Winter training - onwards and upwards....

Well, things seem to be going okay….

  …so far.  Sort of.

 

  I’ve had a bit of a setback as the dreaded winter blues have arrived with a bang this last week or so, but the old legs don’t seem too depressed.

  More by accident than anything else I’ve only been managing to get out two or three times a week but it seems to be agreeing with me.  Hard three or four hour blast, couple of days off, then same again etc.  I seem to be getting the training effect then getting a nice couple of days recovery in between. I’ve felt better and better every time I’ve been out so far.  Absolutely smashed a ride this afternoon, I felt amazing (apart from the silly woman who nearly knocked me off – stupid cow, get yerself down to Specsavers…)  Wonder if I’m on to something here?

  I'd been finding that the gears on the MTB I use for training were a bit small and I was spending most of the time on the 46 x 12, so I found a spare 52 ring and banged that on.  Feels much better, and I've got a bit spare now for the downhill / downwind bits without spinning like a maniac!

  Had a total disaster on Sunday though. I’d been looking forward to the ‘Silly Suffolk’ audax for weeks and had hoped to meet up with some cycling chums and ride it with them. We had planned to ride the 150km event but I got the start time wrong and ended up setting off an hour early with the 200km group. I had the hump because I thought none of my mates had turned up, plus the weather was shite, plus I was horribly depressed so I thought ‘sod it’ about an hour in and rode home.  Little did I know my friends were actually back at the HQ waiting to start the event we’d planned to. Doh!!  Had a very grumpy / soggy 80kms on my own.

 Got the ‘Norfolk Nips’ audax series coming up – I’ll get myself slightly more organized for those!

  However, the other mission this winter is going to plan, ie lose some weight.  Being 14st was costing me huge chunks of time, so it's got to go.  Got myself down to under 12st already without even trying too hard, which is very pleasing. I’m definitely looking slimmer, in fact I had to replace the elastic on my heart monitor yesterday because I couldn’t get it tight enough round my shrinking man boobs! Still a few flabby bits though but I’m not sure what my best racing weight would be. Previous experience tells me that when your mum declares you’re looking ill and starts force feeding you bacon sandwiches whenever you see her, then you’re looking pretty fit!  I’ll aim for 11 ½st  (73kgs) and see how skeletal I look!