Tuesday 11 January 2011

Quick update

Following the big cycle on Sunday, I've been pretty dead - body just tired and generally feeling sorry for itself. Thankfully though, no lasting trouble from the cramps and I've cycled to \ from work both days.

Just thought I'd add a little postscript about an incentive scheme I have for 2011 - the idea is to get a new bike sometime during the year. So, I've decided that any day I cycle to & from work I contribute £3 towards a new bike. The reason for £3 is that it's approx. the cost of a return bus ticket to work. So far, I'm up to £9 :)

Sunday 9 January 2011

First cycle with local club

Joined the local cycling club this morning for one of their Sunday club rides - the plan was to join the intermediate group, but I arrived slightly late and ended up going with the sporting group.

The pace for the first half of the ride wasn't too bad, not down to my fitness but the fact there was icy patches on the roads so everyone was taking it easy. I hung at the back for most of it, chatting away to one or two of the guys and generally being pulled along.

My first struggle was just before the cafe stop just after 30km - overall the cycle was on flat terrain, but a slight incline at this point coupled with a change in direction causing a headwind meant I was dropped for a bit - I didn't really mind, as worst case I'd just cycle home by myself. Anyways, just after stopped for a tea and chat in a nearby cafe (it was a bit early in the ride than they're used to, but the idea was to give the sun an hour or so to remove some of the ice on the roads).

Second half of the ride was a totally different experience - I actually thought I'd never make it home I was so shattered - I'm not sure if it was the break or just a fuelling issue, but I was struggling big time. Thankfully (for me), one of the other riders was also struggling, so at least all the embarrassment wasn't mine.

The group were pretty good at holding back but about 50km in, we were on a national cycle route, well signposted back to Cambridge and it made no-sense for them to wait for me. My fellow struggler also hung back as the other took off, soon never to be seen again. We stuck together for a bit, but after 5-10km I let him off ahead as I just pulled over and took a rest. Still around 10 miles from home, I carried on at turtle speed, stopping frequently and generally feeling sorry for myself.

I started to cramp up a little, while another few km passed, until I'd a major double cramp in both quads 3km from home - pulling away from a roundabout. I decided to call it quits there and walked the rest of the distance home.

Overall, very glad I got out, though a bit disappointed by the performance. Can only get better. See the screenshot below for a bit more info.

Tuesday 4 January 2011

NYR: Fitness - running

I don't have much in the way of running goals in 2011. One thing I've signed up to for with a few lads at work is to try to do a mile in 5 minutes. Personally, I think this is impossible for me (think one or two of the lads might be able to do it) but I'd be happy with anything under a 6 minute mile. So I'm setting the gold standard for this as 5m, silver 5m 30s and bronze as 6m.

After that, I'd like to get back into some shorter distance runs, 5km \ 10km max. But I'm not putting any other pressure on this - what ever happens, happens.

Sunday 2 January 2011

NYR: Fitness - cycling

Fitness-wise, my main focus in 2011 is going to be the bike. I'll definitely be running again (see below) but for the most part, biking will be taking priority. I'm also hoping to get back into the pool in 2011 and christen the wetsuit that I bought but never used in 2010!

I've also decided to "retire" from gaelic football, but no doubt I'll be called in for a few guest appearances.

Cycling
I've got a couple of goals in this category, which if I acheive, will certainly aid in the completion of other goals.

Distance
This goal will take a standard format where bronze = 4000km, silver = 5000km and gold = 6000km

100km+ rides
The plan here is to do at least one 100km ride per month. Some of these may take the form of events but a good few of these should also be training rides. The goals again take a standard format, where bronze = 12, silver = 16 and gold = 20 100km+ rides.

Obviously, the more I do of these, the more realistic the first goal becomes :)

Another way I hope to help achieve this is to join the local cycling club, which do group rides most weekends.

Time Trials
Not sure what to put here, but would like to do a few time trials over the course of 2011. Standard for this will be: bronze = 3, silver = 7 and gold = 12

NYR: Weight

So for the next year, I'm going to make a couple of New Years Resolutions in different categories - each with a bronze (easy), silver (medium) and gold (hard but not impossible) standard.

Weight: The scales are currently sitting somewhere over the 120kg mark, which is disappointing. I don't really know what to put down here as a goal - on the one hand I know how tough it is and that scares me, but again, I also know what's achievable. Most weight-loss books suggest not losing more than 1lb-2lb a week, but I'm going to be a bit more conservative for the coming year. My main aim is to be around my pre-marathon weight (lets say 106kg) come the end of the year.

Bronze: 1kg per month or 12kg over the course of the year.
Silver: 1.5kg per month or 18kg over the course of the year.
Gold: 2kg per month or 24kg over the course of the year.

The starting weight will be based off my PhysicsDiet profile weight as off 01-01-2011. I'm also going to start doing daily weigh-ins again (where possible). Hopefully that graph on the right hand side will be going green.

Happy New Year

Just looked back over my blog posts in 2010 - all four of them in total. It's not an understatement to say that also sums up my physical activity in 2010. There's probably a few factors at play behind the scenes, between work, lack of motivation after the marathon, new living arrangements. But mainly, (at least early in the year) it was a total lack of motivation.

The blogging suffered because of this, since there was nothing to report, which meant the (generally) positive feedback from anyone reading was also forgotten. A few of you tried to get me back on track over the course of the year, alas to no avail - sorry.

So one of my main aims for 2011 is to start blogging again, if only for my own sake. I'm going to start it off with a series of new years resolutions for 2011 which I'll write up over the next day or so.