Guess Which Fat Arse needs Hauled up some hills...

Me! That's who!

That first big climb is more or less right in front of our door step so I'll be doing that about twice a week.  It's a fairly busy road but it's straight and well lit so it's fairly safe to hall myself up it.  I ended up with a stitch and thought I was going to throw up (hence the four minute flat section after it, if you switch from distance to time), and there was one point near the end I coughed so hard I actually gagged but I've been feeling better in stages this week so we'll be getting out for a couple of hours every weekend from now until the Etape.

In further sportive news they've cancelled the Scottish Bike Show Sportive which is a bit of a poopoo as I really enjoyed it last year...'Due to methods outwith their control' apparently.  I only noticed when I saw they'd refunded my money via an e-mail reciept and phoned them up in a panic.  An e-mail had gone out with the official explination (not a proper explination, an official explination) but that ended up in my junk folder so I - and according to the forums a few others - missed that.  One of the organisers phoned me up (which was rather good of him) and gave their explination.  We're half tempted to go round anyway so we'll see.

Spoke to one of my mates last night and she was saying she's not done any training for it.  She's a swimmer so she's fairly sure she's got the aerobic ability - it's just the sitting on the bike for that length of time's going to be a struggle for her, she thinks.  I'll have to start calling people out for rides now.  Deeside Diva's start this week so I'll need to start making my way for that - I want to get better riding in a group.

Mx

Tah Da!

Actually managed to accomplish something tonight! It'll be easier if you swap it for time and get rid of the gradient. What it's supposed to show if you can see it is that I basically spent 20 mins x 2 in the bottom half of zone five (lactate threashold I believe, though I might be nay-said). My general malaise has been lifted and established itself as a proper sneezy, snottery cold. I've started the vitamins and iron again (which I haven't taken since before Christmas) and one of the guys at work (whom I've decided to call 'Crazy on the Inside' since he thinks I'm batsh!t and yet he's a tap dancing banana Dadaist) has tried to inspire me to 'Go out on Sunday... just decide and go out.' As I have become a bit of a fair weather cyclist these days.

Whilst we're on the subject it's still snowing. It has snowed for the past three weeks. Sometimes it lays like an aged southern belle on a day bed, other times it's just falling from the sky like leaves from the trees. It's getting to the point I can't remember when the weather wasn't like this. We're (Me and Crazy) 'Right folks, since it's the same today as it was three weeks ago, I'm of to Barbados until something new comes up, in this 30 second slot what you'll see instead is an archive tape of Jimmy Shand doing a strip teeze.' Mx

The smallest violin in the world...

is playing just for me.  It's manifesting itself in my ears, making a very annoying clicking sound when I swallow and generally any time I move my jaw.  And do you know how many times one moves their jaw and swallows in the course of one day?  Quite a lot.  I'm on the verge either getting a really crappy cold or of doing some exercise which is something (lets face it) I've been on the verge of both things these past couple of weeks and yet to achieve either. I'm sleeping ridiculous amounts at the moment - 10 hours plus a night, every night - and I have a weird rash on my neck that appears to have dried up for the moment but then comes back, and a weird pain in my right chest/arm area.. Poo me.  Poopoo to me.  There's something holding me back at the moment - I know what that is but there's feck all I can do about it RIGHT NOW, which is why I'm stuck in this weird land of malaise, minor sickness and cantankerousness where everyone is simultaneously not giving me enough attention but 'oh, why don't you all feck off' at the same time.

But this is a cycling blog, there has been no cycling.  This is two weeks now (possibly three... ouch) where I haven't done anything worth while.  I did promise last time that I would do a tester session, and my 10 mins during the week I came up with a better way of testing that.  1 mile sprints on the trainer. Faster one does that mile the better.  That's a lot of saying, but admitting actually writing the whole 'Woe is Me' paragraph at the top has cleared my head a bit, and I feel a little lighter. I'm only not cycling, and since we now have saying for evil in Britain, I'm going to coin it and say 'I'm no Jimmy Saville'.

No Indeed.

Mx

p.s. I actually feel a bit better now!

Could'a would'a should'a...

...but didn't:

Instead we went into town and tried to spend the vouchers my da' gave us at Christmas. You'd think Christmas vouchers would be a good thing.  But they've been a burden.  We've been to John Lewis three times now with a look to getting a blender (but no, actually we don't need one), a bed cover thing (but no, I have a knitting machine, lets not spend money on something I could knock up myself), this week it was a cork screw - for people that don't drink wine. So we came back empty handed.

Another fruitless aspect of my day involved the Giddy blonde mocking me for all the other (2) cyclists out, in this 20 mph snow blizzard - and not one of them adequately dressed for the occasion (the Giddy blond thinks they were students but I think they might just have been glaekit).  One was wearing basket ball shorts and had the reddest legs I've seen in a very long time, curled so far in on himself heading into the head wind, it'd be easier if he just looked behind him.  The other cyclist, was going down Union Street with no gloves on.  The point is they were doing something I wasn't.  CYCLING. So they get more points as human beings than me, or something.  I could pretend to care but that would be disingenuous of me, and I'm only really that when it's in my favour.  And I'm crap at it.  It comes off insidious and creepy which are the same thing so it's extra creepy.

So a TT again. Incidentally, one of my mates - Everyone's favourite Geordie - has got a new bike so we'll have to ride out on that sometime soon!


Mx 

I've been remiss in writing...

...these past couple of weeks because I wanted something to write.  And after the crappy crappy route of last week, I kind of didn't look at the bike for an entire week.  You know I've struggled with getting back in the saddle this year. I just can't seem to get into it, especially now since it's about 12 weeks away (or less!)  But I've pulled my socks up and managed 3 turbo training sessions, as well as made proper plans for going out tomorrow.

|The thing is though... and this occurred to me this week,        I have no short term goals.  Besides from getting the training 'done', and that's a bit hit or miss, I have no 'will make x amount of miles in x amount of time.  I really don't want a 'will do x miles by x time' because that will be fruitless, and I have a lot of data but none of it generally means anything to me.  I should do a test turbo session - pick a gear, pick a zone and see how far I go.   And then once a fortnight see if I'm improving.  I'm not good at the gears but so it will either need to be the very top one or the bottom one, but the new turbo trainer does have levels so if I need to make it harder I'll use that.

Mx

p.s. Have linked google+, feel free to 'join me'.