legs felt like lead after yesterday as well. I think I'm going through a rough patch. I simply didn't have the motivation to go outside so sat and span pathetically on the turbo for, you guessed it, an hour. I might as well have not bothered for the effort I put in. But I did it. It sucked. I hated it.
Only 20 more hours to go...
Day 8 - an hour and a half exploring out in the woods. If there's one thing this challenge is making me do, it's go exploring all those trails and bridleways that I've passed so many times.
Day 9 - starting to feel the effects of consecutive days on the bike (and yesterdays bike pushing through unused trails thick with mud. Ironic really that I get shouted at for making a bridleway muddy one day, then spend the following day up to my ankles in hoof-churned sludge!)
Day 10 - a 5am start at work, a long day, dreadful traffic, torrential rain, gusting winds, cold grey and miserable. Can you tell I didn't want to go for a ride today? I really, really didn't want to go for a ride today. My legs felt like lead after yesterday as well. I think I'm going through a rough patch. I simply didn't have the motivation to go outside so sat and span pathetically on the turbo for, you guessed it, an hour. I might as well have not bothered for the effort I put in. But I did it. It sucked. I hated it.
Only 20 more hours to go...
Tuesday, 11 March 2008
"30 in 30" Days 4 & 5
Day 4 - hour on the turbo. It was lashing with rain and getting soaked before work isn't my idea of a good time. Legs were heavy. Just about made it.
Day 5 - another hour on the turbo. It really wasn't happening today. Could barely get my legs to go round, spinning at a high rpm just seemed a chore. And it took at least 20 minutes to get my heart rate up to 140bpm - I'll have to check it in the morning to see what's going on. I'd forgotten just how much it makes my backside hurt as well.
I'm gonna have to try and get outside tomorrow. Spending two hours on a turbo trainer in two days has left me with too much time to think. Far, far too much time to think. Some of it was deep self-analysis (I won't bore you with that stuff), other stuff was totally random.
It really is amazing where the mind wanders if you give it the chance, lurching from one thought to another. God alone knows how I connected the holly tree, the bathroom, mountain bike tyres, venison pie, my waterproof trousers and Christopher Dean. But these were just some of the subjects of my thoughts in a ten minute time frame - hardly a game of word assocation! (Actually, the thought about Christoper Dean, the ice-skater, lasted substantially longer than many of the rest, but I won't go into that either...)
Day 5 - another hour on the turbo. It really wasn't happening today. Could barely get my legs to go round, spinning at a high rpm just seemed a chore. And it took at least 20 minutes to get my heart rate up to 140bpm - I'll have to check it in the morning to see what's going on. I'd forgotten just how much it makes my backside hurt as well.
I'm gonna have to try and get outside tomorrow. Spending two hours on a turbo trainer in two days has left me with too much time to think. Far, far too much time to think. Some of it was deep self-analysis (I won't bore you with that stuff), other stuff was totally random.
It really is amazing where the mind wanders if you give it the chance, lurching from one thought to another. God alone knows how I connected the holly tree, the bathroom, mountain bike tyres, venison pie, my waterproof trousers and Christopher Dean. But these were just some of the subjects of my thoughts in a ten minute time frame - hardly a game of word assocation! (Actually, the thought about Christoper Dean, the ice-skater, lasted substantially longer than many of the rest, but I won't go into that either...)
Tuesday, 11 December 2007
Turbo-tastic
Totally ran out of time today, I really don't know where the day went. It was dark before I knew what was happening! Still, with the urge to ride still strong, I popped down to the shed and dragged my surly Cross-Check up to the 3rd floor, stepped over the various power tools blocking the spare room doorway, pushed paint tins, planks and architrave to the edges of the room, and set up the turbo trainer on the nail infested floor boards.
iPod now recharged, I settled into a good steady hour of leg spinning. Legs felt fine, but I had that 'bruised backside' feeling again. You know, for all the years I've been riding, if I take a few weeks off I always get this after my first ride. You'd have thought I (or rather my backside) would be use to this by now, but no, I can guarantee it every time.
Feeling good though and looking forward to my next ride. Bring it on!
iPod now recharged, I settled into a good steady hour of leg spinning. Legs felt fine, but I had that 'bruised backside' feeling again. You know, for all the years I've been riding, if I take a few weeks off I always get this after my first ride. You'd have thought I (or rather my backside) would be use to this by now, but no, I can guarantee it every time.
Feeling good though and looking forward to my next ride. Bring it on!
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