If you've read the first news entry, you will have seen why I've had the perfect excuse not to do any training for the past couple of months.

 

I did start the year quite well, the first couple of weeks at least! I even had time to record my thoughts...

Friday January 2^nd 2009

Okay, so here we are again. The start of another new year and I am starting my blog again. If you’ve seen last year’s effort, you’ll have seen that it was incredibly dull and tedious. When I started writing it, it wasn’t really with the intention of “going public”. It was just that I was starting something that, for me, would be “quite a big thing”, and I wanted to keep a record of what I had done, and how I was feeling at the time. After five hip replacements and many years of relative inactivity, it was at this point last year that I started training to cycle to London to Paris the following July. When the time came for me to start trying to raise some sponsorship money I decided to publish my diary, just so that people could see that I had been working hard for their hard-earned money.

I’m pleased to say that I did manage to get a bit fitter, and I did manage to complete the ride to Paris, and I actually enjoyed most of it. Now, 12 months later, I am starting the whole process all over again. I’ve spent a bit of time over the past few days looking at what I was thinking this time last year, and I am so glad that I did make the effort to write it all down last year, no matter how dull and tedious it may be for everyone else. On the evening of the day that we finished in Paris last year, I signed up to do the whole thing again. Mad, maybe, but the euphoria of having completed the task, along with all that training did mean that I would want to try it another time, and maybe do even better this time.  Of course, I cannot say that a little bit of French wine did not have something to do with the decision-making process as well. Whatever the reason, I am doing it again, and the training and inevitable diet starts here. The plan this year is to get fitter and stronger and a lot thinner and lighter. We will see. The good news is that I know I am already fitter than I was this time last year (despite not having done anything for the past three months). The bad news is that I weigh pretty much exactly the same as I did this time last year. That’s frustrating, as I lost over two stone in the first six months of the year, and then spent the next six months putting it all back on again! Hopefully only half of that situation will happen this time around. The whole point of doing all this cycling was to look after myself, and my hips in particular, so that is what I had better do. Plus, as my wife keeps telling me...I am not getting younger. The first thing she said to me after the obligatory “Happy New Year” the other night was “And you’re 40 this year!”

Better get on with it then.

I learned to really love my bike last year. I loved cycling, and that came as something of a shock to me.  When I came back from Paris, I had a few weeks off – mainly just to spend some time with Mel as she had had to put up with me being “between the wheels” for increasingly long periods of time last summer. I did manage to get a few good rides in though. I took Ruby back to Wales one weekend in September, and I also took her up to Cumbria when my brother Phil was walking the entire Pennine Way. I went up to spend a day walking with him (a hell of a day! But that is another story...), and I had left my bike at the place where we would spend the night after our day traversing Cross Fell. On the next day, after seeing Phil off on his way, I had to cycle back to our starting point from the previous day and pick up my car where I had left it. I don’t know how I managed it – I had not looked at a map at all – but this turned out to be a fantastic ride, which took me up and over Hartside Summit, which is something of a draw to keen cyclists, as it’s the highest point on the Coast to Coast cycle route. A long and winding climb and a long and winding descent, undertaken in the pouring rain (absolutely drenched!) and driving wind, but a huge amount of fun.

I started a new job at the beginning of October, and I had a week off between finishing my old job and starting in the new one. Mel and I went and spent a long weekend in a cottage in the Peak District, which was wonderful, and then Mel put me on a train to Nottingham on the Monday, and I cycled home from there. I’d decided to follow one of the National Cycle Network routes all the way home (Route 6, if you’re interested), and because this would take me on canal towpaths and disused railway lines, I did it on my mountain bike (“Charlene”) and had a lot of fun. If you had told me 12 months ago that I would be cycling from Nottingham to home, on my own, with just a small rucksack on my back, I would have laughed myself silly. But there I was, doing it. And despite the cold and wet and wind, I loved it.

Since starting the new job, the exercise did take a bit of a backseat. And an excess and food and drink did make something of a reappearance. Silly really, as I worked so hard to lose it all last year. Despite this, we were resolved to enjoy our Christmas, although a stinking cold managed to lay us pretty low for most of the time.  But, last Saturday I went and did an induction at a new gym (Mel was too ill), and I managed my first session on the turbo trainer yesterday. The final beer has been drunk for a few months, and the final bit of chocolate has been consumed. Assorted measurements have been taken, and training schedules have been drawn up. And it all starts tomorrow. Wish me luck.

 

Friday January 16^th 2009

Wow! Where did that fortnight go?

Typically, it’s been a busy couple of weeks. Back at work after the Christmas break, and it’s been a very hectic start to the year in the office.

Whilst work has been busy, the training has been slow. I’ve been tired, and it’s difficult to get going after a busy day at work, plus the weather has been particularly cold as well, which hasn’t helped. I managed 40 minutes on the turbo a couple of weeks ago, on January 2^nd, and I have been aiming to complete a couple of sessions a week since then. They’ve been in the diary at least, but work and weather have meant that I’ve not always managed it yet. I had my first session in the new gym on Saturday 3^rd, and that was good. I said in my blog last year how much I learned to love the gym over  the last few years, after spending most of my life avoiding them. It was good to get back to it this year, even though it was hard work on the legs and lungs.

Sunday 4^th saw me out for my first scheduled “long” ride of the year. These will become a regular weekend fixture over the next few months. Basically, if it’s a weekend, I will be spending several hours sat in a saddle out in the open air. Ruby is all set up on the turbo trainer in the shed at the minute, and she will probably stay there until the end of February now. The weather is horrible, and the roads are generally wet and greasy, and I am more than happy to try and get my fitness up to a “reasonable” level by putting some hours in on my mountain bike for the time being. The total mileage that I’ll cover might not be so great, but the hours in the saddle will be the same, and I’ll at least make them in one piece without falling off a slippery road on skinny tyres.  I was up and out on the road at around 8.30, and the plan was to stay out for around 3 hours, and hopefully cover around 35 miles. However, it really was absolutely freezing. I thought that I had had some cold rides last year, but this was something else. Again, you get used to finishing a ride with frozen hands and feet like blocks of ice, but this was so much more painful than that. Still, I was determined to do something. Just for the sake of getting out and having my first ride of the year. Apart from the cold, I actually didn’t feel too bad. The legs were OK, and I could get up the hills (no real biggies though – I’m not stupid), but after two hours, I had had enough. Absolutely frozen and it was time to admit defeat and to head home, just under 24 miles complete.

The next day, we woke to quite a decent blanket of snow outside, and the temperatures were to remain below freezing for all of the following week. Mel and I went straight to the gym after work on the Monday, and that was great. The whole point of changing gym was to make it easier after work (the new one is directly opposite the station, so we no longer have to negotiate the Luton and Dunstable traffic before I can start to sweat on cross trainer). The planned turbo sessions for Tuesday and Thursday never materialized, as it was just too cold to contemplate even going out to the shed on those evenings. But I did manage another gym session on the Wednesday night which was good. I’m sticking to the programme that we devised when I joined, and it seems to be OK so far. Just cardio at the minute, which should help get some of this vast weight off, and should help me start to acquire some level of fitness as well. I guess we’ll see.

I managed to do Thursday’s turbo session last Saturday, which was really good, and again I was up and out early on Sunday for another ride. The plan, once again, was to stay out for three hours...

Although it wasn’t quite as cold as the previous Sunday, the roads were much worse. As I’ve said, the temperature stayed below freezing all week, and after another heavy frost on the Saturday night, the roads were lethal by the time I went out on Sunday. As soon as you got off a main road, the lanes were crisp and white, with solid ice ready to catch you out if you didn’t have your wits about you. It was fun though. Kind of. And I was very careful. By the time I had made it along the back road from Kensworth and out on to the Downs, the sun was up and the wind was picking up too. It was bitingly cold.  Again, the legs weren’t feeling too bad, and I was enjoying the ride, which was encouraging. Then, as I was approaching Pepperstock, a couple of miles from home, I started feeling flat as my front tyre deflated in front of me. I was cold and wet and just at that awkward distance from home. If I’d been further from home, there would have been no debate, I’d have stopped and fixed it. If I’d been a little closer to home, I’d have walked it back. As it was, I was freezing and I rang the missus for a lift. Pathetic, I know. And I’d not even been out 2 hours...Just 21 miles done. I am hoping to finally manage three hours and 30 plus miles this Sunday.

Things thawed once I got back on Sunday, and the past week has been a lot warmer (relatively!). Mel and I made it to the gym together again on Monday. I ended up working on a little on Tuesday, so again the planned turbo session bit the dust, and I was out at a seminar on Wednesday night (“The Prospects for Property” – NOT a particularly uplifting evening!). Last night, however, I was out at a reasonable time and had a really good turbo session. An hour of good riding, with my heart rate where I wanted it, and at a brisk pace. Some people ask if I get bored doing it, but I really enjoyed it last night. To be honest, my backside WAS complaining by the end, but I would say that it was a really positive and constructive session. If I can manage to get a few more like that in over the next few months, I have no doubt that I will start to feel some benefits.

The plan is for us both to try the gym again tonight, and then it will be a day off of training tomorrow (weigh-in though...) before hitting the roads on Sunday. Hopefully it will work out OK this week.  It was tough for Mel last year, when the whole weekend seemed to revolve around my ride. This year, I am trying to change things. I am planning to do some jobs at home on the Saturday, and then when I get back on the Sunday the both of us do something together, preferably relaxing. Unfortunately, I am going to have to do some office work this week, but we will try and stick to this plan for the rest of the year. I DO know that she has a long list of jobs for me to do every Saturday!

Friday January 30^th 2009

I repeat...

Wow! Where did THAT fortnight go??

And what a fortnight it’s been. Some wonderful highs and some difficult lows, and not a whole lot of training in between. But I guess that the events of the past couple of weeks have really put things into perspective, so a few missed trips to the gym or rides on the bike don’t really matter in the long run.

So firstly, the good stuff. The day after my last entry, on Saturday January 17^th, Mel and I discovered that we were going to be parents for the first time. And amazing day! And quite a scary one too. We’ve talked about it for a while, but we’ve always managed to find an excuse to put it off for another year. This year, though, we ran out of excuses! After seven years of marriage, we decided at the end of last year, that we would finally give it a bash in 2009 and see what happened. So we enjoyed our Christmas and New Year, and drank the last bit of wine for a while, and ate the last bit of cheese, and we thought that it would it take us a while to be successful, but we would at least be as “pure” as we could be. Little did we know that we would be expecting two weeks later! To be honest, Mel probably started saying “You know, I think I’m pregnant...” after about a week, until in the end I decided that Saturday to drive her into Hemel to buy a test to prove her wrong and to get some peace and quiet for another month at least. How wrong I was... I really was convinced that we weren’t expecting. When we came home, I just carried on with some jobs, out to the tumble dryer in the shed while Mel did the necessary. As I walked through the back dog, a little voice came down from upstairs. “Matt! We’re in trouble!” and then she burst out laughing!