Micro adventure

a 2 hour 58 minute "race" around the Pen y Fan horseshoe. 6.86 miles climb 1927 feet av speed 2.3mph

all in my "lunch hour"

Last night

Last night spin training hills and sprint session. V hard.

Hurricane running

It felt faster but timer said only 1 minute 8 seconds faster than last week. 3 miles 33.28 av speed 5.3 mph. Not the quickest but will get better. Plus it was dark, raining, windy, half cross country, 6 gates 2 cattle grids and a numpty in a 4x4 pulling a trailer slowed me down. Honest.

Gales

Yesterday I got back in the saddle in front of a fitness class so they sweated to my choice of music and were pushed to a 7.5 minute hill climb finale.

Today a bimble around on the ridge geocaching, found my first one. Nerd alert!

Gales meant no cycling.

Hill training

Very hard session 7.6 miles hill training. Thought I was going to die. More uphill than down, down was suicidal due to road conditions, hairpin bends and flail hedge trimmer. Will do again as its not far from home and only took 45 mins. Be a good building block for the 321 challenge next year.

Watch this space.

321 123

New challenge decided for 2015. Its a biggy, once the publicity pics are created then all will be revealed but it does involve a bike, a dog, a big bike ride and a long walk. Some mountains and very little sleep.

Good news is doc says I am not ill, just injured. Results of lots of tests show all negative, CT scan to go but confidence is high that I have "simply" hurt myself rather than anything sinister. Huge sigh of relief celebrated by huge breakfast.

Spinning class tonight, 50 mins av hr116 max 149 cals  400

Building blocks

45 mins of stationary cycling bit at least it was outside. 17.3 Km av hr 117 max 138 steady pace building session.

#runhappy

First run in ages, 3.1 miles 34 mins, max hr 192! average 138. Not too shabby x country in the dark :)

Not so early start

A planned early start with a cheeky 30 mile bike ride fell apart due to laziness and rug rats so instead a 8 mile route on the mountain bike 2 hours later transpired. Good workout, lots of spinning.

Nearly decided on next years challenge. A 3 day event. A big one.

Miles or Kms

Fairly quick trip in on racing steed, cleat fell out so lopsided, return trip slower probably because changed gadgets to kph rather than mph.

Today

Spin. Much better than last Wednesday but still crap music.

Up and down

Supposed to do the Bonsai Banzai tonight. Two things prevented this (three if you count laziness) 1) Lack of traffic both human and animal meant that the tracks through the gorse bushes have disappeared. Endless dithering and pushing through spiky bushes slowed things down. 2)Dog took off on descent down the long haul and chased after sheep who did not want to play. So instead of turning and heading back up I spent half an hour playing tracker looking for naughty dog who had in any event decided to go home. 1.76 miles, 55 mins climb 678feet.

Same old

Back to spinning, winter training mode, usual crap music, not really exerted myself, av hr was about 110

On patrol

A quick, well fairly quick recce around the bonsai mountain which included a trip to the top to see the moon. 2.12 miles 44 minutes wandering. Almost training.

Rest up

Rest day, partly enforced by severe chest pain from bruising from impact with solid objects a week last saturday.

First frost

A cold start, supposed to be doing the autumn epic but ill rug rats and partner meant caution advised and decided to just go and do my own thing for 1.5 hours on racing steed. Hence, 21.13 miles, 1 hour 27 mins 13 seconds, av speed 14.41 mph, max speed 37.73 mph ascent 1256 feet. Tired legs. Left ribs mega painful from last weekends crash off bridge. First frost of cycling season!

Love It!

Piloted new MTB over 7.25 miles (over half off road) and it was big on the grin factor. Big leg workout, massive climb up the Hergest Ridge again.

Take your time

Training has taken a hammering due to work and married life so opportunity has been crowbarred into the day by taking MTB over the ridge to work so today 8.5 miles or so up the massively steep hill. Great fun.Intense workout! All over including the panic muscles. Time take was not impressively quick, a good runner would have beaten me but they would not have had as much fun on the downhill section.

Best laid plans...as ever

Rubbish week training wise... life gets in the way... so finally got out today and did 16.89 miles in 1 hour 1 minutes and 47 seconds. Average speed 16.19 mph, max speed 38.17 mph, calories 1495 (doubtful!) ascent 748 feet.

Death wish

Friday rest day

Saturday mayhem on forest trails 8 miles before my wipe out on a bridge and Darren's bust chain brought proceedings to a halt.

Sunday rest day

Monday 9 miles on mountain bike.

Wanderings

Yesterday 3 miles plus wandering around zoo

Rest day today

Very Cross country shuffle

My legs felt fine this morning, arse felt rough, note to self get new saddle or armour plate padding. New app on phone tells me I am 9th out of 20 on a hill climb (Letton hill) I did yesterday, did not know it did such a thing or that I was in any sort of race but now I know I know I will be back and caning it on that section. Not that I am in anyway competitive.
Cross country bimble for 3.2 miles took 1 hour 10 minutes and tardy time has a lot to do with looking for a small plastic box hidden amongst the rocks at Hergest trig point. Geo cache. Nil points no find, not happy, back home again with no old plastic tat to show how good I am.

Time out!

Got a few things wrong today, not 50 miles but 47.77 and not under three hours like plan but 3 hours 3 minutes and 20 seconds, plus 20 minutes for stops. Average speed of 14.1 mph, max speed of 42 mph with 621 metres of climbs and apparently burned 4115 calories. Split times are interesting, first mile av sped 4.6 mph, but that included walk around house and down lane fastest mile was mile nine at av 27mph. 

Felt good, lovely sunny day, slight head wind at times, massive lorries tried to kill me as per usual three dead badgers :(

Injury time

Injury has forced lack of serious training and laziness has meant no records

But this week some activity and less laziness

So almost new personal best of 23.2 km in 30 minutes

Some messing around on new mountain bike

A couple of strolls carrying a backpack

and today 14km in 30 minutes on the exercise bike.

All being well a 50 mile bike ride tomorrow.

New challenge for 2015 being finalised to raise money for Myloma UK.

A hard one

Friday rest day

Saturday mental spin session, really mental, races, hills and jump drills. Av hr 138 bpm

In a spin

Monday and Tuesday rest days.

Wednesday spin instructor role, massive session, very challenging.

Thursday spin instructor role x2 sessions mental racing and hill climbs.

Out and about

 RKR out and about

 here we are at the 26 mile mark

in total 40 miles but flat battery on training gizmo and bike gps means no real data.

1.5 mile walk with rug rat MkII in carrier.

Full house

 Yesterday. Rest day.

Today mental spin session. Me instructing. Full house! Av hr 138

Spin on

30 mins spinning hard core sprint training

First time

I am embarrassed to admit that today is the first time I have been up the North Face Gully this year. A not too shabby 45 minutes up around and down.

Marginal gains

No new bike but some new kit, bib shorts which are according to my wife a divorce offence, so having risked that I am happy to report that they are very comfortable to cycle in and coupled with my new cycling SPD shoes make me faster. Today saw my second best time for 10 miles and that was after I started slowly, as in I set off for my PB with the intention of doing it quickly, today I started off and then decided to go for it.

So 10 miles in 28.58

It all counts

Summer solstice quick time jog halfway up Bonsai Mountain.
Not sure it running around in a dinosaur costume at the carnival counts as training.

Sunday
1 hour spin session

Monday
Quick ascent of Bonsai Mountain

Stroll on

2.2 miles slow time family stroll

Seriously folks

No training at all since the epic bike ride 1.6.14

There was a recovery ride of 5 miles, and I also did a spin session that thursday but a combination of lazyness, injury, no feeling in  feet,  working stupid long hours and most importantly no target to train for has meant that no effort has been made.

Tonight back to spinning and an insane hill climb trainig session. It hurt.

I will write up a serious summary of the epic ride soon.

Penultimate

Last but one training session. 1 hour 20 mins max effort, hills and sprints. Real bike still in bits. Weather abysmal. Yesterday Naff all.

Varying degrees of success

Training is not going well.

 

Today

40 mins hill drills max effort

Yesterday

23 mile bike ride sunday plod

Saturday

1 hour 20 mins  hill drills max effort

Friday

Thomas Land

Thursday

2 x spin classes max effort hills and sprints

Wednesday

10 mile bike ride

Tuesday

rest day

Monday

1 hour hill drills 70% effort

Sunday

Rest Day (ill)

Saturday

30 mile yomp BBMC 11 hours not a good time massive blisters

Friday

Rest day

Thursday

2x spin sessions (instructor) max effort hills and sprints

Wednesday

10 mile bike ride

1x spin session (instructor) max effort

Tuesday

10 mile ride

Monday

Circuit training

Sunday

Rest day

Saturday

Spin session x 1 instructor max effort

Friday

rest day

Thursday

2x spin sessions max effort as instructor

Wednesday

1x spin session max effort as instructor

Tuesday

rest day

 

Forget anything further back, none of it seems enough for a 300km ride. Never mind. Its all in the head. Just have to get on with it.

Life in a spin

Back on it today, spinning class, 1.5 hours intense exercise, hills and drills, many many hills!

Back pain quite muchly.

Man down!

Bad news, nice pocket sized osteopath has insisted that I take at least 48 hours off riding! So had to drop out of tomorrows Red Kite Riders and ease pain in hip caused by too tight something or others with red wine. Fund raising pack from Myeloma UK has arrived and the t shirts match my racing colours. A good sign.

All in a spin

Today....2 x spin sessions...hills drills and sprints... Yesterday 2 x 5 mile fast rides...got my SPDs' back

More

Today 2x 5 mile bike rides, no spd shoes so weird and slow. 1 hour circuit training. Hard work. Cyatica if thats how you spell it. Yesterday 40 mile in pouring rain baled out of 100 miler due to technical fault on bike.

Update...almost

Today rest day ........... yesterday 2x5 miles....day before.....2x 5 miles 1 x spinning session....... wednesday 4x 5 mile bike rides.....1x spinning session....Tuesday rest day...monday skived....Sunday 25 mile bike ride pain in lower back meant short ride intended to do 50 miles...........forget what else...saturday essential bike repairs and new wheel....spin session wednesday.......circuits monday......blah blah blah

The next big one

Its for charity mate

Serious training has been avoided but I am almost back on track, or the bike, where I lack serious road miles I am making up for in effort on the spin bike (in fact I am about to lead 10 or so spin classes at the local leisure centre) and this weekend (essay for university and child care permitting) I am doing the Hay on High 100 miler as part of the "programme" to prepare for to epic 300km ride on 1st June 2014 to raise money for Myeloma UK, a cancer research charity that uses the money to support families and seek treatments for this nasty illness. Unfortunatley one of my closest friends has this illness, Paul, hes the one bothering the ex goat (she was a UXG but is now an XG) in the pic below. Paul and I go back a long way, I even covered for him after he barfed in his wifes glove while we sat out a blizzard close to the summit of Mt Blanc. He's a talented musician, a great Dad and Granddad, crap joke teller (we all have our weak points) and an expert brewer. He's always a laugh (despite his crap jokes) and is the epitomy of Mr Nice Guy. So I am going to do my bit by cycling the 300km and you can do yours by Texting the number 70070 and enter the code TTTA and an amount from £1 to £10, as many times as you want to. Or you can log on to www.justgiving.com/its-uphill-all-the-way and donate there. Its that simple. You can do it, and help nice people like Paul.

Due to slight technical hitch the wrong poster got circulated, see below, right in so far as date, objective etc but wrong charity and donation details, sorry folks. The new one will appear on these pages and in the margin as soon as I can persuade my poster guru to make the necessary changes. www.justgiving.com/its-uphill-all-the-way

Spinathon

Hills and sprint drills tonight.

Av hr 129 1 hour session.

Saturday we do a 5 hour spinathon for sport relief.

Marginal gains

Yesterday circuit training

Today new PB on bike ride in to work 11 minutes 47 seconds, 2 seconds faster. In the drops all the way. Very excited about this and greeted all and sundry at work with 2 seconds faster instead of traditional good morning. Ride back was a nightmare, 30 to 40 mph gusts meant difficulty steering and 6 to 8 mph progress into wind.

Easy life

Friday
Rest day

Saturday
2 mile dawdle carrying light weight or heavy weight toddler

Mr Forgetful

Not remembering that my cycling gear was in the car that my wife took to work meant that I had to walk to work. 5 miles 1 hour 10 minutes, big hill, grand views.
Not remembering that spinning took place at 6.15 pm meant that return walk at 5.30 pm turned into a 5 mile almost run 42 minutes.
I managed to get to spinning after warm up, so joined in the sprint and hill drills session.

Lorry training aids

Took long way to work, 13 miles 48 mins, got training gizmo working, all I know from that is that my average HR was 122. Cadence etc is yet to be established. Used a lorry as a training aid, it appeared on my shoulder as I was giving it some on a very steep hill. Potholes meant I used the whole road, with lorry adding incentive I made the hill at 13mph, by the time it passed me on the flat, the very flat bit at the top it was all I could do to keep my balance and maintain 9mph. Lungs and legs completely blown. Recovered, average speed overall 14 mph. Lovely bike ride.

Ride on

5 mile ride, slow time.

8 mile ride, very hilly, hard and fast 34 minutes. Glorious sunshine, slight head winds. 15% hill does not get easier.

Ouch

10 mile bike ride slow 32 mins 1 hour Circuit training, found it very tough going tonight, probably due to cake fuelled building project. Not sorted out how to use new training gizmo. It sits in the box on the desk with its massive instruction manual awaiting attention.

Loads!

Loads of training done just not been very good at keeping a record of it. Things will get better, new gizmo has arrived which will flood me with data and compel me to keep track of progress. This week, last Sunday 32 miles fast ride 1 hour 56, Monday 2x5 mile commutes new PB of 11.51 for journey in av speed 21 mph, mental circuit session (some bod felt the need to high five me) 31 press ups in 30 seconds, 25 press ups in 30 seconds, not bad considering poorly arm and inability to do more than 6 press ups total before starting circuit training, Tuesday 2x5 mile commutes, Wednesday 2x5 mile commutes and really hard spinning session. Have been asked to take on spinning instruction while instructor is on hols.

Hit and miss

Weekend passed without serious attempt to break into a sweat by any other means than sitting by the new woodburner or whellbarrowing rubble to the building site.

Monday circuit training. Did not match previous PB of 30 press ups in 30 seconds. Not bad for dodgy armed fat bloke. Managed 28 first set and 25 second.

Tuesday ate cakes and pies as it was raining again.

Wednesday spinning session, again max effort. Was asked if I would take the classes while instructor is away. Defo!

Weight shifter

No set training today, lots of weight shifting (different to lifting) and digging.

Bored with training

72 mins on the cross trainer is boring. Even those watching fell asleep.
No data gizmo has no battery.

Back on it

Okay so the Christmas lay off and new year wedding did have an impact on training but I have been back on it for some time now, as many rides to and from work as weather and diary allows, runs, spinning at least once a week, circuit training, and then longer rides out with Red Kite Riders.

Getting back to being fit.

Tonight insane spinning session after a pep talk from Steve the instructor, ask yourself why are you here type talk and don't leave here thinking I couldve done better finale worked the trick and at the end I had about 10 seconds left in me and I needed that t walk to the car.

No stats as gizmo battery went flat.