Well done but not over.

let me explain. The ride is done and the 2010 Etape caledonia is over. However the journey that it inspired is only just beginning. This year is a year to improve and enjoy the summer events being stepping stones or landmarks from one place to another. I have changed myself physically and continue to do so. With these changes I have found new friends enjoyed old ones in different ways and made myself feel healthier nad happier.

As this year progresses so will come the winter and training for 2011. I hope for improvement and enjoyment as I follow this new course. I feel lucky and happy to do what I could not do before.

4hrs 9mins 20seconds one great memory. :-) Thanks Tracy for everything.

Almost time

I am amazed at how a month can pass so fast. I am amazed at how six months has passed. In a week I hope to be sound asleep waiting for the morning to come. Breakfast, dress, check, kiss then on my way. 7.15 miles easy easy then 82 miles about as quick as i can manage. I have done it before so I do not have any thoughts in my head of a negative nature. I can but how fast, well 20.5mph at least is the idea.

Last time I was not by any stretch at my best, nor my best output. I was not even able to hide in the draught of another not for any part of the day. So this time will be new and hard but whatever the outcome the time or average I intend to have a great day out.

I will be all the better knowing T will look after me before and after and no doubt be with me along the way as she always is.

Last few big rides before having a break.

I only have four more big ride days available before taking things easy on holiday and of course cycling the Etape. How things have changed in the past few weeks. After thinking of cycling the course myself with all the drive to get through traffic and no doubt a little frustration as the roads are narrow, it has all changed. I am entered as part of a team, I have joined a second cycling club and have a seeding of 3hrs 50mins. Well it is less than fours hours and that was the goal all along. Bearing in mind the quickest I have seen posted was 3hrs 38mins this is no easy task.

Anyway I will do my best but feel relaxed and happy just to enjoy the ride. This week was a good week with over 10000 feet climbed and over 200miles ridden. Importantly in this was a ride of the route in a more sedate 5hrs. At full tilt and with a group I think four hours is achievable.

I tried my new wheels and so far I like them alot they roll really well, give great feedback and of course seem to offer more speed for equal effort. Ideal. I think a bit of gym work in the tapered weeks will be a good idea, activation of as many muscle fibres as possible wont go wrong.

Tracy should have her bike soon (the voucher came in the post today), as much as riding my event I look forward to sharing a road ride with her and help her achieve her goals. Just now though I look forward till tomorrow and a couple of hours of training in the good weather.

I can't believe it has been more than two weeks!

Thank goodness it has not been two weeks since my last ride and only a couple of weeks since I added a new post. I am on my work break again and so far the work load has been high. I had a great ride of about 65 miles on Saturday with a few fun hills but mostly great weather.

On Sunday I ran my first half marthon which was harder than I thought as it takes a bit nore than 20hours to refuel properly. However the job was done and I feel happy about how it went which goes a long way.

I feel pretty fit at the moment but I also feel that my fitness is improving which is great. Spring has sprung although today and into the weekend don't look like it. I am excited about some harder riding to work on my lactate tolerance spread amoung the long rides ahead. I am excited about my race kit arriving and I am excited about a summer or brilliant adventure and memorable rides with friends or with friends with me. I guess I am in a good mental place which means my body is in good shape. As always keep monitoring happy=healthy=adapting so long as output is being increased anyway.

Tomorrow will be a good day for some easy paced but long riding as I make my way along the scenic route from Dundee on my trust old get about. It is nice to include this as I always feel happy including little bits of history, in this case a bike my parents bought me that is still going strong.

This weekend there are a few ride plans around so I look forward to seeing how that goes. I also look forward to going on holiday in April which will be perfect for recovery and the steady stream of tropical sunlight will lift spirits towards the last couple of weeks of preparation.

Last note that in April I will book my place on the Trossachs ton. This will take away some of the apprehension felt toward goal one and also tick a valuable cycling mile stone, a 100 mile ride. Anyway first things first again riding tomorrow. ;-)

bumpy roads

The road to the etape just got a little bumpy. I enjoyed a good recovery week. Then launched into a pretty tough week of training. The problem or the bump I have encountered is that I did not listen to my body, when I did not feel great I went ahead anyway. I thought I was having a plateu which needed to be pused through. Nope I was not and the pace was to fast. I am now taking some enforced rest, hoping that last nights resting heart rate >100bpm soon eases.

Still in the time I have not been great I have driven some interesting roads many having signs saying 15% and the like so they will need to be tested when I am well. If for no other reason than to put aside the apprehension I feel toward them. Once riden they will forever be conquerable.

I look forward to the aches passing and feeling good about doing some training again, and most of all about getting out to enjoy some lovely roads on foot or on my bike.

Tracy is great she has nursed me and looks after me really well.

Next week there will hopefully no longer be any bumps in the road.

Training - Body, mind. But which order.

All in all things are going well. This week is a recovery week as I have five work days of 13hrs each, can't do everything. My head is telling me go train, my body says go train, but I know I should rest. Next week training starts again Monday massage, Tuesday workout, Wednesday workout, Thursday easy day, Friday all day workout, so on and so forth for the next three active training weeks. Then recover again.

Resting my body this week is making my mind hungry. This months training cycle is very important as the threshold of endurance is pushed kicking and screaming to new levels. So it must start right and that means recovered from last week. Time and control are import maybe more important as the level of investment is high now, patience must be maintained. I can't escape from the fact, there are only two more training cycles until I get the chance to test myself.

How do I feel - Positive yet slightly nervous, time is getting short but at the same time I know huge leaps are possible in the time remaining. In any case I am in good shape already so there is nothing to get worked up about. It is all a bit of fun, it is just more fun to be fast.

Ready for the fight.

Getting ready for the day has been a relatively simple task so far, education, patience and building up output at steady heart rates. However the road will not be so flat and hills will need squashed flat by high output. So come next week and five days off work some huge efforts will be put in to push the outer limits of my ability a bit further. All the time though monitor and recover will be in my mind, there is no point of working hard to get sick to lose out on the following week.

I am happy with how my rides are going even if sometimes they are on a turbo trainer, I know I am keeping my legs turning.

Time to plan a ride.

Hows it going?

Well not bad is the answer to that question. Running and cycling are progressing at a good pace. I am really pleased with the level of endurance I can achieve at the moment. This week will be a great week building on the week before. Six more weeks of endurance development then it is time to work on the lactate threshold limits. Hills and time trials will do the job there, but the odd spinning class from hell will help.

Hell and heaven in that order, some painful massage and wails as it happened are contrasted by the great feeling of motion and speed that come after. Heaven was a 30mile cycle on a coast road, easy speed at a relaxed output. Grand.

Recover recover recover, dont get carried away.

Too long.

It is too long without a post. I have been working away. Working at work mostly with a five shift week 70hrs on the go 33 of them without any sleep! still I managed hours of training two including a mind altering two and a bit hour turbo trainer ride, the monotonous steady heart rate endeavour that makes the whole body an efficient mile crunching machine. Well now that the recovery week is over it is back to proper work.

This is a two shift week and will see some good miles being collected. A monday run for a couple of hours in the hills is a great start. If I had not been offered it would have been a run on tarmac and alone at that. Tuesday a medium length run as i should be feeling good, fingers crossed for that outcome. Friday means my ten day break begins, a massage to loosen things up again then hopefully a long ride with a new riding buddy who has the same goal in road riding as I do. Sunday is this weeks long run and all things going well I look forward to that very much. This is because of two things, firstly the run, once I get about four miles in a run is a great thing indeed, second is the social activity of the club run. I am enjoying that more and more, oh yeh cakes and treats go down well after too.

Roll on a great week, long may good training things happen.

Long weekend

It is the start of my long weekend break from work. "work" being the term in common use for the place where income is generated. In fact there is still alot of work to do. Although today is a rest day I will manage a couple of hours walking to move some blood around in preparation the next two days. Saturday and Sunday will see some decent miles covered and some significant effort applied to the tarmac.

I feel positive and can see where each step throughout the week leads to improvements. I also understand the need for rest, both to adapt and in the shorter term recover of the following training days. I am watching my diet closely making sure not to feel cravings by appeasing them a little and having as wide a variety of food as I can. Intake is up, sugar is down, saturated fat is down. Plan going well.

Will a little test every so often be a bad thing? I am not sure? I reckon a max output session, so long as it is short can't be too bad. So long as you feel good about it afterwards. Feedback on this next post.

A new week will soon begin.

Well I am working a ngihtshift weekend again. I have had a day of rest and a night of work. Good luck meant I left my keys on the terminal. This meant I did not run home this morning, instead the car took me quickly to bed. I had an early (given the lack of time avaiable for sleep) meeting before work. I rested very well falling asleep quickly and rapidly ended up in the aforementioned and nightshift mode all at once. I have all the kit I need and the promise of not freezing conditions for the road home, not to mention a little more fuel in the tank.

Week two of the planned plan start Monday as usual with rest. An added treat is a massage, which I know will do good but at the same time I know will hurt in certain places. Practicing the quick drift to the "happy place" I am sure helps my mental training for BIG days as much as the physical benefits of the routine. So far so good, positive feelings are overwhelming this week and a feeling of lets get on with the tough stuff is there. I know that is good so I am being ofrever patient, no rush, solid consistent effort. There will be plenty of time and days when fast, hard, all out training will be needed, just not now, not so soon.

I have lately decided on and practiced a few technics I like for events. The one I like the most is to visualise myself in two parts. The body works away like a machine my inner mind is the control and monitoring location. I sit in my own head and monitor feelings, output, sweat, effort, system response and so forth. I make sure there temperatures are correct. I check that I have enough fuel available. I maintain flexibility and monitor for damage or fatigue correcting or adjusting as I go. I also concentrate on efficient use of energy making sure lazy options do not reduce performance or injure the machine.

Second is a good one I am saving for nicer days when there is more energy around. I move along head up happy on the inside at least absorbing energy from people, the Sun the Earth. My person is the focus of as much of the energy around that I can visualise, I imagine the flow of this around me and in me protecting assisting as I travel.

lets see what 10miles a 0530 feels like tomorrow morning, then revisit these thoughts.

New beginnings.

New beginnings, are what the year continues to be. I have started the training programme so eagerly awaited over the past few weeks. My running volume will increase as my cycling volume continues to grow. Massage is regularly booked for the next few months. Preparation of the bike is complete with a "few" new parts. Maintenance work has been done and everything positioned to within a fraction of a millimeter. Only one thing to do when the weather gets better, put my road cleats back on and remember what they feel like. I have double sided spds on at present so I don't need to change for spinning class, I look forward to getting out with the reassuringly solid feel of spd-sl underfoot.

I hope my training to run the Edinburgh Marathon and the cycling complement each other. Certainly the two seem to be working well at the moment. The stress shifting from muscle group to muscle group as each day brings a different exercise. Some swimming when I can or feel like it really helps so I will hit the pool every-so-often.

I feel top notch today after a gentle cycle. I hope this can continue as the effort increases. Cautious steps are the order of the day, don't over cook things early on rings in my mind. Time will pass quickly I know, but that is no excuse to damage myself. Take care, take time and take rest ring in my head when getting carried away feels like it might be a good idea.

Week 2 2010.

The year started with some good training time spent riding various bike and going to the gym as regularly as I have ever gone. Cycle for a couple of hours then weight training to ensure good power outputs. Then I finished my work "cycle" and it was time to recover only gentle exercise allowed. Plus we were away on a break in Devon so there was local beer to try and cream tea to have. Now that we have come back it is time to pick up the pace again.

So yesterday after a particularly lazy day in bed and around the house on went the outdoor training clothes. I togged up and went outside to find I still felt a chill, can't give in though start moving and it will get better. A mile later I was warm and making good time to the sports centre. I could feel the cob webs clear and the remains of cream tea and beer evaporate. A club run ontop of my run over made nine miles and a 10mile spin on a trainer said I climbed 6000 feet and covered the distance in 26mins. I even climbed for a minute at 600watts which was tough but felt good. I notice that recovery is rapid now heart rates return to lower levels more speedily than before. Sore bum now though as the indoor bikes have saddles that I struggle to believe anyoe can find comfortable. ouch!

Still after a few things to do this afternoon it will be turbo time again. Two hours should hit the spot and make things more efficent. ok off to see the world and put some walking miles in.

bike bits and time off.

I had a conversation with a man I work with last night while dodging the unusually cold weather this winter has brought with it. We were talking about what we like, and why we are all a little like addicts when it comes to doing it and/or buying things to do "it". He likes to make music in the most modern of ways using a pc and monitors. Not monitors as I understood you see, appearantly a monitor is like a speaker but does not smooth out the rough would be my new take on the subject. The point of this is we each had things we loved to do things we spent our money on but things that we each could not understand entirely enjoying in our own right. We did understand each others passion for what we did, in doing so forgave what intiially seemed to the other as an expense that was not justified.

So why is this nugget of truth important. Well it justifies to me my own need to spend a little bit of money on something that essentially was not broken did not need repaired and functioned pretty well. If indeed I required justification for spending money on myself, " at tmes I do". I bought a saddle. I had some sore bits around the soft stuff between my legs and hoped for a cure. I resaerched and checked eventually going with a brand I use for my shoes which are very comfortable. I tried the saddle for a few minutes and find it tio fit well with no soreness in the place I had it before. So I hope over time and testing this will continue.

Training is feeling good at the moment I am taking things steadily, which is a good feeling. Massage is planned and booked, in part at least. Programme scheduled, spares purchased and contingency made for days when the weather is bad or I forget to take equipmentform one house to the other.

20mm. This is important! Why? It is the difference in being comfortable and not being comfortable. This is the difference in stem length I chose to make things more easy to ride for long periods. It seems to be good (for a few minutes at least) having my bars back to where they used to live but a little closer. Time will tell (all things).

2010 so things seem closer already.

2010 is here already. Things, ie the Etape and other goals seem so much closer in January than they did a wee while ago in December. I had a great indoor ride with the spinners, although Tracy was not well she was with me as always. Power production was well above expectation and recovery surprised me alot. The following day base training for 90 perfect minutes.

I have only one grip my bum bones don't get on well with my saddle. I had thought this before but I am pretty sure of it now. I had a good sleep for 1800 to 0115 so feeling fresh woke up and bought a much more promising saddle. I look forward to testing it out soon.

Today is day two of the new year and I am in the mood for some more training so some weight lifting and 30 minutes of indoor riding look to be on the cards. I should sleep well after that. I am enjoying building these foundations over the winter time. I am also mindful of the increased load to come in what will be a few short weeks. Hope fully the foundations will be strong enough, hopefully I mean I will be strong enough. It all comes down to the effort/sustained/time equation again. I feel positvely charged, long may that continue.

Last thing on my mind. I long for the weather to get better so I can ride the hills, tempering my metal. I believe in training hard so the task is easier than I know I can handle. However I need also to be patient as big tasks are hard and can't be overcome all of a sudden. T reminds me of this which has made such a difference. A wise head helps when you are impulsive so I am lucky to have two on this job.

Happy New Year.