Friday 18 February 2011

Fail ?

30in30 - day 5, a big day, an hour and a half in the cold cold morning, misty, claggy mizzle, and then another hour and a half in the evening, warm sun, clear skies, going cool, but just lovely - got home full of endorphins, very happy and pleased with a good day.

30in30 - day 6, up early but legs not playing, straight to work, bout 30 mins, hoping that a days rest will see some life appear, a few difficult issues at work drained me, I'm out of shape where work issues are concerned, one particular issue has been plaguing me for a week or so now and this all conspired to suck my desire to ride right out.

So, I headed straight home, legs heavy, heart heavy, no inspiration, not looking forward to the weekend as a failure....


but then this happened

http://www.allhailtheblackmarket.com/2011/02/friday_target_blank_12.html#more

just watch this video with the kid in it and tell me that doen't make you smile and brighten any day up :-)

Wednesday 16 February 2011

Drying trails ?

30in30 - day 3 - one and a half hours on local trails this morning, pretty slithery out there, trailrakers helped a lot in the skills area (i:e not watching where I was going leaning into a corner), legs suffered like hell though with a low spinny gear. Straight home after work.

30in30 - day 4 - 30 mins commute this morning meant an hour on the way home, legs still heavy, I'm obviously tired now and the thought of jacking 30in30 in occurred to me several times during the day but...

Out I went, turned right and headed for the trans pennine trail and westwards to do my hour, after 30 minutes or so my legs livened up a tough so I pressed on for while until I realised I had the wind on my back !, turned around and boom, legs suddenly got heavy again.

An hour and twenty minutes, job done, legs still missing in action.

Monday 14 February 2011

30in30x2 ?, No its 30in30

Daft idea

but then I'm full of daft ideas

Change of plan back to 30in30

30in30 - day 1

started yesterday (Sunday) with a couple of hours around Norland Moor and that locale, it was wet and muddy and slippy and slithery and slidey and bloody good fun, made all the better for seeing and riding with a friend that I haven't seen for about 5 years.

30in30 - day 2

Then tonight, my legs and in fact my whole body was lethargic and not interested, it would have been so easy to just ride straight home, but I'm pretty determined to lose weight and get fit again this year so off I went, away from home..

Just over an hour done and happy that I'd done it.

Wednesday 9 February 2011

30in30X2

On reflection I enjoyed 30in30, sometimes it was difficult, and sometimes I was doing it for the sake of doing it... but overall I enjoyed it.

However, the best part has been the benefits to my health and attitude that 30in30 brought, I'm over a stone lighter, I'm fitter than I've been for two years, I'm loving riding my bike again having broken that barrier of pain versus enjoyment, and of most importance it helped me enormously in my battle against alcohol.

The fitness benefits hit home yesterday, I rode for an hour in the morning, and then in the afternoon I rode hard for almost three and a half hours, it hurt like hell, but I loved it, relishing the twitchy legs that prevented me from sleeping soundly last night.

Now the term battle may sound dramatic, it almost certainly is compared to some people, but I do have an issue with alcohol, its not news, in fact whilst writing this I have consumed 3 bottles of beer and most of a bottle of red wine, there's another bottle of beer that I will drink after writing this so that there is nothing in the house (well nothing thats immediately available) which will help me go for another month of abstinence.

At new year I said that I'm ready to stop drinking, I shied away from saying forever because I didn't think I could do it, to be honest I still don't think I can, but I'm going to try anyway.

After 30in30 I had a drink to celebrate, then a few nights later again which meant two nights last week, then this week I've drank on Monday, Tuesday and tonight, I'm falling headlong into my old ways... its not going to happen again.

So what is 30in30X2 ?, well I figure that I can do either one 2 hour ride per day, or two 1 hour rides per day for 30 days, apart from the gym bike days I pretty well did this anyway during 30in30, I can ride for an hour before work, and easily do an hour after, especially as the days are starting to draw out now, the riding will be the easy part, but essential towards another 30 days of abstinance.

Wish me well :-)

and an update from last weekend - rain stopped play on Saturday and Sunday turned into a very very wet mountainbike road ride with the boy, it was ace, photo's here

http://www.flickr.com/photos/45689323@N00/sets/72157625989958944

Friday 4 February 2011

Back to normal ?

well, no, not really

Monday was a day of rest, a simple commute, shortest way both ways, tired legs.

A few beers and some red wine to celebrate a month on the bike and a (almost) month of sobriety.

Tuesday was on the MTB, straight to work along the river, trails were filthy so the bike got cleaned up at work, it also carried on raining during the day and as much as I wanted to ride I didn't want to get the bike filthy again so I did my usual route on the roads with the Genesis Latitude, really enjoyed it despite some dodgy moments with cars.

Wednesday pissed down all day so straight there and backs, legs tired.

Thursday, road bike, straight to work into the wind, a fast looking roady passed me so obviously I sat 20 yards behind him, 23mph, impressive, wonder how long he can keep this up ?, half a mile later and the tell tale look back, he was gutted to see me sat there and put his head down, another 300 yards and another look back, this time though he was blown, straight down to 17mph and a resigned look as I passed him.

Luckily for me though I only had another 300 yards before I turned off, by now I was praying that he wasn't going my way as I was now blowing !, he turned right, I turned left with thighs on fire !.

Thursday night and the wind had grown substantially, it would have been easy to head straight home but my resolve is still strong, so I turned left into the gale, struggling to maintain 15mph. An hour and 15 minutes into a headwind was enough, I was pretty spent when I turned back, speed immediately went up to 22mph with little pedal pressure needed. Got home after 2 hours 15 minutes, 34 miles covered, knackered.

2 beers and a bottle of red later and struggled to get up the stairs, day off needed.

Friday, drove to work, legs still aching, resting for the weekend, road ride on Saturday and then long cross bike ride on Sunday, plan is to head up the trans pennine trail as far as conditions allow, stopping at Jodphurs for a bacon butty and then if everyone is good head upto the Woodhead Tunnel. It might well be a little early in the year for an 80 miler but we'll see how folk are feeling :-).