March (and February) in numbers

Just been comparing the last two months, I can kind of see why I really needed my rest week at the end of March


Biking: Feb 287 miles/ 19:40 hours
Mar 422 miles/ 31:33 hours

Running: Feb 39 miles/ 5:52 hours
Mar 23 miles/ 3:19 hours

Swimming Feb 7.1 miles/ 7:36
Mar 11.5 miles/ 11:23

Other Feb 1:30 climbing
Mar 5:48 hill walking

Total Feb 34 hours
Mar 52 hours

I do need to remember it all adds up and takes its toll!

Rest Week

I'm taking an easy week this week, it is actually planned for once which was good as it was obvious on Sunday's road ride I was clearly in need of one. I faffed all morning before getting out on the bike even though it was a nice sunny day, that in itself should have been a clue as I couldn't wait to get out the week before.

Plan was to up the difficulty of the climbing a bit and head over to do a circuit of Pendle Hill. My legs were fine but for some reason my head just didn't want to ride. I ignored myself because some of my best rides have started out with that kind of mental approach and come good.

Lots of ups and downs to warm my legs up on the way over to Whalley, taking things nice and easy. Sunny day, bit of cold breeze but very hazy. Pendle Hill was pretty obscured, though for a change it wasn't heavy clag:



Soon I was riding through Pendleton, ready to climb up to the Nick O Pendle. Took it really steady, bracing myself for the stupidly steep bit, which didn't really materialise. It was really hard but not as stupidly hard as I was expecting, which was probably just as well as this seems to be a road where drivers like to try and brush your elbow as they pass, really felt like every car refused to give room.

A fast drop down the other side and up the climb to Padiham Heights...which kicked my arse, that's more like it! I made it up the evil climb, legs were still fine, still CBA to be riding though even though the roads were great. Eventually dropped into Barley and stopped at the heaving cafe for some food, they didn't have much left so settled on some chocolate sponge and custard and a cappucino.

I had a bit of a wait...realised the time 3pm, on a Sunday afternoon means most things will be closing. Only 27 miles ridden, 3500ft of climbing, just over two hours of riding (was that all). A lot of time to look at the map and realise there really was only one way out of Barley..up. An enormous plate of sponge and custard and a huge cappucino was plonked in front of me. Top marks for value for money but I was stuffed when I was finished...just before heading up a big hill.

I hadn't quite fully given in by this point so climbed out of Barley (no sponge after effects) and headed to Downham as I'd heard it was really pretty. It was but here the last of my motivation deserted me and I decided to go home. So a map check and I decided to head through Chatburn, Waddington then out to Ribchester then home, rolling terrain. Within about a mile of making that decision almost everything started to hurt, it's amazing how admitting defeat just changes everything.

It wasn't the most fund ride home I have to say, a bit of a headwind and the sponge started making its presence felt about Waddington. The grind out of Ribchester was particularly nauseous. A fastish blat down the A59 then home, shattered. With hindsight, starting the rest week on Sunday with an easy spin was probably a better idea.

Monday's swim was a bit rubbish for swimming but was a great stretching session for my shoulders, hip flexors and lower back. I do like floating about in the water even if my swimming isn't up to much.

Tuesday I canned my commute as I felt really tired and groggy in the morning when I woke up, which did worry me a bit so I opted for another half an hour of sleep instead. Within about five minutes of being up and about I felt fine, I'm always a bit groggy on the dark mornings d'oh. A three mile run after work was all I managed to fit in.

Wednesday the boys were off to Gisburn with some work colleagues, I couldn't get out of work early enough so decided it was time to break out the singlespeed and head to Abbey Village when I did get out of work. Get the first ride on it in a while without the sight of the boys disappearing off up the hill. Riding on my own means I can set a sensible pace on the initial climb through the woods and take the time to get my breath back coo over the lambs:




(I blinked first!)


Legs were ok for riding but the biggest surprise was my arms, normally my arms give out first on the SS but they were fine, which is the swimming I presume. The only annoyance was a bit of a mechanical where the jockey wheel fell out of the chain doofer, causing the chain to fall off. Luckily I was rolling along downhill when it happened and not stood up grinding out a climb. A lot of faff with taking the wheel out, screwing the jockey wheel back in, watching it unscrew itself before my eyes as I pedalled along as I'd not done it right then going through the whole palaver again.

I was still up near the tower when this all happened and its a bit of a sobering realisation that whilst its a mainly downhill 3 or 4 miles and not much time at all back to Abbey Village with a working bike its an entirely different situation if the bike couldn't be fixed and a walk was on the cards, I got quite cold very quickly too. When it first happened I also seemed to be the only person up on the moor, fortunately I did bump into a very friendly MTBer who checked I was ok when putting the bike back together the second time.




My repair held but I avoided doing any steep climbs on the way back to the car just in case the chain decided to fall off again. Was still a great ride though.

Thursday was supposed to be a bit of a run but it was stupidly windy at work, would just be silly at the beach, one of my "rules" for rest weeks is to have fun with "training" as much as possible and running against that wind is usually not that much fun. Had a great swimming lesson in the evening, back stroke.

I postponed the run to today, it was still windy but nowhere near as bad as yesterday however it was still really crazy at the prom. Running with my eyes closed as the sand was being whipped into my face but it didn't last long before it was behind me. Quite pleased I didn't venture down yesterday, even the seagulls were sheltering behind cars.

Plan for the weekend is a 3 hour max road ride and I may break my trail shoes out and go for an offroad run. Wednesday's ride reminded me how much I like being up on the moors.

Germ Factory...

My office that is. Felt terrible yesterday afternoon, woozy, scratchy throat. Pulled out of night riding and had an early night. Fingers crossed but I actually feel lots better today but have decided not to do todays planned 6 mile run and give myself a chance. Its currently tipping down with freezing rain so probably best to stay warm and dry today.

I've another easy day tomorrow then hopefully will get out and do something on Saturday and race XC on Sunday. The Marl Pits XC course is supposed to be quite a good one so hopefully I will get there and not feel like death warmed up.

Both my running and cycling mileage targets for the year are tantalisingly close but a heavy cold or dose of swine flu could put them out of reach.

Anyway, off to make some home brew style lemsip.....I am amusing my colleagues with my little tubs of freshly squeezed lemon juice and honey.

Dead Legs

I postd a comment on Kate's blog recently about resigning myself to permanently dead legs combining running and cycling....if anyone else had said that I'd be advising them to take it easy for a bit.

I had a look back at what I have been up to over the last month, my rough goals are to do 200 miles of biking and 50 miles of running to keep on target for the year (2000 miles and 750 miles respectively). I did 239 bike miles and just squeaked in 50 running miles, not huge volume really.

I also had a good few days off here and there but the big change was the reintroduction of running speedwork, the dreaded intervals and tempo runs are back! I have done sets of 400's. 800's and 1600's (set off too fast and they so, so hurt)- forgot to do 1200's! Two miles worth of fast stuff, and two runs with 4 miles at 8:30 mm which is just slower than my 10K pace.

This is the only way I will keep running at lunchtimes over the winter, I have no real choice of route so I have to break the run up into chunks. Its been a big increase in intensity so I've backed off this week, quite a lot due to the blooming weather! Nothing more than four miles (if this rain ever stops).

Next week, start again with 400's and 2.5 miles of fast stuff. I am not looking forward to those mile ones again.

Sleeping, cooking, garden and bike maintenance

Is what I got up to over the weekend. After frying in the Dales for a day I had a couple of extra hours sleep on Saturday morning. Had to get up to feed the cat about 7:30am but he graciously allowed me another couple of hours sleep before demanding any more attention.

The sunny weather seems to have ripened all the tomatoes and chillies I have all at once, I thought I was doomed to tonnes of green tomato chutney again, I needed to do something qith them quickly. Spent a lot of Saturday cooking, making damson vodka (farm shop selling them cheap), bisuits, roasting tomatoes and generally making a mess of the kitchen.

Sunday I did think about going out for a run but the mossery that passes for our back lawn was dry enough to walk on without turning it into the Somme so I cracked on with tidying the garden up ready for autumn though I have filled our garden waste bin to bursting and there is still more to do.

Bike maintenance next. I had to go back to basics with my rear derailleur, printed the Shimano instructions out, checked the stops, lubed the cables, faffed around for ages getting clockwise/anti mixed up and eventually the gears are pretty much sorted. Something that would have taken Jez about five minutes took, well a lot longer than that!

Also sorted the front brake out on the On One via application of a large flat bladed screwdriver, meant I got enough leverage to really force the pistons back. A bit of shimming and the disk was central, hopefully it will stay that way.

A timely thread on STW had me checking all my Eggbeaters for play, the Titus left pedal is starting to wobble so a rebuild kit for that then.

My bike shopping list consisted of:

New cables for Titus
New pistons and rebuild kit for On One front brake (rear done recently)
Egg beater rebuid kit

Utterly boring so to cheer myself up I have ordered some Salsa flip off skewers for the On One. Hate the skewers on there at the minute.

A Rather Underwhelming Week

Not sure what was up with me, felt like was coming down with a cold or maybe I was just sick of the wind and rain (more likely). After the Dales ride I had a lazy day on the Saturday doing some serious reading and not a lot else. Sunday involved lots of shopping and stuff using the bike, got a nice 25 miles in but against the strong winds with the panniers acting like sails on more than one occasion. My face was very windburnt.

Monday I made myself go for an offroad run, aiming for 10 miles but cut it to 7.5 when I just couldn't get into it. I just couldn't seem to take enough air in, it felt completely airless even though the wind was blowing a hoolie, more windburn. I then cycled over to my mates for tea and was half way there when the heavens opened and it lashed, luckily I had had the sense to put my waterproofs on but I had the lights switched on my bike at 6pm, bah! it was still raining by the time I made my way home.

Felt really out of sorts Tuesday to Thursday, work was busy so I couldn't even get away at lunchtime to get to the gym either. Some rest and extra sleep (and a lot of Tangfastics) and I felt much better for riding on Friday. The windburn stopped stinging on Thursday evening.

Ouch!

Had a rest day after Sunday's ride, legs were "cycling" tired whish is a nice change from the completely battered after running tired I have been used to of late. I got back into the gym for more weights yesterday. I did my warm up on the Treadmill this time, just couldn't face staring at the lilac wall on the rower. Did a couple of faster intervals to start waking the legs up from the marathon trudging, felt good after it so probably time to get the speedwork going again.

I floated off round the gym for a bit, forgotten how weird it feels getting off a treadmill. Left leg feeling more in control on the split squats which I was pleased about. For some reason the gym was overrun with teenage boys hogging all the benches so I decided to use one of the bars for chest presses rather than dumbells. It was an olympic bar which I have a dim memory of being a "reasonable" weight though exactly what it was escaped me.

I loaded it up with titchy 5kg plates for a warm up then nearly died when I tried to press it. Got about three reps out before wrestling it back onto the hooks......took the 5kg weights off and replaced with 2.5kg and creaked out a couple of sets before slinking away. I found out later olympic bars weigh 20kg on their own, oops I thought it was about 5kg or something.

The ouch is not referring to me. I headed out for a run after work with Jez, into the woods near Abbey Village, the looming black clouds had us deciding against the top of the moor. We were both running reasonably well, as it was 3.5 - 4 miles planned I was determined to push the pace on and not settle into the plod I normally do on offroad runs and it was working well.

1.5 miles in I heard a painful expletive behind me and looked back to see Jez in a lot of pain having just turned his ankle. I was worried he had actually broken it such was the pain on his face but after a few minutes he managed to put some weight on it and we started walking back to the car.

We only had 1.5 miles to walk but we chilled down very quickly, then the rain decided to lash right down so we got very wet and even colder. A sobering reminder that extra layers and mobile phones should be carried on long solo hill runs as situations can change so quickly! I ran the last half mile back to the car to get it started and move it as close to the end of the track as possible then drove us home. The ankle was very swollen but immediately iced and ibuprofened, poor love!

I get health insurance through work so he should hopefully be seeing the physio again in the next couple of days. Only been a couple of months since he was last there for the same ankle.

Thursday Evening Run

I headed out for a run after work yesterday, I wasn't sure how far/how fast I was going to run, I would let my body decide that after I set off. I had thoughts of up to 9 miles but after a mile or two decided against that. My legs were a little heavy (cycling heavy) and I was planning on actually completing my long run on Saturday I ended up aiming for 6 miles at 9mm - which is close to my intended marathon pace (may be a little ambitious though).

I had a lovely run around Cuerden Park, I felt a lot smoother and comfortable on the hills (not any faster!) than I have of late and I put that down to Monday's session. I ended up with 6.5 miles at just over 9mm. Lots of varied pace running too, slower on the hills, faster along the valley floor which was nice as I had begun to think my legs had forgotten to move any faster than lumbering.

I had a rest day today, nothing more than a little stretching (but I again forgot to do my core work).

Sofa Dweller

That was me on the weekend. On Saturday I was completely out of it, I vegetated on the sofa most of the day. I remembered mid morning about the Farmers Market and managed to get to that, then took up residence on the sofa again. It was the only thing I achieved all day. I couldn't even read a book my concentration was so shot. On the plus side I had a much better nights sleep and woke up feeling a bit more like myself.

It was a sunny day and I thought I would go out for a run in the afternoon, 10 miles or so! As the morning wore on the length of the anticipated run shortened until I realised I was actually still tired and to take it very easy again.

I cleaned some bikes, worryingly I can't get the seatpost to budge in my On One, sprayed some WD40 on it but need to have another go at trying to loosen it and hope to hell it hasn't been stuck in permanently.

I at least had a concentration span and spent the whole afternoon reading a good book, which was really enjoyable. It was "Dear Fatty" by Dawn French, I can really recommend it. A bit of a waste of a sunny day really.

The Weekend...

...didn't quite go as I planned it. I spent most of it sleeping it would seem and not much else. I had originally hoped to ride at Glentress on the way up on Friday but hitting the wall on Thursday's run meant I was too hungry and tired on Friday morning to contemplate it.

I thought about trying to get out for a spin on the roadie but the front tyre had a puncture when I checked it on Friday morning - it was flat on Thursday but I pumped it up in case the valve hadn't been tightened up properly. I CBA'd breaking my thumbs trying to change it on Friday morning so it stayed in the garage.

I was finishing packing up the car around lunchtime on Friday and I decided to put the radio on for a bit only to hear the traffic news and they had just kindly shut the M6 in both directions between 32 and 33 - Oh FFS! Just what I needed.

As there is no real alternative to the M6 between Preston and Lancaster I thought I might as well head off and see what progress I could make (not much). It was announced southbound had reopened as the air ambulance had taken off but 2 lanes northbound would be shut til at least 4 pm apparently and there was also another accident on the northbound carriageway to add to melee.

I decided to head across to Kirkham then pick up the A6 near Garstang, which would likely be rammed but I was going to be queueing wherever I went and I figured it wasn't going to get any better as the afternoon wore on.

Driving through the centre of Lostock Hall I suddenly heard this horrendous grinding and banging noise. I thought I had run over something and pulled over asap, got out the car and discovered the back box of my exhaust was being dragged along the ground - oh FFS! I couldn't believe it! Bloody Car. I was kind of in the way so I drove it, grinding and all into the car park in the town centre.

Two young lads sat in Corsa stared at me as I drove past and wandered over and asked if "I realised my exhaust was hanging off" I answered I did indeed know, which was why i was in the car park. They offered to look at it for me (don't think they can do much), which they did, then got a screwdriver out of their car and detached the dangling exhaust from my car. What a couple of stars.

I was at least able to drive it home now without a shower of sparks following me, having travelled all of about half a mile from home. I then had a bit of a dilemma, take Jez's Audi or stay here. I was a bit wary of taking the Audi, its his new toy, I'm not having a good day with machines and it averages 20 miles to the bloody gallon! I decide to take it, I need to get used to driving it anyway.

After a bit of faff swapping stuff over, it may be an estate but it is smaller than my Mondeo land barge, I set off again into the worsening traffic. Suffice to say it took me the best part of two hours to get to 33, at least it was sunny.

A boring and completeley fuel inefficient drive up to Scotland I'm getting the hang of the car, apart from the extra gear and very occasionally enjoying the stupid acceleration on it (though not watching fuel consumption plummet like a stone, 5 mpg !). Most of the time I drove like a pensioner. The tank was half full setting off and I had to refuel before I got to Carlisle.

Friday night was spent catching up with friends to the early hours of Saturday morning then a few hours sleep and more catching up. I then was feeling very tired so decided t go back to my folks for a bit of a lie down before tea. It was just getting dark as I was dozing off, I opened my eyes and it was light again. A "bit of a lie down" turned into about 12 hours of unconsciousness. What a great sleep it was too.

I managed to sleep like a log on Sunday night too. I came straight back down on the Monday to get on with sorting my stupid car out, trying to drive sensibly but I still had to fill the bloody thing up again today.

Taking my own advice

After telling RedBikes that he should rest I will be taking my own advice today! My quads are still feeling battered from Sunday but everything else is fine which is great, my lower legs have been feeling it lately with all the tarmac pounding and Sundays run really gave them a workout without the impact. I've brought my kit with me but I could feel my quads just walking across the carpark so I don't think an interval session or 7 tempo miles would be good for them.

My plan for this week was to run today, rest tomorrow then we are off to the Lakes on Wednesday night for our birthday, two days of some chilled out walking and perhaps riding (Jez wants to check out the new MTB trail at Whinlatter) so I wasn't to worried about going hard at the beginning of the week as I would be relaxing later. Now I will rest today and run tomorrow.

Attempt at Intervals

Thursday I had planned to do intervals at lunchtime. Nothing major, 5 x 2 mins to get my legs back into it again.

The warmup was ok, nice steady pace though I did think my legs were a little unresponsive, still not feeling sprightly but I thought I would give it a go and see how things went.

The first one was hard work, as it always is so I wasn't too worried but as it turned out this would be the fastest one. The second was a little slower and the third was slower still. As I normally find I am really getting into it by the third I took the hint and didn't do anymore.

I continued my run at a steady pace and my legs were ok with that, just over 7 miles in the end.

I realy hadn't factored in the recovery period from racing the half which was a little silly on my part though confirms I should keep it relativley light on the racing front for the next few months.

Today I decided to rest, I had thought about doing a short lunchtime run but I was planning an MTB ride on Saturday and a run on Sunday so I thought It would be better if I did nothing (I still brought my kit to work but didn't run in the end).

Feeling Better....I think

Fingers crossed. I had a bit of a pathetic day yesterday feeling sorry for myself, ended up at working at home as couldn't face staying in work. Annoyed at missing out on doing something in the sunshine.

I woke myself up a few times in the early hours of Tuesday morning convinced I had just been sick down the side of the bed! Very weird, I hadn't of course but I was feeling very queasy so maybe I was just about to? Who knows.

I kind of starved myself a bit yesterday as couldn't face much but around 3pm I had a bowl of pasta and things started to improve from then on.

I didn't bring my kit to work but am thinking I may head out after work for a short run to see how things are.

Digestion not happy

So not running, don't think it would be pretty! Was hoping to cycle tomorrow but will take running kit instead in case my stomach has settled down. Also need to put petrol in Jez's car as have been using it to drive to work while he gets a lift, don't think he'd appreciate getting in it just for the fuel warning to beep at him.

Managed to abandon the car at a garage on Saturday so waiting for them to tell me what is wrong with it, fingers crossed its not expensive.

Not sure what has disagreed with me as Jez is ok.

Resting

I'm having a rest day today. I was supposed to be cycling in to work but I woke up this morning and felt like I'd had a fantastic nights sleep and an extra hour in bed would do me more good than cycling to work. I love having fab nights sleep like that, doesn't happen often enough.

I also went climbing last night for the first time in ages. Pam texted Jez and I to see if we wanted to go, it was quite timely really as I was just thinking the other day that I really need to do some upper body work.

It was good fun but I had quite a sore left knee by then end of it, I was making those muscles work and stretch in a way they hadn't done for quite some time and they really complained. I gave it a good rollering with my massage stick thingy and it helped a lot to ease it off but it was another reason to rest today.

May cycle to work on Friday instead.

Where did the weekend go?

The weekend has passed in a bit of a blur, it was always going to be busy with staying over at friends on Saturday night (lots of wine consumed) and another friend staying with us from Sunday afternoon.

I didn't make the XC race on Saturday, I had a lot of stuff to do and I was doing ok timewise in the morning until work paged me around 9:30 am (I'm on call until 29th) which lost me just over two hours of my day whilst I sorted out the problem. I never quite caught up after that and the race had to give.

On the plus side I managed to finish my Christmas Cake off as I was stuck in the house "working".

Mmmmm.......Marzipan

Still didn't feel like doing much today, briefly entertained the idea of going out for a run after work but gave that up and decided to make marzipan instead. I found a recipe describing it as easy and I already had all the ingredients in so off I went making my usual mess of the kitchen (I am not a tidy baker/cook).

I added some vanilla extract to the recipe and have to say it tasted not too bad at all, a little more crunchy than bought stuff as I had used golden caster sugar in it. I ended up with a fair amount of marzipan:




which I impressed myself with by not scoffing (well, apart from the obligatory tester piece or five) and put it in the fridge for a while whilst I rescued the cake from its hiding place under the stairs and got the apricot jam softened for sticking duties.

It rolled out surprisingly ok but its was a little more fragile than bought stuff but I managed to cover the cake ok:



Its supposed to dry for a couple of days then I can get on with bodging the icing. I also have enough left over to make Stollen (if I find the time).

Ice

Had to come back home as had what turned out to be a very long dentist appointment (should've checked what was involved before agreeing to crown rather than replace a filling). Lots of icy pavements and a very icy car park. I'm just so glad I was travelling at a snails pace and not my usual fling my car into the space as when I hit the brakes I didn't stop immediately, would've slipped into the car in the opposite space!

Feeling a bit sorry for myself, the dentist surgery was freezing and I'm going to have to work later at home to make up some time now as I thought I wouldn't be that long. I'm feeling like I want to hibernate, hopefully it will pass soon, along with this sniffle (be gone!).

Off to make some hot Bottle Green Spiced Berry (in lieu of mulled wine) to feel better - oh and have some extra zinc, the white spots are back on my nails again.

Twang!

That was my right calf muscles yesterday as I got out the car at work. I tried a short jog across the car park and it was a bit of a sharp pain, even I'm not daft enough to try to run through that. It is better today though, more stretching and its no longer sore to touch.

I think I'm fighting off a bit of a sniffle, lots of people in the office not well so am just going to take it easy for the next few days - other people's germs! Its too icy for me to be happy cycling (Stu had to walk part of his cycle commute today) and its actually really icy on the pavements in St Annes today so not really runnable. May just give in to the weather this week.

On the good news side Jez and I have been given tickets for the Revolution at the Velodrome on Saturday, really looking forward to it.

Rest Day Today!

I spent most of Saturday afternoon engaged in calorie manufacturing (pastry, ice cream, mince pies assembly) and stood on my feet. I was tired in the evening as had decided to take it easy on Sunday.

Sunday was a gorgeous cold day so I decided to walk into town to do some little bits of Christmas shopping. I thought it might be icy and decided against the bike and got the SLR to take some pictures of the frostiness. I took the less direct route into town and took a few pictures along the way, walked around town for a while then walked the same way home. Most of the path was ok, I slipped on two black ice patches at the start but the tramway bridge was lethal, very icy

I then spent the rest of the afternoon on my feet again sorting various bottles of Cranberry vodka out and lots of other stuff. I was knackered by 6pm and my legs felt sore - I walked about 8 miles in all heading to and from town - so much for an easy immobile Sunday.

It was really frosty this morning and my calves were really tight when I woke up. I got my running kit together in case I felt like a short run at lunchtime. I actually had to scrape the car the frost was so thick, even the heated screens took a while to clear. I was almost at Jct 32 when I realised my works pass was still in my pannier from Friday! I decided to turn back an get it and headed down to Preston rather than the M55, big mistake, lots of traffic queueing to get into Preston and I was stuck in it.

I got home again, got out the car and my legs were now really stiff, picked up my pass and headed back to work now driving on diesel fumes and if I stopped to get more I would be even later in.

I'm having a rest day today!