Fitness First

Last post before this was on Dec 20th and its now 1st Jan. So what have I been up to the past 11 days? I had a good 6 or so days off doing nothing bar eating lots, but generally healthy (except for the x-large tin of jelly beans I got bought). Missus has got a form of diabetes related to pregnancy so we are on a carb/sugar restricted diet which I guess is good. Lots of eggs, meat, soylin bread and greens. I seem to have stumbled across a great source of protein that tastes nice...soy nuts which are 36% protein! and half the fat of regular nuts. Better than some of these supplements that taste like crap and not mega expensive.The rest of the time was spent cleaning, degreasing, stripping and refitting the bikes. Vanquish is no more! In the skip and most of the bits fitted to the frame of Jamis. I love messing with bits, seeing how it works and improving stuff. Bought some brake cables from Wilkies but used the old housing which needed cutting as I wasn't happy with their length and got some new bar tape as white is a bad idea really. 3 cans of cheap0 dp60 (wd40 equivalent) and a couple of cans of TF2 also cheap from Wilkies were used. End result is a super slick commuter. The wheels, bontrager race lites really needed a clean so opened up the hubs. The front wheel now does 250 revolutions if I span it once with my hand. More on Jamis later.

The Sunday after Christmas I thought I had better start getting my fitness back. Everywhere had iced up and Emma R's blog had spurred me on to go spinning again so thats what I did. Tuesday I went swimming and did about 110 lengths but felt awful. Wednesday I went spinning again and did some gym work, more on the bike and on the cross trainer. I also went spinning on Thursday morning 7am! Thought I would be too shattered but did well. I hadn't weighted myself for a while I was 68.4kgs but I had my really heavy spinning shoes on and my clothes were soaked so I weighed them when I got home to see what I weighed naked. The shoes came to 950g and the clothes 350g so I was a healthy (no bonk dieting!!) 67.1kgs Target is 65kg for spring.

By now most of the ice had gone, the roads were dry and the sun was out. I had done quite a lot of exercise recently but needed to go out on the bike to find how much fitness I had lost and to test out how my mechanical skills had developed or not. I rang Pete to see if he fancied a ride out. It was cold, 2 degrees at 2pm but only wore a t-shirt under my wind jacket as if I sweated too much the cold would affect me a lot worse. Met at the roundabout of doom (where I got knocked over by a van) and set off with a gritter in front of us. The mudguards seemed to be doing a good job of keeping Jamis clean. We headed towards Blackstone Edge and caught and overtook another roadie. I noticed the shifting was really smooth but positive and the bike was soooo quiet. Could barely hear the chain.

On Halifax rd there was snow everywhere, I thought I'd try and pedal standing up all the way up Blackstone E like I have done up Cragg but the gradient and my legs was killing me and had to sit down with about 300yds to go. I probably could have done it but Pete would have gone too far ahead. We took a few piccies at the top and was going to go across Cragg but there was snow all over the road and a maintenance van said that a car was stuck in the snow! so we headed back home.

It must have been close to 0 degrees, the roads were freezing up so we went at snails pace down the edge. At Hollingworth lake Pete upped the tempo on a slight incline, I kept up then tried to pull away by standing up and dancing past him but as soon as I did I got searing cramp in my vastus medialis :) near the knee. I was struggling but could muster up enough energy to keep up with Pete. When he turned off to go home I wasn't too good so stopped to eat my jelly beans that were like rocks in the cold. 5 mins later ( any longer and I would have froze) I was off to climb Wood st.

I examined Jamis for dirt, salt,brake wear and damage, which were non existant. The crud guards had done their job admirably and didn't rub against the wheels unlike on Vanquish. I couldn't compare my fitness as I was half dead when I started. Did about 30 miles in 1hr 50mins. It was just satisfying getting on the bike again also knowing that I had built it up and it running so well. So what am I doing with the left over Dura ace bits?....stay tuned.

Targets for the year ahead;

10mile TT 24mins

25mile TT 1hr 5mins

5km run 23 mins

Hilly Sprint Triathlon 1hr 18 mins.

Do a road race hopefully lots.

Get accreditation at the Velodrome.