Diary Week 6

An interesting week, half term so the kids are off on holiday.
I did not manage any turbo training; however I did manage to cycle to work for one day.
I had the route planned out which kept me off the main roads, and going to work I managed to keep to route no problem. The only thing that went wrong was I lost one of my reflective ankle bands.
On the way back was a different story, my front light went out just after I started to ride and I managed to get lost a couple of times. Some of the roads did not have street lights and so when I car approached it blinded me! Pretty scary stuff. To make things worse I forgot my mobile phone, so I was on my own. Fortunately I managed to get my light working half way through the ride. However, the wife was none too impressed and told me in her own inimitable style that it was a dumb idea riding to work before the clocks change. So I will not being doing that again for a while.
Friday I had the day off - it was great spending some time with the kids. Then in the late afternoon I went to the Nutritionist. It was really worthwhile, I felt I got a lot out it. The plan is to gradually improve my diet, and I am sure the supplements will help.
As it was half term the kids are not swimming on Saturday and Sunday, it means I am not limited to return by a set time. We had guests on Saturday so that meant Sunday for my ride.
It was warm over night and so no problems with frost. I had my route planned to go via Leith Hill - Iain's suggested route. The early hills certainly got raised my pulse. I then followed the back roads to Cranleigh then down to Petworth, back up via Hasslemere and Hindhead before coming back via Cranleigh and Dorking. The total ride was just over 100 miles!!! A real milestone for me, and I managed to do this at an average speed of 14.5mph. I think that as soon as I start to use the "big cog" I can increase this average speed as currently my top speed on the flat is just under 20mph.

Week 5 Diary

I managed 2 turbo sessions and a normal gym session this week.
Felt pretty good coming in to the weekend's team ride.
All eight of us met up to have the photo shoot plus a tour of Christopher's.
As soon as we arrived it brought back memories and during the tour I certainly have a couple of tearful moments.
The place is just amazing, nothing is too much trouble for any of their "guests".
Although it is a hospice it is not like an adult hospice it is more a place where family can come to get a rest, have fun, talk and be listened to. It is designed for children of all abilities and ages from 0 to 19.
If any of us needed any additional motivation for the ride it was certainly provided.
We also met Andrew Castle and the Mayor of Guildford. I was struck by just how down to earth Andrew is, he clearly has a lot of passion for supporting CHASE. He immediately came up with additional ideas to help to publicise the Race for Chase.
The ride went well, all the guys seem to be getting in the training. It felt good to all be riding together, but although we rode together for 5 hours (with stops etc) it seemed that we rarely got a chance to talk to one another. The roads were busy and I guess we need to get used to them. I was pleased to not fall off at all ;-)
We certainly need to practice riding together to gain the benefit of slipstreaming, but I think we need to find some long relatively flat and quite roads to do this.

Week 4 Diary

4Feb08 - 10Feb08

The week started well with a good session on the turbo training.
Tuesday was my second spinning class, this was much better than the first class. The instructor was on time and I started to get used to the idea of what I was trying to do. It certainly is a good work out on the legs. Unfortunately the class was very busy and I did not manage to get myself booked infor next week.
Wednesday was the normal gym session, this went well and even managed to watch a bit of the England match.
Rest days Thursday and Friday before the ride on Saturday morning.
Up a 6.30 to start the ride at 7.00, met e at 7.30 the ride was fantastic we managed to cover over 70 miles in under 5 hours and with the ride to e's etc I managed to clock up over 80 miles!
We even had a couple of big climbs right at the end which were hard at the time but its great to look back on them and realise that you can still do them after a long ride.
The only problem with the ride was that I managed to fall off my bike twice!! Both time in slow motoin as I tried (unsuccessfully) to unclip!!!!
The main bruising was to my ego….especially as I had been bragging to e about how I had got used to them- more fool me.
My bike also started to squeek so on Sunday I read a bit of my Zinns and cleaned my chain - hopefully this will help to cure the problem.

Week 3 Diary

This week acted as a reminder of how we take our health for granted!

I felt terrible on Monday with a cough, but had to keep going due to key meetings at work.
Things got a bit better as the week went on such that by Wednesday night my cough was under enough control to allow me to do just over an hour on the turbo trainer.
Unfortunately the wife had caught the sickness bug and Wednesday night she was sick twice - and she is never ill so this must have been really bad.
As a result I was a part-time "Mr Mum" on Thursday.
Friday I got the bug, luckily for me I was only sick once and as it is only a 24 hour bug the wife was able to let me go to bed for 20 hours!!
Saturday I felt musch better but took it easy.
Sunday I was back out on the bike, the cough has gone and I managed 28 miles.
So it finished well and I'm looking forward to next week.