Training Log Archive: rambo

Today was the day I set aside for riding the course of this weekend's time trial. Of course that meant 25 mph winds with 35 mph gusts, and heavy rain. So safety Amber decided to stay at home rather than risk being blown in front of a truck, or maybe even into a fencepost :-(
Did a turbo session: 1,2,3,4,5,4,2.5,2,1 minute reps with 1 minutes rest in between. Was meant to be symetric, but I was daydreaming about hiring a bike in Freiburg next weekend, so missed the clock.
Didn't feel like I got my heart rate all that high, but my legs hurt. I managed to keep a steady pace the whole way through, but next time might do the shorter ones on a higher resistance setting. Happy that I finished at all, though, after my effort 2 weeks ago. I can tell the last 3 weeks have definitely been good for my cycling.

Felt pretty good.

Cumnor loop with efforts. There was a bit of wind about, which made me tired, so the last of 5 efforts was not particularly strong.

By myself this week for the first time in months, so had moments of "can't be bothered"ness. Nevertheless, the ride was OK. Did the same loop as a couple of weeks ago to Islip, Endstone etc, and did it faster, despite being alone. Maybe I'm getting fitter or something.

Felt OK. Glad to get 3 good sessions on the board this week.

Was going to do a hilly ride today but riding home from the office my legs felt bad enough. I probably could have got 'round, but don't think it would have done me any good. Have a bit of a sore throat as well ...

Strangely, the heaters were off, the fans were on and there weren't many people around in the gym this morning. Once they turned off the tele-ad for TimeLife's Greatest Ever Love Songs and put on MTV, it was close to the best conditions ever.

Am going to do a session on the turbo trainer later. Only a totally slacking wimp with a migraine and no legs would skip a session like that.

Hey, well I made it! An evening turbo session - what is happenning to me? I took it reasonably easy though, after my effort the other week in the gym where I died after 3 minutes. So I did 1,2,2,1,1,2,2,1 minute intervals with 1 minutes rest, and 20 minutes warm-up/down.

This is the first time I've used my new turbo trainer. The first thing I noticed was how jerky it was, as if my tyre was slipping on the turbo thing. But then I realised that if I pedalled more smoothly it went away. Great! I'm forced to pedal really smoothly and evenly, so hopefully it will do my pedalling technique some good and improve my efficiency. Then I won't have to train so much, right? So no more afternoon turbo sessions for me!

Cumnor loop again with 5 efforts. I procrastinated for a couple of hours because I thought my legs would be dead, but they were fine. I felt better on the last effort than I did last week, so that's always good.

Pretty good session. Felt like I didn't recover particularly well between sets, but then I've been a bit slack the last couple of months. Really need a couple of good weeks with no slacking off.

Flat ride on the roadie, trying to keep a high cadence.

Practise lap for race at Swinley forest. Some standing around trying to get the guts to ride the drop-offs/obstacles. Was shaking after one v. steep descent!
Cool-down afterwards.

Varisty MTB race. I borrowed Marcie's ''old'' bike and flogged it around in the quest for Oxford glory. Went out too hard chasing some Cambridge chick, so for the last 2.5 laps after I'd passed her all I could think about was how much my legs hurt. Was lots of fun, but with 5 significant climbs per lap it was also pretty hard. Lots of soft, black, peaty mud to fall in, so wasn't too scared of stacking it, but more or less managed to stay on my bike for a change.
Ended up 2nd in Sport category, and we beat the Tabs!!

C • Jolly Good 4

Didn't really feel like exercise, and when I rode my bike to the gym I knew why - legs were absolutely empty. Did a couple of exercises then limped back home again to the couch!

Good ride on old Coombe-Stonesfield-Cumnor loop. It all felt a lot shorter and easier than usual ...

Did the usual Cumnor, Appleton etc loop, but broke it up into 5 efforts with rest in between. Efforts: Cumnor Hill Road to Guy Salmon, Bear and Ragged Staff to the Bell Hangers, Whites Forge to the A-road, Fyfield junction to Whites forge and finally Farmer Gows to the Cumnor sign. Was a bit dead by the last one so it didn't really count this time. Felt suprisingly good, and it is nice to feel like I'm finally doing some cycle training! Should get the turbo trainer later this week.

Felt pretty good.

Recovery ride - legs pretty tired. Would have gone for a run but don't want to piss off my knee injury too much. I'll wait another couple of weeks and then try it out again.

Long ride with Marcie and Mike. For some reason I chose a rather hilly route and, unlike most rides from Oxford, it was up and down more or less the whole time. I wasn't feeling too fresh to start with, and Marcie set a bit of a mean pace so it was a good work out. I'm sure if I did that every Sunday I would be quite a bit fitter.

Felt good. Enjoyed it.

"KPMG ride" which I thought was going to be with some slow coaches from KPMG on the way to a pub lunch and back again. Turns out all the KPMG people wimped out and decided to meet us at the pub instead, so it was me on my town bike and 15 people on racers. I really struggled and when they went past the pub after about 50 minutes I pulled off and drank tea with the KPMG people there before the others arrived back about 50 minutes later!

We had a fair bit of snow yesterday morning, which turned to slush in the afternoon and then froze overnight. So since I was not feeling particularly suicidal today I thought I would hit the gym for a turbo session.

First turbo session for possibly 5 years? The plan was 1,2,3,4,5,4,3,2,1 minute efforts with 1 minutes rest between. The reality was 1,2,2,1.5 minutes with 1 minutes rest, 2 minutes rest and then 4 by 1 minute efforts. Am so out of shape. Arghhh!! On the positive side, there's definitely some room for improvement ...

I hope the roads are OK by Sunday.

First full session for ages. Felt OK, but have a bit of a headache. There weren't many people in, probably due to the fact that there was 10 cm of snow on the roads, which is very unusual for Oxford. It was quite fun riding to the gym and back - these soft Poms - even the men in their snow clearing machines must have been too scared to come out.

As opposed to just before Christmas, I've been feeling really keen lately to do some riding and weight training. It's all good, except that I've been sick and it's bloody cold outside. When I think how much I want to ride, I imagine that it's warm and sunny and I am riding for hours through the Adelaide hills... So I am sad that I'm not in Aus, but hopefully will get some miles in soon.

Pretty solid ride. My legs felt pretty tired but they didn't complain any more when I tried to ride hard. Probably the first decent training ride I've done for a while, even if it was only an hour!

Felt good to get back in the gym. I took it a little easy, and my pain threshold seemed to be lower than usual (?) Hopefully will be back up to full steam by Thursday.

Was definietly suffering after the ride yesterday (which in retrospect I probably should have canned). I woke up really, really wanting to go pump some iron (!), got dressed, then thought for about 15 minutes half way out the door if I was doing the right thing. I ended up going back to bed and will have to wait until tomorrow. Am feeling OK, but my body is definitely still fighting.

Ride with Katie out around Brill etc. I probably shouldn't have gone out at all, and although the pace wasn't all that high, I felt absolutely knackered and was really struggling. I just didn't have anything in my legs. Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow and not worse.

Felt a bit better today so my goal was to go to the gym for an hour and try to keep my heart rate as low as possible. Reminds me of the chair cricket we played once on a training camp at The Hut - anyone who moved too much or put in too much effort was out!

Was planning a ride today, but am definitely a bit sick. Just a slight cold at this stage, so I'll take another rest day in the hope that it doesn't get any worse. Resting heart rate is still at 41 - if it were elevated by at least 10 beats that would put my true resting pulse at 30, which is certainly not true. However, I definitely know I am too sick to be training, so I will not trust that test any more. Maybe it is only an "if" rule and not "if and only if".

This is my first cold for over a year, so I will not complain! (much)

Have been feeling on the brink of a cold the last couple of days, so will rest today. The "heart rate test" says I'm fit to go, though.